A day off

I'm tired and I have a headache, but I just realized it's only 10:25 pm on a Saturday night and I really should write a blog post. Even if it's just a quick one. I desperately tried to take today off from work -- and failed. Thought about it all day long, spent an hour or so planning the next two weeks of class. Teaching really is all-consuming. Maybe if I stick with it, maybe five years from now it won't be like this. I wonder.

But an hour on work is a lot less than I usually spend. I had no papers to grade (the next one's due Monday) and so we went to the cabin. Hadn't been there in 5 weeks, and of course we entirely missed the aspen turning. Five weeks ago they were green. Today, every aspen on our property was a gray ghost. We missed them last year too (due to the flood). The best week to go is, I think, the 3rd week in September. Maybe next year.

It was a nice day, though, made even nicer by a moose sighting! Not at the cabin, but right at the top of Kenosha Pass, which you drive over to get to South Park. There were two moose, a female and a smaller animal, maybe her half-grown calf, and people were pulling over like madmen to get a look.

Moose are apparently just blooming in Colorado right now -- there was even one in Boulder this week (but they tranquilized it and moved it somewhere else). Moose have no natural enemies in the state, but they don't like dogs (too much like wolves). So if you're out walking your dog and you run into a moose, better skedaddle. They're vegetarians, but they're really big and can be mean. (Since pretty much everyone in Boulder has a dog which they take on the trails, you can kind of understand why the wildlife folks moved the moose.) Here's the mama moose we saw (I didn't get a photo of the baby). She was probably at least 500 pounds.

On our way through South Park we spotted 3 antelope (pronghorn) trotting along, so that was a good sighting too (didn't get a photo).

Our boys often don't want to go to the cabin anymore -- the drive's too long and they don't seem to have as much fun there as they did in the beginning. This makes me sad. But today we invited a little friend of theirs along, and that made the trip fun again. The three little boys had a good time together (though it made the drive pretty hellish). They played with Rocket Boy's old toys inside the cabin, and then we convinced them to go down to the beaver pond. Even with the aspen gone, I love South Park at this time of year.

Unfortunately, we did not see any beaver. You have to sneak up on the pond very quietly and slowly, so they don't hear you coming. As soon as they spot you, they go underwater and back to their homes. With little people like these, you can kind of understand why we didn't get to see any.

But what a gorgeous day it was, and we saw moose and antelope. We'll save beaver for another day.

Sometimes when we're at the cabin, and I'm sitting in my favorite chair looking out at the aspen, and the sun is warm, and it's so peaceful, I remember what it was like before we had the twins. It was fun to come to the cabin then, too, and even more peaceful. Quite a bit more peaceful. But I imagine what it would be like if we hadn't had the twins, and it gives me a cold shiver. Although life with them is very hard, the thought of life without them seems so creepy, so cold.

We had a beautiful sunset going home (my camera through the dirty windshield doesn't do it justice). Tomorrow I'll do some classwork, also laundry, grocery shopping, a trip to the library and one to the video store, possibly a clothes shopping trip for the boys, meal prep, the dishes, and all the other things that make up our typical Day of Rest. Should be a nice day.