April has always been the start of Spring in my personal calendar. Although it still looks very much like winter outside I know that it will change rapidly. It’s been awhile since I’ve written… several things have gotten accomplished in the past month or so.

Josh finally got the rest of the suspension work done on his truck. The back half was considerable easier than the front and he was able to finish it up in one weekend. He also took the opportunity to drop the gas tank and repair a small leak. The tank had been repaired earlier by someone and the one area had weakened and developed a leak. We debated about trying to weld it but decided it was a bit risky despite several ‘tricks’ one can do to make it less explosive. We decided to let JB-Weld it and JB did a good job 😉 The brakes also got replaced and now Josh is driving it. He has a few more things to take care of yet before he takes it up and tries to drive it up the side of a mountain but it’s real close now.

Another project that Josh and Kristina have embarked upon is a screen-printing business. Kristina is doing the art work and Josh is printing up the T-shirts. This kitchen-counter operation was not producing the expected quality so Josh designed his own printing press and we made a trip one Saturday morning down to the local metal scrapyard hunting for materials. We came home with about 90lbs of miscellaneous steel and Josh proceeded to build up a press. He is really getting quite handy with a welder. This once again turned the Grimes Garage into what must look like a mad-scientist workshop to our neighbors up on the bluffs. Josh works past dark and has to leave the garage door open to dispell the welding fumes/smoke. The bright light of an arc welder is something else and at night it must make an interesting site to the neighbors. I wonder how many people up there asked themselves.. ‘I wonder what they’re doing down there?’

We occasionally catch the edges of these major cold fronts that drop way down from Canada. It’s been below zero at night for the last few days, a nice reminder of winters in Iowa. Ronda and I were driving home from an appointment yesterday afternoon and observed an interesting phenomenon; the street (all of it) was smoking.

The sun has quite a bit more “punch” here at 6,000 ft and the blacktop heats up enough that the water from the snowmelt begins to steam even though the outside temp was only 9 degrees. It created this swirling vapor about 6-12″ thick across all four lanes all the way down the road. It was pretty cool.

We had just come back from a good all-american lunch at the Mason Jar. I believe it’s classified as a “family restaurant” and yes, they serve your drinks in a Mason Jar. Aside from that, it was a nice place and we both had a nice juicy cheesburger with french fries. That sort of meal is somewhat of a rarity for us these days and we enjoyed it immensely.

I had originally intended to stop at the Officers Club on Ft. Carson for lunch since we had been right next door to the post but was unable to get on base. For reasons unknown the Army seems to have a much more stringent access policy than the Air Force. If you don’t have an official DoD sticker on your car you have to get a “day-pass” and for that they require your ID, vehicle registration papers, and proof of insurance. Turns out I had neglected to update my glovebox with the current proof of insurance papers and they wouldn’t let me through. A rather interesting contrast to last Wednesday where I went to an Armed Forces Communication & Electronics Association luncheon on Peterson AFB. All I had to do there was show my ID card at the gate and they waved me on through.

I was amused by a new rule posted outside the gate: Cell phone usage while driving on a military installation requires the use of a hands-free device. I’ve always been tickled by the military’s no-nonsense approach to things like this. Problem: it’s a safety hazard to drive around while holding a cell phone to your ear (ever try to downshift and turn a corner with one-hand?) Solution: make it illegal. Makes perfect sense to me and I wish they would do the same thing for the general populace.

Hello everyone!!

Thought I would stop by the ol Misty Castle and give you all an update on whats REALLY up in Colorado.
Mom and Dad make everything seem sooOOOooo glorious. But I’ll tell you what people, its not easy! Its not easy waking up every day and looking at these snow covered mountains, basking in the sunshine and thinking…”man this place is cool”. This is not light stuff. Seriously.

*rolls eyes* Alright, im done being dramatic for a bit.

Actually things are finally starting to come together for me here in the ol C of O. I got a job working the front desk at a Veda Salon here in the springs. The job its self is not much to brag on but the people I work with are a fantastic good time. Heck, part of my “training” this week was to get a free massage and facial. Believe you me, it was Ah-mazing. 🙂

Im also waiting tables at a Bar & Grill near my house, for a bit of extra bling in my pockets. Its basically a sports bar so we get a lot of the crazed Bronco fanatics on the weekend..which makes for a pretty amusing and fast paced time..I enjoy it.

Theres actually been a lot of other things changing in my life as well, God has been challenging me in almost every aspect of my life. I’ve let a lot of things slip over the past several years and it continues to be a process to get me scraped off the pavement and put back together.

I believe God has given me a real understanding of how beautiful He truly thinks his daughters are.. and perhaps in the future – a ministry opportunity for me to bless his beloved girls. This may sound a bit odd to you, but its something I’m just beginning to unravel. I own several books about the value of a woman, but I’ve never read any of them. So I’m delving into anything I can find, with this sudden thirst for insite on a womans worth through GODS eyes. I dont think its any coincedence that I got this job at Veda. I see so many women every day, some are overly confidant in their outer beauty which takes away any ability for the rest of us to see her inner beauty. Some radiate from something, somewhere inside..from some happiness that makes them impossibly beautiful to the eye. Every woman wants to be beautiful, whether they admit to it, or say they care or not..there is a place inside every single woman that longs to be called beautiful. We were made that way.

So heres to our search for beauty. 🙂 May you discover it not in the sweet nothings of a lover, in the disguise of foundation, eye liner and mascara, or in the lies we tell ourselves to make life easier. Instead may you find your true worth and beauty, wrapped in the arms of a Heavenly Father who loves you more than you need to understand, and who is thrilled by your striking and overwhelming beauty.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!

Love Always..that one crazy girl..
Kristina Marie

I’m back in the groove wearing a “student” hat again. Pressing on towards the Masters degree. I took last semester off which was a nice break but it put me behind schedule a bit. This semester includes two GIS classes which both happen to be programming oriented. This is technically a good thing since I’m already fairly adept at programming and should be able to breeze through. Although, I am finding my skills are a tad rusty. The courses cover Object-Oriented Programming in C# and Relational Database Management Systems for GIS.

The C# (pronounced C Sharp) programming language is a much more modern version of the original C which I used back in the late 80’s…wow… what a scary thought…that was nearly 20 years ago. Side-trip down memory lane…. I even had hair back then! Anyways… it’s really the same old stuff just with different words and slightly different methods. It seems to have gotten more “foofy” and less technical.

Largely I think it’s because it’s very “Windows” oriented. But it’s still fun to build something from scratch and actually have it do something. If you want some sort of idea what all this GIS stuff is… take a wander over to GoogleEarth and download the free viewer.

Then take google earth for a spin. Plug in the address of someplace you used to live or went to visit. You’ll see a good example of what “Geographical Information Systems” can do.

I am fortunate to work for a company that believes education is important and provides a tuition reimbursement benefit. In fact, they upped the annual benefit from 3K to 5K this year. I would be pretty foolish not to take advantage of it.

Here’s a little code to glaze your eyes over….

// This is the callback function for TcpClient.GetStream
// Begin to get anasynchronous read.
private void DoRead(IAsyncResult ar)
{
int BytesRead;
string strMessage;

try
{
// Finish asynchronous read into readBuffer and return number of bytes read.
BytesRead = client.GetStream().EndRead(ar);
if (BytesRead < 1) {
// if no bytes were read server has close. Disable input window.
MarkAsDisconnected();
return;
}
// Convert the byte array the message was saved into, minus two for the
// Chr(13) and Chr(10)
strMessage = Encoding.ASCII.GetString(readBuffer, 0, BytesRead - 2);
ProcessCommands(strMessage);
// Start a new asynchronous read into readBuffer.
client.GetStream().BeginRead(readBuffer, 0, READ_BUFFER_SIZE, new AsyncCallback(DoRead), null);

}
catch(Exception e)
{
MarkAsDisconnected();
}
}

Josh has a new toy. A 1972 Chevy K5 Blazer. This was your basic SUV back before the word (acronym) was even coined. The K5 Blazer, not to be confused with the later Blazers (glorified station wagon), was a rugged, 4-wheel drive, off-road vehicle based on the venerable full-size Chevy pickup truck. Shorten up the bed a little, chop the top off and you’ve got the basics of the K5 Blazer. Sort of like a convertible pickup truck.

The nice thing about Colorado is there are still specimens of these around and they are not all rusted out. The one Josh found was a little rough on the inside but basically a straight truck with a lot of potential. Originally a basic green color, it currently sports a primer gray paint job. Equipped with the stock 350 cu-in V8 and a 3 speed automatic transmission it has plenty of power for getting around in these rugged mountains. This one has already been “lifted” to give it more ground clearance.

The motor needed some help to get it past the emissions test. What started out as a simple tune-up evolved into a rather protracted event ending with a rebuilt carburetor, electronic distributor, oil pan gasket, and valve adjustment. It reperesented several days/nights labor but the end result was worth it. It runs much better now, doesn’t leak oil, and it passed the emissions test.

Of course, this is only the beginning. These sort of projects turn into big money pits if you let them. But, working on old cars gets in your blood and the rewards and sense of accomplishment are in the “doing”.

.