Peter and the Wolf

The Laramie Ballet Company 7220—the number represents Laramie’s altitude—performed at the UWYO Arts & Science building this morning.

The production, Peter and the Wolf, was a special showing for all of Laramie’s elementary school students.

I went because a friend’s daughter—the friend who moved here from VA last August with her kids and whose daughter goes to school with the teenager—is a dancer with the company, which is mostly adult and college-aged dancers and performers.

What fun!

And what a great opportunity for my friend’s daughter, who wouldn’t have these same dancing and performance opportunities in a larger city.

Just another one of the benefits, of small town living!

They don’t know—hot!

I had to laugh, as I walked through the union this afternoon and overheard variations on these comments—“It’s sooo hot today!" "Can you believe the temperature?” "I’m roasting—it’s boiling today!”

It was 78 degrees—a nice moderate temperature by most standards.

Granted, the hot Wyoming sun raises the heat index anywhere between 5 to 15 degrees.

Then again, there is the never-ceasing Wyoming wind, which reverses that heat index, so that it actually feels like—75 degrees.

Factor in zero humidity, and I find it all so amusing.

I’ll take a “little breeze” over humidity any day of the week.

They really don’t know "hot" in these parts.

On another topic: I'm bummed.

Just finished watching the Suns lose to the Lakers in OT.

The Legal Dude thought it was over in the 3rd quarter, when the Suns were down by 18 points.

Geez—no faith, that dude.

Now we have to wait till game 6 on Saturday, to see how it all plays out.

Tomorrow it’s back to the Celtics and the Magic

Go Magic!

♫♪ It’s a beautiful morning ♫♪

It is suppose to be near 80º today—awesome!

The wind is slight, by Laramie standards.

The sun is shinning, although through cloud cover.

The grass has been green for sometime, but today, most of the trees are covered with what looks like green felt.

Oh happy day!

Yep. It is truly a beautiful morn...

Spun Wool...

The wind is still blowing, but as of yet, no storm has materialized.

With this moon, though—

I’m not sure if it will.

While the sun was still bright and shinning, I went to the Cow Girl Yarn shop downtown to the spinning class.

I learned a few things about how yarn becomes yarn.

I learned that the spinning wheel

is a relatively new invention and that wool was spun by hand, on these…

Although these cost about $50 each--yowza!

which I wanted to give a try before moving on to the more modern invention.

So I started out with this…

Rovng--or animal fur, which has been washed and carded

from a wholly sheep friend and tried to be coordinated enough to handle the pulling, the twirling and the spinning—all without having it pull apart.

This is not me, but the instructor

It took me almost two hours, but I finally ended up with this…

Yarn! From a sheep 

The instructor wanted me to give the spinning wheel a try, but I think I'll stick with the hand spinner—or whatever it’s called—for awhile.

Makes me feel more like a Frontier Woman...

Stormy Weather...

Like much of the rest of the country, Laramie is (once again) getting ready to experience severe weather.

In addition to the—almost daily—recurring strong winds, we're currently under a Tornado Watch until 9 pm this evening.

Entering Laramie from I-287 and points SE, i.e., CO

I’ve been told Tornados are rare in Laramie and that the rare one that passed through two-to-three years ago brought damaging winds that required roof replacement on many of the homes, including the one I’m sitting in.

TWC has been flashing photos of 8 to 10 inches of ice pellets, or in other words, hail, just NE of Denver.

Yep—A blanket of 8 to 10 inches of hail covering the ground, like snow.

That storm is heading NE, but still encompasses our locale, and as I sit here typing, I hear the battle of the Titans—thunderous and ominous—in the distance.

Then there is the wind, which has been gusting all day, and may reach hurricane gusts of up to 75 MPR—again.

I had hopes of attending a spinning class—the wool kind—at the local yarn shop this evening.

In the garage, my car is safe from the softball size hail they just experienced around Denver, and which is purportedly making it’s way here.

I’d rather my car not be pockmarked, or suffer another broken windshield.

I’m beginning to wonder—perhaps winter is the mild season in Wyoming!

Stay safe, dry and cozy—wherever you may be.

Has Spring Sprung?

Today was absoloutely—Gorgeous!

What a beautiful day with no humidity, with temperatures in the high 50’s but at least 10 to 15 degrees warmer with the sun.

Is Spring finally here?!

Who knows—I think I”ve mentioned that the locals say, “It snows here every month, except August.”

Now I know why people love it here in the summer—it’s gorgeous!

Now, if the trees would only start to bloom—

For my dear friend in Paris…

We’ve had wind—and I mean WIND—these past few days.

In fact, at times, gusts of Hurricane force.

The house has groaned and moaned as gale force winds have whipped around the house, laying the grass flat. (Wish that I could capture THAT with my little Nikon.)

Sunday afternoon—after a sunny but windy morning—the sky turned dark and ominous, with those heavy, low hanging clouds that look ready to burst forth with flood waters at any moment.

In fact, the Legal Dude was so taken with the clouds that he called me to “come look.”

Poor dude, stuck inside all these days, hadn’t a clue that I’d see and tried to take photos of these very same clouds.

Remember these clouds on the way back from Tie Siding?

Monday morning, the westward sky was dark and foreboding, as if a mean, mean storm was brewing.

Heading out at 10:30 Monday morning, I had hopes of finishing all errands before the rain—and possibly hail—started to fall.

Alas, I didn’t make it home, under the safety of the garage, before the heaven sent forth it’s wrath—and wrath it was!

It started to hail as I walked out of Safeway

I’ve never been in a car with such hail—although mostly smallish pellets—and at times I feared the ice would break my windshield or sun-roof, or at the very least leave telltale dents.

No dents, just lots of ice

Fortunately, my fear was for naught, this time.

What came next, dear walking companion, was snow.

Yes. You read correctly, snow!

Not just snow, but a blowing little blizzard of a mix, with reduced visibility.

Ice pellets cover the Jr. High track

I hope my neighbors tulips survive

So while you and your Legal Dude are enjoying the sunshine in beautiful París, think of us dear friends, as we wait—and wait—and wait...

Windblown snow covers the mailboxes

No dear friends, those are NOT white blossoms

Gorgeous...no?

In less than four weeks it will be summer, yet we're still waiting for Spring...