Laura Lee Carter

Trump, Marriage and the Blame Game

/ Laura Lee Carter / 3 Comments

As we gear up for another “Winter Storm Warning” here in southern Colorado, I thought I might discuss one of my favorite topics when it comes to marriage or cohabitation of any kind.

blame the other guyThe biggest problem with marriage is that it makes blaming others far too easy. And I suppose that goes for the presidency at present too. Is anyone taking responsibility for their actions these days?

Have you ever noticed how automatic it feels to see a problem and say, “Who did this? It wasn’t me!” I have observed over my 62 years on this planet, that marriage just makes this worse. As kids it definitely is automatic, even if it isn’t true. But in marriage you have one other person who is far too handy to blame!

Having lived alone for most my adult life, I have learned to laugh at this tendency. When you have no one else to blame, you tend to take responsibility.

Now I say find the solution, not the blame.

Would somebody please tell President Trump to stop acting like a child and take responsibility for his own choices? Is that too much to ask from a 70-year-old man? His childish behavior is annoying.

Southern Colorado is Closed Today and Tomorrow – Slipping off the Grid!

/ Laura Lee Carter / 12 Comments

You would not believe how we spent the past three days…

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We got a BAD lightning and ice storm on Thursday night around midnight. I know because it woke me up. The combination of rain, hail, and then ice took out our electricity since Friday morning at 6AM… 3 days ago! No heat, no cooking, no nothing except Mike did set up a generator to keep the food in the frig cold.

We used our camp stove in the garage to heat a few things and eventually got the TV and coffeemaker working…priorities you know.

All in all this was a thought-provoking experience. We drove into town today at lunch for a hot meal and some heat. Low and behold, the power came back!  Hallelujah!!!

In an interesting twist, the TV stations who say that they cover southern Colorado, never noticed when the thousands of Coloradoans who live in the poorest counties in the state, went without power for days! Money still talks….

Anyway, I did write while we were cut off from power. Here are my impressions from Friday morning, the last time we had power:

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The view out our door on Friday morning…10 inches or so!

Why get up?

Nothing like waking up to a foot of thick, wet, snow and all the power is out. This is the best example I can think of that old ZZ Top song: “Why get up?”

The first thing I want is coffee and maybe a little news, but I cannot make that happen. Furthermore, when I contact our electric company, they tell me every town within 50 miles is without power, so even if I could go somewhere, they wouldn’t be open…

Which brings me to the next line of that before mentioned song:

“This whole world’s gone crazy think I’ve seen enough. Gonna sleep forever, why get up?”   …What better description of the Trump presidency?

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       After the storm… If you want the rainbow you must have the rain!

laura-rasta-xmas-2012-croppedI’m a newcomer to rural southern Colorado.  After two years I decided to compile a short journal about the ups and downs of moving from a good-sized city to rural America to build a passive solar retirement home:   Memoir of Retirement: From Suburbia to Solar in Southern Colorado   Please share this information with your friends if they are considering similar life changes. Feel free to contact me directly to discuss any of these challenges, and to order your own signed copies of any of my books!                         Cheers, Laura Lee  (email me: MidlifeCrisisQueen@gmail.com)

 

Welcoming Spring to the Colorado Foothills

/ Laura Lee Carter / 1 Comment

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Spring can be subtle here at 7,000 feet, especially when we have had so much heat and so little moisture this past winter. Talk about mild, we have had only two decent snowstorms since October and very little measurable precipitation. But there are some much welcomed changes to observe.

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First of all the type of birds appearing at our bird feeders are changing. Not that I’m able to identify many, but I do know when a new one flies up.

Rocky Mtn. BluebirdAnd we see the Rocky Mountain Bluebird coming by more and more. Such a beauty! Mike built a bird house for these. Sure hope they make use of their new accommodations! And there are a few other newcomers to our feeders. So nice to see…

 

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In spite of the very dry conditions, I am beginning to see little patches of green along the county roads and subtle suggestions of future wildflowers.  These lands are used to drought. Mike recently carved an abstract piece of art out of the base of a Pinon tree that we had to cut down to create our new home. The base is only a little over five inches wide and yet Mike was able to count 196 rings! This short tree was almost 200 years old, but most of the rings were impossible to see without extreme magnification.

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Oh, and here’s a photo of his new piece. He calls it Rabbit-Hawk… 

Great Quotes From James Baldwin

/ Laura Lee Carter / 3 Comments

If you’re like me, perhaps you read books by James Baldwin in college. Do you remember “Go Tell It On The Mountain” or “Nobody Knows My Name”? My Dad challenged me the other day by reading me a quote from him:

James Baldwin“It is nearly impossible to become an educated person in a country so distrustful of the independent mind.”                                                         

                                                                                                                                                                                    James was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic who lived from 1924 to 1987. His essays explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th-century America.

When I went in search of other information on James Baldwin, I found some wonderful quotes that spoke to me, some especially under our present circumstances in the USA today. Here’s a sampling:

Books Jame Baldwin

This is exactly why I wrote books about midlife confusion, and finding LOVE again!

Love by James Baldwin

Powerful and absolutely true if you want one other human being to truly know you!

 

creativity and James Baldwin

Precisely why I write!

ignorance and power James Baldwin

This of course reminds me of you know who, our present Liar-in-Chief…

And finally, for those who still feel “America, Love it or Leave it!”:

love America James Baldwin