I had a wonderful time in Denver this past week, celebrating the triplets’ first birthday. Jeff and Angela had sent me the cutest invitation to Katie, Chloe and Jack’s birthday party, and I didn’t want to miss it. So…unbeknownst to them, I booked a flight out there on June 16th – arriving just hours before the party! I made arrangements to stay with Jane and Randy, two dear friends who were neighbors when we lived outside of Denver in the 1980’s. Angela’s mother and father – Brenda and Dave – were visiting for the birthday party, too, and Jeff does not have two guest rooms.
It was a great surprise and everyone was so welcoming! Angela and her parents are so creative. The house was decorated outside and inside – what fun! I chose a few pictures above to share with you! I was able to stay for 4 days, but the time went by so quickly. The triplets are getting to be so big! Katie can clap her hands, Chloe is nearing crawling (watch out world!), and Jack is just the sweetest kid loving to play in his saucer. I am so glad I was able to be part of their first birthday! (The 1st row, 3rd picture shows all the grandparents with our grand-triplets; the third row first picture shows that there will be two more babies coming soon into this world. 2nd picture, third row shows Chloe working on her crawling and Jack is just plain enjoying the party.)
Back home, we still have no rain as I am sure you are aware. As I write this, I am hoping the storms the weatherman mentioned yesterday will still arrive. I just stepped outside to look at the sky, (it’s 1:30AM) and there are stars out so the sky is clear. But the wind is up, and maybe, maybe the rain will come. We need rain so badly!
I had an interesting experience yesterday that I need to share with you, dear Reader. As a bit of background, I have put the Land on the market from time to time in the last several years, but it has never sold. Now that I have grandchildren in Denver, I decided to try it again this past spring. You know how much I love the land so this was a hard to do.
There has been a lady (we will call her “Pat”) who has repeatedly called me since I put the Land on the market three or so years ago. At that time, I told her everything she wanted to know about the Land, and in all of this time (when the Land was on the market, and even sometimes when it wasn’t), she has never once come out to see it. After the first year of talking with her, I began to think this was exceedingly strange. When I am interested in a place, I make a beeline to see it, and everyone I know does the same thing. To keep asking and asking, and yet, when the Land is available still not doing anything about it, seems really weird. So I began to feel a little uneasy about her.
Pat always seems to know when I am putting the house on the market. She called me earlier this year and asked if I would be selling my property. I explained about the triplets and said I would probably be doing so. So I put the Land on the market a few months ago, (and even excluded her name from the listing once again), but still no real interest from her. One of our conversations, I told her to talk with my realtor but she said she thought I would be much more interested in selling my place to her direct. I told her at that time that it didn’t bother me at all to have him involved. That’s why I have a realtor; he can be the one to handle the would-be buyers.
To make a long story short (too late!), the last time or two I talked with her this spring, I told her that I did not want to talk to her about it again. She called several times since then, but I recognized her phone number (708 area code) and did not answer the call. I just deleted her message.
Dave Haury was here today and we were cutting back the bushes along Beemerville lane, when my next door neighbors (who wanted my land on my border which resulted in a lawsuit) drove up, stopped on the Beemerville bridge and looked over what I was doing.
Within the hour, this Pat person called me again. I saw the 708 area code and did not answer it. This time in her message she did not say who she was, and merely sounded like someone interested in buying my property. Of course I recognized her voice and her number, and it gave me pause that she was taking another tactic in the hopes I would call her back. I deleted the message.
Several hours later I had a call from an 815 area code. I didn’t recognize the number and thought it may be someone calling me with a spray drift incident through our grass roots organization, Spray Drift Education Network. I have had three calls in two days on spray incidents, so it was an understandable assumption. However, it was this Pat calling me again! SHE HAD USED A DIFFERENT NUMBER so I would answer the call.
I explained to her that I did not want to talk with her again (how many times do I have to tell her that?), that she had not ever come out in the last three years, and I really did not want to talk with her any more. I hung up on her. (Remember, there have been two to three times previously that I have told her I DO NOT want to talk to her any more and I have cut off the phone call.)
Would you believe she called me back? I answered again and told her again that I did not want to talk with her about it. I thanked her for calling me for the last three years and hung up on her again.
By now I am feeling quite harassed. Her tactic of using the 815 number really is something. I decide to put an end to these calls by reporting it to the Lee County Sheriff’s office. The officer takes down the information and says he will call her. Hopefully I will not hear from her again.
I was feeling just fine about it until the wee hours of this morning when I awoke. She does, dear Reader, give me the willies. But after talking with the officer, I think she will get the idea once and for all, that I do not want to talk with her about my property any more. If she is truly interested she can work through my realtor. I believe she is married to an attorney, so I would think she would know when someone hangs up on her repeatedly, and tells her they do not want to talk with her ever again, she better not pursue it. The gall she had to change her number to disguise the fact that she was calling really did it.
Other than that incident, life here on the ponderosa is going along just fine. I have so little to do now that the grass is not growing. Also, unfortunately a great many of my bee’s “field force” did not return to the hive after my neighbors sprayed their wheat field with insecticide when the bees were out foraging. There are so few of them left they are not producing much honey, so I haven’t much to do with adding supers, etc. I have been doing more pruning, and reading some light mystery books in the screen house, or in my delightfully air conditioned cottage. I have enjoyed this summer more than any summer in a long time.
You won’t recognize the goslings. They are getting SO big. Gordon still keeps a close eye on them, and I saw Gordeeta peck at one of them for getting into her share of the cracked corn! What a life these animals have out here. Birds, chipmunks, woodchucks, raccoons, geese, squirrels, and of course, the Great Blue Heron. Such a lovely assortment of four-legged friends!
Thank you, dear Reader, for being there as a good friend to listen to any qualms I have, and also to celebrate this beautiful land. I feel much better now!