Can’t believe I haven’t posted since the 13th of May!

My hiking friend and I had discussed doing a hike and then going to the hot springs on Wednesday, but that didn’t’ happen. I wasn’t ready to expose the rash on my leg to water shared by lots of people and neither of us sounded to enthused about a long drive.

So instead we met at the Garden of the Gods Spring Creek Parking area and hiked a trail neither of us had ever hiked before. It is near my favorite unmapped hiking area, and looked kinda boring from the start of it. But it held a lovely surprise of being a really interesting short hike. It had fun rock formations, including ones that seemed to be kissing.

It gave us some really great views of Pikes Peak and some lovely Ancient Cedar trees. And a bird serenaded us near the end singing his love song to find a mate.

We actually wanted to keep hiking, so we also went on the Siamese Twin Trail. I have hiked this trail many times, but my hiking friend never had. The famous “key hole” view of Pikes Peak was a bit disappointing as the clouds had come in so the snow covered peak blended into to the clouds above. Still a fun little hike. And we had hiked up from a different direction than I usually hike up from, so had some different views of the Siamese Twins.

There was a young couple from Illinois, my home state, that I had an interesting conversation with about Colorado and how I didn’t miss Illinois with its bugs and humidity at all.

My left knee was feeling much better, but I was glad we had chosen to do these easy trails rather than a really long hike and drive to the Hot Springs down south. I did continue to put cold packs alternating with magnets on my knee when I got home to encourage it to heal even more. All in all, a nice change of pace without being too tiring.

My cottage tenant had told me that he wanted to have a roommate to help with the rent. We set a time to meet his potential roommate at 7pm that night. It turns out it was a female with a boyfriend and a very large vehicle. She seemed nice, and the boyfriend was very polite and had lived in Manitou before the parking changes.

I had chosen the current tenant because he had one car and was a single person. Most others had two vehicles and/or many pets. When I showed her the lease that says “No Dogs” very clearly stated, she mentioned she and her boyfriend were thinking of getting a dog to share.

The cottage only has one room with a door, so I wondered about the privacy issue. Something just didn’t feel right about this arrangement.

So I told her I needed to have a night to think it over.

The next day I worked an all day shift at Commonwheel Artists Co-op. It was very busy. And I had lots of fun with customers, in particular a couple of women who bought a few of my feather jewelery items and a mask. I didn’t get much done on the computer and didn’t have time to talk with the Cottage tenant.

The new gallery show was up and I had lots of fun with that as a talking piece. The show’s title is “Demented” and I suggest people checking out the art there could easily see the theme was well portrayed by the artists who were showing there.

I also handed out lots of the Chambers brochures about Manitou Springs that people loved getting and encouraged more conversations about the Springs and other galleries in the area.

When I got home I called the cottage tenant and he said things had changed. He had an opportunity to work more at a more northern location and wondered if his sister who was living in a Manitou cottage in the Cañon Avenue flood plain with a month-to-month lease could take over his lease. I said I would love to meet her and that seemed like a really perfect solution for us all.

Friday morning I was working a half day shift for pay for another Commonwheel member. I had left the computer there, making it easier to stop at the Post Office to pick up applications that I could then give to the Festival Committee member who was opening them and putting info into an Excel Spreadsheet for the jury on May 28th. She was suppose to have stopped by on Thursday, but got waylaid, so had to come by Friday morning to pick them up, then get them back to me as she was leaving town Saturday morning and I needed them to work with another member who creates the PowerPoints who was coming to my home on Sunday morning. It worked out for her to drop them off at my house on Saturday as they were heading up Highway 24 and that would take them past Manitou.

I had another good selling morning, almost as good as the whole day on Thursday. And again, I had a fun time with customers. I told them the opening for the “Demented” show and Art Walk in Manitou Springs was happening that very night.

I got a little bit of word done at home, then went back to the Art Walk. The crowd was good at Commonwheel and the “Demented” artists were having a very fun opening.

A Commonwheel member who has been a bit of a thorn in my side for years was working the afternoon shift and at the opening. She told me that the ladies who bought some of my items and other jewelry items had come back in and purchased another pendant of mine. They also told her what a fun time they had shopping and talking with me. Win!

Another member and I walked to the Mountain Living Studio and Green Horse Gallery openings. Then headed down to Manitou Art Center for an opening of my across the street neighbors very large paintings and another friend’s “mandala” paintings. We lost track of each other and she headed back without me, which was fine.

When I walked up the street, I took some photos of a profusion of white flowers in a dusky setting. Some actually came out well.

Piramide is a store that was Commonwheel’s next door neighbor for many years. Last year this store got hit with some flooding damage inside.

They owned a building on Manitou Avenue and decided rather than rent that one out and pay rent on Cañon Avenue, they would move to higher ground. They were having their grand opening, so I stopped by and chatted with them while drinking some wine and enjoying chocolate cake. The new store looked really nice, a bit more open and spacious.

I can’t remember what I did on Saturday – I know some of it was prepping for the session with the member who was coming on Sunday to get the images to create PowerPoints. And some of it related to creating ads for the Art Festival for a Summer Edition of Westword. And perhaps I sized some of the photos from the gallery show to do postings on Facebook. Kind of a blur of computer and some house cleaning so the area I needed to work at for the Image downloading session was cleared up.

Ah, yes, now I remember. I worked in my studio creating some pairs of earrings for the Commonwheel and to put on Etsy and some a woman who bought a pendant might like. I needed to see the photo of my display I had taken to figure out which colors and types of feathers I needed to use to not duplicate what I had at the gallery.

When I walked in my studio, I saw a police officer shining a flashlight in my door. I opened the door and asked if I could help him. Then I sort of zoned out with his questions seeing flashing lights on many vehicles in front of the house on the street. I could blame it on how I reacted for a few years after the bad car accident, but just barely heard what he was asking me. The were looking for the girl that my cottage tenant had wanted as a roommate, but I didn’t connect the description of her from them until they were walking away. I had suggested they check at the cottage, but his truck was not in the driveway, so wasn’t sure anyone was there. As they were walking away they said someone from California had called to say that their friend was in distress and was at 106 Ruxton, so that is why they were at my door.

This information sort of caused me to come out of my fog and I got concerned that I had not helped them by not connecting their description to this girl. And I had actually seen her on the bridge earlier in the day looking a bit dreamy and moving not very steadily. I can not explain why I didn’t realize the connection until they were walking away. Their description just didn’t gel with my memory of her, but then I have never been good at describing people or noticing when friends make radical hair changes.

I  went to the kitchen window to see if they did need to get into the cottage, but the door was open and they were entering. Next came a stretcher. They brought her out on the stretcher, her eyes were open and the cottage tenant was there now.

This whole situation was very disturbing. I am glad I had not agreed to have her as a tenant the other night, but why I was so disconnected or denied knowing the person the officer described also was disturbing to me.

I am not in a very centered place right now.

Or perhaps a bit Demented . . .