One eye open.......

There is a saying.........Blind in one eye, can't see out of the other.......or here's another.....the blind leading the blind.......I'm referring to me and my human........

I headed to the lake for one last time for the year.  Our traveling home needed to come down and  be put to bed in storage for the winter and I needed one last trip up there to recoup.  As soon as the other eye is done, I won't be the blind leading the blind anymore.  I/we will be seeing clearly and in focus.........

One morning with coffee in hand I managed to maneuver my way to the beach. This was a perfect time to go puddle jumping.  To bad it was too cold to do just that.  Kick off the shoes, stomp in the rain water.  Loved doing that as a child.  Still love doing that as an adult.   A slight drizzle was falling. I didn't care.  I wasn't going to melt.......yet....... I was surprised to see that the sunrise managed to burn a path along the top of the mountain and give me a show of the most brilliant red.  Red sky in the morning, sailors take warning.  Red sky at night, sailors delight.  I should have listened to the warning.

There's something to be said having Mother Nature give you a wake up call that makes you sit upright in bed.  Being in the mountains, the thunder echos and bounces off the mountains clear across the lake.  The lightening strikes are bright and flashy. Add the heavy sound of rain beating on the roof top and you have the makings of staying inside all day watching movies or reading a good book.

The lake in the backfround...no worries.. There was the makings of
an entirely new lake right in front of us.  We had the perfect spot for
beach front property, including having a picnic table smack dab in the
middle of it.  

The fall colors are gorgeous right now. The rain seemed to be bathing them, washing off the dust and dirt.  They were bright and colorful.   The clouds hung low on the mountain sides and hugged the tops of the trees.  It rained so hard taking pictures was out of the question.  So I did the next best thing.........took pictures from a moving car, rapid trigger finger snapping away.

Soon the leaves will be gone and the branches once full of leaves will be replaced with a blanket of snow...............all will be quiet.

All will be quiet until I show up once again next spring making as much noise as I possibly can.......don't think for one minute I am going to let my human curl up in a ball and roll away.  Nope..ain't gonna happen..........I'll make sure she gets refueled, regenerated, and revived........she'll be good as new and seeing with two good eyes..................




Twitter @CotySimon
Instagram/Howunique310

Mountain High.......

There is no better way to spend a lovely last Saturday of Fall than in the mountains.  Octoberfest is a happening place to be.  Song, dance, beer, brats, people.....mountain air, leaves just turning colors......When someone suggests to "head for the hills"....I will do just that...don't have to ask me twice.  I don't need to burn rubber.....it's a glorious short 20 minute ride.......the mountains give me another place to mellow the mind.  Beer and thin air has that affect on me.......

Taking a Tram up to the mountain top where the air is thin, kind of leaves you weak in the knees and short of breath.  The view takes my breath away literally.  Elevation approximately 9,000+ feet above sea level.  No wonder I leave my heart on sandy beaches.  I can breath at sea level.   I do feel closer to heaven up here though.  I won't have far to go if I should happen to kick the bucket up here.    

On a clear day you can see the valley floor of Salt Lake City.   Just not
today.  Hazy smoke filled the skies from the fires burning
in California.  

In a few weeks, these mountain sides will be covered with a blanket of deep
white powdery snow.   The skiers will be heading down the hills.  

Over yonder mountain tops, lies the beautiful valley of Heber  City.   Clouds riding
the jet stream.  

There is 360 degrees of gorgeous views ...I want to stay here forever.  

When I look at the mountains from here in the valley, I feel safe and secure.  They are my security blanket.  Being on top of these mountains, I can see how people feel they are on top of the world.  I get it.......because you are.......The terrain changes along with the seasons.  From green to brown to a multitude of colors, to just plain white.  You put it against a bright blue sky background and it's breath taking.  As much as I complain about hating the winters, hating being cold, I can't say that I hate looking at the mountains.....no matter what color they are.  I'll bundle up, buck up, and handle the cold winter once again when it comes around this year.  Winter will be here sooner than I want.  

"The Mountain Song"

And someday when you're feeling awkward

and someday when you're down

Come to me I will give you anything

I'll turn your frown around

I wish I knew who wrote and who sang this song.  I could only find it as a ringtone.  No songwriter listed, no singer(s) listed if this song was ever recorded.  Whoever wrote/sang this, I would like to give them credit.  I've put an excerpt of part of the song lyrics in this blog.  This little part of the song just seemed to fit.  

Twitter@CotySimon

Instagram/Howunique310

Out of Focus

Having two eyes firmly planted in your head, wearing a pair of contact lenses, and then putting on a pair of reading glasses to see the small stuff in front of you, is not fun.  Try looking through a camera lens with all that plastic attached to your face.  It ain't easy McGee!!

Over the past few months the eyesight has changed...for the worse.........not being able to see clearly is unsettling.  It was time to see the eye doc anyway and I figured my human was due for a prescription change.  Little did I know that walking out of this appointment I would be walking back into another seeing a surgeon.  Nothing serious.  Just cataracts that have finally told my human it's time.  It's time to take the buggers out and put in lenses that will enable her to see clearly without benefit of glasses and/or contact lenses.

I'm young at heart, but my eyes are telling me that I am aging.  I don't qualify for Medicare so I am still young! Age doesn't matter when it comes to cataracts.  Babies can be born with them.  You can develop them at anytime in your life.  I've battled mine for years.  Small at first, didn't give me any trouble or grief, and then wham.......they became larger than life and it was time to realize the reason I could not see clearly was due to the fact that cataracts have taken over my vision.  I've realized now that I have tried to compensate for my lack of clear sightedness.  I got used to it.  It was normal for me.  I haven't seen clearly, like every detail on a tree, leaves with veins, flowers, and the biggest......street signs for a long time.   I feel like I have been Helen Keller driving behind the wheel.  As scary as that sounds, I can see, but I don't have to read street signs as I know where I going. I know where I am headed.  Objects in front of me are not blurry.  Slightly out of focus, but not blurry. I don't see double.  I don't see triple of anything, although there have been times seeing double/triple would have been a pleasing sight to these eyes of mine!!!

I rely on my vision for a lot of things.  I  have realized it's just another item on my list that I have taken for granted.  My senses are everything.  Sight, hearing, smell, taste and sound........... Soon I will have a new lease on my sight.  I'll be able to see clearly again.  I'm almost scared to go back and look at past photos I've taken.  Will they be as clear to me now as I thought they were then?  Or....so out of focus that it has left my mind muddled with doubt?

After receiving the news that I will need a very simple 10 minute procedure on my eyes to correct my vision, I headed to the park.  One of my favorites parks to go to mediate, to contemplate.........I have mountains, water, and birds to look at....................

I learned to say a long time ago that "never and can't" are not words.  I will never do this....I will never do that.....I can't do it....I've replaced those words with I will try...........

I will try to be an inner child that pushes my human to do better.  I will try to remain who I am...........who I am is me.............take me as I am or not at all.  I can only change for me.........Will my new clear vision improve my photos?  Probably not, but at least I will be able to say I tried....................will it improve what I type on the keyboard?  Definitely not.......unless I tell myself to "try" and change my attitude.......for sure, I will try to remain "me" to the best of my ability with some new sauciness thrown in the mix with a side of humble pie..............I am after all, just an inner child who loves to do crazy, spontaneous things in life.  Never boring, never dull..................



Twitter @CotySimon
Instagram/Howunique310

From nowhere to nothing....

I walk dirt roads that sometimes lead to nowhere........I love "nowhere".....Letting my mind wander along with my feet I see things I wouldn't see if I was riding in a car.  I hear things that I wouldn't be able to hear as the sound of music coming over the radio stops it.  I feel the breeze on my skin, the sun on my face.............this is what nowhere feels like.  It's also what "nothing" feels like........nothing feels pretty darn good.  There's "nothing" quite like the feeling of nothing........I have nothing to do but listen.  I have nothing to do but see what's all around me.  I have nothing to do but absorb it all.

I may not be up with the farmers who bale the hay, let the horses out into pasture, or milk the cows that now graze in the fields....I hope they don't mind me sharing the same air space as them, soaking up the smell of the hay drying in the fields, listening to the cows calling to each other, or the sound of a horse running wild and free in a pasture.........it beats the sounds of cars whizzing by, horns honking, sirens blaring, and car alarms going off...........

I love this area of Utah and Wyoming.  My ancestors were part of this range land.  Sometimes I wonder why my father decided to move to the "big" city instead of following in his daddy's footsteps and continue ranching............I'll never find out.  They are questions that will remain unanswered.  I should have asked a long time ago when I was young and foolish. Now that I am older, but no less wiser, I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had been raised on a farm........would I have liked it?  Would I have hated the rural, hard working, sweat driven life?  I do know that I appreciate more now than ever, the people who continue to do ranching and farming.

An out building on a parcel of land that is slowly
falling apart. The only signs of life are the wildflowers
that seem to bring a little color to the old, worn out
building..........

I want to spread a blanket out, lay down and watch the sky fill with puffy, cotton filled clouds that I feel like I could reach out and hold them.  I want to lay down on that blanket and watch the jets fly over head, thousands of miles up in the sky, letting out contrails that leave you wondering where it's headed as it leaves the trail behind it.......I want to lay down on that blanket and hope to hell that someone is there to help me up............It's the pits to wave bye bye to your youth and let old age creep in...........




Twitter @CotySimon
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Opening my Eyes

I was looking over some thoughts I wrote down for another blog that I used to write.  It wasn't that long ago that I stopped doing that blog and started this one.  Besides making my heart ache over that subject matter, it also gave me a smile.....for people who used to follow that blog will know what I am trying to say....

PEOPLE SEE WHAT THEY WANT TO SEE

AND HEAR WHAT THEY WANT TO HEAR

PEOPLE TURN A DEAF EAR AND CLOSE BLIND EYES 

I admit I am guilty of the above.........I am learning to see more with open eyes and to listen as well.

It's not very often that I can sit in a passenger seat and look around while someone else is driving.  I'm usually the one behind the wheel.  My job occasionally takes me out of state or out of town.  Living where I do, here in Utah, it offers a vast array of different landscapes.  From mountains full of trees and pines, to rock formations that resemble castles, to red rocks and desert scenery.

Starting my day at 5 am is not my cup of tea....I'd rather be looking at the backside of my eyelids at that time.  Early mornings are not me when I am in the city.  At the lake on the other hand, predawn is my best friend.  

Normally scenery is whizzing by me when I am driving.  I see what's ahead of me....give the wheel to someone else, and my eyes are all over the place.  A road trip for work is fun when someone else drives  and I can look at what I usually miss.  

Heading up Spanish Fork Canyon you are greeted by a field of
windmills.  It's the beginning of an adventure.  A scary one at times since
this is one of the deadliest canyons in the nation. 

Price, Utah...mining country and the beginning of Castle
country.  Rock formations begin here that resemble
castle fortresses.  Dinosaurs once roamed these
rocky formations.  

When you see the windmills you know your trip down
the canyon is almost finished.  You can breath a sigh of
relief.  What started out as a beautiful cloudless sky of blue,
ends with skies gray and angry.  

The wall of the storm we are heading into.  A trip that
 takes 2 hours to drive, took 3 hours thanks to
the sky opening up and releasing copious amounts of water
all over..........

The older I get, the more I realize that taking anything for granted is out of the question.  I'm seeing now that it, meaning anything, is a gift to me that I should cherish and hold on to.  Sometimes I do.  Sometimes I don't.  I don't live in a perfect world thus I cannot be perfect either.  Starting this day with clear beautiful blue skies and ending it with an angry one,  is an example that each day I am given to breath once again may not be as perfect as it was when I woke up.  I will continue to get up after I am knocked to the ground.  I will continue to put one foot in front of the other after tripping over an obstacle.  I will continue on a daily journey with eyes open, my ears ready to listen, and my arms ready to hug the moments given to me...................

Twitter @CotySimon

Instagram/Howunique310

Open Eyes...........

Top of the mornin' .....coffee, sunrises, and the lake. It's
a perfect trio.......

I'm up before the birds sing...... I love catching sunrises at the lake. I can sleep in when I am at home.   Everyday is different.  No two sunrises are the same.  This is my reverent time.  My time to stop and look at what I miss when I don't get up before the birds.  It's my time to listen to what not is going on around me.  No people, no trucks or cars, no outside big city sounds.  Just birds waking up, flocks of geese flying over, the sounds of a breeze going through the leaves, the lapping of the lake against the beach.........A sky that starts to turn different colors, opens my eyes up........ I see colors of red, orange, pink, yellow..........A sun that peeks over the mountain tops and shines down on the water that is as smooth as silk..........Each sunrise is a gift.  It's a reminder that I am alive... A gift I gladly take and capture.

Running on empty is never a good thing, mentally, physically or mechanically.  Taking the time to refuel and rejuvenate is necessary in order to keep on going, keep on moving...... Even if it's for a brief moment.

I will type away on the keys of my lap top and listen to the rhythm of the falling rain hitting the canopy roof, the sound of the thunder that gets closer and louder.  It's late enough in the day that if the clouds empty themselves of moisture,  I might have the priviledge of catching a sunset that will take my breath away and leave my mouth gapping wide open.......what will be my breathless moment tomorrow I wonder?  Whatever it may be, it will be a gift that I will open carefully and love it dearly.................I write about this lake often.  I love this lake.

There is sunshine even on a cloudy day

Sooner rather than later I will head back up to the lake.  Sooner rather than later I will clear out the mind of all things negative.  Sooner rather than later I will fill up my soul with all things positive.  Sooner rather than later I will look rather than close my eyes.  Sooner rather than later I will listen rather  than ignore.  Sooner rather than later I will................................

Twitter@CotySimon
Instragram/Howunique310

It's time......

It's almost time for the annual trek to the lake and mountains.  The countdown begins.  T minus 6 days, countless hours and seconds to go.....................

It's time to get away from the sights and sounds of a bustling city and head for the mountains..........the air is clean, the grasses sway in the breeze, the fences bend just enough to let you roam free, get lost, but always find yourself back home.  It's time to listen to nature.  It's time to hear the birds sing, smell the air that is full of different scents, campfire, wildflowers, the lake, pine.........it's time to feel the breeze blow softly and the sun shine down and feel it's warmth.  It's time to look up and see the clouds float across the sky.  It's time to see the changing colors of the lake.  It's time.....................

It's time to let my mind wander................

It's time to leave the makeup at home, wear the clothes I don't care if they get torn or ripped.  It's time to let vanity stay in the city................

It's time to focus on whats important.........and to let go of what I cannot change..............

It's time to regroup with myself and reflect on what I need to do or not do............

It's time.......It's all about "time".........it's time that is quickly going faster and faster each day that I wake up.  It's time to be grateful, thankful, for each breath that I take and each step I can put one foot in front of the other.  It's time................that I remember that.......................

It's time............. that I remember who I am............... who I am...................is me.............

Twitter @CotySimon

Instagram-Howunqiue310