<p>The joys of Ruidoso, with a high yesterday of 68 and a low of 57. Yesterday in our Texas town was a cool (for us) 94 degrees. Gotta love those cold fronts.</p>
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<p>Last week the low for the high was 104.</p>
<p>Curmudgeon, </p>
<p>This is way off-topic, but let me see if I understand this. After a year of reading this BB, here's the picture I have. You are an attorney (seems I read that along the way) with an extremely bright and athletically talented daughter. You live in a 'shack' with lots of animals out in the middle of a sparsely populated desert in Texas with a driveway (well a dirt road out to the main road) that's longer than most city blocks. I think maybe you 'farm' out in this desert. You either had a moral objection to paying alot for college, or your income as a desert attorney hasn't kept up with the cost of a college education (I assume the former, as you seemed focused on strictly merit aid.)</p>
<p>How on earth did you end up living in such a place? With your name, I wonder if you decided you wanted to escape from the rest of us humanity. Or am I missing something?</p>
<p>Sorry if this is too invasive and off-topic, but I have continued to develop this image and I finally just have to ask...</p>
<p>My second choice was "oldnastyhermit" but it was taken. And cabin, not shack. The jacuzzi is the key. ;) You can't farm rocks, so no - I don't have a farm, I have a ranch. And as to my income , maybe I'm not any good. Just not smart enough I guess or maybe I lack people skills. But maybe I could be more like you? ;)</p>
<p>(Apple. It's unwise to make assumptions about me based on your world. Trust what I say. I don't lie and feel no reason to lie. My little world is just different. And to be clear, you can do a search. FAFSA was about what UT would have cost. Profile was higher. Yale and Amherst were a few K higher than that. We left no stone unturned. Need based or merit. I couldn't have afforded to make moral judgments about college financing, even if I would have understood what that would be.???)</p>
<p>C,</p>
<p>Don't sell yourself short on farming. There's always rattlesnakes. We've certainly raised a bumper crop this year.</p>
<p>momoffour - as son#1 heads out to sophomore year I want to reassure you that they do continue to be part of the family when they are home and, if home long enough, you coule even revert to your previous roles out of familiarity and exasperation (smile). However, it seems you just can't give them a curfew, only remind them that you are not the innkeeper, and clearly, they are moving on a bit more with each successive visit home. Love reading these stories and remember well the difficult time for us last year. I know I will cry this year, as well, but I hope I will not be in such shock. Good luck to all of you with this bittersweet event!</p>
<p>It's so hot around here the rattlebugs start spontaneously exploding about 3:00 every afternoon.;) </p>
<p>If you can hum a Townes Van Zandt tune while you watch it is Texas entertainment at its finest. </p>
<p>We killed two over 4 feet on one summer night last year. One almost got D as she walked in the front door (actually I shoved her through the door or she'd have got bit) and his buddy was in the front yard. I shot the first one off the porch with a shotgun. The second one I shot 30 minutes later with my Mini-14 I keep in the backseat, flipped him into the air and hit him again before he hit the ground. Impressed my lady folks something fierce (but it was just a lucky shot ;)). We had shotgun lessons again the next morning. D and W are both pretty good with a shotgun. Between drought, coyotes, bobcats, and our twice a year cougar the rattlesnakes are just a minor ripple .</p>
<p>Curmedgeon,</p>
<p>I didn't mean any offense, and I assumed that everything you posted is true. It's like reading a book and forming a picture in my mind. Because I keep reading your posts, I wanted a baseline context from which to read. </p>
<p>Sometimes I hate these text-only forums, in that (a) I was a math / engineering major, so communication isn't my strong suit and (b) communicating via text-only (even with people we know) has been shown to be fraught with misinterpretation. </p>
<p>Again, I apologize if I offended.</p>
<p>That's some fancy shooting, friend.</p>
<p>Our neighbor brought in a 7 footer last week that was about a foot around with 6 rings and fat as a tick. I admit I'd rather run into a coyote than a rattler, but that's just me.</p>
<p>apple, I've been pretty open about our search in hopes that others could learn from our mis-steps which have been legion. I've made many mistakes in life, too. (In fact by now I think I've made most of them.)</p>
<p>I've lived pretty hard and right now I'm having to pay the piper. That's all. Nothing I can't handle.</p>
<p>Merit aid was a way my D didn't have to pay for my mistakes. And she succeeded magnificently and bailed her dad out of a jam . The $ we save on UG will be available to her for med /grad school. That's our deal.</p>
<p>Coyotes were out again tonight and the pyrennees had all the small stock up by the cabin. We only made 7 babies this year. The predators got 27. See? Told you I wasn't that smart. (We should have penned them but the babies came early and caught me off guard and on a college trip. The pyrennees can't be everywhere at once but they try.)</p>
<p>Cur et al, your post brought back memories of two years ago when we made the trip to drop off day, when the parent-child relationship seem to change so suddenly and dramatically, kind of like the fluttering flight when a birdie leaves the nest for that first time. More awkward that natural. More tension ridden than graceful.</p>
<p>But in 2 years how things change! Our son now moves in and out of our lives seamlessly, coming home occasionally because he wants to rather than he needs to. The "ideal" lifeguarding job at the lake down the street is a thing of the past. Now he is working with a professor who has taken him in under his wing. The beat up car will now be in Troy, not taking up room in our driveway but streatching the cord to the breaking point because he now has his NY drivers license, NY insurance policy and has changed forever his voting domicile.</p>
<p>Yep, we still cough up the $9500/year which was our part of the financial bargain go into this adventure but even that will soon be a thing of the past, like family vacations and the nearby superfund site(more commonly called his bedroom) have been for several years now. Yes, the oh so long human transition from child to adult is now almost complete. We know not what he is doing at 2am and frankly do not view it as our "business" anymore just as semester grade reports have become.</p>
<p>So Cur et al, you have done your jobs well. Your birdies are now taking wing oh so tenetively now. But that will change very rapidly. And by this time next year the change will be dramatic. Yep, they really have been well prepared to leave the nest and are well on their way to creating their own life.</p>
<p>originaloog, sad as that story of leaving is to me , it is my fondest dream, too. What strange years these are going to be, reconciling my own needs to be a parent with hers to be an adult . It will be the hardest thing I ever do, and I think maybe the most rewarding. (You go, kid. I'll be watching from the sidelines.) Great post.</p>
<p>p.s. Mine is already planning her summers and they don't seem to include much time at the ranch . But they are full of travel and study and as of now glorious flights of fancy, too. But she may pull it off. I'm not one to doubt her. ;)</p>
<p>Cur,
My brother has a house in the mountain of NC. He has taken to killing the rattlesnakes and then mounting/framing the skins to decorate his home. The patterns really are quite beautiful (when in a frame and not rattlin' at your feet). As my son says you can sell anything on ebay---there's a new hobby for you--"Snakeskins by Curmudgeon"</p>
<p>Originaloog - what a great post - ty.</p>
<p>Curm - you and your gal are off to wonderous things - even tho that adjustment is difficult - you will be full of wonder for her - and your pride will always be apparent to everyone here. You have done a magnificant job over the past year - having followed your story here for a while. Be proud of yourself - you have sooooo much to share with others on this amazing journey we all go thru. My best wishes to you and yours - you dun good!!</p>
<p>Curmudgeon, the next few years are going to be just wonderful for you and your daughter. She is going to have so many interesting, new, exciting things to share with you. In a few short weeks you'll barely notice that she isn't sleeping in her room at home every night, because all the new exciting things she'll share will you will just sort of eclipse that and make it all irrelevant. Every week, month, semester, year will just get better and better and more interesting, and - odd how this works, but instead of a more distant relationship, I think you'll find your relationship is going to grow even closer and happier than it already is.</p>
<p>Having said that, may I borrow a couple of rattle snakes for a week or two? Because I absolutely cannot DEAL with any more of these giant wood spiders that are outside our primary home. Every once in a while one manages to get inside the house. It's horrible - and I am terrified of them. Have tried everything except removing the trees where they live, which I refuse to do. Figured maybe a few snakes would keep them at bay, or maybe at least reduce the population. You could just catch a couple of them, put them in a box...I'll even pay the postage...</p>
<p>
Hmmm. When the postal worker rattles the box, the box rattles back. ;)</p>
<p>Postal worker? Don't you guys know by now that you don't mail snakes.... they need to go on a plane!</p>
<p>Heh. Slam dunk for Calmom.</p>
<p>As the wife on one wobbly H, I can tell you that the primary adjustment, watching with pride from afar, is not difficult. Piece of cake, that one. </p>
<p>It's going without that unconditional 'Dad' love, day to day, which is the snake in the grass. Makes old men susceptible to thoughts of producing more small children who will love them to bits until the day when they can move next door to their grandkids. The drive to replace that love is hardwired in men, IMO. Women tend to have replacements, namely other deep friendships, at the ready.</p>