What a difference a day makes

I recently read "Cesar's Way" to learn more about dogs, how they think, what motivates them. One of the things he says is walk your dog, walk your dog, and walk your dog some more. When you think your dog is tired do another mile! So yesterday I had to work in the morning and because I had closed the night before I had to sleep fast. Still, I only had time for about a half mile walk with Callie before I had to go to work. Then when I got home we were having a righteous dust storm, so I wasn't going anywhere!

Well...this morning it was Callie Full Throttle again! Oh my heck! You'd have thought she was twelve weeks old again. Since I don't have to work till this afternoon, we hit it. Four miles was about what it took to get her settled down, even then she's still a little nuts this morning. Once again Cesar is absolutely right, when you're tired, walk your dog some more! The icing on the cake is she did get to see Jim. That just makes her day everyday she gets to spend time with him. I think she'd dump me in heart beat if he gave her the word! :-)

I have a friend

I have good friends these days and am grateful for everyone around me and the support and love and friendship they give me. I may give a fraction of what they give me back to them. I have a friend at work who has always been quiet, unimposing, laughs easily, works hard, is raising a daughter on her own, taking care of her dad, paying bills, and living life. She comes from a very large family. Her grandmother recently died and was hailed as the oldest living person in Mesa County (she was 103). When I got home from New Mexico I shared my story with some people and as I've grown and learned and become who I am they were right there with me, supporting, telling me I was wrong; yet loving and laughing and sometimes crying with me, and letting me learn my lessons.

I told her some time ago that I had to throw all of my plants away when I came home. One was a Shamrock that I had gotten at a church yard sale when I was married. It was a little wimpy looking plant that my ex-husband thought would never become anything. I had that plant for fifteen years and it was beautiful. I didn't care for it well while I was self-destructing, and then when I went to Rehab it sat a month without water. Then I completely fell apart and didn't see the point of trying to bring it back and threw it away in one of my many drunken rages. So I threw it away with all my other plants. Two weeks after I shared that story we had Shamrocks delivered to the store, and my friend bought one and gave it to me. I cried. She is always so thoughtful, so caring and so giving to everyone around her. She pays attention to the little things. I've tried to return some of the kindness. She has asked me to get some legal documents for her, I've answered her questions, I've listened when her daughter is going through hell with her own father who is alcoholic.

Today at work, her brother came in and told her he needed to talk to her now. He told her that another brother had been killed in a car accident. She collapsed completely. How much more is she going to have to go through? How much does one person have to endure? How much can a person carry on their back and still stand? I believe she will still stand regardless the weight placed on her. She will be as strong as she needs to be for everyone around, she will ask nothing of them, that's not her style. She will come to work because she must, she will continue to care for her dad because she must, she will continue to raise a terrific little girl because she is a mother. She will continue to be a great friend, because that is what she does so well.

When I look at her I want to take her pain away, give her all the greatness of the world and be there for her as she is for everyone else. She is in my prayers tonight and every night. She deserves so much more, yet is content where she stands. She is a truly amazing woman. Unstoppable, capable and at her very core, kind to every human being she meets.

Will Hoover

As I was reading about the failure of Washington Mutual, I remembered a Ponzi scheme in Denver that they were innocently involved in a few years ago. I worked for one of the Bankruptcy attorneys representing the Trustee of the estate. One of my jobs was to sort the endless documents that were used to attempt to cover this guys tracks. Curious, I googled his name and lo and behold, four years later he's still making headlines.

Though former Denver financial adviser Will Hoover is sitting in prison in Sterling with a 100-year sentence for racketeering, theft and securities fraud, some family members have fresh legal burdens.

The Chapter 7 trustees in Hoover's personal and legal bankruptcies have filed a lawsuit, recently transferred to Denver federal court, that asks to nullify and obtain judgments against four Hoover family members for $527,548 in transfers made within four years of the bankruptcy filings.

A separate lawsuit in federal court goes after an $8,000 payment made to the photographer at the wedding of Hoover's daughter, Kim.

Jeanne Jagow, the trustee in Hoover's personal bankruptcy, and Daniel Hepner, the trustee in the bankruptcy of The Will Hoover Co., charge that:

Katie Galpin, Hoover's sister living in Wimberley, Texas, received $224,622 from Hoover or his company within four years of the personal and business bankruptcy filings, of which $40,583 was made within one year of the filings.

Michael Hoover, Hoover's brother living in Charlotte, N.C., received $33,050 within four years of the filings and $10,050 within one year of the filings.

Kim Wyatt (formerly Kim Hoover), Hoover's daughter living in Orange, Calif., received $185,658 within four years of the filings and $119,215 within one year of them.

Mark Hoover, Hoover's son living in Laguna Hills, Calif., received $84,218 within four years of the filings and $22,679 within one year of them.

Hoover and his company -- which were operating a Ponzi scheme in which early investors were paid mainly with funds from later investors -- "lavished their ill-gotten gains upon Defendants, who are members of Hoover's immediate family," says the lawsuit.

Separate federal statutes are cited with regard to obtaining judgments on the transfers within one year versus four years of the filings. But in both cases, the lawsuit charges "intent to hinder, delay, or defraud other entities" that were owed or would be owed money.

Hoover's wife, Georgeann Hoover, is a defendant in a separate lawsuit that charges fraudulent conveyance of a house in Gig Harbor, Wash., and other assets. She has requested a jury trial. Galpin, Wyatt and Mark Hoover filed a Nov. 24 answer as defendants in their lawsuit that also requests a jury trial, which has the effect of transferring the case to federal district court from bankruptcy court.

The thing that is truly amazing about this guy is he honestly didn't believe he was committing a crime and his clients would be paid back. From where remains a mystery.

Night is falling

More often than not as night is falling I am at work. Darkness comes sooner as the fall creeps on us, and daylight is slower to show us the sun. Night is a time for gratitude. Callie had a good day, a customer is happy, I made a co-worker laugh, I survived another day of my fellow CRM who I really don't like, and I am sober another day. I never was one who did much at night, so being at work seems to make sense. The trade-off is that I have my mornings free, and I have simply come to relish that time. Being a morning person anyway, this isn't a big sacrifice for me. Mornings are so fresh and new and full of possibility. I hit the streets early, first a meeting, then a long walk with Callie. I have come to just love those walks, sometimes exploring new places, sometimes sticking to the same old routine, but loving every minute of that time together with the morning. Especially since it is so cool out now, we go longer and explore more. I love watching the hassled morning commuters running off to work already grumpy. That used to be me. The joke is that Grand Junction has rush minutes rather than rush hours, so no matter their hassled attitude is short-lived. I do like watching the sun set. It glows pink off the monument and outlines the Mesa. These are good times, almost quiet times even though I'm at work. The rush minute has left the store and business as usual is done for the night so we can just ease into the evening, helping the late shopper or ice cream hunter until we lock the doors and go home.

Callie's big adventure

The fall colors are supposed to be at their peak this weekend in the mountains. I'm working so Callie and I went up to the Grand Mesa today and did some hiking and a bunch of picture taking. The colors are more beautiful than my little camera can give justice. It was a great day, perfect weather and not over crowded since it is a weekday. I did try to get some pictures of Callie, but she's almost six months old now and moving faster than ever. I got a lot pictures with a Callie blur exiting camera left, and a Callie blur exiting camera right. I managed to get a couple okay pictures of her once she got a little tired!


View from the Mesa Lakes Trailhead
There is a sign posted saying that dogs must be leashed. Nothing says I have to be holding on to the other end!
I liked this waterfall. I could hear for a long distance on our hike around Mesa Lakes.
OOOHHH! That water is COOOLLLDDD!

Kealakekua Bay

Kealakekua Bay and Captain Cook's Memorial are two of my favorite places to snorkel. You can see Captain Cook's Memorial from Kealakekua Bay, but can't get there unless by boat. The water is deep and the currents are strong. Kealakekua Bay has a launch point from the beach, but you have to be careful, I cut myself on the lava rocks there. The tide is swift and will wash a body into the rocks fast, so it is good to be prepared and paying attention to the water. Captain Cook's Memorial is a different experience altogether. My family took a Zodiac tour that takes people down the Kona Coast to the Memorial, stopping at caves along the way. I think we snorkeled in two places, but Captain Cook's Memorial was by far my favorite. We jumped off the boat right in front of the statue. Looking down in the water, I could see the land move away fast. It is almost like jumping off a cliff. When I looked towards the memorial I saw a sheer drop off into nothing but incredible blue water. When I looked up, there was nothing but blue water in front of me, and then suddenly these incredible colors started to appear. Yellow, fuchsia, purple, dark blue. Every size and kind of fish imaginable. The surrounded me. I know it's because they're used to snorkelers feeding them, and when I produced no food, they dropped me like yesterday's news and moved on to the next person. My grandiose fantasy is to pick up and move to the Kona Coast. I've had that fantasy for a long time, but never the courage, and a sabotaged my dreams anyway. I still think about it and think that if I set the goal, I'm serious and focused, as I have been on the other pieces of my life that I've put back together; it can happen. Anything is possible if I believe it and take the action to make it happen. I know that now.

The Rose

I was out working with "my" roses this morning. I didn't plant them, I don't own them, but I've nurtured them all summer and have received great compliments from my landlord and his wife that they look the best they've looked in years. I find it very healing to be out in nature as much as possible in the aftermath of the hell of my own making. As I was working with them, I thought, naturally, of "The Rose"

Some say love it is a river that drowns the tender reed

Some say love it is a razer that leaves your soul to blead

Some say love it is a hunger an endless aching need

I say love it is a flower and you it's only seed

It's the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance

It's the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance

It's the one who won't be taken who cannot seem to give

and the soul afraid of dyingthat never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long and you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong

Just remember

in the winter

far beneath the bitter snows

lies the seed that with the sun's love in the spring becomes the rose