• About

maryelizabethtrevino

~ Aging

maryelizabethtrevino

Monthly Archives: March 2018

Start with C…

23 Friday Mar 2018

Posted by mbtrevino in Uncategorized

≈ Leave a comment

A very sweet note via Social media greeted me first thing when I woke up. It was sent by my cousin.  Izzie is actually, technically, my ‘second’ cousin. We never cared what that ranking meant; we just knew we were closely related to the same group of mostly old people. We were cousins. That was enough.

Reading her message, a tender tribute to our family’s deceased matriarchs, was a lovely way to begin the day. Once upon a time, I started each morning with a love note. The Big Love of My Life left me a ‘seven letter word’ message on the Scrabble board daily, on his way out the door. First one he ever left me was: COURAGE. To match his, with my seven letters; I spelled the word: CHERISH.

We played that One Word game the whole time were together; about one thousand days. One thousand, seven letter word days. You can do the A-Z a whole lot of ways in 1000 seven letter days.

He’s been dead over a month now. We’d said our final good byes long ago. He gave me enough true love to last a life time. By perfect coincidence, the nick name I called him, started with a C. (Charlie) So really, it’s that first C that is the premise for the rest of this.

Jumping back to today, C is first for cousins (or second cousins.) Secondly, C for me is for Caribou. That is ‘where’ – – a big part of the ‘why’ this whole “C” chapter occurred. Third C is for Chapter.

Fourth C is for Colorado; there are a lot of Cs…I’d arrived in Colorado in a pick-up truck. It was a Chevy with a camper-top. Determined to change or attempt to alter what seem pre-ordained as my destiny; soon after I graduated from college, I’d moved over one thousand miles away to live in another state.

With no legitimate income strategy to speak of, I was subsisting in a small, salmon- pink, 1950’s travel trailer in a low-rent R.V. park with 2 large dogs and zero revenue. One of my dogs, Zuma, was pregnant. Too soon, I had 9 dogs and no job. A friendly neighbor living in the lone  frame house in the Rocky Mountain R.V. ghetto, New Jersey Patti, asked if I wanted to help out at a local ranch.

Seeing the pickup truck with Texas license plates gave the misguided impression that I was an authentic cowgirl. Though I had been comfortable enough around horses growing up and had recently hand- raised an orphaned two month old colt, I wasn’t anything close to a genuine horse-wrangling cowgirl.

With hounds to feed, I was confident that I could be enough of a cowgirl for the part-time job. Luckily, my first morning at the job of cowgirl morphed into me being a stand- in for the missing, grill cook. I was far more competent in the kitchen than I was in a barn. And it was far more of a Recording Studio than a ranch. Employee absenteeism plagued the owners. My part time job became a full time job; before the day was over, the owner had offered me employment.

It was at this Ranch that artists would come for the high altitude that allowed them vocally  to hit that High C. Many big name stars visited the Ranch. With this job, came the added responsibility of driving stars to Red Rocks to perform. I dutifully drove Willie Nelson and humbly stood backstage while he and Kris Kristopherson serenaded the enchanted, concert crowd under a crystal clear Colorado starlit night. Brilliant stars under the brilliant stars. Both of those star-men were also truly kind-hearted souls.

Want more about the days that started at Caribou Ranch? Can I confide in you? (This wasn’t an actual attempt at a concise summary; I was just playing the 7 letter word game with you! See how many of these words contain seven letters each.)  What seven letter word would you play? Start with C…

Advertisement

Subscribe

  • Entries (RSS)
  • Comments (RSS)

Archives

  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • May 2022
  • December 2021
  • July 2020
  • April 2020
  • September 2019
  • June 2019
  • February 2019
  • September 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • April 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • September 2014

Categories

  • AARP
  • Accessible Home
  • Addiction
    • Marijuana
  • Addiction, Accident, Landlord
  • Aging
  • Aging in Place. Seniors
  • Alzheimers
  • American Greatness
  • Anti-Aging
  • Assault Rifles
  • Assisted Living
  • Awaken
  • Balance
  • Ban Assault Rifles
  • Bill Cosby
  • Binge Dating, Sneak Dating, Surplus Dating, Night School
  • Blindness
  • Boomers
  • Brain
  • Bridget Jones
  • Cancer
  • Chicken Sitting
  • Child Saint
  • Cholera Kills
  • compassion
  • consumer consequences
  • Courage
  • Dating, On-line dating, humor, rent a guy
  • Dealing Drugs
  • Dementia
  • drugs
  • Ebola
  • Eclipse
  • Economic Insecurity
  • Elders
  • Exploding Hearts
  • First Responders
  • Forgiveness
  • Galveston
  • Goodness Rules
  • Grandparenting
  • Grief
  • Gun Control
  • Heartburn
  • Hero
    • Stranger
  • HomeDepot
  • Hot mama
  • Humiliation
  • Hurricane Preparation
  • Independence
  • insanity
  • iOS8
  • Isn't She Wonderful
  • livability
  • Livable Community
  • Love
  • Lowe's
  • Make Peace
  • Mental illness
  • Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Kris K,
  • Meth
  • misdiagnosis
  • N Word
  • Name Calling
  • Neighbors
  • Neighbors, Property Lines, Battle Lines, Warned
  • New Starts
  • New Year Resolution, Forgiveness, Past
  • Obsession
  • Opioid Overdose Epidemic
  • Orlando
  • Ott-Lites
  • Overdoses
  • Parenting
  • passion
  • Peace
  • Plastic Trash
  • Playing Possum
  • Prejudice
  • Pride
  • Public Health
  • Racism
  • Rape
  • Recovery
  • Refugees
  • responsible shrimping
  • Retirement
    • Silver Tsunami
  • Robin Williams fan
  • Saint
  • Salvation
  • School Shootings
  • Sea Traitor
  • Secret Messages
  • Senior Moments
  • SilverTsunami
  • Social Norms
  • Storms, Weathered, Toilet Bowl Fishing
  • suicide
  • surviving suicide
  • Thanks, Friends, Reunion
  • Tragic Loss
  • Trashed
  • Traveling with Alzheimers
  • Trip Insurance
  • Truth
  • Tumor
  • Turtles
  • Tweaking
  • Uncategorized
  • Vacation Rentals
  • Wardrobe Failure
  • Wildfire
  • Word Power
  • Yesterday,
  • Zombie

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • maryelizabethtrevino
    • Join 25 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • maryelizabethtrevino
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar