Getting Better Every Day

I have improved so much in the month since I had the stoke which affected my right side.
I'm not back to 100%, more like 76% or maybe a little more, but I can tell, "It is getting better every day."

June 10th, a Monday that everything changed. Both Byron and I were rushing around to get out of the house. Byron faced his last week of summer class at CMU before retirement. He needed two old computer keyboards to return to the college, so I jumped up to get them out of a storage box in the computer room for him. The minute I touched the keyboards, my fingers started tingling.

I am totally allergic to insect bites and wasp stings, so I immediately assumed I was having a reaction to  a spider bite. I washed The numminess in my fingers were

Four movies in one month, from May 16th to June 30

Haven't made it the movies much, until this month.
Maybe because I had the time to lay around this month---
Or it might be that Hollywood finally put out some of the better movies.
        Enough about me: the Movies--
May 16th -- Star Trek, the new version -- Great! Can't wait to see, rent, or buy the DVD.

June 14th -- Superman, Man of Steel -- It was good, it just wasn't as good as I anticipated it would be.

June 28th -- The Heat -- Very good, even though I didn't know it was coming to theatres this month.

June 30th -- Monster Inc. University -- Cute, well worth the money, another movie I never expected to spend money to see. It was a sequel of a Disney/Pixar child's movie.

A "Good" Stroke?

I almost died in June, but I didn't.
It was only a stroke.

"If there is anything such as a good stroke, you had a good stroke." my doctor said on Monday, June 10th.
"It was a small one on the left side of your brain. It was not a bleed; it was an ITS, and we caught it early." he continued.
            That sounds so casual, but I was terrified.
           All I could knew about strokes was "You will die. You will never recover. You will be a vegetable."
          Apparently several of the medical staff at the doctor's office, the hospital and my friends had heard those same childhood ideas about strokes. I could tell in their glances of pity.

           

Luckily, all that was wrong.  

I am recovering now, slowly and surely

Experienced Animal Director comes to GVZQ

         Former Palisade resident Holly Tumas, the Animal Husbandry Director of ZooQuest, has years of experience with domestic and wild animals. She will present information about the care and handling of zoo animals at the GVZQ booths.

        Holly and her family lived in California for over 40 years before renting in Palisade for eight months last year before moving and taking her volunteer job with GVZQ.

        Few people know that Holly has a degree in Exotic Animal Training and Management and has worked with Jack Hanna, many movie and television celebrities. Yet she is more passionate talking about her favorite animals she trained and handled while working in her home state.

      This petite young woman was born and raised in California and received a degree in Journalism, Marketing and Public Relations at Long Beach State. Her first job with Paramount Studios placed her as assistant movie publicity department for such shows as Star Trek, the Next Generation, ET and others.

      “This is where I’m suppose to be. Training animals is my true passion.”

       It was a good thing that Holly was passionate about this because she found out that it was an intensive 24/7 schooling schedule.

      “I loved it. I jumped in 110% of two years of my life, very intense program. We were taking classes during the day, helping clean the zoo every morning and evening and feed the animals. On 2 or 3 evenings a week we would work the ‘Night Watch.’

      She graduated in May 1997, and Holly laughed at telling the name of her degree program, “ You are going to love the acronym: E.A.T.M., which stands for Exotic Animal Training and Management Program.”

      In 1998 Holly came back to be the American Teaching Zoo assistant at her alma mater until 2009. The job became more than full time, but she found the time for her marriage and the birth of her child.

“The move was a time to be a stay-at-home mom and wife,” she admits. “After we moved from Palisade, I learned about the Zoo Quest to build a zoological center, and I feel this move was meant to be.”

     Holly connected with every animal she trained, and she has pictures that help her relive her memories of the people and animals that she met and will never forget.

     This weekend she begins handling and presenting the Grand Valley Zoological Center animals to her Colorado neighbors, and she starts her new career, caring for the amazing animals that will be in the Western Colorado Wildlife Conservancy.

Musing while in Texas

Summer time has come.

I have been writing on all three freelance jobs.  I have just been too busy to put them in this blog.
Even though this is my down time (away from home, visiting the grandkids, kids and other family plus friends, I have to keep writing down my thoughts and plans.

Last Graduation for my husband as he is finally retiring from college teaching. So what does he do two days after graduating? Breaking ground for a new Mass Communication building that he designed and planned but will never work in!
Gotta love that guy--always busy. (He is the one on the end with the white shirt.)
He is teaching one more summer mini-mod course in photography,  so I decided to go visiting while he was gone every weekday to his summer job.
My summer job is to hug, kiss, and love on the nine grandkids in Texas.

Marie & Roger Granat: Two artists, two styles in-residence

Some artists paint for money; others paint for life. Marie and Roger Granat paint for the relaxation and pleasure of trying a new technique, or a new style.

            This couple is enjoying retirement from full-time careers by doing what they want and when they want.

Their home is a gallery. From the front entrance though out the home, each room displays Marie’s decorative tole paintings on glass, metal, and wood while Roger’s pen and ink framed sketches are displayed across shelves, the mantel and on walls.

Different style and techniques reflect the wife’s and husband’s artistic individuality: decorative painting for Marie and pin and ink for Roger.

Marie probably has more pieces on display in their home, yet she said. “I really don’t have a favorite. I enjoy painting everything,” Marie confesses with a smile. “I like painting Christmas ornaments, the snowmen and especially Santa.” She shows off her plethora of Santa designs, patterns and finished pieces.

“I have given away all of my Christmas ornaments to neighbors as gifts and a few sold at the Farmer’s Market downtown.”

“It is still fun. It is how I relax, my stress reliever,” she admits. Marie is the only Palisade member of the Grand Junction chapter of Western Colorado Decorative Artists, but she wants to learn more and go to National seminars in Ohio or Las Vegas, which she has heard about but never attended.

Her chapter hosted a two-day seminar at First Congressional Church in Grand Junction last weekend, April 4-5 and sponsored well-known National Certified Decorative Artist Karen Hubbard from Oregon to teach two complicated techniques that she had created.

“It was fantastic to meet Karen and follow her lessons. In one afternoon we completed a Goldfinch, and on Saturday we painted a bear cub surrounded by Columbines, the State flower. I am still working on that pattern,” She showed off both pieces on her work desk, along with several other paintings in various stages of completion.

Marie learned decorative tole painting in 1995. “We were living in Denver, and our Minister’s wife Julie invited me over one afternoon to see what she does.  When I saw her art, I wanted to learn how to do that. We went to classes at night. That’s how I learned to paint.”

Eighteen years later she is honing her skills, but if any one praises her talent, she is quick to say, “My husband Roger is an artist too.

“He does the pen and ink drawings hanging there. He has always been behind me. He gives me critiques. Tells when I do it good, and tells me when I don’t. Helps me out too.

Both of them are “in-house critics for each other.”

Marie follows a pattern, yet she stylizes through the acrylic colors and brush strokes. She continues to take classes and challenges herself to try more complicated techniques.

Roger paints free hand about objects, animals and places he has seen.  His primary subjects are drawn in pen-and-ink: wild game and mountain landscapes familiar and meaningful to him and his family. He never took any classes in drawing; he learned by practicing sketching his favorite subjects.

The Granat family are hunters and campers for generations in the mountains they love. His drawings of buffalo, elk, mountain goats are finely detailed noble replicas of the animals both Marie and Roger have seen and harvested together.

He admits he was in the 6^th grade when “I took six classes from Mrs. Capp, a professional oil painter up on East Orchard Mesa.  Roger proudly points out the one landscape in oil that he painted of his grandfather’s favorite spot.

“My folks started me on them. Then we got busy working in the orchards in the Vine lands.”  

This couple has been friends since childhood. Their parents were neighboring orchard growers in the Vineland, so the kids grew up almost like siblings, playing, camping and going through everything together.  “I treated Marie and her sister like they were my own sisters,” Roger Granat said with a smile as he described how he knew his wife as a child.

Born and raised in Palisade, both went to Palisade High School. But after graduating, they went in different directions. Roger in 1960 stayed in the Vine lands where he bought an orchard before he was 17.  Marie graduated in 1966 and moved to Denver, just because “I wanted to live in the big city,” she said.

Both had married others and divorced, but Marie came back to her hometown for a visit and reconnected with Roger when both families were rebuilding a neighbor friend’s barn.

They married and lived in Denver for eight years until 2002, when they moved back to be close to family. In 1986 Roger said he won with his entry in Palisade Art League’s contest. In 1989 he sold his first pen-and ink of a deer head to a friend.

The next year he just stopped—“no drawing, no painting, nothing.  Started back in 2011, because I need something to do.”

Maybe he got back in the artistic mood because he became Mayor of Palisade in 2010. Maybe because he and Marie are retired, and have the time to enjoy doing what they want to do, Maybe it is because Roger has to stay busy.

Whatever the reason Roger Granat is back in the artistic mood.

“I do it just to relax. I’ll see something when we are out hunting or camping, I snap a photograph of something, come home sketch it out.

“It is a challenge just to see if I can.”

Like his wife, his is talent is evident. Both use their art talent “to relax,” and “to see if I can do it.”

Few people will see all the art that husband and wife have or will produce.

They don’t promote their talent for the money or livelihood. They do it to relax, enjoyment and the challenge of doing something new the best way they can.

Freelance writer Brenda Evers can be reached at brendabevers@hotmail.com

1050 words

Palisade Person Mae Ryan loves family, friends & memories

           Mae Ryan is finally getting out of her house and back around town. The cold weather, snow and health issues have kept this octogenarian homebound from her regular visits around town during the first months of this year.

            This 15-year resident of Palisade loves getting out to see her family and friends, but most of all she loves to talk, to tease and to be independent in so many ways.

            “I’m still able to drive myself. In Palisade. I don’t want to, and my son does not want me to drive in Grand Junction,” she admits.  So instead of staying home doing nothing, Mae is starting a new project

She read about Lisa’s Scrapbooking Boutique opening on Main Street, and here she is, getting her granddaughter Rachel’s school photos and mementoes organized and arranged in a scrapbook before May.

            “She is graduating from Doane College in Nebraska,” Mae said proudly. “I’ve never been to Nebraska, so I don’t know where her college is located. But I want to get this done before she comes home.

            “I love to decorate and do stuff like this, but this may be too much for me, so Lisa said she would help.”
            “Of course I will help,” Lisa Horn says as she separates Mae’s pile of pictures and paper notes, cards, and child-like drawings, the sweet misspelled, crooked pieces of love messages from a youngster to her adoring grandparent.

            Their concentration on sorting everything by date is interrupted by happy voices of more customers coming into the shop. Lisa greets her friends by introducing, “Hi, you all, this is Mae. Everybody knows Mae.”

Lisa introduced her neighbor Kristin Turner and her mother Virginia Johnson who came to the boutique to pick out paper for Kristin’s next project.

Eighty-four year old Mae is not shy about meeting and greeting new friends. She will talk to anyone, anytime, any place she meets people, but she has to be talked into telling anything about herself.

She does not divulge details about her 84 years of life freely, until she feels that she is among friends.

 “I was born in Colorado Springs. When I was a senior in high school with one month before graduation, my dad moved us to Leadville. I had to graduate after being there only one month.” She remembers that well, but she married a young man who was born in Leadville and had two sons before the family lived in Lakewood until her husband died.

Kristin and Virginia exclaimed that they too had lived in Lakewood, so they chatted on about familiar places and changes since Mae lived there. Now that she had new friends, Mae told more about her life.

She buried him in Leadville and would go back to visit his grave and decided to stay.” When her sons were grown, she bought an old Victorian home and remodeled it by herself, or as she said, “I paid for everything to be done, and it was in the Historical home tours.”

Mae enjoyed the independence in Leadville, her friends, jobs in the stores and the house. She “loved it there,” but she moved on to Palisade because her family needed her.

“I came here to babysit my granddaughter,” she explained her move, but ironically she continued making new friends, taking care her granddaughter over the years, and decorating her houses.

            Since her arrival in the Valley she has moved and fixed up three different homes. She lived in a small mobile home, to a double wide, and now in a three room building that her family and friends calls “the Quilt house” because it was the former Quilt fabric store. Mae feels too old to fix up another house and has no intention to move again.

            Her best Palisade friends Nancy and Tom Kessenich probably know Mae better than any one else, except Melinda Eastland who owns Mumzul’s Crumpets, Tea and Cones Shop on Main Street.

According to Nancy, their friendship began when Mae Ryan first moved into town. “We were working in Melinda’s antique store on the corner. Melinda added a coffee shop up front.  Mae likes antiques so she came in, started talking, and instant friends.”

Their talking, teasing and laughter continued when Melinda closed her store and opened the Mumzul’s shop behind the store that is now The Blue Pig. That’s where Lisa Horn met Mae.

“Everyone knows Mae. She is such a fun person.

“Each time she enters Mumzel’s, Tom breaks out in song,

Hello, My Honey. Hello, my baby. Hello, my ragtime gal . . .”

This makes Mae light up in smiles and start talking and teasing to any one and every one in her friend’s teashop.”

The Kesslenichs had many stories of Mae’s wit and camaraderie.

 “A few years ago, a bear came down the Mesa and climbed up one of her trees,” Nancy recalled Mae version, “He had a plastic bag stuck on his claw, and Mae called and said, ‘I didn’t know how that white bag was going up that tree,’ then she saw it was a bear.”

“She asked me if she should lock her door. I told her, ‘I don’t think he is going to knock.” Tom replied.  They have laughed many times over that story.

            “Mae is not a talker-talker,” Tom said, and then explained, “She talks a lot, but doesn’t reveal a lot about herself.”

            That’s part of the independent nature of Mae Ryan.

            “I talk more than my son, but we are private people.” She keeps repeating, but she will tease you, give you advice, joke with you, make you laugh, and keep saying, “This is just between you and me.”

            When her new friends left, Mae and Lisa went back to her granddaughter’s childhood photos, but this 84-year-old mused, “Lisa’s shop is so cute. It is clever, and she has done such a nice job.

            “Palisade, it’s a wonderful, quiet small town. We need more businesses. We don’t have much going on, and because we have so little I would like people to go to our places.  If we don’t, and we take everything to Grand Junction, we’ll never grow.”

But that was enough to talk about: the town, the shop, her project. She looks up with a smile. “What are you scribbling down? Don’t write about me. Remember this is just between you and me.”

Her personal life—those stories--her friends have to learn in bits and pieces from her actions and what other friends tell about her. 

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