Snowed in

Yesterday was one of those wonderful times when Mother Nature forces me to stay home and do something that should have been done a long time ago.

Zeus, 1961

Zeus and I have been married for 17 years and during that time I have been through nearly every box of photos and memorabilia that he has collected. The unruly envelopes of images were put in chronological order, prints were made of many and the rest were put in a box ready to be culled on a future snowy day. One box that had been avoided was full of slides from the 60's through 80's decades. We don't have a slide projector so it was easy to put it back in the closet. The nagging problem was that I knew that there might be some photos in there beside horse backsides and scenic mountain vistas that family members might like to have.

MA, Zeus' mother at Jackson Hole, WY

Jodi and Keegan were here for a visit on Monday evening (yay Jodi!) and we pulled Zeus' family album. When I mentioned those slides she encouraged me to tackle them. So when I looked out the window yesterday morning and saw four inches of white fluff on the ground there were no excuses left. By the time the day was over we had over 12 inches of snow and the boxes of forgotten family photos had all been explored. Many slides had been scanned, edited and were ready for printing.

Sedona, AZ 1967

Probably the most exciting finds were the groups from the late 50's and 60's that included many of Zeus in his high school and college days. But the best box contained photos of his and Bev's 1967 wedding in Sedona. He didn't recognize them at first and I now wonder if anyone else has ever seen these.

Gomer 1975

My emotions were varied as I worked throughout the day. Zeus' parents and Bev had passed away before we met. As I looked through the memories captured in those tiny slides I felt sadness for not having had the opportunity to know them, happiness in being able to share the memories, and pleasure in the discovery of these mementos. Strangely enough, I also felt what I can only describe as sweet envy of a woman whom I never met and the fact that she shared 25 years with my husband that I didn't.

Prints were made today, ready to be shared on Friday night when Nancy and Anna are here. And Jodi, now that you have me working on this again I expect you to come down and spend a day with me soon. We can pull out that large box of prints and find all those cute photos from the 80's when you and your sister were those adorable little granddaughters that came in the package deal when I married your grandpa.

$$$ Twelve inches of fresh snow.