We live as we learn – or was that the other way around… ;-)

Hi,

Today been a happy and a sad day. First I finally got two packages I been waiting for ages on, containing a total of 18 glass plate negatives where at least 17 of them is from the Cripple Creek district, the 18th I’m a little unsure of.

And, best of all, seller had marked them as antiques, which they are, but that lead the Customs in Norway contact me and from that I learned about a rule saying that if the items are over 100 years old, we only get to have to pay the sale tax (time being that is 25%) of 20% of the value of the items, normally we get the tax on the whole amount including the shipping… 😦

Which, in this case was a real treat, as I saved a whole lot of money!! Thankfully! And, I learned a useful thing for future buys, even better! 🙂

Now, the sad thing, my husband’s brother – Steinar is his name – has been in the hospital for about a month now, went in for a routine operation, got real ill and is in a respirator now, and have turned again from being better to go worse second time around.

The Doctor came to us on our visit today to give us an update and so on, and he also mention that we have to take into consideration what will happen if Steinar is not improving.

Every day in that bed is not a good thing, and we where told that in case his vital organs give in, hearth, lung, kidneys, they have decided to not do anything out of respect for Steinar.

As the doctor said, if he turns that bad under this very controlled environments, it is just sign from the body that “leave me alone” and we should respect that.

It is hard to learn, but it is also part of life, and so far, they are doing all they can for him, and we are very grateful for that. But it was clear he was not in a good shape today, and not sure he knew we where there or not.

Last time, while sleeping due to the induced Coma, he looked at peace and great if looking beyond all the tubes and everything, today he looked real sick. 😦

So yes, we all learn as we live, or was that living as we learn?

LOL

Take care

How one thing leads to another…

Hi,

I spent part of my day keeping busy putting images I did not win into my image database over know Cripple Creek District images, and also the one I use to keep track of my own collection.

Being a database customized out of one meant to collect books it means I spend quite much time doing manually work, and today I made it into another workload as one of the images was of two elephants in some sort of a parade going from East Myers Avenue where the trolley ran and up into the South 4th street up towards the National hotel along Bennett Avenue in Cripple Creek.

I wanted it, but I lost it as I did not want it bad enough.. But, that is beside my point here, while I was filling in info I figured, this image, I can place that exact on a location, but not knowing the street names by heart I had to open my Sanborn maps to check them out.

And, as the image has vision of a sign saying something about a Lumber yard it should be easier to date the photo also, as my 1896 (November) Sanborn gave me a lumber yard at that location but no brick structure as the photo show.
My 1900 (September) Sanborn map did have a structure there, but on that map it was marked as a Machine something.

My 1900 map said the street was named East Masonic Avenue and my 1896 map said it was named East Myers Avenue. Another photo from that collection gave the name E. Myers, so the photo has to be before my 1900 Sanborn…

Elephants and a parade, that should be easy to search, so I did enter the Colorado Old Newspaper site (Colorado’s Historic Newspaper Collection) and did a quick search on the “Morning Times” newspaper which was in Cripple Creek.

Which gave me two possible dates, one in May of 1898 and a Circus in Town with a elephant, and on in late June, early July 1899 with the “Prof. Gentry’s Dog and Pony Show”, which was to have two elephants in its show.
But, that gave also a short article, with a size given on the smallest elephant being only 42 inches high, which kinda ruled out the photo I was trying to date as there we see a small elephant that is maybe 2 meter high and a large one maybe 3,5 – 4 meter high..

Other images from the collection though lead me to still suspect this last one, but at least another photo may fit more with a circus…

Other images again may lead me to think a 4th of July Parade, so it fits more with the Gentry show…

I mention all this as it shows how I can go from just putting in a known photo from my area of love, to suddenly dig around on the Internet and all sources I have access to (in this case, only the newspaper site) just to try learn more about one image as that image can be enough special to actually be able to date and learn history from.

Like the Parade photos sold recently on eBay of the glass plate negative type which I was able to grab many of but not all as I did have to focus on the more important ones for me, railroad and mine based ones…

But, it was fun to be doing some of the stuff I love doing, digging and trying to find out more about a photo, place it, figure out what might have happen in the scene and so on.

So yes, one thing certainly leads very often to another which again leads to another and so on.

I think we can call that life. LOL

🙂

Take care

How life can be stale yet move on…

Hi,

It been nearly a year since my last Blog entry, I have not had the best year where I am located and mentally, but,  when looking back, I have had a great year for my education of the Cripple Creek District in Colorado, USA!

So many things I have been able to get hold of in terms of photographs and such! And, the last month I have got hold of – at quite a big expense though 😦 sadly enough, but it had to be done – quite many glass negatives! 🙂

And, last night, I won a view where a mine I lost a picture of just minutes into the year of 2007 was much better viewed on the one I won then the one I lost! That was great, and, it did not cost me a leg and a arm either! 🙂
In fact, with the shipping to Norway of that and the 9 other views, this particular view of a area and a mine called Caledonia Mine costs me “only” US$ 63,41 which for what I have had to pay over the years for various views up into the hundredths of dollars is quite a great deal!
Made me real happy!!
Can’t remember what I lost the other view for though… I just remember that view was taken looking more north from across Squaw Gulch, the south side so to speak, and the view from last night is looking more east, not showing Squaw Gulch at all, but I see partly the roadbed of the Florence & Cripple Creek up on a hill at left.

So, while I do feel life is standing still, stale, and nothing good really happens, and life is taking a bad turn all the time around me, in terms of my ability and chances to learn about the history of the Cripple Creek District through images, that really has not stood still at all, and I feel blessed I am able to put aside some money each month to pursue this very important part of my life, what I live and bread for, what keeps me going when things are hard here we live…

The History of the “Greatest Gold Camp on Earth” is still filled with mysteries, hopefully, I will be able to still keep on collecting and learning parts of them over the years to come!

Best wishes