Out of the Frying Pan

The boy in the balloon

Larimer County Sheriff hits the "Bullseye". When the link goes away, just choose "Up, Up and Away" from the Bulls-Eye issue drop down menu.

Weather knees

One of my acquisitions in London last year was a hardy set of weather knees. Warm, even hot, weather is just fine with the knees. But they are apparently exquisitely sensitive to changes; Wednesday the knees announced their forecast long before I heard what meteorologists expected of Thursday. I begin to see the point of the swimming pool life in sunny (and hot) Arizona.

The downpour in Denver yesterday was like driving through a car wash. I suspect it was the worst I've ever seen which is saying something, coming from a Portland, Oregon native.

A day in Denver

Actuaries who write coverage for Jay Cutler might want to put together that the Bears play preseason in Denver on the 30th and that Cutler felt led yesterday to deliver himself of this wisdom: Denver's on like a 6 and Chicago's on like a 9. The boy sounds like he thinks Broncos defense hasn't improved under the Patriots West regime. They might feel provoked to show him otherwise.

My new go-to to-go burger is Good Times. Perfectly cooked 100% natural beef and fantastic toppings. I've seen the storefronts for years, but it took a personal recommendation to propel me through the drive-through. I love it and I think Mr Plain Cheeseburger, Mustard Only will like it, too. He won't go for the toppings, of course, but my guess is that he'll agree this is the tastiest ever fast-food burger. I'd link to their site, but it's all Flash.

Annual eye exam today, which is less of a pain than it used to be. For those who remember the weapon-like surgical steel with which eye docs used to approach in order to measure eye pressure (glaucoma test), that little puff of air is a wonder. I forgo the opportunity to look at photos of the inside of my eye, but will pass on for folks in the Denver area that Dr Liz Erley comes recommended not only by my highly recommended internist, but also by me. She's just great. I'm having the lenses done again at Europtics, a great store in Cherry Creek.

Usually the car radio is set to 104.3, KKFN. Jim Rome is usually entertaining and often has great guests and most of the local on-air personalities are knowledgeable and likable. But today I finally made the drive-time switch to 850AM because Dave Logan goes down a lot more smoothly than the increasingly shrill Sandy Clough.

Clough is hacked off at Josh McDaniels' management style, especially McDaniels' refusing to be more "open" with the press and even at the distance the press is kept from training camp sidelines. He snivels and whines that Josh "owes" more than that. Guess what, Sandy? Josh doesn't owe the press, i.e. you, or "the fans" (whom you constantly invoke and whom -- guess what? -- you do NOT represent) a thing. What's it gunna take to get you off a dead horse, buddy? KKFN, what's it gunna take for you to take care of the dead horse jockey?

Clough doesn't like McDaniels for what sound increasingly like personal reasons. It sounds like Old Fart bleating about Young Upstart and it grates. If I want to listen to bellyaching and carping, there are political talk shows that do it more amusingly than Screechy Sandy.

You know that big clean-up ahead?

We're in the middle of it. Yes, on the Lord's Day, but I really do think that this qualifies as an ox in the ditch.

Status updates

• New ISP has d/l speed of 5.96 mps and up of 0.74, both of which I can certainly live with until optical fibre gets here in the next few months.
• Floors almost done, though dustier process than I thought. Big clean ahead before...
• Furnace and A/C and, uh, air cleaner get installed on Monday.

It occurs to me that we've accidentally ended up doing quite a lot of remodeling within just a few weeks. Cha-cha-ching.

Don't bike after dark, kids

From the TC's traffic twit at 10:06 PM on July 4th: TCtrafficreport55th/Diagonal- Fire dept and ambulance responding to a bicyclist down, possible broken nose.

A cold wind

A cold north wind blows
and we have rain.

The rain falls on the just
and the unjust,
but alas, blowing in from the north,
it does not fall
on the plants on the patio.

Killing things (or The Millers and the Mortgage)

It's Miller Time out here on the Front Range, and it isn't what you're thinking. This is an outbreak year.

Love the fans...

...but that lamp has GOT to go.

How it's going

Borrowing the words of the Reverend Dorsey: I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.

Things are improving slowly.

Wow!

I guess this is really happening, thanks to Dr Anna Ursyn.

Not snow

Tonight a silvery moon makes it look like snow has fallen on the roofs and grasses. But it is only moonlight.

Smoking in the backyard

In Boulder. Yesterday's Chinook wasn't especially rowdy -- gusts just over 70 mph, I think. It was sparks from downed power lines that made trouble.

Big wind

When I came back into the house a minute ago from unplugging the Christmas lights, I had to lean against the door in order to close it.

Out of synch

Right now I want to be seeing bright green tips of bulbs poking through the soil, not snow and Christmas lights.

A little snow, a very little moisture

This much snow



makes this much water... except that lots of it will evaporate before it makes it into the ground.

At 26 degrees

Tonight it is warmer than it has been for several days. The furnace repairman left a little while ago. "Don't go cold," he said, by way of telling me that he would be available, if needed.

It was a small enough check I wrote. Still, I thought: "Some people must go cold. Some people must."

Snow angel

In the middle of the day, it was only 1F (-17C). Even though only six inches or so of snow covered the sidewalk, regretfully I admitted to myself it would not get shoveled unless some entrepreneurial 12 year old came to the door. No one came. And yet, when I looked out half a hour ago, the walk along this entire side of the street had been cleared.

Skepticism or denial?

If I could believe how tired I am, I'd have to lie to myself about it.

Somebody didn't think this through

One understands their choice of words, but a different phrase should have been constructed as the tagline for a local house painting company: The full spectrum of quality and service!

A taste of Colorado for your brownies

Looking for a little Rocky Mountain high in your brownies? Swap out the vegetable oil for bacon grease. (Nobody could make this stuff up.)

Longmont plays chicken

It hadn't occurred to me that it would be illegal to keep chickens in this little town, but then again, it wouldn't occur to me to do it. If the council changes the ordinance, I wonder how many of our neighbors, wedged alongside us on 5000 square foot lots, are going to start playing farm.

Home, home on the Front Range

A beautiful panorama at Wikimedia Commons. The link is to the description page, which shows a small version of the image; n.b. the full version is pretty big.

Troubled shooting

Companies pay a fair bit each month to be on Tom Martino's list. That's a business expense, friends, and no business that's still in business ever failed to pass along its expenses.

Watch me, Colorado says

How do you go from 82F on the last day of April to snow on the ground the first day of May?

Egads

It's great to be home, but YIKES is 3 AM early for a wakeup call. For some of us, that's less a "wake up" call than a "not asleep yet? Good!" call.

Return

This morning I'm still very tired, but not as completely exhausted as I have been since Friday night's Unfortunate Event. There's a lot to do away from the house today, so we'll see how it goes... Oh. I've made a start on something else.

The gargoyle's St. Patrick's Day

Wise words from Mr T

If the Lord God had not wanted them smitten, He would not have made them Philistines.

Never you mind the context in which that arose.

At the toothbrush demolition derby

So it's late Wednesday night -- maybe 12:30. I've brushed my teeth, etc and have on the night light, settled in for a little light reading until drowsiness kicks in.

Suddenly there's a sound like a giant drill or cement mixer. I startle, make a jerky little jump-hop on the mattress. No, wait. The sound is more like a jackhammer. It's the kind of racket that accompanies demolition. It's demolition, definitely demolition.

So it MUST be outside, right? But I get up to investigate anyway. In that "erm, it's dark and late and this makes me a little nervous" frame of mind, I decide to go look out the bathroom windows.

But as I open the bathroom door, I can tell that the sound is IN the bathroom. Apprehensively I turn on the light, follow my ears to the vanity, and can't see anything that would account for it. No gushing water, thank God, and no smoke anywhere.

And then I notice that my toothbrush, which I had neglected to put back in the charger, has turned itself on and is rattling the counter and sink and everything in sonic reach to beat the band. Or maybe it thinks it IS the band.

I turned it off. It came back on.

I turned it off and placed it back in the charger, turned off. It turned itself back on and began rattling everything even worse.

I took it out of the charger and turned it off. It turned itself on.

I tried to find ways and use various implements to force the switch into "off" and keep it there. Every time it would turn itself on, having wriggled free like a restive baby, and rattle on.

I turned it off... etc etc etc until I finally thought -- well, if I can get the head off, that'll shut it up. Even on these cheap ($14 or so) electric tooth brushes, the heads are supposed to be replaceable.

But maybe that's just marketing, because the head stoutly resisted being separated from the body. Well, I guess it would.

The end of it was smashing the whole business with my "good" hand and left foot. THAT takes care of the head, I thought grimly.

And still the thing would not shut up.

Finally I just brought the bloody stump of the thing (well, not really bloody, thank God -- I did not hurt myself in the operation) to bed and let it run itself out, muffled by the flannel duvet, while I returned to my reading. Only took a half hour or so for the thing to die, die, die. 

Boy howdy, there are some things a person just does not plan for.

Treat

Mr T took off a day and gave me a big treat: a drive I'd never be able to make by myself right now up to Rocky.

January wildflower

Babe in the woods

Upon reflection

Road closed

Tree and me

Cast system

Guess not...

Posting very light; about the wrist, eh... Anyway. At first annoyed and then a little worried, just now I looked and looked for the faucet responsible for making that irregular dripdrip drip drip dripdripdrip drip dripdrip noise. Eventually it dawned on me: it's 46F! Ice in the gutters is melting, even on the house's north side at almost midnight. It reminded me of something. We moved from the maritime Northwest (i.e., Noah had little on us, including a determinedly ungodly society) to the Front Range at the beginning of the drought. Eighteen months or so later, one afternoon a few days after a snowstorm I heard a sound in the neighborhood I simply couldn't place: water running in the gutters. I had heard that sound most days, by far, of my entire life -- I was almost 50 at the time -- and it had taken such a short time for me to forget it, altogether. This place is Heaven, right? The "guess not" is that I guess it wasn't a faucet :)

Thumb still up

New blue, anyway :)

The Mayor Koch question

Remember him? The guy who had the gumption, during his walks around NYC, to call out to all and sundry: "How'm I doin'?" So how'm I doin'? Better. No more Motrin, for one thing. It's great stuff, but I can't think it's intended for long term use. The one-arm thing is getting old, but it has been an oddly wrapped gift. This general labor slowdown has been, to be completely honest, a great relief. The cast might come off next week, but I know things aren't "right" yet. The first real snow of the year is here and I might post a photo or two later, but that will be ALL for the keyboard and me today.

Last week, when it was snowing

Today it was 72.

Yesterday (72F) has gone

Today it is snowing. That's home on the Front Range.

At Garfield Park Conservatory

This show by Niki de Saint Phalle. The conservatory was a surprise. We went as a default from the botanic gardens up in Highland Park because the weather turned cold today. And we almost didn't go because it looks unimpressive from the street. But the parking lot had a free space or few, so off we trotted. And it was just glorious. Photos to follow. If you're in Chicago before the end of the month, dress warmly and go!

Cathedral music

There's a new home page for the music program at Denver's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. The renovation has scotched the music series this Fall, but the holiday program on December 16 is something I'm already looking forward to. Last year's was wonderful.

Will they stay down on the farm?

At the intersection of CO 93 and CO 72 at noon today.

The end of Summer, 2007

Colorado in glory River of gold Gold rush on the Front Range Longer shadow If you went out to the woods today...

The road to the top is closed for the season

...so we went as high as is still open on Mount Evans, which is Summit Lake, elevation 12,830 feet. As these pictures suggest, at that height you're not too far below the clouds. Those are the tops of the Front Range you're looking out at, not merely some foothills across the way.

Last night at Shirley's place

Something else to love about Longmont

A lot passes us by here in Longmont. Coming from Portland six years ago, it was a bump and I didn't land very gracefully. But just today as I was pulling through an intersection I noticed something, not for the first time. I'd judged incorrectly that the green light cycle was a minute or so away from my lane, so rather than taking my usual last glance at the traffic that is supposed to have stopped before proceeding expeditiously through the light, I was five seconds or so late in stepping on the gas pedal.

Here's what I noticed: nobody honked. That's pretty nice.

Requiescat

Mike Elgin has died.

Happy Easter

At the Cathedral this morning. Notice the pink cherry blossoms. They'll last longer in the cool, right?

It's tropical, but it isn't paradise

Friday at the Boettcher Conservatory

Waiting for the melt

Getting your ducks in a row

Rogers Grove at dusk.

Tomatillo

Snow is back in the forecast, but not until Monday, so tonight Cathirine and Fran and I drove over to Fort Lupton to try Santiago's. It put me in mind of things to do with tomatillos, such as taking pictures of them. Recently Fran told me that four of her six brothers went off to -- and returned from -- World War II. The services would not take one of the boys on account of his heart condition (he died recently, in his 90s) and the other boy was already in the seminary. She has a sister, soon to turn 100, who is a sister, as well: two vocations in one family. That used not to be terribly unusual; these days, it is something remarkable.