A Springtime Toot

Recently my better half and I escaped south for a quick springtime toot. Mileage-wise it wasn’t very far but it was enough to let us escape the humdrum (drum, drum, drum) of daily life and act like tourists in one of our favorite places. Cancun? Jamaica? Florida? Arizona? Nahhhh…. The exciting tourist Mecca of… Manitou Springs, Colorado. 

It being the off-season but still featuring the first glimpses of warm, springlike temperatures, Manitou Springs offers, for those of you who have yet to partake, fun shopping, good food, some quintessential tourist sites, and plenty of recreational activities such that bedtime couldn’t come soon enough for these two old farts acting like we were what, in our fifties?!? As if.

For those who make the trip to the Springs area from Denver don’t make the mistake of taking I-25. Instead, hop onto Santa Fe Boulevard heading south which will turn into Highway 85 as you pass Highlands Ranch on your way to the little town of Sedalia. From Sedalia turn right (west) onto 67 for about a mile then turn left (south) onto Highway 105 towards Palmer Lake. A prettier drive along the front range you’ll be hard pressed to find and if you’re willing to approximate the 50 mph speed limit through what is in essence ranch country (still!) you might appreciate not having to white-knuckle it on the far busier roadway 10 miles to your left.

Sadly, at Palmer Lake (actually Monument) you’ll have to head back onto I-25 and head down through Colorado Springs to the exit for Highway 24 which will take you to Manitou Springs. A tip to the wise: get off Highway 24 a couple of blocks to the north onto Colorado Avenue and head west. It’s far more scenic and you’ll pass through Old Colorado City (worthy of an afternoon walk about) which became the first permanent town in the Pikes Peak region in 1859. 

Once in Manitou Springs there are plenty of lodging options from spartan to posh, mom and pop to chains, but if you’re like us lodging simply means a comfortable bed for the night as we’re out and about all day seeing the sights. One note: parking in Manitou Springs is not free and can add up especially if you park  in town but if you’re willing to walk a little you can find some less expensive  parking to the east coming into town on Manitou Avenue. Once in town there are plenty of fun shops, restaurants, and chocolate shops. And bring your camera as Manitou Springs is very colorful and photogenic for those of us in the shutterbug crowd. Here’s a quick video of our recent toot:

Manitou Springs is also right next door to the Garden of the Gods Park which offers breathtaking vistas (especially at dawn and dusk) and great hiking and biking. An early start is best as the Park gets very busy.  In the video the opening shots were taken in the Park at sunset. 

A couple of miles (2.3 to be precise) from Manitou Springs on Highway 24 you’ll find the Manitou Cliff Dwellings which we had driven by many times through the years but never stopped at until this jaunt. The ruins were relocated at the turn of the last century from near Mesa Verde to their present location to protect them from looting (this was before the passage of the Antiquities Act). There’s an interesting museum and gift shop and you have a lot of access to clamber over and through the ruins. Just like you’re a kid again! Here’s a quick snapshot of what you’ll see:

Though we were busy enough on this trip not to do them there are plenty of other touristy activities that we’ve done in the past. You can summit Pikes Peak by foot, by car, or by train, you can tackle the mighty Manitou Incline, or even visit Santa at his nearby North Pole Workshop. No matter what you choose, the Manitou Springs area is a fun escape!

Aaaahhhh, AI…

Some days I feel like the old fart that I am who’s just trying to get from one day to the next. Occasionally I manage to learn something new. Actually, most days something new creeps into my noggin as every day that I wake on this side of the (soon to be here) daisies is a revelation in itself. But I digress. Yesterday I wrote a blog that entertained the ludicrous notion of the United States becoming the 11th province of Canada which is about as ridiculous an idea as Canada becoming our 51st state. We all know that’s destined to be Puerto Rico and we all know how long they’ve been waiting.

I came to realize the impossibility of the U.S. joining our Canuck neighbors because AI (Artificial Intelligence) told me so. In writing my blog I thought how nice it would be to use AI to generate an image of a poster showing the U.S. of A as a province and… it couldn’t do it. I tried several of the AI Image Generation sites available on the internet and not one could come up with something that wasn’t almost complete gibberish. And trust me, as some readers of this blog insist on telling me, I am a master of gibberish. In my mind’s eye I envisioned something pretty simple and straightforward - take out the boundaries between the two countries, eliminate the lines between the states, and redraw the now eleven provinces southwards to show Canada’s newest pride and joy. AI couldn’t do it. No matter how detailed or simple the instructions (“Generate a poster showing the United States as Canada’s 11th province”) the results were about as ludicrous as the idea itself. 

The first image (shown at the right) shows… I know not what. California seems to still exist but the Gulf of MEXICO appears to extend  a lot farther north than it should. Perhaps it’s now the Gulf of Canada…

I’m not sure what the color scheme means. Gone (phew!) are all those pesky Red and Blue states and it does show off the Red that Canada is famous for but the gradations of browns and tans… if you can figure them out please let me know.

The next iteration basically came up with a map of the U.S. and completely eliminated Canada from the scene, though that Red color still predominates. And for everybody past, in the soon to be decimated U.S. Education system, the 12th grade it is painfully obvious that AI cannot spell. Or maybe, in its hidden brain it’s translating into some foreign language that MY pea brain doesn’t understand. I think that thing in the “Heartland” might be supposed to be the Canadian Maple Leaf but I wouldn’t know for sure as I’m more familiar with the much more spectacular Colorado Aspen. Still, the Gulf of Mexico has returned to where it should be which is nice as it means all those ICE officers won’t have to invest in new warm, wooly mittens.

I’m nothing short of a stubborn ole’ cuss (just ask my wife) so I tried a third time and this (again to the right) is what my artificial alter ego came up with. It’s nice that we have the Canadian flag but most of Canada seems to have drifted off into Hudson’s Bay which means the few remaining polar bears are going to have to accommodate some new neighbors. And again, what’s up with the spelling issue? I could make a joke about how AI was created by software developers who might be stronger candidates for a STEM award in Mathematics than a trophy from the National Spelling Bee but hey, I don’t want to offend anybody, least of all folks who actually understand what an algorithm is (which is not me). 

If you read yesterday’s blog you might recognize that this is one of the images I actually decided to use. The spelling is still suspect but it does hint at extending the provincial lines southward and seems to present the map in more of a world view (Canada first!). That darned California still seems to want to be independent. Colorado and Texas appear to now be conjoined  which we all know is laughable by any stretch of the imagination. Nice touch at the top though by trying to have some semblance of both countries colors. And for those with an incredible eye for detail the image seems to now include the good folks of Greenland as part of the new nation. The 12th province? I can hardly wait to hear the Canadian National Anthem sung with a nice Greenlandish lilt. Eh?

My patience, apparently much like Artificial Intelligence, was starting to wear thin, so I said to myself, “one more…” As they say (whoever ‘they’ is), Hope springs eternal so I clicked the ‘Generate Image’ a final time and lo and behold it came up with the image on the right. I could hardly stop laughing! Given the current state of relations between us and our Canadian neighbors I had to give AI credit for having a sense of humor. Our own elected officials can’t reach across the aisle to shake hands in friendship and Canada’s new Prime Minister is ready to ‘drop the gloves’ and fight back against Mr. Trump’s bullying. The notion of cordial relations across the border had me holding my sides and snorting through my nose. 

Though once I calmed down a tad it occurred to me that maybe, just maybe, AI knows more than I gave it credit for…

Canada the 51st State? Perhaps we’ve got that backwards…

My wife and I were planning to go on vacation this summer to Canada, specifically the Waterton Lakes area just across the border from Montana’s Glacier National Park. Mr. Trump has nixed those plans for us (thanks so much Donald) through his efforts to royally piss off our (formerly) Northern friends through his  two ridiculous initiatives of tariffs and proclaiming that Canada should become the 51st state. Americans will learn (relearn?) quickly enough that tariffs rarely benefit either side and generally only serve to raise prices taking money out of American’s purses and wallets instead of putting money in. But, given how little the average American really knows about our neighbors to the North (quick - how many States does Canada have?… If you answered ZERO you’re ahead of the curve. Canada has Provinces and Territories. Quick - how many Provinces does Canada have?…) Mr. Trump’s suggestion that those (formerly) friendly Canucks join the U.S. of A is perhaps just plain, how do you politely say it,,,,, backasswards. 

Has it ever crossed your mind that maybe, just perhaps, Canadians might think we Americans would be better off joining their country instead of vice versa? Imagine it - the U.S. of A as the…….. 11th Province of Canada! While that notion may never have crossed your mind (“America First!”), rest assured it has crossed the minds of Canadians. Back in December a columnist for the Vancouver Sun (yes, Vancouver IS in Canada and not just a suburb of Seattle) Pete McMartin wrote an excellent tongue-in-cheek (slightly) article addressing this very issue. Mr. McMartin laid out in a very Canadian version of not-so-common common sense 16 very good (and some hilarious) reasons why Mr. Trump should be petitioning Canada to let us in. Seriously, you need to read the article (a five minute read) but to give you a sense of what Mr. McMartin offers up I’ll share just one or two of his reasons why we’d be better off ending all of our sentences with “eh?”:

#2: Maple Syrup. Because the only thing in Maple Syrup is… Maple Syrup as opposed to high fructose corn syrup, water, cellulose gum, salt, caramel color, sorbic acid, sodium benzoate, sodium citrate and artificial flavors which Americans call “Pancake Syrup” - although in a pinch it can be used as transmission fluid.

#5: Because as of 2022, life expectancy in  Canada was 81.3 years, while life expectancy in the U.S. was 77.43 years. Scientists believe this discrepancy was due, in large part, to the consumption of pancake syrup.

Not all of Mr. McMartin’s reasons provide comic relief and some hit close to home (did I mention that our northern neighbors are slightly pissed off?). But all give a needed glimpse as to what the rest of the world is thinking about us. And yes, it seems, they are either becoming very afraid of us or are laughing at us. And sometimes both. So read at least this one article from a foreign land not so far away and judge for yourself - Canada as a State, or the U.S. as a Province? 

Of course, neither is going to happen. Far more likely that we’ll steal the canal from the sovereign nation of Panama or just usurp the entire country of Greenland from its citizens. Still, Mr. Trump has seriously pissed off our (former) friends to the north (when was the last time you started to “BOO!” when you heard the words “O Canada! Our home and native land…”). So coming from Colorado I’d feel as safe and welcome north of the border this year as I would visiting Texas or Alabama. But to my wife’s Canadian cousin in the Province of Quebec who is also rethinking her plans to come visit us here in Colorado please know we’d love to have you and perhaps start to re-establish those formerly friendly relations we’ve had since when,,,, the War of 1812?

Just a Happy post...

My love affair with the high mountain town of Leadville, Colorado goes back to the early 1970's after my family moved to the State. Back then Leadville was a small mining town struggling to survive. Still, for those who looked, you could catch glimpses of its more illustrious past. Founded in 1877 during the Colorado Silver Boom, Leadville was once one of the wealthiest cities in the United States. Today, Leadville is a tourist destination that still maintains its own individuality, uniqueness, and charm all at an elevation of 10,000 feet above sea level. What's not to love?

Back in 1949 two locals were trying to come up with something new for the town's winter festivities. They visited the winter carnival at Steamboat Springs where they saw horses pulling skiers, apparently at a pace that was a little too sedate for the two from Leadville. Coming home they decided

to give it a try, Leadville style, which meant racing the horse and skier at breakneck speeds down Harrison Avenue. I can only imagine what that first attempt must have looked like to the spectators along Leadville's main thoroughfare but I can attest to the thousands of people who turned out to watch this year's incarnation under bright sunny skies and temps more akin to spring than winter. For those who have never attended a Leadville Skijoring event here's a short video to get you acquainted. So saddle up your bronco, dust off your cowboy hat and polish up them spurs, and perhaps next year you can test your mettle along with the brave lads and lasses who put butts to saddle and boots to skis in this High Country adventure!

Do Americans Still Want America?

There is no doubt that Donald Trump was elected with a preponderance of the vote. So the question is, what did the American people want by their casting their ballot for him? There are hints, after just a couple of weeks of the new Administration, that what Mr. Trump wants to do may be at variance with at least some of those who voted for him thought they were going to get once he was in office. 

Mr.Trump, to put it mildly, is testing the limits of his Executive Authority. It is fair to say he is acting as if Congress no longer has any role to play and thus far his bullying and intimidation of those in his own party seems to be keeping both Senators and Representatives at bay. 

The Courts on the other hand seem to be exhibiting a modicum of independence and backbone in at least putting a hold on some of Mr. Trump’s attempts to rule unilaterally:

- the effort to end birthright citizenship: frozen

- the Office of Management and Budget spending freeze: frozen

- the buyout of Federal employees: frozen

- the destruction of U.S.A.I.D.: frozen

There are more, but you get the idea that the courts, at least in the short term, are going to stand up for the notion that we remain a nation of laws not of rulers. 

But what if Mr.Trump simply decides to ignore the courts in the same way that he is ignoring Congress?

Our new Vice President, J.D. Vance,  wrote on X that “judges aren’t allowed to control the Executive’s legitimate power.” Who, Mr.Vance, determines what legitimate power the Executive branch has? The courts, Mr.Vance, the courts. Under our current Constitution that is their role. 

But what if Mr. Trump simply decides to ignore the courts whose job it is to act as a check and balance on the other two branches of American government? Disobedience of a Federal Court order weakens the credibility of the Federal judiciary, challenges its status as an independent branch of government, and undermines the rule of law. Who is there to enforce a Federal Court order? At a very high level, the Executive branch itself. Thus the conundrum - if the Executive branch itself doesn’t wish to abide by a court ruling then where are we?

On a more micro-level it falls to the U.S. Marshals Service to enforce the order of a Federal Court. The USMS is actually our nation’s oldest Federal law enforcement agency (1789) and is an agency within the Department of Justice which is headed by the Attorney General who is appointed by… the President. The conundrum continues: our Chief Executive appoints the head of the agency ultimately tasked with enforcing the order the President doesn’t wish to comply with. And lest we forget, the Federal Judiciary in the form of the Supreme Court has already ruled that the President has immunity for his own official acts.

All this aside, Mr. Trump has the early approval of approximately half of the American people. Perhaps they truly wished for transformational change. If Mr. Trump continues to test the time-tested boundaries of his power and ultimately decides to ignore them then the American people will have a decision to make - do they still want America? At least the America envisioned by the founding fathers? Or are they that tired of a nation that has lasted nearly two hundred and fifty years that they are willing to discard it?  Mr. Trump is already pushing to change the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America; what should we call that big gaping land mass between Mexico and Canada that will better represent our future selves? 

Make no mistake. I believe the American people should get what they voted for. Over the next four years we’ll see if Mr. Trump delivers. He doesn’t really need to as, under the current system, he can’t run again so he isn’t even beholden to those who put him back in office. Still, all actions have consequences and so too do elections. 

As my mother used to tell me: be careful son, what you wish for… you might just get it.

The Best Teacher I Ever Had...

It's been a while since my feet last graced the hallways of Littleton Senior High School. I've come to recognize that I'm an experiential learner in that I learn best by doing so in the classroom I was an average student in most classes. Still, I had some great teachers who managed to bring the subject matter to life for me. Social Studies, English, and History were my favorites. One teacher, Mr. Armstrong, was God's gift to English Literature and he had such an impact on my developing brain that I can still recite passages from Chaucer - in Middle English to boot : "Whan that Aprille with his shoures soote..." (when that April with its sweet showers...). For all the good that has done me in the last 50 years.

Looking back on a lifetime of learning I'd have to say, if I'm honest, that perhaps the best teacher I had was Mr. Squat. I first became aware of Mr. Squat in the aforementioned High School in the Denver suburbs during my freshman year. Back then I didn't know what I didn't know and Mr. Squat made sure I appreciated that fact by constantly reinforcing upon me the astronomical level of my lack of knowledge. Mr. Squat, unlike my other teachers who tried to fill my noggin with facts and figures, did his best to fill my head with an awareness of what I did not know and thereby instilled in me a curiosity that has remained unsated to this day. 

By my Senior year I was on a first name basis with Mr. Squat and along with a few other likeminded students were encouraged to refer to him by his given name of Diddly. Diddly was not young when I first met him but he has aged remarkably well and I have kept close tabs on him as the years have flown by. His impact on my life has been enormous and as I have grown older I have come to recognize that the world has two types of people in it - those who have been fortunate enough, and those who have been unfortunate enough to have not known, Diddly Squat. 

Those of us fortunate to have known Diddly are well aware of our shortcomings when it comes to knowing everything there is to know. Far be it for us to tell others how to think and act as we're still figuring it out for ourselves. At best we might have caught a glimmer of what's right for us but as Diddly would remind us that might not be right for anyone else, let alone everyone else. More importantly, for every thing we think we know there's two or three, or a hundred things we have yet to learn. In short, as Mr. Squat would gently remind us, we don't have all the answers.

Increasingly I come across, or perhaps am just more aware of, those who have not been fortunate enough to have met Diddly. They seem under the impression that they know what is right for not only themselves but for me and others as well. How I should act, what I should do, even what I should think. They might not even know me, have never even met me, but still they have the correct answers to all of my life's questions.

The fact that I was but a middling student in High School did not quell my love of learning. College simply reinforced on me what Mr. Squat had taught me about how much remained to be learned.  Working my way through all the -ism's (Communism, Capitalism, Racism, Fundamentalism, Fascism, Socialism, Baptism, Skepticism etc.) and -cracies (Democracy, Autocracy, Aristocracy, Theocracy, Meritocracy, Mediocracy, etc.) raised more questions than answers, much as Diddly had said they would. I found my view of the world flip-flopping back and forth, to and fro several times. Thanks to Diddly this was not wholly unanticipated. What I did become certain of was to be leery of those whose  minds were set in concrete, who professed to having all the answers, of knowing what was best for all of us. 

For most of my adult life I have lived in a live-and-let-live culture that seemed to be at the heart of what I thought it meant to be an American. There were always those who wanted to dictate our thoughts and actions but by and large they were in the minority. I was hopeful that as the years went by more folks would become acquainted with Diddly but it seems the more open some have become with acknowledging that they don't know everything the more others have seen it as their role to dictate to the rest of us their individual beliefs. Diddly has perhaps spent too much time in his dotage sitting on the sidelines being quiescent. Perhaps I'll seek him out once more, take him out to lunch and reminisce about days gone by. If you haven't met Mr. Squat as of yet in your life's journey you're more than welcome to join us...

“The times, they are a-changin’”

Wednesday had dawned just a tad cooler. 48 degrees was lower than the normal average of 54 but the day was destined to be typical of Southern California in the Springtime with temps warming into the low 70’s. Winds in Long Beach were light and no rain was in the forecast; in short, just another normal day in paradise. Not quite so normal for a young Canadian couple who would welcome their first-born, a baby girl, into the world as the sun made its way across the zenith. On what was just another Wednesday to the rest of the world, they named their daughter Sophie who as I write this has been the love of my life, and my wife, going on 35 years. 

Bringing their baby girl home from Long Beach Memorial Hospital the young family quickly became ensconced in their new home. As for many young couples it was not an easy life but the parents worked hard and within a couple of years the family had grown with the addition of a son. Sophie attended Catholic School and was a typical SoCal kid who especially loved the beach and the water. 

Eventually the family would make the move over the mountains to Colorado where Sophie would graduate from Columbine High School before pursuing Bachelors and Masters degrees in her quest to become a teacher. Sophie and I married and like her parents before we tried as best we could to build a life together. It wasn’t perfect, life never is, but we had our love for each other. Now retired, we relish the time we spend together. We still live in the first home we bought together all those years ago. What most would consider a ‘starter’ home has been our castle and our haven through good times and bad. Never ones to pursue excess it has simply been enough, enough for a good and happy life together. 

I had written in one of my recent blogs just before the election that, regardless of who won, the world as we knew it would change. They say that all politics is local and within just two days of Mr. Trump being sworn in the winds of change are swirling in some anticipated but still unwelcome and very personal ways. The executive order regarding birthright citizenship signed by ‘our’ new President on Monday has my wife fretting over whether she is still even an American. Simply put, Mr. Trump, with a stroke of his pen, seeks to end the guarantee (thanks to the 14th Amendment) that children born in the United States of America are citizens by imposing his personal caveats on who is, and who is not ‘American’. My wife is now in limbo, according to Mr. Trump, simply because she was born to Canadian citizens starting out on their own American Dream on that warm and sunny day in 1966. 

And her brother too. And what of her brother’s children, all born in the U.S. of A? If, with the stroke of a pen, the father is no longer ‘American’ then what does that mean for the kids? How far do the ripples go?

In my (American) heart of (American) hearts I’m optimistic that that third guardrail of the American system, the Judiciary, will quickly put an end to this foolishness. Mr. Trump told us during the election exactly what he was going to do and he is quickly following through. Whether the courts will support and uphold the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (which Mr. Trump just swore to preserve, protect, and defend) is not guaranteed  If they do not, then perhaps the America so many ‘Americans’ thought they believed in is well and truly gone. 

With apologies to Bob Dylan, the times, they are a-changin.