A Classic...

 Candidly when I think of great day trips from my home in Denver Pueblo, Colorado isn't top of mind. But maybe it should be. 

Last week I was listening to Colorado Public Radio as I often do and they had a short blurb about an event happening the upcoming weekend in southern Colorado. Since it involved bicycling the story got my attention. Writing this today on another wet, cold, and dreary Wednesday (which seems to be the norm this April) I thought I'd share some of the sights and sounds from the Pueblo Classic, a new bike racing event that was all set to debut last year until something called COVID got in the way. So this year's event turned out to be the true inaugural and the southern Colorado Spring weather along with some warm Pueblo hospitality made for a wonderful breakaway (cyclists will appreciate that metaphor) from the humdrum of daily life in the ho hum Denver 'burbs. 

To most Denverites Pueblo probably conjurs up driving through a somewhat economically depressed industrial town along a stretch of I-25 running past exits that look too much like any-other-exit along any-other-highway in the U.S. The blur of big box stores and fast food offerings whipping by at 65 mph dulls you to the point where you'd most likely miss the single exit that takes you to downtown Pueblo. Much to my chagrin, I now realize I've been missing out on a Colorado gem. 

On a quiet Sunday morning we made the drive south leaving our home in Littleton at around 7 and arriving in Pueblo by 9 a.m. Parking was no problem and we had a short walk to the downtown area where the Pueblo Classic was just getting underway. There were no crowds (locals told us that Puebloans are not early risers come a Sunday morning) and we were immediately taken with how lovely downtown Pueblo is. The tree-lined main street (actually South Union Avenue) features an eclectic blend of quaint specialty shops (how about the "Bite Me Bakery"?) Arts venues ("Neon Alley which bills itself as the "greatest assembly of neon art west of Times Square and east of the Las Vegas Strip") and lots of unique eating opportunities some of which offer outdoor dining along downtown Pueblo's Riverwalk, a one mile long section of the Arkansas River that was developed into a beautiful park-like area 20 years ago and is now a wonderful place for a stroll, a run, or an outside festival (once COVID ends). 

But I digress. This day we were there for the Pueblo Classic Bike Race featuring 600 of the regions top cyclists (men/women, novice to pro, college teams - they had the full spectrum of riders covered) who would race around a 7/10's of a mile circuit course around the downtown area. In cycling parlance this is called a Criterium but for spectators its perhaps the best venue to watch a bicycle race. The individual races lasted between 50 minutes and an hour allowing spectators to leisurely walk the course while watching cyclists (as many as 60 at at time) whiz by at speeds topping 30 mph. 

I wasn't particularly focused on who won each of the races. For me a criterium is simply a beautiful representation of people in motion at their very best. Bike jerseys are colorful  as a functional item (they help motorists watch out for those pesky bikes along the roads thus keeping the cyclists safe)  but when you have a large group of riders, each wearing their own team's jersey,  it makes for a flowing stream of technicolor images flying by in a constantly changing river of color. I've put together some of the sights and sounds of Sunday's event and hope you enjoy the spectacle that is a bicycle criterium as much as I do. Oh, and the next time you're flying south through Pueblo think about taking Exit 98B and heading a couple of blocks over to the downtown area. You might be glad you did!

Brave new world

What do you think the world is going to look post-pandemic?  Next with Kyle Clark on Denver’s channel 9 last night was asking the question as to how would we even know when the pandemic is ‘over’. They didn’t provide a particularly clear answer and I guess the fact is no one really knows. It’s all uncharted terrain. Even though there was a pandemic 100 years ago the world is such a different place today that parallels between then and now perhaps don’t apply. 

One thing I’m fairly certain of is that we’d all better hold on tight to our wallets and purses. The signs are already out there - ‘they’ (and there's a lot of 'them' in 'they') are coming for our money. From travel to housing to the gas pump the inflation that the Federal Reserve has been worrying about for so long seems to be peeking it’s ugly head from around the COVID corner. I’m retired and like a lot of folks in my position aspired to spend part of my golden years seeing the world. Mind you, I’m not wealthy by any stretch so we’re not talking round the world cruises or anything like that but when we come across a trip that interests us and is also affordable my wife and I are all set to pack our bags. We use one of the travel agents at AAA of Colorado and over the years Angie has helped us take some fantastic trips at some great prices. Last January we cruised from New York to San Francisco through the Panama Canal for the exorbitant sum of $900 per person. If you can beat that for a three week trip please, please, let me know.

We’ve stayed in touch with Angie during the pandemic and we generally trust her counsel on all things travel-related. She’s been telling us to watch for some great deals as travel restrictions begin to ease but I’m beginning to second guess her. From what I’m seeing it appears the travel industry is going to try cover a year's worth of lost revenue by the tried and true method of raising prices as high as demand will allow. Now, I understand that that’s the American Way - charge what the market will bear, supply and demand and all that. But just saying that post-pandemic it might get a tad out of hand. Note to Cruise Industry if you're remotely listening - if you want my money don't give me a credit for a future trip if my boat don't sail due to COVID - give me MY money back. We'd have booked several trips by now in anticipation of the end of the pandemic but are not willing to extend interest-free loans to our favorite cruise lines if the trip gets cancelled.

My wife and I are avid cyclists and have taken bike trips all over the country which is why I actually started this blog back in May 2016. Thanks to Google algorithms we’re inundated with ads hawking the next great bike adventure and in the last couple of weeks these ads have reached a crescendo as warm weather arrives everywhere except in Colorado which seems to have entered the next Ice Age (snowed another six inches last night - April 19th). The lure of uncrowded pavement certainly is attractive but the prices seem to have gone through the roof. One four day trip pedaling the back roads of Vermont weighed in at $4,700 per person. If you think that is a good deal, or remotely affordable for the average Joe or Jane then you can stop reading right here. I grew up in New England and have cycled most of the routes that part of the country offers (through rain, sun, and snow) and I'd be hard pressed to recall riding by any accommodations worthy of upwards of $1,000 per day, per person.

Maybe I didn't read the fine print - perhaps that price includes a brand new Gangl or Orbea or Cervelo road bike... Hmmm, then I might reconsider! With the price of high end road bikes pushing $9,000 and up, it probably doesn't, but that's another story.

Then there's housing. Like many of you we constantly get unsolicited offers from companies offering to buy our house. The prices they are offering just keep going up and up and up some more. So we look at each other and say, "what if we did sell? Where would we go? Let's go look at model homes!"  

One of our local cycling routes takes us through Chatfield State Park and out to Titan Road. Over the last year we've watched a new Shea Homes development called 'Solstice' rise from the once-barren ranch land. At first the signs advertised "From the $400's!" which was enough for us to pull in and take a look at the beautiful models. And beautiful they truly are. Now they're building ranches that also originally were advertised as from the "high $400's". For us the main attraction is the location - right outside a State Park - so we've kept an eye out. But alas, the prices continue to skyrocket as fast as fireworks on the fourth of July. Given what companies like Open Door are offering for our current abode we once would have been able to afford one of these new homes and actually pocket a little cash from the deal. Then it reached the point where it would be a lateral move - sell our house and pay the same for the new one. Now to make a move to this wonderful community we'd have to assume a hefty new mortgage on a new, smaller, home. I know, I know, woe is me.

Part of the reason new home prices are going up so fast, apart from incredibly high demand, is the price of lumber has gone up eight-fold in the last year. 2x4 studs for example, which are at the heart of any stick-built house, that used to cost as little as $2 are now going for anywhere from $7.25 to $10.82 each (at Home Depot). And there are a lot of 2x4 studs in a home - approximately 580 in a 3,200 square foot house. Something about the Pine Beetle killing one out of every three trees in British Columbia - a classic case of overdemand outpacing dwindling resources. My college economics professor would be proud. Yes, she would. 

I could go on and on about other things rising in price (gas prices are up 22.5% over last year and expected to climb to 3 year high this summer) but unless you're living in a bubble you already know this firsthand. Just when I got my second vaccine shot and was starting to feel good about the future reality has to slap me upside the head. And that new reality is apparently going to come with a very hefty price tag attached. Now, where'd I put my wallet....

Ouch...

The needle only looked like it was more suited for a horse. In reality it couldn't have been longer than, say, maybe 10 inches. And when the nice nurse said "On the count of three!" but jabbed me at "Two!" I guess my yelp of "Ouch" was excusable. 

My 'Fauci Ouchie', as my wife refers to it, means I've now joined the 121 million of my fellow Americans who have received at least the first Covid vaccination shot. Which means I'm a 24 percenter! My wife and her mother had received their first and second shots almost a month ago so I'm a little late to the party but at least I got my first dose in time for Governor Polis to announce he's relinquishing control of most Covid restrictions back to the County level which means the free-for-all is about to begin. Wear a mask? Social distance? Wash your hands? Breathe deeply, mask-free, at a Red Rocks concert this summer? (C'mon, haven't you dearly missed the clouds of sweet-smelling ganja wafting over you and 9,500 of your closest friends?) It will all depend on the county in which you reside. 

I get my second dose come April after about three weeks between shots. My wife, who was born in Long Beach, California (I think that qualifies her as an 'American', at least it used to) has relatives up in the still-frozen tundra of Canada who are being told they'll have to wait four months between the first and second poke in the arm. The very scientific rationale behind the extended wait? Simply put, Canada doesn't have enough vaccine to go around. Yet down here some 30% of Americans are telling pollsters (for whatever that's worth) that they don't plan on getting the shot at all. Maybe we can send their unused vaccine up to the Great White North where it might be more appreciated. 

In my household the great debate has now begun - after getting vaccinated do we suddenly return to 'normal'? As in stop wearing masks, stop socially distancing, return to the gym in person instead of taking those wonderful online yoga and workout classes? I'm not generally one to follow the crowd which in this case seems more than ready to proclaim victory over the virus. Oddly reminiscent of former President George W. Bush announcing "Mission Accomplished!" regarding the war in Iraq aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in May, 2003. Of course history had something else in mind as the Iraq war dragged on for y e a r s beyond his momentous announcement. 

All we're getting right now seem to be mixed messages. Saturday, when I got my shot, they gave me a packet that said keep doing what we've been doing (at least most of us) for the better part of a year and counting. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) website tells me once I'm fully vaccinated I can "gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask". Yahoo! I can go to my favorite restaurant again! All I have to worry about is whether all the other unmasked diners are also fully vaccinated or simply part of the 50% of Americans who have chosen not to wear masks when out in Public. 

The numbers aren't much help, at least not in supporting the "Mission Accomplished" argument. We're still seeing roughly 54,000 new cases per day and more than 1,000 of us continue to die every 24 hours. We've already lost 542,000 so at our current pace we'll top 800,000 by the end of the year. I know, I know - if more people get vaccinated then that bodes well for the number of new cases and deaths continuing to diminish and here's hoping that's what happens. I guess a part of me thinks its prudent to wait until we see that actually occur before hanging up the 'Welcome! Open for Business!' sign.

The John Hopkins University of Medicine (not exactly known as a hotspot of "Fake News!") tracks the Covid outbreak for the currently most affected countries. Of the twenty nations considered 'most affected' 17 (including the U.S.) are trending in the wrong direction. For the U.S. data the only thing that makes it look like we've dramatically improved by comparison is the outrageously huge spike caused by holiday travel and socializing in November and December. Take out that anomaly and tell me if you think we've actually made any progress:

John Hopkins University
of Medicine

So, what to do? Prudence versus Pandemic weariness. Personal versus economic health? Caring about others versus your own self-interest? Choices too many to list.

The Denver Post had an article yesterday titled "14 Lessons for the Next Pandemic" asking scientists, public health experts and health advocates about mistakes, missed chances and oversights — and how to prepare for the next pandemic. It's a good, though sobering, look back at a year none of us wishes to repeat. One of the folks, Dr. Reed Tuckson, co-founder of the Black Coalition Against COVID19, summed up much of what I've wondered about in this and prior blogs:

"Many people had an awakening to the people who keep society going forward, and whom we take largely for granted.

But if you can discount the essential worker — the African American, the Latino, the Chinese immigrant who delivers your food — then think how easily you can discount any other human life.

If you are a person who thinks that you have a right not to wear a mask, that philosophy cascades: I couldn’t give a darn about the cashier in the supermarket or the train driver because I don’t care about anyone. I will go into the bar, and I will do what I will do.

This pandemic has shown us who we are, at a level of clarity that is shocking to most people.

It’s hard to imagine there are that many people in our country who really don’t care about others.

That is the scariest thing, it takes your breath away and you can diagnose everything else that is happening through that lens.

That you could tolerate 500,000 deaths in less than a year is incomprehensible to me, that we are a nation that is so callous."

And if that's not quite enough, zookeepers are now discovering that we - humans - are now giving the Covid virus to animals under our care. So far, confirmed coronavirus cases include gorillas, tigers and lions at zoos; as well as domestic cats and dogs. 

To quote Mr. Twain, "The more I get to know people, the more I love my dog." Like I said at the beginning: Ouch.

How are those muscles?

O.K. already. My apologies to the weather Gods. I'd burn my snow shovel as a sacrifice but this being March I don't think I'm quite done with it.

How many times did you have to shovel? If you're one of those with a snow blower how many times did you have to clear the clogged chute of that wet, heavy snow that acted more like building material - concrete comes to mind - than the heavenly light and fluffy powder that Colorado is famous for.

It being Tuesday here's hoping all those folks who got stranded in their cars in the wilds of E-470 and Pena Boulevard have all been rescued. And here's hoping that all those in line at the Subway sandwich shop at DIA finally got fed since it apparently was the only fine dining option available for stranded travelers at the height of the fourth largest storm in Denver history. Welcome to Colorado folks. And finally to all those in Northern Colorado who lost power (a.K.A. HEAT) during the storm, Welcome to Texas.

Me and mine spent our time huddling in front of the fire (a real wood-burning fire mind you, not one of those natural gas look-a-likes without the heat courtesy of Public Service). Even our Suburban Huskies joined us on the couch rather than partake of the normal Husky habit of curling up like a ball and getting buried under a nice insulating blanket of snow. Oh well, more's the merrier. Getting them off the couch to go out and help shovel snow was more problematic. Maybe they're a wee bit spoiled by overindulgent doggie parents.

But boy, how about when the flakes stopped falling and the sun came out? There's no bluer sky anywhere like in Colorado after a storm passes. And you can tell it's finally Spring because the temps rebounded, the snow has started melting, and a Jefferson County plow actually made an appearance on our street. I'm truly thankful, as are all of my neighbors, for your fine and most effective efforts to move all the snow we had just shoveled back into our driveways. But then it's our own fault as we really didn't know you were coming since we hadn't seen you since, like, last March.

Anyway, it really was beautiful after the storm so I've put together some of my favorite images  in the video below. So put down that shovel, curl up on the couch with your favorite pet, and enjoy. This being March and this being Colorado the odds are we'll get to experience the wonders of Snowmagedon again real soon...

You can blame me...

If we (the Denver, Colorado area) get dumped on with snow over the next two days you can blame me. I take 100%, full and total, no excuses, responsibility.

I was at Lowe’s yesterday with my beloved better half. And there they were. All lined up in gleaming reds and yellows, from small to huge, each whispering until reaching a cacophony of fever pitch: “Buy me!”  

I’m talking snow blowers folks. Big manly (sorry ladies) behemoths of snow gurgitating mechanical muscle just waiting to get out in this weekend’s coming MEGASTORM. I could finally ditch that old whimpy shovel that has stood me in good stead for all these many years. But no. I resisted. I knew, in my heart of hearts, that should I buy one of these wondrous creations that I’d spend Saturday and Sunday looking out the window watching RAIN fall from the sky instead of the white stuff. Or worse yet, the storm would completely miss us and it would be another balmy March weekend spent riding my bike and gardening with my wife. I am, if nothing else,  a diehard believer in Mr. Murphy and his Laws of contradiction. So, if you’re out there flinging snow a foot high over your shoulder tomorrow or the next day, it’s on me. My stubborn refusal to give a good home to one of these beautiful machines has brought snowmageddon upon you.

I mention gardening because that is what took me to Lowe’s on a still sunny and somewhat warm Thursday. More specifically, that is what took my wife to Lowe’s on a mission. I was only the instrument of her arrival. You see, this time of year the buds on my wife’s lilacs are starting to swell and turn green, crocus are starting to peek above the dirt for the first time in months, and before you know it I’ll be dragging out that other marvel of mechanical engineering called the lawnmower. When my wife gets the gardening itch it’s lead, follow, or get out of the way. And lets be honest, it’s just follow because if there was ever a woman in charge it’s my wife when there’s the glint of soon-to-be Spring flowers in her eye. And I can’t exactly opt for getting out of the way for she needs a good beast of burden and I took that plunge some thirty one years ago when I promised to love honor and lug bag after bag of top soil (why I didn’t invest in MiracleGro years ago is beyond me) and wide assortments of potted plants, trees, garden gnomes, gazing balls, solar powered lights and all the appurtenances that are requisite for the fine sport of planting flowers and watching them die under the intense gaze and heat of the Colorado summer sun.

Oh, and fertilizer. My beloved was sensible enough to suggest that, given the upcoming moisture dump, “wouldn’t it be smart if WE (my wife has an amazing sense of humor) put out some lawn food/fertilizer/weed killer" ahead of the weekend’s amusement of shoveling feet of snow. Yup, lead, follow, or get out the fertilizer spreader. 

Thankfully, as I write this I can gaze out the window at dark leaden skies that look like the weather maestros might have actually gotten this forecast right. So no gardening today! A blog or two ago I had mentioned that during the February deep freeze (remember that my Texas friends?) I was transported, at least figuratively, to the warm New Zealand summer and the Hauraki Gulf (Tikapa Moana to the original locals) and the city of Aukland that is hosting the America’s Cup sailing race. The qualifying series (the Prada Cup), having  been concluded with the spanking of both the American and Great Britain teams by the Italian Luna Rossa squad, the stage is now set for the actual America’s Cup races. Team New Zealand (which has developed a nasty habit of holding onto AMERICA’S Cup) has been waiting impatiently in the wings. The format is two races a day and apart from a rest day yesterday (the first two races took place two days ago) will continue until one country wins seven races. 

For me the competition is secondary to the simple beauty of seeing extraordinary craft fly around the race course often exceeding speeds that would get you a speeding ticket here in the U.S.A. It’s a little ironic that what has to be one of the world’s most expensive sports has no prize money to be won. It’s bragging rights only that go to the ultimate winner along with the pleasure of being able to hoist the oldest international sporting trophy above your head while spraying champagne. 

Since I’m sitting on my duff gazing out my manicured lawn awaiting its soft winter blanket, I’d be remiss to acknowledge that other event that happened on Monday - International Women's Day. I went for a hike at Genesee Mountain Park with my friend Cecelia on Wednesday and asked her how she had celebrated "her" day. A pretty muted response came my way and I guess that's fair for a day of recognition that exists only because every other day is pretty much (unfairly) 'Men's Day'. With that in mind I asked the America's Cup commentators - Stephen, Shirley, Nathan, and Ken - why there were no female crew on the America's Cup boats: 

"Now that the real show is beginning wanted to give you guys kudos on the commentary side. Stephen, Shirley, Nathan, and Ken thank you for bringing  the cup to life through your insightful narrative.  HOWEVER, you have caused some marital discord in my household that requires your Cup expertise. I’ve been patiently trying to explain the nuances of the America’s Cup to my better half and her questions have been getting tougher as she continues to get a handle on what’s going on out on the water. Last night she asked a question that I’m not touching with a ten foot gybe pole. Looking at me with her sweetest expression she asked me, in light of Monday’s significance (if you don’t know the answer to that you’re already in trouble) , “why are there no women sailing as crew on any of these boats?” Ouch. I was loathe to bring up watts per kilo and power output not because she wouldn’t understand (my wife teaches kinesiology at the college level) but because I didn’t want to fall into the “if you need BRUTE strength, you hire...” trap. Shirley (or any of the guys if you’re brave enough), can you help me out? Please!?!?"

As much as I'm enjoying watching the sailing fun in the sun down under, I'm sad to say I haven't had any response. Come on guys, the silence is deafening.

Still, the scenery is spectacular, the air is warm, and the competition fierce so why not curl up this weekend and watch some nice folks head out for a sail? 

Here's a teaser...

Now where's that shovel?

A Cosmic Chuckle

Perserverance's first picture
looks strikingly like 
the first Moon landing
picture below

So, you can't be blamed if you missed it. Yesterday at 1:44 P.M. Denver time Mars saw the arrival of America's latest rover Perseverance. Along with the earlier arrivals of a Chinese probe and the first-ever mission from the United Arab Emirates Perseverance joins a list of nearly fifty spacecraft that have been sent to the red planet since the 1960's. With "Percy" (as some are already anthropomorphizing it) successfully touching down in the Jezero Crater and China's Tianwen scheduled to drop out of orbit to the surface in May or June there will have been a total of six rovers (5 from NASA) to roam the hills and valleys of Earth's most storied neighbor. The UAE's Hope spacecraft will remain in orbit and not land on the surface.

The first picture from
the UAE's Hope spacecraft

It will likely be years, decades even, before humans venture to Mars but I caught myself thinking, what if I had hitched a ride, piggybacked if you will, on this long journey with Percy. Right now I could be looking up into the Martian sky and if conditions were right pick out a little dot in the firmament that is the home from whence Percy and I had come. We'd get a better view of Earth sitting on Mars than those of you who have gazed up at Mars from Earth because Earth is roughly twice the size of the fourth planet from the sun. NASA has actually taken pictures looking home. The picture below was taken in 2016 by the HIRISE camera (High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment) aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter:

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/earth-and-its-moon-as-seen-from-mars

Percy blasted off on its seven month trip last July (2020) covering 300 million miles. Back at home on terra firma we've now traveled much farther in terms of the number of people who can never again gaze up in wonder at the stars overhead (the U.S. equaled Perserverance's 300 million in terms of deaths back in December). 

Tranquility Base photo
from Apollo 11 -
the Eagle had landed

I remember watching the moon landings way, way back in the last century. Some of those trips brought back moon rocks and rocks and astronauts alike were quarantined upon their return to Earth out of caution that they might bring back nasty microorganisms from the Moon that might be harmful to humans - a potential Moon Plague if you will. With Percy's lift-off in the midst of our own earthly pandemic, here's hoping the clean-room guys and gals who built Perserverance were dutiful in NOT sending up any of the COVID Virus to infect another planet who's inhabitants, if there are any to be found, are oblivious to the potential risk of getting acquainted with our species. I can see you now, chuckling at the idea of little green men (and I'm assuming little green women) poking their head from behind a Martian rock and pointing wonderingly at the latest artifact from Earth to fall from the sky. Yet finding evidence of life having existed in Mar's past is one of the main reasons America spent more than two billion dollars getting Percy off our ground and onto Martian soil. 

I'd guess, if I had been able to tag along for the ride, most of the seven month trip would have been rather boring and uneventful which is probably just how NASA would have liked it). While Percy and I would have been bored to tears trundling through the starry darkness at roughly 12,000 mph, looking back at Earth we could have only guessed at all that would transpire from July until today. If there is a sentient being out there controlling the cosmic strings, I'd hazard a guess that they might be having a cosmic chuckle at our expense. In the intervening seven months they might look at what astronomer Carl Sagan called our "pale blue dot" and scratch their head in amazement as to how we could have collectively screwed up so much, so quickly. And yet we can journey to the stars.

I hope there's life out there somewhere so I wish Percy well as she wanders the western edge of a flat plain called Isidis Planitia. I'd love to live long enough to know that we are not alone. As Carl Sagan knew better than most, the cosmos is a very large place indeed so I'll leave it to him to close out this blog. Here's what Carl wrote in his 1994 book "Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space":

"From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. 

On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives.

The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every 'superstar,' every 'supreme leader,' every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner.

How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark.

In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."

The 1990 Voyage 1 photo
looking back at our home from
a distance of nearly
4,000,000,000 (4 billion) miles away

Love is in the air...

 Love is in the air, though its likely competing with COVID virus particles including those born out of mutations from the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa. 

Mr. Brady is certainly loving life, though Mr. Mahomes perhaps less so. I was hoping for a close game but after all these years watching Super Bowls you'd think I'd know better. This year's commercials were a mixed bag, but that's nothing new either. We did see the Boss, Mr. Springsteen, break his decades-long refusal to do advertisements for the dual interests of reuniting around "the center" and selling Jeeps. Oh, and a Texas man who flew to Colorado to take advantage of Colorado's on-line gambling won $6.2 million (on a $3.46 million bet) when the Buccaneers clinched the Lombardi Trophy. Now that's a LOT of love.

This year's Loveland stamp

Up in Loveland, Colorado, they've been stamping love notes with this year's imprimatur. Kudos to them - they're now in their 75th year. If you haven't already sent your romantic missive for them to re-mail you're likely not going to feel the love since the U.S. Post Office won't guarantee on-time delivery after tomorrow, February 10th. Of course, on-time means by the 14th, Valentines Day which has transformed the Feast of Saint Valentine ( honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine) into the commercial juggernaut we know it as today. Now, I can accept roses. chocolates, and one-knee proposals as legitimate expressions of perhaps what is after all our deepest and most heartfelt emotion, but to me the T.V. and Internet ads suggesting that Valentines is just another excuse to give a gift (one ad shows the gift recipient opening a box to see they've received - wait for it - a new pair of shoes) as pushing the romantic envelope a wee bit far. 

Apart from Cupid's day in the spotlight I've never been particularly fond of our shortest month. In Colorado I think February is the cruelest on the calendar - it can suggestively hint at Spring then suddenly lambast us with the coldest temps of the year. I still remember the February when I was wooing my better half featuring temps below zero for more than ten days straight but that was alright as all my attention was let's just say, not particularly focused on the weather. 

Speaking of love, we took our two pups, Yukon and Mr. Bentley, to doggie daycare today up at Canines' Canyon near Genesee. They love to play with all their four-legged friends and we didn't even need to spring for new shoes. Or Roses. Or chocolates. And certainly no one-kneed proposals - seeing me struggle to get back up would probably tickle my better half's funny bone more than make a love connection. Still, I try - I did get my sweetheart a very nice Valentine card. And my flower budget went to my mother-in-law in the form of twelve beautiful white long-stem roses (marital tip number 4023 - never pass up a chance to win brownie points with your wife's mother). So all in all I guess I'm in the mood for Love with a capital L. Given what we've all been through in the last year or so, I guess we all deserve a little of that. 

Completely off the subject of amore, my wife and I had a chance to take a road trip down to El Paso County (think Colorado Springs) to see the Paint Mines of Colorado. Unless you've been there, the name doesn't convey anything meaningful about this unique Colorado attraction. So I've provided a short video to give you some idea of what this site offers:

I also had a chance to get out and do some filming closer to home at South Valley Park. This park is part of Jefferson County Open Space and is near Ken Caryl in the western suburbs of Denver and features great hiking/walking trails and beautiful rock outcroppings. Here's a sneak peak: 

I'm fortunate to spend time doing what I'm passionate about and with people (and animals!) I love. For me that's what makes life worth living. This Valentines Day I hope you get the chance to do the same...

https://loveland.org/programs/valentine-re-mailing-program/