Vacation Nostalgia Continued

As long as I featured a photo of my family taken in Savannah, Georgia back in 1979 yesterday, I figured I would give equal time to Charleston, which we also visited on that long ago trip.  I think the photograph on the left of my father Nelson was taken on Church Street, where most if not all of the homes date from the 1700s. Just as in Savannah, walking down that street early in the morning can make you feel like you are back in pre-revolutionary America.  Almost every house on that street has a plaque on the wall commemorating some historical event that took place inside.  These houses, by the way, are built with the narrow side on the street, with the long side, fronted by a veranda, on the side of the lot.  This was because houses back then were taxed by how much frontage they took up along the street.  I guess taxes were just as popular back then as they are now.  Surprise!

Vacation Nostalgia

Today I am featuring a photograph that I took on a trip with my parents Nelson and Mary and my sister Susan to Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina back in the late 1970s.  I am pretty sure the photograph was taken in Savannah, since the background looks like one of that city's many little historic squares, around which the houses were located.  Now THAT is the way to build a city.  It was founded in 1733 by General James Oglethorpe, and most of the city has been preserved, making it a wonderful place to visit.  If you get up early enough, you can walk around these little parks and imagine that you are still living in the 1700s. Back when we visited it appeared to be a quiet southern town, but after the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil came out, the place became an extremely popular tourist destination.  I wonder what it is like now after all these years?  Only one good way to find out.

Doors Open Denver - The Equitable Building

My last stop on the Doors Open Denver tour was The Equitable Building, a commercial office building built in 1892.  I have visited this building during previous Doors Open Denver events, and so only visited it this time because I had half an hour left before this year's festivities ended.  Both the lobby and the basement were open for viewing, and I must say it is an impressive looking place.   Denver bulldozed many of it's older buildings during the urban renewal craze of the 1960s, and so I amazed this building was left standing. Denver was a boom town in the 1880s and early 1890s, and so the Equitable Life Assurance Society of New York erected it to cash in on the real estate frenzy.  Unfortunately, the Silver Crash of 1893 threw Devner into a depression, and things did not recover until the early 1900s.

Regardless, the building, due to it's statue as the premier office building in town, still attracted all of Denver's movers and shakers. The marble lobby is very ornate, and features no less than 4 Tiffany windows, one of which is in front of the grand bronze staircase, and can be seen in the photograph on the right. It is titled "The Genius of Insurance" (surprise!), adding a commercial touch to a piece of great artwork. The building, by the way, changed owners a number of times, and is now an office condominium.

The owners of the building are very proud of it, and as I walked in they handed me both a fact sheet and a pamphlet written by CU-Denver graduate student Kathleen Barlow, which details the entire history of the building, the most interesting part the stories of murders that took place here and the ghosts that are said to haunt it. The most prevalent ghost is Andrew Anderson, a janitor who fell to his death from the 9th floor while cleaning the windows.  He still evidently wanders the 9th floor.  One office worker who arrived at work pretty early reported seeing a man in old fashioned overalls wiping down wood trim around the door, and was told that she should not be in the building this early because the building is haunted.  When she reported this to management, she was told no such person existed.  I am tempted to sneak into the building and go up to the 9th floor some night to see if this ghost appears, but than again, perhaps not.

The Confluence Denver

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I visited a number of sites having open houses in conjunction with Doors Open Denver this past weekend.  One of these sites was The Confluence Denver, a 35 story apartment building that has been open for about a year now.  It is located at the confluence of the Platte River and Cherry Creek, which is the spot where the City of Denver began.  It was also where the Arapaho Indians originally lived and then forced from there onto an Indian Reservation in Oklahoma - but not until many women and children were killed during the Sand Creek Massacre.  But I digress.

Our group had to wait a while for a tour, but eventually we were taken up to the 27th floor to see one of the penthouse apartments (the tour guide evidently recognized big spenders when he saw them).  The 27th through 34th floors have 4 units each, two on each side of the building, while the 35th floor has just two units. The apartment was quite nice, and had great views of both the mountains and city.  It was a two bedroom unit, with a decent size, state of the art kitchen, a large dining area, and a small living room, two sides of which were floor to ceiling glass, as were all the other rooms.  There was even a small room for a home office off the front entrance.  The place also had a private elevator, if you happen to be the shy type.

There were also two balconies, one off the kitchen area and one off the master bedroom.  It really was a nice unit, but the monthly rental is $9,000, which to me seems a bit on the pricey side.  I don't know how many of these 9K penthouses are rented, but the two units on the 35th floor are both occupied, at the bargain price of $15,000 per month.  I don't mean to be judgmental,  but who in the hell pays $9,000 a month for an apartment, let alone $15,000 per month?  The mind just boggles.  In any case, for the great unwashed you can rent a studio apartment starting at $1,600 per month.  Find two roommates to share the cost and that will put it at $533 each, although it might be a little cozy in there, and the view might not be as spectacular.  As an aside, when I was waiting to move into my condo across from the University of Denver, when it was being converted over from apartments, I was moved to the top floor of the building (the 11th) and had a spectacular view of the front range and the mountains.  Some days I could even see all the way down to Pikes Peak.  Whenever I had a visitor, we would walk out on the balcony and look at the view, and that turned out to be the only time I would look at that view after the first few months.  Something to think about if you are considering renting that penthouse. And by the way, as our group was heading down after touring that 27th floor penthouse, we got stuck in the elevator.  What do you expect for nine grand?

Doors Open Denver - Five Points And Curtis Park

This past weekend Doors Open Denver took place, an event that showcases various neighborhoods and buildings throughout Denver.  There are guided tours for $10 each, or you can visit the many free sites that participate in the event. This year a lot of the sites were in Five Points and Curtis Park, which were traditionally black neighborhoods that in recent years have been (for the lack of a better word) gentrified, which has become quite a hot button issue here in Denver, now that rents and real estate prices have gone through the roof and people are being forced out of neighborhoods due to the cost.  In any case, the first place I stopped at was the Rossonian Hotel, seen in the upper left in the collage, which has been getting a lot of publicity lately.  Basketball player Chauncey Billups is part of a group that is going to restore it to it's former glory, and all the television stations have been reporting on this.  It was once a popular jazz spot back when Five Points was known as "the Harlem of the West."  Does that mean that Harlem was called "the Five Points of the East?" But I digress.  The place is currently just an empty room, and needs a lot of work.  I also visited the Puritan Pie Company, which is basically a warehouse with a lot of junk in it, although it did have a 1950s era Cadillac Fleetwood in perfect condition sitting in there (do the American Pickers know about this?).  But what struck me most were all the beautiful Victorian houses in the neighborhood, evoking the feeling of a different era.  I would have liked to have toured some of those, although I was hesitant to walk up to the front door of these places and ask for a tour.  That might have seemed a bit pushy.

Play Ball!

I went with my friend Mark to see Play Ball! - a collection of baseball memorabilia owned by Denverite Marshall Fogel - at the History Colorado Museum this past Saturday afternoon.  Mark tells me Fogel is a retired lawyer who often donates books and other items to the University of Denver's Anderson Academic Commons (the library), where Mark works.  The exhibit is not extensive, but very interesting.  There are lots of gloves, jerseys, photographs, and other memorabilia on display.  Since flash photography was not allowed, I took a photo of Mark (seen on the left) outside the exhibit as we left.

However, I did not need flash to take the photograph on the right, which shows a portion of the bats on display, used by some of the most famous players in baseball and behind which is a large photograph of Lou Gehrig. My only complaint was that at the back of the exhibit they had a "case of shame," which featured memorabilia used by Pete Rose, Mark McGwire,  and none other than Shoeless Joe Jackson of the Chicago "Black Sox."  The White Sox did indeed throw the World Series in 1919, but they also played for the cheapest owner in the history of baseball (Charles Comiskey), and Shoeless Joe played flawless baseball during the entire series.  I say move him out of the case of shame now!

Flight For Life

During the month of September, I have been doing a lot of driving in both rural Colorado and rural New Mexico.  These are big states, with lots of wilderness.  Get lost or stranded in the wrong place or at the wrong time of year, and you will be a goner.  Each year there are many examples of these tragedies.  But things can happen when you least expect it, right on the highway.  A few weeks ago, my sister Susan and I took the High Road to Taos on our way back to Colorado.  Not too far from Taos, we were stopped by a police barricade.  We had no idea what was going on, but other people who were also stopped told us that a person was being stabilized in an ambulance before he was loaded onto a Flight For Life helicopter.  It took almost an hour, but eventually the patient was loaded onto the helicopter and traffic was allowed to proceed.  Originally I thought it was a car accident, but then I saw a bicyclist and a van loaded with bicycles on it's roof and realized it must have been a tourist on a biking trip through the mountains who had a heart attack.  It proves that you just never know, and that it is a damn good thing we have Flight for Life around.

Where's The Beef - I Mean Moose?

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, my friend Stuart and I drove up Poudre Canyon (located just west of Fort Collins, Colorado) Thursday afternoon to check out the fall colors.  The Aspens were indeed very beautiful, and when we exited the canyon we wound up in the North Park Valley.  It is cattle country, and if you remember the long ago Wendy's commercial  where the elderly woman asks "Where's the beef," I can tell you for sure it is definitely out here. Lots and lots of cattle. But I'll be damned if we saw a single moose.  We stopped at the Arapaho National Wildlife refuge, seen in the photograph on the left along with Stuart, but we only spotted a single chipmunk.

In fact, before we got to Walden, we stopped at the Colorado State Forest Moose Welcome Center, but there wasn't a single live moose to welcome. Only a moose made of barbed wire out in front and a stuffed one inside, seen in the photograph on the right.  There was a big tablet of paper on an easel titled "critter sightings," but not a thing was written on it.  I don't mean to criticize, but the Moose Welcome Center seemed to have a lot of staff with not a lot to do, and so if that is the case, I suggest they go out and find some live moose that they can bring back for visitors to welcome. I hear they are affectionate beasts and would probably not mind having a collar and leash put on them for a walk back to the Moose Welcome Center. Just don't let them get a look at that stuffed moose inside.

We arrived in the actual town of Walden (population 608) around 4:30 in the afternoon and stayed until 5:00. They are certainly trying to cement their reputation as "moose central, " what with places like the Moose Jaw Cafe and such, but the only animals I saw going down  Main Street were cattle being hauled by trucks to the slaughterhouse.  No moose walking down the middle of the street like in the television show Northern Exposure. We did stop in to look around the Antlers Inn, the entrance of which is in the photograph on the left.  It definitely evoked an earlier time, and seemed quite quaint.  Since the town of Walden was established in 1889, I assume the hotel was built not too long after.  It now serves the occasional tourist and a heck of a lot of hunters, who will be heading to the Walden area starting October 1st to blast the living hell out of elk, deer, and moose, too.  So maybe that is why they are so hard to find. It is all starting to make sense.

Autumn Begins Today!

Autumn begins at 7:54 P.M. this evening, and in anticipation of this event, my friend Stuart and I drove up Poudre Canyon Road along the Cache la Poudre River Thursday afternoon to check out the fall colors.  The road starts just outside Fort Collins and ends in Walden, a small town in the middle of cattle country.  The closer we got to Cameron Pass, the nicer the colors got.  We arrived in Walden around 4:30 P.M. after stopping at the Arapaho National Wildlife Refuge to check out the wildlife.  Net result - one chipmunk.  Go figure.  In any case, enjoy the fall colors while you can.  Time is flying.

More Chicago Nostalgia

My sister Susan ran across the above photograph the other day and gave it to me to scan into my computer. It was taken in the family room of our house in south suburban Country Club Hills, Illinois (just south of Chicago, and not my favorite place in the world, I might add) sometime in the early 1970s.  On the left is Jack London, a really nice guy who worked all his life for International Harvester and who was married to my cousin Shirley (my mother Mary's 1st cousin). On the right is my father Nelson.  We moved to Country Club Hills in 1966 and stayed there until 1976, when my parents moved to Florida.  Their move to Stuart, Florida, and my own move to Forest Park, Illinois (just west of Oak Park and Chicago) turned out to be a good move for all concerned. And by the way, the mola seen in the background of the photograph is currently hanging over the chest of drawers in the bedroom of my condo.  It was made by the Guna people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guna_people), who live off the coast of Panama on the San Blas Islands.  My brother-in-law George collected molas like these while growing up in the Canal Zone of Panama, and gave them to me when he and my sister Susan finally got tired of them. Priceless works of art, no doubt. Has my ship come in?  Is it the Titanic?

The September Mutt Of The Month

I took the above photograph of the September Mutt of the Month in the parking lot of the Key Bank in Fort Collins, Colorado.  It was patiently waiting for it's owner to come back from a high stakes financial transaction, and was a willing subject for this photograph.  And why didn't Sailor, my friends Wally and Linda's dog - featured in yesterday's blog - make it as this month's mutt of the month?  Because I already had this one ready to go.  Timing is everything, Sailor.  Sorry about that.

Dinner With Wally And Linda!

My friends Wally and Linda invited me over to their house last night for dinner and to celebrate my recent retirement from the Tattered Cover Bookstore.  It was a feast fit for a king - huge steaks, baked potatoes, salad, the works. Wally, of course, recently retired from the University of Denver Bookstore, where we both worked for many years.  Wally stayed there after the bookstore was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group, while I was given my walking papers after a contractually enforced one year grace period.   I shouldn't complain, since I received one more year of 401K contributions, but I still do anyway.  I guess that's just me.  In any case, we had a very nice evening catching up with each other on what we have been doing.

I also got to visit with Wally and Linda's cat Stella and their dog Sailor, seen in the photograph on the right, ever vigilant in guarding the backyard from intruders.  Sailor was sent to a Colorado women's prison for obedience training - twice.  The first time didn't take, and so he was sent back there a second time for more training.  I think the term for that is recidivism. In any case, I was excited to hear than Linda and Wally are going to attend a wedding in none other than Stuart, Florida, where my sister Susan and I have a condo that we inherited from our parents.  I am planning on drawing up an itinerary for them, but unfortunately they are only planning to go for the weekend, and that won't be nearly enough time to see the sights I will be recommending.  I guess that means they will have to skip the wedding.  No matter - weddings are always pretty damn boring, right?

Cheers To Beers!

My friends Stuart (on the left in the photo) and Mark (on the right) and I went to the Blue Moon Brewery in Denver's RiNo (River North) neighborhood last night for a screening of Cheers to Beers, a Rocky Mountain PBS documentary about the history of beer in Colorado.  Not only did we get to see the film and meet the people who made and starred in it, we also each got a "Colorado Experience" pint glass.

Not only that, but during the trivia part of the evening, Stuart guessed correctly what the longest running PBS science show was (Nova), and won a free beer tee-shirt, seen in the photograph on the right.  Not a bad way to spend the evening.  The documentary lasted only 26 minutes, while the trivia and music portion of the evening took up the rest of the time.  There was also a question answer session at the end.  One person asked one of the participants what his favorite beer was, and he answered that it was the one he was currently drinking.  That guy should definitely should go into politics.

September At The Zoo

I decided to spend a few hours at the Denver Zoo Sunday afternoon, and since the Denver Broncos were playing during that time, I almost had the place to myself. Everybody else was home watching the game.  It was sunny and damn hot out - 92 degrees - and if that didn't tie a record, it must have been close.  In any case, many of the animals stayed in the shade, or in their enclosures, during the afternoon, but a number of them came out just as the zoo was closing and things were beginning to cool down. I took the photo of the lion in the collage above 10 minutes after the zoo had officially closed.  I assumed they were inside to stay until I heard one of them roaring and found they had finally come out to play.  I still say they need to send an intern in there with a stick to get them out sooner.

The Cowboy

I always think of New Mexico as heavily Hispanic, but it also is a western state with a strong cowboy tradition. I took the above photograph during the Santa Fe fiesta parade. I think (but always can be wrong, of course) that the northern part of New Mexico is heavily Hispanic, while the south is mainly cattle ranches - hence the cowboy influence.  The Spanish, by the way, were the ones who first brought cattle to the Americas, just as they did with the horse.  And a final word on New Mexico - it is not named after the country of Mexico, but named by Spanish settlers after the Aztec Valley of Mexico, a full 250 years before the naming of the present day country of Mexico.  Who says this blog isn't educational?

A Stop At Chimayo

My sister Susan and I left Santa Fe Monday morning and made a stop at Chimayo, located about 25 miles north of that city in the foothills of the Sangre de Cristo mountains.  It has been many years since I have been there, and I had a bit of difficulty finding Rancho de Chimayo, but find it we did, and had brunch outside on their patio.  The food was great, the weather warm and sunny, and the service friendly. The Jaramillo family, which owns the restaurant, has been living in this area since 1693, and the house in which the restaurant is located was built in the 1800s.

After lunch my sister and I walked the grounds, enjoying the day and the nice atmosphere.  I have a watercolor of this place hanging in the den of my condo, showing the patio in back, which seems to have expanded up the hillside over the years to accommodate more diners.  A good thing, too, since the place was pretty crowded, even on a Monday afternoon.in September.

After brunch, we drove over to see El Santuario de Chimayo, a church built in 1816 and known as a healing site (the dirt in a room in the back is said to be able to heal physical and spiritual ills).  There were also a fair number of tourists here, too.  The grounds are quite beautiful, and the location is pretty stunning, too.  Afterwards, we took the High Road to Taos, a 56 mile road through high desert, mountains, forests, and small Spanish Land Grant villages.  This is a great road to drive, and well worth the extra time it takes to get to Taos.  And in fact, Taos is not all that great a place to arrive at.  It is not very tourist friendly, and not nearly as interesting as Santa Fe.  We basically let the dogs out of the car to piss on the place and drove on back to Colorado.  And no disrespect meant.

Hispanic Culture Still Thrives In Santa Fe...

I was happy to see that despite it's popularity with the rich and famous, Hispanic culture still survives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. That was very evident at the fiesta parade this past Sunday, at the Palace of the Governors, where Native Americans sell handmade jewelry underneath the portico, and even in the restaurants, most of which serve traditional southwestern cuisine.  And of course, most of the people working in the shops, hotels, and restaurants speak Spanish, which of course adds to the Hispanic vibe.And by the way, southwestern cuisine is indeed excellent, but I must say I will be happy not to be eating it for while.  Variety is the spice of life, after all.  You can quote me on that.  I just thought it up.

Viva La Fiesta!

The highlight of Santa Fe's annual fiesta is the big parade, which takes place on Sunday afternoon.  My sister Susan and I stood under the portal of the building housing La Casa Sena to watch it, not realizing that it lasts about 3 hours or so.  As far as I can tell, virtually every resident of Santa Fe participates, shouting "Viva la Fiesta" at frequent intervals.  It was a lot of fun watching all the locals enjoying this Santa Fe tradition, which has taken place every year for over 300 years now.  This is a truly unique part of the U.S. and I am very happy to see that these traditions continue to survive in these fast changing times.  Viva la Fiesta! Viva Santa Fe!

The City Different

Santa Fe, New Mexico is just as nice as ever, I am happy to report.  A great place to just walk around and take in the sights and the atmosphere.  And on this past trip, I discovered that there is now a Motel 6 within walking distance of downtown.  How great is that for a confirmed cheapskate?  There are so many great things to photograph, it is hard to know where to begin, and after you do photograph them, they do not do the place justice.  In any case, in the collage above (starting in the upper left and going clockwise) are photographs of an art gallery on Canyon Road, the doorway leading to the courtyard of La Casa Sena (a popular Santa Fe Restaurant), an art gallery on East Palace Avenue, and an adobe home at the upper end of trendy Canyon Road, which has remained exactly the same as long as I have been going to Santa Fe.  No gentrification for this place.  How great is that?

A Walk Up Canyon Road...

My sister Susan and I took a walk up Canyon Road in Santa Fe, New Mexico this past Saturday afternoon, and had a really nice time.  The weather was warm and sunny, and the art galleries that lined the road were as fascinating as ever.  And everyone we met was outgoing and friendly, especially since we had Susan's dogs Tutu and Blackberry with us.  Tutu is a tiny little Yorkie (seen in the photo on the left being held by Susan), while Blackberry is a black cairn terrier that greets everyone as if they were long lost friends she hasn't seen in years.

By the time we reached El Farol, a pretty well-known restaurant in Santa Fe, Susan announced she needed a wine break, and found that the restaurant happy hour was from 3 to 5 (perfect!) and the front patio was dog friendly (damn lucky).  The building housing El Farol has been in existence since 1835, back when the first art galleries and restaurants opened up on Canyon Road to serve early Spanish colonialist hipsters.  El Farol, by the way, has been called by none other than the New York Times "one of the Best Bars on Earth,"  which you have to admit is pretty high praise.  I have to say, they do serve a pretty mean IPA - La Cumbre Elevated IPA, which I have never tried before and which they do not sell for some reason here in Colorado.  I can recommend it highly, especially after a long walk uphill trying to persuade someone they do not need to purchase $500 knickknacks. I wonder if the New York Times writer had a few of these before writing his article?

It all made for a very pleasant end to the walk.  Plus, Susan treated.  Talk about win-win. Thank God I was able to stop Susan from making any pricey purchases, which might have ended with me picking up the bar tab.  Which to be truthful, since it was happy hour, was not all that much.  However, if you do happen to come to Santa Fe and want to have dinner here, I suspect it might be a bit pricey.  I am, of course, a notorious cheapskate, and decided to check the restaurant's website when I got home.  They have a Flamingo Dinner Show on Saturday nights, which I am sure is wonderful, but they do not put their prices on the online menus.  And if you have to ask...

A Return To Santa Fe!

My sister Susan and I decided to spend this past weekend down in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and as always, the town was delightful.  Since it was fiesta weekend, it was also pretty lively.  The photograph above is of my sister Susan, taken a number of years ago on the occasion of our last trip to Santa Fe along with George, Susan's late husband.  We used to go there every year around that time, and really enjoyed it.  And as you can see by the photo, Susan really got into the Santa Fe spirit back then.  It was especially fun because the Friday after Thanksgiving, the plaza was lite up with luminaries and it was a truly festive scene.  This time was also very enjoyable, and warmer, too.  We could actually sit outside on the patios.  Can't beat that.

Wrong Light

I have just started an advanced reading copy of Wrong Light, the latest Rick Cahill private eye novel by Matt Coyle.  The series takes place in San Diego, which is fun, since I know a little about the town, and the story has several elements to it, including a threat from the Russian mafia, which is a continuation from the previous book.  I had no idea the Russian mafia has such an influence on San Diego, but Coyle wouldn't write about it if it wasn't true, right?  This is an exciting story that will hopefully have a good ending for all involved.  Look for it to come out in December, or you could order some of his older books from the library right now.  Or actually buy them from your local bookstore.  And since I am now retired from the Tattered Cover Bookstore, you don't have to worry about me getting a cut anymore.

Back On The Bicycle At Last!

I went biking this past Labor Day for the first time in a very long time - I am thinking well over a year.  The past 10 months have been an extremely busy time for me, but now that I am retired, I am hoping to spend much more time doing outdoor things, such as biking, hiking, skydiving, etc. I only did a short, 2 1/2 hour bike ride Labor Day, but after a year, that was plenty.  I did find I had enough breath left to take the above self portrait (I refuse to use the term selfie).  It was taken in front of the Grant-Humphreys mansion, an historic home located next door to the Governor's Mansion and reputed to be haunted.  The last time I was there was for the wedding of a University of Denver Bookstore employee named Aziz,  who was originally from Algeria and was studying for his doctorate degree in international studies at DU.  The thing I remember most about Aziz is that his grandfather received a pension from the French for fighting the Germans, and a pension from Algeria for fighting the French.  Talk about win win.

Catching A Late Season Rockies Game With Mark and Friends

I went to see the Colorado Rockies play the San Francisco Giants Tuesday night with Mark, his friend Tristan and Tristan's mother Lorraine.  It was raining pretty hard before the game, stopped for a while, and then started up again just as we sat down.  We moved under the overhang until it stopped, and although the game was delayed for an hour, the rain had stopped for good, thank goodness.  Mark (seen in the photograph above) has just returned from cruising Northern Europe, and had lots of tales to tell about his Baltic adventures.  Mark's twin brother Mike, who works for the Denver Botanical Gardens, feels the same way about plants that Mark feels about soccer, and so Mark and his family visited 4 botanical gardens on the trip.  Mike himself visited 6.  I say way too many botanical gardens for one trip.  I think the EU should limit those visits to 2.  Call Brussels immediately.

Pelicans At Washington Park? Strange But True...

As I was biking home the other day through Denver's Washington Park, I looked over toward the lake and thought I say a flock of swans, but on closer inspection, it was a flock of pelicans.  Pelicans! One thousand mile from the sea, no less.  I guess they fly her from the pacific Northwest, like the weather, and stay on. Forever.  First, all those damn geese, then all those Californians, and now pelicans. Well, I guess the pelicans aren't so horrible.

Stuart And I Return To The DU Campus!

I had happy hour beers and burgers with my friend Stuart at Spanky's Urban Roadhouse last night, and afterwards we walked across the University of Denver campus on our way to the local Starbucks for coffee. Stuart (seen posing in front of one of DU's reflecting pools) graduated from DU with a Masters Degree in International Studies (I think during the Truman Administration, but I could be wrong), and I myself got an MBA from DU, in addition to working as the Finance Manager of the DU Bookstore for almost 30 years, until the store was outsourced and all the employees laid off without being offered alternative employment at the university.  Not that I am bitter about that. Much. Anymore.  And so we soaked up as much collegiate atmosphere as we could stand (it is, after all, orientation week), before heading off to Starbucks.  It is, I must admit, a very pretty campus.  I will give them that.  And no - I am not bitter at all.

A Truly Memorable Day!

Today is a truly memorable day.  For the first time in 60 years, I do not have to go anywhere or do anything if I truly do not want to do it.  Exactly 60 year ago, I was awoken by my parents in our house in the Brainerd neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, and taken to kindergarten at Fort Dearborn Grammar School (as seen in the above photo, where I am sitting, oblivious to what would happen over the next 60 years, on the bottom left).  From that day on, like most people, I  have had to attend grammar school, high school, and college.  After that, I worked at Walden Books in North Riverside and Yorktown Shopping Centers in the western suburbs of Chicago, then on to Hatch's Bookstore here in Denver, and then almost 28 years at the University of Denver Bookstore, spending the last 6 years at various part-time jobs and a full-time job as the bookkeeper at the Tattered Cover Bookstore. This is only my fourth day of retirement, but I can tell you right now that not working is much better than working, unless you really are doing something you truly love. Good luck with that.  And as you can see, I am not a glass half full kind of guy.  And now that I am retired, who cares? Cheers!

Happy Labor Day!

Today is Labor Day, the holiday traditionally associated with the end of summer, and which these days - after listening to the ads on the radio and commercials on television - seems to be all about mattress sales.  I myself, however - as a longtime Colorado resident - always tend to associate Labor Day with hiking up in Rocky Mountain National Park.  My ex-wife Lisa, brother-in-law George, and sometimes George's cousin Richard (as seen in the above photograph from left to right), my sister Susan, and I would go hiking together on both Memorial Day (when the above photograph was taken) and Labor Day.  Memorial Day was often iffy, with deeper and deeper snow (and more and more fog and mist) the higher you went.  By that time my wife Lisa usually started crying and refused to go further, and we would turn around and head to Estes Park to drink beer, which certainly sounded like a good idea to me.  As for Richard, he and George's cousin Ana Silvia (who came up to Denver from Honduras to help care for Richard's mother, known as Aunt Frances to the rest of us) got into a big feud. Richard remarried, and when Ana Silva criticized the care that Frances was getting at a senior living center, Richard's new wife forbid him from associating with any of us again. Poor Richard is 80 years old now, and never had the chance to say goodbye to George (the two of whom have been friends since childhood), who passed away last month. People can be so petty, and it often winds up hurting them more than the people they are trying to hurt.  Sad.

The Stone Lion

My sister Susan treated me to dinner at The Kitchen, located at the entrance to Old Town Square in Fort Collins the other night.  It has very good food, but bring your checkbook (assuming they take checks).  It is located in the space that used to be occupied by The Stone Lion, a great bookstore that was owned by a Colorado State University professor.  Susan applied for a job there after moving up to Fort Collins with her husband George, but wasn't hired.  She claims they only hired CSU students, but that is another story.  The Stone Lion (it's namesake can be seen above the entrance in the photograph on the left) was a Fort Collins institution for many years. It later moved to a different location on the other side of College Avenue (I suspect due to a large rent increase, but can't say for sure), but it was never the same and closed a few years later.  The space has since been occupied by restaurants, most recently The Kitchen, whose outside patio is packed every night, even on weeknights  Lots of money up in Fort Collins is all I have to say.

Final Friday (With Flobots)

I attended the Final Friday event at the Denver Art Museum (The DAM) last night, and it turned out to be a very entertaining evening.  Stephen Brackett, a member of the Denver rock group The Flobots (seen in the photograph above), hosted an event called Mass Migration, which featured him and a number of his friends performing musical acts.  Afterwards, the performers divided up the crowd and led them to various parts of the museum, where they were coached on singing and performing the night's theme song, and then marched single file down to the first level of the museum, where a giant jam session took place.  It didn't have much to do with visual art, but it was definitely fun.  I still miss the free buffet, however, which disappeared when the renovations to the North building began.  That was a major part of my art interest.  Also - by the way - there was an ad on the television a few years ago for Progressive Insurance, where Flo, their fictional insurance saleswoman, introduced a robot that looked like her called the "Flobot."  Isn't that copyright infringement? But by who?