Fort Collins, Colorado - Hotbed Of Crime?

I drove up to Fort Collins from Denver Saturday afternoon to have dinner with my sister and brother-in-law, and arrived early enough to walk around Old Town Fort Collins for a little while.  Everyone seemed mellow and serene, and the place reminded me a bit of the Pearl Street Mall in Boulder, what with all the street musicians and performers.  Little did I know that just a few hours later there would be a riot in town by out of control Colorado State University students. And this is not the first such incident.  Plus, just a few months ago there was a cat-napping incident at The Northern Hotel.  A couple of college age kids made some sort of request at the desk, which was denied, and soon after the hotel's resident pussy was pilfered. Fortunately the cat was recovered a few days later, and the town has quickly recovered from it's most recent party / riot / football victory celebration.  I strongly recommend the town as a great place to visit, but it might be best to leave your cat at home.

The View from Downtown

It was such a nice day that I decided to take a walk yesterday afternoon around downtown Denver.  The weather was perfect, the Broncos had won their game against the Cardinals, and it was the last day of the Great American Beer Festival, and so everybody was in a great mood. I had read in the Sunday Denver Post that one of the greatest views of downtown Denver was from the mezzanine of Union Station, and so decided to stop in and have a look.  And I have to say - not so much.  I actually prefer the view looking back at Union Station from the Oxford Hotel, such as in the photograph above.  And as I have stated before, Union Station is now the city's major hot spot.  It is just a pleasure to hang out with my fellow beautiful people there.

A Fort Collins Foray

I drove up to Fort Collins to have dinner with my sister Susan and brother-in-law George yesterday afternoon, listening to the baseball playoffs on my portable radio both on the way up and back.  When I bought my Honda Civic 4-door sedan in 1986, I thought the cost of putting in a radio was too much, and decided to add one later.   Here it is 2014 and I'm still looking for an acceptable car radio at an acceptable price.  These things take time.  George, by the way,  is recovering from his third eye operation in about as many months, and is hoping the third time is the charm and that he will soon be able to see out of his left eye once again.  This last operation the eye surgeons had to take the whole eye out and then put it back in, which makes me cringe even to think about.  In any case, keep hanging in there, George!  Thanks for the steaks!

First Friday Thoughts

Yesterday was the first Friday in October, and so I walked to the Arts District on Santa Fe Boulevard here in Denver after work to check out the new art on display.  At the Spark Gallery, I saw some wonderful photographs of Morocco by Barbara Carpenter, but what really riveted me was the painting above of a wolf dressed as the grim reaper. What I want to know is, if you bought something like this, what would you do with it?  Would you hang it your bedroom?  I think not.  If you woke up in the middle of the night and saw that, you would probably have the big one and drop dead.  Perhaps it is a painting meant to be given as a gift to someone else. Perhaps an ex-wife.  

Americans Do Get Exercise!

Humor columnist Dave Barry once wrote that the best way to find out if you are overweight is to simply look out the window.  If you see the United States of America out there, then you are overweight, because every American is overweight.  A bit of an oversimplification, I must admit.  However, I have to say that many if not most Americans are getting plenty of exercise to combat this weight problem every morning as they try to catch their train.  Virtually everyone at the University of Denver Light Rail stop runs past me at full speed each morning as I wait for my bus.  As a matter of fact, I think the Regional Transportation District (RTD) should award cash prizes for the fastest times at each station to increase ridership.  As an additional challenge, they could keep the doors open as they pull out to allow contestants to attempt leaping onto the moving train.  Talk about entertainment!

Photography At The DAM

I went to the Anthony and Delisa Mayer Photography Gallery at the Denver Art Museum (The DAM) this past weekend to see Photography and Vision:  The Influence of Joyce and Ted Strauss.  This couple donated hundreds of photographs to the museum, and the exhibition features a small selection of these photos.  I must say some of them are very good, like the quirky Man on Standing Stones, taken on the Isle of Lewis.  However, some are real stinkers, such as the triptych of a large horizontal mound of dirt with tracks on it. Even I could take a photograph like that. And perhaps I will.  Are the Strausses still in a buying mood?

A Reluctant Subject

It seems to me that even dogs are reluctant to let me take their photograph these days.  I explained to the canine in the photograph above that I simply wanted to take his photograph and put it on my Blog, but he still seemed pretty apprehensive about it.  Perhaps I am losing my touch.  Although come to think of it, I did take this photograph at Starbucks, so perhaps the dog was just over-caffeinated.