A Brush With Kaos

Before I met my friend Stuart for burgers and beers this past Sunday, I took a walk over to Old South Pearl Street, and from there through Denver's Washington Park.  For about the 200th time this year, we had a snowstorm on Friday, followed by extreme (for me) cold on Saturday, and so it wasn't until Sunday that I ventured outside.  That day was fairly warm, and only a little slushy, and so a good day for a walk.  On my way, I passed Kaos, a pizza parlor and beer garden, and one of my favorite places, as seen in the photograph on the left.  It was voted Denver's best patio, and so I am not the only one with such a high opinion of the place. The patio is snow-covered these days, and so I think it will be a month or two until the patio starts filling with people, although I did see two brave souls sitting outside in the back.  What people won't do for $3.00 happy hour beers.

From Old South Peal Street I walked east into Washington Park, which was filled with people taking advantage of the sun and the warmer temperatures. And we do have to enjoy these days when we can, since another snowstorm is once again predicted for this Friday (the 201st Friday snowstorm if you are keeping score at home).  One of the things I have noticed about Colorado is that almost everyone here has a dog, and most seem to walk them in Washington Park.  Virtually every apartment and condo is dog friendly, whereas in Florida - specifically Stuart, Florida - you are hard pressed to find a place that will allow dogs.  Just why is that?

The geese were out in Washington Park in large numbers, too, pecking away at the spots where the grass was showing through.  And once again I was thinking that a true entrepreneur would go around the park with a net, collect as many geese as possible, and send them off for a hefty profit to somewhere where a goose dinner is considered a delicacy - perhaps New Jersey.  But not me.  Those geese bite.

Sox Win! Sox Win! Sox Win!

As regular blog readers know, I grew up in the south side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago, and therefore am a dedicated Chicago White Sox fan.  And I decided that instead of paying $120 for the worst seat in the house to attend Opening Day at Denver's Coors Field, I would subscribe once again to MLB.com, which allows me to watch every single Chicago White Sox baseball game this season, not to mention the occasional Cubs game (Chicago's effete north side team) in desperate circumstances. And yesterday, I was able to witness the White Sox win their first victory of the year, a 9 to 7 spring training victory over the Kansas City Royals.  Am I worried because the White Sox lost three games and tied one before achieving this first victory? Certainly not.  Spring training games mean nothing.  It is all about finding the best of the best to start the regular season.  I think this year will see the first subway series (the White Sox versus the Cubs in the World Series) since 1908.  And yes - I will indeed pay $120 for that particular ticket.

Dark Sacred Night

I just finished reading Dark Sacred Night, the latest Michael Connelly novel featuring police detective Harry Bosch and Connelly's latest character, LAPD detective Renee Ballard.  Ballard was the main character in one of  Connelly's previous novels, The Late Show, and in Dark Sacred Night the two get together to solve a cold case involving the murder of a 15 year old runaway.  Once again Connelly delivers a fast paced and exciting story. It was so fast paced that I was surprised the other night when I realized I was a mere 20 pages from the end. If you want to read a truly excellent police thriller, pick up a copy today at your local bookstore, or else put your name on the library's waiting list.  That is what I did - it took almost 4 months to get, but it was worth it. And much cheaper, too.

Celebrating The Start Of Spring Training At Old Chicago

My friend Stuart (seen in the above photograph) and I celebrated the start of baseball spring training at the Old Chicago Restaurant in beautiful, exotic Lakewood, Colorado yesterday evening.  And speaking of Lakewood, the latest rumor is that the Lakewood City Council is considering changing the time they roll up the sidewalks there from 8:00 to 9:00 P.M., but only during the summer.  And it would have to be approved by voters, so good luck with that.  In any case, Stuart is doing well and living the good life, and after dinner we headed over to the Barnes and Noble for a cup of coffee and to check out the books.  I know, being a retired Tattered Cover Bookstore employee, that I should not be entering Barnes and Noble, but I promise I did not buy anything other than coffee.  I swear.

Rockies Win! Cubs Win! And The White Sox?

Yesterday was the first spring training game for all three of these teams, and let's get one thing straight right now - spring training games mean nothing.  You put in different pitchers and players each inning and see how they perform, no matter the score or the situation, which is exactly what the Chicago White Sox did in their game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.  I watched the contest on MLB.com, and the starting pitcher did not get out of the first inning, having given up 4 runs.  Pretty soon they were behind 7 to nothing, but came back strong, and lost the game by only one run.  Plus, it was a split squad, meaning that half the team was playing a game somewhere else.  It won't be until the last few spring training games that the team will actually concentrate on winning, and so I am definitely not worried - yet.  And as for the above photograph of Denver's Coors Field, it is a reminder that Opening Day there is a mere 5 weeks away.  Spring is here at last!

Getting Together With Some Of The DU Guys

Several of us current and former University of Denver friends and colleagues got together last night at Spanky's Urban Roadhouse for burgers and beers and to find out what is currently happening at DU these days, where I was the Finance Manager at the DU Bookstore for almost 30 years, until the university outsourced us to Follett Higher Education Group. It was a very pleasant evening, and right after we went out the door I snapped a photograph of everyone standing out in a major snowstorm, which began as we entered the place.  From left to right is Mark, who works at DU's Anderson Academic Commons (once known as Penrose Library); Wally, who was the Operations Manager at the DU Bookstore before it was outsourced, and is now retired; Joe, who is an artist, an instructor at the Art Student's League of Denver, and who still works at the DU Bookstore once a week; and Owen, who worked in the computer department at the DU Bookstore, and who now works for the University of Denver's University Technology Services. Great to see all you guys again!  It was fun.

Spring Training Games Begin Today!

Today baseball spring training games begin in both Florida and Arizona, which means the start of the regular season is a little more than 4 weeks away.  Opening Day at Denver's Coors Field will be Friday, April 5th, although for the second year in a row I will not be attending. Thanks to the practice of "dynamic pricing," the cheapest (and worst) seat in the house is $120.  For the same amount of money I can watch every single Chicago White Sox game on MLB.com, which I intend to do.  And speaking of the White Sox and spring training, I was reminded recently of attending a White Sox spring training game with my then wife Lisa and her grandmother back in March of 1985, when the White Sox still trained at Payne Park in Sarasota, Florida, where I took the photograph on the left.

Payne Park was one of the old time spring training facilities, like Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Florida, where the fans and the players entered and exited the same way and you could actually stop and talk to your favorite players.  I remember once bumping into Dodgers star Steve Garvey (literally), and excusing myself, but he just pushed forward without a word, the jerk, but once again I digress.  The whole point of these ballparks back then was to get ready for the season, not make money, and the informality was very refreshing.  These days it is all about both training and making money, and so all the old facilities like Payne Park have been replaced by smaller versions of major league stadiums, not nearly as fan friendly, and it is now much more expensive to see a game.

Lisa's grandmother was a very pleasant woman who lived in Venice, Florida, a little ways south of Sarasota. Her husband - Lisa's grandfather - had recently passed away.  He was a big supporter of the local little league down there, and the city decided to name a little league baseball field after him, which was the reason we went down there.  I took the photograph on the left of Lisa and her grandmother just after the ceremony.  As I recall, Lisa's grandmother was very proud that day, and really seemed to enjoy our visit, even the baseball game at Payne Park and a visit to downtown Sarasota afterwards.  Payne Park is still a park, but the baseball facility is long gone, and the White Sox now train in the Phoenix area.  Since I live in Denver, it is a much closer drive to catch a game than in Florida, but I wish they still trained at Payne Park.  It would be well worth the extra miles.

Grandparents

I am now 66 years old, and just yesterday received my first social security check. In other words, I am old.  And just how in the hell did I ever get old, anyway?  It seems to me like it happened overnight.  And now, after all these years, it is just my sister Susan and I that are left, and we both miss our parents and grandparents very much.  Susan and I often talk about them, and she has wonderful stories about staying with my father's parents (Claire and Fleta Hoyt), seen in the photo on the left.  My Grandmother Hoyt would read to Susan each night, and Grandfather and Grandmother Hoyt would often sit out on their enclosed back porch and listen to the Chicago White Sox games on the radio during the summer.  Truly magic times.  By the time I grew old enough to appreciate them, they had retired to Costa Mesa, California, and so I never knew them as well.

I did, however, get to know my mother's parents (William and Louise Spillard, seen celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in the photo on the right), but not as well as my sister. My mother Mary and sister Susan lived with them while my father Nelson served in the army as a dentist on Okinawa during WWII. He returned in 1947, and after living together at my grandparent's house on East 85th place for another two years, my mother, father, and sister moved into our house in the south side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago.  Susan tells me that she just loved living with Grandmother and Grandmother Spillard.  It was the happiest time of her life.  And when she was older, they would take her to the horse races every week, and treat her to a wonderful dinner afterwards.  By the time I came along, they evidently had had enough of taking the grand-kids places, but I am certainly not bitter about that.  I probably would have lost a fortune at the track.

Perusing The Peak To Peak Highway

Last weekend I decided to continue my quest to see an actual, live moose in Colorado, and decided to drive up to Nederland, located about 17 miles west of Boulder.  To get there you drive into the mountains via Boulder Canyon, and from there can head north along the "Peak to Peak" Highway, where according to legend, moose have been spotted.  During my travels that day I spotted two yellow warning signs with the outline of a moose on them, which raised my hopes immensely. Nederland, by the way, used to be a hippie community back in the 1960s.  It is now most famous for it's "Frozen Dead Guy" festival, celebrating a local resident who had himself frozen after death in the hope of someday coming back, a la Woody Allen in Sleeper. And no - the hippies did not move away.  They are still there, just much older. In any case, I stopped at Mud Lake, where I did spot what looked like an old hippie bus (see top row of collage), but not any moose.  I drove all along the Peak to Peak Highway (middle row of collage) and spotted nothing.  As sunset neared, I drove back down Boulder Canyon, (bottom right hand photo), and hung out in Boulder itself for a little, where I took the photograph on the lower left of dusk over the Flatirons.  And after this experience, I am even more convinced that moose do not, and never have, existed in the State of Colorado.

The Zoo - Part II

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I spent Friday afternoon at the Denver Zoo, taking photographs of animal willing to pose for me.  I always seem to have good luck with the monkeys, who are very intelligent and seem to have such thoughtful expressions whenever I take their photographs.  These creatures, so similar to humans, seem to understand that they are incarcerated, and don't know why, such as the mandrill seen in the photograph on the left.  This mandrill is in one compound by itself, and three others are in the compound right next door.  Is this because this mandrill does not play well with others?

The biggest of the mandrills was kind enough to pose for me in the photograph on the right.  This particular animal was very elusive for many years, but since being moved to a new compound seems much more willing to interact with zoo visitors.  Granted, he does not look happy, but as I mentioned before, he is intelligent and knows he is facing a life prison sentence, and so what is there to be happy about? Should these creatures be kept in zoos, to preserve the species and allow people to see them who would not be able to otherwise, or should they be left in the wild and allowed to go extinct?  Better minds than mine need to answer that question.

The monkey in the photograph on the left should be the happiest monkey at the Denver Zoo (although he or she doesn't look it).  It is able to go from island to island in it's water surrounded compound, using ropes to go from place to place and generally putting on a show for zoo visitors.  Friday afternoon was a pretty warm day here in Denver - it reached 60 degrees and the sun was out all day, and so this particular monkey was pretty comfortable.  However, I have been at the zoo when it was pretty damn cold out, and have seen this same monkey huddling with it's arms folded, sitting next to the door to the inside compound, waiting to be let inside.  A cold snap is coming, so enjoy the warmth while you can, happy monkey.

The Zoo In February

I had lunch with my former Tattered Cover Bookstore office-mate Peter this past Friday afternoon, and since I was so close, decided to visit the Denver Zoo afterwards, while Peter had to head back to work.  I won't rub it in, of course.  I am, after all, an official retiree, and get to do these type of things while the rest of the world has to work.  In any case, my first stop was to check out the lions, who were all excited about the feeding of the African Wild Dogs, as seen in the photograph on the left.  There was some sort of talk being given, and these dogs were each given bones to chew.  They are located n the compound right next to the lions.  The lions were so interested that I thought that the next part of the presentation would be feeding the wild dogs to the lions, but no such luck.

In any case, I took some photographs of the lions, all 4 of them both male and siblings, who came to the zoo as teenagers (by which I mean not cubs but not adults, either) a few years ago. It is only recently that these lions have grown manes, and have begun to look like adult lions.  They all seem to get together well, but there might be a fly in the ointment coming to paradise.  The Denver Zoo last month acquired a new male lion named Tobias, who has been selected to mate with one of the zoo's female lions.  And just what is wrong, Denver Zoo Officials, with the four brothers?  It reminds me a lot of high school, but let's not go there.  And in point of fact, I had no idea that the Denver Zoo even had female lions.  I have never seen one of them until this past Friday.  I took photographs of the male lions when I first arrived, such as the one in the photograph on the right, but when I was leaving, the 4 males had been replaced by 3 females.

All three of the females had been given bones to chew on, and were not very interested in having their photograph taken.  I was lucky enough to take a photograph of one of them actually looking at me, as seen in the photograph on the left.  What I want to know is why they can't have the 4 male brothers, the new male lion Tobias, and the 3 females all together in the compound at the same time.  Now that would be a photo opportunity. Throw a new young intern into the compound to enforce some order, and you have some good entertainment for zoo visitors.  I will suggest this to zoo officials immediately.

Home Sweet Home

Sometimes it is just too cold and/or too snowy to go outside, which was the case yesterday here in Denver, and I am just happy to stay home and look out at the bad weather.  This is what I was doing when I took the above photograph of the view from my living room window.  However, back when I worked as a rural carrier for the post office down in Highlands Ranch for about six months (although it seemed like six years), I did not have that choice, and was often outside long after dark in below zero temperatures.  That is one tough job, and you have to admire the people who do it, especially the part-timers without benefits who often take on unfamiliar routes and sometimes stay out until midnight.  And no - they do not get overtime.  The post office pays a fixed amount for the route, whether it takes two hours or twelve.  Just how do they get away with that?  Oh, right.  They are the government.

Lunch With Peter At Pepper

I had lunch yesterday afternoon at Pepper Asian Bistro with my old office-mate Peter.  As can be seen in the photograph above, Peter is still a bit camera shy (probably still in the Witness Protection Program), and would reveal only one eye, whereas last time I took his photograph I was able to get both eyes, though nothing else.  What can I say?  Once I put someone's photograph on my blog, they become very reticent about appearing on my blog again. In any case, we discussed what was happening at Denver's Tattered Cover Bookstore, where I was the bookkeeper until I retired last August, and also discussed what various co-workers are up to these days. And I must say, Pepper has great food and a really good deal at lunch. When we went into the place, there was a homeless person sleeping in front of the place, with his shopping cart on the sidewalk next to him, but since the restaurant, as well as the Tattered Cover Bookstore, is located on East Colfax Avenue (the longest, wickedest street in America, according to the late Hugh Hefner), what can you expect?  Good to see you again, Peter!

The February Mutt Of The Month

I took the above photograph of the February Mutt of the Month on a walk down Denver's Old South Gaylord Street.  This dog is tied up in front of a bar called Reivers almost every time I pass by, and so I assume it belongs to someone who works there, or else to an extremely loyal customer.  Most of the time he or she is lying down, waiting for the next person walking by to pet him, and most people seem to know him by name.  Restaurants are not allowed to have dogs on the premises,  and so I hope that during the next cold snap - which starts tomorrow - it will have a nice warm place to stay, perhaps next door in the clothing shop. One can only hope.

Valentine's Day

Today is Valentine's Day, and since I have been divorced now for many years, I am once again not planing to celebrate.  But I still have memories of the happy times, and I guess I should be glad for those fleeting moments.  And so therefore I am featuring a photograph that was taken (with the help of a camera with a self-timer and a tripod) on Colorado's Independence Pass, when my then wife Lisa and I were on our honeymoon back in 1982.  A lifetime ago, but I am still happy to have those memories. Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

Pitchers And Catchers Report! Baseball Is Back!

It has been a long, hellish winter, for a variety of reasons, but the first sign of spring has arrived!  Pitchers and catchers reported to major league baseball camps in Florida and Arizona yesterday, and have their first workout today.  And just how great is that?  Now that I subscribe to MLB.com, I will be able to watch every single Chicago White Sox game this season (as well as the occasional Chicago Cubs game, too, in desperate circumstances). Will this be the year the White Sox and Cubs meet in the World Series for the first time since 1908?  And what of the Colorado Rockies?  Will they be a contender?  The best thing about spring training is that anything is possible, until the regular season starts, when cold hard reality begins to seep in.  The above photograph, by the way, was taken on a very cold March day during a New York Mets spring training game in Port St. Lucie, Florida many years ago.  The opponent?  The final score?  Lost in time, I'm afraid.

Lincoln's Birthday

Today is Lincoln's birthday, which is a big deal for me, especially since the State of Illinois, where I grew up, is known as "The Land of Lincoln." However, to my shame, I keep using the same photograph each year, even though I have in my possession every single class photograph that was taken from kindergarten through 8th grade at Fort Dearborn Grammar School, back in the south side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago. They are in one of about one million boxes in my closets, but I am just too lazy to go through all of them to find one just a little bit different from the one I used last year (so sue me).  But the point is the same.  When I was in grammar school at Fort Dearborn, we got BOTH Lincoln's and Washington's birthday off.  I just hated school, and two days off in February were a Godsend. These days, of course, there is now President's Day, and students everywhere are given only a single day off.  If I were younger, I would start a protest movement, but at this point in life, I say to hell with it.  Fight your own battles, young people.  For those keeping score, this photograph was taken exactly 54 years ago this month.  Time flies when you are having fun.  And by the way, I am in the middle row, on the far left.  A sign of my future political beliefs, which my brother-in-law George would definitely have pointed out.

Back To Old Chicago

My friend Stuart had this past weekend free, since his girlfriend was visiting family in Texas, and therefore we got together Saturday night at the Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom on Colorado Boulevard here in Denver for pizza and beers.  And for a change, we ordered deep dish pizza, a Chicago specialty, which was quite good indeed.  Since baseball spring training games do not start until a week from Saturday, we watched the golf match taking place at Pebble Beach in California.   Even if you don't like golf, it is just a pleasure to look at the scenery along the California coast.  One of these days, I plan to stop there and stay at a very reasonable inn I was told about on the Monterrey peninsula.  And no, I will not play a round of golf at one of those courses, since it would probably cost three times what the hotel costs.  Even a non-cheapskate would balk at that.

Dog Day Afternoon

Speaking of Fort Collins, which was the subject of yesterday's blog, I drove up there this past Thursday afternoon to take my sister Susan around on her usual errands, as well as taking her two dogs to be groomed at a local pet shop.  It had snowed all day in Denver on Wednesday, but the main roads were perfectly clear on Thursday, and so it was a breeze driving up there.  I was a little bit early, and so I walked around to the front of her place to snap a photo of her townhouse complex, as seen in the photograph on the left. Fort Collins is a nice town, one of the fastest growing cities in the U.S., as a matter of fact, but still is a great place to live.  It is home to Colorado State University, giving it a youthful vibe, and has a truly wonderful old town, dating back to the 1850s (and all you Europeans out there, please give us a break - we are still a very young country).

The first thing we did when I got there was to drop off the dogs for grooming at the pet store.  We then went about our usual routine - going to the library, the grocery store, the thrift store, etc.  We then drove back to the pet store to pick up the dogs.  I took charge of them both while my sister paid the bill and chatted with the staff about dogs for about an hour or two.  Since it was in the single digits outside, the dogs seemed to want to get in the car as soon as possible, where I snapped several portraits of them.  In the photograph on the right is Tutu, who is looking kind of mellow after getting trimmed.  She was shaking like a leaf on the way there, no doubt suspecting that something - probably not good - was up.  She is a tiny Yorkie, very shy, and of course dotes on my sister.

Blackberry (a cairn), seen looking for my sister Susan in the photograph on the left, has major separation anxieties when my sister is out of sight.  She will whimper and howl and basically make a spectacle of herself until Susan returns. When we went to Santa Fe this past September and Susan would go into a convenience store for a moment to buy snacks for the evening, she would howl like a deserted orphan, and I would have to explain to each customer going into the store that she was simply waiting for her owner to come back.  Dogs are indeed a wonderful thing to have, but they are also a truly great responsibility.  You are suddenly in charge of a living thing, and it is very much like having a child to care for.  Too much emotional responsibility for me, coward that I am.  Good luck to you with that, Susan.

Hanging Out In Old Town Fort Collins

I drove up to Fort Collins from Denver to drive my sister Susan around on her errands, and while she was at the beauty parlor, took the opportunity to drive to Old Town Fort Collins to drop off some paperwork to the lawyer who we have engaged to settle the estate of my late brother-in-law George.  The lawyer has his office in the Opera Galleria Building, right on College Avenue.  This was originally Fort Collin's opera house, built in the 1880s, and as I left the lawyer's office, I took the opportunity to take the photograph on the left of the ceiling in the atrium. The building now consists of retail shops on the ground floor, and both offices and condos on the second and third floors.

Later that day, Susan and I decided to have dinner in Old Town, and first decided to have a drink at The Forge, a bar located in Old Firehouse Alley.  We had passed it several times in the past, and I am always intrigued by bars located in alleys.  I think this goes back to watching Jimmy Stewart and Kim Novak in the movie Bell, Book, and Candle.  There was a big scene in the movie which took place at The Diogenes Club, a gathering place for the witches and wizards in Manhattan.  There were no witches and wizards (as far as I could tell) at The Forge.  It has a great, low key atmosphere, but I was kind of surprised to see that they served me a 12 ounce beer (that did not have a high alcohol content) for the same price as a pint everywhere else, and the food menu was damn strange.  We wound up eating at The Union, just down the block and a much better deal, beer and food wise.  The photograph on the right, by the way, is of a spiral staircase just outside the entrance to The Forge, leading up to God knows where.  Perhaps to a witches coven?

Regardless of the question of witchcraft in Fort Collins (and I have to admit that I am probably the only person in the world who has even given any thought to this subject), I must complement the City of Fort Collins for turning the alleys in Old Town into very pleasant, people friendly zones.  I took the photograph on the left at the entrance to Old Firehouse Alley, where it meets Linden Street.  And what does this mural mean?  Probably that witchcraft is alive and well in Fort Collins, and for God's sake don't cross them.  I myself certainly won't.  Like everyone else, I already have a lot of issues to deal with, and dealing with witches will not help.  Just rent the movie Rosemary's Baby to see what I mean.

More From March Of 1972

Yesterday I featured a photograph that I took of the Hotel Florence, located in the south side Pullman neighborhood of Chicago, back on March 17th of 1972.  I was taking slides at the time, and the last few in the packet were of my parents, Nelson and Mary, and my dog Irma, sitting on the living room couch in our house in south suburban Country Club Hills.  I was never crazy about Country Club Hills, which was a treeless suburb geared for young couples with children.  We probably moved there because all of my mother's family lived there or in nearby Park Forest.  My sister Susan and brother-in-law George eventually moved to an apartment in Flossmoor, just across the street from the Illinois Central station, which was actually a very nice place indeed.  The original Aureilo's Pizza was (and still is) located in nearby Homewood, which was a plus, but I still think it was a good thing when my parents moved to Stuart, Florida, in 1976, where they made all kinds of friends and thought they had moved to paradise.  In any case, I checked the internet, and Easter Sunday was April 2nd of that year, which explains the poinsettia in the foreground.  The lamp on the left in the photo, by the way, is still in the condo in Florida, and the lamp reflected in the mirror is currently sitting in my living room here in Denver.  And no, I don't throw anything out if it still works. In any case, this is a snapshot from a moment in time, and I am happy to have discovered it.

Speaking About Pullman...

I was waxing nostalgic yesterday about the South Side Chicago Pullman neighborhood - and the Hotel Florence that was located there - and decided to go through my boxes of slides to find a photograph of the place.  I found one that I took back on March 17th, 1972, when it was still operating as a hotel.  This was the neighborhood where they made Pullman Sleeping Cars, as well as Pullman Streetcars, one of which I featured in yesterday's blog.  The area needed a hotel to accommodate all the people calling on the factory, hence it's location. The Hotel Florence in now owned by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, and can be toured and even rented out for various events.  And I can't help but notice from the sign on the right in the above photo that the beer they featured on that long ago St. Patrick's Day was Pabst Blue Ribbon.  Really? No wonder they were only charging 10 cents a glass.

Have You Downloaded Your 2019 CTA Historical Calendar Yet?

If not, why not?  It is already February, after all.  This month's photograph (as seen above) features a Pullman Streetcar rolling down Chicago's Milwaukee Avenue back in the late 1940s.  These streetcars were built back in 1908 by the Pullman Car Company, which was located in the Pullman neighborhood on Chicago's South Side.  I visited that historic neighborhood a number of times back when I lived in Chicago, and would also pass it each time I took the Illinois Central commuter train downtown.  I especially remember passing the Hotel Florence, which often advertised 10 cent beers on a sign out front.  That, of course, was a long time ago, and I never did find out just how much beer you got for that amount. The Hotel Florence is now owned by a non-profit and available for events. But I digress - the CTA Historical Calendar, put out by the Chicago Transit Authority, is filled with historic photographs of Chicago, along with photos of the various forms of transportation used in the city over the past 150 years or so. Download your copy today at https://www.transitchicago.com/historicalcalendar/.

Time For Biking Part II

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, the temperature reached 65 degrees this past Sunday, which to me means biking weather.  I therefore headed out that afternoon and rode to downtown Denver and back, with frequent stops for photographs.  I had a great time, and really enjoyed getting back on the bike after several months.  And I just love taking photographs during these rides.  It truly doesn't matter if they are good or not.  I just enjoy taking them. In the above collage (going clockwise from the upper left) is a church that remains from the Auraria neighborhood, which was bulldozed to build the University of Colorado/Denver and Metropolitan State University back in the 1970s; the Grant-Humphreys Mansion, which is reputed to be haunted; a flower shop I happened upon while biking along Speer Boulevard, and still another photograph taken in Washington Park, with the tower of East High School in the background.  A truly good day.

Time For Biking!

This past Saturday was Groundhog Day, and happily, Punxsutawney Phil DID NOT see his shadow, which means that it will be an early spring. And appropriately enough, it reached 65 degrees here in Denver yesterday, which is the minimum temperature I require to go out biking.  And that is exactly what I did.  I headed to Lower Downtown, through Washington Park and the older neighborhoods that lead to Denver's 16th Street Mall, on which bike riding is allowed on Sundays (any other day of the week, they shoot you).  On my way, I stopped to take a self portrait (known as a selfie these days) in front of the Grant-Humphreys Mansion (as seen in the photograph on the left), where many years ago I attended the wedding of my fellow University of Denver Bookstore co-worker Aziz.  Aziz worked at the DU Bookstore while he was working on his doctorate degree in international studies.  Once he graduated, he could not find a teaching job, and when his wife was transferred to Colorado Springs, he started selling cars, where he made so much money that he never even considered teaching ever again.  As long time blog readers know, Aziz, who is from Algeria, had a grandfather who received a pension from the French for fighting the Germans, and a pension from Algeria for fighting the French.  Talk about a win-win.

When I arrived in Lower Downtown Denver (LoDo), the place was hopping, and I suddenly remembered that it was Super Bowl Sunday, and in 20 minutes the ultimate football game of the year between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams was about to begin, and fans were queuing up to get into the View House. Since Denver football fans lough both of these teams, I was surprised at the crowd.  But then again Denver hipsters are willing to celebrate any event, any time, especially if they can dress up in costume.  No costumes for this occasion, but I did notice that a homeless man (on the left side of the photograph), was trying to get around the hipsters line in in front of the View House.  Quite the contrast. I wonder who he was rooting for?

A Sporting Sort Of Saturday

I went over to my friend Mark's house yesterday morning to watch the soccer match between Leeds and Norwich City.  It was a 5:30 P.M. kickoff in Leeds, and so the game started at 10:30 in the morning here in Denver.  Mark has a lot of friends in Leeds (specifically a suburb called Morley), has visited there several times, attended a game at the Leeds stadium, and is so a big fan of the soccer team there.  Leeds wound up losing 3 to 1 and looked pretty bad doing it, to Mark's chagrin.  I was also planning to go to the Colorado Avalanche hockey game with my friend Stuart that night.  However, Stuart canceled at the last minute, and so I invited Mark to come along instead, and took his photograph in the Pepsi Center before we sat down, as seen on the left.

This was the third professional hockey game I have attended in my life, and I must say it was a lot different from the first two.  The team is owned by Stan Kroenke, who also owns the Colorado Rapids soccer team (among many other sports teams) and so I immediately noticed a lot of similarities between the two operations.  First, they play the music (a hellish combination of electronic music and rap) so incredibly loud you can't hear or talk to the person next to you.  The only relief is when they are actually playing hockey, but the game stops about every 5 seconds or so for various reasons and the hellish songs start up immediately and stay on until play resumes.  Second, they have a moderator, who welcomes you to the game and brings you up to date on important team information.  Last night was Star Wars Night, and so the moderator was surrounded by two Star Wars Storm Troopers. Mark and I  also attended a Colorado Rapids Star Wars night last year.  Is it always Star Wars night at these games?  The thing that was truly different was the appearance of Snow Shovel Girls, seen in the photograph on the right.  They were called out at random intervals (twice within five minutes in one period) throughout the game to shovel the ice. I have never seen this before at a hockey game. Is today's ice so bad that they can't wait until the period is over to fix it?  I personally blame global warming.

The most mysterious part of the evening was the Ceremony of the Cell Phones, as seen in the photograph on the left.  Between the second and third period, the lights were turned down and everybody took out their cell phones and put on the flashlight option.  I am not at all sure what the meaning of this is, and the moderator did not come onto the overhead television to explain it.  Was it some sort of homage to the modern cell phone, which has changed the world so much over the past few decades, allowing the world to become your phone booth, not to mention allowing virtually everyone on  the planet to text 24/7, even while walking down the street or driving a car?  I have no idea, and after the game, when I could finally hear again, I asked Mark, but he had no answer either.  The most shocking thing of all was that a can of beer costs $11.00, which is 3 dollars higher than at Coors Field.  I often spend less than half that amount to get into baseball games, but the cheap seats at an Avalanche game can cost close to $100 (our seats were freebies that Stuart obtained from a friend).  I did have an enjoyable evening, but I must say I am really beginning to feel like a true curmudgeon. I would write the papers, but nobody reads them anymore.  Interesting times for sure.  And by the way, the Avalanche stink.  They lost to the Vancouver Canucks 5 to 1. And just what the hell is a Canuck, anyway?

Winter Nostalgia

It snowed here in Denver recently, a rare occurrence these days, but evidently it has been snowing a lot in the mountains just to the west, which inspired me to post this photograph of my sister Susan and brother-in-law George, taken on a long ago cross country ski outing.  We also did a bit of downhill skiing back then, too, but that was much more expensive.  Also, we would often go with George's cousin Richard, who was an excellent skier, but had a tendency to lead Susan and George down "black" runs, which was very akin to jumping off a cliff.  My sister Susan often thought he was purposely trying to kill them.  She still does, actually.  He once filmed her coming down one of these runs backwards, and often liked to show that tape at family gatherings.  Ah, the good old days.  Or in some cases, not.

More About Golden...

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I walked around Golden, Colorado this past Wednesday to soak up the atmosphere and take a few photographs, some of which can be seen in the above collage.  I just love Golden.  It has retained it's 19th century charm despite only being 20 minutes away from downtown Denver.  It was, in fact, the first territorial capitol of Colorado from 1862 until 1867, when scumbag politicians from Denver got the capitol moved there (you see - the more things change, the more they stay the same).  The legislature met in the building that is dead center in the collage, now called the Old Capitol Grill.  The legislature would meet upstairs and then adjourn to the first floor for a few libations.  The place still has a glassed in parlor in the back where the women had to sit, so as not to become corrupted by the tavern atmosphere.  I imagine that policy has changed by now, but you never know.  After all, Colorado just voted to make slavery illegal this past November (I know - I was surprised too). The top left photo in the collage shows the Astor House, a rooming house built in 1867, where many of the legislators stayed.  It featured the very first bathtub in town, and the landlady charged the town-folk 25 cents each to use it, making more money doing that than renting out rooms.  And the house in the above right of the collage belongs to one of my personal heros.  From the looks of it, it appears to be from the 1860s or 1870s, but the important thing is that the owner was somehow able to convince his wife to let him put a beer garden in the backyard.  It is called the Golden City Brewery, and is the second largest brewery in town after some place called Coors. Now how great is that?