The Zoo Part II

As I mentioned in yesterday's blog, I went to the Denver Zoo - which is now open after a 3 month shutdown due to the coronavirus - Sunday afternoon, and had a really nice time, despite having to wear a mask and follow a specified route.  And for the first time, I was able to take a close-up photo of Taji, the clouded leopard, seen in the photo on the left, which usually hides in the back of it's compound, at least while I am around.  Yesterday, however, it's keeper was standing outside the cage, and Taji was sitting right next to him.  The keeper was talking to people about how they try to train these animals to lean their backsides against the cage so they can give them vaccines and other shots without having to take them out of the compound. Talk about a tough job.

Happily, my friend the cheetah was still around and as always, willing to have it's portrait taken.  Cheetahs are supposed to be the fastest creatures on earth, and so it a shame that this poor thing is confined to such a relatively small space. Far better to let it run free throughout the zoo and get some real exercise.  All the zoo would have to do is post a few signs around saying that they are not responsible if children of zoo guests are eaten. I am pretty sure that would absolve them of any legal liabilities.

A Return To The Denver Zoo!

I went to the Denver Zoo late yesterday afternoon for the first time in about 3 months.  You now have to make a reservation in advance, and at least for members, it is hard to get a time. Fortunately, I was able to snag one of three spots still available for June.You have to wear a mask, follow a prescribed one way route, and all of the buildings are closed, but it was still nice to be able to walk around there again.  I took the photograph on the left of the female mandrill and her baby, and can't help but notice that she never lets the poor thing wander off on it's own.  I'm afraid that being so overprotective might cause problems for her baby later on in life, and require intensive psychoanalysis.  I just hope the zookeepers are counseling her about this.

Unlike the last time I was at the zoo, the father is now allowed in the same compound as his mate and baby, as seen in the photograph on the right.  However, the entire time I was there, he paid absolutely no attention to them.  Still another thing that might cause problems for that baby mandrill  later in life.  I definitely plan to call the zoo and find out if they have an animal psychologist on staff.  If not, perhaps I will set up a "go fund me" page.  I have remarked many times how many of the monkeys at the Denver Zoo, not to mention many other animals, seem depressed. And curiously enough, the great apes were nowhere in sight today, and the path to the outside cages of the monkey house was blocked off.  What are they hiding?

Lunching With Mark

I had lunch with my friend Mark yesterday afternoon in the backyard of his house, where I took the photograph on the left of him wearing his new Leeds jersey. Mark is a big fan of the Leeds soccer club, and is excited that Leeds is leading the Championship League with only 7 games to play.  If they hold on, they will move up to the Premier League, which is the top soccer division in England.  Of course, Mark tells me that Leeds is the Chicago Cubs of the soccer world, and none of his friends in Leeds are counting their chickens before they are hatched. And if they do go up to the Premier League, most of the fans feel they will go right back down again the following year.  Definitely sounds like Cubs fans to me.

Remembering A Couple Of Fort Dearborn Grammar School Graduations

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, we have been hearing a lot about 2020 graduating classes not being able to have traditional ceremonies this year. And I mean hearing about it REALLY a lot - maybe way too much, but that is just my opinion. Regardless, it reminds me of Fort Dearborn Grammar School, back in the South Side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago, which both my sister Susan and I attended and from where we graduated. Susan liked grammar school, while I myself hated it.  Classes went until mid-June, and I remember sitting in the classroom, with the windows open and the sound of lawnmowers in the background, counting the days until school was over.  And finally back in 1966 I graduated, and on that day we took photographs in the backyard of our house, although curiously we did not have the film developed for another 3 years.  In the photo on the left I am posing with my Grandmother Spillard (my mother's mother) and my mother Mary.

My sister Susan graduated 11 years earlier, and can be seen in the photograph on the right posing in front on my father Nelson's Nash, back in June of 1955 (I think).  When I visited Chicago 10 years ago, I visited Brainerd, and Fort Dearborn looked just the same as ever.  I put together a book titled The Journey Home: Returning to Chicago, about my trip back there after almost 30 years, and included photographs of Fort Dearborn, as well as the rest of the old neighborhood.  You can check it out at https://www.blurb.com/b/1361398-the-journey-home-returning-to-chicago. And even buy a copy if you have 50 bucks lying around.

Buchtel House And Other DU Memories

The photograph on the left is of Buchtel House, the official residence of the chancellor of the University of Denver, located a couple of blocks to the east of campus.  Before it became the official home of the chancellor, the house was rented out for various events, and was once the site of the University of Denver Bookstore's annual holiday party.  As I recall, the party was quite a success, although we were told that we could only bring beer in cans - which is what we did.  However, when we opened the refrigerator to put the beer inside, we saw it was already filled to bursting with bottled beer - good bottled beer, too, which we all then proceeded to drink.  We later learned that although the downstairs part of the house was rented out for events, the upstairs rooms were rented out as housing to university employees, including the assistant to the chancellor.  A few days after the event, someone called the bookstore director and asked her if we were the ones who drank all the beer in the fridge.  I think she said no, that we were all teetotalers.  I wonder how that went over?

The person who organized that event for the bookstore was Dave B, who was both the art and supply buyer and also in charge of advertising and promotions for the store.  The portrait of Dave seen on the right comes from my international bestseller, The Book on the DU Bookstore, which you can peruse at your leisure at https://www.blurb.com/b/1230340-the-book-on-the-du-bookstore. When the DU Bookstore was outsourced to Follett Higher Education Group, Dave B. was one of only a few employees to not accept a guaranteed one year position with that company.  And when Follett Higher Education Group laid me off after that one year, the Human Resources Department at the University of Denver confused me with Dave B, and tried to deny me unemployment insurance, bless their incompetent little hearts. Instead of sticking it out at the DU Bookstore for one more year, Dave opened his own business selling healthful snacks for resale to grocery stores, as well as to individuals online.  The last I checked, the company is still up and running. You can check out his website at https://superfoodsquares.weebly.com/.

Beers And Pizza With Valarie At The Hogshead!

I had pizza and beers with my friend Valarie, seen in the photograph above, yesterday afternoon at the Hogshead Brewery, located just a few blocks north of Sloan's Lake here in Denver (SloHi, if you are keeping track of all the local neighborhood acronyms). Valarie, my former co-worker at the University of Denver Bookstore, is doing well, and looking forward to a trip to Michigan for a "girls only" getaway at a friend's cottage there. Sounds pretty sexist to me, but what do I know? Valarie is keeping busy in retirement doing volunteer work, and is even writing a novel, which revolves around the street where she lived for many years in Denver's Highlands neighborhood . She promises to send me a chapter to critique. I just hope the first murder happens right off the bat. I don't want to give her a bad review.

Baseball Returns!

It was announced yesterday that baseball spring training will resume July 1st, and that the regular season will begin on July 24th. However, the season will be shortened to 60 games, while the postseason will take place in October as originally scheduled. Of course, the players union and baseball owners are both unhappy about the arrangement. The owners wanted to play more games with reduced player salaries, since there will be no fans in the stands this year, and the players steadfastly refused.  The end result is that the players will get their full pro-rated salaries, but with far fewer games than they wanted.  And if my South Side heros, the Chicago White Sox, do indeed make it to the playoffs this year - as predicted - will their success be discounted because of the shortened season?  Most definitely.  In any case, to celebrate the soon to start season, I am posting the photograph I used for my opening day greeting cards last year, featuring (from left to right) - in front of the Comiskey Park scoreboard - White Sox legend Shoeless Joe Jackson, former White Sox owner Bill Veeck, and legendary White Sox broadcaster Harry Caray, South Side heros all.

A Wee Bit Of Fort Collins History

I took a walk around the square block where the Fort Collins, Colorado downtown library and Heritage Courtyard are located, and took the photograph on the left of the Auntie Elizabeth Stone Cabin, the oldest residence in Fort Collins.  It was built in 1864 by Elizabeth Stone and her husband, Judge Lewis Stone, who moved to Colorado to operate the officers mess at Camp Collins, which was built to protect settlers and travelers along the Overland Trail.  Just three years later it was decided that the area no longer needed protecting, and the camp was closed, but the town of Fort Collins was born.  There never was a fort, but obviously Fort Collins sounds like a much better name for a town than Camp Collins.

Another cabin in the Heritage Courtyard is the Joseph Antoine Janis Cabin, built in 1859 and originally located in LaPorte, just to the west of Fort Collins.  Janis was a French-American who worked as a scout and interpreter at Fort Laramie (in Wyoming), and moved to the Fort Collins area because he found it so beautiful.  He married a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe, and in 1878 his wife was ordered to move to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, due to the mandatory removal of American Indians from that part of Colorado.  How sad is that? Janis accompanied his wife to the reservation and died there in 1890.  Pine Ridge, by the way, is the poorest Indian Reservation in the country.  I have a sneaking suspicion it was no great shakes back in 1878, either.

Susan At Bath

No - Not Bath, England.  I took the photograph on the left of my sister Susan at Bath Garden Center and Nursery in Fort Collins, where she was picking out flowers for her garden. And I did so at no small risk - Susan has threatened to kill me if I ever took another photograph of her.  Once women reach a certain age, many of them refuse to be photographed anymore.  Looking back at family photographs taken years ago, I realize this was not always the case. What changed? But I digress. Susan is an avid gardener, following in the footsteps of our Grandfather Hoyt, who tended his gardens in the front and back of his home in the south side Brainerd neighborhood of Chicago many years ago.

I visited my grandparents old home when I visited Chicago ten years ago, which is when I took the photograph on the right, with Grandmother and Grandfather Hoyt superimposed onto it. Sadly, the place was not in very good shape, and there was absolutely no trace of the lush gardens that used to surround the place.  Grandfather Hoyt even had a goldfish pond in the backyard, stocked with huge carp. Susan accidentally fell into that pond once when she was a little girl, and was punished by having to stand in the closet for a while, but she never held it against them. Or so she says.  I didn't go around the back to see if the pond was still there, but I suspect it was gone, too, like so much of our past.  Thank goodness we have our memories.

Happy Father's Day!

Today is Father's Day, and if you are able to celebrate today with your dad, I strongly advise you to take advantage of the opportunity and do so.  My own father, Nelson, passed away unexpectedly back in November of 1983, at the age of 74. I took the above photograph of him at Circle Bay, a condo complex just next door to where my parent's lived in Stuart, Florida.  They retired there in 1976, and spent their happiest years there. Both my father and I were fans of John D. McDonald's Travis McGee novels, which featured a modern day knight errant who lived on a houseboat at Bahia Mar Marina in Fort Lauderdale, and expounded on all manner of subjects while solving mysteries and saving people's lives.  I myself wanted to follow in McGee's footsteps and live on a boat, too.  My father just preferred to stand along the shore and look at them. After seeing what hurricanes can do to watercraft, I have decided that my father had the right idea all along. He had 7 years of retirement in Florida, and enjoyed every minute of it.  I wish he had had more time down there, but I am glad he at least had those years to enjoy.  Happy Father's Day Everyone!

Speaking Of Mutts...

As long as we are talking about mutts, I figure I should feature my sister Susan's two dogs, Blackberry and Tutu.  The photograph on the left features Blackberry, a cairn that is an exact ringer for Toto of Wizard of Oz fame.  Blackberry is an independent spirit, and does not like to be picked up or held.  It was a struggle to get a photograph of us together.  Twice a week, when I drive up to Fort Collins, I take Blackberry on walks - or to be more accurate, she takes me on those walks. A number of times she has escaped the house, and spent what seems like hours eluding capture.  The last time it happened, I would approach her, and just as I got close, she would dart away and prolong the game, which she was clearly enjoying. Cute.

Tutu, seen in the photograph on the right, is a Yorkie, and although my sister keeps calling her a "good girl," she seems to bark incessantly unless she is on the couch next to Susan.  I have mentioned many times how my friends Wally and Linda took their dog to a women's prison here in Colorado, where the inmates train these dogs, but Susan refuses to take this step.  I personally feel that there is no better way to instill obedience in a dog (or for that matter, a person) than having it spend several weeks with a convicted murderess, but that is just my opinion.

The June Mutt Of The Month

I took this month's photograph of the June Mutt of the Month while stopped at a light on Colorado Boulevard here in Denver.  It was a lucky break, since due to the coronavirus, restaurants have been closed for almost three months, eliminating my favorite spot for photographing dogs - tied up in front of restaurants, while their owners are inside eating and drinking their favorite craft brews. Now that these restaurants are back open,  I am hoping there will be a lot more of these pooches outside, just waiting to have their photograph taken.  They probably think that this will be their big break, the path to fame and fortune, poor things.

The Denver Zoo Has Reopened. Kind Of...

The Denver Zoo has partially reopened after being closed for almost three months, due to the coronavirus. However, you have to make an advance reservation first, and only a limited number of people are allowed in each day.  I went online to get a reserved time, but found out that the zoo was sold out to members for the entire month of June.  Undeterred, I tried the website a few days later and found that there were two tickets available, and snagged one.  It is at the end of the month, late in the afternoon, but beggars can't be choosers. Zoo officials claim that the animals have missed seeing visitors during these three months, and so I hope there will be more interaction with the animals now that the zoo is once again open. From what I have seen on television, the lions definitely look like they need to be petted.

You Can't Remember Everything...

I had a late lunch/early dinner yesterday afternoon with my friend Stuart at the Cherry Cricket in Denver's Cherry Creek neighborhood, and wound up forgetting to take his photograph for today's blog.  Forgetting things is not unusual for me these days, nor for Stuart, either. Stuart told me yesterday that he can remember all the details about riding a pony at the Illinois State Fair as a child, but can't remember what he had for lunch the other day, poor old guy.  In any case, thanks to my extensive file of photographs, I was able to post the above photo of Stuart (on the left) and myself at a brew fest that took place (I think) around Labor Day weekend in 1994, near where Coors Field was then under construction (and seen in the background of the photograph).  At the time, baseball was in the middle of the longest player's strike in it's history, and Coors Field's grand opening was delayed until April 26th, 1995.  And what is the current state of baseball? Players and baseball team owners are far apart in talks to resume baseball after stopping spring training due to the coronavirus, and it is very possible they will not resume play this year.  As I've said many times before, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Lowering The Bar...

I was biking down Montview Boulevard in East Denver the other day and saw the campaign sign in the photograph above on three different lawns.  The homes there are quite large. In fact, it was the political clout of the people in this neighborhood that I believe was the key factor in closing Stapleton Airport instead of expanding it, with the result that Denver now has an airport located close to the Kansas state line.  In other words, these people are politically savvy, but supporting "Any Functioning Adult"  for president in 2020 does seem to be setting the bar pretty low.  Is this a jab against Trump, Biden, or both? No matter which, these are definitely cynical times.

What's New In The June Issue Of Chicago Magazine?

To be honest, not all that much, although I did learn that the magazine is now owned by the Chicago Tribune. Whether that happened last week or 20 years ago, I can't say. The feature article this month is about the best places to live in and around Chicago. I was happy to see that one of these places was Beverly, located on the south side of Chicago just a mile or so west of where I grew up in the Brainerd neighborhood.  I actually think I could even afford to live in Beverly these days, unlike most of the other neighborhoods on the list.  However, most of the houses mentioned seemed to have 4 or 5 bedrooms, which would be a bit too much for one person, and besides - the property taxes would probably kill me. Best to just stay here in Denver, visit Chicago as much as possible, and stay at only the finest Motel 6 resort hotels in the city.

And speaking of real estate, there was a 2 page ad in this issue for NEMA, a new 76 story residential apartment building just two blocks away from where my sister Susan and brother-in-law George used to live at 1130 South Michigan. Living there would be fun, if you had all the money in the world to burn.  But evidently that is what the average Chicago Magazine reader has, because this issue features a lot of ads by realtors, and all the properties are priced between one and ten million dollars.  Hey rich guys - have you ever thought about checking out Beverly?

Stuart Florida Back In 1977

I am not sure if I took the photograph on the left or not, but the file name says that it was taken in 1977, and so it must be true.  It shows, from left to right, my Uncle Bill (my mother's brother), my Aunt Elsie, my mother Mary, and father Nelson, standing in front of my uncle and aunt's condo, which was located on the 2nd fairway at Monterey Yacht and Country Club in Stuart, Florida. Uncle Bill and Aunt Elsie retired there back in the early 1970s, and my parents bought a unit there too a few years later. Our families used to vacation together up in Canada every year, and my father and uncle would play golf together for two weeks, while the rest of us would occupy our time as we saw fit. Moving down there was like being on permanent vacation for them, and they loved living there.

The older photograph on the right shows the usual suspects during the early 1960s on the first fairway at Torpitt Lodge, a resort located on Sparrow Lake in Ontario.  During the 1950s, the families vacationed at Britannia, a very nice resort located on the Lake of Bays near Huntsville, Ontario. When the owner passed away, the son took over and raised rates so high that they were forced to find cheaper accommodations, such as Lumina (which still  exits) and Torpitt. I am very happy they were all able to retire down in Stuart and enjoy their lives together year-round.  However, my Uncle Bill soon developed Alzheimers, and passed away not too long after. My father was able to spend 7 years there before passing away, while my mother and aunt stayed on and enjoyed the good life down in Stuart for many years.  There were never any yachts - or for that matter dinghies - at the Monterey Yacht and Country Club, but they did have a yacht club, which was more than enough. My sister Susan and I still own our parent's condo, but have to rent it out to keep it in the family, at least for now.  It brings back many happy memories just thinking about it.

Visiting With Wally And Linda During A Time Of Pandemic

I went over to visit my friends Wally and Linda (seen standing in their garden in the photo on the left) yesterday afternoon, and enjoyed sitting in their backyard talking about the good old days a little less than 3 months ago.  Wally, as regular blog readers will recall, was my colleague at the University of Denver Bookstore before I was  laid off by Follett Higher Education Group after the store was outsourced by the University of Denver.  I had called Wally the other day, and he told me I caught him just as he was about to climb into the crawl space under his house.  I assured him that things were not that bad yet, and he should hold off from taking that drastic step for a while.  We are, of course, all retired now, footloose and fancy free, except that none of us can travel anymore without fear of death. Bummer.

As usual, Wally and Linda's cat Stella and dog Sailor (seen in the photo on the right) were very friendly, and both greeted me warmly. Sailor is suffering from arthritis these days, and so is beginning to feel his age (tell me about it, Sailor).  He is still willing to play a game of ball for a bit, however, before needing to take a rest break. Sailor was a bit precocious in his youth, and Linda and Wally sent him up to the Colorado State Women's Prison for obedience training (part of a program to help rehabilitate inmates). Nothing like having a murderess install some discipline into your pet to keep it on the up and up.  I keep recommending that my sister Susan put her two dogs into the program, but she always says no.  And by the way, Sailor, sadly to say, was a recidivist, and has been to prison several times now.  And you know what they say about old dogs.

Playing In The South Platte River - Seriously?

I went for a bike ride this past weekend, going from my condo across the street from the University of Denver to Sloan's Lake Park and back. As usual, midway during the ride, I crossed the pedestrian bridge over the South Platte River.  There are now a lot of upscale apartment buildings on either side of that waterway, and a lot of the residents of these complexes take their dogs to the river to play. Some of these apartment dwellers even go into the water themselves. Big mistake. I am amazed they don't just dissolve in the water as you watch them.

After I circled Sloan's Lake, I headed home, and crossed back over the South Platte at Confluence Park. This is where Cherry Creek empties into the Platte, and is where the City of Denver actually began.  As you can see in the photograph on the right, there are a lot of people who play in the water here, and either don't know or don't care that this river is on the EPA's list of impaired waterways, with E. Coli as "the representative pathogen species." Yuk!  Social distancing is of no help in this situation.  It is just a question of what will get you first.

RiNo!

Yesterday I went for a bike ride through Denver's River North (RiNo) neighborhood.  This is an area just north of Lower Downtown (known as LoDo, of course) that used to be an industrial district, and then started attracting artists drawn there by cheap rents.  It soon started attracting hipsters, and is now filled with pricey apartment buildings, bars, restaurants, and at least one brew pub every two blocks.  It still looks like an industrial district, but with that many brew pubs, why quibble?

The streets and outdoor patios used to be packed cheek to jowl, but after all those bars and brewpubs had to shut down due to the coronavirus, there was hardly a soul in sight anymore. Now that these establishments can reopen, the neighborhood is a bit more lively, but still, not many of those patio tables are occupied.  If Pete Seeger were still around, he would no doubt be singing "Where have all the hipsters gone, Long time passing, Where have all the hipsters gone, Long time ago?"  They are no doubt chilling in their pricey hipster pads. A great loss for all.

In A House Of Lies

I just finished reading In a House of Lies, Ian Rankin's latest Inspector Rebus novel. I had read a lot of good things about this series, and decided to start with Rankin's latest book.  I was surprised to find that in this story - and probably quite a few others - that the title character, John Rebus, is retired, but still getting involved in current investigations by the Edinburgh police.  This time, the body of a murder victim is found in the trunk of a car hidden in some woods 10 years after his disappearance. Rebus was involved in the original investigation - which was universally condemned as being botched by the police - and he now wants to make sure the case gets solved this time around. I really liked the book, and strongly recommend reading it, although Rebus does strike me as a bit of an old fuddy-duddy.  I definitely intend to read some of the older books, too.  And by the way, it is just pure coincidence that I took the above photograph of In a House of Lies in front of Driscoll South, home of the now Follett Higher Education Group run University of Denver Bookstore, my former employer.

City Park Has Swan Boats. Wash Park Does Not. What Gives?

On a recent bike ride through Denver's City Park, I noticed for the first time (after living here for 39 years) that the park has swan boats for rent.  City Park is Denver's oldest, and is located in the center of the city.  I myself live close to Washington Park, in south central Denver, where they have only ugly, orange plastic paddle boats for rent.  What is the deal with that?  Not that I would ever think of renting a paddle boat myself, of course.  It's just the principle of the thing.  I definitely plan to talk to my alderman - or whatever they call them here in Denver - about all this.  As we used to say in Chicago, I think the fix is in.

The Protests Continue...

I went biking yesterday afternoon, and ran into one of the protest marches demanding justice for the death of George Floyd when I got to Denver's 16th Street.  There was a sizable crowd walking down the mall, and I followed along until the march turned off onto Larimer Street, while I myself continued my way down the mall. There is no question that this country needs to eliminate police brutality and racial injustice. I don't think anyone can argue against that, and if these marches accomplish that, that will be a great thing.  However, I saw in the news yesterday that leaders in Minneapolis want to eliminate the police department.  Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. Have they taken a good look at Honduras, where street gangs control much of the country and anyone who can afford it surrounds their home with tall chain link fences topped with razor wire?  Everyone there is forced to travel in groups when they venture outside,  in order to avoid being robbed and/or killed. On the other side of the political spectrum, President Trump wanted to send in the regular army to maintain order, against the wishes of the state governors, before being met with major push back. In addition, Trump re-tweeted a post that said that the only good Democrat was a dead Democrat, which no doubt expresses the views of his base.  Is it too much to hope that everyone, especially politicians, can start to work together to advance the welfare of all the American people? Will there ever be an end to this us against them attitude that is tearing the country apart? One can only hope.

Dining At Old Chicago Again

My friend Stuart and I had dinner at the Old Chicago Pizza and Taproom in beautiful, but still very boring Lakewood, Colorado last night for the first time in almost three months.  Restaurants were recently allowed to reopen for inside dining after having to close due to the coronavirus.  It was kind of a surreal experience, especially with all the staff wearing masks.  There were not that many people in the place, which I assume was out of an abundance of caution.  That didn't stop Stuart and I - we are used to pushing the outside edge of the envelope, just like Hunter S. Thompson did when he was alive.  Of course, Thompson was doing things like riding his Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle down the Pacific Coast Highway after midnight at speeds in excess of 125 miles per hour, going from San Francisco to Big Sur and back each night. But that's kind of the same thing we were doing, right?

The 76th Anniversary Of D-Day

Today is the 76th anniversary of D-Day.  That invasion by 156,000 Allied forces on the beaches of Normandy was the largest seaborne invasion in history.  There were 10,000 casualties, and 4,414 soldiers lost their lives, but the war in Europe was over just 10 months later. My father Nelson and his friend Ed, both dentists, were drafted late in the war, and missed taking part in this battle, thank God.  My father was sent to Okinawa and served as a dentist in what people now know as a MASH unit, pulling teeth and dodging snipers and typhoons. He can be seen in the photograph above in the middle row on the far right. His friend Ed, on the other hand, was sent to Paris and spent his time as an army dentist there.  My mother Mary tells me that my father actually liked his time in the army.  It was a break from the routine of doing a job he hated. I must say, being sent to Paris instead of Okinawa would have been much more preferable, but my father was no complainer, God bless his soul.

DU To Resume In-Person Classes This Fall

The University of Denver recently announced that it will be holding in-person classes on campus this fall. This past quarter, students were forced to take classes online, due to the coronavirus. I imagine that a lot of those DU students - not to mention their parents - felt they were not getting their money's worth because of this. With annual tuition and fees of $50,500, I myself would have been a bit peeved at having to shell out that kind of money while sitting in front of my computer at home.  And I must say,  the campus seemed pretty empty this spring.  I took the photograph on the left of University Hall, built back in 1890, a week or so ago, with nary a person in sight.

The photograph on the right is of Evans Memorial Chapel, built in the 1870s and moved to the campus from downtown Denver.  In the foreground you can see one of the many reflecting ponds around campus, which have recently been filled with water despite the lack of students. The school, by the way, was founded by John Evans, who was appointed Territorial Governor of Colorado by Abraham Lincoln back in 1862.  Evans, a fellow Illinoisan,  also founded Evanston, Illinois, as well as Northwestern University.  I wonder what Evans would have thought of tuition costing fifty grand a year? Talk about sticker shock.  DU has sometimes referred to itself as "the Harvard of the West." My friend and former University of Denver Bookstore colleague Wally says that he will never refer to DU that way  until Harvard starts to call itself "the DU of the East."  Regardless, see you in a couple of months, DU students!

The Goslings Are Going (Growing) Great Guns

I took the above photograph of two Canadian geese and their eleven (Yes! Eleven! Count 'em) goslings the other day while biking through Sloan's Lake Park.  Just a few weeks ago, those goslings were tiny.  Now, they are looking more like teenagers.  No doubt a difficult time for geese parents.  On the bright side, no worries about their goslings getting their drivers licenses, or how to pay for college for 11 kids. In the City of Denver, however, they do have to worry about possible geese cullings, but let's not go there right now.

It's 90 Degrees Outside! Time To Roll On Your Back In The Grass!

I know it is only the "unofficial" start of summer, but when the temperature approaches 90 degrees here in Denver, it starts to feel like the real thing.  These days, when I take my sister Susan's dog Blackberry out for a walk in and around Fort Collins, we have to make frequent stops so she can roll on her back in the grass. It seems like a pretty enjoyable thing to do, although when I try it, I notice some of Susan's neighbors look at me funny.  Of course, that is probably just my imagination.  Most of these neighbors came of age in the 1960s, when "doing your own thing" was the way to go.  However, I still know what they are thinking: "crazy is crazy."  Takes one to know one, guys.

And Now For Something Completely Different...

I have decided, just for a while, to step away from subjects such as racial inequity, protests, riots, Covid-19, the prospects for the Chicago White Sox this year, and other such serious issues and focus on more light-hearted topics, such as how I came to have a portrait done of me in Paris many years ago.  I first went to Europe back in 2004, and spent the entire time in Paris, where I explored as much of the city as I could. The last day I was there, I decided to visit Montmarte one more time before heading to the airport.  It was early in the morning, and when I walked into the Place du Tertre - a cafe filled square popular with artists - I was, as far as I can remember, the only tourist there.  Which turned out to be bad, since one of those artists latched on to me and insisted that I allow him to draw my portrait.  I told him no, I was heading home that day and couldn't bring it with me, but he was very insistent.  So much so that I was beginning to worry about missing my flight.  As an added bonus, he said he would give me more hair in the drawing, and I finally relented.  The result is the portrait seen on the left.  My sister Susan says it looks nothing like me, but I actually think it does - at least a little. I suspect Susan doesn't recognize me because of all that extra hair. In any case, on the bright side, I did make my flight.

A Fourth Day Of Protests, And No Social Distancing...

I went for a bike ride to downtown Denver yesterday afternoon, and on the way stopped at the Colorado State Capitol Building to see what was happening with the protests over the George Floyd death in Minneapolis.  There was a huge crowd walking from the capitol grounds across the street to the Greek Theater in Civic Center Park, where I took the above photograph.  As I said yesterday, I understand the reason for the protests, and the one above was peaceful, but I find it a bit ironic that we have been hounded for the past 2 1/2 months about keeping our social distance, limiting the number of people who can be in a store at the same time, doing our part to keep everyone healthy, and now throughout the country people are packed in like sardines during these protests.  This was the fourth day of protests, and as usual, all was peaceful until the sun set, which was when the agitators took over, this time focusing on a confrontation at Denver's District 6 police station, just to the east of downtown.  A lot of the mayors and governors across the country claim the violence and mayhem is being caused by outside agitators, and time will tell if that is true.  I myself tend to believe it is just young idiots, the same ones who every summer weekend raise hell in the LoDo neighborhood after the bars close at 2:00 A.M., but that is just my personal opinion.