It reached 70 degrees here in Denver yesterday, and so I thought it would be the perfect day for my first bike ride of the year. I took the self-portrait on the left in front of the Grant-Humphreys Mansion on my way downtown. March and April are Denver's snowiest months, but that is kind of deceptive. The temperatures during these months are usually in the 60s and 70s, but often after a particularly warm day, we get about a foot or more of heavy, wet snow. It takes only a couple of storms like that to make those months the snowiest.
The Grant-Humphreys Mansion, by the way, was built in 1902 and is now owned by the Colorado Historical Society. It is a very popular setting for weddings. In fact, Aziz, one of my favorite former University of Denver Bookstore employees, and his wife Donna, got married there. Aziz was originally from Algeria, and his favorite story was how his grandfather got a pension from the French for fighting the Germans, and a pension from Algeria for fighting the French. He also bought a car from a friend for a very nominal amount, and had it fully insured, just before Denver suffered the worst hail storm in it's history. Aziz was amazed that he received thousands of dollars from the insurance company after they declared the car totaled. He lived in Paris for a while, and told me he preferred Denver much more. To live in Paris, he had to have something like 6 roommates, and wasn't able to afford a car. In Denver, he could have a place of his own, buy a car, and enjoy traveling through the wide open spaces. The American Dream - what a country, right?
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