A Visit To The Capitol Hill Neighborhood

The Finance Manager of the local Denver bookstore chain where I work retired last month, and I have inherited the job of filing the company's sales taxes each month. Therefore, when the next sales tax class was offered by the State of Colorado, I headed down to the Capitol Hill neighborhood to attend that seminar.  I arrived early, and therefore had time to take a self-portrait in front of Colorado's State Capitol.  It was built in the 1890s and has a distinctive gold dome covered in real gold leaf.  And yes, they do have security guards that will stop you from climbing the roof to scrap that gold off, even if you tell them you were just looking for the restroom.  Trust me - it didn't work.

James Rollins Appears At The Tattered Cover

James Rollins spoke and signed copies of his new adventure thriller Demon Crown at Denver's Tattered Cover Bookstore last night.  It is his thirteenth Sigma Force novel, and involves the Sigma team trying to stop a formerly dormant, very deadly species that is now free and threatening the very survival of the human race. I was able to obtain an advanced reading copy of the book, and am looking forward to reading it.  Rollins always writes a good story, and I always enjoy them, but I must say the theme of his stories are all pretty similar.  Each book seems to revolve around a disease or species that threatens the world.  I am not saying that is bad - just pointing it out.

The End Of The Line For Hillary

Hillary Clinton made an appearance yesterday at the local Denver bookstore where I work to sign copies of her new book What Happened.  Since I didn't buy a copy, I wasn't able to take a photograph of her this time, but I was able to take a photograph of Derek, a fellow bookstore employee who's job was to hold a sign letting people know where the end of the line to see Hillary was located.  Hillary was signing books on the bottom level of the store, which is where my office is located, and so I had to wait until the Secret Service went through the area with a secret service dog before I could enter my office.  The only problem was that the bathrooms, also located on the lower level, were off limit for the entire signing.  It was a very long 5 hours, let me tell you.

Hillary Clinton Returns!

Hillary Clinton will be meeting her supporters and signing copies of her book What Happened at the local Denver bookstore where I work today.  The store sold all 1000 tickets to the event in just two hours a few months ago, and all 1000 will be looking for a place to park at the store this morning, which will make getting to work an adventure today.  She will be greeting her fans in the basement of the store, which is where the office where I work is located, and I have been told we will have to leave at 10:00 A.M. to allow the Secret Service to sweep the place with their (secret) service dogs.  Whether we will be allowed to return to our offices after this is done is still an open question.  And by the way, I took the above photograph when Hillary came to the store a few years ago, before she announced her candidacy.  I messed up the first photograph, and took a second, right before a Secret Service agent took me by the arm and guided me toward the stairs. This time I am not buying the book (I already know what happened), and so will not be able to get a photograph today, unless I open the door to the event space and step out into the room where she is located.  A Secret Service agent would of course shoot me on sight, so it would be hardly worth it.  Perhaps I can get a shot of some Secret Service agents instead, before they can shoot me, of course.

A Timberline Kind Of Sunset

And no - this photograph was not taken at the altitude where the tress stop growing and the bare, snow covered mountains begin.  It was actually taken on Timberline Road, out in the wilds of Fort Collins, not too far from The Farmhouse At Jessup Farm, a rather upscale restaurant that I was went to with my sister Susan and brother-in-law George a few times (good food, great country atmosphere, but rather pricey).  And why is Timberline Road named Timberline, even though it is on the plains and not in the mountains?  Beats the hell out of me.  There is also a street in Fort Collins called Lady Moon Drive.  Try and explain that one.

Getting Together With the DU Gang At Bonnie Brae

I got together with some of the old DU Bookstore gang at the Bonnie Brae Tavern last night, and it was a really nice evening.  We all caught up on what each other has been up to, and at the end of dinner I decided to take a group photo for the Blog.  It wasn't until I got home that I realized that I had not included Wally, my friend and former University of Denver Bookstore co-worker in the photo, who still works at the bookstore.  No matter - I have files and files of photographs of all the DU Bookstore people (thye come in pretty handy, by the way), and I simply photo-shopped Wally into the picture.  And so, front and center is Wally, and then going around the table clockwise are Wally's wife Linda; Renee, wife of Bill (former operations manager of the store), who is seated just to her right;  Ruthie and Dale (parents of Mark), and Mark, who works at the University of Denver's Anderson Academic Commons (the library).  The Bonnie Brae Tavern, by the way, is famous for it's pizza, and has been located at the same spot in Denver's Bonnie Brae neighborhood since June 6th, 1934.  That is a long time.  In fact, I think they still had dirt paths instead of roads in the neighborhood back then.  It was probably not easy to get your pizza and beer back then, but by golly, Denverites did it.  Talk about determination.

The Exodus Begins

I heard on the local television news the other night that a record number of people moved out of Colorado in 2016, citing the high cost of housing, low paying jobs, and major traffic jams.  I can attest to all three complaints, especially the high cost of housing.  Around the block from the local bookstore where I work on East Colfax here in Denver an apartment has been advertised for months now, with no takers.  It is a 1 bedroom, 1 bath unit in an older building, seen on the right hand side of the above diptych, and the asking price is $1,050 per month.  It is a nice neighborhood, but that is pretty pricey for an apartment in an older building, especially if you are making close to minimum wage.   You can't blame people moving to a more affordable location.  It makes me glad my apartment building went condo back in 1999 and I was forced to buy a unit if I wanted to stay.  I was pretty unhappy about it at the time, but it turned out to be a blessing. And just a word to others who are thinking of leaving Denver and Colorado: I have lived here for 36 years, and the housing costs have always gone back down since I have lived here.  There is no reason to believe it won't happen again.  I recommend just getting a dozen or so roommates together and waiting it out.