Category: Life

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More on summer

Since we live in Colorado, it is more or less mandatory that we go camping and/or backpacking each summer.

Hardship, you mutter.

Well, yes, it’s true that I relish leaving our neck of suburbia to head for the hills. But I also appreciate sleeping in a normal bed.

Anyhow, my sons and I went for an overnight near Silver Plume. I tried to find a good backpacking book for Colorado, which you might think would be easy to find. No. So I punted. We went to the Georgetown tourist info booth and got some simple maps for the nearby mountains. We headed left – and up – from Silver Plume. Ben and I camped at the nearest flat spot (an old trail).

Jay and his buddy Nathan did a survival night – no tent, no sleeping bag. Thankfully, no rain either. I was proud of them – but I’ll leave it at the fact that they melted their two ponchos and ate a very large breakfast with Ben and I late the next morning.

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Summer solstice

Today is the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere. I took this shot off our front porch yesterday evening at 8:35. (Hand-held, point-and-shoot.)

When we lived in the south of England, I always made a big deal of the longest day – because it was long! (Inevitably, the evening was cloudy, so we couldn’t enjoy the brightness in its full glory.) Then, when we lived on the equator (in Kenya), the longest day of the year had maybe 15 minutes less daylight than the shortest day.

When I put a post on Facebook recently about summer evenings, my friend Bob, who lives in Bradford, England, noted that the dark of his nights lasts just 6 hours. Then Veli, my friend in Finland noted that his lasts just 3. It’s all relative.

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Volunteers? Not a problem.

over-volunteersThis summer Ben is in a suburban swim team. The parents plan all sorts of parties and events surrounding the team’s activities. Sadly, we don’t volunteer much for the team. Ben isn’t interested in many of the activities – and we aren’t much either.

But some parents are. As you can tell, there is a glut of volunteers who happily fill the needs.

The first thing I thought of when reading this email was how I wish some of that extra volunteering energy could go toward a place where it’s really needed… like an inner-city ministry, such as Restoration Outreach Programs.

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Suburban rites of passage

ben-swimteamSo our son Ben is on swim team for our local suburban subdivision. (He’s the swimmer on the right.) He goes to practice 3-5 mornings a week. They start at 7:00 am! Anyhow, this past Saturday was a swim meet at another suburban pool. We were surrounded by suburban parents and their suburban kids. Some were really intense – yelling like their kids were about to win the Olympics. Others were simply lounging under their pop-up canopies.

We stayed for his heat and left. I felt as if I had betrayed suburbia.

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How we walk

pedestrianHave you ever noticed how we cross the road early on our way to a place and cross it early in the other direction on our way back?

Why do we do this? Maybe a PhD student has spent years researching this – but it would probably take a year to find the relevant answer from her research. So I’ll give a guess. I think we like to get the hard part out of the way first and then enjoy the rest of the journey. I realize that is not true for all of us – and it is not true in every instance. But I think in this case it works.

Next time you walk somewhere, observe how you cross the road. Report your findings here, if you can remember to.

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Imperfect can be better

postmark-headsObviously the post office’s ink jet printer was in need of repair or more ink. But I think the result is way more interesting than if it had printed perfectly.

Takeaway: Remember that perfection is not always best. And think of ways you can vary things up to make them more interesting – without getting too crazy on us!

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Suburban killers

killer-floofOur cat Tiger (whose name is really “Floof” because of his very floofy coat) is a killer. He loves game hunting for birds or small rodents. He usually has his fun and then leaves the small beast in very sad condition. Often, he will bring the animal into our living area as a present of sorts. Needless to say, Heather does not appreciate those gifts.

What do we do? I haven’t found a local chapter of “Bird Killers Anonymous” for pets. If you hear of one, let me know.

In the meantime, we love him. He’s a hilarious cat. You gotta take the good with the bad.

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Base decisions in reality

boettcherSunday’s Denver newspaper had an article about how Denver’s Boettcher Concert Hall is in need of repair. The photo at left (courtesy of The Denver Post, taken by Joe Amon) shows water stains on the ceiling. (It’s not a shot of the shroud of Turin.)

The article describes how the plan was to spend $100 million on a new symphony hall. The recession stepped in and caused the current plan, which is to use $1.5 million to make “stopgap fixes”. But officials still would like to spend $50 million to “renovate and expand” the existing facility.

Reality? Open your eyes, officials. Taxpayers do not want to spend another $48.5 million to have an amazing new symphony hall. The vast majority would be happy to have an improved hall – without going fully in the direction of buying a new top-of-the-line Rolls Royce.

I have seen a few concerts at Boettcher. It’s fine. I felt like I was going back in time to the early 70s, but what’s wrong with that? The acoustics are not quite up to the standards of the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in Dallas, but I could hear alright, even in our cheap seats.

Solution? Go for a more modest plan – spending maybe $4 million. Fix up the old hall without giving her a complete revamp. She’ll serve us fine. And I would propose that solution will work for any number of other plans civic officials come up with, worldwide. Using the car analogy – if you have a 2001 Toyota Corolla (which we do) and it’s showing its age, you might consider getting a 2008 Honda Accord, rather than a 2010 BMW 550i. (Thankfully, our Corolla is not showing its age – so we will be able to keep it for a while longer!)

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