Category: Uncategorized

Baby Steps…

I’ve been wanting to ‘cut the cord’ with various forms of Social Media for a while, but have not quite been able to make the break. Despite all of the negatives, they do make it easy to keep in touch with family and friends. And the memories. I do love reading through the memories – all those things we shared with others – or they with us – over the past decade. 

I don’t know how having such easy communication has made us less connected. We know hardly anyone writes real letters – but no one sends email anymore either. We can’t even count on the once a year connection of Christmas cards, since so many people have stopped sending them.  Meanwhile, the Social Media that ‘connected’ us all has become a sea of memes and ads and very little real connection. 

So. Here we are. This is my attempt to connect – in a similar, yet different way. I don’t know what the final answer will be. But expect a Christmas card from us — and maybe we’ll even start writing letters again. Stranger things have happened.

Perfect Weekend

We took a short break up to Glenwood Springs over the weekend. We had intended to take the train from Denver. We’ve done the trip a couple of times before and enjoyed the five hour ride into the mountains and through the canyon. It’s very relaxing sitting back in the observation car, playing games, reading, talking, or just watching the scenery go by.

This time, however, we were informed by Amtrak that the return trip would be by bus – which is not exactly the relaxing stress-reliever we were hoping for. Rather than cancel our trip, we decided to drive.

Train ride or not, the weekend could not have gone better. The colors were beautiful, the light through the canyon was amazing, the weather was perfect and the hot springs were just what we’d hoped for.

We drove up Friday afternoon, and stayed in nearby New Castle (Glenwood hotels were booked, or if they weren’t, they were out of our price range). The next morning we headed to the hot springs, where we spent our scheduled three hours in the various pools, enjoying the different temperatures and configurations, chatting with people from all over or just watching the scenery along the Colorado River. We had a pool-side lunch, and then reluctantly went on our way.

Hot springs general view

We had an afternoon excursion to a bookstore planned, and we were very much looking forward to it, though. We browsed the books, choose a few items and were quite pleased with our intended purchases, when as we were checking out, the subject of signed books came up – and the cashier mentioned there was a book that some people seemed to enjoy, and if it might be something that interested us, he had signed copy. We were. And as we dithered about buying it – he kept reducing the price – what else could we do but buy it?

Signed copy of Hitch Hicker's Guide to the Galaxy and accompanying card

Next on our agenda was a scenic drive. The Golden Hour was approaching, and there was a church with ‘must see’ stained glass windows. Like everything else about the weekend, this experience also exceeded expectations. the windows were beautiful – the scenery exceptional.

Stained glass window depicting winter scene
Stained glass window depicting aspens in sunlight

Back in the hotel, we had pizza and watched Back to the Future 3 🙂 The whole pizza/movie thing is sort of a tradition for us that goes back a very long time. Pretty much to the very start of ‘us’.

We’re already planning a return trip next year.

Broken Summer

Memorial Day weekend – the official start of summer – and my first day off of COVID restrictions. We were busy getting the backyard ready for the warm weather and planning a trip to the garden center, when somehow – I’m still not sure how – I fell down the steps into the garage and broke two bones in each ankle.

Luckily I don’t need surgery, but I now have crutches and a matching pair of Frankenstein boots – and instructions not to put any weight on my ankles. I still haven’t figured out how I’m supposed to accomplish that.

Feet encased in boots propped on a chair, with crutches nearby

September Drive

A couple of weeks ago, we went for a drive ‘up the hill’ to see the fall colors. We just happened to hit the most perfect day – the weather was great, the trees were at their peak and the route we chose was very uncrowded. 

We drove up to Leadville, had lunch there and poked around a bit, then took a road known as ‘Top o’ the Rockies’ up to Vail and then home. 

We have a lot of great photos, but this simple one is one of my favorites.

Christmas Vacation

We’ve been fortunate to have quite a lot of time together this holiday season. Kieran didn’t even have much in the way of homework for a change. He had to do a health class online for his PE course, and read about half of East of Eden, but not much else.

We are in the process of purchasing a new home, and that has kept us occupied dealing with the inspection and the resulting objections – of which there are several. We are currently waiting to see what the seller’s response is, but based on past experience with them, we don’t expect it to be favorable.

We’ve managed to do most of the fun things we had on our list: Star Wars VIII, Botanic Garden Lights, a little archery, and I even got an oil change 🙂 Bobby and Katie came for our traditional Christmas Eve Indian dinner (with the addition of some Vive time), and we had our usual game and nibbles fest on NYE. A visit to Idaho Springs is still pending, but the plan is to do that this weekend.