Busy, busy, busy..... spent a good portion of yesterday photo copying and scanning more family tree stuff  that I had acquired. Only about halfway through it all and it has already consumed more than half a ream of copy paper and nearly a full ink cartridge on the printer. Pretty fascinating stuff however, most of it concerning the time period leading up to and through WW II. Once it is all scanned in, I'll actually have time to go through some of it and see what it all is. Right now though there is a time limit on how long I can keep some of it, so I'll just have to keep plugging away.

   It wasn't all work yesterday though. I stopped around 4:00 and got cleaned up and a bit dressed up. Clean shirt, long pants etc., that's about as dressed as I get these days, since giving away most of my ties, dress shirts and pants and all of my sport coats. But anyway; I headed over to pick up a friend of mine here in the Denver area, Steph. She had gotten a set of tickets to go see a production of Fiddler on the Roof down at the Denver Performing Art Center, DPCA, and had invited me to go along with her.

   We first headed over to Racine's, a local Denver restaurant, for a very nice meal out on the patio in the setting sun. They have these wonderful shrimp tacos there that are to die for. Along with some rice and black beans, and for me, some ice tea, since I was driving, it was a nice hour and a half of pleasant conversation and relaxation.

    Drove on down to the theatre afterwards and picked up the tickets at will call. We even had enough time to go out and take a short stroll around a couple blocks of downtown Denver. Usually we are so pressed for time that we have to go right in to the theatre and take our seats. Lots of changes there in the past couple of years, but mostly in what stores and restaurants are still open and a going concern.

    The production last night was being put on by a group called PHAMALY, which stands for, 'Physically Handicapped Actors & Musical Artists League'. This group was the first theatre company of it's kind in the U.S. where it exclusively featured actors with disabilities. It does a lot of productions around the surrounding cities and has been going steadily here in the Denver area for more than 24 years. Each actor in the group has some type of physical or mental handicap, that could be anything from near total paralysis to a hearing or seeing impairment to those with cognitive or other mental challenges. 

    From the very start when you see a young violinist on stage, with another one up near the roof top, playing the opening lines from the theme song, you realize that this play is going to be something different.  I must admit that when the show began I spent time trying to figure out what handicap each performer had. Some like the actors in wheel chairs or the ones being lead by other performers or the violinist holding her bow with her prosthetic arm, were obvious. But what was wonderful was how as the timeless story of Tevye, the milk man from the little Russian town of Anatevka, played out in front of the audience, those thoughts of one or another being handicapped disappeared and you simply got caught up in the wonderful music and dialogue.

    The production was in one of the smaller theatres at DPCA and was done in the round, so the stage was right there in front of everyone. Minimal sets and props of course, but the staging was marvelous, with movement in and out of every entrance and set of stairs in the place. Every single cast member was expertly cast and the costuming and staging were wonderfully complex in their simplicity. Nothing was added that wasn't needed and nothing that was needed was left out. I especially liked how the casting was done so well that you really felt like each of the three girls ended up with just the right husband, and how Tevye and Golda were such a loving pair even after 26 years together. Sorry... but it made me tear up just a little bit in a couple of places. :)

     Today has been a transition day for me. Up rather late today after getting to bed so late last night. Got everything packed up into as few bundles as I could, and got them loaded into the truck right after breakfast. Said my last goodbyes to George and Marge for now, I'll be seeing both many times in the next few weeks, and then headed out for the day.

   Went and did some grocery shopping first off. Needed to put together some breakfast's and lunch's for the upcoming river trip in 5 days. We are all responsible for our own B & L's, so I headed over to pick up some of my standard meals. Now you need to understand that I'm pretty much a 'simplist' when it comes to meals on river trips. The simpler, the better! So I go in for a lot of meals that involve opening a can and eating what ever is in it on either a tortilla or some crackers. If the can is one of the self opening kinds, even better. So for lunch I usually have sardines, tuna, canned chicken, smoked oysters or something along those lines. Then along with it I have one of those fruit cup thing's for dessert. Breakfast is generally a granola bar or a pop tart and another fruit cup. This time though I did find a really small jar of peanut butter with granola and dried fruit already in it, so that sounded pretty good. Plus I got a squeeze bottle of horseradish mustard to put on all the rest. Top it all off with some kind of Kool-ade/Crystal Light stuff to drink and I'm pretty much set for the week and I don't have to worry about keeping any of it cool. Oh... I also picked up some packages of dried fruit just to have something sweet to snack on.

    I'm now over at Tom and Donna's place and have been busy packing everything away since I'll be here until at least the 12th of September. All of the canoe trip people are going to be over here tonight for dinner and a last meeting before the trip. It will be good to see them all again and get a chance to go out and do some paddling or sailing this evening once it cools down a little bit.

   I did spend a little time this afternoon on line trying to track down another bent shaft, carbon fiber canoe paddle for the trip. Had been meaning to pick up another one for the past year or so, as I don't really have a spare to take on my trips. Still have a half dozen or so wooden paddles, but I wanted another carbon fiber one just because I'm tired of sanding the wooden ones down and refinishing them every couple of years. I'll still keep them or course, and actually, one of them will be going on this trip since Steph will be using the new paddle for herself. I did actually find one after much searching over at Canoe Colorado, the place I bought my solo canoe at. Probably should of looked there first, but never really thought of it. But Jerry says he has a nice 54", slightly used one for under $150, Usually over $200 new, so I get to go pick it up tomorrow morning. It sure is nice to paddle with one that only weighs in at 13 oz's though. Doesn't seem like and extra pound or two would make much of a difference, but after about 10,000 strokes you really start to feel it in your arms.

    May write a little more later after things settle down again, but I think it is time to get this one posted and go see If there is anything I can help with.




 Thanks to my friend Steph, who invited me along to share the evening. 

   I see a little catching up is in order again... I try to be pretty steady at posting something most days, but sometimes there just isn't all that much going on, or I'm just to tired to sit down and write anything. Last night it was the too tired bit, because I certainly had a nice afternoon and evening. Hung out with my friends George and Marge for most of the morning and afternoon and then got dressed up a bit, I put on long pants and real shoes, and headed out to pick up a friend who was going to go to the theatre with me.

   Claire is an old time folk dancing and contra dancing buddy of mine, of quite a few years. I like hanging out with her because she always seems so positive in her outlook on life, even though she has had to over come some tremendous obstacles. Plus she never chastises me when I call her up for a night out, with only a couple of days noticed because I had forgotten I had tickets to the show. So I picked her up around 5:00 and headed up to Arvada where we met up with a bunch of my boating friends, who also happen to have theatre tickets for the same night as I do. There were nine of us at dinner, at Three Margaritas, a Mexican restaurant of course. We had a good meal and I caught up on the going's on of some of my friends whom I hadn't seen for nearly a year.

    From dinner we all headed on over to the Arvada Center for the nights theatrical production of 'Curtains', a newer play that was making it's regional debut there. Basically a musical, comedy, murder mystery staged as a play within a play. It had lots of singing and dancing, some really good sight gags and the actual murder plot was really quite good. It was certainly an entertaining evening of fun and laughs for me, and I think, all of my friends.

    Today was a lot more low key. Have been hanging out here at the house for most of the day photo copying and scanning in a bunch of genealogical stuff that I have received over the past several months. There were many, many hours of scanning to do and it seems as though I have just started to scratch the surface. But it will all get done at some point, even though with our large and prolific family, it seems we create new info and data faster than we can keep track of it.

   Ran errands off and on for most of the day. Spent some time over at the nearby REI store trying to find another carbon fiber bent shaft canoe paddle to buy. Have been meaning to get another one for several months now just so I would have a good spare. But it may be that I am already too late as the store was all out of everything except for some nice wooden ones. The boat guy there also said that they wouldn't be getting any more in either as, you know, summer is already nearly over. I'll continue to check around at all the other REI stores in the area though and see if there are any other available at any of them. Other wise I may just have to be content with the wooden ones I already have.

   Dropped off a lot of the boat trip equipment this afternoon over at my paddling partners house. She has a garage with some extra room in it so we can spread it all out and see what else we still need to come up with. We also spent some time figuring out the rest of our food shopping list so that we can go do a store run later next week. We will be responsible for two and a third dinners on the trip as well as our own breakfasts and lunch's, so there will be some real shopping going on in a couple of days.

    Went over to the Denver contra dance this evening for a little while. Was surprised at how many people were there for it. A full three lines of dancers, so somewhere around 125 and 150 people. A good percentage of them were brand new of course, but really, most of them did really quite well. That is one of the great things about contra dancing, most people can get by easily with just a little help the first couple of times, and after about three nights of dancing, you pretty much have it whipped. Of course there are always new things that can be thrown at you, and it is fun to do a session of hard or challenging contras at one of the weekend workshops, but mostly it is just good, hot, sweaty fun. Emphasis on the fun!

    Maybe a little more interesting day today.... at least for me anyway. Planned yesterday to head up to Longmont today in order to pick up a few things at the trailer that I would be needing, pick up mail, if any, and take a few things over to the old storage unit and put them away. All of that did indeed happen today, but not before first stopping by my friends, Maggie and Paul's, place to check out some remodeling work they were doing to their kitchen. They had asked me to take a look at a structural issue they had going on with it a couple weeks ago, and I gave them a couple of options they might think about doing in order to achieve what they wanted to do. Today they were ready to install a couple micro-lam beams along an interior bearing wall in order to take out a short section of it in order to open up the view from inside the kitchen. I arrived just in time to help hoist, and nail them in place. Looks like they may just do the job, which is always a relief to me and is always much better than the alternative, which is to have part of the structure fail and fall down.

    We got the beams nailed up enough to hold them in place and then went over to a local restaurant for some lunch. It is always fun to have time to sit and talk to them and catch up on what they have been doing. They all wanted Mexican food for lunch, and who am I to argue, so we headed over to Luna's where they have this wonderful tamale plate special for lunch.

   Headed north after lunch and got up to the trailer just as it was starting to rain a little bit. Kind of nice to actually be there when it wasn't so hot that you start to sweat as soon as you get out of the truck. Packed a few more items away and picked up some books and a few clothes that I'll be needing in the next couple of days.

   On to my mailbox place after that to see what mail had arrived since the last time I was up there. Not much actually, and of all the stuff that did show up, only one piece wasn't what would be considered junk mail. It was nice to get an update on some IRA's I have, and note that they are at least holding steady these days instead of shedding money like crazy. With any luck there may actually be something left when I become eligible to start taking it out in a few years.

   A quick trip to my storage unit then to drop off a few items and then, since I was running ahead of time, I went over to the Camping World store to see if there was anything there that I really needed or wanted. As it turns out there was way to many things in both categories. By the time it was all totaled up I was the proud owner of a new plastic shroud for my propane tanks, a new 25', non-kink hose, a new knob for one of my windows, a plastic chopping block that fits over the sink and a cap for the end of my new bumper. Way more money than I wanted to spend, but all things that I actually need.

    Caught a quick bite to eat and then headed for Washington Park to see if anyone was going to be there folk dancing tonight. Turns out that there was a pretty good turnout this evening. It was a beautiful summer night and the sunset over the lake there at the park was wonderful. Took a few pictures while some of the easier, line dance kind of dances were being done. Put the camera away after the sun went down though and danced quite a few dances. There are now a lot of new dances being done that I have never seen or danced before, but there are still enough of the old ones that people ask for that my feet still know how to do, even if my mind doesn't quite remember all of the steps.

    Tired now though, so I think I'll read a couple of chapters in my book and then hit the rack. Looking forward to another day tomorrow.

    Spent a very leisurely day hanging out around the house here with George and Marge. Did go out and run a couple of errands late this morning and even managed to coercer George into going out to lunch with me as I ran one last errand. It was only Chipotle for a chicken burrito, but it is always fun to spend time with a friend over a meal of any kind.

   Other than that it was pretty slow today. Finished up a book I was reading, a Clive Cussler thriller, took a nap, read some more and just had a very pleasant day.

    Slept late and once again woke up all stuffy and sinus'y. Felt much better after a cup of tea and a shower though. Had decided to take Marge and George out for breakfast this morning, since we hadn't done one of those yet. We ended up going over to one of my favorite place's, Lucile's, for a very nice brunch of Cajun influenced food. Started off with an order of benieghts (sp) (hey, it's French for donut, why should I know how to spell it), of course, yummy and oh so bad for you. But what can taste better than deep fried dough, covered all over in thick powdered sugar. Both Marge and George had eggs over easy with home fries and grits, while I went for the Cajun breakfast of red beans with meat, along with potatoes and grits. Each of our meals also came with these huge homemade buttermilk biscuits that you can load down with an assortment of homemade jams and jellies. My favorites are the strawberry and rhubarb and the apple butter, but there are at least a half dozen you can try. I wash it all down with glass after glass of there own spiced ice tea, while the other two drink a couple of cups of there own fresh brewed coffee. The only bad thing about the whole meal is the feeling that you need someone to roll you out the door when you are done.

    Spent most of the day just hanging out around the house. Needed to research a couple of things and make a few phone calls, but also had time to work on some photo's and read part of a new book. Went over to my sisters house this evening and had a wonderful meal there with her and Mary.  Grilled hamburgers and foil wrapped sweet corn. The first corn on the cob I've actually eaten this summer. A couple of beers and some nice conversation and it turned out to be a very nice evening for sure.

   Tired now though, so I am glad I got most of the photo's shown below loaded up and annotated before I left this evening. For those who didn't know, I nearly lost the bumper on my house trailer last year as I was travelling from Colorado up to Vermont. Somewhere in New York a car full of guys pulled up alongside the truck and told me that my bumper was nearly dragging on the ground and that I needed to stop and take a look at it. Pulled into a near by church parking lot and sure enough my bumper with my bike rack and my generator was bent over and close to breaking completely off. I managed to take everything off the bumper that mattered and stow it in the back of the truck for what I thought was only going to be a little while. I figured I would find someone who could weld a couple patches on it and that would be that. Actually had a guy do just that when I got to Maine, but after putting everything back on the bumper, I looked at it and I just didn't feel good about it for some reason. So back off everything came, with the idea that I would wait until I got back to Colorado and could dump the trailer off for a couple days while someone did the job right.

   Stopping at my sisters place in Nebraska on the way home and my brother-in -law asked to take a look at it, and then volunteered to take a whack at it. As the pictures show below, he did an amazing job of it and I ended up with a bumper that is actually better than new. I think I owe him a little bit.

New Trailer Bumper - June 2013

First thing on the agenda; remove existing piece of c*** bumper and all of the attached pieces of metal that had been welded on to keep it working. Here we have the main tube off and my brother-in-law, Mark, is trying to get some of the remaining welded material off.

Use of a disk grinder to not only remove material but to smooth what is left and to take off paint, rust and scale to make welding a new bumper in place easier.

Here you see the ground for the cutting torch Mark was using, but more importantly you can see the back end of one of two main support beams for the trailer. This is what the new bumper will be welded to just as soon as 'Mark' gets it all cleaned up. (I want to make it clear that he was the one who did all of the work on this, and what magnificent work it was. Where as I pretty much just stood around and got in the way).

Cutting more of the old stuff off using the cutting torch. Isn't it cool to use tools that have fire coming out of the end of them?

So here I am trying to pretend that I actually have a clue about what is going on.

More grinding. I like this photo because it has the sparks bouncing off the faceplate of the welding helmet.

Just about done with the tear off. I'm actually doing something constructive. I'm tying the old trailer hitch wires up with a couple of zip ties.

What I do best.

Pre-welding a couple of support pieces onto the new bumper prior to welding it to the trailer. Check out that great concentration on my part. No job is to much for me.

Mounting the new bumper on to the main trailer beams. Mark is tack welding everything on while I keep it level and in position.

Starting to weld the rest of the seams between the new bumper and the existing trailer support beams.

Now we get to see the actual boss of the whole operation. It's a tough job, but somebody.....

Nearly done with all of the welding. I had Mark weld on a couple of steal eye bolts so that I would have some tie down points for ropes and cables.

Adding the first coat of enamel.

The new bumper in all it's glory. Mark just did a wonderful job and I think this time it will hold up. Sweet!

So here we see the whole reason why the new bumper was so important. On the left is my Yakima bike rack holding several lounge chairs as well as my bike, all in an add on hitch rack that Mark welded together for me two years ago. We added a couple additional things this year to keep it from bouncing up and down as much, which is most likely what caused the last bumper to fail. On the right is my portable generator that can run the whole trailer if need be. It is also on a custom rack that Mark welded up a couple of years ago. It is so nice to have all of this stuff out where I can get to it and use it instead of piled in the back of the truck. I think my brother-in-law is a genius.
 

    
    It has certainly been a busy couple of days running around doing errands, meeting people and having fun. Yesterday I was up at 8:00 and headed over to Tom and Donna's for a session of early morning canoeing. All of us who are going on the canoe trip in a couple of weeks, as well as another couple, were there to practice paddling and  to have some fun messing around on the water. Other than a good deal of early morning wind it was a very pleasant couple of hours. Even the wind was okay because it helped some of the newer paddlers understand what a little wind could do to them in a canoe, and maybe how to work around some of the negative aspects of it.

    As I said, we paddled and hung out by the lake for several hours but eventually everyone started to drift off to do other things for the day. I hung around a bit and invited Tom and Donna out to lunch with me as I really have not had much of a chance to talk to them since coming into town more than a week ago. We headed over to a local Mexican restaurant of course, 3 Margaritas, because it was convenient and easy, and because it sounded good to every one, including me. A very nice meal and enough time to actually talk to them a little, and find out what they have been up to. Mostly it seems they have been consumed with the kitchen remodel that has been going on for nearly a month. But it is nearly wrapped up now and it looks great. So soon they will be able to relax and actually enjoy the summer a little bit more.

   We soon parted ways and I headed for Estes Park where a dancing friend of mine has a music and dancing pot luck for all of her friends once every summer. There is just nothing better than sitting outside in the mountains while a dozen or so musicians are playing tunes on various old timey type instruments, like fiddles and guitars and such. Of course it doesn't hurt to have a cold beer in hand while sitting out on the deck listening to all of this either. The food was also good and the conversation wonderful. I just enjoyed sitting and listening to the sound of the musicians, while in the background the hummingbirds were zipping back and forth to the bird feeder outside the front porch.

   Needed to go get some routine truck maintenance done today, so I was off to get an oil and filter change as well as a new battery installed in the truck. After having the existing battery for more than '9' years I was just starting to get a little paranoid about the battery going out on me somewhere out in the boonies, like Kansas or the wilds of Virginia. It is a marvel that the one the truck came with lasted that long, but that just isn't natural most of the time.  So it was out with the old and in with the new, with the hope that this one may last at least 3-5 years. Considering the cost of the new battery was only slightly higher than it has taken to fill the truck up with gas on a few occasions, I think it was good insurance and will allow me to sleep a little sounder at night.

   We did a Boy's Night Out this afternoon and picked the movie RED2 for our film viewing pleasure. Pretty typical fare as far as that genera goes. A bit of gratuitous sex and lots of gratuitous violence of course, but there was an actual plot, and the acting was really pretty good. Bruce Willis, Helen Mirran, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Mary Louise Parker, Catherine Zeta Jones and John Malkovitch are certainly no slouches when it comes to acting. Add in an actual plot and some decent dialog, along with the required gun fights and high speed car chases, and you have a pretty entertaining evening. I'll tell you though; John Malkovitch is just a hoot in this movie and had us all laughing through out the film.

    I'm hoping for an easy day tomorrow. Still haven't had much time to even down load photo's let alone sort them out and work on them. Would also like to get a decent nights sleep again. Last night wasn't real great because my allergies kicked in to overdrive. I would imagine it had to do with sitting out in nature for 5-6 hours while the wind was blowing pollen all around. Damn tree sex is just going to kill me one of these days. Tonight though I'm popping a couple aspirin and an allergy tab to see if maybe I can sleep with out being all stuffed up. Ah-h-h, it really bothers me to think that I have to suffer because my immune system works 'so much better' than most other people's. :)

   A pretty quiet day for me overall. Spent the majority of it just hanging out with my friends talking and reading. Spent a little time putting together another batch of macaroni salad for a pot luck at a friends house tomorrow, but otherwise it was just a nice day to relax.

   Drove up to Fort Collins later this afternoon to go to the contra dance there at the city park. It was amazing to watch the thunder storms building just to the east of me as I travelled north up the highway. Huge black thunderclouds with streaks of white hail coming out of the bottoms of some of them. With all the wind that was blowing it was not surprising that there were reports of 3/4 inch hail coming out of some of them.

    A pretty good dance this evening, but not great. The music and calling were more than adequate, but I just wasn't in the mood to dance all that much for some reason. I stuck around and danced until after the break but then decided to head on back to Denver soon after that. I figured a nice two hour drive down to south Denver would get me home just before midnight, so that would work. One interesting thing about the dance was running into a guy I know from back in the NC-VA area. He drives a semi truck for a living and decided to stop in at the local dance up there because he knows a few people in the area. It was fun to run into him and actually meet him after all this time. As I said, I knew who he was, I just had never actually met him before. Kind of neat that you can run into people you know from anywhere in the states at a contra dance.

   Will be up early in the morning in order to go over to Tom and Donna's and do some canoeing. All of us going on the trip to Montana will be over to practice a bit and hang out. Steph and I still haven't set down together and figured out our food shopping list yet or even what we will be doing for our lunches and breakfast's. Perhaps we will have a little time to talk about it all tomorrow.

  

   Spent a good 4 hours this morning and afternoon working on the truck. About 3 months ago the left rear window mechanism failed inside the door frame and the window would no longer go up or down. It had failed in the down position of course, but I did manage to figure out how to get the window back up in the closed position and then duct tape it in place. I left it like that until now thinking that I would really like to take a crack at fixing this one myself, since the other two failures had cost me nearly $500 each for parts and labor. I had found a couple You Tube video's that showed how it was done so I figured why not give a try. I mean really, how hard can it be? So I bought the part a couple weeks ago while in Nebraska and have only been waiting for someplace indoors where I could do the work.

    George and Marge let me use their garage for the operation after moving their two vehicles out of it this morning. By following the video I soon had the door panel off and the old mechanism out. About the only problem I had was the one extra screw holding the door panel on that they failed to mention. But that may of been because in the video they were working on a front door panel not the rear. Anyway; got it all taken apart and then started putting it all back together again. It was pretty straight forward until I got to hooking up the wiring fittings to make the window go up and down. I plugged everything in just like it had come apart, but the switch was running everything backwards. What had once been up was now down and vice-versa. I tried just turning one of the two  clip ends over and plugging it in that way, but there was really only one way they would fit together because of their shape. I ran the video a little bit longer to see if I had missed anything and they there explained that between the 2004 and 2006 model years there had been a change in the wiring harness and that there was now a separate electrical wiring 'pigtail' piece that you could order that would make the switch run in the right direction. By this time though I had everything installed and the door panel nearly put back on and figured... screw it, I'm smart enough to figure out which way to push a rocker switch in order to get the window to go up or down in the right direction. So I was basically done in less than an hour and a half with a savings of somewhere around $350 dollars. Yeah!

   Of course it then took me more than an hour of hard rubbing to get all the duct tape sticky stuff off of the window and the door frame where I had put it on in order to hold up the glass. With several months out in the hot sun it pretty much baked that duct tape onto the window and all of the trim. It eventually all came off though, so it was pretty much a success.       Oh..... did I also say that I had to plug the battery charger in after running the battery down enough that I couldn't get the truck started up. Guess that dome light and all of the window movement up and down really eats into the battery charge.

   Took another shower after moving vehicles back to where they belong. Was planning to meet up with my younger sister and her partner this evening for dinner and didn't think the smell of Goo Off was all that attractive to the nose. A very nice dinner, Mexican food yet again, down at El Tejado. We had a great time talking about my adventures as well as some of theirs. It wasn't enough time though so we are going to get together again early next week and talk some more.

    Headed up to the regular Boulder contra dance after dinner. Made pretty good time considering I didn't leave Denver until nearly 7:30. So I really only missed the first dance tonight. Had a good caller and really good music with a pretty nice turnout considering it is summer and there are so many other distractions to be doing. The son, and his wife, of one of my first cousins came up to experience contra dancing for their first time. They did really, really well and seemed to be having a lot of fun through out the night. They must of enjoyed it at least a little bit because they stayed from the lesson at 7:15, all the way to the ending waltz at 11:00. Most newbies end up leaving the dance, usually because they are out of shape, or because the dances generally get more complicated at the end of the first half. So they did well to make it all the way through. I do think they were a bit surprised at how physical it is though. There was some definite sweating and hard breathing going on at times. I'm hoping that they will come back a time or two more because then they'll be hooked on it for good. They did say that they were going to be talking to their parents about maybe giving it a try after they have gotten a bit more use to it. .

    Pretty tired now, and my feet hurt. It is times like this when a hot tub would really feel good. Tonight though.... I'm just going to go to bed instead.

   Had to make a quick run back up to the trailer this morning even though I really didn't want to. Turns out that a contra dance weekend came open yesterday with two great bands and two wonderful callers, but space for only 160 wild and crazy dancers. Rather than risk not being able to get into it at all, it seemed prudent to get a registration sent in as soon as possible. Unfortunately this dance doesn't do online registration yet, so I need to send a check in with it.... you can guess where my check book was!

    Actually, it wasn't too bad of a trip up there and I did managed to get a couple other things done on the way as well as while in town there. Did a bit of shopping and ended up with a new folding chair for the up coming river trip.... yes, we do take chairs these days, we gave up portaging long ago, now we go for a more gentle and civilized experience. Also got some new bug spray, a gallon of Colman fuel, man is that stuff expensive these days and misc. other stuff. Also stopped by the mailbox and picked up the little bit of stuff that was there.

    Once at the trailer I took the time to pack away a couple more small boxes of stuff before the heat inside got to be to much to bear. I of course remembered the check book this time as well as some envelopes and stamps. So now I just need to fill out the registration form and send it in tomorrow. Also plan to sign up for a couple other up coming dances while I'm at it. So I'll go ahead and book the one in Nashville, the Fire Ant Frolic in Austin and then the one in Atlanta in November. With those I'll be pretty much set up until after New Years then.

   Since it didn't take that long to run up there and back I decided to cook dinner this evening for my hosts. Pulled out one of my favorite recipes 'Chicken Tangine with Sweet Potatoes. One of my 'go to' recipes, it is simple enough to make in the trailer, but taste's good enough, and is impressive enough to make for company. It is especially good as an easy Saturday evening dinner dish when it is cold outside. But you can also use it for a pot luck or when company drops in unexpectedly. Basically a one pot dish, I happily cooked away for about an hour this evening and then we all ate together before watching a rerun of the Big Bang Theory. A very happy meal indeed, and as you can see, I have included the recipe below.

Chicken Tangine with Sweet Potatoes

·        3 lbs Chicken Thighs

 

·        1-2 Tbs butter or oil

·        Salt and freshly ground pepper

·        ½ Tbs ground cumin

·        1 large onion, thinly sliced (about 2 ½ cups)

·        3 ounces raisins (2/3 cups) or mix half and half with chopped up dried apricots

·        Pinch saffron threads, crumbled (Nice to have, but you can do without)

·        1 tsp ground cinnamon

·        1 tsp ground ginger

·        Two cups low sodium chicken broth or water

·        1 lb sweet potatoes (yams) peeled and cut into ½“ cubes

·        ¾ lb Celeriac (celery root) (or just use celery), peeled and cut into ½“ cubes

·        1 Tbs honey

Pat the chicken dry with paper towels and then rub the chicken pieces with salt, pepper and cumin.  (If you have time, let stand for 1 to 2 hours).  Heat the butter in a large casserole or Dutch oven and cook the chicken in batches until golden on all sides, 5 – 8 mins. 

 Drain excess oil and fat. Add the onion and cook for 2 -3 minutes. 

 Add raisins, saffron, cinnamon and ginger and pour 2 cups of chicken broth or water into the casserole. (Additional water or broth may be needed or can be added if you want more of a soup).  Cover and cook the chicken 30 minutes over low heat.

Add the sweet potatoes and celeriac and a little salt  and pepper.  Simmer the stew, covered, over low heat until chicken and vegetables are done, about 20 mins more.

Carefully stir in the honey, making sure you don’t mash the vegetables. 

Serve with couscous, rice or crusty bread.  May add toasted almonds for garnish.

   A pleasant morning sitting with my friends here at the house just gabbing away. I was up and about a bit later than usual this morning, so there was no hurry, or much need, for much in the way of breakfast for me as we were all going to go to lunch at Sushi Den at 11:30 anyway. So we just sat and talked about books and politics and boat trips and such for a couple of hours instead.

   As I said, we headed over to Sushi Den on South Pennsylvania street around 11:00, where we met up with George and Marge's son Mike and his wife and son. I have loved sushi from the first time I ever had it, and I have to say that this place has probably the best stuff I have ever eaten. Very fresh, prepared well, and beautifully, and then the taste..... oh my! It's sushi heaven for sure.

    A very nice couple of hours to enjoy lunch and then over to Mike and Catherine's new house to check it out. Only 3 houses down from their old house, this one is also in the Washington Park neighborhood, so right there in very familiar territory. Also a very nice house.... I like the way the front living space has a high beamed ceiling and has patio doors that open right out to the front deck. Also the dining space is spacious, but feels intimate because of the fireplace and the way it melds into the other rooms to either side. But the kitchen is what I loved. Big, open with lots of counter space and everything laid out in a logical order. I especially liked the 5 burner gas cook top they have.

    Back to George and Marge's after that, and a chance to finally do some work on some of my photo's. Got enough sorted and picked out to post some here tonight. Sorry they were taken several weeks ago, but that is just how it goes sometimes.

     Went and met up with my cousins from California early this evening at El Tejado. Yes, it was Mexican food yet again, and even at the same restaurant as the other night. Sometimes it's just hard to  say no to such good food. A nice pleasant dinner with the 5 of them and then off to their hotel for a glass of wine and a couple more hours of discussion on family history and such. Finished up pretty late so I'm glad there was time earlier today to get a few other things done. I'm going to call it a night and leave you with a few photo's from a short trip out to Lake Minatare on July 7th to see the 'Light House' they have there.

Lake Minatare Nebraska Light House - July 7, 2013

Built by the 'Veteranes Conservation Corp, VCC, in 1939, the Lake Minatare Light House is not a light house at all but actually serves as a shelter house and observatory on a point of land jutting out into the lake. There is no light in the structure, but it looks enough like a real light house that everyone who sees it thinks it is one. I think it actually looks better than some of the real ones I've seen on my travels.

One of those original 'make work' or stimulus projects designed during the depression to put people to work, you can see the craftsmanship in every stone that was laid up.

The tower stands 55 feet above the surrounding ground and then is located on a piece of land that is usually at least 5-20 feet higher than the surrounding lake. My nephew did tell me though, that a few years back the water level of the lake actually made it to the base of the structure.

I just think it is cool looking.

 

One view of the stairs that wind their way from the base all the way to the top of the tower. They would never be able to meet code these days just because of the width, but it was kind of neat to  wander up them and look out at the lake on 3 sides of the tower.

   Good day overall, even if there were a few glitches along the way. Headed north around 10:30 with the idea of going up to Longmont and getting some work done on the trailer. Along the way though I stopped off at my last place of employment, the Colorado Division of Wildlife, which is now the Colorado Department of Parks and Wildlife, or some such thing. The reason for the stop was to pick up one of the few people still there that I worked with. Peggy and I headed over to this Vietnamese restaurant over on N. Federal. More of a dive than a restaurant, it still has one of the best noodle bowls around, so we always seem to end up there for lunch.

    Had a good time hearing about all the new stuff going on there since the last time I talked with anyone. It is still scary to know that I could probably walk in, sit down and start right up where I left off. Seems like only some of the people and the politics have changed at all since my retirement. Boy am I ever glad I no longer work there. It was a wonderful place to work at, the projects were interesting, the people fun and the ability to be outdoors was perfect for someone like me. But there is still no doubt that I did the best thing for me that I could by retiring as soon as possible.

    We talked for better than an hour, had some wonderful soup and then parted company with the hope that we can meet up again, with maybe some of the others, at least once more before I leave town.

   On to Longmont from there, and the tire store where I had left the trailer tire and rim a few days ago to have the tire pulled off and remounted onto a new wheel rim that I had ordered. They had called on Friday to say it was all done and ready to go so I thought it would be a matter of walking in, flashing my paperwork, and walking out again with my new wheel. Guess it wasn't meant to be however, as they couldn't find anything of the tire or the wheel once there. It took about an hour to locate all the separate pieces, put them together and then hand them over. Could of got mad about it I guess, but to what end? I guess it is much easier to see the funny side of things once time doesn't mean the same thing to you that it once did.

   Off to the trailer then to install the new wheel. No problem getting it put on, even though it was scorching hot outside, and then getting the tire covers put on the south facing tires. Also picked out a few things that I was going to need from inside the trailer and threw them in the truck. Also packed a few other things away and took a look at what still needed to be done. It is coming together at this point, but it will still take a little more time at some point.

    From the trailer it was on to the storage unit where I put a couple boxes in and then took a whole bunch of stuff out. Found my tent and sleeping gear as well as some gear for the boat and then a couple of coolers that will be needed for our food. Will have to check my list to see what else is still needed, but it was a good start on what I am going to need.

   Made dinner for us all this evening when I got back into the Denver area. I had brought down some frozen halibut fillets when I cleaned out the fridge and freezer a couple weeks ago, so Marge had thawed out a few of them for this evening. Just did a simple pan sauté for them tonight and built a little pan sauce with the bits left in the pan, along with some shallot, capers and brown mustard. Two of the three fillets came out okay, but the third one wasn't very good at all.... that was of course mine, and I can be honest about the taste. The sauce was okay, but not great either, where as, the steamed broccoli was fine as was some leftover pasta salad from this past weekend.

   Just going to hang out for most of the day tomorrow. Need to do some laundry again and may even have some time to deal with some photo's again. For now though.... it is time for bed.

   Must of had a good time yesterday, cus I was way to tired last night to stay up and write anything. So let me do at least a short recap of what was happening all day.

    Up pretty early in the morning, or at least early for me. I've been waking up around 5:30 most mornings, but then 'forcing' myself to go back to sleep for a couple of more hours. So it was around 7:30 when I was actually up and about. It has been pleasant to come out to the living room or kitchen and have a cup of tea and talk to my friend Marge for a couple of hours. We manage to solve all the worlds problems as well as a few of our own every day, so it must be a good thing to do.

    Headed north to my friends, Maggie and Paul's, place a little after 9:00. They were starting a remodeling project in their kitchen and had a structural problem they wanted me to take a look at. Not sure they liked the answer I gave them, but I did leave them with a couple of options and there are other ones they can do if they want to do more work and spend lots more money.

   Afterwards we, and their son Beau went over to a local Mexican restaurant and met Marge and George for lunch. Really like this little place, Luna's, because they have wonderful food, it's relatively cheap and it's owned and run by a brother and sister and their mother. I finally got some really good tamale's for lunch so I was extremely happy.

   Back to George and Marge's after that. Spent a couple hours on the computer researching some things to do in the next few weeks and then headed over to a Boys Night Out at the Movies movie. Met up with Tom and Joe and saw the movie Pacific Rim. Basically the 'Transformers meet Godzilla'; the story had so many holes in it you kept wondering why they even made the movie to start with. That being said, we all of course stayed to the very end and had a good time of it anyway. So I guess that pretty much tells you a lot about our level of sophistication. :)

   Since it was Monday, and our favorite waitress, Emily, doesn't work at Red Robin on Mondays any more, we felt free to head on over to Los Delicious for yet another meal of Mexican food. Now you might think that by now I would be getting tired of eating it, but you just have to remember that in Mexico they get to eat it at every meal, so it can't be all that bad.

     Have managed to screw up several social get together times already this week. To many people to see, and not enough time to see them in. I have also been trying to put everything down onto my phones day planner, but that only shows me one day at a time and I like being able to check a week, or even a month, in advance at times. So it seems that it is all my new phones fault that I have been double and triple booking things. At least that is the excuse I have come up with, and I'm sticking to it.

    Will be heading out to Longmont in a very little while this morning. Need to go up there and deal with my trailer tire and wheel issue as well as check my mail. Had ordered a case for the phone last week and it should finally be in now. Also want to stop by the storage unit and start pulling out gear for the upcoming river trip. I think most of it is where I left it last summer, right out in plane sight since it is gear I keep going back for and using pretty much every summer. But there is a portable toilet unit I need to locate and the 2-burner Colman, as well as a couple of ice chests and knee pads. Hopefully it won't turn into this huge treasure hunt this time around.

    In the meantime though I did manage to set up one lunch date for today that shouldn't be all screwed up time wise. So I'll be off to meet up with one of my old work partners from my engineering days at the Division of Wildlife. We will be headed for a Vietnamese Noodle Bowl over at a little dive on N. Federal Boulevard so I am really looking forward to that.

    Was up and headed over to my friends house by 10:00 this morning.  The group of us going to Montana on a canoe trip in a couple weeks were all meeting together to discuss food and gear as well as to have a nice paddle for a couple of hours. I arrived a little early because I wanted to see the progress that had been made to my friends house since the last time I had visited. They had completely remodeled their kitchen and stripped out all the carpet from the main floor. Instead they had installed new tile in the kitchen and new hardwood laminate flooring in the rest of the house. It looked wonderful to me, even though there was still a bit of work still to be done. I really like the kitchen layout they came up with, as well as the colors they had picked for counter tops, tile and trim. Can't wait to see it fully complete.

    Everyone who is going on the trip, six of us, were soon there, as well as a couple of other friends who stopped in just to say hello. I had a chance to finally paddle with my friend, and canoeing partner for the first time, Stephanie. Steph has been a friend of mine and all the other 'boat people' for several years now as she lives across the street from my friends Tom and Donna. But she has never been on a canoeing trip with any of us before, so it was perfect that she wanted to go and that I needed to have a canoe partner. Plus, she and Donna have been practicing for several weeks now, so she is certainly past that novice stage already. We had a good time paddling up and down the lake a bit, and even though the wind was blowing pretty good, we didn't have any problem going where we needed to go.

    We also took her dog, Lucy, along with us for the ride. Lucy is a wonderful golden retriever who is just starting to get use to the idea that once in the boat she should stay there no matter what interesting thing might be occurring elsewhere. In our case it was a young coyote that appeared on the shoreline and tantalized her into taking notice. Steph was able to keep her in the boat by bribing her with treats however, so I think we will be okay on the trip.

    Also saw all kinds of water birds along the shoreline today including several great blue herons, an egret a few cormorants and lots of ducks and geese. There was also a red tailed hawk (?) that flew over us at one point carrying a foot long snake in its talons. Pretty cool!

    We all had a nice picnic style lunch of sandwiches, chips and fruit with cold beer and ice tea to go along with it all. After satisfying our hunger, the six of us going on the trip settled down to discussing the up coming trip. For Tom, Donna and I it must of seemed pretty routine as we have all done this 150 mile section of river so many times over the past 40+ years. Tom alone has done it more than 40 times and I lost count somewhere in the mid 30's. Donna, being just a youngster is only in the high 20's we figure. But for the other three, John and Caroline and Steph this is all brand new for them. Lucky for us all Tom has become a master at organizing these kinds of trips, so he has printed lists and directions and all the required info for doing a trip solo or with a group of 40. Me, I just sit back and watch as he does all the work at this stage.

    Probably the most important part of the whole meeting was deciding who was bringing and cooking what for each of our dinners. Each canoe is going to be responsible for providing, cooking and cleaning up for two complete dinners for the whole group. So we all made sure we weren't bring the same thing for each night. A good selection of different meals that always taste great no matter what, while you are on the river.

    The rest of the meals, breakfast and lunch, are the responsibility of each individual, or group of two. So Steph and I still need to discuss what we want to do about those meals. I doubt she really wants to share in my ideal breakfast or lunch as I'm a bit of a minimalist when it comes to those things. A pop-tart and some canned fruit for breakfast and some tuna or smoked oysters in a tortilla for lunch. That and a lot of Kool-Aid and I'm a pretty happy camper. On the other hand I can also do meals that are a bit more involved so we will have to talk about what we want to do later on this trip.

    Had meant to go up to Fort Collins to my cousins place for a bar-b-q this afternoon. But by the time we were done with our meeting it was already late afternoon and I just didn't feel like driving all that way. Especially as it looked like the front range was going to get hit by some big thunderstorms again this afternoon and evening. So I returned to Marge and George's where I spent a very nice early evening reading my book, taking a nap and then watching a couple really old, 1950's, movies that they had.

    Had planned on working on photo's yet tonight as I am really falling behind on them right now. But it is already late and I need to be up reasonably early to go visit some friends I haven't seen yet. They want me to come look at a structural issue they are having on a remodel project of their own, and then we are going to head off to some lunch at a little Mexican restaurant near them. I really love my friends!

    Spent a very pleasant couple of hours this afternoon meeting up with bunches of my cousins on my fathers side for a small family reunion. We all met here in Denver at Observatory Park around noon for a pot luck lunch and some time to sit down and chat. Some of these cousins are ones that I haven't seen for 10 or more years, so it was certainly fun to catch up a bit with them. Then of course there were their children and children's children along also, many of whom I had never met before. So we sat around and did what we Klock's seem to do best, which is eat, and then we chatted each other up for a couple more hours after that. Got some good information that I can now add to my own family tree, as well as some really cool old photo's that some of my cousins had. The plan is to have a low key bar-b-q tomorrow afternoon in Fort Collins at one of my cousins home. It should be even better as far as having more time to chat with everyone.

     Went and had a nice meal over at El Tejado after we all split, with one of my friends here in Denver. Joe and I go back a long, long time and it was fun to catch up with his news from the last few months. I tried to get him to go on to the local contra dance with me afterwards, but he's still being obstinate about going back to it, even though he once seemed to enjoy dancing, and was actually pretty good at it. Ah well... it's his loss.

    Tonight was the once a month 'Zesty', or advance dance contra dance, out at Berkley Park. Wondered at one point if I was actually going to make it out there, as it was raining like crazy when I started out from south Denver. Lot's of big puddles on the highway and full gutters that slowed traffic down but never stopped it completely. Made it there in good time and had a wonderful 3 hours of dancing in all. Really fun to see and dance with all these people that I haven't really seen for the last 10-11 months. The music was good and the calling was certainly more than adequate, so a bit better than the dance last night. I was a little worried that the altitude might get to me tonight as these dances are usually a little more vigorous and faster than the ones done last night. I felt myself breathing a little heavier than just a walking pace would produce tonight, but certainly nothing that I couldn't handle. So maybe all that dancing and hiking over the past year has helped.

    With all of that being said though I still wish that I could of been at the three day dance in Coshocton Ohio this weekend. 'River Rendezvous' just sounds like it would of been a wonderful dance, plus I miss dancing and seeing some of the people that I know are there without me. At least I got to talk to one of them tonight, that was a very nice treat.

    Time for bed though. I'm meeting up with friends tomorrow about our river trip to Montana in a couple of weeks. I would imagine that we will do a bit of paddling and then figure out gear and meals over lunch somewhere. Looking forward to seeing all of these friends again also. It has been way to long for most of them.

July 12, 2013

   Can't believe I forgot to mention folk dancing last night in the park in my post yesterday. I've only been going there since I was 14 years old, and I credit dancing there every summer for the last 41-42 years, with starting me on my lifelong love of dancing. Really good to see old friends there again, several of them had been part of the original 8-10 people who were there at the very first dance with me. Unfortunately the founder, Sugar, wasn't there as he had sprained an ankle this week and was still taking it easy. Hope to see him and his wife, Bettina, before the end of the summer though.

    So today was really just a delight. A nice easy morning reading the paper and having a simple breakfast here at the house with my friends. I had to go to the grocery store early on to pick up stuff for the potluck dish I am taking tomorrow to the family reunion. That party will be over in Observatory Park near DU, Denver University, and the area where I grew up in. Decided on making a nice simple pasta salad that I had seen made on the TV show 'America's Test Kitchen' one day long ago. It seemed like a nice thing to take, and that pretty much goes with everything else. Went and did the grocery shopping this morning and then brought all the stuff home and set it aside for a bit while George, Marge and I went over to a nice little restaurant at Centennial Airport and had a very nice lunch there. They do really good food there at a really acceptable price, plus you get to sit and watch all these private jets and other planes taking off and landing while you are eating. I had a simple Mushroom/Swiss burger for my meal, but they make them by hand out of ground sirloin there and then they will even cook them medium rare if you want. It was really quite yummy!

    Made my pasta salad dish this afternoon after coming home from our lunch. Figured it would be better than standing there sampling it all the while I was making it. Turned out to be the right thing to do as it turned out really well and I know I would of eaten at least half of it if I hadn't already been full.

    Read my book for a little while this afternoon but found that I kept dozing off, so I ended up taking a little nap before dinner. Went over to the local contra dance here in Denver this evening. I was good to be up and moving again to live music. It was a nice crowd and the music and caller were good enough to make the evening a success. Certainly not as good as a weekend long dance, but more than adequate after going without any dancing at all for more than a month. Lucky for me there will be a 'Zesty' contra in Denver tomorrow evening also. This is a once a month dance here in the area that is geared for more advanced dancers. The caller and band tomorrow should be up to the task of putting on a good dance, so I am really looking forward to that also.

    Our family reunion kicks off tomorrow at noon over at Observatory Park in Denver. There will be the pot luck at noonish and time to just sit and talk and have fun. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of my cousins that I haven't seen in a long, long time as well as some of their kids whom I have never met before. Looking forward to having a good time with then throughout the afternoon and early evening.

July 11, 2013

    A slow start this morning... pretty normal for me if I have anyone about who will sit and talk to me for a while. Nice to once again be someplace where I can wake up to a real shower every morning. The one I have in the trailer does work, and it is okay for what it is, but it is so nice to have a shower big enough to turn around in with out falling down, and one where you have more than 6 gallons of hot water. Not that I actually use more than that.... it's just nice to know that I could if I wanted to.

    Headed for Longmont late in the morning with the idea of getting some work done at the trailer. Did manage to give the fridge and freezer a real thorough cleaning and disinfecting with some water and bleach. It was real fun spraying that on in a hot stuffy trailer! Also went ahead and did the same for the stove top burner area and the oven and broiler. So those two things are now ready to go again. Did forget to drain the hot water heater and take a look at the zinc anode to see if it needs replacing again, but I still have plenty of time for that.

    It had also been my intention to switch a few tires around on the trailer while I had a chance. I had noticed one on the port side, (left), was wearing a bit more on the outside edge than usual, so the idea was to take it off and put the brand new spare tire on there, and then move the used tire over to the other side to see if I could balance the wear pattern out a little bit. But once I had the tire off it became apparent that I had not kept a close enough eye on the inflation of that one tire and that it had worn equally on both outer edges. Not enough to have to replace it yet, but enough that I decided to just use it as my spare instead and just take the one on the right side, (Starboard), with the bent rim, off and go find a new rim for it. So that is basically how it went except that it takes a long time to take all the crusted on wheel nuts off of two tires when it's 96 degrees outside and you are in the direct sun for most of that time. It was finally done though, and after loading up the one tire it was off to discount tire for a new rim and to have the truck tires rotated. When I got there I decided to go with a newer looking rim for that tire even though I was only going to do one of them out of the 5 that would eventually need new rims. But there is no reason to spend $400 bucks right at the moment so I okay'd them to go ahead and do the work while I went over to Home Depot to wander around while it was all being taken care of. Turns out though, that the rim they had in stock was actually to wide for the tire I was using, so they ended up having to order one in anyway. The good news is that it was $10 bucks cheaper than the other one, the bad news was that it would take a couple of days to get there. So sometime next week I'll have to go on back up and pick it up and take it back to the trailer and put it on, but what the heck, I was planning on going back up there at some point anyway.

    Went and had a very late lunch at Chipotle's after that and then headed over to Wally World to pick up a couple cheap flash drives I needed. Wasted a bit of time there looking at stuff and even managed to corner one of their geeky tech guys back by the computer/camera/telephone counter to see if he knew what needed to be done to get the voice mail feature turned on in my phone. He told me what he thought the fix would be.... basically dial up voicemail the first time and then just follow the directions for it. But when I got outside, I found that the instructions he had given me didn't work either. So now I need to wait until morning and then try one last option I have, which is to call this one number that showed up in some of the instructions on line for support of some kind, but they didn't specify if it was tech related support or not.

    Right now though I need to finish this up and then go find a recipe for some dish to take to the family reunion potluck on Saturday afternoon. Wish I had my zucchini cake recipe handy, that is always a welcome dish at any party it seems.





 

July 10, 2013

   Finally a day to just sit back and relax a bit. Slept in a little while this morning, about 8:00 I think, before it started to warm up to much to stay in bed. A relaxing morning spent with George and Marge eating breakfast and reading an actual news paper again. After a pleasant couple of hours it was time to get some laundry done again and then I spent a bit of time helping them change some light bulbs around the house that required getting up on a ladder to fix.

    Actually took a short nap this afternoon after a nice rain storm came through and cooled everything down. It was good timing in that I was up and ready to go by the time George and I had to leave to meet up with Tom for a Boys Night Out movie

   We went out and saw the latest Lone Ranger movie this evening. Not a great movie over all, but there were certainly a lot of good parts scattered about in it. It just had a few sections that didn't make much sense, and few parts that made no sense at all. Plus, I didn't like how they played the character of the Lone Ranger, it didn't suit what he has traditionally been like and so it was very easy for Johnny Depp to steal the show from him, as he had the much better part, and a much better character to play.

    Dinner was over at Red Robin of course, where everybody seems to know our name. Emily took good care of our food and drink needs and the manager, I'm not sure what his name is, but Tom and George know him better, came over to see what movie we had seen and whether or not we liked it. Late getting back home but am now just about ready to call it a night. Will be heading back up to Longmont sometime in the morning to deal with some routine tire issues on the truck and the trailer. I bent the rim on one of the trailer tires a couple months ago in West Virginia, I'm not sure why it didn't just blow up then, and it needs to have the wheel replaced and the tire to be remounted on it. Also want to get the truck tires rotated while I'm there as it is time for that to happen also.

     It is suppose to be up around 98 degrees tomorrow afternoon without to much of a chance for rain, but we'll see how that goes. Will try to drop in to Washington Park tomorrow evening and check out the crowd at the boat house folk dancing. It will be good to see some of those people again and to of course see 'Sugar', the guy who started the dancing there some 43-44 years ago. Such fun!

July 9, 2013

    Wow... has it ever been busy these last two days here. I was actually up early and on the road to Colorado yesterday morning. No real problems on the drive down, just seemed like it took forever is all. Finally made it into Longmont though and got Esmerelda safely stored in her usual storage spot there at the old sugar factory. Stripped out a bunch of the boxes I had been packing the past couple of days and then stowed some of the trailer stuff that wouldn't be needed up in the front bedroom area. Also got the propane turned off, unhooked the batteries and cleaned out the rest of the fridge and freezer and left the doors open to defrost the whole thing. Will go up in a few days and give it all a good wash down and pack even more stuff that still needs to come out of the trailer, as well as take care of the one tire that I bent the wheel rim on a couple of months ago. That whole wheel will get replaced and the tire, which is still good, re-mounted before becoming my new spare for the trailer.

    With the trailer taken care of for the moment, it was off to my post office box to pick up the mail that had been accumulating for the past couple of months. Not a whole box full this time, but still, it was a very respectable pile of it, and there were even a couple of pieces that weren't 'junk' mail. A couple personnel pieces and some bank statements, as well as a small package that turned out to be a model steam engine that I had ordered from an online hobby store a few months back. Sure nice to get some actual mail again and one piece even had a book in it that I am now anxious to start in on.

     A quick bite to eat after making a fast first pass through my mail, and then on out to the storage unit to stow away the boxes I had packed and to check on everything inside. Other than being dirty and dusty from a wind storm that passed through last year, it all looked pretty much the same as last time. I try not to think to hard about what all is in there at the moment, but one of these days it is going to be just like Christmas for me since there are boxes in there that I haven't looked into for more than a dozen years. I am sure a lot of it will be headed for Goodwill or the trash at that time, but you can never remember everything that you packed away. I for one would love to find my kilt again before some critter gets into it and makes a nest out of it.

    On to Denver after that and finally a place to land at my friends, George and Marge. So good to see them and have a chance to sit and talk to them for a little bit. It didn't last long however as we were all pretty hungry and in need of a good meal and something cold to drink. It was time for Mexican food again, so this time it was off to Los Delicious for a nice combination meal of nearly all of my favorites, including 3 large glasses of freshly brewed ice tea with lots of ice in it. With all of that food and ice tea it's not hard to understand why we were all almost uncomfortably full when we left an hour or so after we arrived.

    A pleasant evening with the two of them just talking and goofing off. We actually watched a short video of one of the collage like courses they had ordered on the history of the Vikings. This lesson was on Viking boat building and how they managed to rule most of the Baltic and Western Europe for nearly 400 years around 700-1100 A.D. Very interesting stuff for all of us of course, since we all practically grew up together while 'messing about in boats'. It also drove home the point that you really don't want to mess around with a bunch of angry Norwegians. ;)

    Very tired last night but still didn't get to bed very early. I had received an email from my phone carrier, Sprint, telling me that I had used up all of my 450 minutes for the month already, and that any more talking was going to cost me  $0.45 per minute now. Totally floored me since I barely remembered that I even had a limit, having never even gotten close to it in the 6-7 years I've had this phone. Plus I wasn't sure what I was going to do since I wasn't planning on giving up talking to my friends and family just because of this little development. So I decided to do the next best thing.... I had been talking for several years about the need for buying a new phone and changing carriers to someone who would actually have coverage in some of the places I like to go instead of only in the middle of larger cities. So I decided this was a perfect time to do something about it.

     I had been talking to my nephew Brian about his new phone just the week before because he seemed to be happy with it and it worked pretty well for him. He had bought it at Walmart of all places and had signed up for, or I should say, hadn't signed up for a 2 year contract plan. Instead he pays $45 dollars a month for unlimited talking, texting and data downloading, within certain parameters of course, and he just does it on a month to month basis. So after going on line and checking out the program and all of the different phones you could buy and enroll with there, I picked out one exactly like his and bought it. Of course that was just the beginning of all the hoops that had to be jumped through before I could actually call it mine and use it to make phone calls. The first hurdle was to find out what my Sprint account number and password were so that they could go in there and transfer my existing telephone number onto my new phone. Seemed easy enough but I hadn't actually been on line for better than 5-6 years so who can remember their acct. numbers and such. I even tried to simply go in and set up a whole new profile with new numbers and such, but every time I did that Sprint would tell me they had sent my new info to me via email, and then it wouldn't show up. Turns out they had the wrong email address for me at that site, even though they had emailed me several messages the day before from one or more of their other departments. In the end it meant going through their fraud department so that they could erase everything in my old profile and then I could go in and change everything. It was a very frustrating couple of hours but I have to admit the Sprint people were very polite and tried very hard to be helpful. For my part I just tried not to get too frustrated and blow up at the situation, just reminding myself that it would soon be over and I could start dealing with yet another phone company.... this time Verizon.

    In the end it all got done, I went and purchased my phone, $150, and a couple add on's I'll be needing, like a blue tooth ear thingy. The guy at Wal-Mart did all the set up work for me as far as activating the phone, unfortunately what he couldn't do was transfer my contact list over. So I spent more than an hour imputing all of that stuff into the new phone. It did give me a chance to weed out a few old contacts though so that was nice.

     Got it all put together just in time for my old phone to go dead and my new phone to come alive. First thing was to try out the phone by calling someone. That went remarkably well considering there is no actual 'how to' book for this thing. So once that was done I was on to receiving a phone call and that is where it gets kind of embarrassing. I had George calling my number and each time his name and number would come up, the phone would ring and I would start pushing buttons that showed up on the screen. After the third or fourth time George finally figured out that you had to punch this center ring icon thingy and then drag it over to the green receiver icon thingy and then you could say hello and start the conversation.

    I spent much of the rest of the afternoon and evening setting up email and facebook accounts as well as merging my old search 'favorites' and figuring out how to text. There is a voice to text feature that is pretty neat, not quite 'Siri' quality, but it will come in handy for me since my texting speed falls somewhere down there between turtle and snail. It will get better as time goes on I'm sure. In between all of this George and I were watching old episodes of the 'Firefly' series that was on 5-6 years ago. We both still love watching them even though we have seen them many times over and still bemoan the fact that FOX screwed up when they cancelled it in mid season.

    So now the house is quiet again. I'm going to finish this up and then hit the rack myself. I'm hoping for less drama in my life tomorrow. The only excitement I really want is when the boy's go out tomorrow afternoon to watch the new Lone Ranger movie.