Christmas Trip!

I just got home, after two weeks of being away, visiting with family and friends in California for the Christmas holiday. My niece Dorothy, who recently moved to Colorado, shared the drive. We covered over 2600 miles in 40 hours of driving.

It was really nice, to have Dorothy along. Not only did she do some of the driving, but she was a great conversationalist, and it was fun sharing meals with her, too. She loves to make quirky faces in pictures. I got used to that after awhile... We stopped for breakfast at "Marion's of the Rockies" in Idaho Springs on the way out, and completely lost track of time (and two hours on the road!) while chatting, before, during, and after the meal.

Mandy was a great little traveling dog. She spent most of the time sleeping quietly in the back seat of the car. She dutifully ventured out to do her business, every time we stopped for gas or at a rest area. She was also a great little roommate, cuddling with me under her little fleece blanket on the bed, in the hotel rooms, at my sister Mikele's, and when we stayed with our friends Ken and Freddie. She got along great with Mikele's dog Molly, and tolerated the cats well enough. What a great little trouper.

Dorothy was very happy to see her chickens again, and it seems that they were also ecstatic to see her. They were all over her in an instant, climbing up on her shoulders when she invited them, and tapping at her ears in an endearing way. She walked around the chicken coop, saying hello to each and every one of them in turn. During the time we were there, Mikele said they all started laying more eggs than ever before. One of them, who hadn't been laying at all since Dorothy left a few months ago, started laying again, producing an egg every day, and sometimes two. Happy, happy, happy!

My sister had to work right up until Christmas, so we descended on her, and whisked her away for lunch each day. She and her coworkers in Cal Poly's Administration building won the informal Christmas office decoration contest, with their suspended ornaments and little white lights around the ceiling.

Mikele's husband Bob and I played frisbee golf twice at the 18-hole Atascadero disc golf course. The first day we played, we got rained out before we finished playing around. The next time we played, the rain came back, and tried again to shoo us away, but we stuck with it, and finished all 18 holes. I really enjoyed that! It's too snowy to play in Colorado these days. I think the dogs really liked adventuring around the course with us, too.

I drove over to Los Osos one afternoon, to visit with my friend Sher. We attended the same junior high and high schools, but we didn't really know each other, until we became fast friends, after she contacted me, while coordinating attendance for our 30th high school reunion, quite a few years ago, now. She has two different dogs since the last time I saw her, and Mandy did her usual "carving out her space" thing, while we were visiting.

I invited Sher out to dinner, and we decided to ask my sister and her family to join us in Morro Bay. We had a delicious seafood dinner at "Off the Hook Seafood Grill & Sushi", and really enjoyed the food, the company, the view of Morro Rock, the bay, and the sunset. What fun.

We hiked the Bob Jones trail, from a trailhead near Highway 101, to Avila beach, a nice walk of about six miles. Each time we had lunch at Custom House, a nice seafood restaurant, with outdoor patio seating right along the boardwalk. Very pleasant! Mandy was her usual great self, keeping up with us, and behaving very well, while laying at our feet while we were eating.

We had a delightful Christmas Eve dinner, hosted by my nephew Brighton and his girlfriend Marissa, at their pleasant partly below-ground rental space they call "the hobbit hole." Marissa, who works with her mom Jodi at the "Bloom and Grow" flower shop, sings opera professionally, and teaches yoga classes, wasn't feeling well, but it was hard to know it, because she did an incredible job, serving all of us a delicious feast, with a delightful atmosphere.

I wasn't really ready with Christmas presents for everybody, but at the last minute, Bob, Dorothy, and I made a trek to San Luis Obispo, and I had so much fun, walking around my old college town, visiting the stores. I really liked how much bigger all the trees have gotten, since I was walking around SLO with my girlfriend, and stopping into all the cute little women's clothes stores, so many years ago.

Everyone said it wouldn't matter, but I think I was channeling Kristan, because I suddenly starting having some ideas about things to get for people. I felt so much better, having a little something under the tree for everyone on Christmas Day.

We saw the new Stars Wars Episode VII movie! It was fun! I should thank everyone who saw it before we did, but were nice enough to not spoil anything. Oops. I accidentally cut Marissa out of this selfie, but she was there!

On our way back home, we stopped in Lincoln, CA for a short, but very pleasant, visit with my friends Ken and Freddie, who used to live just down the street from us for ten years, but moved away in 2014. They were the best friends anyone could ask for, going for walks on a moment's notice, helping Kristan get to medical appointments, and sharing many meals and holidays with us, over the years. We got the royal tour of their new house and yard in Lincoln, went for walks in the open spaces nearby, and drove around looking at the Christmas lights in the nearby neighborhoods.

It was COLD the last morning of our trip -- MINUS 19 degrees (51 below freezing!), when we woke up at the Little America in Wyoming. There was a low lying fog in the area, but it didn't cause us any problems. The car barely cranked over, and it did start thank goodness, but now I'm wondering if the battery is going bad again, less than a year after being replaced. The lighted trees around the hotel looked beautiful in the bone chilling cold, as I was filling the car with gas before we headed East across Wyoming that morning.

It was nice to come home to a pretty sunset. Unfortunately, I soon discovered that the refrigerator had failed while I was gone, and it must've been awhile ago, because all the food in both compartments was warm and dried out. With my friend Jennefer's help, we were able to find a company that agreed to come out and repair the refrigerator today, but then they discovered they had the wrong type of compressor, and will have to come back Saturday to finish the job. Before they arrived, we filled two entire large trash cans with spoiled food. It was very sad to be throwing away what used to be good food, but it was also an emotional experience for me, as a lot of the food items were special things that Kristan was fond of, and I had been keeping, with the idea that I'd figure out a way to make use them.

While the repairmen were attempting to fix the refrigerator, Jennefer and I watched the original Star Wars movie that I had bought while we were in California. I learned some time ago, that she had never seen any of the Star Wars movies. I tried to show her episode IV on videotape last summer, but that was when I discovered my VCR wasn't working any more, so I finally bought the entire series on BluRay, when I was visiting with my sister and her family. I think she enjoyed it!

After the movie, and the repairmen had left, promising to return on Saturday, Jennefer and I went out for a quiet dinner at Merle's in downtown Littleton. We took a New Year's Eve selfie on Main Street outside the restaurant, hoping the pretty lights would look a little festive.

I'm so glad to be home...

Chautauqua Park

Jennefer and I met my niece Dorothy this morning, at Chautauqua Dining Hall in Boulder for breakfast. I love all the fireplaces they have in the dining hall!

Then we went for a cold, icy, walk on the trails in Chautauqua Park. We had a great time!

Snow!

Well, the Snow has definitely arrived, and continues. I didn't anticipate not being able to tell which mailbox to put my letter in, this morning...

Big snow forecast

It's pouring rain out there! That's probably a good thing - if it were snowing, every inch of this rain would be the equivalent of about a foot of snow to shovel in the morning. Although I *was* looking forward to a nice pretty layer of white stuff when I get up. The forecast has been alternately calling for 2 feet, a few inches, 3-7 inches, 4-11 inches... it's hard to know if we'll get anything. I guess it depends if it gets cold enough overnight, to turn this rain into snow.

Fun with LEDs

When I lamented that the time change made it impossible to play disc golf after work, without blundering around in the dark, looking for lost discs and hard to see holes (the baskets), someone at the disc golf course mentioned that there are LED gadgets available, to light up both the disc and the hole. So, I got on Amazon and found them. Here's what they looked like, last night, when we tried them out. Coincidentally, I happened to get a hole-in-one on hole 3 - my first "one" in years! It was so cool, to watch the little blinking light on the disc fly through the air towards the well-lit hole, and then hear the chains, and see it fall into the basket. Very satisfying and fun.

In the first picture, we're preparing to putt into hole 1, which is off to the right, and is lit up with an amber LED downlight. That's my friend Jennefer off to the left, just in front of the house's window in the background, holding up her disc with the little green LED light taped to the inside. And my disc is lying on the grass in the foreground.

The second picture shows hole 3 up close, just after my hole-in-one. Woo-hoo! Some other players nearby, playing the home behind us, saw my throw, and congratulated me on my great accomplishment. That felt good, too. :-)
The cool little downlight has several LEDs in a circle on the bottom, and has some kind of wireless link to a small handheld remote control, which allowed me to turn it on and off, and select any one of a dozen different colors, or choose a mode where it changes to a new color every second or so.

Sunday walk

Just finished a delicious breakfast at Racines, and a nice walk around Denver City Park, with my neighbor Jim and my friend Gail, and Mandy, of course.

Long walk with Dorothy

My niece Dorothy, who moved to Colorado a few weeks ago, met me in Morrison for breakfast, then we walked along Bear Creek for over 5 miles. We had a delightful time, and got to see a few traces of Fall colors left, but mostly were reminded by all the plant life going dormant, that Winter is essentially here. We were out walking for so long, that by the time we got back, it was lunch time, so we went back to the Cow, and were not disappointed, as their lunch menu was equally delicious.

Special K STUG

I was rooting around in the pantry tonight, looking for something easy to wolf down for dinner, and ran across this box of cereal I picked up recently. Seeing the big K, and the words around it, got me all choked up. She really was, both special, and original.

Sunday walk

Pics from this morning's beautiful walk at Denver city park, with Jim and Jennefer. We saw a dragon in the middle of the lake!

Dinner at Merle's

Took Jennefer with me, back to Merle's Diner, for another delicious veggie burger, with quinoa, black beans, and eggplant. And some amazing spices. Yum. Interesting shadow on the blind when we got here.

Breakfast at OPH

Just finished a delicious breakfast at Original Pancake House, with Dorothy and Jennefer! What a treat. It feels like we got one of everything!

Cold out

Short walk this evening. Not surprising, on this 34° night. I wore my "dog walking" coat tonight. It has really great reflectors built-in. Thanks to Kristan for thinking of this.

Fresh Start Cleaners Closing

Kristan got me started, bringing my shirts here to Fresh Start to be laundered, and I've fallen into a comfortable routine with it, over the years. I got a phone call earlier this evening, asking me to come pick up my shirts, because they're closing tomorrow. After I picked up my clothes, wished them good luck, and climbed back in my car, I found myself experiencing an inordinately intense surge of grief. I guess it's because this routine she got me started with has ended, which has me thinking back fondly of all the different places she tried, before she settled on this one. Oh well. At least these surges are temporary.

Blue Light Special

I'm in the pretreatment 90 minute waiting period,

at the dermatologist, prior to receiving their Photodynamic "Blue Light Special" Therapy. *Then* they "burn my face off" (my words). They applied a special solution to my face, that will bind to the precancerous cells in the skin. Then they will hit my face with a strong blue light, which will kill the bad cells. The goal is to hopefully avoid having these cells go bad on me in the future, because they won't be there any more. This is supposed to be much more effective, than running around my face with liquid nitrogen, and burning individual spots away.

Dorothy's here!

It doesn't get much better than this. My niece is here!!! She's joining Jim, Mandy, and I, for breakfast at Racine's, and our usual walk around Denver City Park. Hooray!

Enjoying a "Viva La France" French toast breakfast, on my Friday off. Mandy's in the car on this 43° morning. Today marks the anniversary of my 37th year working at the same company (if you count all the corporate pac-man shenanigans), and 41+ years since I started working professionally. Here's a nice Fall color pic, of the trees on Ridge Road this morning.

K's Birthday

Enjoying an informal birthday dinner in honor of Kristan, at Romano's, one of her favorite local restaurants, with some of her closest friends... Very nice to have them all around me, right now. Happy birthday, honey, wherever you are. And Mandy's snuggled up out in her bed in the car, like she always was, when we came out to dinner here.

Checking out the foam mattresses just for fun, while waiting for Jennefer to get off work, and join us for dinner. I see this picture of Mandy, and it makes me think of Annalisa's comment back in January, that "she seemed a lot bigger in your pictures." That's because she's a big part of my life!

Lunch at Breckenridge Brewery

Just finished a delicious lunch at the Farm House, and now playing Bocce Ball, with my neighbors Jim and Katie, at Breckenridge Brewery in Littleton! This place just opened a few months ago. I haven't played this game in several decades. Katie beat us both, 4-2-1. 

Blueberry's closed!

Boo! Blueberry's has closed their doors permanently! I am *so* going to miss this sweet little café. The people. The food - especially the blueberry turnover! The walking destination. It has been the only place we could reliably count on, to walk to breakfast on a bad weather day, and have someplace covered and warm to sit, while we eat. I sincerely wish David the best of success in his future endeavors, and the same for all the staff.

Hurricane Kristan

So this is my problem. She told me I should let her go, but she's everywhere.

This poem showed up on Facebook yesterday, and really hit me hard.

I have to trust, that I am getting better able to handle these sudden temporary upsurges of grief, but down here in the emotional trenches, it doesn't feel like much progress is being made.

Hike to Devil's Head

I took the day off, for an awesome hike with Mandy and Jennefer, up to Devil's Head Fire Lookout station! We took all the time we wanted. We saw lots of big beautiful rock formations, and the beginnings of Fall colors along the trail. We hiked right past the area that was devastated by the tornado in July.

We chatted with Ranger Bill Ellis for a long time. He described the day when the severe weather blew through, and all the heavy rain and lightning and hail and incredible wind that came with it. He wasn't sure if the station was going to stay in place. He said he'd be "out of here in a blink" the next time he sees a similar looking cloud heading his way.

Mandy met lots of other dogs and people. We had a delicious smoked salmon lunch, with strawberries, raspberries, pineapple, cheese and crackers, and carrots. We met several Stellar's Jays. Mandy protected us from being nibbled by some very bold chipmunks.

AV056 (MUOS-4) launched!

Weird work schedule the last two days. I worked Tuesday morning, went home for a nap, came in at 9pm last night, worked until noon, launched MUOS-4, went home for a nap, and just woke up in time to walk the dog while it's still light out.



We launched the fourth satellite in the series of the mobile user objective system (MUOS) launches. I just watched a video of the launch, and it appears to have been pretty spectacular, with a very impressive vapor trail.





SpaceFlightNow has some good snapshots:

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/02/photos-atlas-5-puts-on-predawn-sky-show/

...and here's a nice launch video:
http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/09/02/video-liftoff-of-atlas-5-rocket-to-deploy-navys-muos-4-satellite/

Marble visit

August 13-17 was our first driving trip out of town in awhile. We drove up to Marble, CO, to visit with our old friends and previous neighbors, Tom and Kay. I really enjoyed their beautiful yard. Mandy never did get used to their two dogs Grace and Pippa, but they all kept a respectable distance, so it wasn't a problem. We went for walks around Marble. I helped Tom work on constructing some picnic tables for the public areas down the hill in the park. We had dinner and played cards with their friends Steve and Claudine, who had just arrived at their place in Marble for a short Summer stay. We walked down one evening, and had dinner at the new barbecue restaurant in town. Delicious.

Did I say, we went for lots of daytime and evening walks? Tom was a great tour guide, telling what he knew (plenty!) about the history of the old Quarry and the Mill facility operations. This pic is of one of the firebreak walls in the old Mill.

We saw a beautiful doe in the yard one morning, while we were eating the delicious breakfast that Kay fixed, and enjoyed many many visits from quick and colorful hummingbirds.

I played Frisbee golf with Tom several times, at the new marble course, which is laid out around the old Marble Mill. One of those times, we first heard (loudly!), then saw, two Marmots that were encamped on large chunks of marble in the course, enjoying the sun. Lovely.

We slept in every morning, waking up to a wonderful view out the bedroom window into the back yard, and generally had a wonderful visit.