Out for a walk

I walked down to the Buck Center on Saturday - that's me at the "Official Cupola Cam Greeting Site", picture courtesy of my sister. It was a bit brisk out there, with the air temperature just below freezing, and with the breeze blowing, I was glad it was just a short walk. I used the exercycle to get my legs to remembering what it was like to be on a bicycle. The pool as always was fun, but the steam room was really great for my breathing, and the Jacuzzi did wonders for that sore spot in my back that's been bugging me all week. I walked over to IHOP and discovered they've closed the one on Littleton Blvd. It's disappointing to lose that walking destination, but it's also nice to have options - I headed over to Cafe Terracotta and met K for breakfast. We ran a few errands after breakfast, and even though we got home by noon, I felt like I'd already had a full day.

Dad and Adele returned safely to Florida from their month-long New York adventure. They were glad to be away from the big snowstorm there. He says her surgery was completely successful, and she's recovering well.

Foxy Kind of Morning

I wandered out this morning, to find just an inch of fresh snow from last night on the deck. I noticed some more fox tracks in the snow, leading to a small round melted spot in the corner, that suggested a little fox had been sleeping on our deck. The tracks led directly from the fox bed to our back door, then down the stairs off the deck. After waking up, the fox had come near the glass door to check us out, before leaving! That was a cool thought. It was a beautiful morning anyway, but that got me into an even better mood. A few minutes later, I looked out again, and noticed a rusty brown furry lump in the same corner. The fox had returned to continue her nap in the morning sun! It was worth waking K for this. She loved the idea of a fox feeling comfortable enough to sunbathe nearby. I'm afraid I captured far too many pictures of this event, which in the overall scheme of things probably isn't that big a deal, but it really made our day. I hope you enjoy the pictures too.

Friday Fox

K and I went for a walk along the South Platte River last Friday. It was nice to find the river trail all melted off and in good condition for a pleasant little walk.

I noticed a fox on our deck this morning, about the same time she saw me. She'd been sleeping on the last remnants of snow on the deck, and was rushing to hurry downstairs, but hesitated when she heard me exclaim, "What a beautiful fox!", which gave K time to come over and share the view. It was a nice way to start the Friday.

So... we did get 8 snows in 8 weeks, although we've had some warmer weather in between lately, and the massive accumulation has finally started to melt away. If it gets as warm as predicted this weekend, there's the possibility our local streets will be completely clear.

K's still dependent on oxygen, and her kidneys are still not doing well. Both of us have had stomach stuff going on this past few weeks, but not peanut butter poisoning, thankfully. The guys at work are talking about a bike ride on Sunday, but I doubt my street bike would make it through the patches of snow that are still making it difficult to navigate in places, so I'll probably pass.

6 in 6

This has to be an all-time record for the Denver area. Six snows in six weekends, back-to-back! Saturday morning's snow only left an inch or so of light fluffy stuff, which melted off the streets by the time our HOA annual and board meetings had finished at noon. Sunday was awesome - clear and sunny - it got warm enough to be able to comfortably soak up a little vitamin D on the deck. It didn't last, though. This morning it was 9 degrees, and I'm reading that the forecast is for snow on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday this week.

5 in 5 - Fox, Snow, Health

It's a beautiful day today, blue sky with no clouds in sight, and warming up through 45 degrees. I just watched a fox wander across our neighbor's back yard and into ours, disappearing onto the patio under our deck. They're such beautiful wild animals. Speaking of the wild, however, the news article about a mountain lion attack in California on Thursday was unsettling. It happened not far from where Otamay lives, and Mikele is visiting right now. I hope they're being careful to keep their eyes open when they're out walking. Probably they wouldn't have a problem, since between them they have four dogs that would scare most anything away.

I posted some new neighborhood snow pics from two weekends ago at http://picasaweb.google.com/shushing3/0114Snow

I guess I've fallen off the riding/walking exercise wagon, after all these weekend snowfalls. I still do my stretching and minimal exercises in the mornings, but I've let the inconvenience of walking through snow, slush, and ice in subfreezing temperatures and gusty winds, keep me from my appointed rounds for the past several weekends. We've had five weekends in a row of significant snow, and just about all that time it's been below freezing. I was glad to have the new snowblower last Sunday, after the forecast 1-2 inches of snow accumulation turned into an actual 9-12 inches. This snowy weather pattern is very unusual for here. And there's more snow forecast for tomorrow, and then again later in the week. Yikes! It must be Winter! Global warming... bah, humbug!

Work's been busy - supporting our existing software installations, talking to our new partners, and starting some new projects. I'm finally getting to work/play with some Linux systems, although we're on a pretty tight schedule, so it's not the relaxed kind of playing we all yearn for. I won't say this is a new lesson, but I've quickly relearned the old "unix is not unix" lesson with regards to Linux. Red Hat and SUSE present quite different interfaces to the system admin. I hope our developers won't see as much difference between them, or we'll never get done in time.

K's been dizzy, nauseous, and out of breath a lot, the past few weeks. Her pulse has been low - in the 40s - and BP has been high. It's probably due to a medication switch, but the symptoms are real and troubling, even if the cause might be known. The cardiology office just called to offer her an earlier appointment, which she accepted.

Dad says Adele's surgery went well yesterday. It was bigger than they thought, so they couldn't do the arthroscopic approach. They say she'll be recovering in the hospital for five days. Here's the info for the hospital:

  Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center

  1275 York Avenue

  New York, NY 10021

  212-639-2000

Also see http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/5365.cfm

And that's all for now, folks...
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3 snows in 3 weeks

We had another gorgeous sunny day today, reflecting off the bright white landscape, after getting yet another dump of snow on Friday. I spent the day working from home, since the news was reporting that the roads were miserable. After three major snowfalls in as many weeks, I'm certainly tired of hefting snow and ice from the driveway and paths, and throwing it into the yard. The News is reporting that this has been the most snow in repeated snowfalls in a such a short time, since 1913.

Our neighbor Mika got tired of all the shoveling, and ordered an Ariens model 5524E Sno Thro from Home Depot. We and 3 other neighbors split the cost with her, which made the cost of this 5.5 HP compact snow removal device affordable. I spent some time with it today, going over our driveway, and knocking down strategic parts of the big berms alongside the driveway, and in the street, that had grown to almost my height. The results were very gratifying. I looked up "rewarding" in the Webster thesaurus, and almost every word they suggested seemed appropriate: cheering, comforting, encouraging, fulfilling, gladdening, gratifying, heartening, rewarding, satisfying, affecting, inspiring, moving, edifying, elevating, uplifting, exciting, exhilarating, rousing, stimulating, thrilling, pleasing. Oh, yeah!

New Year's Walk

Ken and I took a (short?!) New Year's Day walk down to mail some letters and pick up some milk, then head back home via the Platte River and Lee Gulch trails. We found it a somewhat more strenuous than usual walk, since for most of the way, every step was in crunchy snow that gave way to the layer a few inches below it. Then, once we found the milk at the Phillips 66 station on Santa Fe, we found ourselves bushwacking our way through quite a lot of deep virgin snow as we took a "shortcut" to the Platte River from where we were through Hudson Gardens. We came out at the Oasis on the Platte. It was a beautiful day for a walk, though, and as tired as we were afterwards, we enjoyed it thoroughly.

Fox Snow Bed

K thought she saw a fox on the deck last night. It turns out, she did. They must've been sleeping in a little bed they'd made in the deep snow at the far corner of the deck. Not seeing any fox prints in the deck snow, we were confused about how they got down off the deck, but when we went down on the patio, there were definitely fox prints in the snow on the deck stairs. Tricky little devil. And oh by the way, what a breathtaking view we got from the patio! This is the first time this year that we've checked out the view of the snow from down there. This photo shows the little fox hole in the corner of the deck.

Gorgeous Day

We woke up to a gorgeous blue sky, and bright bright white snow on the ground - I needed sunglasses to just look outside. We couldn't ask for a more beautiful day. Even though I'd gotten most of the snow off the driveway last night, I spent some more time nibbling away at the excess frozen-on layer this afternoon. Then Ken saw me, and came by to help chip away at the really serious glacier in the gutter, with his big heavy post hold digger. We made great some progress.

Even More Snow

We're getting another dump of snow! This new storm is supposed to deliver 18-30 inches to the Denver area, and so far we've seen almost a foot. We slept in late this morning, another lazy day in this wonderful holiday week off that I get from work. Then we headed out for a little adventure in the snow. We ran a few errands, then stopped by the Honda dealer, to try out their new 2007 CRV on a serious snow day. Our salesman friend was up for it, but was busy with another customer, so he dropped the keys and magnetic license plate in my hand, and said "good luck finding it out there - should be on the East side of the building, or maybe across the street at the high school." Sure enough, all the cars were starting to look a lot alike, with several inches of snow frosting on them. We tromped around the entire parking lot in the heavy snowfall looking for it, then tried the high school, and still didn't find it. We enjoyed the romp in the heavily falling snow, though. With a little help, the demo CRV was found parked way down at the end of the street, and we were on our way. We motored over to the Starbucks a few miles away, taking the scenic route via Rio Grande Drive, one of the more slippery frontage roads along the railroad tracks near downtown Littleton. I really liked the way the real-time four wheel drive and anti-lock brakes worked in the slippery conditions. One thing I did learn the hard way - when there's a bunch of snow on the roof, don't be playing with the switches on the ceiling! While we were sitting in the Starbucks parking lot, getting ready to head out on the rest of our test drive, I was looking for the light switch up on the ceiling, and instead found the sunroof actuator. I saw it start to open, and said, "uh, oh..." and shortly thereafter, several inches of snow dumped down on top of us! Luckily we were both in an adventurous mood, and laughed it off, as we climbed out of the car to shake ourselves off, and pull handfuls of snow out of the various places it had lodged in the car. The heated seats were a big bonus at this point, since they helped to dry the car's (and our) seats in record time. Overall, we were very happy with the performance and comfort.

Lots O'Snow

It looks like we'll be having a "White Christmas" after all! We got our first big snow today, and it's still coming now. They shutdown the plant, and sent us home around noon. I got home safely, but for the first time, I didn't quite make it up our driveway at first. I was struggling with the deep snow conditions, slipping my way down our street past our house, a little at a time, when two of our neighbors, who were out shoveling, took pity on me, and helped push my little Civic back up the hill, up our driveway, and into our garage, none of which was all that easy. I thanked them profusely, and heaved a big sigh of relief, knowing it wouldn't be sitting out on the street, collecting snow all night. I was thinking, how nice it would've been, to have already gotten a nice 4WD vehicle with high ground clearance by now.

We have our little Christmas trees up now, and my "thicket" concept seems to be pulling together. I captured some pics of the snow and our thickets around the house, at our photo gallery.

Walks, Buck, Cars

I went for just a few walks this month, one of them down to the Buck Center for an exercise session with friends. The Buck Center has their nice Christmas tree up again in the lobby. After leaving off my car for the 120K service, I walked by the Honda new car showroom, and found myself circling the 2007 CR-V a few times. It's pretty cool, overall. I admit I was seduced by the simple and clean way they incorporated the GPS navigation system, MP3 CD player, heated leather seats, plethora of drink holders, real-time MPG display, and recently improved real-time all-wheel drive. The next day, we looked at a used Subaru Legacy Outback, which was also pretty cool, though it didn't have all the gadgetry.

A New ULA Era

Friday was "Day One" of our new launch company, "United Launch Alliance", or ULA for short. We'll probably be pronouncing the acronym phonetically (Yew-Lah ??) in short order, after we get tired of saying the letters a few hundred times. It doesn't feel much different yet, since it was my 9/80 day off, but I'm sure things will be hopping on Monday. I've added a ULA link under Favorite Websites.

I took advantage of my Friday off, to go flying with a pilot friend. I rented the Diamond Star DA40, and flew the required six instrument approaches under the hood, to sustain my IFR currency, and also worked in three takeoffs and landings, to bring my VFR currency up to date. The DA40 is a fun plane to fly, and with a two-axis autopilot and the more sophisticated HSI, the approaches were quite fun. It even has a traffic alert gadget. We had some additional fun, while navigating the slippery taxiways, and doing touch-and-goes on runway 17R, which was covered in a layer of partially melted and refrozen snow.

K had a rough Friday night. Her glucose had been really high all day, and even with a lot of insulin administered, it was only coming down slowly during the night. I slept in late, she even later. It was 25 degrees, and snowing lightly, for most of the morning. I fixed us a light breakfast of hot tea, english muffins, Clementines, and an apple. I really enjoyed peering outside at the snowflakes drifting down, with a nice hot cup of tea cupped in my hands, and fooling around on the computer, which was working again, after it failed Wednesday with a pop and smell of burnt electronics. A quick trip to PC Brokers the next day resulted in replacement of the power supply and video card, while I waited. I tweaked a muscle in my back this morning, by simply reaching over my head, which made the rest of the day not so comfortable. We planned to go to the Buck center in the morning, but kept procrastinating, and finally got down there in the late afternoon. The side roads we used to get there were still snowy and slippery, so I got to play a little. We used a few machines, mostly the stationary bikes, then I used the pool, jacuzzi, and steam room just before closing. K stayed away from the water facilities, since she'd developed a very tiny wound on her toe. The jacuzzi really hit the spot, literally - those jets working directly on the one sore muscle really helped my back. I enjoyed gazing up at the stars, relaxing in the bubbles, while the 15 degree night air frosted my face. Afterwards, we stopped by our neighbor's Christmas party, and enjoyed chatting with Cat's friend Mike about his interesting work at a sound studio in Boulder.

Thanksgiving Week

We shared a quiet Thanksgiving week with our friend from Phoenix. We saw "Happy Feet" and enjoyed it quite a bit. We went for a few walks, and were reminded that it takes awhile for visitors to get acclimated to the altitude. On Wednesday we walked downtown and had breakfast at Cafe Terracotta, and Thursday we drove down to the Carson Nature Center, walked along the South Platte River, down around Lake 3 and back, and then had breakfast at Cafe de France in Aspen Grove.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at The Fort, which was a very nice experience. It became a little more of an adventure, when we realized we'd forgotten K's oxygen bottle, and she decided to conduct a supplemental oxygen "weaning" exercise. We were careful to stay with her whenever she got up, and though she said she got light-headed a few times, she did OK.

The day after Thanksgiving, we hung our first string of Christmas lights. It's amazing how much easier it was, with someone helping! We dropped Gene off at the airport, then took a tour of the newly lighted Littleton downtown area, which is even more beautifully lighted now, than previous years. On Sunday, I took K to the Buck Recreation Center, and she used the facilities for the first time. She's looking forward to transitioning from her cardiac rehab at the hospital, to a more regular exercise at this local gym. It was a wonderful way to finish the week. We took it easy, just using a few machines, then after exercising, I used the steam room, pool, and outdoor jacuzzi - such a treat! I'm looking forward to trying the jacuzzi sometime when it's snowing!

Nice Sunset

I wandered out onto the deck to watch the gorgeous sunset this evening, and startled a big fluffy fox down the hill, who loped over westward into the shadows. I did catch a nice panorama picture of the sunset, if not the fox, for posterity.

TG Vacation Begins!

I decided to take the entire Thanksgiving week off, so yesterday's 9/80 Friday off was the beginning of a 10-day min-vacation. We'll have our friend from Phoenix visiting Tuesday through Friday. I'm looking forward to a fun week!

K's first river walk

We got just a shiver of snow this weekend - not enough to stick on the ground, but another reminder that we're deep into Fall, and Winter will soon be here. It seemed too cold for bike riding, but Ken and I walked our 10,000+ steps, on both weekend days.

K and I drove down to the Nature Center Thursday afternoon, and went for a short walk along the Platte River. The Cardiac Rehab folks have been telling her she needs to get out and walk a little every day. The two of us used to walk down the Lee Gulch trail to the Platte River on a fairly regular basis, but we haven't done it in years.

Our 1and1 website renewal date is fast approaching, at the end of this year. I'm trying out the idea of replacing that site with this blog. Please let me know what you think!

I'm also trying out a weblog at Windows Live Spaces. Please let me know if you like the presentation and functionality of that one any more or less than this one.

Also note the new location of our Best Of Photos at Google's PicasaWeb