Happy Christmas Eve!

Wishing you a warm and comfortable Christmas Eve. a very Merry Christmas day, and a wonderful New Year 2022! Planning a quiet day this year. We're expecting my niece to visit tonight through tomorrow, and hopefully we'll have a video call with her/my family, then in the afternoon, we're invited to Jennefer's friend's home for Christmas dinner. We're not expecting a white Christmas here this year, so I've included a little snowy scene for all our entertainment.

It’s complicated

I think of most of the big issues these days as being multi-faceted. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy to find someone who insists on making their “solution” all about just one of those facets. 

I suppose this concept is an integral part of my “We’re all different” philosophy…

Heat again!

We are so glad to have a new furnace! The old one had a lot of things going wrong with it, so after a bit of agonizing, I finally bit the bullet, and had them install a new one. We only had to survive a few days without central heat. Using a space heater and fireplace was barely working ok, mostly because the weather had warmed up a little, after that frigid 15°F Saturday morning, when we discovered it wasn't working any more. The installers were here all day, until long after dinner time, dealing with the intricacies of replacing the heart of a moderately complicated system, and leaving a spotlessly clean work site. We have our fingers crossed, that it all works perfectly throughout this winter, and many more in the future.

Cold Dead Furnace

It's a frosty cold 15°F morning in Littleton; that’s 17° below freezing, for those of us that are counting. The birds out on our feeders seem to be handling it ok. We have really been enjoying watching the birds at the three feeders we have out there. The squirrels are also gorging themselves on the two dishes of seeds that we keep filled on the deck box. Nice to have some wildlife that doesn't mind coming close, for us to watch, as they enjoy the goodies we're giving them.

It seemed a little cold in the house when I got up, and then I realized… Murphy’s Law struck once again, as four days after a regular maintenance visit, which included replacement of an aging but fully functional igniter, my heater is enthusiastically running the circulation fan, with no flame in the furnace. This is yet another of those times, when I should smack myself on the side of the head, and whisper intensely, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it“, as I call the HVAC folks, then move around the house, firing up the gas fireplaces, and plugging in the portable electric heaters.  

 

Update four hours later: somehow the furnace “magically” started working on its own, at least for awhile

 

Update even later: and now, it's cold again...

 

Here's a closeup of our cheery Christmas tree in the breakfast nook, which makes things seem better, every time I look at it. 

 

 

First Snow

Good morning! It's a chilly 27°F morning in Littleton, with our first measurable layer of snow out there! The birds were excitedly crowding our feeders this morning, much earlier than usual.

There was a lot of activity on this bird feeder, while we were enjoying our breakfast, before Jennefer headed off to work. Jennefer noticed the birds on the higher perches couldn't get to the seeds, as the feeder had run down a little. But they were happy to perch up there, and wait their turn for the lower more fruitful perches.

 

Two house finches enjoying the tire swing bird feeder.

 

 

 

I had to interrupt my breakfast, to go out and top off the contents of the bird feeder, as I couldn’t stand watching the birds on the higher perches not be able to get to any of the seeds. Here's the crowded freshly filled feeder, with incoming traffic on final approach :-)

 

 

Lots of squirrel footprints in the snow; Yep, they were also out early. The squirrels are amazing. Sometimes they get along really well. Other times, they are rolling around the deck, fighting over who gets to have all the seeds. 

EVs and Traffic Jams

Here's an interesting article that points out how unfounded the assertion is, that Electric Vehicles (EVs) would somehow be totally unable to cope with being stuck in a traffic jam for a few hours, in hot or cold weather.

 

As I occasionally weigh the pros and cons of becoming an EV user, I’ve been wondering about this exact issue myself, so this was a nice summary of some relevant information. 

Sad to see some people (in the comments) getting stuck on the word “likely“ in the title, considering that predicting most outcomes in life is based on probabilities and not certainties.

 

If you headed out onto the road with a low battery charge in your EV, you would be more likely to be adversely affected by running AC, heat, or accessories while sitting in a traffic jam. Of course, leaving the house with a nearly empty fuel tank in a gas powered vehicle would have a similarly lower probability of success.

 

The article being debunked touts the advantage of jump starting a gas powered vehicle, which doesn’t help a lot when you’re out of gas. And speaking of jumpstarting, my guess is that roadside assistance vehicles will be carrying jump starters for EV batteries pretty soon, if they’re not already doing that.

 

My bottom line: Running the heat or AC while stuck in traffic does not feel to me, like a legitimate discriminator, for a choice between a gas or electric vehicle.

Recognizing Misinformation

There are some good tips in this article, about recognizing misinformation online, and stopping the spread. Worth reading! 

• Misinformation is false information that catches on — whether the people behind it intended to mislead others or not. 

• Disinformation is false information that’s spread on purpose. The people (or bots) who put it out there have a motive. It could be financial, political or plain diabolical. But it’s always intended to persuade someone to think or do something.

Misinformation isn’t new. But organized disinformation campaigns are becoming more common online, and social media can help this type of content travel much faster. Truthfully, we’ve all got a responsibility to help stop its spread. On the bright side: It doesn’t require getting off the couch.

Nice Morning

Good morning from Littleton! Here’s a visiting house finch checking out our Christmas tree in the breakfast nook.

Cold Bike Ride

Today was a colder late Fall day, a good opportunity for using my warmer biking pants, and an extra thermal shirt layer, all of which worked out really well, except for my cold toes. Looking forward to trying some lightweight waterproof shoe covers I found on Amazon this week, and that arrived after I got back. Oh well, maybe next time’s the charm.

Pearl Harbor Day

When I think of Pearl Harbor, it’s a complex process. I think of my late Uncle Bill, who was there 80 years ago, and of how my cousin is here because he survived. I think of his younger brother, my Dad, who probably joined up partly because of this event, and that us kids are lucky to be here, because he also survived the war. I think of that attack as a terrible example of the horrors of war. I think of the complexities of global politics and economics, and all the other factors that drive countries to make war on others. I think of how there’s a part of me that wants to pray for the souls of those who died that day, even though I don’t really pray any more, so instead I think appreciative and respectful thoughts for them. I think of what we did to our own patriotic Japanese American citizens. I think it would be pretty awesome, if humankind could learn to resolve our differences without war.

Vaccine Mortality Not True

Here’s a good article that addresses yet another piece of anti-VAX disinformation that’s currently circulating. My takeaway here, is that “The age-adjusted risk of death involving COVID-19 was 32 times greater in unvaccinated people than in fully vaccinated individuals.”

If Your Time is short

• Alex Berenson misrepresented data on death rates by vaccination status in England. He said: Vaccinated people under 60 in England “are dying at twice the rate of unvaccinated people the same age ... I don’t know how to explain this other than vaccine-caused mortality." 
• The government agency that produced the report cited in his claim says the report’s data do not back up the claim. 
• A footnote in the government data table cited in the post provides an explanation for the higher mortality rate among vaccinated people in the 10-to-59 age group.

So much mourning

Here's a pic of one of many aviation-themed Christmas cards I ordered years ago, but can't use any more, because I ordered them with a pre-printed signature from Kristan & Sumner. I've been mourning the loss of so many things, these past seven years and longer. When things here kept getting worse, and the many aspects of her illness were driving us into a dark mental hole, I procrastinated indefinitely on sending out Christmas cards and letters. It seemed pointless to talk about all the fun things we weren't doing any more, or to itemize all the minor and major emergencies, and trips to the doctors and hospitals each year. So, after an unbelievable amount of time (15 years?) of not doing that, I've slowly been feeling more positive, and working my way back into sending some cards to family and friends I don’t see regularly. 

This year, I was surprised to find that I actually had the time, energy, and inclination to put together a short summary of the year again. I went outside my comfort zone, and ordered some Shutterfly cards with an upbeat picture showing Jennefer and me smiling and holding Mandy, while we were out on a walk. While I was going through the process of creating address labels, I found several years of old address lists, and was a little shocked to realize just how many people I used to send cards to, that have passed away. That got me thinking about everyone I've known that has died, and I started making a list, which has been a real eye-opener, as it's passed three dozen lost connections, and still counting... No wonder I've been feeling more and more isolated and lost over the years... I'm such a procrastinator, that there's a part of my brain that feels like it can always come back to an unfinished project, and finally see it through. It's strange and sad, thinking I might want to check in with someone I haven't talked to in awhile, only to realize they're not around any more.

On Your Left!

Haha! 😂 Here's a funny New Yorker article about bikers and pedestrians. This is my life lately, from the guy on the bike’s perspective. 🚴‍♂️ I used to say it all the time, but I got all these same reactions they mention. Mostly now I say nothing, make sure our differential speed isn't too high, and cruise slowly by, a safe distance to the side with the most space. Sometimes I ring the bell a long ways away, and see what they do, before I make my move… 🤷‍♂️ Sometimes I will call out “on your left!“, and a group of walkers will start to drift left, then I call out “on your right!“, and then they split in the middle and head to opposite sides of the trail, and then I call out “coming through the middle!“ and surprisingly enough, that usually works out fine. Bikers have trouble with bikers sometimes, too... Not that *I* pass much of *anybody* that’s riding, as I’m pretty much the slowpoke on the trails. More often than not, I’m like the guy in the article, only I’m on wheels getting passed. I can’t even count the number of times I almost jumped out of my skin, when a much faster rider waited until they were a few feet from my ear to say something…

Bomber's Moon?

Lovely moon Thursday night, behind thin clouds - what my first boss Ed used to call a Bomber’s Moon - we didn’t have it in us, to stay up late, looking for the eclipse, so this is all we saw.

Voting my conscience

Done! I dropped off my mail-in ballot at the county admin building last night, as has been my habit for the past 26 years. As always, I trust that the right protections are in place, so that my vote will be counted, and that no one will change it for me. And just because I can, I’ll be checking online, to make sure my ballot is processed. 

One particularly hilarious (for me) issue on this ballot, was yet another attempt to increase the already exorbitant taxes on marijuana sales, presumably because “all them other folks” who use pot should be the ones paying for our schools. Basically, another one of those “tax THEM not me“ approaches to public funding. 

I will continue to vote my own conscience, regardless of all the “big lies“ that are being propagated, by people who have no inclination to look behind the curtain, as long as the misinformation causes damage to their political opponents. And some go beyond not looking, to actively attacking anyone who questions the lies. Whenever another lie is disproven, they are more than willing to take aim at whomever has made the effort to do the research necessary to uncover the lie. Lately I’ve seen even more signs of a movement to discredit fact checkers, as if they are the problem. Yeah, that’s it, let’s tear down those who are helping us get to the truth. Unbelievable. 

I read another article today, about how the “Big Lie“ about voting fraud has so completely poisoned the Republican Party, even though it’s been disproven so many times. But people who watch Fox News, or pay attention to Qanon, Newsmax, OAN, Breitbart, WNG, or the myriad other conservative conspiracy sites that are more than willing to propagate similar lies, seem to be taking it all in, hook, line, and sinker. 

As if lying isn’t enough, physical attacks are also on the agenda. I was especially incensed yesterday, when yet another news article popped up, about the police officers in San Marcos, Texas, who refused to respond to 911 calls from people in a bus on its way to a political campaign rally. I guess the officers agreed with the physical harassment on the road by a caravan of trucks driven by their political opponents. How many other law-enforcement officers are harboring malicious thoughts towards anyone different than them, and are willing to act on those thoughts? 

On a slightly more positive note, apparently some Texan Republicans are so fed up with the big lie, and the damage it’s doing to their party, that they’re paying to have billboards posted around the state calling for an end to the election audits. 

The common thread that appears to keep repeating, is that attitude a lot of people have, that it’s OK to mistreat anyone who isn’t the same as them. Hey folks, we ALL have our differences! How about a little respect for our fellow humans, even if we disagree with them?

Maroon Bells and Fall Colors

We're back from a whirlwind but fun trip to Aspen! Jennefer wanted to get me out for my first opportunity to see the Maroon Bells mountains up close, and we were also hoping for some good views of Fall colors. We only had a few days for this trip, as we had to squeeze it into our surprising full schedule. We left Monday mid-morning, after John's visit. We took a slightly longer and slower route, that routed us over Independence Pass. I've heard so many good things about that pass over the years, that I was hoping it would be worth the detour, to finally see it. 

We started seeing some Fall colors, as soon as we got a little bit West on highway I-70. We pulled off into a scenic viewpoint above Dillon Reservoir and the town of Frisco, and snapped our first Fall color pictures. 

Some pretty Fall color all by itself, on the side of Sheep Mountain, to the northwest of the Robinson Tailings pond, along highway 9/91 just before Fremont Pass. 

We stopped for a delicious Fajitas lunch at Casa Sanchez in the high altitude town of Leadville, which has the highest paved airport in the continental United States. I remember this, since I flew there with an instructor on my mountain flying checkout, and then some years later, I flew a friend and his daughters there. I've even got a Leadville souvenir coffee mug in my kitchen cabinet, that proclaims that I've landed there. 

We saw some amazing Fall colors along the way up highway 82 to Independence Pass. Most of the colors were on one side of the road or the other, but here, there was a short section of lush yellow leaves on both sides. 

This was all new territory for Mandy too, and she was busy enjoying the new smells, while we were snapping pictures of the Fall colors. 

We stopped at the Continental Divide, which crosses the road at Independence Pass. There was a breathtaking view of the surrounding mountains from the end of the paved path to the scenic overlook, but it sure was cold and windy up there! 

You can see Jennefer's hair blowing in the wind at the viewpoint (I would've lost my hat, except for the handy Tilley hat's chin strap), and she's gritting her teeth from the cold, while she waits for me to take the picture (sorry, but I just HAD to include this pic to show our chilly and windy distress! ;-) On our way back down the short trail to the car, we were getting hit by snow pellets. 

More Fall colors, on the way down from Independence Pass.

I caught a few of the redder colors from the road, as we were driving past a meadow that was covered in tall reddish grass. 

This is a two-way road. Wow. Super narrow. 

Some colors on a hillside, as we were getting close to the town of Aspen. 

After we arrived at our hotel in Aspen, we were treated to a pleasant view of Fall colors on the mountainside visible from the front door. I snapped this pic when taking Mandy out for a break before dinner. 

Tuesday Morning. We were glad to have researched the hike to see Maroon Bells before we left Denver, because we learned that driving to the trailhead during the 8-5 daytime was not allowed, and reservations were required to ride the Shuttle bus down. They also said that a parking lot reservation would be required, even to drive ourselves down to the trailhead early in the morning before 8am. We found that all of those parking lot reservations were long gone, probably booked up months in advance. We later heard that there is always a long line of photographers, with their cameras on tripods, every morning at sunrise, to film the Maroon Bells at their finest moment. So we found ourselves lucky to grab a shuttle bus reservation for 11:15am on Tuesday. Here's the view out the back door, after picking up our shuttle bus tickets at the Aspen Highlands Ski Area. 

There was already a pretty view of the Fall colors and mountains, even from the Shuttle drop off area. 

The foliage around Maroon Lake provided a beautifully colorful lead-in to the view of the Maroon Bells, as we were starting our hike. We could see some clouds starting to form around the tops of the Bells to the west, which was the way we would be hiking. Hmm...

We really liked this particularly tall stand of Aspen trees by the trail. 

We saw just a few of the wild critters out in this area. I would've gotten a better picture of this deer grazing amidst the Aspens, except that some hikers went off the trail to get closer to it, which of course spooked it, so it was on its way out, when I snapped this pic. It stopped for a moment, to peek at us through the trees. 

This photo should give you a pretty good idea of what the trail was like. Lots of rocks and tricky footing along the way. Not bad, if you're looking where you're going. 

This is perhaps my favorite picture of the Maroon Bells from this hike. 

Interesting look up the hill at the sun through thin clouds, on our way up the trail. 

More Fall Aspen colors, as we're heading down the trail, with a new perspective. 

One last look back at the Maroon Bells, now enshrouded in what we will soon realize are rain clouds. 

At first we just heard these, thinking they were birds, but later we saw a few of them - wild and very cute Pikas. This one kept peeking out at us from different spots, and then finally just came right out on some rocks by the trail, and posed for a picture.

Seeing more pretty reds, as we are hurrying down the trail in the rain. 

I really liked something about this dark rock and the yellow leaves. 

Pretty raindrops on an Aspen leaf, stuck to the side of an interesting rock. 

Cold wet view of Maroon Lake through wet Aspen leaves, on our way back down in the rain. 

This was our last view of Fall colors at Maroon Bells, as we're waiting for the shuttle bus to come and take us back to the car. 

Wednesday morning. Raining steadily, with a little sunlight peeking through every once in awhile. Already time to be heading back home. We found a delightful little breakfast restaurant named Poppycock's, where we enjoyed our favorite breakfast combination. 

We were planning to make a big loop of it, and head home by way of  heading North to Carbondale and Glenwood Springs, then I-70 East to Denver. While we were eating, I got a popup notice on my phone, warning me that highway I-70 was closed just east of Glenwood Springs. So we headed back the way we came - East on highway 82 and back over Independence Pass. The wet Aspen and low lying clouds looked really nice to me, as we were climbing the hill toward the pass. 

I wondered if things would be different at the pass, with the rain we were having in Aspen. I was right to wonder. It was snowing heavily on Independence Pass, but it looked like it had only started recently, so there was less than a half inch of icy slush accumulating on the road. We were over the pass and on our way down, before we knew it. In this pic, we’d just encountered the snow, but it hadn’t gotten heavy yet. 

And finally, we were back home safe, enjoying our view of the front range foothills.