Bits and pieces

The deer with a funny run.

Tuesday I met with the surgeon who will be removing my gallbladder on August 7. She sounds well practiced saying that she has done ten such extractions in the last two weeks. This should be no big thing. High on my list of things to do after the operation is smoke some ribs. The bad news is that they (we don't know who) won't allow me to keep the stones -- they're a biohazard, don't you know?



This last week has been a slow one for Aly. That's sad, though when Mike passed through on Thursday, returning from his anniversary in Bullhead with Heather, she really perked up.



Yesterday I got an early morning call from Vel wanting to know if I'd like company on my walk. Of course, let's go! We covered the majority of trails through the wetlands and had a ball. We saw so much wildlife I doubt we'll ever again match the diversity: four does and three spotted fawns, two hawks, two owls, an egret and the usual white pelicans. One of the fawns was grazing with its mother who wandered a distance away while it watched us. I don't recall doing anything untoward, but it bolted, and instead of bounding or pronking away it ran like an uncoordinated puppy, legs going every which way. That sight got us laughing.



After lunch Fran, Aly, Vel and I took the light rail to a small music festival being advertised this last week on KBCO. (I'm forced to listen to that station rather than my preferred KCUV as the radio I use outdoors is unable to tune in the latter station since their antenna realignment earlier this spring.) The event was called the Brewgrass Festival. It was organized by the Swallow Hill Music Association, which runs a small performance hall usually showing off local talent and the occasional esoteric big name. They were responsible for last year's blues fest at the same site.

Aly had formed a mental picture of something like the Taste of Colorado with multiple stages one could wander between. Brewgrass was staged on one block of Pearl Street and had only one stage. Aly made it clear that she was extremely understimulated. Along both sides of the street were the (un)usual artisan (Tibetan jewelry) and food (goat? really? Yep!) booths. Fully a third of the booths were set up by breweries, mostly local and one distinctly not (Deschutes, from Oregon).

When the first band started playing it was clear this was not going to be a bluegrass event. Failing the expected signature music, the music from the first two bands was still good! We hung around for three hours. It would have been fun to have stayed longer, but all us adults were starting to feel under-napped. We left after a couple songs by a poorly mic-ed group calling themselves the Rocky Mountain Jewgrass Band. Their first song was "Thank God I'm a Jewish Boy", to the tune "Thank God I'm a Country Boy".



This next week looks to be busy as we get ready to deliver Aly back to her mom. Today Fran and I meet with her bowling captain at Bud's Bar, home of the best $3 burger in the area. Monday Aly and I will be going on a short raft trip with Dave S. and his daughter Carissa. It will be the same trip Aly and I took last year, so I expect D & C to be underwhelmed as they've been on a hairy Class IV section of the Arkansas River, the Royal Gorge. Someplace along the way this week we'll be hitting Office Max or some such to get Aly's school supplies. On Saturday I plan to get out to watch the Cheyenne Frontier Days train. This year it's being pulled by UP's magnificent steam engine, the 844.

Just back from Bud's, home of the best $3.10 burgers in the area. We had a fine time catching up with Cecelia, noshing burgers and sipping beers. Our route down was going to trim a few miles off the drive but due to unannounced road closures, didn't one whit. Sedalia, the home of Bud's, sits on the opposite side of a ridge from us. We have two practical options to get there, and a scenic one too. We either drive down I-25 to C-470 and exit that on Santa Fe Drive heading south to Sedalia, or go down I-25 to the first Castle Rock exit, shuffle less than a mile to SFD and head north, or do the I-25/C-470 trick exiting at some Highlands Ranch exit and wander around (scenic, sort of, if you like mamoth HOA controlled subdivisions) looking for Daniels Park Road (truly scenic, with buffalo) to get to SFD. (DPR is the only road which crosses the ridge.) We tried today taking Castle Pines Parkway off I-25 before Castle Rock knowing it would get to either SFD or DPR. The clock was looking good (we were a tad late) when we hit a road closure. There was a detour there directing us to Daniels Park Road. Three miles of wandering around Castle Pines in entirely the wrong direction we finally hit DPR and turned for SFD. Whoa! A smart sign announcing a road closure ahead! We drove to it, 1.7 miles, and found DPR truly and fully barricaded at Castle Pines Parkway!! Now, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I didn't want to get lost in Castle Pines, as I did care where I was at that time, so I headed back along DPR to get onto C-470 and I-25 to head to Castle Rock. For want of a total of .3 miles of closed road I ended up travelling a total of an extra 25 miles. Oh! the shame and aggravation. We'd no sooner sat down with Cecelia and got a drink when the lunch crowd, all bikers, started pouring in the door. The place was soon standing room only as people waited for a table or booth to open up. We didn't hurry and got our burgers in good time in spite of waiting till some of the newer crowd had ordered. (The burgers were good.) We were still talking by the time the bikers had left and families and bicyclists were arriving. What can I say but that it was a very enjoyable lunch.



A week from now we'll be on the road.