bald eagle, 12 point buck, coyote as big as a wolf----all in 2 hours in the AM
paris hilton, mariah carey (not yet warming up for the big new year's redemption) and VP Pence
Some bozos from LA who seem to think that my yoga class is the best place in the world to chat, gossip and groan
Many many tourists who are totally flummoxed by two way stop signs at 4 way intersections (plus ice) in the core of Aspen
crowds walking up and down smuggler in all their best purchases from the LUX Aspen stores---more like slipping up and down and sweating in things not designed to be sweated in
the exact same crowds walking around town at night asking 'where is the caribou club' --to which I honestly was able to answer 'no fucking clue'
Today I am bouncing at the high roller tent at Shlomo's post Ajax cup and let me warn you now Mr. Bode Miller---no wristband means no entry (I think .....right???)
Saturday, December 30, 2017
Thursday, December 14, 2017
and in local news...............
its snowed. We got the angry inch (or 3 maybe). We are still in jeopardy of having a green and brown x-mas. Which I am told by local weather luminaries would be a first EVER. Not a good first.
Remember the 12.5k lift tickets that Aspen Ski Co sold to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Snowmass. Well the bill comes due on that little bit of marketing genius tomorrow with maybe 100 acres of open terrain on Snowmass. I will be skipping the angry mosh pit tomorrow. To be honest I have skied one day for all of 2 hours.
In other news Woodbridge LLC is under investigation for fraud by the SEC and also hiding behind bankruptcy law to protect themselves. They own a ton of real estate in Aspen (and roaring fork valley) along with Southern CA. Bankrupt? WTF
In other WTF news the Aspen Club project is also having major financial difficulties. They haven't paid their builders in months, construction has halted, and there are liens piling up. Seems they didn't pre sell enough units to satisfy their lender who halted loans and is trying to wipe the equity holders out. But seriously WTF.
Why WTF--well if you didn't notice the price of every asset in the US except for Chicago real estate has been on a tear. How do you lose money and need bankruptcy protection when real estate is exploding. It's like losing money owning bitcoin this year. Not an easy trick to pull of.
Recent news also includes Aspen Ski Co starting a soup kitchen to feed employees most nights. This line came straight from the Aspen Times newspaper ' ski co has started a soup kitchen to feed unemployed workers'. Unemployed workers? Sounds like an oxymoron to me, but it seems SkiCo's seasonal employees working lifts, on mountain restaurants, base retail had to been here to start work under the assumption that the mountains would open. They didn't, so they don't get paid. And yet they can't really do anything else because they have to be ready to work. Oh yea, and most of them are in SkiCo housing so they owe rent to SkiCo while not getting paid to work and having to be ready to start work at a moments notice. Sounds like the old company store in the mining town movies. And then someone like Clint Eastwood (or Karl Marx) appears to get the man of their backs.
What was the SkiCo marketing message this year ---oh yea love (your employees by providing them a soup kitchen), unity (with your employees who you aren't paying), respect (your employees and by requiring them to be on standby and collecting rent checks from them while not paying them) and commit (to way out of the box thinking by bringing back the soup kitchen to feed your unemployed workers).
Mr Kaplan (CEO SKI CO) I know it's tough when the snow doesn't come as planned, but really a poor start to the season shouldn't be that surprising. And while you talk the community talk, and have a really new age marketing message and a lot of righteousness in your op ed pieces on the Wall St Journal, maybe you could figure out something a bit more creative than a soup kitchen to feed your 'unemployed workers'.
Remember the 12.5k lift tickets that Aspen Ski Co sold to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Snowmass. Well the bill comes due on that little bit of marketing genius tomorrow with maybe 100 acres of open terrain on Snowmass. I will be skipping the angry mosh pit tomorrow. To be honest I have skied one day for all of 2 hours.
In other news Woodbridge LLC is under investigation for fraud by the SEC and also hiding behind bankruptcy law to protect themselves. They own a ton of real estate in Aspen (and roaring fork valley) along with Southern CA. Bankrupt? WTF
In other WTF news the Aspen Club project is also having major financial difficulties. They haven't paid their builders in months, construction has halted, and there are liens piling up. Seems they didn't pre sell enough units to satisfy their lender who halted loans and is trying to wipe the equity holders out. But seriously WTF.
Why WTF--well if you didn't notice the price of every asset in the US except for Chicago real estate has been on a tear. How do you lose money and need bankruptcy protection when real estate is exploding. It's like losing money owning bitcoin this year. Not an easy trick to pull of.
Recent news also includes Aspen Ski Co starting a soup kitchen to feed employees most nights. This line came straight from the Aspen Times newspaper ' ski co has started a soup kitchen to feed unemployed workers'. Unemployed workers? Sounds like an oxymoron to me, but it seems SkiCo's seasonal employees working lifts, on mountain restaurants, base retail had to been here to start work under the assumption that the mountains would open. They didn't, so they don't get paid. And yet they can't really do anything else because they have to be ready to work. Oh yea, and most of them are in SkiCo housing so they owe rent to SkiCo while not getting paid to work and having to be ready to start work at a moments notice. Sounds like the old company store in the mining town movies. And then someone like Clint Eastwood (or Karl Marx) appears to get the man of their backs.
What was the SkiCo marketing message this year ---oh yea love (your employees by providing them a soup kitchen), unity (with your employees who you aren't paying), respect (your employees and by requiring them to be on standby and collecting rent checks from them while not paying them) and commit (to way out of the box thinking by bringing back the soup kitchen to feed your unemployed workers).
Mr Kaplan (CEO SKI CO) I know it's tough when the snow doesn't come as planned, but really a poor start to the season shouldn't be that surprising. And while you talk the community talk, and have a really new age marketing message and a lot of righteousness in your op ed pieces on the Wall St Journal, maybe you could figure out something a bit more creative than a soup kitchen to feed your 'unemployed workers'.
Wednesday, December 6, 2017
x mas tree shopping
Chicago wins this one hands down. Which is kinda weird, right? Chicago is a big city surrounded by a lake and suburbs. Aspen is a small town in the mountains surround by pine trees and yet........
In Chicago I had my X mas tree guy. They brought in fresh trees from Wisconsin twice a week. They gave me a couple of shots of whiskey. They gave my kids candy. They gave the tree a fresh cut, netted it tight and mounted it on my car or offered to deliver to my house (all in the same price). Oh yea and that price was 10-12 bucks a foot depending on how drunk the dad was.
End of the day I would walk out with a super fresh 9 foot tree, (5 feet wide at base) for $100 bucks and a little buzz. Wooooo Hooooo.
I've found 5 options around Aspen:
Clarks market in Aspen---7 foot tree for $385 bucks --yea you read that right a bit more than $50 a foot and the tree looked like it might have starred in Charlie Brown's Christmas.
Whole Foods in Basalt ---50 bucks for a 6-8 foot tree. Trees were cut down before Thanksgiving, you can get a fresh cut but not netted tight for drive 20 miles home, and the trees looked like crap.
City Market in Basalt --$85 for a wrapped up 7-8 foot tree cut around Thanksgiving. No fresh cut. No way to open tree up and see how it looked. Needles falling from tree when touched.
Eagle Nursery in Basalt-- $15-20 a foot. Pretty good looking trees but also cut around Thanksgiving and brought in from.........Minnesota? Yes fresh cut, no on netting tree to ease transport. This is what we went with --more than I wanted to spend but the trees and City Market and Whole foods just looked horrible and wouldn't be able to hold half our ornaments (unhappy wife --bad way to start Christmas season). The tree is not that fresh---post cut it is not gobbling up water.
Option 5 is interesting if you can handle it---for $10 you can get a permit to cut your own tree in designated areas of the national forest. Assuming you have the means to cut the tree and transport it this is obviously the best and maybe even better than Chicago. But what Chicago transplant owns a chain saw? Not this one.
Happy start to the crazy season.
In Chicago I had my X mas tree guy. They brought in fresh trees from Wisconsin twice a week. They gave me a couple of shots of whiskey. They gave my kids candy. They gave the tree a fresh cut, netted it tight and mounted it on my car or offered to deliver to my house (all in the same price). Oh yea and that price was 10-12 bucks a foot depending on how drunk the dad was.
End of the day I would walk out with a super fresh 9 foot tree, (5 feet wide at base) for $100 bucks and a little buzz. Wooooo Hooooo.
I've found 5 options around Aspen:
Clarks market in Aspen---7 foot tree for $385 bucks --yea you read that right a bit more than $50 a foot and the tree looked like it might have starred in Charlie Brown's Christmas.
Whole Foods in Basalt ---50 bucks for a 6-8 foot tree. Trees were cut down before Thanksgiving, you can get a fresh cut but not netted tight for drive 20 miles home, and the trees looked like crap.
City Market in Basalt --$85 for a wrapped up 7-8 foot tree cut around Thanksgiving. No fresh cut. No way to open tree up and see how it looked. Needles falling from tree when touched.
Eagle Nursery in Basalt-- $15-20 a foot. Pretty good looking trees but also cut around Thanksgiving and brought in from.........Minnesota? Yes fresh cut, no on netting tree to ease transport. This is what we went with --more than I wanted to spend but the trees and City Market and Whole foods just looked horrible and wouldn't be able to hold half our ornaments (unhappy wife --bad way to start Christmas season). The tree is not that fresh---post cut it is not gobbling up water.
Option 5 is interesting if you can handle it---for $10 you can get a permit to cut your own tree in designated areas of the national forest. Assuming you have the means to cut the tree and transport it this is obviously the best and maybe even better than Chicago. But what Chicago transplant owns a chain saw? Not this one.
Happy start to the crazy season.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
soo much to blog about so little time
In Chicago my kids attended a (very) Jewish day school. This resulted in them barely going to school during September due to all the Jewish holidays.
In Aspen my kids got oct 26-27 off for fall break, Nov 1-3 off for parent teacher conferences and Nov 20-24 off for Thanksgiving. Normally this is where I would have a snide comment about the more you pay the less you go but they attend a public school and property taxes in Aspen are very low, so uh well........... I got to spend some quality time with the kids.
With the week off for Thanksgiving we made our every 4 year visit to see my wife's family. But before we get to the main event in Philadelphia we visited NYC for 2 1/2 days with the kids. Trying to show NYC to your 11 & 14 year old in a couple of days is impossible. I will attempt to cover it in a Dave Letterman type top 10 list of the 'best' things about NYC.
10. NYC--it pushes your immune system to be the best it can be (or to quote my daughter I can't breath there are too many germs.
9. Laguardia airport --just like you remembered it (ditto Penn station)
8. Cupcakes and Pizza everywhere
7. Home of more restaurants than Aspen has people
6. World Trade Center memorial ---powerful and really well done
5. Same metrocard, same 2 & 3 trains as 1993--how comforting
4. Same nightly noises ---trucks rolling over steel plates, barking dogs, construction, sirens and alarms
3. Garbage in bags on streets --if the Aspen bears ever hear about NYC they are so outta here
2. Diversity---and holy shit folks there are getting along
1. Everything you could want (except space) jammed into 22 square miles
FYI Manhattan is 22 square miles with a population of around 1.7m people. Pitkin county is 973 square miles with 18k people. Running the numbers for you that makes Manhattan 4,177 times more dense than the Aspen area. Or to put that another way all of Pitkin county's population fits into 1/4 of a mile of Manhattan and you could just about fit all of Aspen's population into one large Manhattan highrise.
In Aspen my kids got oct 26-27 off for fall break, Nov 1-3 off for parent teacher conferences and Nov 20-24 off for Thanksgiving. Normally this is where I would have a snide comment about the more you pay the less you go but they attend a public school and property taxes in Aspen are very low, so uh well........... I got to spend some quality time with the kids.
With the week off for Thanksgiving we made our every 4 year visit to see my wife's family. But before we get to the main event in Philadelphia we visited NYC for 2 1/2 days with the kids. Trying to show NYC to your 11 & 14 year old in a couple of days is impossible. I will attempt to cover it in a Dave Letterman type top 10 list of the 'best' things about NYC.
10. NYC--it pushes your immune system to be the best it can be (or to quote my daughter I can't breath there are too many germs.
9. Laguardia airport --just like you remembered it (ditto Penn station)
8. Cupcakes and Pizza everywhere
7. Home of more restaurants than Aspen has people
6. World Trade Center memorial ---powerful and really well done
5. Same metrocard, same 2 & 3 trains as 1993--how comforting
4. Same nightly noises ---trucks rolling over steel plates, barking dogs, construction, sirens and alarms
3. Garbage in bags on streets --if the Aspen bears ever hear about NYC they are so outta here
2. Diversity---and holy shit folks there are getting along
1. Everything you could want (except space) jammed into 22 square miles
FYI Manhattan is 22 square miles with a population of around 1.7m people. Pitkin county is 973 square miles with 18k people. Running the numbers for you that makes Manhattan 4,177 times more dense than the Aspen area. Or to put that another way all of Pitkin county's population fits into 1/4 of a mile of Manhattan and you could just about fit all of Aspen's population into one large Manhattan highrise.
Monday, November 13, 2017
off season trivia --prizes for the winner
There is a lot to be said for the off season. Slightly less expensive. Lots of open tables, parking spaces, and minimal traffic.
And wow are there some great places to go for a hike. Its time to get off the beaten track. No more smuggler, Ute or Tiehack. Or for you Chicago folks going to the lake and heading left or right.
Can you figure out what slightly out of town trail this is? 4 hours and I didn't see a soul. First one to name the trail gets a 6 pack of beer delivered to your home (assuming you are over 21 and live in Basalt or further up valley). But really all ya all are winners if you go try a new trail --now is the time, no lines, no waiting and some beautiful days still predicted on the weather report.
And wow are there some great places to go for a hike. Its time to get off the beaten track. No more smuggler, Ute or Tiehack. Or for you Chicago folks going to the lake and heading left or right.
Can you figure out what slightly out of town trail this is? 4 hours and I didn't see a soul. First one to name the trail gets a 6 pack of beer delivered to your home (assuming you are over 21 and live in Basalt or further up valley). But really all ya all are winners if you go try a new trail --now is the time, no lines, no waiting and some beautiful days still predicted on the weather report.
totally jammed parking lot--lucky to get a space
it's going off
dog going for a frosty cold one (whoops how did she get off lead)
very frosty
name the peak and get a bonus beer
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
ski co shocked that cheap lift tickets boosts demand
Are you kidding me. For those of you who didn't read the Aspen times article monday ski co has stopped their $6.50 lift ticket promotion for December 15 (the day Snowmass turns 50) after they sold 12k of the 50 birthday special tickets. Demand blew them away. With limited acerage open that early in the season what are they going to do with all the skiers (besides hope they drink expensive beer and eat expensive food).
I was shocked to see Ski Co shocked by the fact that price impacts buyers. That is basic Econ 101 stuff, or even something learned at the lemonade stand you set up in front of your house.
Ski Co seems to be willing to be very alternative with their marketing campaign (the Aspen way—love, respect, unity and commit). How about applying some of that thinking to their business practices. Given the demand for $6.50 lift tickets maybe they should consider a massive price cut for various types of lift tickets. Ski Co makes money lots of ways, (food, drink, rentals, ski school, lodging etc). How important is lift ticket cost as a source of revenue? They are willing to think outside the box for marketing, however Ski Co is super duper boring and conservative with their business practices. All the mountains raise lift ticket costs every year. How boring and predictable. What would happen if you could ski our 4 mountains for let say $50 a day? Could Ski Co make enough money from their other revenue streams to offset the loss of revenue from a much lower priced lift ticket?
Figuring out the ‘right’ ticket price to maximize revenue for Ski Co and for Aspen in general is tricky, but it does seem the Ski Co hasn’t been particularly creative in their thinking. Given the demand for a basically free ticket for an early season Friday, why not listen to what the market is clearly saying—ticket prices are too high. Why not try cutting prices and see if having thousands of additional skiers every day isn’t more profitable. And think of the money saved on the marketing budget. 'Ski for free' kicks the crap out of love, respect, unity and commit. Ski Co talks like they think outside of the box but they sure don’t walk like it.
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Halloween post game wrap up
We have a clear winner and its Chicago. Yes it's kinda fun to go trick or treating in the pitch dark. And having a bunch of houses wind around a cemetery is pretty awesome, BUT
Chicago's north side has a great population distribution. In 3 hours in Chicago my daughter netted 1,000 pieces of candy 2 years ago. Last night my daughter's haul was 162 pieces. More work in Aspen and less reward. On pure volume alone (and how else should one judge Halloween) Chicago kills Aspen.
But wait there is more. How about spooky moments when trick or treating. In Chicago there are houses with dry ice and vampires and strobe lights and lots of recent big 10 graduates dressed as sexy ........ (fill in the blank). In Aspen my kids were given bibles and my son (in his Kellyanne outfit) was treated to a full New Testament sermon. That is a different type of scary. I'll again give the nod to Chicago.
And then there are numbers. I would probably see close to 3,000 kids on Burling in 3 hours in Chicago. That is half the total population of Aspen. Yes, you do get some nice quiet moments around the cemetery to scare yourself or make out with a girlfriend, but I will again give the nod to Chicago for pure fun volume-cazy.
So if you want to pick your town based on 1 night Chicago is your place.
However, if you are planning on spending some time in the local jail, I am going to recommend Aspen. Seems a 31 year old man had consensual sex with another inmate (a 36 year old woman) while in the clink. For 2 hours. In the afternoon. It's good to be young and enjoy some afternoon delight. And of course for those of you into role playing it's taking the prisoner and warden thing to a whole new level. I guess that is one costume event Aspen wins.
Chicago's north side has a great population distribution. In 3 hours in Chicago my daughter netted 1,000 pieces of candy 2 years ago. Last night my daughter's haul was 162 pieces. More work in Aspen and less reward. On pure volume alone (and how else should one judge Halloween) Chicago kills Aspen.
But wait there is more. How about spooky moments when trick or treating. In Chicago there are houses with dry ice and vampires and strobe lights and lots of recent big 10 graduates dressed as sexy ........ (fill in the blank). In Aspen my kids were given bibles and my son (in his Kellyanne outfit) was treated to a full New Testament sermon. That is a different type of scary. I'll again give the nod to Chicago.
And then there are numbers. I would probably see close to 3,000 kids on Burling in 3 hours in Chicago. That is half the total population of Aspen. Yes, you do get some nice quiet moments around the cemetery to scare yourself or make out with a girlfriend, but I will again give the nod to Chicago for pure fun volume-cazy.
So if you want to pick your town based on 1 night Chicago is your place.
However, if you are planning on spending some time in the local jail, I am going to recommend Aspen. Seems a 31 year old man had consensual sex with another inmate (a 36 year old woman) while in the clink. For 2 hours. In the afternoon. It's good to be young and enjoy some afternoon delight. And of course for those of you into role playing it's taking the prisoner and warden thing to a whole new level. I guess that is one costume event Aspen wins.
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
scary shit (it's halloween after all)
My son decided to be Kellyanne Conway for Halloween this year. While there might be more scary folks out there, she has got to be in everyone's top 10. (yes that is the outfit she wore for the Inaugural).
My daughter is also scary. She is an avocado. The prices on those when NAFTA blows up and we build a wall will be crushing. Unless you are in avocado farmer in CA in which case it's happy days.
Other scary things:
1. A 5th grader dressing as harley quinn
2. A 6th grader (girl) showing off her thong and complaining about it being uncomfortable in the bathroom.
Which of course brings us to the AMS dress code and Harvey Weinstein. Harvey has also got to be on everyone's top 10 list for scary, but he has also reinvigorated the conversation about sexism. Why does it seem like the Aspen Middle school dress code is targeted strictly at girls--i.e. laten sexism?
The dress code states that in general dress should be modest. Specifically prohibited are halter-tops, backless clothing, immodestly short dresses or shorts, spaghetti straps, bare midriffs and exposed undergarments.
How many guys you think get hit with dress code violations? Should girls be empowered to wear whatever they want, modest or not? Is it healthy to have a code where girls are learning how to game the system ?(there are strategies to getting away with the exposed midriff and I have personally seen it successfully pulled off). Where the hell do yoga pants fit in this discussion? Are they immodest when a kid wears them but not mom? If so how old is a kid? Why is a too short skirt ok when it's part of the cheerleader uniform? Obviously this quickly becomes a rabbit hole in which you lose your sanity.
Being a guy who leads towards the extreme I will offer the following suggestion --either no dress code or uniforms. And I must admit I find it scary that there are 6th grade kids who want to wear a thong, and whose parents actually buy them one. Thank God mine wanted to be an avocado.
Wednesday, October 25, 2017
Warning ....Trump has taken over my blog and issued some tweets
Gotta Get some SNOW tires. Gonna get big ones cause everything about Trump is so BIG (ask my wives they know).
Went to BIG-O tire (cause its big) and told em I wanted the BIG FOOT cause I need BIG FEET because I got BIG HANDS. No one can have bigger tires than Donald.
Need BIG snow tires because of kids sports. Seems I always have to drive over a pass in snow to get kids to swimming, or skiiiiiing, or hockey. WHY?
There is a rule that says I can't fly my kids in my TRUMP jets. OMG what a looser rule. Winners fly and loooooosers drive. General Kelly please change that rule.
Keith at BIG-o tire is the best. He told one customer not to get new tires, because her all weather tires are good enough. She didn't have kids to drive over passes to sports (loser mom with loser kids). Keith can't work for Trump if he don't sell the biggest tires to everyone.
Changed mind on Keith. Probably a loooooser dem. SAD. But wait.
Keither at BIG-OOOOOOO doesn't speak Mexican and doesn't hire guys to work in shop who speak MExican. Yea Keither. MAGA
When paying bill, service rep did speak Mexican. His hands torn up from fight with American. Build wall, get fighting Mexican's out. MAGA
Went to BIG-O tire (cause its big) and told em I wanted the BIG FOOT cause I need BIG FEET because I got BIG HANDS. No one can have bigger tires than Donald.
Need BIG snow tires because of kids sports. Seems I always have to drive over a pass in snow to get kids to swimming, or skiiiiiing, or hockey. WHY?
There is a rule that says I can't fly my kids in my TRUMP jets. OMG what a looser rule. Winners fly and loooooosers drive. General Kelly please change that rule.
Keith at BIG-o tire is the best. He told one customer not to get new tires, because her all weather tires are good enough. She didn't have kids to drive over passes to sports (loser mom with loser kids). Keith can't work for Trump if he don't sell the biggest tires to everyone.
Changed mind on Keith. Probably a loooooser dem. SAD. But wait.
Keither at BIG-OOOOOOO doesn't speak Mexican and doesn't hire guys to work in shop who speak MExican. Yea Keither. MAGA
When paying bill, service rep did speak Mexican. His hands torn up from fight with American. Build wall, get fighting Mexican's out. MAGA
Thursday, October 19, 2017
no dogs no.....you can't sniff that butt
Believe it or not both Chicago and Aspen have their share of coyotes. There were at least a handful of mornings that I saw coyotes in OZ park in Chicago, and the occasional time where the dogs tried to chase them down.
Chicago coyotes tended to keep a lot of distance from my dogs, and be small, mangey pittful looking things. Which is kinda supprising because you would think they would be near the top of the food chain in Chiago and they would be feasting on tons of rats. But for whatever reason they always looked to be on the edge of starvation.
Not so much this one I found at the end of my street in Aspen. It didn't really want to give me or my dogs any space (they were losing their minds). And there are a number of predators higher up the food chain out here but this coyote looked quite healthy.
So, no Wiggins and Clemmens you can't (shouldn't) try to smell that 'dog's' butt.
Chicago coyotes tended to keep a lot of distance from my dogs, and be small, mangey pittful looking things. Which is kinda supprising because you would think they would be near the top of the food chain in Chiago and they would be feasting on tons of rats. But for whatever reason they always looked to be on the edge of starvation.
Not so much this one I found at the end of my street in Aspen. It didn't really want to give me or my dogs any space (they were losing their minds). And there are a number of predators higher up the food chain out here but this coyote looked quite healthy.
So, no Wiggins and Clemmens you can't (shouldn't) try to smell that 'dog's' butt.
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
ever want to be your kids --and things your wife says that makes you say whaaaaaat?
I am jealous of my kids. I want to be able to skate like my daughter and play guitar like my son.
I want to be able to go skiing on weekends. And mountain biking. And road biking. And hiking and climbing, and fishing and rafting and hanging out around town with beautiful people.
My son got slapped around by some of his old Chicago friends last year when he complained about having to go skiing.
Son "I can't believe my dad made me go skiing today"
Friend "OMG I am hanging up on you now--you're complaining about going skiing in Aspen you ass"
I want to be able to go skiing on weekends. And mountain biking. And road biking. And hiking and climbing, and fishing and rafting and hanging out around town with beautiful people.
My son got slapped around by some of his old Chicago friends last year when he complained about having to go skiing.
Son "I can't believe my dad made me go skiing today"
Friend "OMG I am hanging up on you now--you're complaining about going skiing in Aspen you ass"
some clips from the sound check for 50 fest
and things you didn't think you would hear your wife say
make sure your son tries on his dress tonight, I might need to make some adjustments (KellyAnn costume for halloween)
And the infamous
Didn't mom tell you my (not quite yet) girlfriend was sleeping over? Mom and her parents said it was ok.
I want to be my kids.
Monday, October 16, 2017
the best time to launch an attack is........wait first
between 3-4 am.
Did you know that? Human's cognitive processing is at its lowest at that time.
Did you know one of the most effective forms of torture is to wake someone up right after they fall asleep? Over and over again.
And my tale of woe is NOTHING compared to those in northern Cali fleeing wildfires, PR with no electricity or water or food, of folks in Houston or Florida who got walloped by a hurricane. Nope my little tale is not even a pimple on the ass of those communities.
But did I tell you about last night?
Sunday 3 am our alarm system goes off. Why (do we all get false alarms at 3 am)? Because the temperature in the wine cellar has risen above a critical threshold. I've got no wine in the wine cellar and normally wouldn't be running the AC in October to cool an empty room but the wine room AC also cools the 'smart' technology that runs the HVAC and AV systems. And if the racks of equipment which are in a small enclosed space overheat it gets expensive in a hurry ergo I am paying to run the AC in the wine room and technology racks. After a couple of attempts and phone calls with two different teams of security personnel and the property manager, I manage to bypass the alarm. Back to bed at 6 am. Did I mention that Saturday night was my 50 b day party involving a bit of drink and a late night? Did I mention that Will Phalen (check him out and buy his music will phalen ) was staying at our house post show with his 1 year old daughter.
Fast forward to Sunday early evening. My daughter tells me she is in so much pain she wants to die. She has a searing pain in her head. It feels like an ice pick is sticking in her eye. And she is having trouble seeing out of her right eye. A quick chat with a couple of doctors sends us the the ER. Five hours later (around midnight) we return home with drugged up daughter (IV painkillers are the best). Best guess is she had her first migraine. While a bleed is still possible given how she went through the neurological test it seems unlikely. Breath sigh of relief. Go to sleep with one ear on daughter sleeping one floor below us.
Wake up at 3 am. What the fuck was that noise? With my adrenaline spiking my first thought is my daughter. But my daughter wouldn't make a noise like that. Second thought is that it has to be the alarm (having had it go off just the night before at 3am). I turn the alarm off--but wait its already off and on funky bypass due to the unfixed issue from the day before. However, trying to turn it off almost sets it off again (yes 3 am cognitive function is crap). I manage to override alarm just before it starts full on blaring.
But what the fuck is that noise? It's coming from the basement and sounds like this.
No that is not video from last years boiler blow-up. That was this morning's boiler failure. I immediately shut the boiler down. But that doesn't help. Every 5 minutes the boiler makes this god awful racket for 1.5 minutes, and then pauses for 5 minutes and then restarts again. No response from property manager. No alarms or calls from security company. Just a daughter with a migraine sleeping 30 feet from the boiler. Oh yea and remember the little tidbit about torture. Take an exhausted person at 3:30 in the morning and wake em up for a minute and then let them fall back to sleep and then repeat 5 minutes later. You get the picture. And is the boiler gonna blow up?
So should I be paying rent for this home or should I be getting paid as a caretaker for this property. We had 3 different trades in to begin service on issues last week, and given the current issues I expect at least 3 different trades this week. What do you think?
Did you know that? Human's cognitive processing is at its lowest at that time.
Did you know one of the most effective forms of torture is to wake someone up right after they fall asleep? Over and over again.
And my tale of woe is NOTHING compared to those in northern Cali fleeing wildfires, PR with no electricity or water or food, of folks in Houston or Florida who got walloped by a hurricane. Nope my little tale is not even a pimple on the ass of those communities.
But did I tell you about last night?
Sunday 3 am our alarm system goes off. Why (do we all get false alarms at 3 am)? Because the temperature in the wine cellar has risen above a critical threshold. I've got no wine in the wine cellar and normally wouldn't be running the AC in October to cool an empty room but the wine room AC also cools the 'smart' technology that runs the HVAC and AV systems. And if the racks of equipment which are in a small enclosed space overheat it gets expensive in a hurry ergo I am paying to run the AC in the wine room and technology racks. After a couple of attempts and phone calls with two different teams of security personnel and the property manager, I manage to bypass the alarm. Back to bed at 6 am. Did I mention that Saturday night was my 50 b day party involving a bit of drink and a late night? Did I mention that Will Phalen (check him out and buy his music will phalen ) was staying at our house post show with his 1 year old daughter.
Fast forward to Sunday early evening. My daughter tells me she is in so much pain she wants to die. She has a searing pain in her head. It feels like an ice pick is sticking in her eye. And she is having trouble seeing out of her right eye. A quick chat with a couple of doctors sends us the the ER. Five hours later (around midnight) we return home with drugged up daughter (IV painkillers are the best). Best guess is she had her first migraine. While a bleed is still possible given how she went through the neurological test it seems unlikely. Breath sigh of relief. Go to sleep with one ear on daughter sleeping one floor below us.
Wake up at 3 am. What the fuck was that noise? With my adrenaline spiking my first thought is my daughter. But my daughter wouldn't make a noise like that. Second thought is that it has to be the alarm (having had it go off just the night before at 3am). I turn the alarm off--but wait its already off and on funky bypass due to the unfixed issue from the day before. However, trying to turn it off almost sets it off again (yes 3 am cognitive function is crap). I manage to override alarm just before it starts full on blaring.
But what the fuck is that noise? It's coming from the basement and sounds like this.
No that is not video from last years boiler blow-up. That was this morning's boiler failure. I immediately shut the boiler down. But that doesn't help. Every 5 minutes the boiler makes this god awful racket for 1.5 minutes, and then pauses for 5 minutes and then restarts again. No response from property manager. No alarms or calls from security company. Just a daughter with a migraine sleeping 30 feet from the boiler. Oh yea and remember the little tidbit about torture. Take an exhausted person at 3:30 in the morning and wake em up for a minute and then let them fall back to sleep and then repeat 5 minutes later. You get the picture. And is the boiler gonna blow up?
So should I be paying rent for this home or should I be getting paid as a caretaker for this property. We had 3 different trades in to begin service on issues last week, and given the current issues I expect at least 3 different trades this week. What do you think?
Friday, October 13, 2017
I am soooooooo not a local
I was driving over to a friends house who lives in old snowmass, when I found myself pulling a total gaper. Coming over Watson's Divide I just had to pull over and take in the view. The fall colors were unreal. It was like mother nature acid. And the day before I hiked up to the top of Aspen and again was struck dumb by the beauty. I think locals are supposed to be too cool and inured to stop everything and just look, and that ain't me. I'm the guy with the local address and the kids in the local school who is just dumbstruck by the view. Please don't run me down while I gape.
I was also gaping at my neighbor's little electric car. Well not the car, but the snowtires. Yes they are putting snowtires on their electric wheels. Wow, who knew.
I was also gaping at my neighbor's little electric car. Well not the car, but the snowtires. Yes they are putting snowtires on their electric wheels. Wow, who knew.
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Pennywise almost got my dog
For those of you not in the know Pennywise is the name of evil incarnate in Stephen King's book IT, who primarily inhabits the sewer's of Dury taking many innocent lives.
How did a fictional clown almost get my dog? Finishing a hike down sunnyside my dogs took a slight detour to a fast flowing creek. The wife and I kept on walking. One dog took a drink, gave a yelp and ran to us. Dog two didn't reappear. We kept walking, dog two is known to roam but being a retriever always returns. Except not this time. 20 minutes later we backtracked to the stream, and looked down the long drainage pipe the water fed into and gave a shout. No response. We walked a couple 100 yards to the first manhole cover, levered it off. No dog. We walked to the next manhole cover--gave another shout and still no response. We kept walking and found the water drained into an uncovered steep decent and clinging to the side for dear life was dog two. Our dog wasn't going to float with Pennywise in the sewer system today. And she was not a fan of the 1/4 mile covered water park ride either.
Following up on the last post--there has been some questions about the alternative facts. Due to popular demand I will give a couple of hints. There is only one alternative fact, my son is planning on going as Kellyann for Halloween (maybe scarier than Pennywise) and I did work for Bill Colby 'consulting' in DC.
No more clues.
How did a fictional clown almost get my dog? Finishing a hike down sunnyside my dogs took a slight detour to a fast flowing creek. The wife and I kept on walking. One dog took a drink, gave a yelp and ran to us. Dog two didn't reappear. We kept walking, dog two is known to roam but being a retriever always returns. Except not this time. 20 minutes later we backtracked to the stream, and looked down the long drainage pipe the water fed into and gave a shout. No response. We walked a couple 100 yards to the first manhole cover, levered it off. No dog. We walked to the next manhole cover--gave another shout and still no response. We kept walking and found the water drained into an uncovered steep decent and clinging to the side for dear life was dog two. Our dog wasn't going to float with Pennywise in the sewer system today. And she was not a fan of the 1/4 mile covered water park ride either.
Following up on the last post--there has been some questions about the alternative facts. Due to popular demand I will give a couple of hints. There is only one alternative fact, my son is planning on going as Kellyann for Halloween (maybe scarier than Pennywise) and I did work for Bill Colby 'consulting' in DC.
No more clues.
Monday, October 2, 2017
you can't make this shit up
Yesterday while walking the dogs I promised myself my next post would be super duper positive......forget that a college nickname of mine was Gummer. I was gonna go Hallmark sappy.
And then at about 3:15AM I found myself wishing I had a gun. Not an AR-15 or a sidearm but a side by side shotgun. Because I really wanted to disarm-silence our alarm system, which was screaming to high heaven that we had some kinda gas leak. Or maybe not. You see when you get a heavy snowfall in early October, and lots of leaves are still on the trees and then those tree branches break and hit power lines which results in power surges, your smart house becomes so dumb it's enough to make me reach for my Winchester under the bed and unload two rounds into the dang alarm system.
Reaching for the shotgun is never a good first option in home maintenance. But it had already been a long night. First all of the lights (and I mean every light in the house) went on and off at about midnight. This freaked my daughter out who then tried to sleep in bed with us. I relocated her to her room and fell asleep in her room until the lights did their on-off thing again (with a quick alarm chirp to add to the fun) at about 1 am. Luckily she slept through round two of the poltergeist lights. I went back to my bed, only to be woken up AGAIN by the lights at 3AM. Then at 3:15 the home security alarm went apeshit warning us of a gas leak and carbon monoxide poisoning. Of course since I am renting the home, and have never even thought of using the alarm I possessed neither the alarm company's phone number (they called the owner in sacramento to alert her--she said no worries i'ts all good) nor the code to disable the system. Ergo looking to use some lead to render the system dead. Luckily after about 10 minutes I was able to get the system shut off. At which point I have both kids, dogs, and wife all looking at me wondering if we are dying from carbon monoxide. Given that the hamster was doing fine I figured we were too. But wait, the fire department had to come by around 4 am to confirm no carbon monoxide leak (there wasn't). We had another round of poltergeist lights at 5AM, and then the blowers in the master bath tub (don't ask) went off at 5:15, 5:30 and 5:45. Being awake was good because I was able to let in the gas company rep who wanted to confirm there wasn't a gas leak (there wasn't).
Which you realize isn't really a bad night at all when you check the news at 3:30 while waiting for the fire department and see the news out of Vegas.
A bit of background about me. I won a ton of NRA sharpshoot patches as a kid. I grew up with rifles and shotguns in my house (no gun locks just sitting in my closet). However, I didn't know anyone who wasn't a cop who owned a handgun or an automatic gun (autoloader shotgun, automatic rifle etc). After school I served in delta force and then did a little bit of wet work for a 'consulting' group based near DC. The consulting job didn't pan out because my language skills suck and I am about as persuasive as a bulldozer but I could pull a trigger pretty good. And I've got a bit of extra gray hair from some hairy situations.
While I am no expert, I can tell you that the incident in Vegas is only possible because the shooter was able to get hold of and or modify weapons to near military grade. If he only had the single shot rifles of my youth the number of dead would have been cut dramatically. Load, sight, shoot, eject, reload---and repeat 100s of times. He would have collapsed of exhaustion. His fingers would be so number he wouldn't be able to load a round. We also have to thank our lucky stars that lots of the NRA's good guys didn't go to the show packing sidearms. Had 30 concert goers pulled out handguns, and started to look return fire to defend themselves there would have been many more dead, and the first responders job would have been infinitely harder. Let's also not forget that until this incident the GOP leaders were going to vote for the SHARE act which would have legalized silencers.
Talk about jumping the shark. Silencers both reduce the sound of a gun being fired and also reduce muzzle flash. This is really useful when you are hunting people and you want to avoid detection. It's a bit scary if you are hiking through the woods and you can't hear hunters, and it's really problematic if you are a first responder trying to locate a madman with an armory of automatic weapons. Oh and don't worry, silencers don't affect muzzle velocity and won't interfere with those armor piercing rounds the NRA has made sure you have access to. The fact that the NRA was a huge supporter of SHARE, and that many legislators were prepared to vote for it tells you all you need to know about who has your well being in mind vs gun manufactures wellbeing.
Some very basic facts:
On a different note my son plans on being Kellyanne Conway for Halloween. How scary will that be? How many people will he trigger?
Full disclosure---this is my first (and hopefully) only post with some alternative facts. How many did you spot?
And then at about 3:15AM I found myself wishing I had a gun. Not an AR-15 or a sidearm but a side by side shotgun. Because I really wanted to disarm-silence our alarm system, which was screaming to high heaven that we had some kinda gas leak. Or maybe not. You see when you get a heavy snowfall in early October, and lots of leaves are still on the trees and then those tree branches break and hit power lines which results in power surges, your smart house becomes so dumb it's enough to make me reach for my Winchester under the bed and unload two rounds into the dang alarm system.
Reaching for the shotgun is never a good first option in home maintenance. But it had already been a long night. First all of the lights (and I mean every light in the house) went on and off at about midnight. This freaked my daughter out who then tried to sleep in bed with us. I relocated her to her room and fell asleep in her room until the lights did their on-off thing again (with a quick alarm chirp to add to the fun) at about 1 am. Luckily she slept through round two of the poltergeist lights. I went back to my bed, only to be woken up AGAIN by the lights at 3AM. Then at 3:15 the home security alarm went apeshit warning us of a gas leak and carbon monoxide poisoning. Of course since I am renting the home, and have never even thought of using the alarm I possessed neither the alarm company's phone number (they called the owner in sacramento to alert her--she said no worries i'ts all good) nor the code to disable the system. Ergo looking to use some lead to render the system dead. Luckily after about 10 minutes I was able to get the system shut off. At which point I have both kids, dogs, and wife all looking at me wondering if we are dying from carbon monoxide. Given that the hamster was doing fine I figured we were too. But wait, the fire department had to come by around 4 am to confirm no carbon monoxide leak (there wasn't). We had another round of poltergeist lights at 5AM, and then the blowers in the master bath tub (don't ask) went off at 5:15, 5:30 and 5:45. Being awake was good because I was able to let in the gas company rep who wanted to confirm there wasn't a gas leak (there wasn't).
Which you realize isn't really a bad night at all when you check the news at 3:30 while waiting for the fire department and see the news out of Vegas.
A bit of background about me. I won a ton of NRA sharpshoot patches as a kid. I grew up with rifles and shotguns in my house (no gun locks just sitting in my closet). However, I didn't know anyone who wasn't a cop who owned a handgun or an automatic gun (autoloader shotgun, automatic rifle etc). After school I served in delta force and then did a little bit of wet work for a 'consulting' group based near DC. The consulting job didn't pan out because my language skills suck and I am about as persuasive as a bulldozer but I could pull a trigger pretty good. And I've got a bit of extra gray hair from some hairy situations.
While I am no expert, I can tell you that the incident in Vegas is only possible because the shooter was able to get hold of and or modify weapons to near military grade. If he only had the single shot rifles of my youth the number of dead would have been cut dramatically. Load, sight, shoot, eject, reload---and repeat 100s of times. He would have collapsed of exhaustion. His fingers would be so number he wouldn't be able to load a round. We also have to thank our lucky stars that lots of the NRA's good guys didn't go to the show packing sidearms. Had 30 concert goers pulled out handguns, and started to look return fire to defend themselves there would have been many more dead, and the first responders job would have been infinitely harder. Let's also not forget that until this incident the GOP leaders were going to vote for the SHARE act which would have legalized silencers.
Talk about jumping the shark. Silencers both reduce the sound of a gun being fired and also reduce muzzle flash. This is really useful when you are hunting people and you want to avoid detection. It's a bit scary if you are hiking through the woods and you can't hear hunters, and it's really problematic if you are a first responder trying to locate a madman with an armory of automatic weapons. Oh and don't worry, silencers don't affect muzzle velocity and won't interfere with those armor piercing rounds the NRA has made sure you have access to. The fact that the NRA was a huge supporter of SHARE, and that many legislators were prepared to vote for it tells you all you need to know about who has your well being in mind vs gun manufactures wellbeing.
Some very basic facts:
- The more guns you bring to a gunfight the more people will die. There is a lovely myth about the good guy who appears right next to the bad guy and takes him out. I see it in movies all the time, in the real world not so much.
- The more automatic guns are around, the more people will die (shooting a single round straight when you are being shot at is really hard to do---all that dang adrenaline is great for a fist fight with a bear, but not so good at steadying your hands when you are trying to shoot someone 50 feet away little less 100s of feet away).
- Silencers will only make madmen more deadly and our heroes job much more difficult.
On a different note my son plans on being Kellyanne Conway for Halloween. How scary will that be? How many people will he trigger?
Full disclosure---this is my first (and hopefully) only post with some alternative facts. How many did you spot?
Sunday, October 1, 2017
I'm getting triggered
Apparently that is the new hip term for getting upset.
For sure I am upset about all the politically correct BS. Sadly my very liberal friends I fear our PCness has helped give rise to Donald Trump--or at least the fire that drives some of his supporters. Is supporting transgender bathrooms a fight worth having when the cost is Trump in the White House?
But PC triggering in little old idyllic Aspen...............
The most recent PC triggered person occurred today at the college fair which is held at the Aspen Middle School. My son was volunteering to help with the avionics program presentation and was explaining to a friend that he didn't text her back last night because it was late and he was very tired after having dinner with a bunch of old Jews. An adult volunteer overheard this statement, was triggered and asked for his name so she could report him. My son gave her his name. Lets see what happens.
A bit of context--my son's first name is that of an old testament prophet, and his last name is so Jewish it's often used as a punchlines in jokes. He spent yesterday morning at temple, yesterday evening at temple and after temple had a break fast with the members of the congregation who went to the end of day service. The average age at the break fast was probably 60 and that is skewed lower by my son and daughters presence (ages 14 and 11). So yea he had a long day of temple and then dinner with a bunch of old Jews. I guess now he is an anti semitic ageist Jewish kid who while doing volunteer work spoke to loudly to a friend about the religious and age composition of the population at the Yom Kippur break fast he attended the prior evening.
Next trigger warning. My son's theater teacher sent us an email saying that in an improv section of class he pretended to be drunk. She informed us that theater class was PG, and he was skating close to R. This is 8th grade theater which ought to qualify for at least PG 13. From this summer's movies that would include lots of drinking, sex and cussing (think Wonder Woman, Fast and Furious or Guardians of the Galaxy). If the class has to stick with PG only we are looking at Smurfs, the LEGO movie or god forbid Captain Underpants. Had he stripped down to his underwear and threatened to fly out the window (stone cold sober thank goodness) I am sure I would have gotten a call from the principal. Tell me what seems wrong here---they have surprise Elk organ dissections in science class, discuss sex, drugs, and drink in wellness class, but gotta limit their acting to the Smurfs? And we get a school wide email from the principal alerting us that the show 13 Reasons Why might make our kids commit suicide. Are you kidding me?!?!?!? I'm getting triggered.
But lets leave the small town of Aspen behind and move to the Big City of New York where PC has jumped the shark. Lets consider SEX. No not fun sweaty sex with another sober consenting adult in a safe and proper fashion (I plan on sending my son to college with a lawyer, a contract outlining consent, and a breathalyzer to make sure he doesn't have sex without getting consent from his partner with a sobriety check and multiple sober witnesses to said consent)--I am talking about referring to someone in either writing or conversation by their sex (i.e. by using male or female pronouns).
You know when my very gay intelligentsia friend (how gay???? he acted on Broadway in Cats for like a decade gay, and has degrees from two ivy league schools) says that he is getting blowback from referring to actors as her or him, he or she and not it, them or they and he is rolling his eyes with exasperation you have jumped the PC shark.
Did something in this manage to trigger you? Are you getting angry? Does it make you wanna go do something stupid like march with Klux Klutz Klan members or vote for Trump to show all those thin skinned PC police?
Don't be stupid---to quote my Rabbi (way out of context) "this too shall pass".
For sure I am upset about all the politically correct BS. Sadly my very liberal friends I fear our PCness has helped give rise to Donald Trump--or at least the fire that drives some of his supporters. Is supporting transgender bathrooms a fight worth having when the cost is Trump in the White House?
But PC triggering in little old idyllic Aspen...............
The most recent PC triggered person occurred today at the college fair which is held at the Aspen Middle School. My son was volunteering to help with the avionics program presentation and was explaining to a friend that he didn't text her back last night because it was late and he was very tired after having dinner with a bunch of old Jews. An adult volunteer overheard this statement, was triggered and asked for his name so she could report him. My son gave her his name. Lets see what happens.
A bit of context--my son's first name is that of an old testament prophet, and his last name is so Jewish it's often used as a punchlines in jokes. He spent yesterday morning at temple, yesterday evening at temple and after temple had a break fast with the members of the congregation who went to the end of day service. The average age at the break fast was probably 60 and that is skewed lower by my son and daughters presence (ages 14 and 11). So yea he had a long day of temple and then dinner with a bunch of old Jews. I guess now he is an anti semitic ageist Jewish kid who while doing volunteer work spoke to loudly to a friend about the religious and age composition of the population at the Yom Kippur break fast he attended the prior evening.
Next trigger warning. My son's theater teacher sent us an email saying that in an improv section of class he pretended to be drunk. She informed us that theater class was PG, and he was skating close to R. This is 8th grade theater which ought to qualify for at least PG 13. From this summer's movies that would include lots of drinking, sex and cussing (think Wonder Woman, Fast and Furious or Guardians of the Galaxy). If the class has to stick with PG only we are looking at Smurfs, the LEGO movie or god forbid Captain Underpants. Had he stripped down to his underwear and threatened to fly out the window (stone cold sober thank goodness) I am sure I would have gotten a call from the principal. Tell me what seems wrong here---they have surprise Elk organ dissections in science class, discuss sex, drugs, and drink in wellness class, but gotta limit their acting to the Smurfs? And we get a school wide email from the principal alerting us that the show 13 Reasons Why might make our kids commit suicide. Are you kidding me?!?!?!? I'm getting triggered.
But lets leave the small town of Aspen behind and move to the Big City of New York where PC has jumped the shark. Lets consider SEX. No not fun sweaty sex with another sober consenting adult in a safe and proper fashion (I plan on sending my son to college with a lawyer, a contract outlining consent, and a breathalyzer to make sure he doesn't have sex without getting consent from his partner with a sobriety check and multiple sober witnesses to said consent)--I am talking about referring to someone in either writing or conversation by their sex (i.e. by using male or female pronouns).
You know when my very gay intelligentsia friend (how gay???? he acted on Broadway in Cats for like a decade gay, and has degrees from two ivy league schools) says that he is getting blowback from referring to actors as her or him, he or she and not it, them or they and he is rolling his eyes with exasperation you have jumped the PC shark.
Did something in this manage to trigger you? Are you getting angry? Does it make you wanna go do something stupid like march with Klux Klutz Klan members or vote for Trump to show all those thin skinned PC police?
Don't be stupid---to quote my Rabbi (way out of context) "this too shall pass".
Monday, September 25, 2017
where did the middle go??????
not my middle--it's growing nicely in my old age. Nope that middle that it seems both of our political parties are oh so worried about. The middle class. But that is not exactly what this post is about.
I didn't read, but had quoted to me ad nauseum the book Good to Great, but why do we need to be great at everything. Can't being good be good enough?
The adulation heaped on employees in Silicon Valley working 100 hour weeks (my generation's investment bankers), gives me the the creeps. And I know employee's productivity becomes negative above 55 hours a week and I wonder why we celebrate this assine approach.
I see very few average physical performances in Aspen. Everyone is either skinning up some 14er, cycling like a tour rider wannabe, or performing some other ridiculous physical feat. What happened to the guys who skied intermediate and advanced ski runs? Did they all either retire or become X game athletes. Why do I have to do yoga better today than yesterday? Why should my down dog be a competition against myself or others?
Why do we expect our kids athletic pursuits to put them in line for a college scholarship. And if not they shouldn't distract from those who are. My son wanted to swim for exercise, but his choices are learn to swim (after 3 years of swim team he can swim pretty good) or swim 7 times a week, which he has no interest in. Similar issues with skiing where he wants to grow and improve his skills, but it's either learn to ski (uh he can ski) or a ski team. In this case we managed to find a junior ski team, but we have no expectation that he will even bother to compete. He just wants to ski hard stuff better. And maybe make a new friend or two. Is he crazy for wanting that?
And what about middle of the road housing. Housing is obviously a huge issue in Aspen. But back in the 70s many of the houses being built were 2500-3500 square feet. That is a fine size house for a family of 4 to call home. But the affordable housing built for families of 4-5 out here is often less than 2k square feet. And guess what, after 4-5 years of cramped quarters many families leave. Cause its too dang small. If we want people to form families and teach at Aspen schools for 25 years we need to give them a home that they can and want to live in for 25 years not just a shelter they can survive in.
One of the nice things about being a worldly philosopher living in Aspen is it makes many issues very clear because it is so extreme. Living in the land of 3 houses or 3 jobs, world class athletes, with 60% of the town living in subsidized housing while building 20,000 square foot homes clarifies stuff. And what we don't have is enough middle. In an effort to rectify that I am going to have a donut, and go on a slow bike ride up to Ashcroft. I will be the guy with crumbs on my face a huge grin and an expanding midsection.
I didn't read, but had quoted to me ad nauseum the book Good to Great, but why do we need to be great at everything. Can't being good be good enough?
The adulation heaped on employees in Silicon Valley working 100 hour weeks (my generation's investment bankers), gives me the the creeps. And I know employee's productivity becomes negative above 55 hours a week and I wonder why we celebrate this assine approach.
I see very few average physical performances in Aspen. Everyone is either skinning up some 14er, cycling like a tour rider wannabe, or performing some other ridiculous physical feat. What happened to the guys who skied intermediate and advanced ski runs? Did they all either retire or become X game athletes. Why do I have to do yoga better today than yesterday? Why should my down dog be a competition against myself or others?
Why do we expect our kids athletic pursuits to put them in line for a college scholarship. And if not they shouldn't distract from those who are. My son wanted to swim for exercise, but his choices are learn to swim (after 3 years of swim team he can swim pretty good) or swim 7 times a week, which he has no interest in. Similar issues with skiing where he wants to grow and improve his skills, but it's either learn to ski (uh he can ski) or a ski team. In this case we managed to find a junior ski team, but we have no expectation that he will even bother to compete. He just wants to ski hard stuff better. And maybe make a new friend or two. Is he crazy for wanting that?
And what about middle of the road housing. Housing is obviously a huge issue in Aspen. But back in the 70s many of the houses being built were 2500-3500 square feet. That is a fine size house for a family of 4 to call home. But the affordable housing built for families of 4-5 out here is often less than 2k square feet. And guess what, after 4-5 years of cramped quarters many families leave. Cause its too dang small. If we want people to form families and teach at Aspen schools for 25 years we need to give them a home that they can and want to live in for 25 years not just a shelter they can survive in.
One of the nice things about being a worldly philosopher living in Aspen is it makes many issues very clear because it is so extreme. Living in the land of 3 houses or 3 jobs, world class athletes, with 60% of the town living in subsidized housing while building 20,000 square foot homes clarifies stuff. And what we don't have is enough middle. In an effort to rectify that I am going to have a donut, and go on a slow bike ride up to Ashcroft. I will be the guy with crumbs on my face a huge grin and an expanding midsection.
Friday, September 22, 2017
ill get political at some point but first some quick hits
Being Jewish in Aspen ain't like being Jewish in Chicago or NYC. Not only do the kids have school, but they even tests on the high holidays. Teachers who go to temple get charge with a day off (even if they are using most of their days off to visit a sick dad who is out of town). The Aspen Science center where I am on the board runs a science of cooking class on a high holiday and AVSC runs a fund raiser on a high holiday. NYC this ain't.
A couple of days ago I saw a couple of kids driving a Tesla X just out of Aspen heading up towards independence pass. They tossed a bag full of garbage out of the window. I guess they own the Tesla cause it's cool, not cause they give a shit about the environment. (side note my son who is very green would be the first to tell you that the Tesla ain't so green. Feel free to call him for the lecture).
I've been walking the dogs up Smuggler a lot lately. There are tons of signs reminding you to pick up your dog poop. There are poop bag dispensers. There are poop trash cans. Yesterday I saw a massive dog poop right in front of a poop bag dispenser and trash can. I think there are two types of people, those that scoop their dog's' poops and don't need signage to enforce that habit. And then you got people who will never pick up their dog's poop regardless of signs and bags and cans.
So maybe we should take down the signs. They are a waste, and kinda off putting. If we really want to eliminate dog waste in the wild west how about we just let citizens defend the environment by shooting dogs and people who don't scoop their poop.
Wait. No. I gotta delete that.
A couple of days ago I saw a couple of kids driving a Tesla X just out of Aspen heading up towards independence pass. They tossed a bag full of garbage out of the window. I guess they own the Tesla cause it's cool, not cause they give a shit about the environment. (side note my son who is very green would be the first to tell you that the Tesla ain't so green. Feel free to call him for the lecture).
I've been walking the dogs up Smuggler a lot lately. There are tons of signs reminding you to pick up your dog poop. There are poop bag dispensers. There are poop trash cans. Yesterday I saw a massive dog poop right in front of a poop bag dispenser and trash can. I think there are two types of people, those that scoop their dog's' poops and don't need signage to enforce that habit. And then you got people who will never pick up their dog's poop regardless of signs and bags and cans.
So maybe we should take down the signs. They are a waste, and kinda off putting. If we really want to eliminate dog waste in the wild west how about we just let citizens defend the environment by shooting dogs and people who don't scoop their poop.
Wait. No. I gotta delete that.
Monday, September 18, 2017
turned 50 yesterday
OMG
Its official I am really old. My kids and wife are kind enough to remind me of this fact every day. Why anyone would think getting a 20 something year old girlfriend would make them feel younger is beyond me. I think it would just make me feel even older and pathetic. And yet I see many gentlemen in Aspen of a certain age with wives and girlfriends who are 20-30 years younger. I see that and think... Expensive.
My wife got me a card that had some highlights from 1967. These include:
The US Supreme Court ruled that state laws forbidding mixed race marriages are unconstitutional.
The first Rolling Stone was published.
Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing to be drafted into the Army.
Tim Leary encourages everyone to 'tune in, turn on and drop out' LSD baby.
Today we have no draft, Rolling Stone is being sold to a large corporation, we have an opioid crisis, and we have had a black president who was the product of a mixed race marriage. Times sure have changed, and mostly for the better. It seems that sometimes we (as a country) forget how far we have come and how lucky we are. Big birthdays are good for giving big perspective. I would encourage many of our very angry pols to take a step back and enjoy the progress.
Warning--much of the rest of this week will have a heavy political bent. Obviously feel free to ignore me or at least not take it too seriously.
Its official I am really old. My kids and wife are kind enough to remind me of this fact every day. Why anyone would think getting a 20 something year old girlfriend would make them feel younger is beyond me. I think it would just make me feel even older and pathetic. And yet I see many gentlemen in Aspen of a certain age with wives and girlfriends who are 20-30 years younger. I see that and think... Expensive.
My wife got me a card that had some highlights from 1967. These include:
The US Supreme Court ruled that state laws forbidding mixed race marriages are unconstitutional.
The first Rolling Stone was published.
Muhammad Ali is indicted for refusing to be drafted into the Army.
Tim Leary encourages everyone to 'tune in, turn on and drop out' LSD baby.
Today we have no draft, Rolling Stone is being sold to a large corporation, we have an opioid crisis, and we have had a black president who was the product of a mixed race marriage. Times sure have changed, and mostly for the better. It seems that sometimes we (as a country) forget how far we have come and how lucky we are. Big birthdays are good for giving big perspective. I would encourage many of our very angry pols to take a step back and enjoy the progress.
Warning--much of the rest of this week will have a heavy political bent. Obviously feel free to ignore me or at least not take it too seriously.
Saturday, September 16, 2017
dumb house
Does anyone want to hire me to review their plans for the super lux home they plan on building? I will save you money and make sure you think about the consequences of materials, systems, and layout.
We have a pool room in our house. Sadly the room isn't big enough. What architect designed a room strictly for playing pool that is two feet to short (both length and width). And it's not a full sized table, so you can't really solve the problem by getting a 3 1/2 by 7 or even a 3 by 6 table. Nope these guys wasted 250k on a room that you just can't use. Meanwhile, they have a 450 square foot garage. Take that 200 square feet they used to make an unusable billiard room and stick it in the garage. Idiots.
And it looks like they are going to rip out the lighting system and go with something simpler. Swapping the lighting system is estimated to cost 30k. That is after the 200k AV bill on the install.
And did I mention that the nearest place to hang a towel in the master bath is 8 feet away from the shower door.
These things should be caught in the design phase of the project, and often are super easy to fix. Or at least you ought to be aware that you are designing a billiard room that is too small to play pool in. (I do love saying billiard room---sounds so fancy----and there are those of you who remember the only reason I have my most excellent wife is my pool table in NYC). But going near the billiard room just makes me sad---I would love to play but you just can't.
In other news the boy survived 8th grade outdoor ed, and his hair thrived.
We have a pool room in our house. Sadly the room isn't big enough. What architect designed a room strictly for playing pool that is two feet to short (both length and width). And it's not a full sized table, so you can't really solve the problem by getting a 3 1/2 by 7 or even a 3 by 6 table. Nope these guys wasted 250k on a room that you just can't use. Meanwhile, they have a 450 square foot garage. Take that 200 square feet they used to make an unusable billiard room and stick it in the garage. Idiots.
And it looks like they are going to rip out the lighting system and go with something simpler. Swapping the lighting system is estimated to cost 30k. That is after the 200k AV bill on the install.
And did I mention that the nearest place to hang a towel in the master bath is 8 feet away from the shower door.
These things should be caught in the design phase of the project, and often are super easy to fix. Or at least you ought to be aware that you are designing a billiard room that is too small to play pool in. (I do love saying billiard room---sounds so fancy----and there are those of you who remember the only reason I have my most excellent wife is my pool table in NYC). But going near the billiard room just makes me sad---I would love to play but you just can't.
In other news the boy survived 8th grade outdoor ed, and his hair thrived.
Friday, September 8, 2017
Another reason to live in Aspen
Many friends, folks and even strangers ask me why I live in Aspen. One big reason is it's a great place to raise kids. My daughter road her bike to school today. About 3.5 mostly flat miles on roads with speed limits of 20-25 mph and bike paths and views of 3 ski mountains. My son is getting to take aviation classes as an elective. If it sticks with it through senior year he can have a twin engine commercial pilots license. I don't have to be a helicopter parent to ensure their safety. There are no gangs. No one is getting shot. The bears aren't even mauling anyone aside from kitchens. Yes there are drugs and booze but show me a place that doesn't (while you are at it find me a middle ager who doesn't laugh knowingly at the excellent movie Dazed and Confused).
And then there is outdoor education. This is the 50th year of 8th grade ODE. 50 years ago it was a kinda haphazard program put together by bare chested teachers with some rope. Today it involves a 3-4 day trip into the woods (carrying a 40-60 lb pack) for 25 miles or so and 4k vertical feet of gain in patrols of 8 or less taking a variety of routes to avoid congestion in the wilderness. During that period the 8th graders also experience a solo camp out (a night alone in the wilderness). Then they all meet at base camp for another 3 days with everything from conquering a 14 foot wall to 100 foot rappels. (There is a great movie celebrating 50 years of 8th grade ODE and if-when they publish it I will post a link.)
Remember this is a public school. Most of the best private schools in the country can't touch this experience or even try, and NO public school in the country comes close. If you need equipment and can't afford to buy it the school will find some for you. This is a town of 3 homes or 3 jobs--the tremendous economic diversity is fully represented and neutralized on ODE. Cool.
What an opportunity to test yourself, build confidence, and grow emotionally just as you are preparing for high school. Reading Return of the Native is great (well actually I thought it sucked), but getting to go native with your classmates will stick with your forever.
8th grade ODE proved infectious. While it is the BIG trip, 5th graders go hiking and camping, 6th grades do a cross country ski from hut to hut, and 7th graders paddle the rivers to various camp sites. It has also infected the lower school with shorter trips and high school with Ex Ed (paddling in the San Juans or visiting aerospace companies in LA anyone?).
Again this is all available at the public school (not a magnet school ). In a town where more than half the locals live in some form of subsidized housing. And yes, you are expected to do some volunteer work to support this. My wife packed up all the meals on Tuesday. I was a sherpa on Thursday (transport kids to a trailhead, pack out the trash from the first day's lunch, and as it turned out hike out an injured student). Or I could be paying $35k a year for private school in Chicago and getting to work the student drop off zone for a week in February.
Why do I live in Aspen? Why don't you?
PS the wicked low property taxes in Aspen don't quite cover all of this. If you want to support the program you can make a donation at the Aspen Education Foundation.
AEF
PPS or you could just support a slightly higher property tax here in Aspen. Our property taxes are so low and with property values so high a small increase would easily fund the school's needs, and maybe leave some room to raise teachers salaries to the national average. Or so it would seem, there might be some rule not allowing us to better fund our school. Grumble.
And then there is outdoor education. This is the 50th year of 8th grade ODE. 50 years ago it was a kinda haphazard program put together by bare chested teachers with some rope. Today it involves a 3-4 day trip into the woods (carrying a 40-60 lb pack) for 25 miles or so and 4k vertical feet of gain in patrols of 8 or less taking a variety of routes to avoid congestion in the wilderness. During that period the 8th graders also experience a solo camp out (a night alone in the wilderness). Then they all meet at base camp for another 3 days with everything from conquering a 14 foot wall to 100 foot rappels. (There is a great movie celebrating 50 years of 8th grade ODE and if-when they publish it I will post a link.)
Remember this is a public school. Most of the best private schools in the country can't touch this experience or even try, and NO public school in the country comes close. If you need equipment and can't afford to buy it the school will find some for you. This is a town of 3 homes or 3 jobs--the tremendous economic diversity is fully represented and neutralized on ODE. Cool.
What an opportunity to test yourself, build confidence, and grow emotionally just as you are preparing for high school. Reading Return of the Native is great (well actually I thought it sucked), but getting to go native with your classmates will stick with your forever.
8th grade ODE proved infectious. While it is the BIG trip, 5th graders go hiking and camping, 6th grades do a cross country ski from hut to hut, and 7th graders paddle the rivers to various camp sites. It has also infected the lower school with shorter trips and high school with Ex Ed (paddling in the San Juans or visiting aerospace companies in LA anyone?).
Again this is all available at the public school (not a magnet school ). In a town where more than half the locals live in some form of subsidized housing. And yes, you are expected to do some volunteer work to support this. My wife packed up all the meals on Tuesday. I was a sherpa on Thursday (transport kids to a trailhead, pack out the trash from the first day's lunch, and as it turned out hike out an injured student). Or I could be paying $35k a year for private school in Chicago and getting to work the student drop off zone for a week in February.
Why do I live in Aspen? Why don't you?
PS the wicked low property taxes in Aspen don't quite cover all of this. If you want to support the program you can make a donation at the Aspen Education Foundation.
AEF
PPS or you could just support a slightly higher property tax here in Aspen. Our property taxes are so low and with property values so high a small increase would easily fund the school's needs, and maybe leave some room to raise teachers salaries to the national average. Or so it would seem, there might be some rule not allowing us to better fund our school. Grumble.
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
why it's great to be surrounded by forests
at night showing off clear firing chamber
and some super slow mo---the taters are flying about 375 feet --if we did this in Chicago I fear a SWAT raid and lots of upset Jewish mothers.
Lovin Aspen.
Dumb smart house
Our new rental house is lovely. Its big. It's in Aspen. It has a great kitchen and amazing views. Please come stay with us.
It also is new and has lots of the new bells and whistles that people think they want. You don't want most of these bright shiney things. Trust me.
Like what? Well we have a wine cellar that is also hooked up to the cooling system for the AV. Yes the AV requires AC (I've been dying to use that line). Oh yea and our house on 3 floors has 16 different HVAC zones. 16. And the lighting system is really cool. Well actually I am sure it's kinda hot cause each light switch panel uses about 5 millivolts per day of electricity and there are about 70 switches. There are 3 closets with master switches that look like this (all on you might note).
I can't figure out how to turn off half the lights half the time. Sometimes lights go off on their own. Other times they don't turn on. And often certain lights won't turn off. And anything with software needs both updates and reboots. These lights seem to require a technician 3-4 times a year. Please give me an old school light switch. They never needed a software upgrade.
And about that AV system----do you know how fast technology is changing in AV. The owners spent upwards of $200k on an AV, lighting, heating and security system that 8 years later that is way out of date and kinda sucks. Everything is hardwired and slow. Streaming TVs. I think not. Paying for 9 cable boxes is so 2000. Its slow, hot, sounds like crap and is running technology that is screaming for an update but the owners don't want to spend 50-100k more to bring it up to date.
And I wouldn't want to spend that money either. I have found that my old stereo blows away anything I have found in these fancy new homes AV systems. Buy a TV that is easy to replace because in 4-5 years it's gonna look like its 100 years old. Don't get talked into spending a ton of money on AV. Please.
If you are building a new home be smart about smart. New technology can be great, but it can be expensive to buy, install, maintain, and run. A mercury thermostat never fails. It doesn't require electricity or batteries. And has never ever needed a software update. Our provider is control4 and all I can say is if you want to spend a ton of money this is the way to go. I think my monthly electric bill will top 700 bucks and that is with pretty much no AC. It might be a 'smart' home but it's dumb in a lot of ways and sure ain't green.
It also is new and has lots of the new bells and whistles that people think they want. You don't want most of these bright shiney things. Trust me.
Like what? Well we have a wine cellar that is also hooked up to the cooling system for the AV. Yes the AV requires AC (I've been dying to use that line). Oh yea and our house on 3 floors has 16 different HVAC zones. 16. And the lighting system is really cool. Well actually I am sure it's kinda hot cause each light switch panel uses about 5 millivolts per day of electricity and there are about 70 switches. There are 3 closets with master switches that look like this (all on you might note).
I can't figure out how to turn off half the lights half the time. Sometimes lights go off on their own. Other times they don't turn on. And often certain lights won't turn off. And anything with software needs both updates and reboots. These lights seem to require a technician 3-4 times a year. Please give me an old school light switch. They never needed a software upgrade.
And about that AV system----do you know how fast technology is changing in AV. The owners spent upwards of $200k on an AV, lighting, heating and security system that 8 years later that is way out of date and kinda sucks. Everything is hardwired and slow. Streaming TVs. I think not. Paying for 9 cable boxes is so 2000. Its slow, hot, sounds like crap and is running technology that is screaming for an update but the owners don't want to spend 50-100k more to bring it up to date.
And I wouldn't want to spend that money either. I have found that my old stereo blows away anything I have found in these fancy new homes AV systems. Buy a TV that is easy to replace because in 4-5 years it's gonna look like its 100 years old. Don't get talked into spending a ton of money on AV. Please.
If you are building a new home be smart about smart. New technology can be great, but it can be expensive to buy, install, maintain, and run. A mercury thermostat never fails. It doesn't require electricity or batteries. And has never ever needed a software update. Our provider is control4 and all I can say is if you want to spend a ton of money this is the way to go. I think my monthly electric bill will top 700 bucks and that is with pretty much no AC. It might be a 'smart' home but it's dumb in a lot of ways and sure ain't green.
Monday, August 28, 2017
dead climbers, bears, red ROCKS and yes the move is done
lots more to follow--my computer is unpacked, we have finished our second move in a bit over a month and the kids are both back in school soooooooo.........
The last post was about dying climbers--in the last 6 weeks 5 people have died climbing capitol peak. Ages 21-35. FYI by comparison in 2016 5 people died climbing Everest. A couple of my buddies tried to convince me to climb Capitol last year and after I looked at the knife edge feature I decided to take a pass but they kinda poo pooed the risks. Knife edge and Capitol are not to be poo pooed its some serious shit. Above is a picture of the knife edge and someone being stupid.
My new hood is full of bears. I have seen a bear pretty much every day. I had one take a huge dump in my kinda fenced in yard right next to the hot tub. I don't let my dogs poop in the yard but the bears are not as well trained. Speaking of not well trained bears this morning while walking the dogs I found this.
In Chicago they set rat traps. In Aspen when a bear breaks into multiple homes multiple times they set bear traps. Seems the rats are smarter than the bears---a big steel cage with some garbage in it traps a bear, rats require a very nasty trap well placed with just the right food.
I took my son and some of his friends to reggae fest at Red Rocks this weekend for his birthday. If you are a music fan a show at Red Rocks has got to be on the bucket list. Amazing sights and sounds. Acoustics are just about perfect from anywhere and the view of the rocks (lit and unlit) and Denver is unreal.
The last post was about dying climbers--in the last 6 weeks 5 people have died climbing capitol peak. Ages 21-35. FYI by comparison in 2016 5 people died climbing Everest. A couple of my buddies tried to convince me to climb Capitol last year and after I looked at the knife edge feature I decided to take a pass but they kinda poo pooed the risks. Knife edge and Capitol are not to be poo pooed its some serious shit. Above is a picture of the knife edge and someone being stupid.My new hood is full of bears. I have seen a bear pretty much every day. I had one take a huge dump in my kinda fenced in yard right next to the hot tub. I don't let my dogs poop in the yard but the bears are not as well trained. Speaking of not well trained bears this morning while walking the dogs I found this.
In Chicago they set rat traps. In Aspen when a bear breaks into multiple homes multiple times they set bear traps. Seems the rats are smarter than the bears---a big steel cage with some garbage in it traps a bear, rats require a very nasty trap well placed with just the right food.
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
I don't do that
Seems there has been a lot of newsprint lately about people dying climbing in my backyard. A couple of people have died on capital and maroon over the past week or so.
I have no interest in doing activities where a mistake most likely will kill you. Yes it adds to the thrill and brag factor, but I make so many mistakes it seems crazy to put myself in a situation where a trip, a loss of focus, or some other failure results in death. There is plenty of climbing and hiking and other adventures I can do where a mistakes means a twisted ankle or broken wrist and a long painful walk home.
If you screw up on Capitol peak knife edge you most likely die. A mistake in the couloirs in the Bells--death. There is plenty of trails that will give you all work out and views you can ask for. Enjoy them. Maybe skip the ones with zero tolerance for error, I do.
I am moving for the next two days, then on vacation for a week, followed by unpacking and getting the kids started in school while watching the eclipse and trying to find a suitable location for the Aspen Science Center to run after school programming for kids in the roaring fork valley.
That is my way of saying--if I don't post anything for a couple of weeks I didn't die climbing Capitol, I am just unpacking boxes, and caught up in the detritus of life.
I have no interest in doing activities where a mistake most likely will kill you. Yes it adds to the thrill and brag factor, but I make so many mistakes it seems crazy to put myself in a situation where a trip, a loss of focus, or some other failure results in death. There is plenty of climbing and hiking and other adventures I can do where a mistakes means a twisted ankle or broken wrist and a long painful walk home.
If you screw up on Capitol peak knife edge you most likely die. A mistake in the couloirs in the Bells--death. There is plenty of trails that will give you all work out and views you can ask for. Enjoy them. Maybe skip the ones with zero tolerance for error, I do.
I am moving for the next two days, then on vacation for a week, followed by unpacking and getting the kids started in school while watching the eclipse and trying to find a suitable location for the Aspen Science Center to run after school programming for kids in the roaring fork valley.
That is my way of saying--if I don't post anything for a couple of weeks I didn't die climbing Capitol, I am just unpacking boxes, and caught up in the detritus of life.
Saturday, August 5, 2017
it's not you it's us
so a couple of friends have been wondering why we haven't returned their calls-texts-emails
hummmm:
a. wife's sister undergoing breast cancer treatment and surgery
b. my dad undergoing C0-C5 fusion (resulting in 3 last minute trips to St louis)
c. moving homes twice in a month and the second move into a twilight zone because we must be out of one home aug 11 but can't move into other home till aug 21 (also the first day of school)
d. unreal rental contract negotiations including but not limited to trying to value not having heat in our old home or working appliances, trying to get paid our last months rent when we are not actually staying in our current home for the last month (ie we paid first, last, and security deposit when we signed the lease and we are only staying 1 month--why the last month should be withheld for 30 days is beyond explaining)
e. moving company changing move date with less than a week prior to move
on a different note driving to Denver a couple of times a month is making me more of a local (I think)
off to pack more stuff which is multiplying faster than fruit flies
hummmm:
a. wife's sister undergoing breast cancer treatment and surgery
b. my dad undergoing C0-C5 fusion (resulting in 3 last minute trips to St louis)
c. moving homes twice in a month and the second move into a twilight zone because we must be out of one home aug 11 but can't move into other home till aug 21 (also the first day of school)
d. unreal rental contract negotiations including but not limited to trying to value not having heat in our old home or working appliances, trying to get paid our last months rent when we are not actually staying in our current home for the last month (ie we paid first, last, and security deposit when we signed the lease and we are only staying 1 month--why the last month should be withheld for 30 days is beyond explaining)
e. moving company changing move date with less than a week prior to move
on a different note driving to Denver a couple of times a month is making me more of a local (I think)
off to pack more stuff which is multiplying faster than fruit flies
Thursday, August 3, 2017
did you know there was not 1 but 2 trailer parks in Aspen?
There is a very nice one located in the Smuggler neighborhood 1/2 mile from Aspen core. And then there is Aspen Village. Not so nice. More sorta spooky. It's located 10 miles from Aspen down 82. It's closer to Basalt than Aspen, but in the Aspen school district. And you can buy this lovely 1100 square foot trailer home there for 420k. Follow the link to check it out. Holy smokes. most expensive trailer park home
We have also moved into the formal negotiations stage regarding getting our deposit back on our last home. There are a number of issues which are hard to determine a fair cost. (and why don't I get paid interest on my security deposit which was held for over 1 1/2 years)?
Any ideas you have would be great:
1. repair walls where 'removable' hooks were placed. 4 or 5 spots to be patched and painted.
2. new carpet (cost per square foot)---replacing base level carpet
3. non working oven (cost per day)
4. no heat in daughter's bedroom (the whole stay)
5. no heat in house (had to use space heaters) plus inconvenience of having plumbers working on heat for 3+ weeks
PS anyone want to rent a place in Chicago?
We have also moved into the formal negotiations stage regarding getting our deposit back on our last home. There are a number of issues which are hard to determine a fair cost. (and why don't I get paid interest on my security deposit which was held for over 1 1/2 years)?
Any ideas you have would be great:
1. repair walls where 'removable' hooks were placed. 4 or 5 spots to be patched and painted.
2. new carpet (cost per square foot)---replacing base level carpet
3. non working oven (cost per day)
4. no heat in daughter's bedroom (the whole stay)
5. no heat in house (had to use space heaters) plus inconvenience of having plumbers working on heat for 3+ weeks
PS anyone want to rent a place in Chicago?
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
rental market update
first a quick history
In March I asked my landlord if we could extend our lease and he said no--he was planning on moving in.
Late March-Early April we started our search.
We saw a place listed as 2400 square feet ---however 700 square feet were in the garage which also had a couch and TV in it making it 'livable'. Pass. (and 200k marble countertops )PASS PASS
We saw a place with a stoned kid hiding in the closet (during a school day. where else you going to hang out). We made an offer (ex kid) and then the owner decided against renting it. Seems you had to take the kid too to get the deal.
We saw a place listed for 10k with a July 10 move in date (a little high in price but it was alright). We made an offer and the owner responded with an end of August move in date and increased the price to 13k. We declined their new and improved terms.
We saw a place with lots of mouse traps scattered about, appliances that seemed not to work, a stench of mold even with 5 air purifiers running, and a 12 degree decent driveway approach. We said no fucking way.
We saw a house with platform beds, and much of the extra furniture from Animal House and no garage. Pass.
We saw a house with lots of animal skins, kitchen appliances that didn't seem to be grounded, and was a mile walk to any kind of transportation. We made an offer--getting desperate as the clock was ticking. Our offer was rejected because they received a similar offer from a family with only 1 dog, and they accepted that offer. Postscript something fell through with the other offer, and they cleaned out the animal pelts, removed much of the clutter in the house, bricked off one of the garages to make it their storage space for the aforementioned clutter and then decided to increase the rent by 33%. We did not reoffer.
We gave up on trying to find anything we liked and settled for something that might just be ok. We wound up moving into a very small house across the street from our last house. After moving in it became clear that it was too small, too loud, and really not furnished at all. Oh crap. The owner agreed to let us break the lease. We will be moving out after one month.
And moving to a pretty great place in East Aspen. Yea. However, some of the terms suck. It's a great home, book your dates but ......well the rent is 11.5k per month which is pretty pricey (but given the house and the location actually 'Aspen reasonable'. However, we must vacate the premises for a week in the spring and a week in the summer so the owners family can use the home. WTF. Also we pay the utility bill as a pass through to the owner and none of them are negotiable. So I am paying for streaming music, security and more cable boxes than I ever thought of owning. And I have to run the wine cellar (fan and cooling) whether I want it or not. And it's a big wine cellar. And we are not big drinkers (I guess I should work on that).
Oh yea and the dates between when we have to move out and move in leave about 12 days of twilight zone leading right into the start of school. So if you don't know me but see someone walking two golden retrievers mumbling the serenity prayer to themselves you probably found me.
SERENITY NOW
In March I asked my landlord if we could extend our lease and he said no--he was planning on moving in.
Late March-Early April we started our search.
We saw a place listed as 2400 square feet ---however 700 square feet were in the garage which also had a couch and TV in it making it 'livable'. Pass. (and 200k marble countertops )PASS PASS
We saw a place with a stoned kid hiding in the closet (during a school day. where else you going to hang out). We made an offer (ex kid) and then the owner decided against renting it. Seems you had to take the kid too to get the deal.
We saw a place listed for 10k with a July 10 move in date (a little high in price but it was alright). We made an offer and the owner responded with an end of August move in date and increased the price to 13k. We declined their new and improved terms.
We saw a place with lots of mouse traps scattered about, appliances that seemed not to work, a stench of mold even with 5 air purifiers running, and a 12 degree decent driveway approach. We said no fucking way.
We saw a house with platform beds, and much of the extra furniture from Animal House and no garage. Pass.
We saw a house with lots of animal skins, kitchen appliances that didn't seem to be grounded, and was a mile walk to any kind of transportation. We made an offer--getting desperate as the clock was ticking. Our offer was rejected because they received a similar offer from a family with only 1 dog, and they accepted that offer. Postscript something fell through with the other offer, and they cleaned out the animal pelts, removed much of the clutter in the house, bricked off one of the garages to make it their storage space for the aforementioned clutter and then decided to increase the rent by 33%. We did not reoffer.
We gave up on trying to find anything we liked and settled for something that might just be ok. We wound up moving into a very small house across the street from our last house. After moving in it became clear that it was too small, too loud, and really not furnished at all. Oh crap. The owner agreed to let us break the lease. We will be moving out after one month.
And moving to a pretty great place in East Aspen. Yea. However, some of the terms suck. It's a great home, book your dates but ......well the rent is 11.5k per month which is pretty pricey (but given the house and the location actually 'Aspen reasonable'. However, we must vacate the premises for a week in the spring and a week in the summer so the owners family can use the home. WTF. Also we pay the utility bill as a pass through to the owner and none of them are negotiable. So I am paying for streaming music, security and more cable boxes than I ever thought of owning. And I have to run the wine cellar (fan and cooling) whether I want it or not. And it's a big wine cellar. And we are not big drinkers (I guess I should work on that).
Oh yea and the dates between when we have to move out and move in leave about 12 days of twilight zone leading right into the start of school. So if you don't know me but see someone walking two golden retrievers mumbling the serenity prayer to themselves you probably found me.
SERENITY NOW
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
crowds
Belly up has been bringing in some great shows. I saw Bush a couple of weeks ago. Bush was good---the crowd was interesting. 18-78 in age range. And I got stuck on the floor surrounded by a group in from Miami who told me before the show that they were really cool, and had done 'a ton of lines and a lot of X'. Guess what--they didn't have to tell me cause the sweating and the need to rub up against everyone made that pretty obvious. Bush yea---crowd yuck.
Last Saturday I saw Lyle Lovett at Belly up. Great show. Long show. Past my bedtime. And wow the crowd was tall. Weirdly tall. Everyone on the floor in front of me was pushing 6'2". Still I managed to get a nice view of his ugly mug and enjoy some funky Texas tunes.
Speaking of crowds yoga was SRO yesterday (probably due to rainy conditions). Really tight. I fear a was sweating on many different types of body augmentation. And the instructor who normally drones on and on ran out of things to say. " holy shit I don't have anything to say" Your faithful blogger normally would take a softball like that and smash it out of the park but having been tossed from multiple yoga studios I decided to let it pass.
But seriously if my crowd problems are coked up people from Miami at a Bush show, tall people at a Lovett show, and intimate conditions at yoga I got no problems at all.
Except maybe rental problems. I swear I will get to it but I want to give you the whole story and closure seems impossible to get.
Another quick trip to STL coming up---with daughter. Let's hope I don't have to secure my mask first and then hers.
Last Saturday I saw Lyle Lovett at Belly up. Great show. Long show. Past my bedtime. And wow the crowd was tall. Weirdly tall. Everyone on the floor in front of me was pushing 6'2". Still I managed to get a nice view of his ugly mug and enjoy some funky Texas tunes.
Speaking of crowds yoga was SRO yesterday (probably due to rainy conditions). Really tight. I fear a was sweating on many different types of body augmentation. And the instructor who normally drones on and on ran out of things to say. " holy shit I don't have anything to say" Your faithful blogger normally would take a softball like that and smash it out of the park but having been tossed from multiple yoga studios I decided to let it pass.
But seriously if my crowd problems are coked up people from Miami at a Bush show, tall people at a Lovett show, and intimate conditions at yoga I got no problems at all.
Except maybe rental problems. I swear I will get to it but I want to give you the whole story and closure seems impossible to get.
Another quick trip to STL coming up---with daughter. Let's hope I don't have to secure my mask first and then hers.
Tuesday, July 25, 2017
big update with pictures
What did we do for our 1 year anniversary of living in Aspen? We moved. Our lease was up and so we ----well my wife packed us up and we (actually she and some highschool kids) moved us across the street. I flew to St. Louis to root my dad on through surgery.
To answer your questions---my wife did NOT divorce me for leaving her high and dry for the move.
My Dad is doing well.
Our new rental is very small--too small and not well enough furnished. Here is a picture of my 'furnished' office.
To answer your questions---my wife did NOT divorce me for leaving her high and dry for the move.
My Dad is doing well.
Our new rental is very small--too small and not well enough furnished. Here is a picture of my 'furnished' office.
Please note the nice chair and filing cabinets and drawers and shelves and quote from the Bible. Well at least I got God on my side while I blog, however the lack of a chair is shortening the time I am willing to sit here blogging.
Oh yea and that last flight to St. Louis.
That is yours truly and yes that is my oxygen mask. When you lose pressure at 30k feet it does deploy. And the pilots do try to get you down to 10k feet ASAP even if that blows out some folks eardrums. Your blogger was lucky to be chewing gum at the time so my ears are fine. Sadly one of the flight attendants and many passengers not so much. My legs were torn to shreds by my seat mate who was a little nervous. Try not to sit next to a woman with really long nails. After a quick return to Denver (40 min outbound but only 18 to get back) and smoke coming from the oxygen compartments and a 4 hour wait on the ground we were offered the chance to do it all over again. The second flight was much less crowded. Bonus right?
File this under things I didn't know. The berry crop is light, and acorn crop is coming in late so
BEAR ALERT. Keep everything locked even if it is hot.
We are moving again cause the current pad is just not working out. And I am flying to St. Louis again to wish mom a happy b day and root dad on during rehab.
The new place is great (move date aug 21 same day as start of school). Book your dates now. It's in Aspen. It's over 6k feet and has a hot tub. And if anyone has any job ideas help cause I am sure I can't afford the place.
Stay tuned for my rental saga---renting in Aspen is almost crazy enough to make you want to move anywhere else.
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Tahoe V Aspen and the winner is...............(this is a unifnished post flying to stl for dad surgery and then moving at the same time holy shit)
Before announcing a winner let's compare the two really great resort areas:
Tahoe Aspen
Population 36k (summer surge 1m) 9k (summer surge 70k)
Population of nearby cities Carson city, reno sparks 400k grand junctions + glenwood springs 70k
LA + San Fran area 25m Denver area 700k
number of resorts 12 4
typical base elevation 6k 7.8k
tallest peak Freel peak 10,866 Elbert 14,439
squaw V. highlands 9.050 peak, 6,200 base 12,400 (bowl peak) 8,040 base
Recent skiing gold medals yes (julia mancuso) no
Water sports everything good paddling and fishing
hiking terrain very rocky lots of pine not very rocky good mix of trees
mountain biking not really (see rocks) everywhere all the time
mountain bike pedals flats clipless
skate boarding everywhere all the time (flat around lake) just in town of aspen and skate parks
schools not so good good
affordable housing yes no unless you are in subsidised housing
private jets trying not enough parking for all of em
weed yes --illegal yes
food excellent ok
local food sourcing yes yuck
local wine oh yes oh no
local beer great good
lift lines OMG yes ohh man I had to wait 1 min i'm calling it
ranching history no yes
mining history kinda huge
music institute no yes
ideas fest no yes
physics institute no yes
gambling yes no
prostitution yes bring your own
snow bipolar (700 in or 70) 200-400
ski terrain best cliff jumping in north america lots of good stuff if you know where to look
ice rinks 1 2
And the winner is..................Aspen. biggest difference..the crowds. CA is an amazing state and I would put it way over CO (hosting both summer and winter olympics, best food and wine and everything from Tech to aerospace and defense and hollywood too) but the LA and San Fran area are huge and if you want to go to a great mountain area Tahoe calls loudly---and millions go. Lift lines can be crushing and you can get tons of horrible skiers to doge around. Aspen is a pain to get to--approaching from Denver you pass Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone plus others. Why keep going to Aspen? Most don't. When you get here you are rewarded with minimal lift lines, and empty trails. I also prefer hiking on less rocky paths............
and if you read this far I am publishing this right before moving the computer and after coming back to STL--surgery went well but my flight to STL..... includes smoke, masks and my seatmate running her fingernails all over me..............................
Tahoe Aspen
Population 36k (summer surge 1m) 9k (summer surge 70k)
Population of nearby cities Carson city, reno sparks 400k grand junctions + glenwood springs 70k
LA + San Fran area 25m Denver area 700k
number of resorts 12 4
typical base elevation 6k 7.8k
tallest peak Freel peak 10,866 Elbert 14,439
squaw V. highlands 9.050 peak, 6,200 base 12,400 (bowl peak) 8,040 base
Recent skiing gold medals yes (julia mancuso) no
Water sports everything good paddling and fishing
hiking terrain very rocky lots of pine not very rocky good mix of trees
mountain biking not really (see rocks) everywhere all the time
mountain bike pedals flats clipless
skate boarding everywhere all the time (flat around lake) just in town of aspen and skate parks
schools not so good good
affordable housing yes no unless you are in subsidised housing
private jets trying not enough parking for all of em
weed yes --illegal yes
food excellent ok
local food sourcing yes yuck
local wine oh yes oh no
local beer great good
lift lines OMG yes ohh man I had to wait 1 min i'm calling it
ranching history no yes
mining history kinda huge
music institute no yes
ideas fest no yes
physics institute no yes
gambling yes no
prostitution yes bring your own
snow bipolar (700 in or 70) 200-400
ski terrain best cliff jumping in north america lots of good stuff if you know where to look
ice rinks 1 2
And the winner is..................Aspen. biggest difference..the crowds. CA is an amazing state and I would put it way over CO (hosting both summer and winter olympics, best food and wine and everything from Tech to aerospace and defense and hollywood too) but the LA and San Fran area are huge and if you want to go to a great mountain area Tahoe calls loudly---and millions go. Lift lines can be crushing and you can get tons of horrible skiers to doge around. Aspen is a pain to get to--approaching from Denver you pass Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone plus others. Why keep going to Aspen? Most don't. When you get here you are rewarded with minimal lift lines, and empty trails. I also prefer hiking on less rocky paths............
and if you read this far I am publishing this right before moving the computer and after coming back to STL--surgery went well but my flight to STL..... includes smoke, masks and my seatmate running her fingernails all over me..............................
Wednesday, July 5, 2017
Questions for the NRA---Tahoe part 2
So as I am sure you inferred from my previous post we did not stay in the most fancy of neighborhoods in South lake. After arriving we walked (me and dogs--daughter is on her scooter) down towards the lake. As we prepared to cross highway 50 and Ski Run BLVD to get to the lake my daughter looked up Ski Run and said:
"hey dad why is that guy walking down the middle of the street with a long gun?"
Great question but before we get to that some background. I grew up with a shotgun in my closet. I have more NRA sharpshooter patches (from the 70s when the NRA was about gun safety and education not gun rights and gun sales) than I could fit on one jacket, and I have read just about all the Robert Ludlum books. Using my Jason Bourn skills I peeked at the guy with the gun and decided to cross the street to join the large crowds by the lakefront where we were less likely to stand out as an individual target and we could always retreat into the water. We walked around for a bit, and then decided to try heading back home. When we got back to the intersection 4 police SUVs had pulled up and the police had their guns pointed at the aforementioned guy from behind their doors while discussing next steps.
OK NRA---my daughter asks why are the police harassing--looking to arrest the guy?
I said " he was acting kinda strange and had a gun."
She says well assuming he has a permit and he looks to be over 21 and a bit drunk what is the problem?
Great question. Was this a jaywalking bust? NRA how do I answer my daughter?
Also for all you second amendment rights folks---if the guy up the street with the AR 15 had felt threatening to me should I have pulled my Sig Sauer and charged him to close the distance fast and eliminate the threat? With an AR-15 he has both more rounds and much more effective range. I do have two dogs who would charge with me and give me a chance at closing from 150 meters to 15-20 meters where I feel pretty confident I could land 5 out of 17 rounds. Yea right. And the moment I pull my piece I am now a clear and present danger to others, does the guy with the AR unload on me and my daughter and poor pups? What about other bystanders? Now you got two guys running around waving guns--what is to say they don't feel threatened and pull their weapons for self defense.
Or let's say I choose a slightly more defensive posture--I pull my weapon but leave it pointed towards the ground while backing towards the heavily populated lakefront. Again that could be perceived as dangerous by others around the lake who then might have started a gunfight with me.
Seriously NRA this is a safer world?
End result I didn't have a weapon, nor did anyone else besides the crazy guy and the police who managed to disarm him without firing a shot.
Back to my daughter's question--what law did he break? And why am I sure that having everyone carry a piece is a sure way to more shooting deaths.
"hey dad why is that guy walking down the middle of the street with a long gun?"
Great question but before we get to that some background. I grew up with a shotgun in my closet. I have more NRA sharpshooter patches (from the 70s when the NRA was about gun safety and education not gun rights and gun sales) than I could fit on one jacket, and I have read just about all the Robert Ludlum books. Using my Jason Bourn skills I peeked at the guy with the gun and decided to cross the street to join the large crowds by the lakefront where we were less likely to stand out as an individual target and we could always retreat into the water. We walked around for a bit, and then decided to try heading back home. When we got back to the intersection 4 police SUVs had pulled up and the police had their guns pointed at the aforementioned guy from behind their doors while discussing next steps.
OK NRA---my daughter asks why are the police harassing--looking to arrest the guy?
I said " he was acting kinda strange and had a gun."
She says well assuming he has a permit and he looks to be over 21 and a bit drunk what is the problem?
Great question. Was this a jaywalking bust? NRA how do I answer my daughter?
Also for all you second amendment rights folks---if the guy up the street with the AR 15 had felt threatening to me should I have pulled my Sig Sauer and charged him to close the distance fast and eliminate the threat? With an AR-15 he has both more rounds and much more effective range. I do have two dogs who would charge with me and give me a chance at closing from 150 meters to 15-20 meters where I feel pretty confident I could land 5 out of 17 rounds. Yea right. And the moment I pull my piece I am now a clear and present danger to others, does the guy with the AR unload on me and my daughter and poor pups? What about other bystanders? Now you got two guys running around waving guns--what is to say they don't feel threatened and pull their weapons for self defense.
Or let's say I choose a slightly more defensive posture--I pull my weapon but leave it pointed towards the ground while backing towards the heavily populated lakefront. Again that could be perceived as dangerous by others around the lake who then might have started a gunfight with me.
Seriously NRA this is a safer world?
End result I didn't have a weapon, nor did anyone else besides the crazy guy and the police who managed to disarm him without firing a shot.
Back to my daughter's question--what law did he break? And why am I sure that having everyone carry a piece is a sure way to more shooting deaths.
Monday, July 3, 2017
Road trip to Tahoe ----much to say but going to start with the quick hits
My daughter participated in a hockey camp last week in Tahoe. Coming soon: compare and contrast between Tahoe and Aspen, a series of questions for the NRA and other cool stuff, but first the quick hits.
We (daughter, dogs, and stinky hockey bag) drove to Tahoe. This lovely 975 mile trip allowed me to cross driving across the country off the bucket list. Ok yes I didn't do it in one trip but San Fran to Tahoe has been done many times, Aspen to Chicago a couple, and Chicago to Cape Cod so many times I can tell you where the best fruit stands are along interstate 90 in upstate NY. The final piece was UT and NV. If I never do the drive from Salt Lake to Reno again my life will be richer for it.
Things I saw along the way:
1. Sign in UT off highway 6 for Starvation road.
2. Modified sign in UT warning of Beer (used to be Deer) crossing for next 10 miles. Sadly no beers sited.
3. A sign announcing no services this exit, or this one, or the next one, or............um my daughter has a bladder the size of a cherry tomato and I consumed about 10 mountain dews----next exit we pulled off, dropped our pants and peed. One mile later a sign announced a rest stop 1 mile further. Below daughter pulling a runner during pee break (she almost made it but for the lack of water)
4. Long stretches of 80MPH speed zones. If we weren't stopping to pee every 45 minutes we could have made the trip in record time.
5. 125 miles of visibility. Coming east at West Wendover I could see all the way to the Wasatch mountains. Wow.
6. Casinos everywhere. The first one is at West Wendover which is built right on the border of UT and NV. In UT you can't get a beer and a shot, no gambling and no prostitutes (but multiple wives? is there a relationship between those two?) Anyhow, cross the border and you got beers, shots, sex for money and gambling everywhere (in truck stops, gas stations---if you found 10 people you found a casino along this section of I80). And the Casino in West Wendover set back from the state line would make Lincoln park property line setbacks look generous.
7. A sign announcing a slot tournament. Uh doesn't a tournament imply skill, is there any skill involved in slots?
8. While waiting in line to order some most excellent tacos in South Tahoe I got nailed on the head by a huge pine cone. Seems there is a chipmunk who lives in the very large pine tree who doesn't like people buying tacos. After that didn't work he pelted my car with branches and pine cones. That is one bad ass chipmunk.
9. Best gas station ever in UT---an employee cleaned pretty much my entire car--I am looking desperately at the sign that says self serve and saying WTF---he said it was no problem, glad to help and would I like any info about the Book of Mormon?
10. We spent the night on the way to Tahoe in Winnemucca --I was later told by a friend this is known as the prostitution capital of the world---I am not sure about the world but it would give Amsterdam a run for its money.
11. While driving around Tahoe (from Squaw to South lake) I spotted Jerry Garcia no fewer than 13 times. Also more pot smoking in CA than CO. A lot more.
12. Our most excellent VRBO rental house was located in an area that made us feel right at home if home was the not so nice parts of south Chicago. My daughter asked a number of times about why we didn't have bars on our doors and windows when all the neighbors did. And yet it was really just a solid working class neighborhood located 1/3 of a mile from the lake and 1 mile from the rink and 1/2 mile from base of heavenly ski area. And yes it's true you can buy a small house in a ski town for 300k.
13. Walking the dogs at 6 am I ran into a guy dressed like a sith lord twirling his sword. I ran into him 2 more times over the next 5 days. Did I mention the weed consumption in CA? Sorry the photo is not great but it needed to be taken on the QT.
14. Under the heading of bad dog---my younger pulled a runner in the desolation wilderness. She was gone for close to an hour. I figured she had gotten mashed to a pulp in a waterfall but I found her about two miles down the trail heading up the hill with a couple of Coeds (one of whom was wearing a tee shirt that said 'maybe later'). Bad dog? Good dog???????
15 Bad dog II---3 days later even higher up in the desolation wilderness we get to Gilmore lake. Its frozen.......ish. I grab the good dog and leash her up, the bad dog heads towards the lake. I pull out my handy bag of dog treats......she looks at me, and I swear gives me the middle finger.....claw, and runs onto the lake. Way out onto the lake. 100s of yards onto the lake. I am thinking once again of dogsickel, but she makes it back (very wet).
Thats enough for now--for the 4th my daughter will be riding with the Aspen Junior leafs float, and I will be slinging beers at the AVSC picnic (all bloody day).
Oh yea and my daughter watched 22 hours of Glee, both Vacation movies, and Sherlock Holmes season 1----whatever happened to mad libs?
We (daughter, dogs, and stinky hockey bag) drove to Tahoe. This lovely 975 mile trip allowed me to cross driving across the country off the bucket list. Ok yes I didn't do it in one trip but San Fran to Tahoe has been done many times, Aspen to Chicago a couple, and Chicago to Cape Cod so many times I can tell you where the best fruit stands are along interstate 90 in upstate NY. The final piece was UT and NV. If I never do the drive from Salt Lake to Reno again my life will be richer for it.
Things I saw along the way:
1. Sign in UT off highway 6 for Starvation road.
2. Modified sign in UT warning of Beer (used to be Deer) crossing for next 10 miles. Sadly no beers sited.
3. A sign announcing no services this exit, or this one, or the next one, or............um my daughter has a bladder the size of a cherry tomato and I consumed about 10 mountain dews----next exit we pulled off, dropped our pants and peed. One mile later a sign announced a rest stop 1 mile further. Below daughter pulling a runner during pee break (she almost made it but for the lack of water)
4. Long stretches of 80MPH speed zones. If we weren't stopping to pee every 45 minutes we could have made the trip in record time.
5. 125 miles of visibility. Coming east at West Wendover I could see all the way to the Wasatch mountains. Wow.
6. Casinos everywhere. The first one is at West Wendover which is built right on the border of UT and NV. In UT you can't get a beer and a shot, no gambling and no prostitutes (but multiple wives? is there a relationship between those two?) Anyhow, cross the border and you got beers, shots, sex for money and gambling everywhere (in truck stops, gas stations---if you found 10 people you found a casino along this section of I80). And the Casino in West Wendover set back from the state line would make Lincoln park property line setbacks look generous.
7. A sign announcing a slot tournament. Uh doesn't a tournament imply skill, is there any skill involved in slots?
8. While waiting in line to order some most excellent tacos in South Tahoe I got nailed on the head by a huge pine cone. Seems there is a chipmunk who lives in the very large pine tree who doesn't like people buying tacos. After that didn't work he pelted my car with branches and pine cones. That is one bad ass chipmunk.
9. Best gas station ever in UT---an employee cleaned pretty much my entire car--I am looking desperately at the sign that says self serve and saying WTF---he said it was no problem, glad to help and would I like any info about the Book of Mormon?
10. We spent the night on the way to Tahoe in Winnemucca --I was later told by a friend this is known as the prostitution capital of the world---I am not sure about the world but it would give Amsterdam a run for its money.
11. While driving around Tahoe (from Squaw to South lake) I spotted Jerry Garcia no fewer than 13 times. Also more pot smoking in CA than CO. A lot more.
12. Our most excellent VRBO rental house was located in an area that made us feel right at home if home was the not so nice parts of south Chicago. My daughter asked a number of times about why we didn't have bars on our doors and windows when all the neighbors did. And yet it was really just a solid working class neighborhood located 1/3 of a mile from the lake and 1 mile from the rink and 1/2 mile from base of heavenly ski area. And yes it's true you can buy a small house in a ski town for 300k.
13. Walking the dogs at 6 am I ran into a guy dressed like a sith lord twirling his sword. I ran into him 2 more times over the next 5 days. Did I mention the weed consumption in CA? Sorry the photo is not great but it needed to be taken on the QT.
14. Under the heading of bad dog---my younger pulled a runner in the desolation wilderness. She was gone for close to an hour. I figured she had gotten mashed to a pulp in a waterfall but I found her about two miles down the trail heading up the hill with a couple of Coeds (one of whom was wearing a tee shirt that said 'maybe later'). Bad dog? Good dog???????
15 Bad dog II---3 days later even higher up in the desolation wilderness we get to Gilmore lake. Its frozen.......ish. I grab the good dog and leash her up, the bad dog heads towards the lake. I pull out my handy bag of dog treats......she looks at me, and I swear gives me the middle finger.....claw, and runs onto the lake. Way out onto the lake. 100s of yards onto the lake. I am thinking once again of dogsickel, but she makes it back (very wet).
Thats enough for now--for the 4th my daughter will be riding with the Aspen Junior leafs float, and I will be slinging beers at the AVSC picnic (all bloody day).
Oh yea and my daughter watched 22 hours of Glee, both Vacation movies, and Sherlock Holmes season 1----whatever happened to mad libs?
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