Food? or Fuel?

To be completely honest, I used to be ambivalent about the using of corn to create ethanol.  Make it, don’t make it.  Use it, don’t use.  I didn’t care.  But that was because I didn’t know a darn thing about it.

Take some corn, turn it into fuel, reduce the use of fossil fuels, right?  Simple! Cheap!  Renewable!

Well, now that I’ve taken exactly two minutes to look into ethanol production, I have quickly become non-ambivalent.  We need to stop making and burning ethanol up in our cars.

Why?

Well, I learned that it takes 21 pounds of corn to make a single gallon of ethanol.  TWENTY ONE pounds of corn to make a SINGLE gallon of the stuff (26.1 pounds according to another source!).  To fill the relatively small tank of my own Honda Accord that would conservatively take 351 pounds of corn.  To fill an SUV?  I am a little sick to think about how much corn that would take. 

I also never considered how much FOSSIL fuel it takes to plant, grow, harvest, distill, and transport the final ethanol product.  It takes a considerable amount.  It looks alot to me like robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Having spent time in countries where people starve to death, and having seen babies and little kids with swollen bellies and hair discolored by malnutrition, it seems to me to be the height of waste to take food that could fill the stomach of starving person and put it my car so that I reduce my “carbon footprint” and feel better about myself for doing it.

Corn is the staple food in Zambia.  Wherever I went I saw corn drying on the tin roofs of houses.  I now wonder how 21 pounds of corn would look up on those roofs.  I wonder how many people 21 pounds of corn would feed, and for how long.  

 

In Haiti, they are eating dirt cookies, just to stave off hunger.  I don’t think there’s much nutritional value in a dirt cookie.  A dirt cookie might make you not feel as hungry, but it’s not going to keep you from starving.

Corn is a renewable resource, but individuals are not.  I’d think about dying babies everytime I put that fuel into my car.  Corn is not fuel.  It’s food. 

There are lots of other problems inherent in the widespread use of ethanol, like the health of our nation’s farmlands.  Instead of restating them all, just take a look at this webpage:  Ethanol from corn - burning both corn and oil.  If you’re a proponent of corn as fuel, this might make you rethink your position.

Even with all the very good reasons for not utilizing ethanol, at the heart of this issue for me is how would I EVER explain to a starving person that I was burning up FOOD in my car?  A starving person doesn’t care about my carbon footprint.  A starving person doesn’t care about whether the earth will be here for their grandchildren.  A starving person cares about whether THEY will be there tomorrow for their children, and whether their children will be there tomorrow for them.  

Our fuel needs to be their food. 

Surely we can do better than this.

… 

Photo Friday - “Doors, Doorways, & Entries”

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled:

“Doors, Doorways, & Entries″

 

I was out of town this week in Wisconsin and Illinois.  My father’s oldest brother passed away and I went back to be with my family and for the funeral.  I don’t get to see my midwest family often enough, and I very much enjoyed my time with them, despite the circumstances. 

Spring was in full glory back there.  It was like the Emerald City wherever you looked.  It was so beautiful I had to ask myself “Why don’t I live HERE?”.  But then I remembered that on one side of this gorgeous spring is a heinous winter, and on the other, an even more heinous summer - HOT and buggy! 

Camera in hand, I had this week’s challenge in my head wherever I went.  My dad (originally from Kenosha, WI) and I drove around town and I took pictures of all of the houses he he lived in when he lived there.  There are doors in most of those pictures, but nothing sang to me.  I also have a pretty cool picture of the door to a lighthouse, but it didn’t sing either.

I left Kenosha after breakfast one morning and decided to drive north to Racine (next town up Lake Michigan) to just wander around the city where my best friend, Connie, had lived when I met her.  I don’t know what I was expecting, but I ended up not staying long because I got really sad being there.  So I headed south to Chicago.  I love Chicago.  My plan was to roam around down there and then head over to my friend Kevin’s brother’s house where I would meet up with his parents and we’d all spend the evening together before leaving the following morning.  Kevin was in Vegas for work, so he couldn’t be there with us.  :-(  Anyhoo, as I was driving down to Chicago, I saw this coming up in the distance, so I grabbed my camera, turned it on, aimed it through the windshield, and shot this pic at about 80 mph!  :-) 

This sign always makes my heart beat fast because not too much farther down the road the skyline of Chicago starts to come in to view.  The city is vibrant, and busy, and noisy, and crammed with people.  And Kevin lives there.  And so, it’s always a place of fun and excitement for me. 

Only Kevin wasn’t there this time.  I drove around town and was amazed at how much it had changed and grown since last I was there.  But the more I looked, the more lonely I got. 

I don’t know what I was thinking, going to these places where Connie used to be, and Kevin wasn’t, right on the heels of a funeral.

But anyway, my picture is more of an “entry” than anything else…an entry into the best big city in America.

Please visit the other participants’ entries and check out their work!

Idea jump! & Just for fun & A Curious State of Affairs & Sky Windows 

 

Future Photo Friday titles:

Friday 23th May : Title by Julie: Emotion

Friday 30th May : Title by CordieB: Phantasmagoria

Friday 6th June : Title by Author: Diptychs

(or Triptychs if you prefer to use 3 images)

… 

A Funny Story About Chivalry

Last night in Illinois, I went out to dinner with friends…my friend Kevin’s mother, father, brother, and his brother’s two kids.  The brother (Kurt) gave me his hand to help me into the SUV to which I commented “chivalry is not dead!”.  His son, seven, asked me “what does that word mean”.  I told him that chivalry was when boys helped girls do things.  Shortly after that, Kurt said something rather off-color to which I responded “I was wrong, chivalry IS dead”.  We all laughed.  His son asked me “What does it mean that that word you said–meaning chivalry–is dead?”.  I explained in the best words I could to a seven year old.  He seemed to understand as he told me “sometimes I help my sister, so that word’s not dead”.  How CUTE is THAT??? 

Earlier I had given his little sister, age five, a little purple penguin Peek-a-Pooh, like this one:

It’s about an inch tall and hangs from a thin yellow cord.  The two of them were struggling for control of said Peek-a-Pooh in the back seat.  It was getting loud back there!  Just as their dad had decided they were getting too rowdy and made them knock it off, brother managed to get the toy and it would appear from the timing that he had won the battle.  I heard sister’s quiet little voice from the back seat state very matter-of-factly…

“It’s dead”.

Apparently she ALSO grasped the meaning of chivalry and the state of chivalry in the back seat last night!

…

“Self Portrait” - Photo Friday

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled: “Self Portrait″

Our challenge this week was to create a self portrait by utilizing one of the following gadgets!  Fun!

Hockneyizer  Create a unique photo collage in the style of the artist David Hockney Warholizer  Create an iconic pop photo! Inspired by Warhol’s famous paintings of Marilyn Monroe Framer  Choose from tons of unique frames to spice up a photo Motivator  Make your own inspirational, funny, parody, sports or other motivational self portraits Mosaic Maker  Make a mosaic Palette Generator  Automagically generate a harmonious color palette based on the colors in a photo - perfect for design work Lolcat Generator  This gadget will allow you to bring out your humerous side by adding a funny caption to any photo of yourself

This was a very well-timed challenge as I got my hair cut a couple of days ago.  My hair is pretty thick, and sort of curly.  I wanted it much shorter for my mission this summer.  Having it long is easy in that I can just pull it up and out of the way into a ponytail, but it’s time-consuming when it comes to keeping it clean since baths are done out of a bucket and getting cream rinse all out of all that hair takes too much water.  And frankly the heat in Florida combined with all that hair can really make a girl hot and uncomfortable. 

Joanne (my friend and stylist!) discussed my objectives:

• I need to be able to just wash, run my fingers through it, and go
• It needs to be long enough so that I can go for a couple of months without a trim and have it still look good
• I wanted it shorter in back, longer in front, and of a length where I could tuck it behind my ears

We looked at some pictures that had elements of what I was looking for, and then, out came the scissors!  Joanne went right to work cutting off a foot long ponytail that I hope to donate to Locks of Love.  It already looked cute! 

I love the final product.  I can wear it natural, or blow it out straight.  I had in mind to take a picture of the end result to use for this challenge.  I forgot my camera.  Joanne took some, but I can’t use those for this.  So I got out my cell phone and set up the shot, had Joanne hold the camera, and I hit the button.  I  had a second to get back into the frame before the picture would be taken, and I was absolutely cracking up.  I decided to use that picture.

HOWEVER, last night, no matter what I tried to do, I could not get onto the internet.  My connection was fine, there was nothing out of the ordinary, so I don’t know what the deal is.  SOOOOooo, even though it’s agains the rules of my company, I decided I’d just do it at work, which is where I am at…currently on lunchbreak.  I got my cell pic up onto Flickr okay and then created an account so I could use Hockney’s gadgets.

BUUUUUT, I couldn’t get any of the gadgets to work.  I think I’m blocked or something on this work computer.  Oh well, so, here’s my self portrait, but it is embarrassingly un-gadgetified for this challenge!

I have to clock back in.  I’ll be back to finish this up hopefully soon!

Later…

Yay!  My internet was working wonderfully when I got home from work today.  Ergo, I am now adding my REAL honest to goodness Hockneyized self portrait to this entry!  Woo Hoo!  Here you go! 

And a motivational poster, just for good measure…

Please don’t forget to check out the work of the other participants!

Sky Windows & Idea Jump! & A Curious State of Affairs & Looking In The Mirror

If I have missed any players, please leave a comment and let me know so that I can link to you.

Next week’s Photo Friday for 16th May has been chosen by CuriousC: 

“Doors, Doorways, & Entries…. to the soul, the house, a city, whatever…”

Future Photo Friday titles:

Friday 23th May : Title by Julie: Emotion

Friday 30th May : Title by CordieB: Phantasmagoria

Friday 6th June : Title by Author: Diptychs

(or Triptychs if you prefer to use 3 images)

 

…

 

I Wish…

…that the talking heads on TV and radio would pronounced “YOUR” like “yore”, and not “yer” when saying things like:

“I agree with your analysis…”. 

Saying “yore analysis” sounds so much better than “yer analysis” which sounds exactly like “urinalysis” and I don’t want to hear about “urinalysis” when I’m trying to get election results and not lab results…

It bugs me.

…

Help Me Choose!

I am thinking of entering a photo in a local photography contest.  The subject matter is “Pollenators” and we are to show them in the process of doing their thing.

I have a few pictures I am considering and would love your feedback!

There are three.  The third picture is simply a “brighter” version of the second.

Which do I enter?  Help me choose!!!! 

Or are none of them even good enough to enter.  Dunno!

Your thoughts?

(I took these pictures in my brother’s yard this past week in California…he has a most wonderful garden.  The entire southern wall of his home sports rose bushes – many taller than I – simply loaded with roses of many colors.  The bees on this day seemed partial to these vermillon blooms)

…

Happy Birthday, Abner

Hey Abs,

Happy birthday!  Sorry you have to work today - even sorrier you’re stuck up in South Dakota.  Bad way to spend the first day of your “late 20’s”.  LOL! 

Much love, and let’s do Jack Quinn’s to celebrate when you get back!!

Yo Mama

…

 

 

Dodger Blue!

Yesterday my niece Alaska got out the hair dye.  Her subject?  My niece Avalon.  Avie has dark hair so Alaska gave her some deep red highlights.  My nephew, their cousin, Mitchell, wanted in on the action.  He has blonde blonde blonde hair and wanted it blue.  His mom, my sister Whitney, okayed the color change…

First of all, look at the face.  Isn’t it perfection?  He is about the most gorgeous child I’ve ever seen.  Whitney took this picture with her cell phone and texted it to me.  I e-mailed her text from MY phone to my e-mail and then downloaded the picture.  Then I uploaded it on Flickr as I had to share it all with you.  (Don’t you just love technology and the internet???) 

Mitchell is six.  The hair color is semi-permanent!!  He plays baseball and is on the Dodger’s.  He has a game tomorrow where his new hair will be revealed.  Whitney warned him that it’s possible that some won’t find this new “do” as delightful as we do, but he was willing to take the chance! 

Whitney says this picture doesn’t really do the blue justice.  Better pictures with a “real” camera have been promised. 

I wish they would have done this when I was visiting!  I would have loved to see this in real life and in technicolor!

I wonder if his school has any rules about this sort of thing.  I know some schools do.  If his does, I see a buzz cut in this boy’s future! 

…

“Religion” - Photo Friday

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled: “Religion″

I have lots of pictures for this particular entry. Why? Not because I had my choice of so many great photos and just couldn’t pick, or anything like that AT ALL! Nope. My pictures are a set of photos taken on a little walkabout I took through my old neighborhood in California this past week while visiting my family.

I had decided that I wanted to see if I could get a good picture of St. Matthew Greek Orthodox church which is about a half a mile from my brother’s house. We, my niece Avalon and I, set off one afternoon with our cameras in hand…she’s nine. My original plan was simply to take a picture of that particular church. About a tenth of a mile into our journey we walked past St. Andrew Episcopal Church:

and the idea hit me that I should share ALL of the churches I came across in our walkabout! Across from the Episcopal church is Nativity Catholic Church:

which is a particular neighborhood favorite of mine.

Almost to our intended destination I came across these lovely flowers which (to steal from last week’s challenge!) grew in lovely and unexpected juxtaposition to a fire hydrant:

And these fantastic morning glories winding their way up a telephone pole:

Finally we reach St. Matthew. It, like the other churches we’ve past, is situated in between homes on these old city streets:

We walked some more. Avalon, despite her youth, began to flag and wished to return home, so we headed off that direction, but before we reached the house, we passed the United Methodist Church:

the First Baptist Church:

AND finally, the First Samoan United Methodist Church:

Finally tally? SIX churches tucked into one small neighborhood, all passed while walking just a little bit over a mile…and only one of them has a parking lot!

Let’s just say this little part of town has got religion!

But where DOES everyone park??

It was a beeeeuuuuuutiful day!

Please take the time to visit the other participants’ entries!  I will post additional links as they come in

Sky Windows

A Curious State of Affairs 

Just For Fun

Looking in the Mirror

Idea jump!

Next week’s challenge comes to us from Jan of “A Curious State of Affairs” and it is “Self-Portrait”.  Click HERE to see the particulars!  It’s another FUN one!

One more picture, because what is a mini-adventure without one of my foot pictures?  Incomplete!  So, then, here it is!  A curb picture with a friendly reminder of where it ends up when you dump it!

…

You Can’t MAKE Me!

Yep. you’ll get no argument from me on this one. The healthcare system in America has some real problems. What those problems might or might not be are not the subject of this post.

The biggest problem you’ll be HEARING about constantly in this current election year is that people lack access to healthcare and so we need to change to a single payer system so that all will have healthcare coverage and all can live happily ever after.

In any of my dreams or potential realities does a single payer (read “universal healthcare”) system FIX this particular problem as its proponents would have you believe? No way.

You can give all the free healthcare you want to as many people as you want to, but if you don’t make being on the provider end (hospital owners, doctors, nurses, etc.) an attractive proposition, you won’t have people entering the business. If it isn’t attractive, companies and individuals will leave the business or won’t go into the field in the first place and the ultimate result is a lack of providers. Without providers the access to healthcare is diminished. Hospitals are already closing at a good clip for lack of revenue. Doctors are leaving their profession in droves because the reimbursement (the rates for which are set by Medicare, an already abysmally run government healthcare entitlement program) is so lousy that the risk of being a physician often outweighs the rewards. Read THIS about geriatricians and why they are leaving their profession if you don’t believe me.

Proponents of this system would have you believe that by bringing all the uninsured (and underinsured) into the government fold, that this will increase the reimbursement, thus offsetting these losses to hospitals, etc. Hardly. What it WILL do is decrease the reimbursement further. Right now a provider gets paid, let’s say, $100 to see 10 patients, or $10 per patient. Once coverage is “universal”, then that provider will get paid the same $100, but it will be to see 20 patients, or $5 per patient. Yes. A simplistic look at the numbers, but mark my words, this is what the single payer system will bring us. The doctors will leave, and for awhile the government will sell us the bill of goods that Physicians Assistants, and Nurse Practitioners, and Chiropractors are just as good as doctors, until we find out that that particular emperor doesn’t have any clothes either, and then Canada will be freaking out because now where will THEY go for their healthcare in a hurry, and well, it’ll just be a huge mess.

You can’t MAKE people invest their capital and their lives where they don’t want to. Well, I suppose in theory the government COULD, but do any of us want to live in a country where you are forced into running a hospital or becoming a doctor for the good of the masses? Sounds a lot like communism to me.

But I digressed…

So, then, you can increase healthcare COVERAGE all you want. But increasing an individual’s coverage does not automatically translate to an increase in the ACCESS to healthcare that the individual has.

Without providers, there IS NO healthcare.

A single payer system solves the problem of a coverage. But insurance coverage does not does not does NOT equal healthcare access.

What about this continually escapes the universal healthcare crowd??

You can give away free tickets to the circus, but what happens when the circus has already left town?

…

My Old House

No pictures to share. But I used to live in the cutest little yellow and white cottage with a picket fence. The house was built in 1917 and I was only the third owner. There were dozens of types of flowers and an equal number of types of bushes and shrubs in the large garden situated in and surrounded by a very lush and long and soft green lawn. The steps and paths and front porch were slate. The undulating fence was capped off with copper finials which mellowed with a verdigris patina. My house was, for sure, THE cutest house on the block. I had a gardener who came regularly and always had the place looking bright and cheery and kept. The sprinkler system insured that all stayed green and in bloom. In the back yard was a peach tree, a plum tree, a loquat tree, some other trees I can’t remember the names of, and a fenced off garden filled with with blackberry bushes. The front yard sported a profusely flowering Jacaranda tree and another tree with flashy peachy-orangey-red blossoms. In the spring the whole 7,000 square feet of my garden and yard was a riot of colors. Even in the winter it was a beautiful collection of evergreens and grasses and winter blooms.

It is spring now. My brother’s yard is exploding with roses and hibiscus and, well, you’d have to ask him the names of all his plants and flowers!

I sold the house and moved to Colorado going on three years ago.

I am visiting my family this week back in Southern California. My brother lives but five blocks or so from my old house. I drove by it yesterday. I wondered what beautiful things were happening in MY old gardens!

The man who bought my house is a well known local real estate developer. There is a for sale sign in the front yard with his name on it. I guess his plans for the property didn’t pan out.

The lawn is dead.

The plants are dead.

The flower beds are dead or dying and overgrown with weeds.

The roses bushes are shriveled and brown.

Even the trees are brown, and drooping.

The property looks pitiful.

It doesn’t look or feel at all like I ever lived there.

It doesn’t appear that anyone at all is living there.

Why would someone let a place go like that?

…

“Juxtaposition” - Photo Friday

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled: “Juxtaposition″

jux·ta·po·si·tion

–noun

1.	an act or instance of placing close together or side by side, esp. for comparison or contrast.

2.	the state of being close together or side by side.

This week was my choice for the topic!  I picked “juxtaposition” because 1) I absolutely LOVE the word, and 2) I thought it was a challenge that could be interpretation in a bajillion ways.  I had no preconcevieved idea of what I was going to do for it.  The word just came into my head when I read that the choice was to be mine this week. 

I took this picture this past weekend in Denver.  When I took the picture I was only taking it because it tickled my fancy.  I thought it would be way cute to have my little friends copy the big blue bear’s pose, all lined up.  Only after I got home and was going through and catalogueing the photos from the weekend did it strike me that this would make an excellent and FUN submission for this weeks “Photo Friday”.  So, here is “Big Blue Bear and Little Friends Peeking”!

From L to R that’s the Big Blue Bear, Abner, Stephanie, Colin, and Clare — in juxtaposition! 

This Big Blue Bear is peeking in the windows of the Denver Convention Center.  His body is made up purely of planes.  Pretty cool.  Designed by a computer.

The sculpture was unveiled in June of 2005 and is called “I See What You Mean”.

They are all interested in what’s going on in there! 

Please visit the other participants’ work!

 Sky Windows 

Idea jump!

A Curious State of Affairs 

Just For Fun

Welcome to CordieB of the blog “Looking Through The Window“

(Jan’s entry - A Curious State of Affairs - uses a cool online tool called a Hockneyator to create a collage.  You should check it out and snag that link to try this tool yourself!)

I’ll add anymore links should I find that there are any more new players out there!

Next week’s topic comes to us from Tina of SkyWindows and is “Religion”. 

…

Blog Bling

Jan, mastermind behind the “Photo Friday” posts you see here, has given me some new jewelry for my blog!

I was given this Gold Photo Award for my entry titled ”Black and White“.  Click HERE to see the other winners of this award.  And please consider coming out to play with us!  It’s a fun group of divergent thinkers and we’d love to have you part of the movement! 

Thanks, Jan!  I appreciate the work you do to make “Photo Friday” all that much more fun.  And thanks to the other ladies who participate for sharing your thoughts, your creativity, and your lives with me in this strange world of the blogsphere.   

…

The Beach Bot Update

My nephew Richard’s robotics team took second in their division, and 8th overall in the FIRST nationals in last week’s competition in Atlanta.  Not bad for a little team of homeschooled kids from the beach cities of Los Angeles!

Congrats team 330!  Well done!

…

The Prom - Something I’ve Learned From Teenagers About Love

“If he really wanted to be with you, he’d be with you” — Phil

This was pretty much the only thing my brother had to say about the struggles I was having in my last serious relationship.  The guy lived a thousand miles away, and had only come to visit me a single time.  I had visited him a couple of times and we had made plans for him to come and visit me again on Valentine’s Day last year.  Things were getting very serious between us.  At least I thought they were.

It didn’t take long after my getting back home after my last visit for him to back away from his plan to come on Valentine’s Day.  He was going to come some other time in February, after all “It doesn’t need to actually be ON Valentine’s Day”.  And shortly after determining that a Valentine’s Day visit wasn’t in fact necessary, he backed off from the visit entirely.  At the same time professing his love!  I didn’t get it.  I believed he wanted to be with me, but his actions certainly didn’t back that up.  I kept making excuses for him.  I soooo wanted to believe he wanted to be with me, but that there was something about him and his unknown struggle that seemed to make it difficult for him.  So I excused his behavior and lamented what seemed to be an insurmountable chasm between us.  And, my brother quietly and matter-of-factly said “if he wanted to be with you, he’d be with you”.  When the guy decided to bail from the relationship pretty much without any warning, and with a set of very odd explanations as to why, and after having done this to me already a number of times in the past, I finally decided I’d had enough and said, fine, you want to walk away, walk away.  To myself I finally admitted that I was tired of the games he seemed to be playing with me and that I couldn’t take his inconsistency and the incongruities of his words and his actions any more. 

As the days turned into weeks and months, I kept making excuses for him.  And Phil’s words kept coming back to me….If he had wanted to have been with me, he would have been with me.  If he loved me enough and there truly WAS some unknown struggle that was keeping him from me, he would have addressed that issue…

Then “Colin and Stephanie” and “Clare and John” happened, and I realized that not only were Phil’s words true, but that I NEEDED to have a guy show his intent by pursuing me…by wanting to be with me.

At sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen years old, these four teenagers have shown me that love does what it takes.  Colin, who lives in Northern California, has worked and saved and has traveled to Colorado to visit Stephanie three times since November!  Clare’s John also lives in Northern California.  Both John and Colin have flown in this weekend to take Stephanie and Clare to their prom.  What fun!  And what message does their coming here send to these girls?  That they are valued.  That the boys recognize the importance of things like the prom and that if the girls think its important, so do they.  It tells these girls that they want to be with them.  That they want to spend time with them.  And that they will do what it takes to make that happen, even though they have no idea what the future holds for them.

Don’t they look amazing??  Thanks for the love lesson, kiddos.  I needed that.  Have a GREAT time at the prom! 

…

A Day in LoDo

A couple of weeks ago I met my friend Abner up in Denver to spend the afternoon.  It was a lovely day.  We’d been threatened with snow, but there was barely a cloud in the sky and it was warm in the sun.  We decided to meet at the Breckenridge Brewery.  It’s one of the local microbreweries and I’ve heard they have some good offerings.  I tried the Agave Wheat.  It was a murky looking glass of darkish amber stuff.  But it tasted awesome! 

The area of town that is host to the Breckenridge Brewery is known as “LoDo”, or Lower Downtown.  It’s an historical district, also known as the ballpark district.  The brewery is right down the street from Coors Field where the Colorado Rockies play.  I love baseball (I believe I have mentioned this before).  I used to adore the Dodgers, but fell out of adoration with them in the 90’s.  I tried to fall in love with the Anaheim Angels, and things were going sort of okay, but then they became the Los Angeles Angels, which, even removing the absolute redundancy of the name from the equation, was just wrong.  End of that fledgling relationship!  And then I moved to Colorado.  I wondered if I could become a Rockies fan.  Well, after seeing the Rockies “house”, I think I could very well do so.  I drove past Coors Field the last time I was up in Denver and I wanted to explore it further by walking all the way around the stadium.  Of course that took us into a couple of restricted access areas, but despite passing a number of empty security vehicles, we were successful without even being approached.

What a great stadium and wonderful location for it.  On the 20th street side there was a pedestrian walkway which brought you through an archway of sorts.  The supports had a collection of “ball” tiles on the fronts and backs.  Here’s one of the panels:

One day I’ll go back and try to individually photograph each and every tile in these columns.  Some are mighty clever.  Here are a couple of my favorites:

Through the archway and a there’s a perfect “out in left field” gate upon which to take a foot picture, which of course, we did.

In the process of meandering around town, and laughing hysterically at this and that, we passed by a number of buildings which had either been, or were being converted into lofts and condos.  Of course, with my love of 1)  cities, 2)  buildings, and 3)  real estate, my heart was pretty much palpitating.  There was one small row of loft-type spaces in particular that caught both of our attentions.  The units were three stories tall, and on the backsides there were balconies off the second and third floor.  Rising from the third floor balcony was a spiral staircase leading to rooftop terraces.  From those rooftops I bet you could see the entire downtown skyline as well as Coor’s Field.  And I bet you could easily hear the roar of a baseball crowd from there, too.  I was imagining being up there on a hot and sticky summer day basking in the fierce high altitude sun and BBQ’ing with friends while hearing the crack of bat on ball.  Perfection.

I have longed to buy a property in a city center for decades now.  Chicago has always been my city of choice for this, and Dublin would be pretty amazing, too, as would London.  An apartment in Syracuse, Sicily or Kinsale, Ireland has been a dream floating around my head.  I even looked at lofts in Los Angeles which were pretty spectacular, but after being in this area of Denver, I think Denver could suit me nicely!  Pipe dreams!! 

Near the end of our LoDo traipse, we crossed a street only to be faced with the biggest set of doors I’ve ever seen that weren’t at the front of an old European church!  Here’s Abner being dwarfed by the doors:

Thanks for another fun day just hanging around, Abner!  Let’s do it again soon.

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“It’s Life Imitating High Art” - Photo Friday

Today’s Photo Friday is entitled: “It’s Life Imitating High Art″

Y’all are going to start thinking I’m totally lazy (worse, with that y’all there, you might start thinking I’m lazy AND country!)  :-)  Anywhoooo, it’s been another sort of crazy week in the life of Lou.  I originally had planned on doing my best photographic imitation of Jan Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring“.  However, I just couldn’t pull that off.  Having just taken inspiration from Warhol in my last Photo Friday entry, I thought it would be fairly simple to do my best photographic imitation of one of HIS most simplistic works, his iconic Campbell’s Tomato Soup Can:

It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be!  I originally took about 20 photographs.  Then I attempted some digital manipulation in order to really whiten the background and to eliminate all the shadows.  That turned out to be wayyyyy more difficult than I had thought.  So I abandoned that and thought I’d try my best to recreate it with a pure photograph.  Another 30 or so pictures later, and this is the best I could do. 

I think I’ll still keep “Girl” in mind for another photographic project in the future.  I have the perfect model, BUT the earrings I had thought I’d use I can’t find.  I think maybe I sold them at one of the last garage sales (boot sales for Jan) I participated in.  So, while I look like I’ve been very lazy with this project, I actually worked pretty hard on it!

I’m very excited to see what fab stuff the others have put together!!

Please check out the other participants’ work! 

Sky WIndows

A Curious State of Affairs

Idea Jump

Jan, the brilliant Photo Friday mastermind, has given me the opportunity to pick next week’s challenge.  Pending her approval of the subject, my choice is “Juxtaposition”.

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It’s Robot Time Again!

My nephew Richard’s robotics team has earned their way into the big national FIRST competition in Atlanta again this year!  Way to go Beach Bots!  The team left for Georgia this morning, the competition starts tomorrow.  I hope to catch some of the coverage on the live NASA feed on Friday and Saturday.  Click HERE to check out the NASA TV schedule.  I have no idea what the challenge is this year, but am excited to see just how the robot that the Bots created has risen to it!  Word on the street is they have another real potential winner on their hands!

Good luck Bots, and special shout out to Richard and Dakota!

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Immun-aiyaiyai-zations

This year I needed to update my immunizations for my trip to Malawi and Ethiopia.  My Polio, Typhoid, and Yellow Fever are outdated and I’ve never had Hepatitis A.

Today I met with Becky at Passport Health to discuss just what my travel needs were going to be.

The final list?  Here you go!

1. Hepatitis A injection
2. Polio injection
3. Yellow Fever injection
4. Oral Typhoid series

Still need to get:

1. Tetanus booster
2. TB skin test (last one was over a year ago, will be able to procur this at work)

Declined:

1. Influenza vaccine (I never get this)
2. Meningococcal meningitis vaccine (I’ve been exposed so many times to this I must have some sort of immunity)
3. MMR (measles, mumps, rubella).  I have now had this vaccine three times and while I have converted on my mumps and rubella, my titers continually come back negligible for measles, so I’m figuring no additional attempts will work either.

Definitely don’t need for this trip:

1. Japanese Encephalitis vaccine  :-)  TRUE! 

We also discussed malaria and dengue fever.  Since it is winter, the chances of getting these diseases are lower as the mosquitos are fewer and farther between, but, as history has proven to me, I can get malaria from that one mosquito.  The malaria carrying mosquito gets you at night, the dengue carrying mosquito gets you during the day.  When in Zambia I didn’t take malaria meds nor did I use insect repellent.  I will use repellent this year.  I’m still thinking about my options for meds.  The cheap option is doxycycline, but that often leads to an unpleasant other kind of infection.  The other “cheaper” options have given me night terrors and generally creepy feelings which make them very undesireable to take again.  The best option is MUY expensive.  Almost $9.00 a pill!  AND I’d need 60 pills.  I don’t even want to do the math on that.  We’ll just have to see!  For sure I buy some Arinate when I get to Africa.  I want that on hand whether or not I’m pre-treating.  That’s a miracle drug for malaria and I don’t want to be without it.

Then there’s avian (bird) flu and cholera.  Since I’m in control of food preparation and water sanitization, I’m pretty sure we’ll be able to avoid getting either of these.  Just gotta remember to keep “my kids” away from any chickens and not serve any eggs that aren’t fully cooked!

Lastly, I picked up a prescription for Cipro.  I can take that for traveler’s diarrhea or an upper respiratory infection.

I got the three injections today.  Praying they don’t make me sick.  The last time I got the Yellow Fever one I was sick (gastro stuff and fever) for days and my arm was useless and excrutiatingly painful to the touch for over a week.  That was years ago.  Maybe this time it won’t be so bad.  I’ll wait to see if these round of shots makes me sick before I tackle the week-long regimen of oral Typhoid vaccination.  That one can cause pretty good gastro side effects and I don’t want to pile that on anything else I might be feeling!

AND we (Becky-also a nurse-and I) talked about my working there in the future!  Just to fill-in for her, nothing major.  She took my info and seemed very delighted at the possibility of having someone who could help out there in a pinch, or for vacations, etc.!

This is the first time I have used a traveler’s health clinic.  Very convenient, very easy.  Always before I have had to call around and find this place or that place who could accommodate my needs.  When I showed up at Passport Health, Becky had already prepared a full packet of very useful information and recommendations.  Live in Colorado?  Ever need to discuss travel needs and get shots and scripts?  Consider Passport Health.  I guess it’s another Unpaid Service Endorsement from me!  :-)  It’s a pay up front business, so I need to look into filing a claim with my insurance to see what they might pick up.  Never done that before.  New skill to learn! 

I haven’t been really great at posting lately, but if you don’t hear from me for awhile, you’ll know why!  (Because I’m curled up sick in my bed not far from a bathroom!)

Now, as I am expecting company in a few days, I’m off to clean my house, just in case I’m not feeling up to it later!

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Taxes…Filed

For years I’ve had the same gentleman do my taxes in the LA area.  Because I was more than happy with his services, I continued to use him after I moved to Colorado.  But this year I decided to bring the business home, as it were, and hire a local CPA to do the deed for me. 

I found an ad offering a special price and so I called.  I stood to save about 75% so I went out on a limb and called.  Frank of Raspberry Mountain Investments doesn’t have an office, “I’ll come to you” he said.  What the heck.  Why not.  Having my taxes done in the comfort of my own home (with access to all my paperwork in case I forgot something) sounded really convenient.  My taxes aren’t horribly complicated (too complicated for ME mind you, but not too bad in general) so I guessed I’d be able to tell if the guy wasn’t doing things “up to snuff”.

I had friends tell me they thought I was taking my chances having a strange man come to my house.  One of them was considering coming over and bringing her Glock with her just in case I had invited some sort of predator!!! 

Welllll, I needn’t have worried.  He was so thorough and I didn’t feel rushed and I’m pretty sure we maximized my deductions.  And he electronically filed those taxes right there at my dining room table and printed up my copies of everything.  I asked him why his prices were so low, and he told me that after spending many years with a major national firm, he struck out on his own this year and he was using the low prices to build a client base.  It won’t be as cheap next year, but still less than half the cost of having my LA guy do them.

He’s got me for repeat business for sure, and I took a bunch of business cards.

Boy, am I glad my taxes are done.  I hate having them hanging over my head like an executioner’s axe. 

Filing tax returns under the current overwhelmingly complicated tax system are PAIN.

I’d sure like to see some reform there…

If you are looking for a tax man in the 719, give Frank a call!  I highly recommend his services.

Sort of an Unpaid Product Endorsement.  I guess more like an Unpaid Services Endorsement! 

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