All posts by djones

donor, Tuesday

Busy Tuesday

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I just got done doing a quick crossword puzzle to unwind after a long day and I figured you would enjoy the lead off word of the day: vapid – meaning uninspired. Think there might be a resemblance between the word and I?

First, for those of you who could not guess the answer to yesterday’s question of the day. Bob Dylan composed “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” for the movie film Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid in 1973. As I responded to one commenter, the acoustic version from the movie bears only a passing resemblance to the Guns N’ Roses cover I used.

Today was a busy day. It started with a coffee meeting downtown to pull a surprise on the benefactor who has donated parks, the water park, and the cancer center to this town. In general, he and his wife have not allowed us to name anything after them or even acknowledge their gifts. I had to jump through hoops just to get them to let us put up a 2″ x 5″ plaque on the the fence around the water park acknowledging them. A group of us finally came up with a way to acknowledge them that we hoped they would find acceptable and amusing.

Last week we made up a fake street sign, put it up over the real street sign at the corner of a donated park and across the street from the donated water park. Then we took a photo and arranged to have coffee with the benefactor this morning. I’m sure he thought we going to hit him up for a gift. {*grin*} Instead we talked and visited and then sprang this picture on him.

Since the picture is small and poor quality (I had to scan a printed page), here is what the sign we are pointing to said:
Walsh Parkway

in honor of Frank and Gloria Walsh who have literally given millions to this community.

Frank was both touched and amused at our presentation. He and Gloria agreed we could rename West Elm Street to Walsh Parkway. So in a few weeks, the sign(s) will be real. It’s the small ways of saying thank you to the unassuming nice people like Frank and Gloria that has made this job rewarding.

This afternoon I was the speaker at the Humanities Club to talk about the water issue on the ballot for just about the last time. (The mail ballots are being sent out by Friday and this is a mail only election this year.) Thursday at the Board of Realtors meeting will be the last speaking engagement on the topic.

I followed that with the city council meeting tonight. The city budget was presented and the public hearing scheduled two weeks hence. One of the last things I will do as mayor is guide next year’s budget to adoption. Only two more “regular” council meetings left and I’m out of office.

Well, time to get my notes together for the radio show in the morning. 6am comes early.

moody monday

Moody Monday

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L headed back to the mountains this morning, only to report that it was warmer there than here. She also noted that there was no snow on the ground like here. Keep in mind that her location in the mountains is ~5000 feet higher in altitude and the other side of the continental divide from here. Made me jealous when she reported it was in the 50s there – it never got much above 35 here today.

Molly and I spent the afternoon moping and missing L. Not too surprising sincewe both miss her. So in honor of the melancholy mood of the afternoon and the drear and cold, I present the following mood altering and indulging set.

First up, Foreigner with “I Want To Know What Love Is”:

Followed by Boston with “More Than A Feeling”:

And then to begin the transition out of melancholy and into feel good, The Beatles with “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”:

With the motor starting to crank up now, it is time for some AC/DC with “T.N.T.”

And finally, now that we are back in the realm of the living, Guns N’ Roses covering Bob Dylan’s “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”

The extra credit question of the day – for what movie did Bob Dylan compose “Knockin On Heaven’s Door”? No fair using Google to look it up!

cold, snow, weather

Snow!!!

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Last night, as the temperature dropped, that strange wet and white stuff magically appeared. By morning it was a winter wonderland.

This is the view out the back door from my workbench:

This is the view looking across the little patio:

Last, but not least, this is the view out the front door towards the driveway (which you might note I hadn’t shoveled yet):

It had warmed up to a blazing 25 degrees by noon today. Will the Rockies game in Denver (about 125 miles further west and 900 feet higher elevation) be played today? Do many baseball teams have a snow removal plan? Inquiring minds want to know. Of course, I also wonder how long it will take the weeping willow to drop its leaves now that it has frozen hard.

After shoveling a few walks and driveways, I feel perfectly content to watch a college football game. The only question is which one. So as I make my decision, I leave you with the following:

What did it look like in your yard today?
friday high five

Five Things I Learned In Prison …

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It’s time once more for

This evening I was the guest lecturer at a class on public speaking – in prison. It was part of a college curriculum for selected inmates under a program developed and funded by a now deceased local benefactor who believed strongly in the power of education to change the course of the convicts future life. I started with a 45 minute explanation of the current water situation with a Q&A session as an example of a typical speech. Then I talked about how I had gone from being absolutely scared of public speaking in my teens to the current state of being able to talk to any group any time without qualm. All in all a lively class with bright and inquisitive students. And like any class room experience, the teacher often learns a lot as well. Thus I bring you

Five Things I Learned In Prison Tonight
  • The rabbits are going wild. I must have seen 20 rabbits running across the exercise yard on the way to the education annex. In the snow and rain and freezing temperatures no less.
  • Never forget to tell the invisible guard you are clear of the door he has remotely unlocked for you. He might threaten to leave you there permanently.
  • Students are really avid for these classes. When the cell block gets the call for the education program, the student-inmates literally run to make sure they miss no part of the class.
  • Walking back across the exercise yard after dark during the last exercise period makes one feel very alone – even though a stream of higher security inmates and their guards are scattered around the area.
  • The questions and concerns of the inmates differ little from the community as a whole, especially on the water issue.
mama kat, writer's challenge

The Spitting Image of the Bear

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Some more fun topics for Mama Kat’s Writer’s Challenge this week!

1.) What’s cooking in YOUR crockpot?
(inspired by Joss from My Irish Twins)

2.) Find your one very favorite picture of Summer and write a poem about it.
(inspired by me)

3.) Pay tribute to a favorite blogger! (And while you’re at it link up and enter to win an adorable pettiskirt. I want it.)
(inspired by Kacey and Fran from Mayhem And Moxie)

4.) When I look in the mirror…
(inspired by Liz from Loving Mom 2 Boys)

5.) The top ten things I’d rather be doing than having sex with David Letterman
(inspired by Happy Hour Sue from Happy Meals & Happy Hour) 

With a hey-nony-nony and a hi-dee-ho, it off to the races we go. (Nothing like a misquote of Jeeves to give a lively start!)

#1 – – Nothing at the moment, but sometime in the near future there will be a pot of bean soup simmering away. Nothing like a mixture of beans and spices and  tomatoes, simmering for hours, to make a cold house feel like a warm home. I think I even have a ham bone in the freezer I can throw in for that extra bit of flavor.

#2 — When I first read this, I had a lively debate with myself over why Mama Kat wanted us to dig up a picture of Summer from Le Musings Of Moi and then write a poem about it. Then I realized it was a bit like that canonical grammar book title – Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach To Punctuation. I suspect that Mama really meant to use summer as in the season rather than the proper noun Summer as I first thought. In any case, my mental confusion is probably more amusing that any  poem I might crank out.

#3 — This is one where taste comes to the fore. I am an uber fan of Matt Springer and his blog Built on Facts. Matt is a graduate student in physics at Texas A&M and writes great reality and mathematics based vignettes for the lay and student audience. (My description sounds really boring, but the actual writing is anything but boring.) My favorite part of his blog is the Sunday Function every week. You should really visit to see if it tickles your blog reading funny bone.

#4 — When I look in the mirror I hear my mirror screaming out for me to clean its dirty face. Once I am able to tune the mirror and the streaks out, what I see is a function of the time of day and mood of the moment. If I have my glasses on so that I can actually see anything at all, then I generally see the me I see in my mind’s eye but with gray hair and less of a hairline than I remember inside my head. Unfortunately, comparison to pictures from yesteryear shows that I never did look like Robert Redford in his heyday. Heck, even in my younger days I would have been lucky to pass as Bob “the bear” Hite from Canned Heat. A bit like this;

Bob “the bear” Hite
1943-1981

#5 — As a heterosexual male, I think that *anything* would be better than contemplating sex with Mr. Letterman. That said, here is my quick list:

  • Chew glass while listening to Oprah
  • Stand naked in the snow in subzero weather
  • Watch commercial TV
  • Undergo a root canal
  • …without anesthetic
  • Eat roly-poly bugs
  • Walk on a bed of coals
  • Speak before an audience of thousands armed with projectiles
  • … in my skivies
  • Get ready for a colonoscopy