Enough of this cold weather …I head to Florida and look what the cold weather has done to one of my Palm trees!!  I knew they were getting stressed…but I had hoped they would hang in there.  Four of them did, one didn’t….The trouble is that these are real palm trees and are meant to live in the tropics and where we live is not quite tropical.  Oh, it gets warm and then very hot in the summer but in the winter those cold winds come sweeping down and my Palm trees do more than shiver…they die!  I’m going to fertilize the hell out of them this year and really boost their resistance…because I am told that we can expect more of the same cold weather in 2012 and 2013….not cool!

Permanent dormancy

Trouble comes in threes so I am told…and that is NOT good news because we have had our SECOND plumbing disaster. Our pipes burst in our Vail home. Three of them! The good news is that it was not on the top floor which would have destroyed the house. It took place on the ground floor, but that was bad enough. The water ran for 5 to 7 days…we are not sure exactly how long it spewed forth but the downstairs is ruined. Four bedrooms gone, sub floor ruined, ceilings, walls you name it , it’s gone!!

NOT good news….we have insurance of course and it is with a good company so I guess it will all be repaired in due time. Right now it is drying out and that will take 14 days according to the experts…..the pipes are fixed and we will insulate the hell out of them to prevent this happening again….what’s that about firmly bolting the stable door after the horse has bolted?

A hole mess

Valentine’s day, and I meet a large number of my fellow man running around the supermarket clutching flowers, cards and boxes of store bought chocolate…at 6 pm !!! Why is it that one of the most well known days of the year is totally forgotten (at least until they are reminded by wives and girlfriends) by about 80% of the male population?

It’s a “guy” thing I guess….but its not like the florists don’t do their best to remind us…I have been getting these irritating e-mails telling me is 13 days left to Valentine’s day, 12 days left, 11 days etc etc…am I the only one subjected to this nit picking water torture?

Don't know quite how to describe this..

Heading home and the Rockies are stunning in the their winter glory. Whenever I fly over these mountains I often think of what it must have been like in the early days of the expansion west. To come across the plains and then be faced by those enormous mountains must have been intimidating. There are still shacks up in the high mountain valleys over Independence pass that the trekkers used as winter shelter. Always by a stream, and tucked down out of the wind, the winter months must have been long and tedious.

Survival was foremost in everyone’s mind I guess. It was a hard, hard life they lived in those days…hard lonely and cold to boot. Nowadays we just sail over at 25,000 feet but at least one person up there thinks of an earlier time when it was not this easy.

A view of a life less lived

On the road again…and all the planes are full. How do the airlines manage that? I guess they cut back on flights and consolidate into larger planes and use smaller planes on lesser routes. Today is a lesser route..that means a smaller seat, checked bags, and a bumpier ride over the Rockies as I am heading West. The good news?..its warm over on the West Coast…

Full & Ready to Go

Back to Boulder and a disaster awaits. A pipe froze in the basement. Not a problem when the pipe is filled with ice, but it cracked a copper joint and when the weather warmed up a bit and the ice in the pipes melted…..OUCH.

The good news? It is a cement floor with a large drain. The walls are brick….and the family pictures are in plastic containers

…the bad news? We are looking at a serious amount of heavy labor getting this lot cleaned up.

Just a glimpse

I store my 1971 Jag up in Vail during the winter.  The house has a heated garage and I attach a trickle charger to the car and I treat the gas before storing so she is a happy camper.  When I visit her I crank her up and just drive around a little to keep the tires rotated and the engine ticking over. This makes her even happier..but why are cars always referred to in the feminine?  They are of course temperamental, and the older they get the more temperamental they become.  They are expensive and can be very expensive if one chooses…and I guess I may have come up with the answer….

She's high maintenance

On the road again and a slippery slimy road it is as well. Heading up to Vail to make sure the house is fit for visitors…a normal 1.5 hour drive will be at least 2 to 2.5 hours today…all for the sake of making sure our guests are going to be comfortable…they are from “out of town” and I hope they can cope with these roads…at least we have a lot of experience driving on ice.

Quite slippery

As I get older I actually have become much more liberal in my views of mankind and things generally.  I suppose you reach a cross roads at some point and become conservative or liberal.  Or maybe a conservative liberal or a liberal conservative…I am sure I am in the mix somewhere. 

I have friends who are not the least liberal in fact they are on the other end of the scale and they took pleasure in showing me a bumper sticker that they suggested I stick somewhere where it can be seen.  Ha Ha…what they don’t understand is that one of the abiding aspects of liberalism is tolerance………..so I tolerate their extreme views with what I hope is humor.  Of course…I get to write the blog…but please note: not once did I use the word “intolerant”!!

Holy wow - never considered THAT

I received a number of comments about my last blog….and NO am not going to do a 180 of my office but I will show “Legend Talker” who faces me across from my desk…..He and I have been through some stirring times together….If only he could talk!!

'Legend Talker'