Musical Saturday Morning

Gaelic Girl

Super late post, sorry.
GG busted up a knee about 18 months ago and outside of shots, ignored it.
Of course, it got worse - much worse.

So I had her in surgery before 6 this morning!
The knee is a mess internally now and will need full replacement, probably next year.
sigh ......

And I am now officially exhausted!

Winding Down

It is with the greatest of joy, that I now know my time is statistically short!
Yes, the last Plattner male still has whatever time God has given me.
But, my body's failure is already written on the sands.

I have been undergoing some pretty harsh testing this past summer:
My kidneys have nothing left of them :(


Yup superior German genes - NOT!

I doubt this will go well, nothing else in my life ever has.
Sigh .....

So, coming to terms with this in my mind.
Knowing my end is spelled POTASSIUM poisoning.
Or the more vulgar - massive heart attack.
Maybe a coma first would be nice .....

I was told today it could be as quick as 10 days or as long as years.
There is just no way to actually predict.
They just see from the blood numbers that my kidneys are barely functional.

Personally I will opt for as long as possible.
But, not for me - for my grandkids and kids that still have not figured out life yet!

There is much one could say,
But why bother
No one ever listens in the end in this culture ....

So when my health unwinds, I will be in a coma for up to a week I am told.
No warning
Just a fade away.

Next week I start my planning in preparation.
Arrange and pay for a cremation.
Do a new will.
And sell off as much as possible .....
Get crazy mother to understand she needs to move closer to my sister.
sigh ....

Conference

I am part of a class that was supposed to be cutting edge in dealing with people.  I have less than NO interest, but am trying to be a peace maker by attending.  Long story - sigh!  But, then again, I am just a kindergartner, starting life all over ...

The first week I was utterly clueless.  It was as though there was some unsaid premise they were speaking to.  I was not the only utterly lost person!  It still makes no sense to me.  These are supposed to be really smart people!  So ..... what the heck?

Now, second class and abrupt changes in subject and approach ..... and grasping at long discredited psychology approach.........

So yeah, you may have heard lately of how precognitive psychology not only being valid but the basis of most of your problems.  One of my "family" members spent a fortune on this rather bogus pursuit and in the 1980's this path of finding out why you are so screwed up - was showed to be the very basis for screwing people up!  And though my "brother" scoffed at this discrediting of his psychological crutch, he refused to let go of the idea that all of his problems dated back to poor parenting by his family!  He still blames them for everything!  Apparently he is made out of teflon ....

And now it is back and in the pseudo-Christian realm!   AAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!!!

No, I said nothing in the class.  I am not there to fight with only half a brain and I have enough to deal with, without looking for more opportunities!  So, I will continue to go, to think on, to pray over - but it is hard to envision this line of study to be valid ( especially since it has already been discredited by the very science that spawned it decades ago!).

Sigh, Christian political correctness .....

American Assassin

Took myself to a movie yesterday.
First choice was Kingsman, but Swede wants to see this, so must wait.
The only other film of any interest to me is American Assassin.
It was as expected, so I will not rehash what the Army, DOD and DOS tried to do with me.

I was easy to spot in this film - I was the one laughing heartily!  They did a good job for a film whose audience is aimed at 14 year olds and men whom have suffered brain damage or other mental stunting!

On the good side:
Injuries go forward across sequences - no "magic" healings between shots.
Really bad science which will kill you if you mistake this story line for reality!
No nudity!
Alfa Romeo's!

On the bad side:
Don't get too attached to the females, they do not fair well!
Really bad science a trip to the library could have saved the story from!

Biggest flaw is the inability of the writer/director/actors to model the differences between being murderous, a sociopath and/or psychopath!  Yes, it does matter because different behaviors underlie each!

Yeah, I will probably buy this one just for the memories it brought back to this clouded mind ....

Idolatry

We constantly slip into making gods in our own image and fashion ...

Exodus 32\

Why Are We Tempted?
Where do you turn to in times of trouble?
Defines whom God is to you ....

The escaping slaves had just had the Law given to them by Moses ... and within a slink of the eye ... they are building idols ...

What Do We Worship?
Anything that s more important to you than God.
It absorbs your heart and imagination more than God.
Whom or whatever you think can give you, what you think you want - need, which only God cab give you ...

Taking Responsibility
Idolatry leads to self-indulgence and sin
Aaron shifted blame, minimized sin..

And I am quite sure I am just as guilty as Aaron of this as well .....
sigh

Musical Saturday Morning

Psycho Momma

So, coughing and hacking, I did the drive down to mother's and took her shopping for the day.
It seems that this lung condition is not spreadable, so I filed this in the back of my mind to work on.

Mom is of course, a few bricks short of a full load.
And she was in roaring form Wednesday!

She started off with lecturing me about all of the real and imagined goings on in her trailer park!
As Swede commented, it would be so much easier if we had not found out so much of her imagination did not turn out to be real over the past year!
Gees!
Of course, then we had to run into a guy she has had a restraining order against for the past 10 years and arrested numerous times!  I just naively stood between them and he just judged me based on my height and build, like everyone does - shut his mouth and moved along!
Really, I am a pussy cat.
I like to purrrrrr.

Then at lunch she launched into a "why did you_____?" line of attack, recalling all of this stuff from when I was in high school and demanding explanations.
Thank heavens for amnesia, I would have been forced to betray trusts were I to have answered!
And I will not lie.
I will not be my father!
I will not live as my father did!

After lunch came the predictable tirade about how people are damaging her trailer.
In this case, painting black strips on her roof!
It is mold, but you can't tell her anything ....

I side swiped her tantrum by buying her some tea and rhubarb tes!
It was great and made her happy.
I ran her home, unloaded the car and headed home in a blinding rainstorm.
She really needs to get her act together, but that is in the realm of miracle here.

As for me, it is now late at night and tea is no longer keeping me awake ...

Klomdyke Krud

I tell you this krud I got in the Klondyke just will not let go of me!
At least problems breathing is better than vomiting 15 times an hour!
I have abs of steel now!
And Gaelic Girl now has it, as does oldest daughter!
But son and youngest daughter, whom i see daily, are still healthy.
Go figure .....

Ten Commandments

Did you know that in  a recent poll, most Christians could not name the "Ten" Commandments?
Never mind that God gave humanity over 600 commandments.
"Christians" like to ignore them anyway!
Discipleship programs tend to ignore even the "ten".
The commandments are not demonstrated, even in many pulpits!
And then there is the question of your life and walk .....

Exodus 20:1-21

Who Says?
God
These are God's top ten, not Moses!

Huh?
No God by the real one!
No idols in place of God!
No dishonoring God's name!
Keeping the Sabbath!
  - Rest
  - Remember
  - Worship
  - Honor your parents
  - Do not murder
  - No sexual sin
  - Do not steal
  - Do not lie
  - Do not covet

 What's The Point?
Given by God for His people
To change the world
To love God
For the common God

How?
Ya train yourself to do it
In faith
That if He tells you to,
You do it .....

Freedom or Bondage

We live in a culture seeped in the myth of freedom.
Where most live in bondage.

Yet, we were designed for freedom,
And always choose bondage ...

Galatians 3

Only in Jesus are you free to let go of your bondage
Bondage through the Law
Or freedom through faith
Burden of being who we are supposed to be

Only through Jesus are you free to live an active faith
Faith versus works
Works is a 20th century stigma
You can not earn salvation
But life is expected: witnessing, fruit
Abraham righteous due to his faith - alone!

Only through Jesus are you free to love
And be loved!

Given freedom, why do we always choose slavery to sin?
Given freedom, why can't we walk in freedom?
Given freedom, why is life so stinking hard?!?!?!?!

Yeah, questions that have been argued for thousands of years ...

Failing Yourself

One last post on my trip from a week ago.

The first day of the cruise, you know everyone has to explore!
The ship was about two football fields long and 15 floors high!

While in line, waiting to board, I had observed a young teen girl whom seemed "odd".
And odd always draws my attention.

She was with her older  sister, whom has the problem so many young people seem to have.  I am sorry but with this amnesia, I have no idea what it is and it is common enough and blamed on vaccines, I think.

So, now I am placing younger girl at a solid 12 or 13, sister no more than 15.
And though my heart remains burdened for teens, I have nothing but prayer to offer.

I observed her often everyday I was out and about on the ship.
She seemed to never leave the ship.
Could always be found in high traffic areas.
Definitely was "displaying" herself!
But the last thing I am going to do is have a talk with her!

All week long this was her behavior.
I had to wonder where were her parents!
If she even had any, thinking of the young girl in Colorado last month!
And older sister was missing until Friday!

As I mentioned, her behavior was more problematic as the week continued.
She dressed more and more provocatively.
She dressed more and more like a hooker.
And from what I observed, she was pretty much shunned by everyone.

Oh, make no mistake, there were "professionals" on board.
They were hard to miss as they flaunted themselves about.
shudder!

So Thursday comes.
I am sicker than a dog and trying to eat watermelon.
.In walks her entire family.
The parents were residents of the casino and bars from my observations.
The girl was dressed "normal", but not for her, and with huge sunglasses!

Her parents left without a word, matched the meal well.
The girl lost it shortly after this.
Such heartbreaking sobs!
And her sister got up and walked around and just held her.
I was touch be such a display of love!

Yeah, it seems someone had taken her up on her offer.
And now, she is realizing part of the cost of what she has done ...
Innocence crushed by scum sucking swine and negligent parents.
I prayed for a witness to come into her life.

Musical Saturday Morning

Returning Home

Well, the Norovirus seems to have abated ... leastwise I am hungry for the first time since Monday!  And an end to the endless vomiting is a welcome relief.  Nope, never dong a cruise ever again!

The cruise ship ran mostly at night between destination, I guess the idea being that while you sleep you will not know real boredom!  LOL ...

The night of departure you have to be completely packed and luggage is taken away.
Restless night, so ill.
And cruise ships are not amputee friendly.
Room bathrooms are all but unusable!

A quick breakfast.
Last minute room check over.
Goodbye ship.
My barf bag tightly clutched to my chest!

I was so weak after days of not even being able to drink water!
I caught the airporter shuttle.
Swede whom I have not seen since Monday, headed off.
The invisible Dutchman, remained so.

I stored my bags at the airport, caught the light rail for a $1.00, exited and caught a bus at the first rail station and that got me half a mile from home.
Hard walk when one is so ill.
Drove the three miles to the airport and retrieved my bags.
Then straight to bed!
So drained.

In all the trip was a waste due to the stinking Norovirus.
I am glad I went though.
Skagway was my town, I could easily live there, if they had a hospital!
Next year, Swede wants to do the 1898 trail.
I will definitely fly up and join him!
but no more ships and I will be paranoid with my hand washing!

Victoria

Victoria is one of my favorite cities in the world!  Tea and a German restaurant, what more could one ask for?

But, Kris is crawling around on his lips!  Norovirus has kicked my butt ...  And though I may have desired visiting Buchart Gardens, I can't stray that far from a toilet at the moment ... sigh ...

So, no German food, no food at all!  Though I did manage to keep some watermelon down this morning.  The only thing I did was visit the museum, always a treat ....  For variety,  I visited each of the stalls ...

Great bus service, lots of tourist shops, I know from past times here that there is a wide variety of foods my tummy loved.

Millos, a Greek restaurant behind the Empress hotel by one block, is always worthy.  I tried to eat. but I smelled the garlic and it was all over!

Skagway

sorry this is posting so late - guess whom got Norovirus!  simply unbelievable!  and i have gotten to spend the past 33 hours vomiting up everything I have ever eaten!

Skagway is an interesting town, only about 20 blocks in size and only 750 people live there!  One saloon. one cafe, a museum and a tourist train!  So imagine the fun when three cruiseliners are in port with 5,5000 passengers each!

Now there are several options for the train: short rides, long rides - both being diesel electric locomotives and a steam train.  Of course, I took the stearmer!

Communications are poor in the area, so train problems get to be discovered by the next train.  In our case, the four trains before us all got trapped by ice on the rails - and the lone steam locomotive had no problems at all!  But, we had to sand the rails for the four others so they could get back to Skagway!  There were some mighty unhappy passengers!

It was an awesome trip!  With only one problem when the train lurched, I was impaled on a 120 year old seat frame, which then ripped my brand new jeans a new one!  a 13 inch hole is just a little hard to hide!

The engineer told me that there was a shop with jeans in town!  Well, their largest waist was 30 inches!  By royally pissing off the clerks they finally found me one pair of 38 waist jeans!  But, I was happy and they had a sale they would not have had otherwise.

Lots of tee shirts and tourist jewelry, same stores in all of the ports, same offerings.  Being the end of the cruising season, everything was up to 75% off!

And a word to the wise:
brown diamonds, the hot item, are made in South Carolina and not natural!
yes, the natural ones do exist but a tourist clip joint in Alaska is not going to have hundreds of them!
tanzanite is extremely rare in over 2 carat sizes and color is almost always a light blue.
that gorgeous 15 carat of royal purple people were laying out $20,000 for .... well, not so natural ...

Juneau

The cruise line has several tour options in each  of their ports of call.  Now you can sign up for the same tours on land and save 50% of the cost, since they want their cut of your wallets content!  But, if you are planning on leaving town for an adventure ... well if you book through the cruise line, they guarantee to wait for you if your tour is delayed for some reason!

Big deal you think?  Well, the one guy whom had to hire a speed boat out of Juneau to catch the liner, they transfer at full speed to the ship's gangway ... will never do that again!  Yeah, it was hair raising for him.!   And I heard that four had to pay big bucks for a flight to Skagway for the same reason.  Suddenly, a few hundred seems a small cost!

Juneau surprised me in that it is no larger than my small town, less than 35,000 people without cruise ships in port!  And seems to be split into two parts: a tourist area by the port and a main section where the government is located.

Of course, the big attraction is a cable car which runs almost straight up the side of one of the mountains! I think everyone on the boat got in line for this - but this boy was born to keep his feet solidly on the ground!  Yeah, you should see me squeal when I have to fly!  Well, maybe you shouldn't, it is not pretty ...

I opted for two tours since we had a full day.

A morning hike to the Mendenhall Glacier.  It was beautiful.
The salmon were running and filled the streams.  The counters said that they were getting over 800 fish an hour!  In those tiny waters!  Yes the smell of rotting fish filled the air and I was more than a little nervous at the thought of hungry bears sniffing around!  Certainly, there were plenty of sign!

In the afternoon,  It was time to hunt whales!  I managed photos of dorsal fins of humpback and killer whales, plus two kinds of dolphins and a sea lion!  In all our boat pilot managed to find us 14 whales.  Very impressive!

Back at the ship, after a long day of hiking and bouncing around with no food(!), I hit the buffet table like it was the last food on the planet!

I slept like a rock!

Setting Sail

It was a  major pain the backside getting ready for the trip to Alaska!
I was beginning to wonder what on Earth was going on!
Why so resistant on my part?

Swede drove down from Everett and offered to drive me to the cruise ship terminal, I had planned a cab, so saved me $60 ...  I took him to lunch and listened to him regal me with more tales of food and more food on cruise ships!  eepah!  That boy and food!

By the time he dropped me off, he had decided that with or without even a toothbrush, he was going!  LOL!  We laughed mightily over that one - one of my favorite ways to travel.  Although, one day, armed only with a credit card and no destination - I want to just show up and go somewhere ...

Finding the cruise terminal was designed in such a way as to raise blood pressure, signage almost non-existent!  But, I managed to overcome, be nice to everyone and not revert to German.  Like an airport you have lots of inspection areas and with an artificial leg, I had lots of inspections!  As if it was not bad enough that my leg got caught on the X-ray machine and popped off!  OMG!  One moment you are walking into their machine, the next you are spread eagle on the ground, with you lower leg at a right angle!  The guy behind me lost his breakfast right there on the spot!  And I am trying to shove my leg back into its socket without taking my pants off!  Once security figured out I was okay, they thought it was pretty funny!  Though it is still quite painful .....

Rooms are quite small for the average traveler.  I had taken an inside room as I had been told there were no opening windows - so why pay twice as much?  Turns out that there are rooms with balconies which do open.  Heap big expensive but yeah when (if) I do this again - I will have one of those rooms!  It is quite claustrophobic in a pitching ship with no air!

 I met people from Australia, England, Scotland, Germany, Italy and hundreds from Indonesia!  On a ship with 5,500 passengers - I could not believe there was NOT anyone of African descent other than a few Jamaican entertainers.  Even amongst the service staff - none were to be found!  HUH?  What does this mean?  The ship's crew and passengers were so cosmopolitan that Swede and I reach the point of thinking that maybe the lack of vitamin D production in those of African descent - so avoidance or northern latitudes were the results.  Yeah, our conversations are rarely normal.

Then we found out from youngest daughter, whom heard it from her older sister, Dutchman was on-board!  LOL!  Took a while to run him  down, he was hiding in the rich section with celebrities and those with staterooms!  No doubt one of his tax write off opportunities - he plays those games, everything has to have a financial advantage - whatever.  He seems to have lost sight of why God put him here ... sigh ...

With the exception of only one day, all of the days were beautiful.  The open waters managed well with a six hour storm which bounced us around well.

I did an incredible amount of sleeping!  I still can not believe how much I am sleeping! 
Swede, true to his desires, hit the buffet tables long and hard!
Dutchman and his wife - no idea what they were up to.  Hiding in their rooms on the internet?

And so, I dreamily leave you, basking in a sunbeam, the gentle roll of the ship and hum of its jet propulsion .....

Loving Vincent

I think I am going to see this one .....





115 painters did the 65,000 frames to make this film, certainly Walt Disney on steroids!

Musical Saturday Morning

Delayed Plans

Between my 16th birthday and my 18th, I rather easily ran away from home well over 100 times!  Yeah, my home-life was beyond miserable!  One of my friends also had a miserable existence.  I was one heck of a good mechanic and he had a dream of flying.  I could easily see putting him through flight school to get his pilot's license and then we would be set.

Alaska was looking for gifted mechanics and there is always a shortage of pilots up there.  The 1970's were a booming time - warm bodies were needed.  My girl friend agreed to wait until I could get established and then come up.  It worked in my mind.

Of course life went terribly sideways.

Our ride out of town turned into a disaster when the car slid off the road and I was thrown free of the VW.  Yeah, a few weeks of recovery for that one!  Just enough time to get close enough to finishing high school so that I could smell freedom ...

Hence, a few changes.

I would fly up to Seattle, and then get to Anchorage by either ferry or bus, both expensive!  After 90 days I knew everything had gone wrong.

The Canadians were not allowing transit into British Columbia by anyone without sufficient money to reach Alaska.
It was far more expensive than I expected to just live poorly!
My friend Robbie never did join me.
I had written daily to my girlfriend, she only wrote once.
And I figured out that life, as envisioned by me, was over.
But, not forgotten....

So, today, after very much saving, I am on my way to Alaska.  I had actually paid for this trip back in July, however Gwen's death threw a monkey-wrench in all my plans.  Today was my first open date - andI am off!

Lots of plans to see glaciers, a steam train, photograph old Indian ruins and sleep - enough to recover from the Colorado trip!  I packed some art supplies, just enough to play a little.  Some magazines and an antique Western.  :)

Oh, I almost forgot: eat lots of crab and seafood!

Crazy Times

So July was crazy time around here.
Huge gathering of people in and around the house (25 of them!
Step-mother is diagnosed with cancer.
I am struggling to keep my mind from going insane planning a trip to Alaska and now one to Colorado.
Then she dies.
And I get to finish the planning, knowing she will not be there.
And then my son moves back in.
And is hit with a paternity suite!
Say whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa?????

Turns out the kid is his.
I could tell it just seeing him for the first time on Sunday!
He is a twin of the boy I adopted in northern Russia in 1997!

So it seems Ivan is less than intelligent.
sigh
And he will get to pay for this one for a very long time!
sigh
I have no doubt this will only temporarily slow down his godlessness.
sigh

Grandchild number 4
Second born into less than ideal conditions
Hopefully he will not follow his father's failures.
sigh

Hard As Nails

So, one last Colorado trip story .....

I walked into Westcliffe's lone grocery store.  I was a little early so I was looking for some flowers for my cousin and some water to cool my parched throat!  It was only day two on my new leg, so stumbling around and in great pain.  The only other people in the store was a middle aged lady with badly dyed hair and a blonde 13, perhaps 14, year old girl.

After four decades of working with teenagers, I am pretty good at setting kids ages - assuming they were not exposed to drugs used for TB.  And, far as much as I have thought on this young lady, there is just no way she can come in any older than 14!

Like any teenager, she totally ignored me.  Huge older men just get use to not existing.  At her age, I would have been beaten for not at least saying, "Hi".  Such a different world we live in!  The older lady was really wound up and quite anxious to leave but the girl was dragging her heels as she selected junk food.  Older lady was picking out carrot sticks, diet pop and other "healthy" alternatives to snickers.  And in their interaction - the girl was as hard as nails!  I was more than just a little surprised at this ... it made me interested in knowing her background and what the really problem is.

By now we are in line to pay.  She looks bemused at my selections (flowers, water and an UNO bar) and then up at me.  Yeah, I towered over her by two feet!  But, like all whom actually look at me - they discover I can "see" them.  And the following typical reaction: utter shock!  What did I "see"?  Rage, complete and utter rage!  Such hatred, such complete and utter rage ... at men.

I was taken back and I had no understanding ...

When it came time to pay, the girl opened her over sized purse, for so little a girl and pulled out a $100 bill.  I happened to also see that she had a stack of $100's well over four inches thick!  According to the police, that would be well over $98,000! in cash, in a little girl's purse!

I learned from the police that they are having real problems with human trafficking in the valley.  My first reaction was, "but this is Mennonite ...".  Why should I be surprised?  People are pigs the world over and the greater  your appearance to God, the greater is Satan's activity in neutralizing any possible validity you could have!  sigh ...

It pains me to think that this one could be part of the human trafficking activity.  Sadder more to think that it would be better if she was part of the drug running scene in Colorado.  Westcliffe is such an out of the way place, it is not even on the road to anywhere!  And such corruption is to be found there!

Even though it now looks like I could retire here, thanks to my pending inheritance, including much land - but between high altitude, Tex-Mex cooking and whatever is going on in the valley involving this girl - suddenly my excitement is abated.   If God wants me there, He will make it compelling that I must be there ... I hope not.  I am not excited about being thrust into an environment where I have to make a public stand against evil again.

I am still licking my wounds from the last time.

No Super Heros

Have not posted what i have been thinking on for a while ... so ...

Exodus 18:13-27

The Problem
We strive to do too much, alone, under our own power.
We will burn out.
Sorry, that is just how it goes.
And no one listens until they burn out ...

The Help
Moses had Jethro.
He comes.
He advises.
Moses needed to listen!

Do not let yourself burnout!

Pride
Unhealthy commitments.
Blind to over commitment.
You have to do it ALL!

Power
Share responsibility with others.
Relax.

The Ludlow Massacre

Did you ever hear of the Ludlow Massacre?

I was zooming down I-25 in Colorado and spied a sign advertising a memorial to this massacre.  How could a piece of history like this have gone unnoticed by someone so in love with historical trivia?  Well, because no one talks about it ... for a reason .....

In the days of robber barrons whom believed they owned your soul, you worked 12 hour days, 6 days a week, for pennies an hour, then were forced to live in corporate towns for inflated rents, shop at corporate food stores and if they calculated it righ ... you owed them money at the end of the month!  No lie!

The miners were starving and exhausted working in the Southern Colorado coal mines - and they threatened to strike.  Some were a little more violent.  And the mine owner - John Rockefeller, had them thrown out of the corporate housing with no supplies, food, anything!  Colorado Aprils are not noted for their warmth.

They managed to use some farm land near by to build a shanty town and Rockefeller exploded!

He had the Colorado Governor call up the National Guard, whom built an outpost on a low hill over looking the tent city.  Rockefeller also hired a private detective company to build a rail based armored car to be driven along the rail tracks twice a day and blanket the camp with heavy machine gun fire.  So, the camp was shot to pieces twice daily.

They did have peace on Easter Sunday, 1914 - followed by sports.
Even the Army watched.

But, Monday that was to change.  Instead of shooting randomly, the order was given to aim at the people, not the tents.  Needless to say ... it was a massacre.

Twenty-eight women and children killed outright.  And the nation was angered!
In Colorado of 100 years ago it is one thing to kill striking Irish miners, they were universally hated for being Irish, foreigners, talking funny, drunkards and taking American jobs!  But, women were a scarce commodity ...  You harmed any woman, even an Indian one, and you will be hunted down!

It would be a few years until the miners would be able to form unions the right to strike peacefully.  The rest of nation would follow in their heels.  The workers were able to demand humane treatment and compensation.

So, today is a fine time to remember you enjoy life, because someone else died on your behalf in America's labor struggle.  Unless you like the idea of Corporate slavery ....

Once Upon A Time

In a universe, far, far, far removed from reality and time:



I was just out of high school, hiding in Washington State and happened into a coffee shop one evening.....

I joined the group in singing for about an hour and then four or five others came in and took over the stage.  I was mesmerized by their music and words.  It made me think.  We will not go into what I thought of the lead singer, he is of no importance except to himself, as history has shown.  But, I never forgot the feeling of those words!

But as we know, feelings are lost on me ... but memories aren't.

Musical Saturday Morning

Eclipse

Yes, I did manage to see the eclipse while in Colorado.

I was staying at the hotel in Canon City, with nothing to do.

So, a quick trip to Subway and I was armed with a foot long BMT sandwich and a large bottle of water.  I headed for Cripple Creek.

I drove up Phantom Canyon, an old narrow gauge rail-bed.  Not a great pathway but one of the few between Canon City and Cripple Creek.  It was a great drive up the sometimes four-wheel drive road, in the Nisson Sentra. At the appointed time, I found a nice pull off with scenic views, had my lunch and enjoyed the anti-climatic solar event.

And then all hell broke loose!

It began with a wind, growing in scale to well over 100 miles per hours (my best guess!).  Aspen leaves filled the air.  Pine needles were sucked off of the trees!  And then everything just fell to the ground.  Then came the hail .... covering a 17 by 20 mile area to four inches deep!  And then came the rain.  Huge chucks of the roadway was collapsing in the canyon, the hail swirling like styrofoam balls down the creek.  Animals (mostly deer) stood confused and panting in terror!

Such is the surprise of finding  yourself in an upper air tornado ...

And the sun continued to shine.  The river gurgled away.  The animals slowly limped away, bruised and beaten.  All I could wonder was ... "what the heck?!?!?!?!?!?"

Cripple Creek was a silver-gold mining area which came on-line in the 1890's after the huge silver crash almost destroyed the USA's economy!  In just a few short years this area produced the majority of the gold reserves in bank vaults around the world today ... And then war, union strikes, open warfare and the age of the mines was over.  Although it took 50 years to shut down mining completely, it was over  by the 1920's just the last gasps of a once productive area kept decreasing amounts of ore to the smelters.

Today, someone came up with the idea of piling all of the ore dumps into a MOUNTAIN of debris and then spraying them with cyanide ... yielding 1,100 ounces of gold per day!  So, very ugly - very rewarding - an ecological disaster in the making!

Victor, once a thriving mining town, now dead.
Cripple Creek is now a gambling mecca.

One nice feature of the Cripple Creek town area is its steam train which runs most of the way to Victor.  Beautiful scenery, great history related by the engineer/conductor/coal shovellor!  But, this is Colorado, so by 2:30 it is time for thunderstorm and rains .... it only lasts less than 30 minutes, but you can almost set your watch by it!

Time to move back towards Canon City but with Phantom Canyon washed out, I was forced to drive many hours in a huge circle to get back to the hotel.

Wore me out and I will never forget that storm!