Communication Upgrade

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I recently upgraded to a smartphone.  I had been holding out because I couldn’t justify the need or the expense. When I am working from home, in engineering mode, I’m sitting in front of the computer all day.  I’ve got a phone right next to me on the desk.  What more do I need?

And when I’m out hiking, the last thing I want is to be connected.

Forsythe Creek

Forsythe Creek

 

But all of that changed with the travel associated with the pinball and jukebox repair.  I need to be able to check e-mail, traffic, add reminders to a to-do list, check appointments, and find myself when I get lost out in the plains of eastern Colorado.

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Walking Across America

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I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this podcast.  It was recorded by a guy, Andrew Forsthoefel, who walked across the country.

 

About the south, he says:

“This would happen a lot, people warning me about those others.  ‘They’re not friendly like us.’ ‘They’ll shoot you for the shirt off your back.’ ‘Don’t trust them.’ I never knew how to deal with the prejudice.  Especially when it came from someone who took me into their home and fed me. More often than I’d like to admit, I wouldn’t say anything.

“What I wish is that these people could have experienced what I did, and seen that the people they warned me about, were the very ones who took me in the next night, and fed me, and told me their stories, and then warned me about the people further on down the road.”

Listen here.  When finished, click on the photos above the comment section.  Some have additional audio clips with them.

 

Spring

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Spring usually conjures an image of green and colorful profusion of blossoms.  That happens here in the mountains in what most people refer to as summer.  Spring in the mountains, at least in terms of the calendar, is a no-mans land between winter and summer: warm temperatures one day, 3 feet of snow the next.

Signs of spring as of now:

  • The brown lawn is no longer buried under the snow and has a tinge of green.
  • The birds are singing.
  • The ice on the nearby reservoir is no longer white, but a color closer to gray turquoise.
  • The days are longer.
  • Last night, the first thunder and hail storm of the year.

Oh, and the neighborhood raccoon has awakened from his slumbers.

Raccoon tracks, up the porch steps and straight for the garbage can to the left.

 

Nothing in the garbage can, then to the door to see if anyone is home. Then back down the steps.

 

The snowpack is still below average.  The latest article I read said “68% of normal”.  I always take issue with calling it “normal”.  “Average” is the correct word, as the weather is never normal.  Statistically, Colorado weather spends most of it’s time in the extremes.

I tend to think the drought is over.  Although we’re not going to make up for winter’s deficit of precipitation, it seems like spring is a little wetter than it was last year.  This gives me hope that maybe there will be wildflowers this year.

Looking towards the mountains last week, from the flatlands, somewhere between Longmont and Berthoud, Colorado. Smoke from controlled burning is visible.

The media is exclaiming in dramatic fashion about the upcoming fire season being severe.  It’s really too early to tell.  But in any case, after 100+ years of fire suppression coupled with more people living in the forested areas, the fire seasons are always going to be severe.   And it’s going to continue to get worse regardless of the weather.  Fire is a natural function of the ecosystem.

I’m still running the two businesses, electronic engineering and pinball/jukebox repair.  Neither is particularly prosperous right now, in spite of working days and evenings.  It hasn’t left me much time for the things I enjoy like hiking and photography.  In the upcoming week, when I calculate my taxes, I’ll crunch some numbers to see how sustainable it is.  My gut is telling me that it’s not.  I don’t know where I’d find the time to add a third source of income.