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Okay, enough of this waxing and whining about the bevity of our Sunday Night Love Fest.

I have an idea. We could really do this much more often. Maybe even make it a continuous running event. Welcoming travelers passing through or dropping in from wherever.

First, we erect a sort of a tent city in Clare's driveaway. (Note: Residents of Portland Oregon, Los Angeles, San Francisco, or many other large metropolitan areas will be familiar with this "concept"). And I'm sure Clare and her family won't mind (no, not much).

Then we bring in a couple of porta potties - there are companies that rent these out to customers and handle the replacement when full. We could have them placed out near the beginning of her driveway, so they are not too close to the tents. I'm sure Clare and family won't mind this either, nor will her neighbors,,, right! I mean, having them sitting out in the short end of her driveway, right out in front of the whole world surely wouldn't cause any concern. And we would leave Clare's family a couple of the closest parking spaces at the curb near the driveway entry.

We could (probably) call on our respective parishes to drop food, medical, and toiletry items - perhaps rotating the duty in a daily sequence that allows all of them to participate. I mean who could refuse us? After all, weren't we once the darlings of those hallowed halls, from St. Francis on the southern border, to St. Mike's on the north (or would it include St. Mary's in Delaware?) - and clear across that vast foreign expanse west of the Olentangy - where those "rich kids" lived - you know - the ones who had full baseball uniforms in 8th grade - compared to our (OLP) caps and T-shirts. Those parishes certainly "owe" us some form of gratitude for all the fame and glory we once brough them. Don'cha think?

And we could add some background music. Somebody could bring their Cassette or 8-track player and play Ricky Nelson and Breda Lee all night. Heck, throw in a couple of songs by "The Diamonds" and I'm there. Maybe out of respect for the neighbors, we should cut it off by about 2:00 am.

And did I forget anything? Oh yeah,,,, B.Y.O.B.

So Clare, when do you think we could start the project?

09/16/22 03:11 PM

#11631

Mike McL.,

One of the nice things about living close to the mountains is that when the summer temps rise too high (not a real frequent scenario), one can drive a few miles into the "high country" and drop 30 degrees quickly. Currently it is a pleasant 75 degrees here in Colorado Springs but 40 degrees on top of Pikes Peak.

Now, to give your left brain a little work, think about these questions:

Why is it so much colder up on "The Peak" than here in "The Springs" since the peak is 8000 feet closer to the sun but still way beneath the ozone layer?

Why if one travels halfway from earth toward the sun, far from any ozone, the temperature approaches absolute zero?

(Hint: this has nothing to do with climate change or what contributes to it.)

Jim

09/16/22 06:20 PM

#11632

Mary Ann Nolan (Thomas)

Jim it was nice talking with you and your wife at the reunion.

. My husband and I are going to visit one of my best friends in Park City Utah for 10 days. We are going to rent a car to take day trips . We skied Park City for years but have never been there in the fall.
Do you have any suggestions? Yes I know you are living in Colorado but thought you may have visited Utah.

09/16/22 07:33 PM

#11633

Mary Ann,

We also enjoyed spending time with you and Janet has mentioned you several times since the reunion.

Although it is a neighboring state we have never been to Utah! However, from a westerner's and photographic viewpoint it has some drop dead gorgeous mountain scenery, and lots of places to witness the spectacular change of the Aspen trees. And Park City should supply a good portion of that.

Coming from sea level you may want to take a couple of days seeing any of the city sites there and in Salt Lake City before hitting the higher mountain areas. When they were at the age that we are now, Janet's parents used to come visit us and wanted to go to the Cripple Creek casinos (10,000 + feet altitude) and I always had to rein them in few days before driving them up there 😀.

Hope you both have a great time and be safe,

Jim

P. S. At that latitude the Aspen forests probably grow best between about 8,000 and 10,000 feet. Cold nights and warm days bring out the colors. And if you can see them with a background of snow covered mountains and blue skies - WOW!

09/16/22 11:34 PM

#11634

Joseph D. McCarthy

Mary Ann, if I may interject A nice day trip would be the drive East on I-80 towards Wyoming, only about two hours. The scenery is beautiful. Also, along the way is an exit (Interstate) heading to the North of Salt Lake city.

And don't forget the splendid downhill serpentine drive into Salt Lake City from Park City going West on I-80.

09/17/22 11:15 AM

#11635

Jim:

Trying to reason out the answers without the assistance of The Google.

Guessing that absent an atmosphere the heat and light emanating from the sun doesn't have anything to collect/retain/reflect the photons.

Question number two is tougher. Along those same lines I will guess that the way the atmosphere thins out the higher up you go accounts for heat not being retained or absorbed or radiated.

Hopefully this is an essay test so I can bs my way to an a minus. Ok b plus. Ok just a passing grade please I need the credits to graduate and get a job to take care of a family of orphans i just adopted and you don't want me back in your class again next term anyway, right?

09/17/22 11:47 AM

#11636

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

Mike,

Good answers!

The way I understand the physics of this is that interstellar space, being a vacuum, contains no particles that are capable of absorbing photons that could generate heat.

There are also fewer atmospheric particles on top of a mountain to generate heat from those photons. Also, radiant heat from the earth (a "giant particle") dissapates as it rises. The mountain itself is a much smaller particle compared to the rest of the earth below so the heat it generates is a smaller contribution.

Jim

09/17/22 12:40 PM

#11637

I read these wise words the other day:

Isaiah 5:20- 21 lays it out well,

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!

"We have made the deadly mistake of believing, in spite of the self-refuting nature of the statement, that there is no such thing as absolute truth (i.e. God). If there is no truth, then there is no right or wrong, and if there is no final authority to determine the difference, then we can no longer discern evil when it stares us in the face, we can no longer differentiate between compassion and enabling, we can no longer draw a distinction between fact and wishful thinking. If we lose those abilities then we can no longer think and we are, indeed, on a leaking ship of fools."

09/17/22 02:02 PM

#11638

Mary Ann,

My Park City dreams.

Having lived in, and skied all over Colorado for years, I always wanted to ski in Utah. My dad skied there and always said it was even better than Colorado. But it sounds as if the old town itself is quite charming any tme of year. I almost tried to move there as the first news of the ski development was reaching the public back in the 70's (I think?), but my wife was not a skier and woudn't give up Denver.

We had lived a summer in Telluride in 1972 (as the first lifts were being built on the Mountain), where I started my real estate career. I bought a 2 acre mountain lot with great views of Mount Wilson and ski-in, ski-out location (plus life-time ski passes for all family members) for $19,000. But with 2 1/2 years of school at U. of Denver left and babies on the way and I could not keep up the $210 per month payments. My Biz Law proffesor found a legal flaw in teh deal and got me out of the contract with my money back.

And my Vietnam buddy (who lives here in Bluffton now) and I bought two lots opposite the bottom of the Gondola in Steamboat (for about $3,700 apiece) but had to sell them a year later - at no profit. Again, we just could not keep up the payments.

Could'a, Would'a, Should'a.

09/18/22 01:28 PM

#11639

Joseph D. McCarthy

It being a RAINY Sunday in Northern California, I thought I would interject a little trivia. Way back when we talked about various memories of places in Columbus. Some of you may know that I collect Ohio Sales Tax items, among them is the first method Ohio utilized to collect Sales Tax - the Punch Card. I recently acquired two Punch Cards for the Columbus Area. Hopefully the scans will show.

Question? Does anyone recognize "Oode North Market 71" as a vendor?

09/18/22 03:07 PM

#11640

Joe McC.,

Looks like technology that was the precursor to a prepaid gift card like one can scan when purchasing someting like coffee at Starbucks.

Jim

09/20/22 07:42 PM

#11641

Folks,

My shutter release finger is getting itchy! For many weather related reasons this year's aspen change seems a bit difficult to predict. Usually, at the latitudes of my favorite areas, this third week in September holds the best promise. The key is cold nights and warm days that rid the leaves of their chlorophyll green and bring out those autumn colors. Of course Mother Nature often holds some surprises and even the experts who publish their predictions for the various parts of Colorado, often are mistaken. So far, as I view the higher altitudes on the east side of Pikes Peak, I do not notice any gold patches. Checking the webcams around the ski areas at higher latitudes and altitudes has not shown much change either. What I fear would be a quick freeze or snow that would cause the leaves to drop before peak change occurs.

So, my own instincts tell me that next week may be my best "shot" (pun intended) to try my luck at photographing this year's autumn glory.

The picture below was from 22 September 2017 and you will notice everything from bare aspens to peak color to late summer green in a very confined area of Guanella Pass. Obviously the different clones of these aspen stands respond differently to Mother Nature's hand!

Each year as I get older it becomes more difficult for me to make these treks into the mountains and I would hate to miss the correct timing and a wasted journey.

The nice thing about these forays is that no masks or social distancing are needed - only my canister of bear spray, just in case...!!

Jim

09/21/22 12:41 AM

#11642

Jim,

At least you can take comfort in the fact that you need not carry any "gator spray".

Funny - they don't seem to like those beautiful Aspen trees.

09/21/22 01:55 PM

#11643

Will we mark this date as the day the damn burst?

09/21/22 04:07 PM

#11644

Funny to see your oblique comment, Dave.

We are living in such tumultuous times you could be referring to matters foreign and/or domestic.

In part because of this class of '66 site, I see things in terms of our generation -- that's just my now-instinctive "target audience" journalistic training kicking in -- and it's striking to me that we came into the world on the backside of global chaos and violence and now that we're in the proximity of the rainbow bridge we're living through very dangerous times at home and abroad.

On the other hand - and I'm not astute enough when it comes to history to back this up - when the hell was there ever a stretch of time when human beings weren't rocking the boat? I am sure a historian could point out peaceful eras. But not bloody lately. Batten down the hatches, bitches!

09/21/22 08:28 PM

#11645

John Maxwell

...

09/22/22 02:24 PM

#11646

Dave M.

As a real estate expert, how is this for a "fixer-upper"? If it were for sale how would you describe this lovely cabin in the real estate offerings section of a newspaper?

Jim

09/22/22 04:45 PM

#11647

"Breezy Perch with Spectacular View" - Minimum Maintenance Required.

09/22/22 09:26 PM

#11648

Joseph D. McCarthy

Don't forget the huge Fenced lot.

09/23/22 02:54 PM

#11649

I think I need an emotional support dog. And cat. And hamster.My emotional support gitlfriend has her hands full already, given various wackadoodle elementary school parents. Actually some the stories she comes home to share are seriously heartbreaking. I find myself visualizing the trajectory for some of these innocents and it's not pretty. But they have an absolute champion in her. Come to think of it so do I.

09/23/22 11:49 PM

#11650

Mike,

Both of my daughters have been teachers - one in very challenging inner city all-hispanic school in East Los Angeles, the other in a Montessory "inside" the University of Cincinnati Medical school (as both a real school for handicapped Montessory kids - plus a research project for the Univ. of Cincinnati Med school). And my daughter in law is still a special reading teacher in Portland OR.

Some of their stories about difficult parents are mind boggling! However, those more positive, heartwarming stories outnumber the negative ones.

But one odd story of a fellow teacher takes the cake. My oldest was teaching in East LA in one of two classes of the same age group. Her counterpart, in the other parrallel class was a local Hispanic woman who had taught for 25 years and seemed to hate her job, and openly resented Sara. She was also the "lead" teacher for both classes. She was the one who received instructions from the office and passed them on to Sara. And she would actually try to sabatage Sara's class.

They practiced for weeks for a Christmas show one year and when the day for the event came, she deiberately gave Sara the wrong time for their joint musical performance. When Sara marched her class into the gym for their part of the show, she realized they were an hour late and had missed their time slot. And no one came to tell her. Her kids were all crying and she was humiliated.

09/24/22 12:03 AM

#11651

This just in........

Albert hits 700!

(he hit 699 earlier tonight in the same game)

09/24/22 01:00 AM

#11652

And then there was this guy.

Federer's final match (with his buddy Nadal as his partner)

(sorry, the better video is blocked)

09/24/22 11:28 AM

#11653

Yep Dave thar's the kind of story she'll come home with now and then. She's Montessori too, devoted Montessori in a public magnet school. But the issues are usually with parents,and children with developmental disorders, and lately with a politicized environment.

Prepping for a hurricane today. Looks like it will hit us Wednesday. Makes me happy I live inland and in a single story home with no large trees nearby. The water in the swimming pool will be pretty choppy though! Plus I have gotten a little carried away with decorative solar lighting - my backyard around the pool looks like disney world by night - and I will have to take all of that down.

09/27/22 05:38 AM

#11654