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North Table Mountain Climbing
On our way back from Winter Park we stop in Golden to meet Kate & Mark for some climbing at the sunny North Table Mountain crag. This place has often treated us to good early season sport climbing, and it does so again today. After a long, cold winter, lounging outdoors in short sleeves is…
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Mary Jane
Three more inches of snow fall during the night, and we’re on the Zephyr lift at 9 am under blue skies. We split up to take different routes to the Mary Jane side of the ski area. In the trees on a run called Outhouse I have my best powder run of the season, sinking…
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Winter Park
Ann’s brother Ryan and his wife Danielle have made their way to Colorado for some snowboarding, and they are here after a week of snowfall in the mountains. We spend the morning making our way to the Winter Park Ski Area, check into the Sundowner motel, and hop on the free shuttle to the ski…
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Live Music: David Finckel & Wu Han
Our friend Alan persuades us to see this well-known piano and cello duo perform at the Edna Rizley Griffin concert hall in Fort Collins, even going so far as to buy me a ticket when I was noncommittal. I’m glad he did. The Griffin hall is small and intimate, which allows for a much more…
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Book: Hobo / Eddy Joe Cotton
The subtitle is “A young man’s thoughts on trains and tramping in America.” The book delivers just that. The young man is observant and fanciful enough to make it engaging, while keeping it low key, letting the dirt in his fingernails come through. He’s interested in lingo, and shares it in a way that retains…
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Live Music: Colorado Symphony Orchestra
None of us are sure if we’ll make this concert. Dad has all the tickets, Ann has extra work to do over the weekend, and Dad and Sarah are fighting off some kind of virus. When the evening comes, though, all of us make it Boettcher Concert Hall, find each other and our tickets, and…
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Movie: House of Sand (2005)
The first surprise is that Brazil has a vast desert of sand dunes with isolated “lagoons” that provide enough water to support human settlers, just barely. The story follows three generations of women stranded in this area, unable to return to the outside world that goes on making wars and discoveries that become echoes in…
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Movie: Why We Fight (2005)
Watched this at Doug’s place, and I completely agree with his review. My personal reaction was one of great thankfulness that I quit working for a defense contractor. I had ways of excusing it at the time, but working in the bowels of the war machine just sapped my spirit. This movie is a reminder…
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Skiing Eldora
Doug gets us some discounted lift tickets for Eldora Mountain Resort, and we celebrate his 25th birthday in some sweet soft snow. They had 10 inches of new snow yesterday, and more before that. It’s windy, but in the sheltered areas it is really nice. Eldora seems comparable in size and layout to Bogus Basin…
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Owl in the snow
Another snow storm is getting cranked up as I leave work. I’m hunkering down for the bike ride home when I hear a strange bird call. Looking up, I see this Great Horned Owl perched in a tree, posing for a portrait. It’s not the owl I’m hearing, though, it’s some kind of pigeon fluttering…