Cats in Colorado

Here is a post for Hardingfele and all the other cat lovers out there: it is about our feline hosts in Colorado. Their names were Iggy, Izzy, and Itty and they lived at the Shack-Toe, although Izzy had moved next door but was still being taken care of by our human hosts. We really didn't see much of her, but we saw plenty of Iggy! He liked to come into our room at night and walk all over us. We put a backpack in front of the door to block him, but he was highly motivated and still pushed it open, so we had to put a suitcase in front of the door. Whenever he came outside, the wren that was nesting in the birdhouse above the Shack-Toe's door would yell at him. He was very affectionate and loved to cuddle with us. Itty wasn't scary-looking at all; she had big angelic eyes and long fur. But when a fox wandered into the yard, she ran after it, all puffed up, and the fox took off in terror. She also fiercely attacked a moth. Did we feel safe with Itty around to protect us!

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Colorado Trip Photos

Believe it or not, I am back a day early from my Colorado adventure. I loved it out there, but Tiffy was having a lot of problems with the altitude, so we decided to descend. Estes Park is at almost 8000 feet, and Tiffy was always out of breath, had a headache, and felt slightly nauseated. We did get to hike in Rocky Mountain National Park and attend the Scandinavian Festival in downtown Estes Park in the short time we were there. The fires were also freaking us out a little; one day we had dinner with a friend of the Shack-Toe's owners, and the next day there was a fire right where her house was! We found out the day after that her house was spared, but the fire had been just a block away. Twenty-one houses burned down in the fire. The wind smelled like smoke, and ash rained down on us all the way out at the Shack-Toe, so that was a bit unnerving.

Here are some photos from our hike in Rocky Mountain National Forest.

Here are some wildflowers we saw. The first one is called Yellow Banner but I don't know what the other two are.

And here are some photos from the Estes Park Scandinavian Festival.

And here are a couple of brief movies from the Festival, of a wood-chopping dance and a dance with several couples, including two very little children.

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Colorado Fires

There is one thing I forgot to say about our trip here: when we stopped for dinner in Lincoln, Nebraska, we saw a roadrunner in a tree squawking at passersby. Then when we came out of the restaurant, we saw a fledgling roadrunner on the sidewalk - so cute! It was all feet. I assume the squawking one was the mom.

I am guessing everyone is wondering if we are seeing any signs of the fires here in Colorado. We can see the smoke from the big fires near Fort Collins in the distance, and then today there was a fire in Estes Park, but far from where we are staying. We did see a huge orange helicopter go down to Estes Lake, suck a bunch of water up, and fly to where the fire was a number of times. So that is more exciting than we were hoping things would get, but so far there is no indication that the fire will come all the way out where we are.

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We Have Arrived

Tiffy and I drove our rented Lincoln with air-conditioned seats (quite a luxury when the temperature is over 100 degrees here) through Nebraska to Colorado, where it was so windy that our directions got sucked out of the car the moment I opened the door. Fortunately Tiffy had printed out a copy herself, so we still had them. Lots of tumbleweeds blew across the highway as we drove toward Denver, then we turned off onto Highway 34 and saw a real live cowboy herding cattle. He was riding a horse and even wearing a cowboy hat. Finally we came to the mountains and drove on a twisty road through Big Thompson Canyon to get to the Shack-Toe, a bright yellow cabin. Our hosts are not here at the moment, so I am entertaining myself by blogging. This is a very rustic place, and they have a composting toilet, but they do have internet access. I guess you can't escape it.

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Grand Island Adventure

Tiffy and I set off on our road trip, which coincidentally is the same route as we took to Utah, late in the morning yesterday. We had an uneventful drive and were all set to stay in Grand Island, Nebraska for the evening... but much to our surprise every room in the town was full! This was because of a skeet-shooting event, or so we were told. Tiffy called Richard Bonomo and asked him to look online to see if any hotel rooms were available in Kearney before we set off for another 45-minute drive. He looked and found us a room at the hotel where I am now blogging. I installed Google Chrome on their public computer and then stupidly signed in, so unless I can figure out how to sign out, I may have to uninstall it so that everyone using this computer doesn't have access to write in my blog, as interesting as that could turn out to be. Maybe I should create a dummy blog that allows access to random strangers and see how many takers I get! So that was our Grand Adventure.

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Chipmunk Story Revisited

Remember the post about Hardingfele rescuing the chipmunk from her cat, getting bitten, and worrying about rabies? Turns out she was concerned about the wrong disease; she should have been worried about the Black Plague, as this story illustrates.

Toque McToque would probably not save a chipmunk, since she is frustrated with one that keeps digging up her flowers. Here, in her own words, is how her latest encounter with it went down:

On Sunday I was in the backyard and saw that f-ing chipmunk I’ve been after on the back stoop. I ran towards it yelling, hoping to scare it enough that it wouldn’t come back to my yard. It looked at me coming, turned around, paused and then thought better of it. Next thing I know it’s coming in my direction…..I screamed like a little girl and took off running. Turns out that it was really headed for the gigantic thistles growing next to the neighbor’s side of the duplex, nowhere near where I was. I thought my mom was going to pee her pants laughing. So much for being tough!!

This could make an interesting movie too. Maybe we’ll have to add another scene to our long-promised chipmunk movie, which does exist except for Scenario I. Someday I promise to post it here.

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Drunk City Falling

Fourth in a series.

Here is an actual police report found by Toque McToque. I don’t know what this 25-year-old Minneapolis was doing on the ground, but it sounds more like he fell and then was embarrassed about it than that he had actually been hit by someone else, perhaps a 28-year-old Toledo. It’s so hard to say with these young cities.

Incident Type	Person Down
Incident Date	06/10/2012 - 12:11 AM
Address	400 block Easy St.
Victim	Male, age 25, Minneapolis, MN
Details	A concerned citizen approached a MPD sergeant, who was working a Downtown Safety Initiative Saturday night, and told her a man had just been battered on Lake St. The sergeant, and two other officers working the DSI grant, responded and found a 25-year old Minneapolis on the ground in a pool of vomit. He had a facial contusion. Witnesses, who had come to his aid, said he told them he had fallen. However, he later told officers he had been struck by someone. He could not give a description, and was taken to a hospital for observation. The sergeant indicated he appeared more drunk than injured.

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