Wednesday, October 31, 2007

31 Oct 2007 - The Color of Willows


We had a trace of snow this morning. I walked out to get local paper and mail. I took my camera along and took several photos of the winter willow colors. Lots of tourist come to the mountains to see the fall colors but most miss the real beauty of the willows changing colors during the winter.

Monday, October 29, 2007

29 Oct 2007 - Blackwater Book



I just finished reading Blackwater - The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army by Jereym Scahill. The book details the rise of Blackwater USA, a private military company and security firm started by Erik Prince. Scahill argues that Blackwater's rise is a consequence of demilitarization of the U.S. military following the Cold War and its over extension in Iraq and Afghanistan. He argues further that Blackwater presently serves in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Praetorian Guard, protecting top authority figures and immune from the usual constraints and regulations on traditional armies. Although this book was released in 2006, Blackwater has been in the news for many months since Blackwater body guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in early Sept. In March 2004, four Blackwater people were killed and two of the bodies hung in Fallujah and then the US retaliated with force. Even though Blackwater lost 4 people in Fallujah in 2004, they have been awarded (non-bid) contracts for 100's of million dollars and now have the largest mercenary force in the world.

If you are interested in what has happened in Iraq and why, this is a must read book........

Check out today's news on Blackwater.


Friday, October 26, 2007

26 Oct 2007 - Moon at Sunrise


This morning the full moon setting over the Gore Range while the Sun was rising made for a wonderful start of the day.







This photo I submitted to the Summit Daily News and they published it in the "Summit UP" column in their Oct 27th issue.

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Sunday, October 21, 2007

21 Oct 2007 - Winter Storm


Yesterday, Helen and I got up and decided to ride our bikes to Frisco to run some errands. It was beautiful day and we knew that could be our last day to ride our bikes since a winter storm was being predicted for Saturday evening. Late afternoon, we went to see "Into the Wild" (directed by Sean Penn). Great movie. When we got back home around 7PM, Helen made a comment about how warm it was and surprised that it hadn't started snowing. We started to close our blinds and noticed lighting and then the winds started and snow started falling. This morning we have about 5-6" of snow and it is still snowing. I took this photo this morning when we were visited by mom and her two little ones looking for food in the snow.

Looks like winter has started in the high country.

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Tuesday, October 16, 2007

15 Oct 2007 - Fall and then Winter


When we arrived home on Sept 29th, the fall colors were nearing their peak. During the next weeks, they peaked and leaves fell due to the colder weather and then on Oct 14th, we received about 5-6" of snow and all the fall colors have disappeared. This photo to the left was taken on Sept 30 as we hiked up Hamilton Creek. The photo below was take yesterday morning of the Gore Range across the valley from our home.

I have also included a slideshow of other photos I took of the fall colors.



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Monday, October 1, 2007

01 Oct 2007 - Back in Colorado



Last Saturday, we spent the early morning re balancing our luggage so not to exceed the weight limit of 70lbs/bag. As we could not weigh our luggage before getting to the airport, we wanted extra time at the airport so we called the car service to pick us up at 11:30AM. He finally arrived at noon (our original time) and we headed to Heathrow. We already had our boarding passes and only had to wait in a short queue for baggage drop. Two of our bags were over the limit by a few lbs, we moved stuff around and finally were able to get them checked in. We had put a piece of paper in each bag with our name and contact information, I though that I might have to pull it out to get under the limit. It was that close.

We then headed for security at which time a person had us check our roll out bag to make sure it was the within the size limit. Helen's roll on, which she has used years, does not fit the international size by 1/2 inch. Now we had to rearrange carry on stuff, go back to baggage drop to check in Helen's roll on. British Airways charges 120 gbp for additional bags over the limit of two each. We were fortunate that we were able to use the original person that checked our bags and she put the extra through free of charge.

We were able to then get through security we Rick carrying three laptop computers and Helen carrying the rest of the stuff that could not check plus her long coat and a large pillow. We then had a beer and watched the Rugby World Cup play before boarding our plane for a 3:45PM departure (9:45AM MST).

We both took sleeping pills and were able to get about 6 hours sleep and arrived in Denver at at 7PM. While waiting for our bags to arrive, Rick ate an extra apple since we could not bring them into the USA. Helen started to eat the other one and a securities person stopped her and marked our declaration card with a big A. We had to have all of our bags scanned before leaving the area. We were able to get through and catch our 8PM shuttle to the mountains and arrived home at 9:45PM. Long day but we were home safely.

Yesterday, we unpacked a few things, enjoyed the sunrise with a little bit of snow on the ground. The rest of the day was perfect. Warm, clear blue skies and we were to take our normal 5 mile round trip hike up the road behinds enjoying the views of the mountains and the fall colours that have not yet reached their peak.

Nice to be home.

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