Last night I forgot to watch GLEE. Thanks to HULU I could watch it on my computer tonight.
Why do I like GLEE? After almost 40 years in the education business, it reminds me of some of the infighting, kids and their relationships, certain administrators, and basically how much I enjoyed being a teacher with with a great clientele. GLEE has the same problems, etc., but with better music. I admit I don't have a clue as to whom this generation of students is infatuated with but it's the same old stories. That's why I like GLEE particularly the cheerleader sponsor. A lot of it is a life I was part of.

I am about to enter my annual bout of "Baseball Withdrawal." When I lived in Casper, it began with the end of the Casper Ghosts (originally Casper Rockies) when I had no other choice than to watch football. This year it began last night when the Colorado Rockies all but eliminated themselves from the postseason. I did go to one football game in Laramie last weekend but it wasn't like going to the Rockies-Giants game on Sunday. I do have the Minnesota Twins to root for and the New York Yankees to root against but it's just not the same. I had planned to go to Minneapolis and see the new Target Field this year but didn't make it. In Casper I miss my fellow season tickets holders because all of us sat together for nine years although I did see five Ghosts games this summer. We get most of the Rockies games on TV or I enjoy falling asleep listening to the radio and it gives me a reason to get up early for the newspaper and get the final score.
I get excited when spring training starts and can't wait for opening day. Someone told me I should apply for a job with the Rockies but I don't want to drive downtown for home games. I guess I'll have to watch football and basketball until next April. There are worse things.

Son-in-law Eric and went to the Rockies-Giants baseball game this afternoon. I saw something I had never seen before. Althought the Giants' pitcher took a no-hitter into the 8th inning, that wasn't it although I've never seen a major league n0-hitter. Nope-one of the Giants hit a ball that landed fair just outside the first base bag making it a fair ball. It then rolled into foul territory but it was still a live ball. One of the on-field usher/ball boys who wasn't paying attention thought it was just a foul ball and he ran over and grabbed it. The giant hitter was awarded a double but may have had a shot at a triple. Think of what would have happened if there had been a runner on first (which fortunately there wasn't). The rules cover the situation but it shouldn't have happened in the first place if the guy had been following the game. He spent much of the rest of the afternoon with his head down looking for a hole to crawl in. Fortunately the Rockies broke up the no-hitter in the eighth or I would have seen two new experiences.

Went to Laramie today for the Wyoming-Air Force football game. It seemed strange to be driving north to Laramie via Cheyenne. I used to drive from Casper to Laramie via the Medicine Bow cutoff. On the cutoff if someone asked what did you see, and you said nothing that would have been a good description. Of ninety miles on the cutoff often the only thing seen in early fall would be antelope and deer or an occasional hunter dressed in camouflage because the season hadn't opened and they were just scoping out the game animals. Later in the fall the hunters returned clad in hunter orange and the game were smart enough to stay far from the highway. At the opening of hunting season I was always a little nervous driving the cutoff for fear that some hunter from New York City or other urban area would mistake my van for an antelope. Anyway I always enjoyed this morning drive into Medicine Bow, home of the famed Virginian Hotel (for Owen Wister fans).

This morning as I was driving east on I-70 a car was on fire and three highway patrolmen were trying to put it out. The rest of the trip to Cheyenne produced no more excitement. My brother and I drove from Cheyenne to Laramie along I-80 (the highway had been closed last night) and saw a trailer full of cans had burned in the other lane and they were still trying to clean up the mess and get the trailer from the side of the road. Although Wyoming got beat, I enjoyed the game. Driving back to Cheyenne they were still trying to clean up that same mess. I visited my mother and ate dinner with her at her independent living residence.

On the way back to Denver from Cheyenne-just short of the Colorado border-a car with its front bashed in was pulled off to the side of the road and the highway patrol was trying to clean up the mess and someone was tending to a deer or antelope on the side of road. Apparently the animal and the car went head to head. Neither fared well. North of Fort Collins there were more highway patrol assisting a wrecker that was toting a car that had been in an accident but unfortunately the damaged car rolled off the side of the wrecker and closed an off ramp. Just north of Denver two cars were pulled off to the side of the road with more highway patrol surrounding them. Apparently the trail car ran into the back of the lead car.
I have to admit driving up from Denver is certainly different from the Medicine Bow cutoff.

The twins turned 5 months old yesterday.

Went to the Home Owner's Association meeting last night. Kind of boring. They discussed a lot of financial and procedural stuff. No one showed up to complain. One of the agenda items was the definition of a commercial vehicle. With the economy as it is, we certainly wouldn't want anyone who has a job to drive his truck/etc. home at night.
The HOA is based of the premise of ratting out one's neighbor and neighborhood snooping. The guy two houses down from me sometimes drives a COORS beer van. No way am I going to rat out a guy with connections like that.

Went out to eat last evening at a place called Gunther Toody's, 50's/60's hamburger place. Wednesday is 5 cent hamburger night (buy one-$6.96-$10.00 range) and get the second for 5 cents. They have great fries and milk shakes also. I had a shake the first time we went there-also a Wednesday-but decided to forgo this time.
The servers were all dressed as Star Wars characters and Star Wars music blared in the background-you don't get that at the Golden Arches. Good meal, good prices-we saved $6.50-fun atmosphere. Ironically the clientele consisted mostly of families with small children and senior citizens. We seniors know a good deal and besides most of us can't hear the music that well.

Yesterday Kathy and I were shopping a little farther north on Wadsworth than we normally do. We decided to take a different route home. As we pulled out of the parking lot, there was a field across the street with federal signs stating "Do Not Trespass". We went further up the road and there was still quite a bit of clear land that would make for prime development. Not much farther up the road we found the reason for all the undeveloped land-there is a huge federal prison there. It had the towers, razor wire, and all the other things that distinguish a prison. It was an interesting drive. Further up the road was another large building but it had all the markings of a high school. We couldn't read the letters on the front of the building. I didn't want to stop and pull out the binoculars I keep in the van because I was sure some federal vehicle would pull up and wonder what we were doing.

Good news: last night was the opening episode of GLEE.

I haven't been keeping a chart but I believe in the next couple of days I will have changed at least 1,000 diapers. I know it's a dirty job but somebody has to do it. The pay is good (babysitting for food), however.

It amazes me that my natural gas bill for our house in Casper has averaged one dollar more per month than our house in Littleton. This is more astonishing because no one has lived in the Casper house for the last two months while we shower, wash clothes and dishes, etc. in Littleton. Not only that but gas rates are supposedly less in Wyoming. Go figure.

Today is Saturday. That means the RV's, campers, and boats are out in mass. Since I live near Chatfield Reservoir, they invade my "hood" every weekend. I probably wouldn't mind except the only time these drivers drive their beasts is on weekends and other than that, the biggest thing they maneuver is a Honda Civic. I'm an advocate for restricting their times and roads they can travel.
Here in Denver one of my newest pet peeves is people who won't put their shopping carts in the return areas. It just seems worse here than other places.
I should title my blog "Grumpy's."
Not only that Boise State is going to kill Wyoming in football tonight.

Every school day morning our neighborhood begins what I call "The march of the mothers." This is where the stay-at-home or work later mothers take their children to the school bus stop. This usually occurs around 8:30 am. It's usually for lower elementary grade students but even younger siblings who can walk or those who need stroller assistance make the trek. At around 4:00 pm it starts in the opposite direction where the mothers meet the bus and walk the students home. I don't know how social things are at the bus stop but it does affect a fair share of the non-breadwinner population of the area. As Kathy and I say, most of the mothers in this block are young enough to be our daughters.

There is now a ban in Colorado on open fires. They're only two wildfires too late.

Losing the art of conversation:
Tuesday evening we ate supper at a sit-down restaurant. There were two couples sitting across from each other in the same booth. Whenever one guy spoke, the other would be checking his cell phone for whatever. When the second guy spoke, the other would be checking his phone. Even after their meals came they continued to check their cell phones rather than visit. The wives/girlfriends were almost as bad but sometimes they pretended to listen but would check their phones occasionally. I can understand the guys checking baseball scores but................

Great day! We drove to Casper last night and this morning we had the closing on our Casper house and the money is in the bank. We are almost total "Greenies" (Colorado license plate colors-a put-down by Wyomingites) although my mother lives in Cheyenne and my brother resides there about half the year. We now have no legal connections to Wyoming.

Not so great-On the way back to Denver an overhead sign just north of Cheyenne flashed the message that I-25 was closed six miles down the road due to an accident. We didn't think much of it as we stopped in Cheyenne for about an hour and a half to eat supper and visit my mother. Later driving south we saw a crew cleaning up the wreck and they were loading a totally burned out car shell on a trailer. I have never seen a car involved in an accident that was almost completely incinerated. I hope that no one was killed, burned or seriously injured but I wouldn't bet money on it.

Took the stool sample to the pediatrician's office this morning. In the waiting room there are two separate areas: one for "Well Waiting" and one for "Ill Waiting". What a great idea. I'd never seen this before.

A friend sent a program that gives demographics for zip codes. We moved from 82601 to 80127. Here are a few stats"
Density 82601=40.25 80127=648.38
High School plus 601=85.2% 127=96.9%
BA plus 601=18% 127=50.4%
Unemployment 601=4% 127=1.6%
Below poverty level 601=14.7% 127=2.1%
Median age 601=35.4 years 127=35.5%
Here's the mind blower:
Median household income 601=$31,219 127=$82,536
Yes, we are living in the "Golden Ghetto".

Best news of the day: we are no longer poop scoopers!

A friend sent this"
"What is the hair color on a bald man's driver's license?"

Still scooping.

The doctor requested a "stool sample" from one of the twins as part of an office visit the other day. If you know how little actual solid there is in an infant's diaper, you would understand that it is a tricky job to get enough for the lab. Part of our job description now is "poop scooper." This too wasn't in the contract.

I could see the smoke from the Boulder fire as I was walking over to Keri and Eric's this morning. For the first time the graph on the Weather Channel was showing the Denver Metro area air or ozone level as somewhat hazardous to people with respiratory problems. We need some moisture.
Kathy's cousin Art and his wife Sharon are coming to visit us today and stay overnight. We seem to get more company after moving to Colorado although Art, Sharon, and family did visit us one time in Casper.

Went to the health club to work out this morning. It was the biggest crowd I'd seen since I started going last July. In other words there were a lot of laborers laboring-how bad is that.
We got our first campaign worker yesterday. It was in the 90's and I'm glad that wasn't me out walking the streets for a candidate. I can hardly wait for the telephone calls to begin. Yard signs are at least banned in our neighborhood.
I am calling for my ban on RVs from 6:00 am to 10:00 on any state or federal highway. Watched another one almost cause a pile-up this morning.

The temperature still is in the 90's after a record number of days in the90's. This week we received a notice from the Denver Water Board that with Fall now here we can cut back on our watering. It may have been a bit premature as we haven't had any moisture for a couple of weeks and the lawn and trees, etc. are drying up. I think they send our the same brochure about the same time every year.

Today was the "big game" day for the game between Colorado State University (CSU) and the University of Colorado (CU). I went to the SNIAGRAB, which is a huge ski equipment sale held every Labor Day weekend. I was wearing my CSU T-shirt because I went to grad school at CSU and met my wife there. One of the SNIAGRAB salesman came up to me pointing to an area where people could get technical advice on ski equipment. He led me over to two guys. He said one was a CSU guy and the other was a CU guy so I should probably work with the CSU guy. I told him I went to the University of Wyoming and couldn't stand either team but had gone to grad school at CSU. That brought the conversation to a rather quick halt.
I root for CSU twice a year-against CU and BYU but CU handed CSU their asses this afternoon. Later I went over to watch and eventually burp the twins. I told them they could urp on my CSU T-shirt but neither bothered. They knew a loser. Maybe I should wear my WhiteSox or Detroit Tigers T-shirt tomorrow.

Yesterday I finally got registered to vote in Colorado. I was supposed to become registered when I got my driver's license in July. All I wanted to do was change my party affiliation and receive my ballots in the mail. After a call to the county registration department I found out that I either had to change things in person or over the Internet. I chose the latter. Even this isn't easy. I had to list my driver's license three times and repeat other info. Finally what I submitted took and I am now a registered voter in Colorado.
They wouldn't let me vote in the primary because I didn't get a driver's license soon enough. That's OK but in Wyoming I could have walked up to my polling place the day of the election, registered and voted all at the same time. Not here-afraid too many illegals would sneak in and vote.
Today all ballots must be finalized and sent to the printers. One party doesn't like its nominee for governor and wants him to quit but he won't. Colorado was one of states that said it couldn't get its ballots printed to be sent to military personnel overseas and returned on time. When one of the political parties complained, all of sudden the story changed to yes we can do it. They must figure they are going to get the majority of those votes.
A friend from Wyoming said the elections up there are getting nasty. Down here they are getting vicious. I say a pox on both their houses and everyone should run as an independent with six weeks of campaigning-oh, and term limits.

After Aiden urped on me twice on both Tuesday and Wednesday, I decided that babysitting has some hazardous duties such as burping when the kid has a cold. I now carry an extra T-shirt to my "job" as grandparent babysitter. These things aren't in the manual. "Be prepared" has become my motto (with due respect to the Boy Scouts who established the phrase a few years ago). I still enjoy the work.

Yesterday we were supposed to receive a package from UPS. The shipping e-mail indicated that it had to be signed for. We also received a phone message saying the parcel would be delivered some time between 8:00 am and 7:00 pm which is a tremendous time frame. Someone would have to sign for it. We weren't too happy about trying to be home all day to sign for it but at least one of us was around for most of the time.
THEY DELIVERED THE PACKAGE AT 7:20 PM! At least it arrived on the day it supposed to.
UPS receives no Christmas card this year.