I don't know if I'm "burning the candles at both ends" or not. I had to drive to Cheyenne Saturday night as my 94 year old mother wound up in the hospital. I drove back to Littleton on Sunday in time to do a babysitting turn with the 10 month old grandtwins. I'm not sure who is watching my back.

After reading about present Secretary of Defense Robert Gate's remarks at West Point that a S of D would be "unwise" to recommend another American land army into Asia or the Mideast and that that S of D "should have his head examined" (quoting General McCarther) before making such a recommendation. I wonder how recent history would be different if Gates, not Donald Rumsfeld, had been the defense secretary when we went into Iraq. Rummy and Veep Cheney wouldn't have been able to double-team GW and maybe we wouldn't be in the losing situation we're in. Who knows?
Although Cheney was a year older, he was a year behind me at UW. I never knew him and the Casper guys never mentioned him.

Drove down to the Air Force Academy last night to watch the U of Wyoming women play the Air Force Women. The first time I spent much time at the Academy was a trip I took with some high school ROTC students. We slept at Fort Carson. We had a great tour although some of the present buildings weren't there at that time. Last night they did search my van but that was OK. It's a military facility no matter what the name is.
Several years ago I spent five days at the Naval Academy as part of an educators' tour. They especially like coaches and counselors to attend. They bussed us into DC a couple of nights to see the sights.
Once Kathy and I were driving from Boston to New York and detoured to West Point. It was summer and the majority of cadets there were from the entering class. What a great location.
Several students from my schools through the years attended a military academy. I was glad I had the background info and had actually been on site of the three academy (never been to the Coast Guard). I even wrote a recommendation for a girl who did go to the Naval Academy.
The game was close for a while and then Wyoming pulled ahead for the win. One of the traditions at Air Force is both teams and all spectators stand at the end of the game while the AFA band plays the Air Force Anthem. It's quite a tradition.
It's nice living about an hour away.

Happy ten month birthday to grandtwins Aiden and Reid (Sharkey and Sidewinder-top guns). You are getting more agile and mobile but not hostile each day. Love Gramps

The earthquake in Christchurch has sort of personal meaning. We visited New Zealand one summer (winter there). One of stops was Christchurch. We had driven from Queenstown (the Jackson Hole of the south island) that afternoon. We wandered around the square in the evening and viewed the cathedral. Christchurch was considered a very English town and it could be seen in the architecture. Most of New Zealand still burned coal and there was a brown cloud as we drove in. We flew out later that evening for Melbourne, Australia. Christchurch did make an impression on us and we remember all the wonderful people we met in NZ.
Our daughter also did her student teaching on the south island. She e-mailed her supervisor who now teaches in Queenstown and she said they could feel the quake at their school. I don't know how far away that is.
It is a tragedy but it's even more personal when you've been there.

We had a problem with our furnace this morning. We made an "emergency call" (because it's Sunday and a three-day weekend besides) to have someone come and fix it. We're back up and running. What this made me think of is people in similar situations who can't just write a check or pull out the plastic. What do they do? What bothers me most is with all the proposed budget cuts at the national, state and local levels; these people are going to get hit the hardest. How about we get out of the Mideast and spend our money at home?
On a happier note, I streamed "When Harry met Sally" on my computer. It's one of the better modern (1989) love stories and I had almost forgotten about it.

The Borders book store where I often shop is one that is being closed. They sent an e-mail informing us of that fact this morning. I decided to stop by and check it out as I had some other shopping in the area. I went in, picked out a couple of books, and looked at the check-out line which was so long I probably would have taken somewhere between half and hour to an hour just to pay. Since I get an AARP 10% discount already and they were only discounting the books I wanted 20% and they only cost around $10, I put the books back. My time is worth more than a $1.80 even if I'm retired.

Today was a teacher inservice day and the kids in our neighborhood didn't have school. As I was driving to K & E's this morning, there were about ten kids-probably ages 7-12 riding their bikes as the weather was warm. This interesting thing is they were all wearing bike helmets. Tell me we don't live in the Golden Ghetto.

When you move and you get a new phone number, do you ever wonder who had the number before you get it?
We keep getting calls for two different people who apparently had this number before us. The last name would indicate a certain ethnicity. The phoners appear to be for the most part financial services, social agencies, etc., but seldom anyone who wants to speak to good old Ray or the other guy.
Makes one wonder.

Didn't have time to "read" the SI Swimsuit Issue yet. I will find time, however.
Heading to Cheyenne and Fort Collins today.

Surest sign of global warming:
Today's temp is in the 60's; people are driving around with tops down; people are wearing shorts; there are so many people out bicycling they are a danger; and the ice is sort of melting on our street. Just last week the temp was below zero most nights.
Today it arrives in the mail-the periodical meant for men to dream of spring and warmer weather (unlike today). Generally mid-February is like this year's Minnesota and Dallas Superbowl weather. But it came this week. Of course I'm writing about the annual Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Today's temp just doesn't provide the aura that the annual issue usually brings and which allows males to survive ice fishing, etc. It just isn't right.
However, I am not like these school librarians or others of that philosophical ilk-no I won't threaten to cancel my subscription because of one issue in February. I know that next year the temp could be below zero with a foot (feet) of snow on the ground. I won't let one year influence me into a bad decision. Actually I would kinda enjoy a ski issue in July.

Today I spent about four hours working on income tax. I hate it but with buying and selling houses in two different states and hoping all the paper work arrived at our new address, I dug in and I think I had all the tax forms. I now have to find an envelope large enough to mail it to Wyoming. Our accountant in Casper has done such a good job over the years; I didn't want to leave him. I'll see how it goes and if it's a problem, I go local next year. I've never paid state income tax before. Wyoming doesn't have one. I guess one pays to live in Colorado.

Fortunately they were no signs of any falls from "Bruiser's" adventures. His forehead was clear of bad experiences from yesterday. He's now back to "Sharkey" and he did sneak up and go for my finger and then my wrist (the one with the band aid). I like "Sharkey" better. Now if he would learn to appreciate his tippy bottle rather than throwing it on the floor.

What's in a nickname?
One of the grandtwins is named Aiden. In the last few weeks he had tried all sorts of techniques to improve his mobility. He began with a scoot and spring seizing on anything animal vegetable or mineral and gnawing away. He was dubbed the "land shark". Soon he went to a semicrawl and sneaked up on his targets earning the nickname "sharkey". Now he is a full blown crawler which creates its own problems-he keeps running into things or tries to climb and falls leaving bruises. Today he crawled on the bottom shelf of an end table. I was going to catch him before he climbed out but at the last moment he made a sharp right turn, crawled off the shelf and did a faceplant (skiers understand the term), and inflicted another temporary (we hope) mark on his forehead. He is now known as "Bruiser". Who knows what's next.

This morning Reid fell asleep in Kathy's arms while he was taking the morning bottle. I told her to take him upstairs as he didn't take an early nap. She didn't move and he didn't wake. She held him for another 20 minutes before taking upstairs. IT WAS A GRANNY MOMENT.
It reminded me of a license plate holder I saw not too long ago.
"Granny's my name
Spoilin's my game."
Granny moments-can't beat them.

The grandtwins now reside in a gated community most of the time. Gates to the kitchen, living room, and exit to garage are now blocked confining them for the most part to the large family room.
Super Bowl Sunday I wore my Vikings' shirt. Aiden urped on it after the morning feed. His mother tried to assure me that he doesn't dislike the Vikings. I'm not so sure. I'll keep an eye on him.
Yesterday morning I went out to shovel K & E's walk and driveway however two of the neighbors were out with their snowblowers and cleaned K & E's front walk and driveway. Nice greenies (Colorado license plates) and I did appreciate it. When I went back to our house, one of the neighbor ladies was out shoveling. I went over, cleared the sidewalk, got a good start on the driveway and ran out of gas. My gas can was empty so I couldn't refill. I drove to get more gas for my snowblower. The card reader wasn't working so I had to go inside to pay for one gallon of gas and the card reader inside was about to expire.
I watched part of the pregame show while reading the Sunday paper. Some of the most boring celebrities show up for these things. Most of them admitted they didn't know much about the game and really didn't care who won. I was disappointed in the commercials this year.
Oh yah-the Pack won and the post game was followed by a new episode of Glee. Overall a pretty good snowy day.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday.
Random thoughts:
Since 1:00 yesterday we have had about 8 inches of snow at our house-the first four inches were slush which has since frozen even harder.
I was going to work out wearing my Vikings shirt but with stitches in my wrist and the TV folk advising people not to drive this morning, I guess I will stay home and run the snow blower if it quits snowing. This means I won't be able to finalize my T-shirt sampling for the Pack or the Steeler backers.
With the snowing weather (with more on the way) I laugh at the people who talk about holding the Super Bowl in Denver. It's going to be outside in New York in 2014. That could be a real disaster considering the East Coast weather this winter.
I watched the NFL channel yesterday and they were previewing some of today's Super Bowl ads. They also had the top ten all-time ads. I couldn't disagree with any of them.
Although I don't really have a rooting interest in the game itself, I like Green Bay better but I think the Steelers will win. They just seem to find a way.
Happy viewing.

Last night I went to a high school basketball game. The student section was standing the entire game so I sat on my stadium seat at the end of the bleachers near a railing in order to see more of the floor. In the third quarter I must have leaned back but the stadium seat slid forward and I crashed into the row in front of me. As I got up I noticed blood flowing at a pretty good pace. I had a gash at wrist level. The high school trainer came over and put on dressing and stopped the bleeding, cleaned up the cut, and recommended some stitches as a near-by instacare facility. The game was close and I was tempted to go after the game. Luckily I left when I did as I got there around 8:45 and they close at 9:00 and I was lucky as there was only one patient ahead of me and by 9:15 I had three stitches, sore fingers, and a tetanus booster that I hadn't had at supper time.
I had to get the final score out of the newspaper this morning-a four point game. In all my years of playing sports, skiing, coaching, and refereeing, this was about the third or fourth time I had anything serious happened to me and I was just a spectator this time. I guess athletics can be dangerous but so can getting out of bed so I slept in this morning not wanting to take any more chances.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!, son-in-law Eric. I was going to shovel your sidewalk and driveway this morning but somebody beat me to it.

OK-here is my Super Bowl prediction.
Due to the number of days this week with minus temperatures, I haven't been the health club since Monday to judge the fan support. I won't make it until Sunday and I plan to wear my Vikings jersey that morning.
I really have no rooting interest in the game but I enjoy the ads-particularly the Budweiser and Pepsi ads.
I like the Packers more than I like the Steelers as a fan. The Steeler defensive end with the ferocious beard is from Greybull, Wyoming, which is about seventy miles from where I went to high school and we played them in all sports. After he announced he was going to Brigham Young University, we were giving him a bad time at the State Track Meet.
I pick the Steelers to win, however, because they always find a way to win whether it's skill or luck. Don't bet the house or farm on this, however.

They closed the area schools for the second day in a row. It was minus 9 when I went out to shovel the walk and get the paper yesterday. Today it was minus 18 when I went out to get the paper (the sidewalk can wait).
The funny thing is I grew up in Montana in a town of about 10,000 a few miles from the Canadian border and I don't ever remember their ever closing the schools. I concede that was a few years ago and my memory isn't the same but walking to school in the bitter cold was a way of life. There weren't car pools as most people were lucky to have one car let alone two. We just dressed for it. The girls wore dresses but could wear snow pants underneath. To top it off the nuns made us line up outside the school and march in by grade before school, recesses, and lunch. There wasn't any cafeteria and most of us walked home for lunch. A student could bring his/her lunch but still got tossed out to line up and march in with his/her class.

How would you like to be a Packer or Steeler fan and trying to get to frigid Dallas for the Super Bowl. Chicago and most of Ohio are shut down and Dallas is no picnic when the fan gets there.