The previous owners of our house left several steel posts which I assume they used when planting new trees. I have been trying to recycle them since we moved in. Fridays are trash pick up days. A guy in a black pick-up cruises the neighborhood each Friday morning looking for useful things that people discard. Since we live in a "golden ghetto," the pickings are probably pretty good. While I was out watering, he made an early pass-by. Later he made a second run since most people hadn't put their trash out when he made his first run which necessitated the later second run. An idea flashed in my mind. Maybe I can get him to take the steel posts. I flagged him down. Carlos, who speaks little English, and I, whose Spanish is rusty, were finally able to communicate that I wanted him to have the steel posts. He was pleased to have them; I was happy to get rid of them. Things seem to work out when the price is right.

This is the last week of Cheyenne Frontier Days. To cowboy/rodeo types it's holy week. I used to go to Frontier Days when I was in college. I just never went near the rodeo. They used to close off 16th street and it was a walking beer bust from the Plains Hotel to the Mayflower Cafe. Coors use to back a refrigerator trailer up to the rear of the Mayflower and they would empty it every night. A famous cowboy at the times was Casey Tibbs. Casey to park his Cadillac convertible outside the Plains Hotel with the top down. The later it got in the evening the higher the pile of beer empty beer cans rose in Casey's car. They'd clean it out the next day and fill it up the next night. The rules then were if you could see over the bar and had money, you could buy beer. Then the do-gooder's came in. A person couldn't have an open container on the street, Casey Tibbs quit rodeoing and the event lost its charm for many of us.
In over 50 years in Wyoming I think I went to over two rodeos. I don't consider it a sport although the rule of "You don't try to out drink, out dance, or outfight a cowboy" still exists. They are some rugged dudes. The PETA folks are all over them especially the calf roping. I admit I root for the bulls, horses, and barrels.
Frontier Days aren't the same. Now that I'm old I don't think it's all bad.

Yesterday I received an invite to attend the 40th reunion of the NCHS (Natrona County High School) class of 1970. NCHS is where I spent my first six years of teaching. Kathy later taught there and both Keri and David are NC graduates. Among some of the more famous NC graduates are former veep Dick Cheney and his wife Lynn and NBC TV correspondent Pete Williams. The Cheneys attended before my time but I remember Pete running around the halls taking pictures for the annual. Dick Cheney was the main speaker at Keri's graduation. He had just finished as the Secretary of Defense and was the CEO at Haliburton. He spoke about being the Defense Secretary.

Later after Bush/Cheney were nominated in 2000 in Philadelphia, they flew to Casper and their first campaign appearance was in the NCHS gym. Kathy was out of town but I went. George II, Dick and their wives were all there. They could have spoken at the Events Center which probably would have held around 10,000 but politics indicate that small venues are better because it emphasizes the crowd. They, therefore, spoke in a gym that holds around 1,500 people and crammed around 2,000 in. I had a seat in the balcony right behind the TV cameras. It was probably the best seat in the place. Cheney gave almost the same speech he gave at Keri's graduation.

But I digress. I had to tell the NC class of 1970 I would not be able to attend as I now live in Colorado. I would have enjoyed it.

Yesterday was sort of a dry run to see how the twins would react to having the grandparents babysitting while Keri was gone. She was at a wedding, came home for a bit, and then went back for the reception. When school starts in 2 plus weeks, this will be for real.
The first half had its ups and downs but we all survived. The evening session went better and the twins were down by 8:30.
We'll see how things go in August.
Went to work out yesterday morning. The crowd was much younger than on Saturday. I don't know if this indicates that the older folks go to church and then work out. Need more weekends to research this.

Yesterday afternoon the temp was in the 90's and the humidity was in the 60's and people were driving around with the tops down on their flashy convertibles. That's conspicuous consumption or a strong disregard for one's health. I could understand it if they were in the mountains.

Yesterday was my third day working out at my health club. While on the cardio machine I noticed a surprising number of people walking around with their cell phones in their hands checking for texts, other messages or just talking. Some seemed to spend more time with their cell phones than working out.

Yesterday there was an Xcel-our electricity and gas company-truck in front of the house. I went around the side and there was an Xcel person checking the meter. He said it would have to be replaced in the near future. I think what Xcel was worried about was the low electricity/gas usage the past three months. What they don't realize is there were long stretches during that time when no one was living in the house thus lower consumption. A new meter is now in our future.

We were registered Colorado voters for a little over 24 hours when we got our first polling call. Since we don't know much about the political races yet, we declined to do the survey. One minute later we received a call about marketing sales. The caller didn't speak English very well so we declined to do that one too. At least we're getting phone calls. Got to get on that "don't call" list.