Thursday, January 25, 2007

I feel loved

Now my life is complete. I got a best answer award for a question someone posed on Yahoo about "How do deer stay warm in the winter". I'm pleased that I got the award, because I really tried to give a legitimate answer. However, now I shall move on to bigger endeavors -- like trying to find a good career-type job in an agricultural-related endeavor in our soon-to-be-paved-over Front Range Colorado meso-metropolis. (Ohhh! -- See that open space over there? Let's build a subdivision with a winding street named after a songbird, and we'll put in a trendy strip-mall with not enough parking spaces so the subdivision residents can spend their money at some chain restaurant. Then we will put little narrow strips of grass on islands in the parking lot and waste water trying to irrigate them as they bake in the 140F heat until all the trees grow up, block the wonderful view of the mountains and wreck the pavement with their roots and piles of slick, rotting leaves. Oh, I almost forgot -- we need to put in a high-dollar golf course so we can help make all of the front range shorter on water supply -- hey, hey, now -- the overpopulation of geese loves golf courses to graze and poop on. Our subdivision will have stormwater settling ponds so we minimize water pollution while thousands of geese nest on the ice and their tons of very nutrient-rich poop melts away into the clean water. But never mind, we will put in aeration for the ponds to prevent algae and other aquatic vegetation from suffocating the carp that keep the water turbid all the time. Oh, I forgot -- this subdivision and golf course and shopping mall will have a Super Wal-Mart and Home Depot and will be served by I-25 within minutes (oh, give me a break) of the Denver Metro area. Did I mention, we will forget who has jurisdiction for plowing the streets clear of 60 inches of snow? Ahhh! Now don't we feel better. We put that otherwise wasted open space into productive use and just watch the sales tax and property tax generate new jobs. And, we have a special treat for you. Those taxes we collect will be used to fund construction of a $100,000 welcome sculpture so you can tell when you went from one full-service community into OUR full-service community. Nah - we don't need any snowplows due to drought and global warming.

Well, enough said. You can tell I'm somewhat upset about the situation. This is all mostly true, and it has basically ruined what used to be a nice area to live in. Are there better ways to do things? Yes. Should we limit new development? Yes, but it may be too late because most everything is probably all planned and platted and approved for the next 10-20 years.

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

6 Weekends of Snow

Welcome from snowy Longmont, CO. While most of the globe basks in global warming, we bask in snow -- 60 inches so far this year by my count -- and it feels like normal -- like when I was growing up in Lakewood, CO. The last few years really faked out our newcomers from places like Texas and California. In 1999 or 2000 we had prairie flowers blooming in January. Now it's normal and it feels like normal -- and now some of the ways I felt (seasonal depression?) when I was growing up start to make sense -- I didn't realize it was seasonal depression at the time. The good news? At 52 I generally feel better than I did at 18. A point to be thankful for.