I Got No Reason to Turn My Head and Look the Other Way; We’re Good and We’re Evil, Which One Will I Be Today?

So, I haven’t posted in awhile because I’ve been kinda down lately. First, my cat disappeared over two weeks ago, which pretty much came about from me being a bonehead and locking him out (see previous post). Then a culmination of other errors followed, including one of the sort that you anguish about days later wondering how in the world you could have been such an idiot. So, I have been pretty much wallowing in my own self-pity trying to sort out the existential question of whether or not I was an inherently good person who made dumb mistakes because it is a part of human nature, or if I am an inherent screw-up who is striving to be a good person, but keeps making mistakes because it is in my personal nature that I can’t escape.

I haven’t slept that well lately. I haven’t hiked in two weeks (although I did spend two lovely weekends with the family instead), and I have spent the past few days in a somewhat mild depression going over and over in my head how I can try to turn things around and make up for my blunders. Luckily, they can be made up, but it will just take a whole lot more work than if I would have just done things right the first time around. What really bugs me is how someone like myself who is typically very rational and level-headed could make such rash decisions and screw things up so badly as a result. Don’t worry, it’s not anything major. I didn’t get arrested, commit adultery, gamble away my life savings, or anything like that. It is simply the kind of thing that you would hear and say, “yep, you were a bonehead.” And that really bothers me because I don’t like to consider myself a bonehead. However, recent evidence has pretty much pointed in that direction.

Then yesterday evening I got a phone call. Apparently a neighbor just saw a flyer that the girls and I hung up a week and a half ago regarding our missing kitty cat. He apologized for just now seeing it and calling, but a cat that matched that description has been visiting him on and off for the past few days. He said he is really friendly and likes to come over whenever he and his wife are outside doing yard work or whatever. He just thought that he was a neighborhood cat since he looked healthy and well-fed. Then he saw our sign and gave us a call to let us know to not give up hope and that next time he saw him he would try to catch him and give us a call. The girls were very excited to get that news.

This morning I was getting dressed and grabbed my cell phone and saw that I had a message waiting. My neighbor had called late last night to tell us that he had our cat and to give him a call anytime to come pick him up. So, before work today I called and went to meet my neighbor’s wife to get our kitty. They literally lived right around the corner, a few houses down. If he was that close why didn’t he just come home? Anyway, she was out in her garage with him in her arms and I knew right away it was our cat. She said he still looked well-fed (he is a BIG kitty) but I could tell he had thinned out a little. He also got in a scrap with some kind of animal because he had a big scratch down the side of his face. But it was him, no doubt about it. I walked him back home and both girls were in the front yard waiting. As soon as they saw me coming down the street with him in my arms they both started yelling cheers of joy. We brought him inside to his food dish and he must have been pretty dehydrated because I think he drank water for at least 5 minutes straight. Then he went around the house sniffing, purring, and rubbing everything with all signs indicating that he was happy to be home. My other cat, though, was not as thrilled as she hissed at him when she first saw him. I think she was enjoying having full run of the house and getting all of the attention as the only cat in the family. Oh well, I think she’ll eventually come around.

So, right now I am still grooving on the feel-good vibes of getting our cat back. I still need to pay penance for my recent bonehead mistakes, but I now have this little reminder to not give up hope. After being gone for over two weeks, our cat has come back to us. Things can still turn around, even if you have long written your chances off. There is always hope, even for a complete screw-up like me.

From the Forest Itself Comes the Handle For the Axe

Ok, sorry, I know I am a little behind on my post for this week but things have been crazy around here lately. Just a little bit of summer madness in effect keeping life interesting. To top it all off, we realized last night that no one has seen one of our cats in two days. Both of our cats are of the indoor variety, but the male likes to hang out on our back patio whenever we are out there. We figure he must have snuck out Monday night when I was out grilling dinner and we unknowingly shut the door on him, locking him out for the night. With everything going on, we didn't notice his absence Tuesday and it wasn't until we grilled out again last night that we noticed he wasn't on the patio with us hanging out. We searched around the house and he was gone. No sign of him in the surrounding area, either. The humane society was closed by the time we tried to call, so I am going to call when they open up today to see if they picked him up.


He looks like this if you happen to see him. He's a black and white short hair domestic who answers to Tom. He is pretty big, about 3 years old and has black spots on his nose. Let me know if you see him around. I know two little girls who are pretty upset that he's gone.

Speaking of two little girls (and in lighter news), we took them on a hike last weekend up in Rocky Mountain NP. We usually hang out in the southern end of the park, but this time we took a jaunt in the northeast section of the park instead. We did a four mile roundtrip hike up to Gem Lake and back. Both girls did extremely well, especially considering that it pretty much consisted of straight up, straight down hiking.

I really liked this hike, even with it being a little bit shorter than I usually go for. First, there were some amazing views like this one above. Way off in the distance you can see Twin Sisters on the left and Long's Peak & Meeker on the right. That's the town of Estes Park below. It was a little more cloudy than we usually see on a Colorado summer morning, but that was actually good since it helped cool things off on what would have otherwise been a scortching day.

There were a ton of cool rock formations around here. The northern part of the park is known for its good rock climing and bouldering spots and on this trail you could easily see why. These rocks are just begging to be scrambled.

Gem Lake was pretty sweet. It is actually kind of a crater lake surrounded on all sides by amazing rock outcroppings. It was very cool to just hang out on the rocks, have a snack, and soak in the beauty. You can tell that this is a well-visited spot, as the pikas around here were very tame and literally begged on their hind legs for food. The girls thought that was cool.

After we ate, my almost 8-yr old and I decided to do some bouldering and scrambled up one of the rock walls. We got pretty high up there (much higher than even what the picture shows) and the 360 degree views from the top of one of the rock peaks were absolutely breathtaking. The rock formations on the top of the ridge were even more amazing than the ones we had seen below. My daughter loved it and showed absolutely no fear of being so high up, jumping from rock to rock. I even had to call her back several times so she wouldn't get too far ahead. I'm pretty sure her mom would never forgive me if I let her fall off a mountain ledge. So, we got as high as we could go and then turned around to go back down. My daughter was very proud of herself and was very excited about climbing that high up and all of the cool rocks and things that she saw up there. Then she got stung by a bee at let out a scream that could be heard througout the whole valley below. I'm pretty sure they could hear it down in Estes Park, even. The Mrs. flipped out since she heard the scream but had no idea what was going on. But the wee one was brave and made it back down ok. A few (lot) of tears were shed, but eventually she calmed down and her spirits came back as she decided to wear her badge of honor with pride.

So, that was quite an adventure. But overall, it was a pretty good day and I was very proud of how well both girls did. Bee stings aside, I heard no complaints. There's more to this world than video games and Cartoon Network. I'm happy that the girls enjoy experiencing it and I hope that they take away a respect for nature that can last a lifetime. Even when it stings a bit.

In and Around the Lake, Mountains Come Out of the Sky and They Stand There

Ok, faithful readers here are some more hiking pics from last weekend. You know, if I keep this trend up, I'm going to have to change the marquee at the top of this page to mention something about hiking since this theme has started to dominate this blog of late. Oh well, it beats me whining about work or my lame music reviews right?

Anyway, we hiked in our usual stomping ground, Rocky Mountain NP. Since our hiking buddies took the previous weekend off and we only went on a little hike with the girls, we didn't want to take on any crazy long summit hikes or anything. Instead we opted for an approximate 6-mile trek that took us by four very beautiful lakes in the park.



Our first stop was Nymph Lake, pictured above. This lake was covered in beautiful yellow water lilies like the ones seen below.

It's a real shame that the early morning sunlight kinda washed out the lilies in this pic, but I wanted to post it anyway. Hey, I never claimed to be a photographer, I'm just a guy who likes to take pictures. Anyway, this was a very beautful spot very early on in our journey. Due to its relative closeness to the trailhead, this was a fairly popular spot. In fact, I hear that there is even a fan club of this lake called the Nymphomaniacs. However, I don't think I'm gonna do a search on it while at work...

The next lake we saw on our way was Dream Lake. Or at least I think I saw it. It could have been one of those weird Waking Life lucid moments. I didn't have any lightswitches nearby to check.

There were a few people fishing on this lake, and I can certainly see why as you could see the trout swimming in the water plain as day from the shore. I tried to get a shot of a fly fisherman in mid-cast framed by the beautiful surroundings, but the guy wouldn't cooperate with me. As soon as he saw some strange guy trying to take his picture he refused to cast out until I was gone. What if I was some guy from Field & Stream magazine? He could have been on the cover. But no, he is reduced to being slammed in my blog. What a shame.

After Dream Lake, we hiked up to Lake Haiyaha. There was some decent elevation gain on this part of the trail. To give you some perspective, our first stop, Nymph Lake (R), is pictured below along with neighboring Bear Lake (L). We parked at Bear Lake.

Lake Haiyaha was really cool. To get to the lake we had to traverse giant boulders half-submerged in the backwaters. There was no shoreline, just a huge crystal-clear body of water surrounded by huge rocks.

Disappointingly, I didn't see any marmots on this outing. However, I did see this little guy who literally landed at my feet and hung out for awhile. I also saw a cool hummingbird drinking from a wildflower, but very unfortunately I couldn't get a good shot off. Those little buggers are pretty fast.

Here is a shot of Lake Haiyaha. Or at least some of it. The size of this lake was pretty amazing considering how high up we were. I think I need to get a wide-angle lens or something. Like pretty much all of these shots, the pictures don't do the real thing justice.

On our way back from Lake Haiyaha, we passed an off-shoot trail that led to Emerald Lake. The distance was only an extra .7 miles (1.4 roundtrip) and we still felt fresh se we decided to make the side trip. Little did we know that it was .7 miles straight up. So much for having fresh legs. But it was totally worth it. Framed by Hallett Peak to the left and Flattop Mountain to the right (yes, the flat one in the pic is NOT Flattop. Don't ask me, I didn't name them), it was a very scenic spot.

So scenic in fact, that one could sit in a tree root throne and soak in all of the surrounding natural beauty. Moments like this are priceless and I for sure don't take for granted my ability to enjoy them. This is what it's all about, man.

We Carried You in our Arms on Independence Day, And Now You’d Throw Us All Aside and Put Us on Our Way

Is there a Fourth of July in England?

The answer to this old riddle is of course there is a fourth of July in England. It’s a trick question. Every country using the modern Gregorian calendar has a fourth of July. Now whether or not they celebrate American Independence Day is another question. I was deeply pondering this when I began to wonder why we call it “The Fourth of July” other than the obvious reason of what day it falls on. The official name for the holiday is “American Independence Day” but you rarely hear that term kicked around unless it is advertising some kind of used car or mattress sale on TV. We don’t call any other holiday by the day it falls on (hey, better buy a turkey for the big “Fourth Thursday in November” feast!) so why do we do it for this one? I mean, we hear every year about the alleged “War on Christmas” and how the name of that holiday has been co-opted and changed to disguise its religious origins, however, no one seems to care that the true nature of this holiday is being co-opted as well. Where are you uber-patriots??? Some one call Fox News! There is a war going on faithful readers and it is being waged against the very birth of our beloved nation! It is happening right under our noses. First they make fireworks illegal, then they start changing the name of the holiday, and the next thing you know they will make pounding down a bunch of good ol’ American brew with your buddies then driving to the fireworks display where you will puke and then pass out before they even start illegal as well! This is a wake-up call my fellow Americans. Stand up for your independence now before they take it away. Wave that flag that you falsely believe Betsy Ross designed, slam a Budweiser, shoot bottle rockets at your neighbors, and for sure ask everyone you hear wishing you a “happy fourth” why they hate America so much. It’s up to you to keep this holiday sacred from those who wish to destroy it. It’s what George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Chester Arthur would do. Me? I’m gonna spend time with the family, grill out some food, watch some fireworks, and read some newspapers, legal documents, and/or commercial contracts all tax-free thanks to some brave, forward-thinking heroes who liked to dress up and dump private property into the harbor. You should, too. Happy American Independence Day everyone!

That is, unless you're Canadian, in which you can ignore all of the stuff above and have a happy belated Canada Day (before they start calling it the "First of July")!