Tag: This is where I live

Parade

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

The Town of Granby does the only 4th of July parade in the county.  Since I live right in town I walked down to where the parade was.  I expected to see some people.  I was surprised by how many people were there.  I didn’t even think that many people lived in the county.  The streets were fully lined with people.  It was what I expected a small-town parade to be x5.

It started with fighter jets flying over the town.  I didn’t expect that.  Then it was the police, the fire departments, and floats from local businesses.  Everyone in the parade was throwing candy to the kids.  Someone handed out otter pops instead of candy.  The parade kept going.  It was so much longer than I would have expected.  I think every group and business in the county was represented except Search and Rescue – not sure why we weren’t there.  There was a big rodeo in town so the number of horses in the parade was impressive.

One of my favorite parts of the parade was watching a mentally handicap girl enjoy the parade.  Each float or car delighted her.  She had trouble getting the candy in the streets.  One of the other kids standing nearby saw this and every time he got a handful of candy, he would put half of it in the candy bag she was holding.

After the parade there was a little festival in the park.  Small town fun!

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Eleven Moose

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I’ve been seeing moose on at least every 3rd hike I’ve done.  I went from seeing no moose to seeing them all the time.  The National Park is a great place to see moose.  They are often just by the side of the road.  If you are driving through and see a bunch of cars pulled over, you can bet it’s a moose.  There’s a chance it’s elk, but it’s probably moose.  Sometimes it’s difficult to even drive through the park because of the traffic jams created by people just stopping on the side of the road.

My friend Katie and her mom came up to visit.  We bundled up and set out to see if we could find moose in the National Park.  I think I saw 4 of them last time I was there.  We didn’t get far before there were cars pulled off on the side of the road so we stopped and sure enough, moose.  Then a little farther down the road I saw something move and pulled over.  Moose.  Before long, I was the car that signaled to the crowd to stop here and look at the moose.  The next traffic jam was actually a herd of elk.  A short elk-break before we went back to moose.  After that it was two moose, one idyllically standing in a river next to a cabin.  It seemed so posed, like a painting, like the moose was paid to stand in a diorama.  Then there was the moose standing in water where the light was just right to see an almost perfect reflection in the water.  On it went, moose, moose, elk, moose, moose.  By the time we counted 9 different moose, it was getting comical.  At about 5 moose we tried to guess or call what the next moose sighting would be – two moose, mamma and baby moose, close up moose, road moose, etc.  By the time we left the park it was 11 separate moose and hundreds of elk.

 

Gut Bucket

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Things, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I had a friend visiting from out of town.  I live in such a beautiful place that sometimes it’s difficult to fathom.  Everywhere we go, we keep marveling at the beauty and remarking, “this is where I live”.

One night we went out to see a local band playing.  I know Brian, one of the guys that was playing in the band.  We got there and found the band packing up.  They were slated to play on the deck outside and it was threatening to rain.  Most of the band went home, but Brian and some of his friends stayed for on the deck for drinks.  It was summer, but very chilly out so the place had fire pits outside.  We joined them around one of the fire pits.  Everyone kept trying to get Brian to play his guitar.  He could play even if everyone else had gone home.

One of the guys, Ben, said he would join Brian with his gut bucket.  At this point we were cold and talking about going home.  I turned to my friend and said we couldn’t go until we saw how this played out.  We learned much about Ben’s gut bucket.  Such as he made it himself.  He doesn’t use catgut for the string as that is for fancy events such as weddings.  He uses other types of string that he can get a hold of like clothesline.  He was playing it at a different bar last week so it’s still over there.  The whole conversation we are trying to figure out what a gut bucket is – is it what we think it is – is it a metal bucket with a string attached to it?  We are both pretty sure that’s what it is.  Ben decides that he will go to the other bar to get the gut bucket and then Brian will have to play with him.  He takes off.  I ask one of the other guys if he will get lost and forget what he went out to find (there’s been a bit of alcohol consumed).  We all agree there is a 50/50 chance he’ll come back.  We decided to stick it out a little longer and wait to see if he comes back.  In about a half hour Ben is back with his gut bucket – it is what we guessed.  But, it’s in need of repair.  The string is broken and he doesn’t have another.  One of the guys goes out to Brian’s truck and finds an ice skate lace.  They work for about another 20 minutes trying to make the ice skate lace work for the string.  Ben and Brian start playing and we get treated to a small jam session on the deck.  It was totally worth the wait.  It never did rain.  Impromptu gut bucket concert on the deck.  This is where I live.

Secret Balcony

On By rrainefioreIn Beautiful Colorado, Beautiful ThingsLeave a comment

Near the end of ski season there was a big party at the base of the ski resort.  There was a live band a people were dancing.  I met a couple new friends there for a drink.  The day was warm and the atmosphere was celebratory.   After a drink and some snacks, the people I was with were ready to go, but I wasn’t.   I was enjoying the nice afternoon and the sun.  I had run into some other friends as they came in from skiing, but I didn’t see where they went.  So, I texted one to find out if they were still hanging out around the festivities.  His response was “yea.  We are on the secret balcony, hanging out with the cops”.  Huh? I waited a few minutes expecting more information to come in, but none did.  So I asked him if was going to tell me how to get to this secret balcony.  He told me to go to the elevators past ski school and go up to 3r.  I had a heck of a time finding the elevators by ski school.  In fact, I didn’t really ever see anything that said ski school, but I hunted around the building for an elevator.  I found an elevator down a hallway that didn’t quite look like I should be in the hallway.  But, of course, if it’s a secret balcony, I guess it shouldn’t be easy to find and I shouldn’t feel quite like I’m supposed to be there.  The elevator had a 3r so I pushed it and ended up in another hallway.  At the end of the hallway looked like what might be a balcony, but no one was there.  Finally my friend poked his head out a different door.  I followed him through a room that looked like where kids might eat lunch – lots of low tables with small seats. On the other side of the room was the secret balcony.  It sat just above where the live band was.  We could look down on the crowd below.  But we had to sit on small children sized chairs.  It’s nice to know people with access to secret places.

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