Goldilocks in reverse

Who knew that bears can find the refrigerator?

One of the things I hadn't heard a lot about prior to moving to Colorado were the stories of bears breaking and entering and raiding the fridge. It happened again this morning when an Aspen woman heard a noise and went to investigate. She walked into the kitchen and got slapped in the face by a black bear.

The woman was able to get away, her young son called 911 and the woman was taken to the hospital to be treated for cuts from the bear's claws.

Authorities say that in this case the bear found the sliding glass door unlocked and simply slid it open to gain access to the house.

Bears in Colorado at this time of the year spend 20 hours per day eating in order to consume the 20,000 to 30,000 daily calories needed to prepare for hibernation.

Pitkin County, which includes Aspen, has relocated 24 bears this year and has had to put down 12 bears, mostly for breaking and entering.

ROCKTOBER!

As I noted on opening day, I'm not the world's biggest baseball fan. I've fully jumped, however, straight on to the Rockies bandwagon. These guys are a lot of fun. They remind me a lot of the 1987 Minnesota Twins.

Both teams approached the game fully bought in to their manager's "one game at a time" mantra. The Rockies manager even claimed tonight that the Rockies have never had anything more than a one game winning or losing streak. Neither team was expected to do much. Both teams were (are) very young. And with both teams it was and is easy to forget that the players were (are) highly paid professionals. The players simply have too much fun and have too good of an attitude to be Major League Baseball players.

welcome autumn

Baseball played closer to heaven

The lead story in Sunday's Denver Post is a column by Mark Kiszla. It is the story about life, death, family, sibling rivalry and baseball. It is the story of the aftermath of the death of Mike Coolbaugh, a coach for the minor league Tulsa Drillers who became the first player or coach killed by a baseball in a pro game since 1920. It is a column worthy of the lead and worth the time it takes to read it and you can find it here. http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_7107832

A note for my friends in Austin

Colorado beat Oklahoma.

The end of summer

The high today in Denver is supposed to be in the low 80s.

The high tomorrow in Denver is supposed to be 50 with significant snow above 9,000 feet.

Autumn arrives overnight.

Wonder what the weather is like in Austin?

High Country

It is almost midnight Mountain time and I'm hanging out among the peaks in Colorado's Summit County. The windows are wide open as we expect a low temperature tonight in the 40s. We'll cuddle under blankets while we sleep. It is calm and a welcome break from travel schedules and suburban life.

We have no plans for this long weekend in the mountains. We simply want to be here. The five year old wants to hike. The three year old has a bum toe and wants to ride in a stroller. We'll have to find a happy medium.

On the drive up today, we stopped by the lake in Georgetown, Colorado and ate a sugar cookie. It was so simple. We didn't do anything elaborate. There were no picnic blankets or even any preparation. It was a family moment. We pulled off the highway, parked by the lake, got out of the mini-van and enjoyed being surrounded by mountains as we looked at the water and ate our sugar cookies. It was beautiful.

That's right, you're not from Texas

See I was born and raised in Texas
And it means so much to me
Though my girl comes from down in Georgia
We were up in Tennessee
And as we were driving down the highway
She asked me baby what's so great
How come you're always going on
About your Lone Star State

I said that's right you're not from Texas
That's right you're not from Texas
That's right you're not from Texas
But Texas wants you anyway

That's right you're not from Texas
That's right you're not from Texas
That's right you're not from Texas
But Texas wants you anyway

My girl (from down in Florida) and I saw Lyle Lovett perform at Red Rocks on Friday night. His opening act was k.d. lang. Not a bad pair to go see. Concerts are Red Rocks are great! I encourage everyone who loves live music to make the trip to Morrison, CO to take in a show. The temperature at show time was about 85, there was no humidity, there were no bugs and the entire amphitheater had the feel of a community festival.

One of the things that amazed me was that almost everyone in the audience seemed to run into someone they knew at the concert. That was really fun to watch.

In addition to getting to see and hear some really great music under a Colorado sky, I also confirmed something I've always thought. While I really miss being a Texan and all that conjures up, I do not miss living in Texas.

It was gorgeous in Morrison and great to be in Colorado.

Identifying with where you are from

I'm in Austin, Texas, a place I called home for eight years. Last May we moved from Austin to Lone Tree, Colorado.

What is interesting to me -- and something I hadn't thought about before -- is that I am still more of a Texan than a Coloradoan. I am completely comfortable in Colorado and I love living there. But being back in Texas reminded me that I am still much more at home in Texas and have a much better sense of who Texans are and how they are shaped by their state.

I'll become a Coloradoan in time but I'm not there yet.

The other interesting item is something I wrote about on this blog shortly after we moved. That is that I love the strong sense of identity Texans have as Texans and Austinites have as Austinites. It is fun for me to be back in the middle of that bravado.