i come from the mountain

sports predictions have not been good to me this year. i missed on most of my baseball picks. the nationals will not play the tigers in the world series. the tigers might play somebody. the texans will probably not play the seahawks in the super bowl. the seahawks might play somebody. i guess that's not horrible.

it was a long summer, but summer's over. we worked on the house probably every day for three months. i packed, moved and started working on the house right away. the season flew by. now, like when i passed the test, like when i left pwc, i have time on my hands and i don't know what to do with it. i started reading again. i read a book called the dog stars. great freakin' book. i highly recommend it. i'm currently reading bob dylan's chronicles. really good so far.

i have a couple more months to play tennis before it gets too cold. i really enjoyed playing this summer. didn't get to play much, but i loved it. i have a new racket for the first time in literally almost 20 years. man. i tend to wait to buy stuff. but i found that the good stuff does usually cost more. the racket i got is simply awesome. usually amazing follows simply, but i rewriting things here. simply awesome. i love the racket. i still have the same tv i had in college, so eventually that is going to need an upgrade. i want to get one that's functional with the internet, because i'm pretty sure in five years, we'll be getting almost all of our media that way.

sofie is still cute and lovable.

i haven't made it to the mountains much. i miss it.

i have a nerve issue in my right knee. when i crouch or put pressure on the kneecap, a shooting intense, extremely burning pain shoots through my kneecap. man it sucks getting old. there was a great song/speech set to music called 'everybody's free to wear sunscreen'. i first heard it when i was 17. it was one of those things that i knew one day would make complete and total sense. in this awesome song/speech, there is a line that says 'be kind to your knees. you'll miss them when they're gone.' well mine aren't gone yet. but man, some days. it's a reminder.

i really like that song/speech. i try to listen to it once a month. i really do. it gives me hope. it did when i first heard it. i hear songs from that period of my life about '96-'02 and i can feel the hope i had when i was younger. i've accomplished a lot. but i miss those days. i'm glad i made the friends i did. i'm glad i did the things i did. it was fun. i'll probably never laugh more in my life than i did in those years.

the empty page

in a lot of ways, i'm a late bloomer. i recently got into sonic youth. i bought 'washing machine' way back when because of the song the diamond sea. great song. but i never followed up on the band. most of the people who liked sonic youth were really indie hipster kids and while our tastes often overlapped, sonic youth was one band i decided i wasn't going to follow. they were too experimental, too much feedback. too much noise. now this was when i was heavily into my melodic, baroque pop, brian wilson phase (i guess it's not a phase because i still certain songs/albums that make me stop in my tracks if they sound like late 90s flaming lips, mercury rev, spiritualized or sparklehorse) so i wasn't feeling their sound.

however, i started listening to them, along with other noise pop acts like my bloody valentine and jesus and the mary chain. but sonic youth has really impressed me. their albums daydream nation, rather ripped, murray street and sonic nurse are all awesome. i have none of them. i can't wait to pick them up and blare them in my office, whenever that will be. staying up late writing and listening to sonic youth. those guys are actually in their late 50s early 60s now. amazing. and they broke up like last year. oh well. better late than never.

the texans shuffle

i'm a little behind since the season officially kicked off about two hours ago. but i have my super bowl picks!!!

the houston texans will lose to the seattle seahawks in the super bowl. that's right. a texans/seahawks super bowl.

i want to pick texans against green bay again like i did last year, but i'm not sure about green bay. well i'm not sure about houston either. but to quote david puddy, you gotta support the team.

in other news, we have drywall in the basement and a new door. i took off a couple days around the holiday last weekend and worked all day into the evening on stuff around the house. it's coming together. i'm looking forward to just taking a weekend off and not doing anything except ride bikes and watch football. i also can't wait for it to cool down. it's been hot around here for like two weeks.

so yeah texans/seahawks. we'll see. who knows.

painter in your pocket

we have a floor. we have a radon system. soon, we'll have the beginnings of framing. the tub will be here next week. things are coming together. it's really remarkable how fast all of this is coming together. major credit to demitria and her dad. i'm kind of a slow process person. but these two are getting things done. i'm the brawn as i'm told, which i'm fine with that. i get to be the brains all day at work and i can come home and break stuff like i did tonight. i busted out all these shelves that were next to the coal room. that's right. the house had a coal room. when i was busting out the wall a few weeks ago, there was all this black stuff around the baseboard. it was coal. no need for coal now.

projects. projects. projects. i haven't taken many pictures. it's tough enough just getting this stuff planned and done. it's tiring. that's for sure. the summer of 2013 is a tired one. but at least it's not super hot. the high today was like 70 or something. so nice.

anyway, i'm ready for bed. goodnight.

rolling on a burning tire

i'm heading to greeley today to pick up my tire. i'm getting a tractor tire to do crossfit workouts. here's a sample of what that looks like. awesome right? by winter, i'm going to look like an inside linebacker. isn't that what everyone wants? i've got some strength going, but i can't get the fat off. probably because i eat too many chips and drink too much beer. but this tire is going to fix that.

in other news, grantland did a great piece about harry nilsson. my mount rushmore of artists changes constantly, but today, this morning, it's brian wilson, bob dylan, david bowie, leonard cohen and harry nilsson. i don't have to stick to four, do i? you can add a head. it's not hard. it's a mountain! there's room for one more. i love harry's music.

in other, other news, things are looking up at the house. we have a floor! we have a basement floor! soon the framing will start going up. the walls will start popping up. it's amazing how fast/slow it all goes. but things are moving ahead. i'm still kind of surprised i own a house, but i better get used to it. i'm going to be here a while. i have this great idea for a bookshelf that dem's dad said is possible. i can't wait to start on that. one project after the other.

in other, other, other news, the astros made some trades at the deadline. the rebuilding continues. i think 2016 we'll start to be good. maybe 2015. i doubt we're the worst team in 2015. but we'll make the playoffs in 2017 and win the world series in 2019. that's my prediction folks.

more than this

i had a rough night sleeping last night. i woke up this morning thinking the cat was peeing on my clothes. she wasn't, which was great news. but i had already been stirred, so i got up and went for a walk. i, and this is totally true, had to put on a long sleeved over shirt for the walk because it was 50 degrees this morning. that is awesome!! i got back and opened up the windows and made coffee. it's been a nice relaxing morning. i think i'm going to try and do this more often so i can have the morning time to myself. with all the activity here, it's tough to get some good alone time. i'd rather not wake up thinking there's cat pee flowing through my clothes, but if that's what it takes to get up, i can handle it.

also, roxy music is great morning music. i'm currently listening to 'avalon' which i have never bought, but always danced around.

false ending

i got a little obsessed with turning my pictures in giant red objects in the sky. i did one. and the next thing i knew, i had three or more. here are a few. the bottom one i like to call 'pink moon' for nick drake. i guess it's more of a red moon. more of bowling ball than a moon. was the bowling ball formed to resemble the moon? the similarities are there for sure.

pink, pink, pink, pink moon.
(piano interlude).

our house in the middle of our street

we're moved in people! we're officially out of the rent house. everything we own is either in the new house or thrown outside in the backyard. this house is about to pop already, but we've got work to do. once we get the basement finished, we'll have some breathing room. then we'll have a garage sale, even though we don't have a garage. i guess garage sales used to be for stuff you stored in your garage? i mean most of these sales have things that you don't put in garages. i guess the name just stuck.

demitria's dad is here and he's already knocked out some stuff like putting doors on our little shed and adding shelves in there so we can fit our garage stuff in there until we have a garage. things are moving along. i'm actually really excited about things. i'm sure once we start busting up the basement and i have to start paying people, i'll be less excited. but oh well.

the rent house was our first house in denver. that house saw lots of action. torn acls. deaths. lots of food. lots of studying. i watched the entire series of 'lost' there. but when we bought our house and we would go back, it didn't feel like home anymore. funny how fast that can change when you buy a place and it's yours.

so as you can see, it's been a while since i posted. that will probably be the norm now as i'm going to have a lot to all the time. weekends. evenings. work. work. work. and i have to go to work. so i would say the rest of the summer will see limited posting. just a heads up.

here comes everybody

so i'm about to buy a house. tomorrow is the day. tomorrow morning actually. i'm a nervous wreck. here's what i know:

1. we're going to be living in the same neighborhood. this is a great neighborhood. we've been living here since we moved in october 2010. the house is close to mayfair park. it's also close to a neighborhood restaurant and ice cream parlor. i've only been to the restaurant once and i didn't eat. the ice cream place is great. super ice cream. but we're also close to downtown, city park and stores and shops on colfax and colorado. great neighborhood. great location.

2. interest rates are low. considering the massive amount of money that the fed is pushing into the economy and artificially keeping rates low, there's a question of whether or not you're getting a great deal. if there is no artificial housing boom (such as now), then the price of the house would be lower. i know that. however, interest rates would be higher. so is it a wash? compounding interest is a scary thing. i'd almost rather have a bit more principal than a higher interest rate. the only worry is that once interest rates go down and the artificial housing boom is over, will the house sustain it's value? but hey, that's in 20 years or so. who knows anything at that point.

3. the backyard is great. that's a huge point. we love to sit outside. and since the house is small, we'll be needing to sit outside.

4. the house is small. this will be the smallest house i've ever lived in. obviously apartments i lived in were smaller, but they are designed that way. this is not texas. the houses here are small. it's forced me to rethink what i really need and get rid of a lot of stuff. just stuff. things i haven't looked at in 20 years. seriously. 20 years. i don't need it. i need books, cds (music) and a computer. that's about it. and clothes i guess too.

5. there is major work to be done. we have to finish the basement. that's going to be tough. we're going to try and do as much work ourselves as possible. we also have to build a garage. we won't be doing that. this is a 5-8 year plan. that's a long time. i'm nervous about doing good work and having a fully functional basement. i don't want to find out the basement wasn't done because if you finished it, the whole house would cave in or something like that. i'm also nervous that this is going to consume us, this unfinished thing sitting around waiting to be completed so we can expand into our new house. i'm nervous.

6. money. isn't that always a concern? what if one of us loses our job? what if we both lose our job? i think we have that covered. i'm not too worried about that. i'm more worried about one of us getting suddenly old and can't work. what do we do then? i tore an acl playing volleyball. i'm not a young dude anymore. i could break an arm or leg boiling eggs. it could happen. then what?

7. the neighborhood. back to number 1 eh? well yeah, what if the neighborhood doesn't hold up? what if that street becomes gangland central? i guess we move. i hope that doesn't happen. i like quiet. gangs are loud.

8. big decisions in life. who to get married to? where to buy a house? what house to buy? what major in college? so many big decisions. and with each big decision comes about a million little decisions underneath it that you don't see until you made the big decision and suddenly you open the door and you're drowning in little decisions.

yep. i'm nervous. i think that's obvious. i don't get excited about big decisions. i get nervous. and eventually i calm down and enjoy it. it takes time.

tick, tock.

never seen such good things

last month dad came to visit. while he was here, we headed out to glenwood springs and on the way back home, we stopped at rifle gap falls in rifle. there are three falls at rifle falls. those are in the bottom shot. i couldn't get a great straight up shot, so this from the side. the wildlife at the rifle falls is great. the birds, the chipmunks. they're everywhere. there were also a couple farm houses by the falls. i assume it's people who work at the fish hatchery, which is just up the road. so i took a few shots of those allowing me to get some b&w shots too. the landscape was beautiful that b&w just didn't work for it. i took quite a few. the color were far better.

i'm sure most who read this blog know that we're moving into our own house soon so the blogging, as it already kind of has, will be sparce for probably the next month. i'll try to take pictures of the new house and post those along the way, but the end of june and into july will be busy. it will be back like old study/audit times except this time, we'll have a house to show for it at the end.

no whammies, STOP!

this is an amazing story. because it's true and it involves one of the best game shows from my youth, press your luck. make sure to watch it each video, but be ready to turn the sound down, mine was really loud and the first lady really gets into screaming 'no whammies!', so it can be jarring.

and make sure to read the post-press your luck story for this guy too. if you listen to the audio, it's like the fourth story i believe. if you click on the transcript, you can scroll down to his story and just read it. that's what i did. incredible.

i don't remember this episode, but watching it even now, i was stunned at how he had mastered the game.

ghost mouth

i'm a little behind with some of my pictures. about a month ago now, demitria and i celebrated our five-year anniversary with a trip to mount princeton to soak in the hot springs and do a little hiking. the bottom photo is looking at mount princeton as we're leaving. the 14'er is down between buena vista and salida. it takes about 3 hours to get there from denver. we stayed at the mount princeton resort. it's more like a few cabins up and around the springs, which still was nice. we soaked in the springs the first day. when we checked in, we overheard something about a ghost town. the ghost town is called st. elmo. we went the next day. it took about 40 minutes to get there because about halfway, the road stopped being paved so we had to take our time. there wasn't much to the town, just the buildings seen above and a general store where demitria bought a hat. but it started to snow on us because we had climbed so high in elevation. so i took some shots that i think look pretty cool.

something else that was interesting was behind the resort, there was a creek. the creek was lined with old cars. the cars were set up to be a breaking point from any of the rocks tumbling above. but there were about 4 or 5 cars packed with rocks placed right on the creek's edge. we came up with stories of the creek having been a highway and the cars were trapped with an avalanche and were just left there or they were aqua cars that didn't work and were left in the creek. either way, made for some interesting visuals.

the trip was really great. we are breaking out of the usual this summer and hitting up parts of our new state that we haven't seen before. i have more pictures coming of my dad's trip.

in other quick news, the astros have won four in a row, including thursday night's game against the rockies. the astros were down 3-0 and tied it up at 3-3 before chris carter hit a 3-run home run off former astro wilton lopez to put it at 6-3. we eventually won 7-5 and took 3 of 4 from the rockies. we now we've won two in a row off the angels, to put us at 4-0. the team is on fire! get ready world series!

don't be such an ann hog!

yes! arrested development is back people! this weekend!

great article by the avclub giving quotes from the show that fans might be feeling. i super excited but at the same time, it's like having a loved one come back to life and hang out with you. it's cool and great to see them again, but in the back of your head, you're kind of worried they're going to eat you. that's how i'm feeling. it's either going to be the greatest thing ever! or the worst thing ever!

or it's probably going to be somewhere in the middle. which is fine. i'll take the middle. not the show called 'the middle'. i have no idea what that show's about other than something to do with being in the middle. i do know it has the janitor from 'scrubs' on it. good guy. i never met him.

in other news, i am 3-0 in rockies games this year. undefeated! rain, snow, sunshine. i've seen games in all three. i actually got a bobblehead at one of them. my first bobblehead. i now understand why they're so popular. they just bobble. it's great.

i have some more pictures to upload soon. nothing super great. just some shots in and around rifle gap falls in the great city of rifle, colorado.

things to do in denver

last weekend was our 5th year wedding anniversary. to celebrate, we went to zenga for dinner. it's an asian fushion restaurant here in denver. pretty swanky, but the food was great. after that, we went to an irish bar for coffee and donuts. then we patrolled the streets of denver. we walked downtown and then we walked through the highland, taking pictures of interesting things we saw. we'll have pictures of mount princeton soon.

goat's head soup

it's incredible what a day makes. this was yesterday. today, there is five to six inches of snow outside right now. but yesterday was nice. very windy, but nice. this is waterton canyon. it's a nice bike ride or walk through the canyon. we've been before. last time we had pictures of frozen water, mule deer and bighorn sheep. this time around we saw more big horn sheep. in fact, the one on the road was staring down demitria big time. we thought he might ram her. but he chose wisely. hopefully this is the last snow of the year and spring will be here to stay.

put me in coach 2013

baseball is back! tonight the houston astros open the season against the texas rangers. it's the astros first game as an american league team. it will also be their loss of many this season. but what better way to start the season: a perennial american league powerhouse against a future powerhouse. but what about this year? this is going to be an interesting year. the american league east has lost some steam. the red sox are back to making terrible decisions and the yankees are just getting old. they are actually watching how much they spend. it feels like a wide open season. i could reel off about eight teams that i think could win the world series. i don't remember the last time that was the case. here is how it will shake out:

al east: tampa bay
al central: detroit
al west: la angels
nl east: washington
nl central: cincinnati
nl west: san francisco
al wild cards: toronto and texas
nl wild cards: atlanta and st. louis

i think the world series will be washington and detroit. the odds are against detroit getting back, but i think they're the clear favorite in the al. maybe the angels could stop it from happening. but that's it. detroit has a pretty clear path. tigers against nationals. done.

washington will again be the toast of the nl. the rockies are going to be horrible again this year and the astros will be too as already discussed in previous blogs so my two teams will not be making an appearance in october baseball again. but i did find something interesting. i couldn't understand why the astros were coming to denver. the astros were supposed to play the nl central this year (each year a certain division from the opposite league makes up your interleague games). i found out that the reason the astros are coming here is because the rockies have no natural al rival. therefore, the astros were chosen as the rockies new al rival. each year in addition to your preselected interleague division, you also have to play your rival.

so that means the astros will be coming to denver every year! how awesome is that. i think the rivalry is lame and totally fabricated, but i'll take it. because so is the rivalry with the rangers. i will always remember the astros and cardinals going at it. that was the rivalry i'll remember. but times change. rivalries change. and i'll keep eating hot dogs and laughing my through it.

oh my my

hear the news people! i have wonderful, amazing news! the new strokes album does not suck!! i know. those words are a surprise to even me, the biggest strokes apologist. since 'room on fire', which was released in 2003, that's right 2003, the year i graduated from sam houston state, the strokes have been releasing albums with half-baked ideas, songs that were too long, songs that made no sense, songs that were like wearing your father's jacket when you're 8. 'first impressions of earth' was okay. the album was way too long. way too long. i mean, seriously, who wants to listen to a single album that's almost an hour long with 14 songs? it's not a double album. if it's a double album, there's more wriggle room. it's a double album, so it carries more of a statement. a single album that's too long is a single album that's too long.

'angles' was the first beginnings of the new strokes. i guess once you've had your fun with late 70's new york punk, the only way to go is early 80's new wave. that's what 'angles' is. but half the album is not good. the other half is great. i had my doubts that the strokes could move on and do something different. were they just trying to branch out? what did all this mean?

well, 'comedown machine' is the answer. the strokes are comfortable in their 80's skin. they actually sound like they're having fun again. what was always interesting about the strokes was how fully developed they were with their initial album. the sound. the look. the feel. it seemed like they'd worn it for decades. with each new album, the confidence faded and you could hear it. you could feel it. each step was a half step, a step that was unsure. 'angles' was two steps forward and a face plant.

this new album is fun. it's self-confident. it's the 80's strokes fully formed. honestly, i'm shocked. i didn't think the strokes would have another album that i would enjoy. but that was short sighted. i mean, ten years, is a short period in the history of the world. it's like a blink. so for the strokes to take ten years to release an album that i actually liked, it's like super quick. 

the once and future story teller/winter tales

i stumbled across a fantastic link that notes the top non-wilco jeff tweedy songs. listening to these songs from uncle tupelo, loose fur and golden smog, it's a great reminder of just how much the lyrics and music of jeff tweedy have been the soundtrack to my life. let's be honest. i didn't find all these songs. randy put 'please tell my brother' on one his 'burgers' mix tapes. that's how i found golden smog. i bought both of loose fur's albums and i hope they make a third, because at times, it's more adventurous and creative than what wilco is doing. it's a great article. if you're a fan, take the time and listen to each one of the songs and try to pin point the timeline when it was written.

speaking of great times, last night my beautiful wife suggested we go sledding: in our front yard. so we got out our $10 walmart sled and we went wild. we had about three different lanes packed with snow and we flew so fast, we ended up across the street. it was so much fun. in fact, it was so much fun, we decided to do it again today, but in a local park with a steeper hill and even, a ramp. the ramp was only used twice, once by me and once by demitria. it was quickly found that the ramp was too high and not fit for a sled. or maybe it didn't work because we're too old to land on our tailbones and continue like nothing happened. either way, we still got creative. i sled down face first quite a few times. and we even sled down the hill together on the same sled. i can't remember having so much fun and feeling like a kid just smiling and laughing and carrying on just being carefree. i really enjoyed it. i wish i had pictures, but we didn't take a camera. which might make it more memorable because only the two of us will be able to see and feel and remember in our minds what it was like. so. much. fun.

i do have some winter photos i took this weekend when we got about a foot of snow. i'll post those soon. 

a bunch of lonesome heroes, pt. 2

the power of editing. this what i want the picture to look like. i feel like my old film camera took these kind of shots naturally. or maybe it was the place that developed my film. i'm not sure. but after a little bit of editing, this is how the picture in my head looks.

greatest. picture. ever.

a bunch of lonesome heroes