It's Time For A Refreshing And Tasty Snack!

East 70 Drive-In Theater on the east end of Colfax Avenue, out by the Fitzsimmons Army Hospital in Aurora, Colorado.

When I was ten years old my family lived in an apartment building near this drive-in and we could watch the movies from the apartment house's upper walkways. One day I had the brilliant idea of sneaking into the theater to turn up all the car speakers in the back two rows so we could hear the movie while we watched. My friends and I did not know people worked at the theater in the daytime so we got caught within minutes of sneaking in and thrown out. Only the memory remains as the East 70 was torn down in the late 1990s.

RIP Clarence Burke Jr.

Some day, yeah
We'll walk in the rays of a beautiful sun
Some day, when the world is much brighter




The Five Stairsteps

Clarence Burke Jr.'s NYT obituary here.

I've Looked At Clouds From Both Sides Now

From up and down, and still somehow
It's cloud illusions I recall.
I really don't know clouds at all.
-Joni Mitchell

Trans-Europe Express

It's a Kraftwerk kind of morning.

Memorial Day

Hither we come to scatter flowers
This thirtieth day of May,
Upon our fallen heroes' graves
On this Memorial Day;
We cherish now no bitter thoughts
In this fair land of ours,
But on all fallen heroes' graves
We come to scatter flowers.
- William Henry Clay Dodson

House Bling

One of my husband's house projects was putting gutters on the roof the the backyard patio. This winter we had snow melting off the roof and on to the patio which then became a large sheet of ice. This, of course, made it difficult to walk around safely. I knew I did not want two awkward looking downspout extensions hanging off the roof and then across the end of the patio into the grass so I tried to think of another way to go.

That's when I discovered rain chains. I loved the look but knew I could not just hang them off the gutters as I would still have the problem which caused us to put the gutters up in the first place. What I needed was a way to contain the water and direct it off the end of the patio. So I came up with the idea of  dropping the rain chains into  ceramic planting pots partially filled with rocks set on concrete splash blocks which also had some rocks placed in it. This should slow the water down, prevent splash back and direct the water off the patio.

Johnson's Corner Postcard

Written on back:

HISTORICAL JOHNSON'S CORNER
24-HOUR CAFE AND TRUCK STOP
ON INTERSTATE 25

Gateway to Big Thompson Canyon
and Rocky Mountain National Park
Open Since 1952

The Johnson's Corner story here.

The Best Way To Travel

In a balloon, you can decide only when to start, and usually when to stop. The rest is left entirely to nature.
-Unknown


Celebrated a family friend's 70th birthday by taking a balloon ride on Saturday.

Ready for lift-off.

The landing. As you know, any landing you can walk away from is a good landing.

Oops! One casualty.


Note: Last two photos taken by my friend Lynelle who, in the first photo, is standing next to pilot Ed VandeHoef (the man in the yellow shirt) of Fair Winds Hot Air Balloon Flights & Rides,

The Pause That Refreshes

Cleaning house today...except for right now.


Coca-Cola ad from 1949.
(Ahhh, icy cold.)

Wake Up, Wake Up, You Sleepy Head!

The dogs along with the Robins in my backyard seem to be competing for the last several mornings to see who can get me up the earliest. The Robins won this morning.



The Ipana Troubadours

When the red red robin
Comes bob bob bobbin'
Along, along,
There'll be no more sobbin'
When he starts throbbin'
His old sweet song.

Wake up, wake up you sleepy head!
Get up, get out o' bed!
Cheer up, cheer up the sun is red,
Live, love, laugh and be happy!

What if I've been blue?
Now I'm walking through
Fields of flowers!
Rain may glisten
But still I listen
For hours and hours!

I'm just a kid again,
Doin' what I did again,
Singin' a song,
When the red red robin
Comes bob bob bobbin'
Along