The Monday Morning Epistle

OK, it's official: Colorado weather is psychotic. We worked in our front yard all afternoon on Saturday, sweating in jeans and T-shirts while digging out flowerbeds and planting bulbs, as Jacob raked leaves and Garion gleefully redistributed the pile by jumping in it. When the sun went down, the temperature dropped about 40 degrees and Mother Nature howled at the windows overnight before spattering everything with an inch or so of snow Sunday morning. For once our timing was perfect, though, as Mary & I both took days off last week to have the outside sprinkler system drained and winterized, and oversee the installation of ceiling fans and a new gas fireplace. The fireplace is a great addition to our sitting room, and provides a comfortable ambience—not to mention a good bit of heat—at the flick of a switch; Liesl has spent so much time sleeping in front of the fireplace that it is now referred to as the “Dog Roasting Unit”.

Last week was also marked by several late nights and lost sleep thanks to Major League baseball, as the Colorado Rockies made it into the World Series after back-to-back sweeps of the pennant races. We had forgotten the joys of baseball in October, and deliberately snubbed the wide-screen HD television in the basement to snuggle under the blankets in our bedroom and listen to the game on the radio. (This also helped make extra innings bearable, as whoever was still awake would poke the other when runs were scored or the game finally ended.) A local sportswriter described the Rockies as “…a very capable bunch of nobodies.” and we were pleased to recognize a couple of them as alumni from our local Sky Sox minor league team. We even made a half-hearted attempt to get tickets to one of the NLCS playoff games in Denver, but quickly gave up when we discovered that the ‘nosebleed seats’ were going for over $300 per butt; thankfully, our miserliness saved us from losing an expensive gamble, as the only game we had a chance to see was never played…and the tickets were non-refundable!

Lastly, I was delighted to discover that the new-fangled Digital Command & Control (DCC) for model railroads really is as straight-forward as the advertising claims. After pinning down all of the Styrofoam risers to the baseboard, I laid out the track and connected the DCC controller “…just to see what would happen.” A few minutes later, Garion was excitedly driving a small locomotive around the track as I waited impatiently for my turn. It took Monkey-Boy less than five minutes to master the Forward/Reverse switch and throttle, and he stress-tested the layout for nearly an hour before bedtime finally arrived. His first question the next morning was “Can I play trains again?” and he was devastated when told that we had to disassemble everything so that it could be permanently glued together. But despite his obvious disappointment, Garion still helped take the track apart-he was in charge of putting the oversized pins back in the box-and his enthusiasm will no doubt encourage me to reassemble it in a timely manner! (Is it ready yet, Daddy?).

PotW: During a Labor Day visit, Uncle Pat introduced us to a popular ‘silly cat picture’ web site with the unlikely name of I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER. Sadly, our only submission so far did not make the cut, but we thought it was funny…

Until next week…Tschüß!

,,,^..^,,,

2007.11.03-13:28