Stuff I Think About…

Wednesday of the week, we went to the Florissant Fossil Bed National Monument.  The fossils they have were all inside behind glass, but the tour did allow us to see some petrified redwoods.

Petrified Redwood

There are also some beautiful flora here as well.

Indian Paintbrush

After leaving the fossil beds, we headed over to Cripple Creek and took the train ride on the Cripple Creek-Victor narrow gauge railway.  Lots of good information about the gold boom and also some great views.

So Beautiful

We didn’t hang around too long in Cripple Creek so we decided to go ahead and make the stop in the Garden of God (or as it’s named – the Garden of the gods).

It was a feast for the eyes everywhere you turned.

The rest of the day was kind of a bust because the check engine light came on in the truck.  I spent Friday morning trying to find a place to check and service it as needed, but couldn’t get an appointment until Monday.  We were planning to get a rental car and keep the truck parked until Monday, but on our way to visit the AFA Chapel, the malfunction cleared.  I pretty much spent the rest of the day learning how to access the code without a reader and doing the research on the code to understand that we didn’t have anything to worry about.

Whew!  Glad that thing cleared up and was nothing more than what it was.

Today we took the ride up to the top of Pikes Peak.  It’s impossible to come up with words to describe it.  It an only come in adjectives–Majestic, Awesome, Beautiful, Magnificent, Inspiring.  And on and on and on.

The ride was pretty uneventful, but there were places I got a bit “jelly-legged.”  When your climbing at about 5-7% grade with no guardrail to your right and all you see in front of you is sky….well, it can be a little daunting.  Seriously some of the slowest driving I’ve ever done.  While being a little “jelly-legged”, in the end it was so worth it.

Our GPS at the summit

The standard photo op

The clouds at this height are amazing!

I put together a quick gallery of 25 photos over on my Flickr site. Go check them out.

Today we’ll be visiting with one of Reka’s friends from Pueblo and tomorrow we plan to head up to Cripple Creek and hopefully the Florissant Fossil Beds.

More later….

Was pretty uneventful, but I managed to fix that!

We took out around lunchtime on Friday with the intent to stay just short of KC – just to get the trip underway and not to have to deal with KC Friday evening traffic either!  The first place we stayed was okay, but we have such bad luck picking parks that are near a) railroad crossings and b) race tracks.  This time we managed to get the Friday night dirt track races.

A not-so-good park

Our set up at Trailside

Not much sleep to be had.  Next day we drove through to within 70 miles of the Colorado state line and camped at High Plains Camping.  This site was pretty much in the open (as you would expect in this territory, but the host was friendly and they even had an organic garden that was free for the picking.

Very nice park run by very nice people

Our set up at High Plains

Remaining hooked to the vehicle made for quick packing and hitting the road again, but we were sure looking forward to hitting our destination and being able to get unhooked and unpacked for our 12 days here.  We hit the campground around noon mountain time on Sunday.  As we came into the campground, there was pretty limited parking and as I maneuvered into the space that was available to me, I managed to cut the corner too tight and scraped the stop sign against the side of the camper.  It’s pretty ugly, but I guess it’s not as bad as it could have been.  What a heart breaker of an event to have just as we reach our destination.

Didn't realize the military had such great RV parks

Our set up here at the Air Force Academy

The SIGN!

The damage

And more damage

Here we manage to have the trains.  Fortunately, they are not as loud as some we have witnessed and we’re hopeful that as our stay goes on, that the sound will fade more and more with each passing day.  I do believe I heard each train on our first night here.  That should get better with each passing day.

Today, August 22 is somewhat of a catch up day.  Getting the RV squared away for the stay, doing some light shopping and I’ll run Reka around to all the places I lived and worked while here back in 1994-1996.  Tomorrow is supposed to be the brightest, sunniest day while we are here, so we plan to hit Pikes Peak to take advantage of that.

Many years ago I bought the CD Set “Anthology of American Folk Music.” As I have listened to this music over the years since, my appreciation only grows.   The collection is wide-ranging in styles and I’ve recently locked into the style of Sacred Harp Singing.  There are two songs on the CD by the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers.  One of those songs (Rocky Road) you can download and listen to here.  It’s an old, old recording and somewhat hard to follow.  The other song they do (Present Joys) I was able to find an old home video posted to You tube that is easy to understand.

I was digging around to see what I could find out about the Alabama Sacred Harp Singers and the style of music and came across a wonderful blog (Where Dead Voices Gather) that is very helpful.  Check out his posts on “Rocky Road” and “Present Joys.”  At the end of each post is a link to download the song.

I think this is what draws me to the music so much

Sacred Harp music is participatory, rather than performative. The chorus is divided into tenors, altos, trebles and basses, which are arraigned in a hollow square, facing the center. At the center of the square is the leader (there is no one leader in a Sacred Harp group. Rather, the duty is shared and the role passes among the members of the group). The chorus sings in full voice. The song usually begins with the singers “tuning up” and singing the song’s melody, but substituting the singing syllables (fa, so, la) for the lyrics. This is immediately followed the performance of the song, with lyrics. The “tuning up” has become traditional, and is usually included on any recordings of Sacred Harp groups for authenticity’s sake.

You will notice in the You tube video that they tuned with the notes prior to singing.  Is that not cool or what.  Another cool aspect of this is that they singers sing according to shapes, not notes.  To see what it looks like, go here.  In my research it also appears that only 4 notes are used instead of 7.

I’m so taken by this that I have ordered this Sacred Harp songbook. I even plan to attend, as soon as my schedule allows, a singing with the St Louis Shape Note Singers.

I know this style of music won’t go over big with many people, but it fascinates me.  Here are a couple more videos to check out.

If you watch no other video, watch this one, as it gives a some details about the style of singing.

You can also find some music to download at iTunes – “Awake My Soul“

Let me know what you think.

I have bad feet.  Well, maybe that’s the wrong way to put it.  My feet hurt.  They hurt worse in these years since my back surgery.  I hate to wear shoes.  I cannot find a pair of shoes that don’t hurt my feet, so if I am not where I have to wear shoes (in the office, etc.) I wear Crocs.  99% of the time, flip flops.

I recently heard about a shoe that might bring me some relief.  A friend told me about Toms shoes.  I did some research and the reviews are outstanding.  They have a wonderful business plan (you buy a pair of shoes and they give a pair free to kids who need them and can’t afford them).  I was sold.

Until I read this article.  Ugh!  In short, the CEO of Toms spoke at a Focus on the Family event.  The liberals were so incensed that they took him to task for it.  So, he issues a statement which says, in part (emphasis mine):

“Had I known the full extent of Focus on the Family’s beliefs, I would not have accepted the invitation to speak at their event. It was an oversight on my part and the company’s part and one we regret.”

So, what could he mean by ‘full extent’ of FoF’s beliefs?  According to the liberals that took him to task, that would be:

“the notorious extreme right-wing, anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-woman fundamentalist Christian group”

Good grief.

So, as much as I desire to have some comfortable footwear, it will not be Toms.  Toms has taken a stand and so have I.  I know the loss of my business will mean nothing to them, but it will mean a lot to me.

It’s amazing how our minds work.  It’s one of the mysteries I want to understand when I get to heaven, but I know once I’m there, I won’t care about how our mind generates and uses dreams.

A friend from church recently posted a link to a video that Pastor Fred had done on church growth.  I went to view the video – a little worried about how it would affect me.  I have to admit I was thoroughly thrilled to watch it.  It is Pastor Fred at his best.  I was able to discern that this presentation was likely done in Feb 09 (since he mentions us having started our 0815 service and our plans to add the later service in the fall.)

It was great to watch and hear Pastor Fred.  I still miss him so much.

Last evening Reka and I were talking about this and remembering and enjoying our memories of Pastor Fred.  When Reka and I were engaged and had our wedding planned, we learned that Pastor Fred could not marry us since they would be on vacation at that time.  Pastor Fred offered to marry us in his office a few days ahead of our “official” wedding.  I don’t remember our reason for not accepting that offer, but we didn’t.  Of course, now, we regret that we did not do it.

I wish I could fully remember my dream of last night and relate it to you.  It was wonderful.  It was vintage Pastor Fred.  It was one of those where you wish you could linger to enjoy it even more.

I do not know how the mind works these things, but I am thankful that I could have such a rich dream and memory of my beloved Pastor Fred.

Here’s the link to the videos if you would like / are able to watch.

http://e-quip.net/presentations/show/1733

http://e-quip.net/presentations/show/1732

Even though the first video has the higher number, it is the first of the two.

That’s my weight after a few days of trying to climb back on the exercise/weight control wagon.  It stinks that I have come back to this weight and have so much work to do to get it back to where I was, much less where I want to go.  At least I’m feeling “on board” again.  Let’s see how it goes…..