A Quiet Morning At Home

Well, it's a morning at my parents' home...

It is a lovely, relaxing morning too. Saga and I turned in early, it had been a long day and the evenings are coming early this time of year, so some time after eight we wandered off to our room. This morning, Saga woke me when she realized that there was someone stirring in the house...

Dad's dog, Sunshine, was sniffing at the door - probably wondering if Saga was ready to come out and play. It's not as if I hadn't been awake for a while, but it was a surprise when Saga pounced into the middle of the bed and assumed her defensive stance... the one she takes when she has seen (or heard) something that needs all her attention.

Well, that was when the smell of coffee came wafting into the room. I assumed my attentive stance! We made our entry into the house for the morning. I'm now sipping my second cup; the sun is just coming up over the woods to the southeast; my folks are chatting with my sister who has called from Florida. Later this morning we're headed into town to run some errands.

What a lovely, quiet morning. Very homey!

Wherever you are this morning, I hope your morning is a relaxing one!

Don Bergquist - September 30, 2008 - Kensington, Minnesota, USA

Rosh Hashanah Begins

Driving East

The wonderful thing about making a plan for a vacation is knowing that you don't actually have to follow it. I mean, I have so many plans that I've made and that have been thrust upon me that I have to follow at work, it's nice to be able to toss the entire plan out the window as I am driving...

Well, figuratively - doing so literally would be littering and I hate that!

So, when the plan called for me packing the car before I went to bed last night, and then getting up at butt-ugly o'clock this morning and driving to Minnesota by nightfall, it was just nice knowing that any or all of those points were negotiable.

Like the "packing the car" part... that's needlessly anal-retentive for a vacation so let's just scrap that. And that whole early concept... what if I want to sleep in, for instance, it is my vacation! I should be allowed a little lie-in if I want one.

And what if I want to, say, take the long way to Minnesota and see the Black Hills? I haven't been to the Black Hills and the Badlands in years! Is it too much to ask for me to be able to be flexible with my itinerary?
I don't think so. That is why I scrapped the entire plan. That is why I am nighting over in a lovely little motel here in Murdo, South Dakota. That is why I am thoroughly relaxed and enjoying the road trip! And since I will not arrive until tomorrow, I've already called ahead and let my folks know to expect me some time tomorrow afternoon.

What a great way to enjoy a vacation! I'm off to bed now. I'll post this when I get to an Internet connection.

Wherever you are today, I hope you've had a great weekend!

Don Bergquist - September 29, 2008 - Murdo, South Dakota, USA

Autumn Drive

 

Ah! It was a lovely drive! 

I am so glad that I delayed my departure so that I could do that!  Not a lot of time to write, but all my pictures have been uploaded at the link above. 

The drive started around five and by sunup I was at the summit of Guinellas Pass. The day could not have been more lovely. I passed only a few cars before sunrise... and because I got out there early enough, there was little traffic on the passes to have to deal with. Well, I am off to Minnesota now.

I hope that wherever you are today, I hope that you will take time to appreciate the beauty around you.

Don Bergquist - September 28, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

What To Do The Morning Before You Leave

I know it's an age-old problem. You have a long drive ahead of you; you'll be driving twelve hours this weekend. So, how do you spend the morning before you drive? Well, if you're me, you toss the cameras in the car and take a drive into the mountains.

According to all the local reports, this is the weekend to see the colors here in the foothills of the rockies. So, Saga has been walked, I'm eating breakfast, I have coffee and hope to get out the door by five this morning so I can be in the hills by the time the sun rises and be ahead of the parade that is sure to be going down every mountain pass today.

Then, tomorrow we're off to Minnesota! It is sure to be beautiful weekend! Look for pictures soon!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you'll have a lovely day!

Don Bergquist - September 27, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Happy birthday to my cousin, Charles

Vacation Mode

Yes, I am seriously in Vacation Mode!

Saga is sitting at my feet and looking at me expectantly. There is luggage stacked in my office, ready to toss in the trunk, I've been planning my route so that I can see some of the sights along the way. It has, for example, been years since I have been past Crazy Horse. I think I might head to Minnesota Via Sundance and Crazy Horse.

Sure, it's a bit longer, but it is lovely in parts.

But I have some testing and some writing to do. so I had best get to the office. Sorry, it's a bit of a short entry today, but as I have said, I'm seriously settling into Vacation Mode!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you'll have a great day!

Don Bergquist - September 26, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Fall Colors

It's that time again!

I love getting out and driving in the mountains this time of year. The sides of the mountains blaze in yellow, gold, orangem and red... It is a real spectacle. Looking through my photos for a few pictures to add to this blog entry, I noiticed that I haven't done this in three years! Hmmm... I wonder why. What could keep me from getting my autumn drive into my schedule?

Oh, yes! That's right... I haven't been here to do my fall drive!

The day was balmy down here in the piedmont, but up in the passes the snow had already fallen... Having had lived here a while I knew that the temperature at how was no indication of what the weather up there would be like. So I was prepared and had a jacket with me...

The last time I did my fall drive was just after I blew-out my knee boulder climbing up in Boulder Canyon! I was in a brace and walking with a cane, but I still made it up to the foothills and made it out of the car to take pictures.

The Day didn't disappoint. I took lots of pictures; a few of which turned out really well.

The forecasts I have heard is that this weekend and next are supposed to be be the prime viewing times for the fall colors here in Colorado. I guess I should get out there and have a drive before I head off to Minnesota.

Look for those pictures when I return!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you will have a lovely day!

Don Bergquist - September 25, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Living On The Battleground

Oh! What will I do! Living in a battleground state is such a trying experience!

For the last few weeks every commercial on television seems to be for one campaign or another. What is a guy to do? I have no idea where I should eat or what I should buy because the broadcasters are just too busy telling me what to think about this person or that.

The ads are so thick it is impossible to sit through a break without seeing three or four ads for one politician/issue or another. (After five in the morning, that is! Before that they are too busy selling me Life Insurance and Personal Mobility Scooters.)

This morning during the hour I had the news on, there wasn't an ad for anything but the various politicians and issues. Two of the breaks were completely taken-up by competing sides of the same issue/race. It was pretty funny, actually right after the ad for Person X (calling Person Y a liar) the station showed an ad for Person Y (saying you can't trust person X). This couplet was followed by a pair of ads for a local initiate that one side claims is a tax and anyone who denies it is a liar... and the other side says isn't a tax and anyone who says it is is a liar.

Sometimes I feel that to get through the breaks you need to be a third-grade teacher... Or the lunch lady at my elementary school; Mrs. Frawley. Let's face it... The candidates are tossing lies and half-truths back and forth like Tater Tots in a elementary school lunchroom. I feel like I am back at Village Green Elementary. And there she is!

I remember Mrs. Frawley, a short and squat lady from one of the deep-south (red) states, standing at the front of the cafetorium (a room with a raised stage at one end which as the name implies served as a cafeteria and an auditorium - only seldom simultaneously). She'd stand there, dishrag in hand by the microphone and admonish us in her thick southern accent "Boys! Stop that! Now, I said 'Boys!'" Occasionally she would wander over to a recently vacated table, wiping the detritus into a tray and dumping it into a waste can and then return to her microphone and her mantra. "Now, Boys..."

We used to do a great (meaning: "horrible in its accuracy and meanness") impression of Mrs. Frawley: "Shh! Boys! Boys! Now, I Said 'Boys!'" It never seemed to be the girls she would admonish. But then, with the exception of that time that three girls went up and did their impression of her to her face, there was rarely a reason to, I guess...

Ah, Mrs. Frawley, where are you today! The country needs you! I can see you now, interposed between political ads: "Boys" and "Now, I said 'Boys!'" every time a candidate made a snarky, untrue, or misleading claim about their opponent. Mrs. Frawley! The country needs you!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you are safely ensconced wherever you happen to be!

Don Bergquist - September 24, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Okay... Why?

A celebrity (I've alternatively heard him called "a magician," "an illusionist," and "a daredevil") who shall remain nameless, has launched on another stunt. The network that is promoting it plans on having a live special at the end of the stunt (they get no free publicity from me either) to show how he manages to survive it.

Now, I don't begrudge anyone making a living, nor do I think that the network hasn't the right to televise the spectacle, all I wonder is why anyone should care. I can almost understand why people go to daredevil shows... Almost. Watching some idiot do something stupid that could get him (or her) killed does have a sort of morbid curiosity to it... The same macabre fascination that makes one slow down to look at road accidents.

The attraction of magic and illusion shows is more obvious to me. At least there you get to stare in disbelief as the person in front of you does things that are patently impossible. (Or at least things that you don't know how to do...) But this is different.

There is nothing impossible about what this person does... there is nothing that leaves one to wonder how it is done. The only wonder is why he would do these things. A few years ago when he locked himself in a perspex coffin suspended above a park near London's City Hall. While the papers at the time reported that most people were "supportive" of his stunt, a few were openly hostile, throwing things at the box, taunting him with food and flashing him.

The difference between a daredevil and this guy is that the things they do, while equally stupid, at least are over quickly enough that you get an adrenaline jolt the morbid thrill of almost seeing some idiot almost die. But the stunts this guy does (which have included burying himself alive, encasing himself in ice, suspending himself in water, standing atop a pole, and now hanging by the ankles) go on for days or weeks... it's not even like a train wreck in slow motion... it's more like looking at a picture of a train that you know is about to wreck and wondering what will happen to the people.

The speculation can only be titilatting for so long... If at all!

I guess you're now thinking that I'm just not a fan... and that's not entirely true. He is a talented magician... some of the things I have seen him do are really good and interesting. His "Street Magic" specials have, for the most part, been fun. I just fail to see what the interest is in these kind of stunts that, quite frankly make me want to say "so what!?" But then, I have wasted an entire entry on them, so I guess they are worth ink... even if it is only virtual ink.

Wherever you are today, I hope that your day is a good one!

Don Bergquist - September 23, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Again, It Is Monday

Mondays tend to be the days I really don't want to get out of bed... Perhaps it is the realization that I have to go back to work.

Nah! That can't be it. I am loving the new position, I have lots of fun at the office and am working on an interesting and challenging project. Perhaps it is something to do with the idea of the end of the weekend.

Nope... that can't be it either. While weekends are fun, they are also tiring. (...even the ones in which I do relatively little. Relaxing all weekend really takes it out of you!) That's it! Mondays make me feel old!

I am so knackered this morning. Saturday, Saga and I went for a long walk and then I took a bike ride. Sunday we went up into the hills and later I went up to Boulder to climb mounds of boulders. It was a great weekend and very fun filled. But this morning I am paying the price.

Perhaps I should stop doing so much on the weekends, but that is not an acceptable idea... I have to find a way to do more on the week days so that the weekends aren't so draining. Hmmm... I'm going to have to work on that one...

Wherever you are this morning, I hope that you are having a lovely morning and that your weekend was a good one.

Don Bergquist - September 22, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Autumnal Equinox

A Lovely, Cool, Early Fall Morning

Morning came early today! Saga roused me from my slumber before six this morning.

I'm not sure if she failed to suss-out that it was a weekend or if she just decided that her daddy had had enough sleep for the morning, but there it is. Around six this morning, I awoke to the sudden addition of two-stone of Canaan Dog suddenly materializing on my chest.

The sudden materialization was accompanied by her hot breath in my face, possibly as she sniffed at me to see if I was perchance eating something while softly snoring the night away. This was followed by an energetic licking of the face and a quick game of "Push The Blankets To The Floor!" Having robbed me of my lovely slumber and my cozy covers in the course of a couple minutes, she bounded off down the stairs again...

I never did sort-out what precipitated the sudden entry into the world that greeted me this morning. By the time I was downstairs, she was happily snoozing again on the couch. It was a strange way to say "Good Morning" I'll give you that!

So, I've done some laundry, done some housework, listened to the morning news on the radio as I worked and now it is almost lunchtime and I have most of the day still ahead of me. I think I will go to the farmers' market. There should be one somewhere around here. I need some veggies for the week and it would be a good way to pass a few of the lovely weekend hours.

Perhaps then I will come back home and take a nap! Yes, that sounds nice!

Wherever you are today, I hope you're having a lovely weekend!

Don Bergquist - September 20, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

Secret Ballot

I vaguely remember learning during my Civics classes in school that we have something called a "Secret Ballot" in the US. While I can understand the concept behind political advertising... I mean, if you want to sell anything, you need to advertise.

What I don't get is the concept behind political bumper stickers!

For one thing look at how people act while in their cars! They eat, work, make phone calls, send text messages. It is as if they believe that you can't see them through the glass of their car windows.

And if that weren't enough, when was the last time you drove behind someone for any length of time that didn't drive you up a wall? Let's face it! People are at their worst when they are in their cars. What kind of persuasive powers does the lady re-applying her makeup as she drives have over you? That guy picking his nose, is he really going to sway your opinion? When was the last time that you found yourself thinking: "You know, that asshole who just cut me off, I wonder who he is voting for..."?

I've just had a truly evil idea: Everyone should plaster their bumpers with the bumper stickers of people the would never vote for and then drive around like total fraking morons. That would piss-off people and get them to vote for the candidate you support!

I'd love to see a bumper sticker that encourages people to think for themselves! One that tells people to quit following the crowd. It is okay if you are following me, but you don't have to follow my judgment!

Wherever you are today, I hope that you will think for yourself!

Don Bergquist - September 19, 2008 - Lakewood, Colorado, USA

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