Battles on All Sides

We live with nature. We love it. 

With exceptions.

As you know, I was in a small battle with gophers. 

However, I now find myself in a multi-front creature war.

I Dissent

Around four years ago, I bought a pin I wore on the lapel of my winter coat. It said simply, "I dissent." 

The quote, although certainly not exclusively, was Ruth Bader Ginsberg's, in her written opinion to Bush v. Gore. Ruth Bader Ginsberg laid out the case that every legally cast vote should be counted, and that an arbitrarily set deadline for finishing the recount was not reason enough to stop the process. 

"In sum, the Court’s conclusion that a constitutionally adequate recount is impractical is a prophecy the Court’s own judgment will not allow to be tested. Such an untested prophecy should not decide the Presidency of the United States.

I dissent."

This Time Last Year

Remember a year ago? I know, it feels like 5 years ago, but in fact, it was just one year ago. A year ago, I 

was flying all over the world, and not having enough time to share all the stories. Like this one.

We all know my favorite place to sleep is our pop-up camper. While we both like to camp and definitely love to hike, see new places and spend time in the outdoors- especially National Parks (still working on hitting ALL of them, with a ways to go), I am the one that pushes the envelope and gets us to camp until the very edge of the seasons. For that reason, Eric agreed to take the pop-up out with me one of the very few weekends we were both in the same state at the same time, and go camping during the elk rut at the end of September.

The elk rut, if you haven't had the chance to witness it, is awesome. We've gone up to Rocky Mountain National Park multiple times to spend a weekend watching bull elk herd "harems" (their word, not mine) of female elk, make incredible calling noises, and occasionally fight each other for dominance over the herd and the right to mate. 

I'm Alright, Nobody Worry 'Bout Me

I have leveled- up on the Bill Murray scale of existence.

Or have I leveled down? Honestly, I'm not sure which way the scale goes, but I'm firmly at Caddyshack. 

I'm doing battle with gophers.

Group 1

In 2019 I flew to Detroit, London then on to Amsterdam, Atlanta, San Salvador, Portland, Washington DC, Kampala, New York City, Guatemala City, and Bangkok then on to Auckland. In 2020, I flew to Washington DC, and had flights booked to Dhaka, Cap Haitien, Reykjavik and Detroit that were all cancelled with plans for several others that never got booked in the first place.

I miss travel, but I didn't realize...

United Airlines also misses me. 

Forever Blue

 The list of (first world, trivial) things Covid-19 has taken from us seems to never end. Races, vacations, the ability to go to the office. Seeing other people. Hugs. In-person church. Not feeling like every venture out is like navigating the cave in the Goonies and NEVER EVER getting to One-Eyed Willie's ship. We have tried to be grateful for the time this has given us together, tried not to be (too) whiny, tried to take stock of our blessing. 

But this latest...

My husband, former high school, college and semi-pro player and former high school coach, may never recover.

Back Again

The Incline closed March 17. I know the exact date, because I was working from home, had my exercise clothes on, and was within an hour of my next climb when the breaking news came in. Since then, the cities of Colorado Springs and Manitou Springs, which for reasons I don't understand share responsibility for the Incline, have been fighting. They couldn't come up with an agreement on how to safely reopen the Incline. Part of the issue is legitimately, the Incline is narrow in most places and 6 feet of distance isn't possible when passing someone else. If there are fewer people, its easier to manage and fewer people to pass. However, the residents of Ruxton Canyon, the neighborhood that leads up to the Incline, have lodged complaints about noise and traffic. Some of that's true - there are a certain number of people who hoot and holler down the road because they are psyching themselves up for the climb (and are generally being bros.) There is traffic - usually visitors who don't know where to park, trying to find the closest place to the base of the mountain to leave their car. Manitou has put in restricted hours, and have a free shuttle bus that runs multiple times an hour from a parking lot further away. But, there is still crankiness, and these issues have bled into the current debate. Add to it the inexplicable shared ownership and weirdly territorial local government officials, and its been a mess. 

However. 

After five months of closure, they finally came to an agreement! There is now a free reservation system, and for the first couple of weeks, they are limiting reservations to (I think) 35 every 30 minutes. 

I got my first reservation this morning.