Archive for the ‘Society’ Category

Snow Day

Thursday, February 11th, 2021

Duncan in the snow

This guy to the rescue

This is maybe 3 feet of snow this time. For a while it looked like we would not be able to leave our block for at least a week, but then this guy with a front end loader showed up.

Gus is Gone

Tuesday, January 12th, 2021

Gus at his food truck

No more Gyros anymore. Gus has died of Covid-19 complications. We will miss him.

SIGNS?

Thursday, December 10th, 2020
In Colorado

Watch out for that Colorado sun! If you don’t have the SPF of the proper strength, it looks like you can rent some.

SIGNS

Wednesday, November 4th, 2020

What again? OK, I sometimes take pictures of signs. Here’s the SIGNS posting from 2016 if you click here you will see it.

Fake Election

The big sign from 2016 was up on the corner of Crest and Harmony, but this time some “libtard” parked his pickup truck in front so when you traveled east on Harmony you would see the division on Crest Street.

Short Term Memory Test

I saw this sign and thought it was a good one, maybe the owner made this sign? I don’t know, but I had not seen one like it on my bike rides.

Q is out there!

No, the real Q is not writing on sticky notes and posting them on lamp posts. This person is really trying to inform the masses who may not subscribe to the Social Media via the Internets. So where is the scruffy dude with the long grey beard holding up the old “End Is Near” sign?

FIRES!

Monday, November 2nd, 2020

From our kitchen window

Here we go again…

Saturday, October 31st, 2020
Biden/Harris in 3 days!

Let’s hope so… With over 233,000 Americans dead from the virus we need some kind of leadership that does not pass off conspiracy theories as reality. Note on this day: No Halloween this year, just like No festivals, live music, parties.

October Surprise

Friday, October 23rd, 2020
12 Inches in FoCo

After days of darkness due to the forest fires, we now have a bit of snow to help get at least some of the fires under control.

BLM March

Wednesday, June 10th, 2020
The Banjo as a social distancing tool

There was a BLM march in downtown FoCo that moved down to the CSU Oval. I biked in early to get a photo op before the crowds got onto the oval and then I left soon afterwards just to avoid people. The day before that I stopped in at the HUB and made the lettering on the shirt to pay homage to a radical Russian punk band that I like.

Plague Months, Day 30

Monday, March 30th, 2020

On the Road to KilKenny, October 1992

Merrion Hall
This trip we went to Ireland and Wales with our friends Alison and Pietro. My notes say it took a long flight from Boston to London and then a short 55 minute flight to Dublin then taxi to Merrion Hall to meet our friends in the guest hallway. Note: The Merrion Hall is a former Plymouth Brethren church built by Alfred Gresham Jones and completed in 1863 that was located near Merrion Square in Dublin, Ireland. It has been reconstructed and renovated and is now a hotel but the facade has been retained. We took a taxi to Donahue’s Pub to listen to some music but left early because of all the tobacco smoke (It is 1992 after all). Spent first night in Dublin at The Merrion.
Trinity College
The next morning (October 12, 1992) leaving the Merrion we took a bus to the city center Dublin and to the college bookstore to get a notebook to write vacation notes. Saw also the Book of Kells, a fancy book I remember learning about in art class. Next, went on a rather long journey to get the car hire.We picked up a 4-door Toyota Carrola around 1:30 PM and raced out of town!
That’s Naas
The above ruin was sometimes called St. David’s Castle, and sometimes called King John’s Castle, dates from about 1200. I can’t imagine anyone living there, but you can see a TV antenna sticking out from the roof. It’s in the town of Naas, where we stopped on the way to Kilkenny for food.
Bregagh on Dean Street, Kilkenny
Got into Kilkenny about 3:30 and took a look around with a walking tour before we go to our place for the night, the Bregagh.
Kilkenny Castle
Killkenny was an overnight stop for us, but the town was rich in history. Apparently the Butler family dynasty originated here. Our guide told us that Michael Butler, the producer of Hair is related somehow. Michael was the famous person in Oakbrook, Illinois who I remember while growing up in nearby Villa Park. In 1993 Mr. Butler left Oakbrook for good, never to return!
Hey, I brought a banjo on this trip!
After we got our things to the B&B and parked the car, we set out to the pubs for some “action”. I brought my banjo: This would be the first time for me in a pub in Ireland. It works like this: If you want all the free beer you can drink, just bring a musical instrument to an Irish pub.
At John Cleere’s
The musicians hid out in the corner and were treated like royalty. We played until the place “closed” and then kept going because: Ireland. At the time, the John Cleere was a lively little pub, a nice place for the locals to gather and have a pint and listen to music. I learned that a few years after I played there they added a 100-seat theatre to the back of the pub.
Since then, it has been at the heart of every major arts festival in Kilkenny and become a cultural institution in its own right.
3148/163479, I = 1.93

Plague Months, Day 29

Sunday, March 29th, 2020

Away from “The Cut” and a few days in London Sept 13,1999

Note: Everything posted is in reverse order, so what you see in this little travel log starts with the end of the trip first. Just deal with it.

The Hotel
Sept. 13, 1999 – Checked into the Luxham Gardens apartments; much nicer than the first night in London. Had dinner near Earl’s Court.
Circus
That evening after dinner we went to Picadilly and saw the movie “Austin Pawers – The Spy Who Loved Me”
London
Near St. Margaret’s near Westminster. We checked out the walking tour of Whitehall with emphasis on:
1)The Banquet House. We took an audio tour and viewed the video on the history of the building. It was not a big tourist attraction so it was a pleasant place to stop.
2) The Cabinet War Rooms. This was the WW II bunker that housed the U.K. cabinet under Whitehall Street.
Tube Escalator
After the war room, we had lunch at the Weslian Church school cafeteria. Later we purchased half priced tickets to “The History of America” by the Reduced Shakespear Company. Sept 15, took the tube to the airport: End of vacation on the cut!
2475/141854 = 1.74 !