Archive for February, 2013

What will they think of next?

Wednesday, February 27th, 2013

A mystery next door:

Strange ski tracks in the snow

What the heck is this? While out walking Duncan Madog, we came across these tracks that look like they were made by skis. The tracks seem to make graceful curves in the snow with the pair of skis seeming to remain parallel about 20 inches apart.

A closer look at the tracks

It appears that the only markings in the snow are caused by two skis. There is no evidence of a track as on a snowmobile or pole plants as on cross country skis. What could have made these tracks?

Answer: The Goosinator!

The maintenance department at FRCC have finally found something useful to do besides maliciously destroying neighborhood property: The are using a ‘drone’ to scare away the geese! Yes, there is a company in Denver that developed this remote controlled wingless ‘ski-plane’  to chase away geese off your property. The company calls it “The Goosinator”.  Apparently you have someone “fly” this thing after the geese a few times and then set up a few “decoy” orange painted toothy yellow-eyed goosinator impostors around the yard and the geese won’t land there again.  Or poop there again, which I would assume is the main reason for scaring away the geese. The goosinator website says they cost about $3500.oo which is cheap based on their cost analysis of goose damage to golf courses.

But the FRCC is no golf course, so the justification for this expense seems kind of flaky. Being that the  FRCC is the Front Range Community College, it might have made better sense to have had some of the tech students work with the construction and art students to build their own goosenator or perhaps have a few teams build a few of them and have goose chasing competitions. I also think the students could build something like the device pictured above for about $500. They might even learn something in the process.

Dog days of winter

Sunday, February 24th, 2013

Animal Pix:

The FCMOD’s BFF

The Fort Collins Museum of Discovery has a rather large display in the front lobby that has a live Black Footed Ferret. On this day the ferret was taking a bath in its water dish.

Duncan Madog in the snow

The dog named Duncan was out frolicking in the snow. SNOW! Finally some moisture in the foothills. Currently the snowpack levels are 75% of normal so we could be in for an interesting summer.

…And apparently the image sizer on the WordPress app is stuck on “Medium” for the moment.

Another Kind of Zoo

Monday, February 18th, 2013

As the sign says:

Bloco em Foco was the opening act for the Musical Zoo

In front of the Main Auditorium

Opening band for Tubby the Tuba (according to this website, ‘the most famous tuba in history’) was Fort Collins’ premiere samba band “Bloco em Foco and they really did rock the zoo that afternoon. Beleaza!

Fat Tuesday #5

Tuesday, February 12th, 2013

Hey!–This blog is 5 years old today! How is that possible?

Our first post was February 12, 2008; It was VERY basic, see the link HERE to see what it looked like. At that time we didn’t know where we would end up but we knew we were going on a road trip to search for a place to live so that’s how ROADSIDE MYSTERIES was born.

In that first year we searched for the best place to live; We sold our house in Arlington heights and bought a house in Fort Collins; The Red Herring had a reunion; We attended many events like Tour de Fat and the Symphony for 1000 drums. It was all good!

By February 12, 2009 we were really getting to know the area and meet all sorts of great friends. There were science fairs and hospitals to visit, washing machine museums, trolley rides, and lots of music everywhere. Became part of a Samba band. Oh, we went to Denver for the first time too.

On our second birthday we changed our blog format and switched to something called WordPress. More stuff, like a cruise vacation and more in-depth music locations. More coverage of RAGBRAI, or not and ventures outside of Larimer County by bike and/or bus happened.

Our Third Year we checked out southern parts of Colorado, and our first Frozen Dead Guy Day. I drummed for 3 days with Arthur Hull; Traded my car for a bicycle at the Tour de Fat;

… And by Year Number Four we slimmed down a bunch. This was the year of the iPad and because of this device, some methods for getting pictures to the blog have influenced how this blog looks… and typing on the iPad is not that easy– but I practice often. By year four I became more involved with the start-up of the new museum, more involved with the entomology department at CSU, and it seems that I have attend a lot of parties featuring belly dancers??

And of course there was a

Fat Tuesday Party:

Food and Floats

Red beans and rice, Jambalaya and miniature Mardi  Gras float building

Balloon Student

Thursday, February 7th, 2013

The view from my “desk” in room ENGR100 at CSU:

Observing the “Balloon Boy” lecture of 2012

While we would all like to forget about the boy in the cardboard box hoax (See Balloons over Timnath, Part 3) I was reminded of a certain CSU physics teacher who was asked by television reporters whether or not it was possible for such a balloon filled with helium might actually carry 6 year old Falcon Heene from Fort Collins to somewhere 12 miles from Denver International Airport. He (the physics teacher) said it was indeed possible.  Yes, it turns out our own Brian Jones was hoodwinked by incorrect balloon dimensions given to him by Richard Heene on that fateful day in October, 2009.

February !

Sunday, February 3rd, 2013

Wow! Where did January go? OK, here’s some stuff from the December/January archive:

Slinky the Ball Python

This guy is on display at FCMOD but on certain days I get to take him out of his terrarium and show him off to visitors who are willing to get close enough to touch a snake. This is similar to showing the spiders and roaches at the GEC bug bash, and, well, somebody’s got to do it.

Wagonwheel Drive

This one street in town has a number of homeowners who get together and decorate the whole block. Some themes merge onto other properties and traffic along this area is increased by a factor of 40X. It helped that the location was printed in the local paper.

The Tree featuring Papa Dell’s Pizza and the ‘Argo’ rug

This past year’s tree was a 9.5 foot Picea from Oregon.

Ski lift at Eldora

Perhaps the Spring ski season will allow me to visit more locations around Colorado. There are rumors that we will be going to the Loveland ski area soon.