Writing as a Path to Awakening
Are you ready to...write forth the truth of who you really are? ...writing is an explanation of consciousness... From Sappho in the 7th century BC to Penna Chodron...Ruma in the 13th century... - Shambhala Mountain Center, spring/summer 2016
5 Ways to Get Noticed by Prominent People
Use your connections to expand their circle of influence... Influencers often ask for...feedback from their...blog readers. ...even a great restaurant suggestion for hosting clients can make an impression. Focus on making your...social media as value-driven as possible. - YOU Magazine, 3/2016
...a depressed female juggling kids, a husband and a job. ...the tired, overweight, depressed woman complaining she just doesn't feel good. "Her hair is falling out, her skin is bad..." - Colorado Parent, 3/2016
...suffering, anxiety, insecurity, guilt, depression, and illness are simply cries from your soul asking you to love, accept, forgive, honor, value, and be true to yourself now. ...unlock the stuck energy, blood and emotion, keeping you unhappy, sick, or trapped.
...chronic pain, personal crisis, or the ongoing challenges of a "full catastrophe." ...guided contemplation... ...a way to change our intention... We will encounter the divine Mother in both her peaceful and wrathful manifestations... - Shambhala Mountain Center, spring/summer 2016
Created in 2002, Blueprint Denver divided the entire city into "areas of change" and "areas of stability." ...bringing public-transportation options...to accommodate increased density. But no one predicted how much, or how rapidly, Denver would change. "When you have wholesale turnover on the council, there's no memory. And when you don't have any historic remembrance, no one around understands the principles. I would argue that Michael Hancock's administration during this period of strong development pressure has violated every principle of Blueprint Denver." ...lawn signs with a depiction of black buildings towering ominously over smaller surrounding houses. "My fair understanding was that once something is zoned, it is essentially illegal to go back and take that right away from a property owner, because presumably they've paid a price that's based on the development potential of that lot and its zoning." "Plans like these should be aspirational documents - forward-thinking and taking care of the young people we don't even know today. They should be big, they should be bold, they should be ostentatious. It has to be balls-out." ...there is a new city council in place...who...voted against rezoning...to a code that would allow for larger buildings. "Don't necessarily believe that the city has your best interest at heart. ...then start your fight early." "I understand that there is a deliberate attempt to not make the language...legally binding." - Westword, 3/3-9/2016
Home prices rose 6.3 percent from December 2014 to December 2015, according to CoreLogic, a global property information services provider. Strong demand and light supply... - YOU Magazine, 3/2016
Anybody know what's going into the old savers building?
It appears to have turned into a rest stop for truckers and people living in recreational vehicles.
Sprouts was supposed to go in there... I wish they had never got rid of Savers:(
Trader Joes is what I heard
...last I heard was another high end grocery or a sporting goods store...
I have been told...a high-end health/exercise club, complete with pool.
Wide variety of "guess's"...last I heard...another 2nd hand store...
Thank goodness that derelict gas station will now be a beautiful new Starbucks.
I originally heard that abandoned restaurant and Savers space was going to have a Safeway store.
Amazing how may rumors float around. Don't expect to see a Trader Joes or Safeway in area.
.....Savers...are now opening stores called Unique Thrift! - Nextdoor Westwood, 3/6/2016
These developers aren't trying to be "green." ...they don't give a shit about anything green other than their money.
...How do a lot of these projects get approved? The city planners have to be higher than anybody else in the city.
...the public transit system is okay, but not great...
Because we're all supposed to be using public transit and riding our bikes - except the fools who let this piss-poor crap planning pass. I guarantee they have a place to park their cars. - Westwood, 3/10-16/2016
DENVER IN DREAMTIME
When you live here, sometimes you can feel the dream breathing all around. I...can't recall all the beautiful sky-eyed girls I ever saw hiking in the Flatirons or on the chairlift ahead of me... All I knew was that there were a million untracked powder days ahead of me, and for that, I was eternally optimistic. Optimism is the essence of this place.
THE DREAM DEFERRED
So many dreamers keep moving here... Every year it seems there are that many more of us out there, hoping to see our shadows in the wilderness. If you want to blame anything, then blame the music and the way...you...fell in love...like it just changed your life. Blame it on...Colorado...how when you first saw it you knew you could never live anywhere else. - Elevation Outdoors, 3/2016
A concentrated opportunity for...the Werma Sadhana to connect with the mind of the Sakyong. Dathun, Tibetan for "moon session"... ...a gathering of Shambala warriors to...manifest...a good human society. ...Shambala vajrayana teachings ...into a sacred relationship with the virachanya guru, Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche... ...the Pre-Celestial Limitless Gate School (Xiantianwujimen)... - Shambhala Mountain Center, spring/summer 2016
The Temple was a spiritual accelerator...the Eighth Wonder of the World. ...a high tech device...translates the frequencies plants emit into a language of song. ...the use of gemstones and herbs...in your home related to the paranormal. ...Angels and Masters of Heaven. ...changing past lives and interaction with parallel universes. ...the Masters of Wisdom will soon appear... ..."wheels of spinning light"... A specific 5th Dimensional vibrational Egyptian Essence will be chosen by the Masters... ...the numbers you choose for your life... ...significant galactic energies... ..are you ready to BE in fifth dimension? A Practical Common Sense approach to your Energy System and the Power of the Universe. ...to establish symbolic communication with forces beyond our comprehension. Group Activations... ...massage...Angels, crystal, color...positive thinking...business consultation. ...Angel Psychic and Law of Attraction Coach... ...DNA Activations. ...a life changing telepathic encounter with dolphins. - Body Mind Spirit Celebration, 2016
In 1965 the Chinese Communists began sending "truth squads"...to preach "revolutionary culture and scientific thought in order to fight superstition. For Mao had not managed to kill the occult. ...the marketplaces...were still doing a roaring trade in..."the forseeable future." Work bulletins circulated to formation and unit commanders in the Chinese Communist Army revealed in 1964...some soldiers dreaded sorcery more than sergeants. One reconnaissance unit refused to go out on sorties t night for fear of ghosts, and...a military telephone line that ran through a graveyard was left out of order for two years. ...the seventh-century West moved from Tycho Brahe...still loaded down with the mysticism of the Middle Ages, to Isaac Newton...of cold, natural laws. Like second-stage rockets...science...detached itself from...superstition. But during the crucial period between Galileo and Newton, the Manchus had moved into China...carefully preserving the matured civilization... Western technical progress was treated with disdain and suspicion. China closed up. - Bloodworth
MARCH 10 "ASTROBIOLOGY & THE REAL POSSIBILITY OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE, VAIL HOT TOPICS SCIENCE EDITION"
MARCH 14 "NEAR DEATH AND SHARED EXPERIENCES VAIL SYMPOSIUM CONSCIOUSNESS SERIES"
...will discuss...process of reconciling spiritual experience with contemporary physics and cosmology. By probing deeply into consciousness...have discovered how humans...transcend the limits of the human brain and the physical-material realm.
MARCH 21 "OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCES, VAIL SYMPOSIUM CONSCIOUSNESS SERIES"
MARCH 28 "THE EXOCONSCIOUS HUMAN, VAIL SYMPOSIUM CONSCIOUSNESS SERIES"
Is our human consciousness defined by...space and spirituality...(ET) presence and UFOs? ...are we the ETs...? - Vail Lifestyle, Winter 2016
Your purchase of a BMW 535d xDrive Sedan says a great deal about you. It's a reflection of your refined taste and sense of style... You've embarked on a journey...with a range of privileges. ...the enclosed USB...preloaded with exclusive content... That's where you'll find helpful videos, apps, wallpaper and other benefits just for owners. We encourage you to set up a My BMW account... Once enrolled, you can take advantage of BMW Ultimate Benefits... ...get behind the wheel of your Ultimate Driving Machine.
Regards,
Ludwig Willisch
President and CEO
BMW of North America, LLC - package sent to the wrong mailbox
Friday. A day before the end of my work week. The weeks go fast, the months of this new year. 2016 is just a number. Fridays, I have to open. At a quarter after 4 AM, I'm out at the bus stop across the street from where I live. I used to be out here every morning right about this time, now it's just those Fridays when I am too tired to get out on the bike. Which so far is most Fridays Next to this bus stop is perhaps the last working pay phone. Posted next to a flyer announcing "I buy junk cars," is a Disney sticker. An SUV with a suspension twice as high as when it came out of the factory races past, with a dog that has its head out of the window. Even the dogs street race in my neighborhood. Why not. A fire truck comes down the boulevard, followed by an ambulance, lights flashing and siren blaring. The fire chief turns the corner and heads the same direction. Just about an hour later, I am on my last bus to work. The same transit system guy who trains drivers is standing up front with a new driver this early morning. The snaps the occasional instruction at him, letting him know when a stop is on the "far side of the" street "light!"
At work, I am drifting off to sleep. I am remembering days twenty years ago, hiking through Utah. I'm remembering being in grade school. These are intense impressions rather than visual experiences. I don't have time to doze long. The day goes fast. After work, it's going on 8:30 PM. I'm on a train to a bus back to my neighborhood. I usually ride the transit system at this hour a collection of random passengers; giggling sorority girls or bonding males, or grey-haired spouses on their way to some downtown event. On the bench at the bus gate where I will be in a few minutes will be a skater guy with hair like a honey blonde frightwig. This evening, I am sitting next to seven young men and a young woman. Students perhaps at the private university where I catch the train. They all strike me as smart. After a twelve-hour day with 5 1/2 hours of sleep, the put a smile on my face. Any of them could be my kids. It's a relaxing way to end the day. At my train station, I get out and on a bus with the skater guy and his two pals. This other guy comes on to announce that he has "just come from a catered event. Does anyone want any food? No? My dog will love it." When someone asks, he replies that it was an event for students who just got into law school, where the train station is. He jokes that they are soon to be dishonest lawyers. We are headed for a neighborhood full of prospective pro bono clients. Another guy sits next to him, in brown suede shoes, brown corduroy pants, and a brown suede jacket. And shoulder-length hair which looks like a mop. I reach for my camera, when I realize that I left it at home. 2016. Just a number. Especially on this bus. We both get out and head to the same bus stop. I hear a train horn from a direction where there are no train tracks. A pickup truck, with its suspension three or four times higher than when it left the factory, comes along. It blows its horn at the corner. Somehow, this truck has a fucking train horn.
Saturday. It's a shift which lasts a couple of hours less than yesterday. Once the customers woke up, they didn't stop coming in. I don't know how I got everything done. An hour and a half after closing, I am running for a connecting bus. I chase it out to a turn lane, but to no avail. Walking back to the train (I can catch another bus from the next station) I notice a newly opened cafe on the ground level of the new condo unit, built on top of the former parking lot for this train station. Where the windows usually are has been opened to the outside, and the patrons have a full view of my dash for the bus. Sunday. For dinner, I head over to the Vietnamese restaurant. Where I can count on groovy intellectual college-looking couples. One pair, next to the entrance, are dressed as circus performers. The guy is dressed as a hobo clown, and the girl in a lavender eighteenth century dress and lavender wig. In a freaking Vietnamese restaurant. With pickup trucks street racing up and down the boulevard right outside. A couple of tables over are three young overweight guys with long beards and buzz cuts, talking about the late Charles Bronson and Star Trek. After pho and scallions and mint, they are out in the parking lot laughing. With street racers parked in the next lot and a rooster in the yard behind the restaurant.
Students visit coffee shops and other public places...and...report back what they learn about American culture. - the profile, 3/2016
Hi,
Here is a flyer about the stepped up enforcement to prevent speeding...cruising on [my street]... ...my car (hit in November and February). ...I can only fit my wheelchair into... This car... "I you see...drag racing...please report it... These reports can be anonymous. Let people know that speed racing can hurt..." - Nextdoor Westwood, 3/8/2016
Wednesday evening. I'm on the way home. on the bike trail. Where the trail home comes to a bridge, next to a shopping mall, there on a stone wall in the dark is a couple making out. Thursday afternoon. It's a nicer day than i thought. On the way to work, I am looking for a bench along the trail to work where I can pull over and take off my long pants. At the bench I was thinking of is a guy standing, and lifting his bike up and down as if he is lifting weights. Ya know...I can wait for the next bench. That evening, I am halfway home when behind me, I suddenly hear barking where I saw no one walking their dog. Am I being chased by wolves? Before I cross a bridge over the river, I hear voices behind me. I turn around to see four headlamps of a pack of riders coming up. It looks as if I am being chased by spaceships. They disappear up ahead. Across yet another bridge, I'm headed down an alley on a construction detour. In one back yard off the alley, a young guy has a giant bonfire going in some kind of brick pit. He's stoking it with a long wooden slat.
Friday morning. Sometime after 4 AM. Bus stop across the street from where I live. Two guys come along. One hobbles across the street from the way I just came. He's familiar to me from when I used to be at this stop this early on a regular basis. The other, in an orange construction vest, comes over from the gas station. They exchange greetings before both wondering where the bus is. The one in the vest says to him, "it's in God's hands." God delivers the bus, which takes me to a connecting bus, and to the train station. For the ten years during which I was going to work this early, I was making this leg for perhaps a year, back when for the first time in years they changed the schedule for one of the buses I took to work. The same homeless guy I saw here during that year is still around. I referred to him as Mr. Tine Turner Hair, because his frightwig reminded me of one of her wigs. Back then, he used to go up to people and ask them, "If a man puts a demon's wishes before God's wishes, does that man deserve God?" This guy should host a presidential debate. Three hours later, I am at work when an in shape guy with an opulent vehicle comes in. He is leaving just as someone he knows comes in. The other guy swings around and says to him, "How do you like the car?" "It has 50,000 miles and runs like a dream." "Do you use the ski racks?" "Actually I use them for bikes."
Saturday. Twenty to 7 AM. Today the city's St. Patrick's Day parade. The party crowd is out, along with a smattering of families. At the train station is an elderly guy hobbling over to a bench. He's in sneakers, skinny pants, and a hoodie with "local" on the back in cursive script. After work, around 6:30 PM, the trains are loaded with people dressed in green outfits, either going to or coming out of downtown. Huge green hats. Green striped stockings. One dad with his two little kids has a necklace of giant green balls.
The immediate battlefield for post-war oil diplomacy was the disintegrating Ottoman Empire. The...Armenian entrepreneur... ...in 1914...put together...the Turkish Petroleum Oil Company (TPC). ...owned by BP...Shell and...the German Deutsche Bank... The agreement...divided the Arab countries...into British and French Mandates... In Iraq the...TPC...consortium could make vast profits with little resistance from the disorganized government... ...Britain had given independence to India in 1947...which fundamentally changed the military position in Iraq next door. ...the growing nationalist temper... The Secretary of State, Dean Acheson...was...worried by the possibility of a Communist takeover, and not at all averse to a stronger American presence in Iran. ...the State Department were only too glad to use the oil companies as part of their bullwark against Communism. The...reports from the Department of State, backed by Defence and The Interior... 'American oil operations are...instruments of our own foreign policy...' It was Acheson's arguments...that won the day. In the cause of defence, and in the fight against Communism, (American oil companies) must be brought into Iran. ...an International Consortium...to buy and develop Iranian oil. -Sampson
...the making of a good soldier... He was cheerful and he came from a race that took its crafts seriously... The world was to learn how true these words were. Capable of handling a hundred-pound crossbow with ease...might have well inflicted Alexander the Great a stinging lesson in the fallibility of famous generals. ...had he advanced far enough to encounter them. And one thousand years later men were still writing verse (about this soldier.)
Kipling could not have done better... American military analysts now pay serious attention... ...carefully studied by the Vietnamese guerillas in South Vietnam... - Bloodworth
When a nation becomes an empire... Powerful realms of ideology turn outward to impose their will abroad... ...when any nation has a political realm of ideology...and deep ideological currents purporting to bring about peace, progress, and justice in the world, it is on the way to becoming an empire. ...vision is a particular form of policy. Hitler and his gang managed to stay in power by sometimes crushing the people with the interests, but at other times, bludgeoning those interests with the threat of arousing the people's wrath against them. -
The Logic of World Power, by Franz Schurmann, 1974
Monday. I am on my way to work. The streets of my neighborhood are like a high school lost and found. At the bottom of a hill on a residential street, I hear voices when I look up to see three adults and a kid. One guy has his head under the hood of a truck. A woman has her foot on a bumper, to tie her shoe. It's a nice if a windy day, and inside her low-cut blouse I can see tattoos on her arms, her neck and her boobs. On the trail, the first bike to pass me is inside a yellow streamlined shell. The next to pass a motorized bicycle. Further down the trail, I am passed by a guy in shorts and a hoodie on a motorized razor scooter, followed by a scooter with an engine, in front of a bicycle. It's a strange procession. There are supposed to be no motorized vehicles on the bike trail. Just beyond this scene are a pair walking a dog. The guy is pointing out to the lady where he slept underneath a bridge. At work, another couple of customers are there when they recognize each other. When this happens, I feel as though I have stumbled into a party (or a neighborhood) where everyone knows everybody else except me, and I am witness to some kind of class gender roles. These two customers are female. Like the two male customers from the previous week, one is grey-haired and one is younger. It sounds as if they are discussing one particular instructor or teacher, of at least the younger one's children, whom they are both familiar with. After the older customer's transaction is complete, she exits to the younger one's car, not to admire the vehicle but to say hello to the children. 2016. Just a number. On my way home, I am cruising through one of several parks right next to each other. It's just after dusk. On the bike trail, I come upon what appears in the dark to be a Cub Scout and his dad. The kid, or the dad, or both are carrying what appear to be long bags the size of golf clubs. When I get up around a corner, there is the rest of the troop, and all the kids are hauling the golf club bags. As far as I know, this park is not a golf course.
One of these afternoons during the past two days. A short distance down the trail to work is one end of a bridge, the street from an industrial section of the long drive which follows the river. Employees of an office across the street come over here for walks during lunch. Standing next to the bridge, looking out across the river, is a homeless guy. There is the occasional homeless person wandering the trail or sitting on a stump, or laying under a tree on a nice day and appearing as if they are dead. This one, standing in a long black wool coat and knit cap, looks as if he was cast for the role. Yesterday and today, closer to work, a hawk joins me along the way, cruising the wind gusts. Today is Wednesday. Rolling down a residential street, I go past an abandoned baby shoe, in front of a sidewalk with some empty Corona bottles. A short distance down the trail, on a brand new and refurbished part of the path, I roll past a discarded syringe. A short distance past this is a big tent, part of a camp with a chemical toilet, a regular toilet from a home, and a collection of trash. It's been here for perhaps a month. Perhaps a couple of weeks ago, I saw a small camper parked on the road with the engine running, right in front of the camp, and someone walking around the camp site. On this afternoon, there is a Park Ranger pickup truck parked here, and three rangers complete with badges are taking down the tent. Just up the trail, I spotted another tent on the opposite bank of the river, where there were two people arguing. Some eight hours later, I am on my way home after sundown. I have a clear view of the crest of the next hill on the trail. When you see red lights, often blinking, they are a cyclist's tail lights. These are three huge red lights, and look like something out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Further up the trail, a guy is slowly walking toward me, his head under the hood of a coat. He appears in the dark to have a backpack on, and his nose is buried in his phone. I pass him and he does not appear to notice me. Once I am off the trail, I am on a new and more direct route home. As I pass a dark home, I watch as someone hops over the chainlink fence from the back yard.
I need to learn to stop fucking leaving my camera at home when I take the bus. I am on a bus up the street on a Thursday morning, about twenty after nine AM. In one of the front seats is a guy with shoulder-length grey hair. He is staring straight ahead with his eyes bulging out. He has the obligatory walker with plastic grocery bags tied to the frame. On the seat of the walker is an open duffel bag. Sitting inside is a Chihuahua in a dog sweater. At one stop a young woman gets on and throws a Shape magazine onto a seat, and proceeds to the back of the bus. I have been using the local municipal transit system for some 25 odd years now. On many a bus, I've seen schizophrenics and cut throats, school kids and construction workers. I have never seen anyone discard a magazine by throwing it onto a bus seat. 2016. Just a number. As his stop approaches, duffel dog man gets up. As he bends down to open the magazine, the bus comes to a quick stop. He looses his balance but regains it. The duffel dog is in no danger. Three hours later, I am on my last bus to work. A woman in a peach hoodie has come on. She stands at the front, as we cross each inch of snow-covered boulevard, she asks the driver where we are. It's her first time on this bus. She has one earbud from a wire in her phone, in an ear. "get out at the Conoco?" she asks someone on her phone. "I don't see no damned Conoco..."
Friday. 4:15 PM. Bus stop across the street from where I live. At the moment, light snow is blowing. The younger guy from last Friday shows up. If he has his orange vest on, it's under his coat. What he does have with him is a big orange snow shovel. He tells me that he looked out the window a couple of hours ago and saw no snow. It blew in fast. I woke up at 3:30, searching for a path to function for the next sixteen hours with less than five and a half hours of sleep, to snow already on the ground. In the bathroom I listened to melted snow run through the gutters. Out at the bus stop, the older guy from last Friday shows up. "How you like the weather this morning?" the younger one asks the other. "I don't like snow period," he answers. I know that I am in a TV show this morning. Every Friday, sometime after 4 AM. Only, if this was indeed a television program, I would not have to be awake this freaking early to watch it. But 1) I am awake this early, and 2) I have no choice but to watch. As a captive audience, I don't even have the option to go to sleep.
On the bus I am sitting across from a guy in a bright orange winter jumpsuit. On the connecting bus I am sitting behind a guy in a red hoodie under a winter jacket exactly the same color red. We swing around to the stop for the previous bus, and pick up yellow man. At 4:50 AM I am at the train station with a 19 minute wait for my train. A pickup truck with a plow makes the day's first pass over the platform. The driver gets out and leaves the door open, and listens to Mexican music as he collects the trash. On the way out, the truck honks for someone to stand clear. A pair of hoses sprays de-icer out of the back. I am a few train stops south at twenty after five AM. Stacked against an information display are sacks of ice. A sanding truck comes out of a parking garage. From the inside of a bus shelter, I watch gales of snow swirl off into the wind. Tiny drifts disappear off a chain link fence. Forty-five minutes later I am sitting at a table inside a bakery. As I wait for a pesto Florentine egg sandwich, I close my eyes. When I do, all that I see is blowing snow.
"...coming down and handing out sandwiches is just not the most dignified way to treat people that are experiencing homelessness." It is a neighborhood of extreme income disparities. The Rescue Mission's new Lawrence Street Community Center (LSCC)... She can't stomach most of the meals served there. The Ballpark Neighborhood Association sued to block its opening...has argued that lower downtown is host to an unfair share of services. ...many people remain along nearby streets. ...donations can "condition" people...and discourage them from coming inside for services. The mission's attempt to minimize these donations... "...we want to be a good neighbor. Anything we can do to keep our street clean..."
...Housing Denver is a broad picture of how the city will structurally readjust its housing strategies. ...increasing housing resources, revising city funding processes, addressing needs of the homeless population, increasing housing diversity, and preserving and rehabilitating existing properties. Last year alone, over 100,000 alone moved to Colorado. - Denver Voice, 3/2016
The seven major oil corporations had survived countless revolutions across the continents. Great refinery complexes...grotesque skylines of strange shapes... They seem to mark the triumph of technology over man. ...seemed to inhabit a no-man's land between the defined areas of government and business...the oil executives...seem hardly to touch ground between...adventures. The security of the West...the peace of the world... ...inhabiting their no-man's land, the companies could claim... Their consciousness of politics everywhere ...they may well have believed that they were dispassionately representing the world's...interests... - Sampson
It was America that launched the process whereby subject territories of European empires in Asia and Africa were granted independence. ...the entry of the Third World..onto the world political scene...finally dethroned the West as the sole active agent in the political affairs of the world... The receding of the American threat has given rise to...nationalisms among the socialist countries. Leninism has brought...revolutions...without creating larger transnational unities... De Toequeville saw...the inexorable march toward sovereignty by the people. Marx saw...the...power of the political economy until classless society prevailed... It has seen the rise of the Third World poor within America and the appearance in Western Europe of a new proletariat of foreign workers.
The core of the productive economy is the corporation. ...armies, police, and courts...all constitute organizations for the protection of the citizenry. People develop politically significant attitudes toward these... ...most citizens in society hold political opinions...periodically molded into fixed sets of ideas, which persist...beyond their political usefulness. The more clear cut and explicit they become, the more they take on certain qualities of doctrine... - Schurmann
Tuesday. It's shortly after 10 AM. I'm on my way to see my acting primary care physician, who is covering for my actual primary care physician until she returns, apparently sometime in September. The stop for the bus t my doctor is in front of a high school, down the street from where I live. It's an early spring day with the high headed for 70 degrees F. There are a handful of students out on the basketball court, the track. I watch a girl and a guy. As they approach the track, the guy touches a sign on the fence with his hand. It's probably a sign asking citizens to report anything suspicious to the police. They come on to the track, and he goes over and touches a sign against a wall, touches the handle of a water pump. He is shadowed a few steps away by the girl. He appears less mentally developed than his classmates, and the girl appears to be keeping an eye on him. I wonder if she gets extra credit for this. He wanders over to where I sit on the other side of the fence. I hear him say "Michael," which I assume is his name. I get on the bus and sit across from a woman with an infant and a stroller. When we get to a train station, she gets out as another woman who looks almost exactly like her gets on with an infant in a car seat.
Nine hours later I am at the bus stop where I work. Where most of the time the driver can see me here in the dark, this evening he is on his way past me until once again I wave my arms rapidly. He comes to a fast stop and when I get on tells me that I'm a "pretty good dancer." Up the avenue, he will go up over a curb with one wheel, asking us, "You guys wanted to go 4-wheeling, didn't you?" A half an hour later, I am at my last train station for the evening, waiting for a bus back to my neighborhood. With me is a grey-haired guy on a bluetooth, giggling, and a young, mentally challenged guy with a friend. We all file on the bus, and behind me, the mental guy tells his friend that the person who runs the facility where he lives is named "Greg, with two...I mean with one "g" not two..." The grey-haired guy chats away. We are stopped at an intersection when the driver opens the front door for someone in on the street. A drunk falls inside, picks himself up, and manages to put his fare in the box. He takes a seat and repeats more times than I can count, "I slipped, I slipped." We roll past my old deathburger and pull up to the stop across the street. The drunk gets up and points at the deathburger. "I'm going...to eat..there," he says. "I'm going...to eat...there." I get out and over to the stop for my last bus home. At the bench is a guy with a wheelchair in a black leather jacket. He polishes off a beer and tosses the can before he approaches someone else. "Can I...bum a...cigarette?" he asks with a neurologically damaged voice. The bus takes me to my corner, where an old man sits in a passenger seat of a car in a dark parking lot.
Good afternoon all,
By now you are well aware we are in the middle of a blizzard with blowing snow, slush, ice and severe visibility issues.
I am writing to inform you our snow removal WILL be delayed. ...there is ZERO visibility in places, electric and traffic lights out...chains are required on metro Denver roadways... We absolutely understand you have to get to work... - (my townhome's property management company), 3/23
I wouldn't know. Thursday was the second day I was not at work. Wednesday I got a call that my company was closed due to the aforementioned blizzard. At home, I was home having a liquid diet in preparation for Thursday's colonoscopy. The closest gas station and the Chinese place, open on any holiday, were shut down. I ventured across the street to the gas station which was open. Snow on the street lights prevented oncoming traffic from seeing the red lights. And I sure as hell didn't see chain number one on any tires. Friday. A rare one when I am out at the bus stop before 4:30 AM. Around 11 AM I am on a bus headed up the boulevard to catch a connecting one. Sitting up front are a couple of down and out-looking guys. The gabby one gestures with a couple of unlit cigarettes in his left hand. He tells the quiet one about a church which has pies. He ate a whole pie. He loves pies. Elsewhere is a mission which has doughnuts, and will inform you where to find housing. The 'county' sent him some kind of info which he lost. He mentions the name of a county on the edge of the metro area, some distance from downtown which we are quickly approaching. He has a sleeping bag. "I'm a solid individual; 63 years old." Despite some missing teeth and a weathered appearance, he looks good for 63. He sees me writing this down and asks to borrow my pen. He wants to let the other guy write down his phone number. He tells him, he's "a laborer. I had to quit school and I started washing dishes. I had two brothers." Both deceased. "They were selling drugs. That's why I never got too far from the projects. I wash dishes in a restaurant. That's what I do, labor work in the daytime amd at night I wash dishes. You know how desperate I am. I say, 'Hey, man...' I shovel snow for Ready Man..." He mentions the danger of a heart attack while shovelling snow. One place would not hire him. "I had no fucking ID." The driver mentions the next three stops, embellishing them. "The jail, for those of you who have to go to jail. The probation office, for those of you..." The third was the new court building.
The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter. I am walking the few steps to the bus stop on my own street. This early morning, a light spring snow drifts down, creating a pastoral scene in sharp contrast to Wednesday's blizzard. Standing next to a telephone pole is a snow-covered vacuum cleaner. Just in case I don't happen to know in which neighborhood I am..
Religions by and large believe that aspiration for a better world, a better life, and personal salvation form a major part of...currents of thought...shared by...a society... Marx...believed that true consciousness would...show that socially significant currents were expressions of material self-interest... ...great organizations have been developed to feed from and into...this social spirituality...mass media, churches, schools...cultural associations, and the institutions that pour...art into the public. - Schurmann
It was a Red Letter Day. ...a dying Jesus looked at those around Him and spoke His final words as a man. What did he say? Join us as we relive Jesus' final hours...on this Red Letter Day. - invitation to forefront church
Westwood nearby
Two nights ago my son saw... A couple of men were in front of the house...scoping out the block, pointing at cars and houses. He watched...and they put eyes on him...but they weren't in a hurry to leave. A short time later Lakewood police came to the door to tell us a neighbor had been assaulted in their home.
Where was this? I saw 2 paramedics and 3 cop cars...two nights ago and wondered what was going on...
...I live...close...but not sure what neighbor they got... - Nextdoor Westwood, 3/28/2016
Tuesday afternoon. The trail is full of characters. A lycra-clad cyclist stopped on the trail, on his phone. A couple of walkers, one of them a young guy with headphones, a can of energy drink, and having a smoke. When I got out of work, it had briefly rained. I made it down the street, and between two well-to-do adults each getting into a black SUV, before it rained on me. As I approached my own neighborhood an hour later, I had already dried out. Green lightning flashed in a thunderhead. Wednesday evening. I am out of the door from work and walking past a sandwich place a few doors down. It's a quarter to 8 PM. Snow flurries are blowing in the dark. Out of the sandwich place comes a family, including a guy in sunglasses with white frames. Forty-five minutes later, I am off a train and headed to the bus gate. A middle-aged woman appears in a skirt, leather coat and high heeled boots, carrying a cardboard box. Among the items in the box is a white mannequin hand. She asks a couple of people if they are waiting for her bus. One answers her, and she asks him if he has "a used transfer" she can have. I don't know what her scam is. If it's used, then it's no longer any good. When the bus shows up, she gets on and pays. I hear her on her phone, "...I've got this big box..." A couple of guys get on the bus. One bumps the other and says, "Excuse me." The other replies, "No problem, comrade." The bus drops me off at a corner back on my own street. I cross the street to the bus stop. At the other corner is a little guy, no older than his thirties, with a red beard, and pants which appear too short. He asks me for a cigarette. I tell him I don't smoke, and he tells me to have a good one. "I LOVE you," he replies. He could be drunk. At the intersection he stands not on the sidewalk but almost out in the street, and he is singing to himself all the way across the street. Across the street, a police car pulls up with its lights on. It puts its spot on him, and an officer says through the speaker, "Hold on, dude." She has him sit on the ground. It appears as if he hands the officer his license. A second police car pulls up on the sidewalk behind him.
We were sitting in the down-home bar... The intersection at the corner...is one of the many spots in the city where old is colliding with new, where the working-class Bud drinkers...are snagging parking spaces vacated by diners who've just tried...marrow fried rice...rubbing elbows - and maybe more - with fans headed to...Drag Show at Tracks. ...Old West lore...and people who arrived here...to create something new... We were sitting...with...former communications director for Visit Denver, the city's convention bureau... ...we compared notes about the basics natives and newcomers alike should know... Several of Denver's best dive bars disappeared this year. ...others transformed into hangouts for hipsters. There are plenty of coffee joints in this town...but too many of them have either been absorbed by corporate entities pushing their gift cards and branded CDs, or overrun by harried college students taking over every table and laptop plug-in. Ending an indulgent dining experience with a proper cup of coffee or espresso is an experience that's harder to find than it should be. It's the superpower of coffee: more caffeine, less acidity. There' a feeling that you get when you...see your favorite barista working: You know your drink is going to be perfect. Denver has one of the fastest-growing coffee scenes in the country right now. In the coffee world, there's little difference between a guy with a moustache and a barista... ...latte-art throwdowns are well known in the coffee community... People yell and jump and talk mad shit... - Westword, 3/31-4/6/2016
For many, Vail is a retreat from the world at large. And yet, for those inside its perimeter, it becomes apparent that it's not so much an escape as an alternative way to live.
And I love the lifestyle here - I spend my free time doing yoga, cooking, and being outside...
The styles offered are a combination of preppy, modern and rugged - think George Clooney sporting an afternoon shadow, wearing a flannel and designer jeans.
A relatively new look experts now call "mountain contemporary," or "mountain modern"... ...this blend of urban modern with mountain traditional, a veritable slew of new homes...now stand proudly throughout the Vail Valley... ...as younger homeowners come to the Vail Valley and younger people take seats on boards and commissions...the trend is moving toward more freedom, creativity and openness to modern, contemporary design. "We like to think we're at the leading edge, but not the bleeding edge." "Neighborhoods...are, indeed, finally changing their guidelines."
With Vail's growing second homeowner and older demographic... ...people who intend to live life...through mindful aging in the physical, emotional, and intellectual realms. "Vail is close enough (to a city) but far enough." ...developing genuine human relationships appeals to foreigners and U.S. citizens, alike. - Vail Lifestyle, Winter 2016
Local...radio personality...acknowledged that he and his cohort have four ex-wives and a slew of stories between them. ...accurately describing the make-up of the crowd. It resembled the face of the Colorado Republican Party itself...quipped. "Everyone over 50 and white."
There was a touching presentation by...two daughters...who spoke lovingly of their father who called them "communists" as little girls...
Hispanos Republicanos is...based in Denver. ...candidate for Colorado House District...spoke on...the need for republicans to reach out to Hispanic voters... - Denver Herald Dispatch, 3/24/2016
