The Countdown is on

Memorial

And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. - Malachi 4:6

Unfortunately the hearts of the children have not yet been turned to the fathers in Denver. Since I can't be home this holiday weekend I took a drive through the oldest and largest cemetery in Denver. I'm shocked at the lack of flowers decorating the graves of loved ones. Only about 10% of the graves had flowers to indicate that they were remembered, and grocery stores do not have plats of mums on sale. I've always loved cemeteries. They feel like sacred places to me, full of stories. I considered continuing my family's Cache Valley tradition of adopting a forgotten grave and making sure that it is decorated each year, but with tens of thousands of lonely headstones on memorial weekend it seems futile.

Thankfully the veterans are remembered with flags, but no flowers from the families they were torn from. For those of you in Utah, where Memorial Day is marked with trips to multiple cemeteries dripping with flowers and visiting families, be grateful that you live in a place where people still care about their heritage. And I am thankful that even though I can't be home, I have family who will remember all those who have come before.

April Showers

I haven't figured out the winters in Colorado yet. The year before I moved here the Metro area was hit my a series of blizzards over Christmas that trapped people in their homes for weeks. It was so severe that it resulted in a Blizzard Baby Boom nine months later. I was so worried I bought a new car before I moved. Since then the storms have pathetic, and the snow doesn't stay around for long. Last week temperatures in Denver were in the 70s for the Tax Day Tea Party (more on that to come), but on Friday the biggest storm of the season hit. Coloradans are horrible drivers in the snow, so I took a Snow Day and stayed home. By Friday night we had 8-10" of wet, heavy snow on the ground. It's the most snow I've seen since I left Utah, and it was beautiful.

The storm continued through Saturday and the snow turned to rain. Rivers of water and slush ran through the streets.

Today temperatures reached the 60s and the snow is all but gone.

I'm so disappointed. I wait all winter for snow. It finally comes in April and it's gone in 36 hours. On Tuesday the temperature will be back in the 70s.

Richard III

True hope is swift, and flies with swallow's wings;
Kings it makes gods, and meaner creatures kings.
Richard III, 5. 2

Was Blogging Ever Cool?

Click to enlarge.

Google Me

I'm not much on memes, but when I ran across this one I was intrigued. It combined two of my favorite things, googling and picking out pictures. So here is a collage of all things me. The funny thing is I googled all these pictures last fall and never had the chance to post them. Now I can't remember what I was thinking when I picked them out or which trait they represent. Your guess is as good as mine. Click on the collage to see it bigger.

Google Me

my AGE, my MIDDLE name, my favorite place to TRAVEL, my FIRST job, my GRANDMOTHERS name, my favorite VACATION spot, my kids NICKNAME, my VICE, my first PET, my favorite COLOR, my SCREEN name, my first LOVE, where I LIVE, what I studied in COLLEGE, my FIRST name, my favorite FOOD, my favorite ANIMAL

Shigeru Ban

Innovative design from one of my favorite architects. Shigeru Ban and the Pompidou Metz was the subject of my senior thesis.