Los Lonely Boys at Howelsen Hill
The summer concert series continued with Los Lonely Boys. The crowd was big and most of the people seemed to be really enjoying themselves. All I can say is that I wasn’t into it. Before I get a bunch of hate comments let me finish by saying that it wasn’t any fault of the band. I don’t know the band or their music and it just wasn’t my kind of thing. If you want a copy of the show go to phrog.org.
I am looking forward to the next show which will be Sam Bush.
The Many Seasons in Colorado
Colorado has the four main seasons just like most of the country. Winter is the longest season spanning practically six months of the year. The rest of the seasons may be short, but they are still noticeable. Spring and Fall go by very quickly. You can miss them if you’re not paying attention. Summers can last approximately three months and lately they have been extremely hot and dry. Up here in the mountains, we have a few more seasons that the rest of you may not experience. For example, we have Tourist season. We get folks from every corner of the globe. Unfortunately, quite a few of them come from Texas. It used to be two very distinct seasons; Summer Tourism for the campers and hikers and Winter Tourism for the skiers and riders. For the past few years, however, Tourist season has started to feel like it lasts all year round. During the Fall and early Winter we also have Hunting season. This is when a bunch of guys from the Midwest and east coast come up to the mountains to drink Budweiser and try not to kill each other. Some of them can actually distinguish between a deer and an elk. There is one more season that we have to suffer through up here in the mountains. It’s one that all of us would rather not have to experience and it is beginning right now. We call it Earwig season.
These lovely critters start showing up around the middle of July and will stick around through August. They don’t do much harm, but they are incredibly creepy. They have these awful looking pincers on their butt and they will use them. The worst part of these little bugs is that they can fit through the smallest openings and get into places that seem impossible. They crawl around under the baseboards, up the walls, and across the ceiling. Earwigs like dark, damp places, so you usually have some company in the shower. You can try washing them down the drain, but they come back. Just mention earwigs to the folks who live here and all of them will tell you how much they hate them.
Mofro at Howelsen Hill
This show was the second in the Summer Free Concert Series in Steamboat Springs. What an amazing show this was. Laura from Little Moon Essentials started off the show with the Holden Young Trio with special guest Dave Allen. Mofro took the stage around 7:30 and blew us away with some Florida Swamp rock. This band has been a favorite for a few years now. You can get a copy of the show at archive.org. The whole evening went off perfectly. No one screwed up the beer. The crowd was full of energy and completely into the music. The weather was beautiful with a tiny sprinkle to cool things off a bit.
Here’s a sample for you to check out:
A Nature Filled Sunday
Sundays are quite typically spent lazing around the house. Sometimes recovering from too much wine from the night before. This happens to be the case for this Sunday. The dull ache in my head won’t go away. Right at this moment I am sitting on the back porch watching the various birds in the yard. We have quite a diversity; chickadees, goldfinches, red-wing blackbirds, mourning doves, green-tailed towhees, black-headed grosbeaks, bright red finches, orioles, northern flickers, robins, pine siskins, cowbirds and some sparrows. Most of them have been taking turns at the feeders. The chickadees don’t mind my company at all. They are fun to watch as they hold a sunflower seed in their feet and pound it open with their beaks. They sound like woodpeckers. A couple of red-tailed hawks circled overhead for a few minutes. A rufus hummingbird and broad-tail hummingbird have been taking turns at the sugar water. The most curious bird behavior on display is being performed by a crazy flock of swallows. There must be at least 75 of these birds flying all over the sky. They have been landing in a large bush together and then, for apparently no reason, they all take off together. They do a few laps around the house and then return to the bush. This has been going on all day. It looks like fun.
It’s too hot to do much more than sit and watch. There’s a nice breeze, however. The swaying of the willow branches is almost hypnotic. If I close my eyes and just listen, I’m surrounded by bird calls, the buzzing of insects and the rustle of the tall grass blowing in the wind. I could probably fall asleep out here quite easily. In fact, the cat has been doing just that. Not even the birds can keep her attention. I tried to do some reading, but I keep getting distracted by the flutter of feathers as another bird lands in the tree in front of me. The tree is a rubber tree that was taking over the living room. We trimmed her branches and stuck her out on the back porch for the summer. Her name is Audrey and the birds lover her.
It’s an absolutely perfect day.
The Turtle Warrior
I would recommend this to anyone who wants a quick summer read. Take it on your beach vacation – it’s perfect for the airplane. It received quite a lot of hype and was on the NY bestsellers list for a while. Unfortunately, I usually don’t care for most books that everyone else gushes over. It moves along quickly, however, I kept having that, “I’ve read this before feeling”, even though I know that I haven’t.
Excerpt from the back of the book:
In this stunning debut, Mary Relindes Ellis takes readers from the heartland of America to the battle-fields of Vietnam, weaving a haunting novel in which the physical and the spiritual, the past and the present, merge.
The Lucases live in the beautiful, isolated country of northern Wisconsin, inhabited by working-class European immigrants and the Ojibwe. By 1967, their farm has fallen into disrepair, thanks to the hard drinking of John Lucas, who brutalizes his wife and two sons. When the eldest, James, escapes by enlisting to fight in Vietnam, he leaves young Bill alone to protect his mother with only the spirit of his brother to guide him. Protected by a turtle shell shield that he believes will keep him from harm. Bill embarks upon his journey into manhood – and his dream of creating a family very different from his parents.
2010 F1 Schedule
Date Location Mar. 14 
Sakhir - Bahrain Mar. 28 
Melbourne - Australia Apr. 04 
Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia Apr. 18 
Shanghai - China May 09 
Barcelona - Spain May 16 
Monaco May 30 
Istanbul - Turkey Jun. 13 
Montreal - Canada Jun. 27 Valencia - Spain Jul. 11 
Silverstone - Great Britain Jul. 25 
Hockenheim - Germany Aug. 01 
Budapest - Hungary Aug. 29 
Spa-Francorchamps - Belgium Sep. 12 
Monza - Italy Sep. 26 
Singapore Oct. 10 
Suzuka - Japan Oct. 24 
South Korea Nov. 07 
Sao Paulo - Brazil Nov. 14 
Abu Dhabi - United Arab Emirates -
