Ka-Boom!

While reading one of my favorite blogs today,

http://www.gapersblock.com

I came across this link that was morbidly
interesting.
The Google Map, Apocalypse Edition.

http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/
gmap/hydesim.html

It basically lets you put the coordinates
of your hometown into the program and lets
you know how you would fare if a 100 kiloton
blast hit your vicinity. (Roughly 7 times
the Hiroshima blast)This is a rather strange
way to make use of the internet I admit, but
is still amazing in a creepy way. I put
Grand Junction's longitude and latitude in
the space allotted and I feel confident that
we would be vaporized in fractions of a second.
Good to know that I wouldn't have to stock up
on SPF 30 or worry about my face falling off
from radiation several days after. It also
reminded me of growing up in the Chicago area
during the 70's during the later days of the
Cold War. Because we lived less than an hour
from the city and 1/2 hour from the steel
mills of Gary and the oil refineries of
Whiting, our area was known to be targeted
by dozens of Russian missiles. Upon finding
this out, my Dad commented that we would
probably set up lawn chairs in the front
yard to watch the show since it wouldn't do
any good to run. (I know where I received my
cynical side from) In this day and age, I'm
not really worried about an attack on Grand
Junction, but I don't have any lawn chairs.
Hmmm...I think I have other things more
important to worry about.

Books Books Books

Today I became an official citizen of Grand
Junction. I got my library card at the
Mesa County Public Library District.

http://mcpld.org/

It's not the biggest and best library I've
been to, but they're making strides toward
improvement, including a Central Library
Remodel project that just started this month.
They have good hours and the staff is
friendly. Plus they have the one thing I
thought was good about the Santa Fe Library:
A magazine swap. The way it works: You
bring in old magazines you don't want and
exchange them for ones you do. This way,
you can read semi-new magazines all of
time and are able to recycle them as well.
It's a good system and more libraries
should have it.

What I Learned in Antarctica

Yesterday we noticed a stinky, sewer-gas-type
smell coming out of our laundry room. Other
than learning how to dress warmly and to
watch the ground carefully when I walk, I
learned one more thing the last four years in
Antarctica. I learned that if you have a
stinky floor drain, it probably is dried out
and needs to be dampened with a bucket of
water. Many a time did this smell come out
of the floor drains in Buildings 155 and 175
at McMurdo. Now it was happening in my own
home. And yep...it did the trick. I'm sure
my parents will be proud that I have learned
this and that my college education has not
gone for naught!

Highline State Park

Near Grand Junction is Highline State Park.
It's a small oasis of a place that includes
a fairly large lake (for western standards),
camping, and picnic facilities. It will
be a nice place to go later this spring
and summer to escape the heat and enjoy
the water. Supposedly there are lots of
whooping cranes, blue herons and white
pelicans that migrate here. Should be
interesting to see. When we visited,
there were only three other people in
entire park, including the park employee
digging near the boat ramp. Needless to
say, this time of year, it's not very
busy.

Green River

Feeling a bit bored and in a need of a
change of scenery (one can only look at
boxes of household items for so long) we
hit the road today for a very small road
trip. Our destination: Green River Utah.
Green River Utah??? you say.
Why...because we had never been there.
If you've ever been to Green River, that
is a very legitimate question. Once we
got there, we thought pretty much the
same thing. I expected a more verdant,
small town, less touristy version of
Moab. Hmmm...small town, not at all
verdant, a good selection of chain motels
and that's about it. I predicted before
we arrived that there would be a Wal-Mart.
I was wrong. The drive there was
uneventful and pretty, albeit very very
bleak and empty. A couple of cows, some
ravens and a few unidentified road kill
remains. I half expected buzzards to be
circling above us, waiting for their prey.
The good thing was, this was all close to
home....the bad thing was...this was all
close to home.

Curt Gowdy

Curt Gowdy passed away today. He was 86.
I remember many a Saturday afternoon, growing
up, watching "The American Sportsman" with
Curt Gowdy. I've never been a hunter or
much of a fisherman, but Curt made it
interesting because not only did he talk
about the prey or the game, he would talk
about the nature of the area and the lie of
the land. In 1971, the State of Wyoming
named a state park near Cheyenne after him.
I think about him and his show every time
we drive through that area. He was also a
great baseball announcer. Watching most of
the great World Series of the 70's, it was
his voice I remember. He will be missed.

Weather...or Not

We've been in Grand Junction just over
two weeks, and we've yet to have any rain
or snow. This weekend, much of the rest
of the country, including the Front Range
is having bitter cold temps, but not us.
But...today looks like we might finally
have some rain. Just to play it safe
though, I'm not going to wash the truck
or hang out any laundry to encourage it
to do so.

Domesticity

In one day this week, we received our Refrigerator, Washer and
Dryer, Television Cable, Phone and Internet Service. We also
put together our long lost bed that hadn't seen our shadow
since September 2001. Scary how quickly one can become domestic
again after such a long time. Today I hooked up our wireless
internet through the router I talked about the other day and
found a mysterious bag of Fry Bread mix that we stored from
2001. Hmmm...probably a good idea to let that one go to the
dumpster.

Beware of Flying Irony

Our backyard borders on the left field of the Grand
Junction High School practice baseball field. While
I was taking out the trash today, I stopped and
watched them taking batting practice. After a while
one of their coaches, who is walking outside of the
fence, stops and chats with me. Apparently our yard
is ground zero for home runs over the left field fence.
This has been a problem for some time as there is a
15 foot high chain link fence in place that reportedly
stops half of the balls from sailing into our yard.
(This fence also impedes our view of the Colorado
National Monument mesas but not significantly, so I
can't really complain) Anyway, the coach is a nice
guy and we chat for about 10 minutes and he informs
me that if a batted ball breaks anything of ours,
including car windows, the athletic department will
pay for it. Sounds fair enough I say and after
another minute, he goes back to practice and I go
inside. Not ten minutes later, our landlord drops
by for a visit. While he's here, we get a knock on
the door. It's the coach. A ball has just taken
out the back window of our landlord's vehicle. Not
thrilled, but taking it in stride, our landlord
accepts the ironic information and goes on his way.
By the way...we aren't parking our vehicle by the
fence. It will take a Babe Ruth-sized home run to
hit it in it's comfortable place in the driveway.
But...I've vowed to keep all baseballs that land
in our yard. I don't know if our landlord kept the
baseball that landed in his car.

Raiders of the Lost Storage Unit

This is the last scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark,
but it could easily be an overhead view of our
storage unit. Unfortunately it isn't lost. We
know exactly where it is, but like the Indy Jones
movie, it is quite an archaeological dig. Since
we haven't seen most of the contents for nearly five
years, there are things in this unit that I have
no idea where they came from, let alone didn't know
they were ours. The microwave oven we found today
didn't come from some ancient Egyptian or Assyrian,
but somehow it appeared in our storage and we're
happy to have it. Where did it come from??? We
can't remember. Maybe we should take the contents
on tour to all of the famous museums of the world...
or maybe we should just have a garage sale.

Routers Routers Everywhere...

I spent way too much time this evening looking
at routers. For those uninitiated, routers are
the thing-a-ma-bobs that enable you to connect
a wireless laptop to a cable modem. Because
we're getting cable modem internet access next
week, for some reason I found this maddening
search important. Now I probably know more about
routers than any 10 people need to know.
I admit...this is sad.

Home Sweet Home

We found a nice little house. It's in Grand
Junction, about halfway between Downtown and
St. Mary's Hospital. I think we'll be happy
here.

Mike the Headless Chicken

We were out for a short drive today when we came
to the small town of Fruita, just west of Grand
Junction. Fruita was the home of Mike, the
Headless Chicken. Apparently, in 1945, Mike
was about to become a farmer's dinner.
Miraculously, Mike survived since only part
of his brain stem was removed. He continued
to peck and preen for the next 18 months and
even gained almost 6 pounds before succumbing
to a choking accident. Now there is a statue
on Fruita's main street honoring Mike. If only
Mike had a head...to have eyes...so that he could
see it...I'm sure he'd be proud.

Mount Garfield

A major landmark in the Grand Junction area is
Mount Garfield. Although it's more of a mesa
than a mountain, it's one of the first things
you see when arriving into the Grand Valley
from the east on I-70. At 6765 feet elevation,
it's part of the Book Cliffs that run from
just east of Grand Junction into eastern Utah.

Colorful Colorado

We're taking the winter off from McMurdo this
year and are planning to go back in October.
In the meantime, we're living in Grand Junction,
Colorado, being domestic and enjoying the Western
Slope. Should have lots of time to blog now that
we're done travelling for a while. Had a great
Christmas in Santa Fe, a nice visit with family
in Oklahoma and a nice long visit with my parents
in Northwest Indiana, near Chicago. Since we
haven't had a "summer" since 2001, it will be
nice to experience some warm weather and lots of
sun here in Colorful Colorado!