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The drive between Washington Park and Greeley is becoming a well worn path. I learned very quickly that the best way to there is not I-25, but rather to go up the old highway 85. It is travel the way I grew up; stop lights, drive-in food restaurants, farms and farmers and many local homegrown businesses like Big Ed’s Radiators. It is a very busy drive but it is absent of the frenetic lane dodging as you work your way up the stop and starts of the New Colorado (AKA SoCal Light). For the second time I turned on my…

I was headed home when I got the ‘ping’ about two blocks from our place.  The “pin” showed the pick up near the Boat House at Washington Park.  As I pulled up I saw four folk standing out on the corner staring at a smart phone.  That is almost always a sign that they are my future passengers.  It was a Mom and three young kids, who I soon found out were 14 (daughter),12 (son), and 10 (daughter).  They were no more in my car than I knew by their very proper British accent they were not from Texas.  Their…

Last October it was news that the Colorado Department of Transportation announced that they were participating in an experimental use of a driverless truck. You can read all about it by clicking this link: http://www.denverpost.com/2017/06/29/self-driving-beer-truck-world-record/    From time to time I have interesting conversations with with Lyft riders about how I feel about the possibility of being replaced by SIRI. So it was, this week as I took Tim off to meet a friend at a bar in LODO. He represents a demographic that no longer owns a car. “I sold my car. I figured that by what I save…

I am getting used to driving at a less intense pace.  With four days a week in Greeley, my Lyft driving has been relegated to very part-time.  When I started writing this for you in January, I would often give 80-100 rides a week.  Now it’s more like 10-15.  Occasionally I am concerned that I will have nothing to share with you.  So far that has not happened At All!!!  Last night I picked them up in Capital Hill, a thirty-something woman and man who were headed to the RINO District (river north) to a giant brewpub to play trivia. …

Doesn’t that title inspire you to want to write your own poem?  I will spare you mine.   Today I want to take you on a ride with a man who moved here from Camaroon a few years ago.  He picked us up at the Indiana Convention Center on Monday night, after we had just listened to a most powerful sermon by Dr. Serene Jones, who is the President of Union Theological Seminary in NYC.   I have known Serene for 42 years.  I think the last time I saw her she was in 9th grade.  Her father, Dr. Joe…

I confess I stole that title from my friend Jim.  He audited Fred Craddock’s preaching course some 40 years ago.  Jim is NOT a preacher but he had the opportunity to learn from, arguably, the man who brought “story telling and Biblical preaching” together in a manner that has transformed narrative theology (the Mystery is best understood and shared through story).  Jim is a screen writer who has shared that this course was the best course he ever had in communication (and Jim teaches in both the undergraduate and graduate schools of Film at UCLA). With this explanation I will…

As I move to my more permanent position as the Senior Pastor of Greeley First Christian Church, my Lyft driving has moved from 80-100 rides a week to maybe 15-20.  I will hit 4,000 rides sometime in August.  What this means to the Blog that I have come to truly enjoy, is that I am more on the lookout for something that we together might find interesting.  In these past six months I have tried to give you a sense of the enormous variety of people that I encounter when I turn on my app.  I had 15 rides on…

I was in the southwest part of old Denver. I don’t remember ever being in this specific part of town. What a lot of people do not know about the metropolitan area here, is that at one time, towns like Littleton, Wheat Ridge, Arvada, Lakewood and Golden were all separate communities surrounded by small farms. The vestiges of these farms often show up in the most interesting places.  You might find yourself driving down some ordinary residential street and all of the sudden there’s a horse farm.  That’s exactly where I picked up a most delightful man. He came walking…

I had just finished a very busy Thursday at my new gig with Greeley FCC.  I was out on the west side of town so I thought I would go home to Denver via I-25 during rush hour.  This is a bit like deciding to head to Safeway the day before Thanksgiving.   I thought it would be a great time to turn on my Lyft app.  I had little hope I would get a ride, as Lyft is very new to Greeley.  I was almost to I-25 when the ‘ping’ came.  I did a U-turn and headed back 11…

Last night I celebrated my son Mateo’s 40th birthday two days early. In the semi-chaos of our lives I was able to meet him and my daughter-in-law at the Sushi Den on South Pearl St. I have heard wonderful things about it for years but this was the first time for all of us. We were not disappointed. One comment about having my youngest turn 40…YIKES!!! After the dinner we went outside to stand on the curb and enjoy the afterglow in the evening light and cool air. We had noted two moms herding five little kids out of the…