Lyfting Me Up

My mom Pat was a pretty amazing cook. I really did not know how great she was until I left home. Whether it was cooking meatballs from scratch or homemade chicken and noodles, the food was amazing. Once we had a foreign exchange student stay with us on a cross country trek back to NYC,… Continue reading

The first time I remember playing volleyball was at the YMCA Camp Crockett. The scene was something like this—an open meadow with a net strung between two pine tree poles. On each side of the net were probably 15 boys with a couple of adult counselors. The volleyball, if it ever made it from one… Continue reading

I have been told that people enjoy lists so here is one from me. 10. The shift in the feel of the air that shows up around August 23. Everything moves from Summer’s heat to a crisp clean feel. Once it shifts the next three months move to Autumn. 9. The Colorado State Fair. Growing… Continue reading

There is a new invasive species moving into Colorado. Rumors of its coming have been circulating for months. My first sighting of its arrival took place a few weeks ago. I am not sure why I still often look at the ‘plates’ on other cars. I find out-of-state plates a source of both curiosity and… Continue reading

I just finished a 4,600 mile roadtrip which provided more than a few blog ideas. I had settled on writing about my second “fast food” encounter, and with a few hours of driving by miles and miles of cornfields, I was not lack for thinking time. All that ground to a halt when, on the… Continue reading

It’s not that I am “anti-sugar”, I can still be very tempted by the pastry rack at Starbucks. However, I do my best to stay far away from refined sugar, which is both a discipline of 23 years of Type 2 diabetes, and a desire to maintain a healthy body weight. For the last few… Continue reading

” One of my simple pleasures is being the first person in the morning to go lap swimming in our HOA pool. There is something very serene about being alone in the pool, where not even a ripple shows. On a morning after a nice Colorado thunderstorm the water in the pool seems even more… Continue reading

I am a planner. I can tell you that Christmas Eve this year will be on a Sunday without looking at a calendar. I am already thinking about next summer when this one is just getting started. This can be a great gift, an irritation to those I share life with, or a setup for… Continue reading

I am not much of a procrastinator unless I want to be. Over the years with six moves since 2009, I have collected a number of various sized ‘totes’ with the historical record of my life. In them are everything from year books, hundreds of photos, valentines from the 5th grade and every paper I… Continue reading

“Reunions” I admit I have a bit of jealousy when I see a group of 50+ people parading through Estes Park, all wearing lime green tee shirts. Embossed on them in bold letters and cool cheesy graphics something like “Baker Family Reunion 2023”. My family used to have a yearly “Pumphrey Pigout”. The last one… Continue reading