USA TODAY recently ran an article criticizing the city of Denver for the way they/we have treated people who want to protest during the Democratic National Convention.   The article said that the protesters were being treated like “pests.” 

Personally, I think the city has OVER-accomodated the protesters.  They’ve held numerous “forums” and “discussion panels,” to let the protesters have their say about what they want to do .  They’ve organized an extensive plan for parades, and have allowed for disruption of mass transit and other services so that “angry” people can blow off steam.  They’ve set up a designated “protest zone,” outside the Pepsi Center, complete with not one, but TWO loudspeakers.  (Won’t it be great when BOTH loudspeakers are crankin’ at the same time!  Dueling protesters!  FUN!)  There also will be tables set up inside the Pepsi Center where protestors can place informational LEAFLETS.  (Not that anyone will READ them, but…) However, maybe all that planning and accomodating is EXACTLY what rubs the protest groups the wrong way!   I mean, isn’t the nature of a “protest” to want to DISRUPT, so as to be heard and noticed?  When the city makes plans to PREVENT disruption, I wonder if the protest groups are thinking, “well, what’s the point of protesting then?”  Aren’t protests designed to “pester?”  And if so, is the city wrong for treating protesters like “pests?”  Isn’t that how they really WANT to be treated–in order to be NOTICED?  Just asking…

My wife and I had to buy a new vaccuum cleaner over the weekend.  It’s not that easy–they all look the same, all have 12 amp motors, all have the same attachments.  Of course, the prices vary–anywhere from $50 to $200.  Oridnarily, I’d just buy the cheapest, but I’ve learned that THAT strategy has its perils.  I don’t want to be back NEXT year about this time, buying another vaccuum cleaner.  Some woman and her husband were looking over the choices like WE were, my wife says “how do you decide which one?”  The woman says, “I buy the one that goes best with my furniture.”  Hmmm–guess that’s as good a reason as any!

The highlights of my weekend ALL involved eating.  We are still trying to finish our move from one house to another, simultaneously renovating and unpacking, so we took the easy way out at meal-time all weekend long.  I’m talking KFC, Pizza Hut, Wendy’s.  I haven’t eaten THAT much junk food on the same weekend in YEARS.  Oh, I forgot–LaMar’s DONUTS for breakfast!  I should tell you I’m just trying to be different–Colorado being all about outdoor activities, fit and healthy, I’m taking the road less-travelled.  I think I put on five pounds since Friday.

Me and my wife worked all LAST weekend setting tile in our living room.  Over the course of last week, eventually I got rid of all the mortar underneath my fingernails–only to put it right back there this weekend, tiling the bathroom.  [I guess I COULD wear gloves...]  Jonathan and Tracy mentioned how impressed they were that me and my wife tiled our home, with no prior experience.  I have to say, it really does look great.  But MAN, it’s a LOT of work.  If you’re on a budget and have the time, GO for it.  Otherwise, leave it to the professionals!

My mother and father-in-law are headed back to Texas after spending the last three weeks here helping us move.  They are SAINTS!  Anyway, we were eating Sunday lunch at NoNos yesterday, my father-in-law says, “MAN, I’ve never seen anyone with that kind of serious back surgery before, that must be pretty painful!”  I said, “who’re you talking about?”  He motioned over to a woman at the next table.  Turns out, it wasn’t a scar, it was a TATTOO!   The woman had some sort of design or writing up her spine.  My mother-in-law had a great line, she said the tatoo probably said, “If you can read this, you’re too close!”  My father-in-law has mentioned on a number of occasions that he’s amazed at how many tattoos he sees in Colorado. Makes me wonder–do we have more tattoos per capita in Colorado than most other places?  I’m thinking he’s right…

Hope YOU had a great weekend!

Humor me.  I like sports.  Random thoughts…

Supposedly, Brett Favre is going to sign with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend.  At least that’s the “big sports rumor.”  WHO could have imagined this ever happening?  What an amazing turn of Six months ago, it was a love-fest between Favre, the Packers and the fans.  NOW, the relationship has turned colder than, well, colder than the “frozen tundra of Lambeau Field.”  I read where they had a “let’s support Brett Favre” rally in Green Bay, fewer than 20 people showed up!  Now, I’ve gone on record as saying that a pro athlete has the rest of his life to be retired, and that as long as he wants to play, and some team will LET him, he should PLAY!  That doesn’t mean I think that this will end well for Brett Favre.  I’ll go out on a limb here.  IF the Bucs sign him–in my mind, NOT a done deal–but IF the Bucs sign him, he’ll play half the season, ineffectively, the Bucs will be out of it by Halloween, he’ll get benched or injured, and instead of his last game being the NFC Championship after a 13-3 season, he’ll end up his career on a downer.

The Colorado Mammoth lost defenseman Joey Gallant in the NLL expansion draft–the league is adding a new team in Boston this winter.  Gallant is a great defender, we’ll miss having him.  Mainly, though, I just wanted to point out what a GREAT sport Colorado Mammoth indoor lacrosse is!  I went to a couple games this past season, it’s big-league entertainment that’s not that expensive. 

Lots of talk about the Rockies maybe trading away Brian Fuentes or Matt Holliday, or BOTH of them-WHY!?  I’m thinking, yeah, they have a horrible record, BUT they’re still only six games out of first place–WELL within striking distance.  Instead of talking about who they might trade AWAY, why aren’t the Rockies talking about who they might trade FOR, to make another push for the playoffs? 

ANYWAY–Have a great weekend, sports fans!!

Sure was fun seeing everybody at Kool Koncert II last night.  Thanks for coming! 

Some random thoughts…

Joey Molland was great, I really enjoyed the Badfinger set.  Their songs seem especially timeless, don’t they?  Maybe that just reinforces what a great song-writer Joey Molland is.  It’s one thing to write something  that sounds good now, but what will it sound like 40 years from now?  Joey Molland has proven himself as one of the greats, as far as I’m concerned!

I talked at length backstage with “Eddie” from the Turtles, he was talking about what a BLAST it was to be doing a “Cavalcade of Stars” type road trip with these guys.  He said it brought back a lot of the “feel” of the good old days.  They’re only doing about a month’s worth of shows–”any longer than that, and it would start to seem like WORK!” 

I asked him if there were any other artists or acts that he WISHES he could include on the tour, in a perfect world–he started to tell me a great story about Gary Puckett, from the Union Gap.  Something about those Cavalry uniforms they used to wear onstage–[which I always thought were SO COOL!]  Anyway, as he got started telling the story, it was time for Melanie to go onstage, so he cut the story off and started giving instructions to the roadies.  I never DID get to hear the story!!  DARN! 

I also have to mention the funny moment BEFORE the show.  A guy started walking into the LADIES rest room, his wife called out “that’s the LADIES room!”  The guy came back out, looked kind of sheepish and then said, “well, hey, this IS the ’60s, right?”  LOL!  GOOD one!!

Good to be back from vacation.  Although “vacation” is definitely NOT the right word to accurately describe the past week!

I was reading in the paper today about Denver Water’s tips for conserving water.  One of the tips was to water your lawn during the morning–before 10 a.m., of course, because it’s not allowed between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.  They specifically advised AGAINST watering at night, because water evaporates much more slowly at night.  Now to ME, it seems like you wouldn’t WANT the water to evaporate–you’d want it to stay on the lawn as long as possible, right?  WRONG!  That kind of prolonged dampness apparently promotes lawn-killing FUNGI, and nests of bad bugs, like grubs and termites.

My wife made that exact point a couple years ago back in Dallas, where they also have lawn-watering restrictions.   I would turn on the sprinklers at night before we went to bed, she would say we should wait until the morning.  Of course, I thought she was wrong.  Eye-rolling would occur.  I’m ashamed to admit this now, but I  remember a couple times I would sneak out at night and turn the sprinklers on anyway, that’s how confident I was in my “right-ness!” 

Lesson learned.  (Wonder how many OTHER things I’m wrong about!?) 

Anyway, I love Elbert Hubbard’s quote, “Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit!” 

I mentioned on my show that me and my wife tore out the carpet in our two upstairs bathrooms, and are in the process of replacing it with tile.  We’ve never done any tile work before, but we figured it didn’t look TOO difficult.  Besides, to have somebody ELSE do it would cost an extra $1000.  That’s incentive enough for the cheapskate in me.  I can live with a few imperfections when I know I’m saving a grand, trust me. 

I asked on-air if anybody listening had ever done this themselves, and if so, to let me know their encouraging stories.  I figured I’d hear from a few people, but nobody responded.  That tells me that either few people have actually DONE this, or nobody who DID had anything ENCOURAGING to say about it! 

Be that as it may, for US, it’s actually going pretty well!  SLOW progress, but I think it’s going to turn out quite beautifully!  We bought one of those “wet saws” to cut the tiles for the areas around corners, the tub, etc.  My wife is doing all of the tile-cutting, she has the patience and the steady hand.  I supply the brute force and heavy lifting!  Anyway, she was showing me the circular pattern she cut into one of the tiles, the one that goes around the toilet drain hole.  Very nice!  It’s interesting how things that we normally wouldn’t think twice about if someobdy ELSE did it, suddenly become works of ART when WE do it!  My wife–the Rembrandt, the Matisse, of tile-cutting!  Luv ya, sweetie!

More to come…we’re going to do the two upstairs bathrooms, and THEN we’ve picked out a really nice slate to put down in the dining and living rooms. 

TO BE CONTINUED!…

The Denver book bandit is going to PRISON!  This guy had been checking out books and DVDs from local libraries, and selling them on Craig’s List!  Not just a FEW–over 1400 items, for a total of over $50,000!  Makes me wonder–HOW could it have gotten that far!?  How was it that he was able to keep checking out books and DVDs?  There’s not THAT many libraries–someone must have been letting him check out NEW stuff without having checked the OLD stuff back IN!  Tsk tisk tsk!  Anyway, he’s getting ten years in prison, and he has to pay BACK the $50,000 plus.  They should make him work shelving books in the prison library.

RTD is going to raise fare rates–again.  Now, I know that fuel prices are way up, but with all the extra riders, I still can’t see how they’re losing MORE money than ever before!  Makes me wonder–under what conditions would it be possible for RTD to break even?  Would they need to charge $5 per trip?  $10?  I guess my point is, at some point the cost of riding mass transit out-weighs the benefits.  Right now, I pay $108 for a monthly light rail pass.  A pretty good deal, considering that I would spend probably $125 a month in gas, and another $150 to park.  With that kind of savings, I don’t mind the extra twenty minutes or so it adds to my commute each way.  But if they were to raise the cost of the monthly pass to, say $200, then I’d probably drive.  The larger issue is, if they can’t make the numbers work–what’s the point of HAVING mass transit?  I’m all for cutting down emissions, and going green, but I don’t feel like I should have to pay a premium for it.  I know I’ll probably catch flak for thinking that.

 Read in the paper today, sportswriter speculating that Brett Favre could un-retire and play another couple years for the Broncos.  I’d be shocked if THAT happened.  Not a great track record for former superstar QBs finishing their careers as senior citizens with other teams.  Johnny Unitas with the Chargers and Joe Namath with the Rams are the two examples that come to mind, both so far over the hill that it was sad to watch them play.  However, there are a couple that HAVE gone out with one more blast of glory–Joe Montana with the Chiefs, and Warren Moon with the Seahawks.  Would I like to see Brett Favre come back?  Well, why not!?  But with his southern roots, it ought to be with a southern team, like maybe the Saints?  Panthers?  Didn’t he START his career with the Falcons?  Might not be a bad place to end it, as that team re-builds.  Just a thought!

I got an e-mail from a friend of mine who lives in New York City.  Known him for probably 20 years, I’m always fascinated by his unique perspective on life.  He gave me a list of examples of why–in his words–”Life is tough.  It’s tougher when your stupid.”  Read on…

“Recently, when I went to McDonald’s I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets. ‘We don’t have half dozen nuggets,’ said the teenager at the counter. ‘You don’t?’ I replied. ‘We only have six, nine, or twelve,’ was the reply. ‘So I can’t order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?’ ‘That’s right.’ So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets.

“I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those ‘dividers’ that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn’t get mixed. After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the ‘divider’, looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar code she said to me, ‘Do you know how much this is?’ I said to her ‘I’ve changed my mind, I don’t think I’ll buy that today.’ She said ‘OK,’ and I paid her for the things and left. She had no clue to what had just happened.

“A lady at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly. When I inquired as to what she was doing, she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM ‘thingy.’

“I recently saw a distraught young lady weeping beside her car. ‘Do you need some help?’ I asked. She replied, ‘I knew I should have replaced the battery to this remote door unlocker. Now I can’t get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?’ ‘Hmmm, I dunno. Do you have an alarm, too?’ I asked. ‘No, just this remote thingy,’ she answered, handing it and the car keys to me. As I took the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, ‘Why don’t you drive over there and check about the batteries. It’s a long walk.’

“Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift. One day she was typing and turned to a secretary and said, ‘I’m almost out of typing paper. What do I do?’ ‘Just use copier machine paper,’ the secretary told her. With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five ‘blank’ copies.

“I was in a car dealership a while ago, when a large motor home was towed into the garage. The front of the vehicle was in dire need of repair and the whole thing generally looked like an extra in ‘Twister.’ I asked the manager what had happened. He told me that the driver had set the ‘cruise control’ and then went in the back to make a sandwich.”

I was reading in the paper about how the only legal fireworks in Denver are the little “poppers” that you throw on the sidewalk.  It made me drift back in time to when I was a kid, and remember all the cool things we used to be able to mess around with on the 4th of July!   I grew up in Wisconsin, where fireworks were illegal.  BUT there were LOTS of “psuedo-fireworks” that a kid could play with.