(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Well, Shoot. A Colorado State Open Thread, April 23, 2023 [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-03 The Colorado State Open Thread is written, produced and directed by yours truly, which is why the quality goes up and down with the mood. Today has been a good example of how moody I can be. I’m getting this started after 6PM. The diary I have been planning to write was all about nature and an incident that happened to a Colorado state legislator. I had hoped for it to amaze, inspire and touch you deep in your souls, while also allowing your soul to take wing. Unfortunately, the diary that you are getting tonight is not that. I had some ups — getting twelve large trash bags filled with donation clothing from my wife’s closet to the donation site, thanks in huge part to my sister who came to visit last week and she did a tremendous job of clearing out stuff, which included shoes, coats and jewelry. It did allow me to focus on going through paperwork that my wife had been storing in several different locations, but I was still unable to find a will. I am hoping that my last two possibilities might yield results. The donation site, btw, is a woman who owns a deli in town and she came here from Ukraine many years ago. She has contacts and she sends donations both back to her home area in central Ukraine where there are many refugees and also to contacts around the US, again, to get these to refugees. I think 12 bags (and maybe another one or two) will be appreciated. My wife okayed my donating money to refugees in various locations, so I hope her large clothing collection will be appreciated by her if her spirit is still hanging around. In addition, I may have mentioned I have two cars now, which came in very handy when the 2011 VW that I drove flawlessly yesterday today has multiple warning lights on the dash and refuses to start as the battery ran out. I found out when the battery was just about drained and the car had been sitting in the garage leaking its life force out (no — no fluids leaked on the ground). I was able to use the other car to take the stuff for donation and run my other errands; it sure is a nice extravagance to have the extra vehicle. I tried charging the battery in my car for a few minutes but it certainly made nothing better. One of the bad situations up here in Estes is not having an abundance of service facilities, especially if you need or want car brand-trained mechanics. Sure there are a couple of foreign import shops, but they usually schedule service when it’s convenient for them, not for when your car decides today is the day to go on vacation from driving. For the rest of the day, my errands were successful only 50% of the time, and that led to my mood going up, then down, then completing the roller coaster ride with a couple of barrel rolls and the final whoosh as I came into the house (the whoosh was provided by my walk loving dogs who wanted my attention). I sit here at my desk and look out at Rocky Mountain National Park and see the beautiful view, but what I also see are April showers and my May flowers haven’t even pushed above ground yet. It is a gray day, and though we’ve had some warm days lately, I still have ice on my driveway and lane, so I’m not out walking the dogs beyond the space in front of my house. Well, you may be wondering after this long rant what does “Shoot” have to do with anything. Wonder no more. I do go out and I enjoy shooting. No, not guns. Last time I fired a gun was probably more than 30 years ago when a true gun nut, but friend of mine, took me out so I could see what target shooting was like. We didn’t do it at a range — we did it in a woodsy area back in Kansas. It’s the only time I’ve ever fired a pistol. As you might surmise from the length of time since I did it, I just haven’t seen a need or desire to repeat the experience. Some of you may comment that I probably meant shooting my mouth off, and while I’ve done that often recently, that wasn’t what I meant. No, I meant shooting things with my cameras. So, for the rest of the diary, I’ll post some photos that have been some of my favorites through the years and then open things up for comments. These are not all from Colorado, btw. A meteorite that some good friends saw come down in Arizona and they went back the next day to collect it. It weighed about 65 pounds on this scale. The value of that meteorite would have been far more than I could offer, but my friends put it in a rock garden behind their condo in a complex in Arizona. One day it disappeared. They told me later that because of my interest in space, they were thinking of just giving it to me. One of many great opportunities missed over my life. My spring flower garden I created next to my house in Denver. I had people come to see the garden and some even posed their kids in front of it to take pictures. I keep meaning to go see if the garden still exists. These were the early spring flowers. The tulips and a few others came along as these started to fade. Raccoon babies chased up the pear tree by my Bichon-Schnauzer mix Wiley. Once I came out, Wiley left me in charge of these guys while he went chasing Momma. I let these two come down and run off to the safety of the fence. I think Wiley was satisfied with himself. Up in Olympic National Park, this slightly out of focus squirrel was having his/her breakfast. Auto-focus can be nice, but I keep having it focus on the wrong thing in pictures, like leaves in front of what could have been an award-winning picture. Two polar bears sparring outside of Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. They were waiting for the ice to solidify on Hudson Bay so they could go out and hunt seals. In the meantime, they were practicing for the fighting for mates that would also be a major activity during the winter. This was the last trip with my mother and she was very happy to get to the Arctic and see the polar bears, arctic fox, snowy owl and other creatures she’s read about all her life. Mostly Chinstrap penguins posing before a glacier coming down to a bay in Antarctica. My mother always loved stories of the Arctic and Antarctic explorers and I made sure she got to both locations safe and relatively sound. Tim and Deb of Arabia. Or, more like, of Los Cabos, Mexico. One of my best (imo) nature photos. This Mountain goat was surveying his kingdom at Glacier National Park. Snow at our house in Morrison. My Basset hounds thought it was a bit much. You can see what I had to do so they could go out and do their thing. A gathering of Kosacks and a couple of state politicians at our house in Denver. Storm chasing with Kosack Leftcandid My favorite photo as Santa (so far). Well, it’s now a little past 7 PM, so I’ll close it up and go feed the puppies. They’ve been patiently waiting as I’ve toured memory lane. I’ll leave the floor to you folks. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/3/2161951/-Well-Shoot-A-Colorado-State-Open-Thread-April-23-2023 Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/