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September 27, 2018

But wait - it gets better - so much better

Trump only took office last year, if you can believe it. He took office on January 20, 2017. So, after he is re-elected in 2020, that means he'll be in office for 8 years, so he'll leave office on January 20, 2025.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (85) Dimocrat - Born March 15, 1933.
Stephen Breyer (80) Dimocrat - Born July 14, 1943.
Clarence Thomas (70) Republican
Samuel Alito (68) Republican
Sonia Sotomayor (64) Dimocrat
John Roberts (63) Republican(RINO)
Elena Kagan (58) Dimocrat
Brett Kavanaugh (53) Republican
Neil Gorsuch (51) Republican

When Trump leaves office on January 20, 2025, if they're still alive, then:

If Trump can replace Dimocrats Ginsburg and Breyer, then we'll have 7 Republicans and 2 Dimocrats on the Supreme Court of the land.

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 27, 2018 at 11:15 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 26, 2018

Trapping Coons Indoors

I'm laying in bed at night, and I can hear the critters coming into the kitchen to snack. They're eating something....dog food, cat food...something. I can hear them down there, in my kitchen, chomping away on something. And it's not my cats, because my cats aren't that loud when they eat.

Finally, I just can't take it any more. I go outside and take down my gamecam. I've had it on the driveway, hoping to get some video of the creatures outside of my house, but now I realize that I've got to bring it indoors, and film the wildlife in my kitchen. Nothing to be proud of, but this is where we are.

Already, I've set the coyote trap in the kitchen, but I haven't caught anything. Whatever this animal is that's sneaking in, he's smart enough to go for the pantry, instead of the live animal trap.

Now, I'm trying to get the gamecam to work, but the batteries are dead. So, I throw them into the battery charger in the kitchen, and put the freshly charged batteries (that were already in the charger) into the gamecam. After I fiddle with the gamecam for a bit - there seems to be some corrosion on the game-cam terminals - I manage to get it working.

Now, I remove the memory card, and copy all of the files off onto one of my home servers. I go through the videos outside to discover deer, bears, etc.

Finally, I set up the gamecam in the kitchen so that I can finally discover what in the world is coming inside my house, loudly eating his meal, and fleeing whenever I race down the stairs with my spotlight in hand.

I'm reasonably sure it's raccoons, but I'm surprised that they're able to escape so quickly and quietly.

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 26, 2018 at 10:45 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Correatown - "All The World (I Tell Myself)" Angela Correa

Correatown - "All The World (I Tell Myself)" Angela Correa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz48XeYD1TE

Tonight, somehow, I got a song stuck in my head, but I can't remember who sings it, or even the lyrics really. All I could really guess was "so tell me i'm wrong..." that was the most I could come up with. So, I'm searching the internet, trying to find the song. But I can't find it, and my memory is so bad that several times I forget the song I'm searching for. But then, I see the lyrics I've written down, and eventually it comes back to me. And I keep searching, without much success. Like, you think about how many songs have ever been recorded, and it just seems like an impossible task. Then, for some reason, I decide that it must be a soundtrack from How I Met Your Mom. So I start searching for the HIMYM soundtracks.

I start out on tunefind on Season 9, and start walking my way backwards.

And, as I play each one of them, I realize that Jennifer and I must have watched all of these shows together...it was one of our favorite shows. It's not easy doing this. It's not fair.

https://www.tunefind.com/show/how-i-met-your-mother/season-4/5650

I recognize the following songs:
https://www.tunefind.com/show/how-i-met-your-mother/season-9/17858

Heaven - THE WALKMEN It's from the Last episode, ending credits


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FePBV9F9vwI

The Funeral - BAND OF HORSES

And, I keep walking back through the seasons, and eventually I find the song I was looking for in Season 4 - Episode 6.

And, it's not even like the song is all that great, but it is, in fact, the song I've been looking for. And I'm just bawling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz48XeYD1TE

It's not fair to let your kids go away to college. I think it's time for me to leave the country again.
1`

Continue reading "Correatown - "All The World (I Tell Myself)" Angela Correa"

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 26, 2018 at 2:55 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 21, 2018

Hamlin Gulch Road

Hamlin Gulch Road

Like, the problem you have is that, if you ride your motorcycle all summer, you start pushing the envelope more and more. It's all there is to do, really. You don't want to ride the same trails over and over, so you start out with the low ones, as the snow melts in the spring. The beginner trails. Exposed from the melting snow.

Then, as the summer drags on, and the snow melts, you start riding higher and higher into the Rocky mountains, hitting trails that are harder and harder.

You get better, as the summer goes on, but you're also riding harder and harder trails until, pretty soon, you're hitting trails that make your hair turn white. Carving and clawing up the face of the mountain.

And, this is where we are. The leaves are changing. The daughter is back in college. And I'm out, hitting every trail that I've turned back from countless times all summer.

Continue reading "Hamlin Gulch Road"

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 21, 2018 at 11:46 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Hamlin Gulch

Today, I finally broke down and went online to figure out how to turn off the traction control on the 2017 Honda AT. It has roughly 24,000 miles on it, but it only bothers me off-road when I'm climbing up a washboard and the stupid traction control keeps kicking in and shutting down the bike so that it basically won't climb a steep, rutted hill. When you need it most, the bike shuts down on you. Well played, Honda. Fucking idiots.

So, finally, I figured out how to turn it off. It only takes a few clicks of the left index finger. Great. Also, I adjusted my headlight down some. (A guy in Aspen on the street pointed out to me earlier this summer that the knob was a headlight adjustment. I didn't know. I feel bad for all of the people that I bright-lighted on 2 continents over the last 15 months.

Also, I realized that I'd already downloaded the owner's manual. I'm not clear if I have the original one or not. But I did find it online. I should really read that thing at some point.

Yesterday, I did a loop from York Gulch to Bald Mountain Lane to King Flats Rd to Columbine Campground Rd to Forest Service Road 739.1 to Hamlin Gulch Rd. I was fine up until Hamlin Gulch Rd. The thing is I used to ride these trails 20 years ago, and probably I was on an ATV, and probably I don't remember how rough they are and probably they've gotten worse over the years.

But I end up going down Hamlin Gulch Rd and it's immediately obvious that 1) I'm in way over my head and 2) it's getting dark and 3) there's no chance in hell of me turning around. Like...you could fall 300 feet easy. And the trail keeps getting worse and worse and there's nothing really to do but keep riding and pray. I think about leaving the bike and hiking out and just paying someone to ride the bike out. At one point, I come to some lumber in the trail....2x4's and 2x6's. This is never a good sign. It means the "trail" is so rough that someone needed wood to get across the boulders and not fall off the mountain.

The road forks a few times, and I try to stay on the "main" road Forest Service Rd 276.

Somehow, I make it to the bottom, and I see 2 trucks, and now I know I will live because, if these 2 trucks are here, then there's a road from here down to Fall River Road and if a truck can make it, then I can certainly make it.

This is clearly not the trail I remember riding from 20 years ago. Probably, I was on the other side of Fall River Road. I'm almost certain of that now.

Of course, no GoPro footage because my GoPro was dead, and filled with pictures. Ugh.

So, when I get home, I copy all of the footage off of my GoPro. Charge my GoPro. Charge my iPhone. Charge my batteries for the Garmin Montana.

Now, to go back and get some footage of Hamlin Gulch.

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 21, 2018 at 12:12 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 20, 2018

Jennifer's Fall Break

Jennifer only had like...2 weeks off between summer school and fall semester. She called me in a panic one Saturday at noon. I have to be out right away. So I drive the Tahoe up to Boulder with the M101-A1 3/4 ton army trailer. Plates are expired on truck and trailer. But we get everything loaded into the Tahoe and the trailer and move her back down to Morrison, temporarily.

Put the trailer in the garage so her mattress doesn't get rained on.

I'd spent all summer planning what we'd do when she was out. We like to go rafting, but then we didn't get any snow or any rain, so there really wasn't any rafting going on by August, anyway.

Here's what we did, as best as I can recall:
8/4/2018 - Saturday - We did the duck race at Evergreen.
8/4/2018 - Then, we drove down the canyon and ate at Tony RIgatoni's.

8/11/2018 (Saturday).
- Picked up Jen from CU


8/13/2018 (Monday).
- We hit Beau Jo's Pizza and Baskin Robbins in Evergreen.
-
- Got mani/pedi's at inail & spa 9797 W Colfax Ave #1d, Lakewood, CO
- We went to our asian grocery store down the hill. Pacific Ocean Marketplace at
2200 W Alameda Ave, Denver, Co.
- On the way back, the alternator belt broke on her VW Tiguan, and we caught Uber/Lyft to get home. Had the car towed to be repaired.
- At some point, we hit Yiannis Gyro Place in Lakewood.

8/14/2018 (Tuesday).
We rode horses down at Bear Creek Lake Park.

8/15/2018 (Wednesday).
- We went to the climby thing down near Idaho Springs. Colorado Adventure Center.

8/17/2018 (Friday)
Met up with Sarah and Aunt Molly. Had dinner in Conifer at Los Tres Garcias.

8/18/2018 (Saturday)
We drove to Breckenridge (Me, Jen, Molly, Sarah). We rode 2 gondolas, then hiked some trail up in Breckenridge. BreckConnect Gondola (Free). Then the Colorado SuperChair (Not Free). Then we hiked a little loop. We saw a bear on the way home on North Turkey Creek.

8/19/2018 (Sunday)

8/20/2018 (Monday)
Molly and I walked around Lake Evergreen.

8/21/2018 (Tuesday) Jen and I went to the cajun restaurant in Golden she discovered. Sassafras American Eatery.

8/22/2018 (Wednesday) Jen and I ate at the place we like in Kittredge. Country Road Cafe. Then we hiked Maxwell Falls with Cliffie.

8/24/2018 (Friday) we were back in Boulder.


Posted by Rob Kiser on September 20, 2018 at 10:29 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 12, 2018

Commie Dictators

Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels,Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Bernie Sanders

Posted by Rob Kiser on September 12, 2018 at 7:43 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

September 5, 2018

1989

When I graduated from college at USM in the spring of 1989, I wasn't sure what to do, so I went ahead and went to summer school. Old habits die hard. Then, after summer school, I moved home and watched tv until December of 1989/January 1990.

This is what happened while I was at home watching TV during that time:

October 17, 1989 - the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco
November 9, 1989 - the Berlin wall came down

Earlier the same year:
March 24, 1989 - Exxon Valdez oil spill.
April 15 - June 4, 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, an armed suppression of a pro-democracy movement in June 1989 at Tiananmen Square in Beijing China.


Posted by Rob Kiser on September 5, 2018 at 7:07 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink