Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Miscellany

We had an inch of snow fall yesterday between 2:30 in the afternoon and 10 last night...  Most of the previous snow had melted away, but we've been having freezing fog and hoar frost each morning lately, which has made walking (and driving) treacherous.
   A bobcat decided to visit the city of Boulder on Monday - spent about an hour on University Hill, near Chautauqua, before it slipped back into the mountains.
   The Denver National Western Stock Show had a block-buster opening weekend...
   With a winning percentage of 71.9 in four years, the Broncos and head coach John Fox parted ways.  The team lost the Super Bowl game in 2014, and was blown away in the AFC championship playoffs on Sunday.  John Elway and John Fox said the parting was a mutual agreement.
   John Elway hinted that Peyton Manning might return for another year or two as quarterback of the Broncos.  It turns out that Peyton has been playing with a deep bone bruise and a partially torn and strained right quadriceps muscle since mid-December.
   I walk, bike, ride the bus, and drive a vehicle in Boulder.  I've never had a complaint against a bus driver, but I have observed a lot of idiocy from other pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers in their own vehicles.  I've never had a complaint about folks jogging or running until this week.  I was driving south on a five-lane road, in the outside (slow) lane.  There were bike lanes on both sides of the road, as well as sidewalks.  It was 6:40 in the morning, and still quite dark, as we had full cloud cover, and a freezing fog that made the roads very slick.  I saw what my brain first identified as "miner's lights" - lights on straps around bobbing heads - coming at me, headed north, on the sidewalk, in the bike lane, and in the lane I was driving in.  I realized that some of these bobbing lights were wearing reflective vests.  I then realized that it was a group of 12 to 20 runners, running against traffic, on the sidewalk, in the bike lane, and in my traffic lane.  There was one other, lone car approaching rapidly from the rear in the fast lane.  I flashed my lights at the runners - and most of them merged over onto the sidewalk and/or into the bike lane.  However, three individuals, who were not wearing lights or reflective gear of any kind, continued running straight at me.  I had to come to a complete stop for the unlighted idiots in the driving lane - so I wouldn't be charged with a "hit and run" accident.  One of the men rapped his knuckles down the side of the car I was driving, as he ran by.  By that time, the other vehicle had passed on the inside lane, and I pulled over and finished my drive home.  Then I called the police department and left a complaint.
   We're supposed to be "warm" for the next several days, so I'm hoping all the snow in the yards and on the roads will melt away....

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