Scenes From the 2016 National Western Stock Show

Parade in downtown Denver

Longhorns in front of Union Station

Welcome from Governor John Hickenlooper

Mounted drill team

Sheep

Petting zoo for young and old

Breed judging...

even for the smaller critters

Herding trials

SHows for all breeds of equines, including donkeys and mules

Workers getting in straw bales for the stalls

Junior exhibitors show goats, sheep, pigs, cattle, and a variety of barnyard creatures

Best of breeds heading for the show ring

Rodeos, including bull-riding and mutton-busting, plus dressage and jumping shows

Don't forget the alpacas!

Damp Colorado - Yesterday and Today

Boulder Creek west of Broadway this morning

Trash cans cause whitewater in Castle Rock

Colorado Springs

Denver's Confluence Park

I-70 in Glenwood Canyon closed for 8 hours after eight one-ton-plus boulders rolled onto the road, taking out guard rails and barriers

Downtown Denver

Elbert County

Longmont's St Vrain River Spillway

Colorado Christmas Scenes

Pearl Street Mall in Boulder

Pearl Street Mall carolers

Bringing in the tree, Estes Park

16th Street Mall, Denver

Golden, home of Coors beer

Winter Park night skiing on Christmas Eve

Vail gazebo

Odds and Ends

Well, let's see what's going on today...  The Boulder County Fair ends today and so does the Denver Arts Festival. It is sunny out this morning, but we've been warned to expect cloudy skies and thunderstorms after noon.  Boulder is congratulating itself regarding because the Boulder Ironman was a success - and the first person across the finish line (in 8 hours 20 minutes and 56 seconds) was a Boulder resident.
  Tugger isn't very happy being left alone in the house during the workday - he is giving his male owner what-for most of the night, even though I'm visiting two or three times a day.  Luckily Kristin will return this evening and he'll have his "Mom" home again.  Tessa seems to be doing well with my care - we're walking three times a day (at least) and she's playing off-leash very happily.  Rosie is my next objective - I start caring for her at 9:30 this morning; and I add Cyrano and Pounce on Tuesday.
   Lovey was thoroughly entranced by a video on Facebook this morning - someone had set up a camera to see if their dog was getting on the bed while they weren't at home.  The cat was sitting on one corner of the bed and the dog jumped up and wriggled and rolled all over the bed.  Lovey found it fascinating...
   There are 37 large wildfires burning out here in the West - thankfully, none of them are burning in Colorado at this time.  I'll be seeing that crazy blue horse statue at the Denver airport on both Tuesday and Wednesday - taking Ba and Bob to the planes on Tuesday, and picking Lynn up on Wednesday.  I'm becoming very familiar with all of the construction zones along the highways between Boulder and Denver.
   The west coast of Florida will be affected by a huge Red Tide within the next two weeks - It's expected to cover the coast from Tampa Bay up into the Panhandle.  The algae bloom is 80 miles long, 50 miles wide, and was at a depth of 131 feet on Friday.  That's going to cause a big die-off of fish and marine life, as well as impacting the tourist trade.  Get ready for the Red Tide, Florida!  (And it ain't 'Bama's Crimson Tide, either!)
   A fantastic find of prehistoric bones is being carefully re-dug in Wyoming.  The Natural Trap Cave was first found in the 1970s, and, now, with the advances in science, the bones are being sent out to various universities in the US and Australia, to study the DNA found in the bones and some of the still attached tissue and ligaments.  I'm looking forward to the findings!
  Today, the big news in Colorado is that a single winning PowerBall Lottery ticket was sold in this state, in the town of Rifle.  The Kum and Go gas station/store sold the only winning ticket, and it's the only one that's ever been a winner in Colorado.  It's a "first," according to the news.
   Tonight is another Super Moon night - hopefully your skies will be clear this evening and tonight for your viewing pleasure!

Fireworks and a Sign

4 July Fireworks at Folsom Field in Boulder, Colorado

5 July Fireworks at the Chincoteague Carnival Grounds, Virginia

3 July lights and fireworks at the Denver, Colorado Civic Center

Sign at Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge on Assateague Island, Virginia

Lightning show at NASA launch pad on Wallop's Island, Virginia

Bears in Boulder; Tornadoes in Denver

There was quite a stir this morning in the area where I regularly walk the dogs in my care - a mother black bear and her two cubs chose to sleep the morning away in a cottonwood tree on Poplar - less than a block from my usual walking paths.  In any event, the Department of Wildlife was notified and, when the bears came down about an hour ago, they were gently "herded" back towards the mountains, and away from town.  The mother slept in the lower branches of the tree, while the cubs went higher....

Doesn't she look comfy?

And there have been reports of five tornadoes touching down throughout the Denver metro area this afternoon - bringing hail and rain, as well....  Boulder reached a high of 70 today, but the current temperature in Denver has dropped to 55 degrees.

Clouds dangling over Interstate 25 in Denver

Hail in a yard at 51st and Tower in Denver

"Icebergs" of hail on 61st Street in Commerce City

Yep....   It's Springtime in the Rockies!

Odds & Ends

St Nicholas Abbey, the Irish thoroughbred race horse, has been put down.  He broke his right fore pastern while galloping in July, and underwent surgery.  In October, he began to develop laminitis in his left fore; that seemed to have been contained with minimal damage.  Earlier this week, he developed a severe case of colic; corrective surgery found a massive strangulated amount of intestine, and it was decided to put him down.  Most people can't believe how fragile a horse actually is - St Nicholas Abbey's case only goes to prove the point that horses are a fragile animal, even with round-the-clock monitoring.
   We've had a twelve-year-old boy  fire a .20 gauge shotgun in the gymnasium of his middle school in New Mexico this week, two people were hospitalized;  a couple of teen-aged boys set off an explosive chemical reaction in a Colorado Charter school, sending 5 classmates and a teacher to the hospital for treatment; a high school student in Longmont threw a party while his parents were out of town - a 20 year-old man is in custody for killing two teens and stabbing a third (he was an acquaintance invited by a friend of a friend). What's happening?  Once again, I ask, are we becoming a nation of non-caring people, or is the news that much more pervasive these days?
   The maintenance man just wandered by with a huge ladder...  Nedi ran and hid under the bed; Lovey just looked and blinked.  The patio door is closed, but Jim and some of my neighbors are making an awful lot of loud noises.
  Around here, everyone seems to be in the grip of "Broncos Fever."  I'm definitely supporting the local team and will be verbally cheering against the Patriots - but enough is enough.  It's a professional football game - men are paid to beat the crap out of one another and place an inflated pigskin either across a certain line, or through a set of uprights.  I won't cry if the Broncos lose the game, and I'll be happy if they win, and can go on to play in the Super Bowl.  But this game is not my end-all and be-all.
  This weekend, the Denver National Stock Show is open, and the Native American Convention is also taking place in Denver.  Football is fun, but it's not all....
 

Denver National Western Stock Show

It's 2:30 on Monday afternoon - and the sun is shining in a clear blue sky, while it's 18 degrees outside.  Nedi is out chasing things, and Lovey is tucked up on my pillow, watching me blog.  I am home.  I came home last night, fed and loved the kits, and fell into bed, where I slept for 12 hours. I awoke frequently, as Lovey wanted to make sure that I was aware I was in my own bed - everytime I stirred in the slightest, she washed my chin and gave me head bumps.  Nedi just snuggled closer to my right leg...  It is cold here, but at the moment, we have yet to have the high winds that were forecast for today - and I'm thankful for that.  But, on the other hand, a good Chinook would clear half of the snow that's on the ground in about 6 hours...  Hmmmm.  Guess I'd rather have the wind than piles of dirty snow.  Our temperatures are supposed to be returning to their "normal" range for the rest of the week, with highs in the mid-40s.  If you are not offended by certain words, I suggest you view a North Dakota Native American weather forecast (done tongue-in-cheek, I'm sure):  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8hGIF9FljM
  Only one team that I was rooting for won a play-off game this past weekend, even though I watched all four games.  Kudos to the New Orleans Saints for being a winning team for me.  Saturday night, I caught up on two of the TV shows that I had missed episodes on - saw "The Golem" episode of Sleepy Hollow and caught the last two episodes of The Blacklist.  I feel as if I've watched more TV in the past 5 days than I did in all of December.  -  And then we have the Winter Olympics coming our way in February....  Oh, boy!
  Tonight is the final BCS Championship NCAA Football game - the Auburn Tigers against the Florida State Seminoles.  I'm rooting for Auburn, because they are SEC members, and because I've always respected FSU (under Bobby Bowden) but I want to defeat them.  Tim Tebow made his ESPN announcing debut this morning - and looked very sharp; grey suit, white shirt, and a lavender tie and coat handkerchief. (One of the other announcers called it "fuschia" - but there wasn't enough pink...) Tim did very well - spoke smoothly, answered the questions about being in the BCS Championship Bowl, and threw out at least one word that probably had folks scrambling for their dictionary.  I liked his premiere, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of him.
   Right now, I'm gearing up for the National Western Stock Show in Denver.  The Show will "kick off" with the annual Parade, which will start at noon on Thursday, 9 January, at the downtown Union Station, and will proceed down 17th Street.  Riders, clowns, horse-drawn wagons, and a herd of 100 longhorn steers will participate.  If the Parade is too much for you, you can go to the atrium of the Wells Fargo Building at 11:30 that morning, and enjoy the National Western BBQ Lunch (for the cost of $10, which is donated to the 4-H International Youth Group) - and listen to country-western bands and see the latest in western fashions.  The Stock Show itself runs from 11 January through 26 January.  Much more information can be found at:  http://www.nationalwestern.com/
 

Another Shooting...

Another deadly shooting in Denver this morning - three dead, two confirmed as children. That is sad and sick. All I know at the moment is that this happened in a residence in a section of Denver. Bless all of them.