Be Safe - Not Stupid

I've lived in the same apartment for 9 full years now.  My neighbors change with great frequency, mainly because we're a college town, and this place is across the street from the University of Colorado campus.  Lewis, who lives three doors down, has rented his place for 15 years, Beatrice (my friend on the second floor) has rented for 5 years, and my current neighbor Rodney has been in his place for 3 years.  But, on the west side of the hallway, most of the tenants change every 3 to 9 months.  I know them mostly by sight.  Benjamin, who spends all of his cash on marijuana, is in 101; two guys share 102, a man in his early 20s and a friend in his mid-30s.  We greet each other, say, "Hi.  How's it going?" - but don't really know each other.
   Boulder Creek has been rising with the past ten days of rain and snow.  The Creek is flowing at 440 cubic feet per second, which is high, but authorities don't close the use of the Creek until the flow rate is 700 cfs or higher.  Chris, the mid-30s man in 102, injured his back last week.  He's a day laborer and couldn't work due to the injury.  He was given pain pills and told to relax and let his injury heal.  Over the weekend, he told his mother, who lives in Connecticut, that the back pain was "excruciating."  Monday afternoon, two days ago, he and and his roommate smoked some marijuana (which is legal, if consumed inside our home) and drank some beer and hard liquor - after Chris had taken his opiate pain pill prescription.  Chris decided to go tubing on Boulder Creek, at the south end of or apartment building.  His friend decided he'd follow along the Boulder Creek Footpath on his skateboard, and not try to ride the water.  Chris jumped into Boulder Creek just east of Folsom Street, which is equivalent to 26th Street.  His friend said that Chris was struggling to get centered in the tube (his backside) and didn't appear to have any control.  The Creek immediately took Chris and the tube downstream, to the east.  Somewhere near 48th Street, Chris appeared to be in trouble, and his friend tried to grab his arm and pull him out of the Creek.  Chris slipped away from him.  His friend called 911 and reported Chris missing in the Creek.
   The Boulder Fire and Rescue teams have been looking for Chris since 6 p.m. on Monday; at 7 p.m. last night, his mother and roommate were informed that the Search and Rescue had been officially changed to a Search and Recover scenario.  This is May in Colorado - with the snow melt-off feeding the creeks and streams, the current water temperature is 40 degrees.  It was sheer stupidity to go into Boulder Creek in a pair of shorts and a T-shirt, in a rubber inner tube, in 40 degree (F) water.  Both of the men should have known better.
   Please, do NOT undertake anything while you are mentally impaired - the mixture of medication, marijuana, and alcohol killed Chris.  It can easily happen to anyone who doesn't think things through.  Please be alert to your surroundings and use common sense - don't try anything that could possibly be life threatening in a impaired condition.
   As of 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, Chris has not been found.  One inner tube was found floating on the Creek, but it's not known if that was the tube Chris used.  He is now missing, assumed dead.

45 Degrees This Morning! - Stupid Accident

It's the second day of September; I'm dressed in shorts and a T-shirt and leather walking shoes.  I couldn't figure out why I felt so chilly when I switched the water systems for the irrigation ditch this morning - then I found out it was 45 degrees outside.  Gee, no wonder I felt chilly!  We are supposed to quickly reach the mid-80s today and then have a high in the low 90s tomorrow.  But fall is definitely in the air - and if one travels up to the higher elevations, you can see the leaves are beginning to change colors.  I think we'll have an early fall foliage season this time around...
  My kits are very clingy this morning.  I wish I could make them understand that I'll be home, sleeping in my bed tonight, with them,  and for the next several nights.  The sun is shining brightly, and I still have some removal stuff to perform at Lynn's, but, other than walking Rosie this morning, packing up my stuff and getting it back home, all I have to do otherwise is pick Lynn up from DIA this evening.  Then almost two weeks at home in  my own bed, with my kits.  It will be heavenly.  Then I'm back at Lynn's and over with the ABC's before I'm back home again...  And I'll only spend 10 nights away before I'm back home.  Yea!  Summer crazy-busy is slowing down at last!
   I was intrigued by a sign up in Russell Gulch on Saturday that stated they had "horses for rent" and an arrow pointing up a trail to the west.  I'll have to check them out next summer - see the outfit, look at the horses, find out the charges and see about the riding opportunities.  It might be a new place to ride up in the mountains.
   Back to common sense....  A woman was picking up her daughter at school.  She was driving and texting at the same time, in front of the school.  There was a guard rail made of pipes alongside the school sidewalk to protect the students.  The mother was so involved with her texting that she drove her SUV into the pipe guardrail; she was going so fast that the pipe rail entered the front of her car through the headlight - and proceeded to pass through the engine, and ended up in the driver's thigh and piercing her butt cheek, pinning her in the car.  The pipe had to be cut off and her car was cut open with the Jaws of Life in order to extract the woman (impaled to the car seat) and get her into an ambulance for transport to a hospital for the removal of the pipe.  The woman is alive; the car is totaled; no students were hurt.
  Please do NOT drive and text - or drive and talk on the phone - it's simply too dangerous for everyone in the area, including you, the driver.

Labor Day

People visiting the Assateague National Seashore seemed to get the Labor Day weekend off to an unlucky start on Friday.  However, all three accidents were preventable, using a bit of common sense.  First, a male visitor was surf-fishing about a half-mile south of the public parking lot.  He had had quite a fight with the fish on the other end of the line, and was excited about finding out what he had caught.  He ran out into some rough surf, following his line.  A breaker caught him, knocked him off his feet, and he ended up with a broken femur (thigh).  The man was transported to Salisbury, via ambulance, to have his leg set.   A second male visitor was surf-fishing for sharks.  He had caught two, and was reeling in his third - but, he, too, decided to go into the surf to land the fish.  He didn't see what kind of shark it was, but it bit his foot and severed a tendon and multiple veins.  He, too, was taken by ambulance to the hospital to have his foot repaired - he stated he'll probably have a skin graft next weekend.  The third accident is something that I blame on poor parenting.  A family was in a van, driving along the Wildlife Loop near the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge headquarters building (it's on Assateague Island).  They were driving around the wildlife loop with the rear side doors open.  A twelve-year-old boy saw something that caught his attention, and leaned out of the door for a better look. He fell out of the van and onto the road.  The boy had scrapes, bruises, a lump on his head, and a concussion.  He was taken to Nassawadox hospital for evaluation and then released.   -  Common sense.  What's the point in having a brain and being able to think, if one does not use common sense?
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On 28 June 1894, the US Congress passed an act making the first Monday of September a legal holiday to celebrate the social and economic achievements of the average worker in the United States.  The Labor Day holiday was actually created out of the labor movement in the late 19th century.  The Industrial Revolution was at its height in the late 1800s.  During this time, the average American worked a 12-hour day seven days a week in order to eke out a basic living. Even though many states prohibited it, children as young as five and six were forced to work in mills, factories and mines.
  Because of the long hours, unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, and poor treatment by management, labor unions organized and workers began holding strikes and protest rallies.  These events often turned into dangerous riots, with loss of lives.  The idea  of a labor holiday caught on as more and more people sought a peaceful way to protest for better working conditions and for an eight-hour work day.  According to Linda Stinson (a former US Department of Labor historian), the holiday eveolved over time, but most historians emphasize one specific event.  That event was a parade by Unions and a massive picnic that took place in New York City on 5 September 1882.
  The New York City event didn't go smoothly.  Chaos reigned during the parade, and the picnic and speeches after it were "overshadowed by an abundance of cigars and Lager beer kegs... mounted in every conceivable place," noted the US Department of Labor.  While almost 25,000 union members and their families attended, it turned out to be a fairly disastrous Labor Day celebration.
  More and more states decided to join the celebration of a Labor Day, and the United States Congress made it official in June 1894.
    Americans, enjoy your Labor Day safely!

Spring in Colorado

It looks like we might have a week or so without snow - I think Spring is finally arriving in Boulder.  Rosie and I did encounter four different snow flurries yesterday morning, but the sizes of the flakes and the amount that fell was minuscule.  The squirrels are running amok, and birds are courting and building nests.  My brother-in-law's yard has multiple patches of snowdrops and wild violets blooming, and the green leaves of the crocus and daffodils are growing almost visibly.  Rosie visited the groomer Saturday, and is now a sleek velvet, except for her ears, chest, leg feathers, and the plume of her tail - and the groomer left her top-knot, at the owners request.  She's ready to start diving into the koi pond several times a day now.
   Nedi is still his skinny little self, while Lovey is starting to get a bit of a belly...  They both run and play like mad, but I have to remember that while Nedi just turned four, Lovey will turn nine in August.  She is like Boo and Rosie - they still think they're 6 months old, and not their actual years.  Lovey's only problem is her lack of canines for biting during fights - I've broken up only two fights since Christmas, and Lovey did not appear to be winning either one.  Having lived in the same place for 8 years (as of yesterday), and beginning our ninth year here, she believes that she is the Queen of all she sees.  The truth is, younger cats have a much greater advantage, as they have teeth and claws, both, to use.  In any event, she seems to have settled down a bit, as she matures.
   I sent my "polite letter" of complaint to the apartment management regarding the emotional service dog next door.  The owner was told what the rules are in the complex regarding dogs - they must not be turned loose in the communal back yard; there is a leash law in effect; if your dog poops, then the owner is responsible for picking it up; dogs who bark at neighbors moving inside their apartments are considered a "nuisance."  The young lady insists upon turning her dog loose, leaving the poop wherever the dog leaves it, and letting her dog bark, not only at me, but at anyone in the back yard.  I had just picked up 8 piles of dog poop and was carrying it to the dumpster, when I met the apartment manager - he commented on the nasty odor of the bag I was carrying.  I told him that it wasn't used kitty litter, it was the dog poop from the service dog.  He was appalled.  He arranged to sit on a tenant's second floor balcony overlooking the communal back yard.  After three hours, he had seen and heard enough.  I am one of five tenants who have complained about the dog, according to the apartment manager.  The service dog's owner frequently heard me tell the dog, when it was on my patio, barking at my movements inside,that (a) it was a bad dog to bark at neighbors, and (b) this is my patio and the dog shouldn't be here.  When she paid her rent, she was informed that the apartments were giving her a 45-day notice to move.  So she now blames me completely, has written a very nasty letter to me and delivered it by placing it under my door, and has informed me that I "have disrespected" her, and that she "is no longer my friend and will not look or smile at" me.  I feel sorry that she has been given notice.  I am sad that she blames it all on me.  But - she needs to know that the laws of the county, city, and apartment community apply to her, as they do to all residents.....