Genocide

This week I've been maintaining a newly-restored prairie on the Rochester IBM site as part of a group that got the site its Wildlife Habitat Certification last year. I'm proud to say that I've been intensively involved in a dramatic prairie genocide and I take my job very seriously.

The Sweet White & Yellow Clover are native to Europe & Asia, but have since made it over here to wreak havoc on our prairies - most of which have already been destroyed by us. Each year until we're able to exterminate them, we need to become shovel-wielding warriors, systematically extinguishing the weed lest it overcrowd much prettier native species like these Black-Eyed Susans.

Black-Eyed Susans with Big Blue in the background

I was a little nervous when my friend, Rebecca, recruited me for the task this week, having flashbacks to the 14 days straight of hiking I did in tick-infested North Dakota. However, I LOVED trudging through the prairie. I don't know what it was - being closer to nature, knowing I was doing something good for the environment, finally discovering my inner gardener, or just making sure that my hiking boots got a little dirtier (there's nothing worse than a clean pair of hiking boots!). Who knows! All I know is that killing that Sweet White Clover was the highlight of my week!

Scene of the Crime...and you thought Civics were too small to haul anything!

Jennifer

Sometimes life isn't fair.

Jennifer King (1956-2009)

Nathan's mom, Jennifer, died last Sunday at 1:35am from complications of Multiple Myeloma - a disease she'd survived for almost 3.5 years prior to this week. While we had subconsciously been preparing for this all the while, knowing that she's gone is still surreal to me in many ways. I think it's safe to say that I finally grew up this week.

While we weren't surprised that it happened, what did surprise me is what happened afterwards. I have a renewed respect and admiration for Nathan's entire family, especially his dad. I have never seen a group of people pull together like they did in the few days afterwards.


Monday was when a plan started to be put in motion. After having proposed their ideas for the celebration of life and what to do with Jennifer's cremains in an episode that will forever be rightly-described as 'shock and awe', Nathan, Justin, Allan, and myself went off to Krause Funeral Home to take care of the manifestation of their glorious plan. Based on what happened in this meeting, I know the three boys are going to be ok without mom. All I can say is that the answer to the director's first question, "So, what happened?" lasted 20 minutes and thereafter the three of them proceeded to crack me up the entire meeting - whether they meant to or not. It is their way of dealing with the loss, but it's also just plain their style. In fact, it was fun to be around them and the entire family all week. That's right, I'll admit it, I was having fun this week. Not to say we all weren't really sad, but the silver lining really is that we all got to hang out as a family and it turns out that is fun no matter what the circumstances.

One of the services the funeral home had for us was to put together a nice DVD montage of around 50 pictures of Jennifer - but we had to find the pictures. Man, they really know what they're doing over there. What we came home thinking was an assignment, was possibly the most therapeutic activity of the week. Pictures came out from high school, middle school, college, wedding, kids' births & graduations, vacations, and everywhere in between. We learned things about everyone in the room we never knew and it dawned on me that Jennifer had a pretty fantastic life, with a lot of people who cared very much about her!

Jennifer & Allan's first date - Homecoming circa 1971

Jennifer & Nathan in a picture that appeared in the Cedar Rapids Gazette

Allan on their wedding day - I told you we heard some good stories!

Tuesday was a family visitation - some much-needed closure was had and Wednesday was the celebration of life and public visitation. Nathan and Justin gave incredible eulogies (read Nathan's here). These were the highlight of the week for sure.

The next day was Justin's 24th birthday and he was determined to do something fun. In honor of Jennifer, we started the day at Kohler-Andrae State Park, a place she had always really enjoyed (and so had the rest of the family). Next, we drove to West Bend for some go-karting (Justin re-living his childhood through pictures this week probably had something to do with this). We ended the day with a much-needed drink at the Highland House.

Kohler-Andrae State Park

Sibling Rivalry

Birthday Margarita!!

Like I said, this family will be just fine. The strength and love I experienced in all of them is proof of that and also proof that Jennifer helped build an incredible family. She doesn't really seem to be gone when I look at them.

Death is no longer a scary mystery to me, but rather an unstoppable event that places all of us in an incredible, unbelievable, but very real string of events that started billions of years ago and will continue for billions more after we're gone. We're lucky to have the short time that we do here - the odds are against us and yet we're here. That's a beautiful thing.

We'll miss you, Jennifer!

Garden of the Gods

Last Sunday, Sara and I took off for Colorado Springs to see the Garden of the Gods. This is a small, city-run park whose land was bequeathed to the city by the children of Charles Elliot Perkins so that the public could enjoy it for free, forever. Despite the pricetag, I honestly thought this little park had some of the best scenery in Colorado. It’s made up of giant spires of red rock, created by horizontal slabs of sandstone and limestone tilted vertically when the Rocky Mountains formed and then sculpted down by rain and wind.


You’re free to walk among some of the largest formations in the park and can also climb them, but must leave no trace unless your rigging blends in with the rock. We got about ¾ done with our walk when it began to rain - too bad my poncho was back in Greeley. I’ll let the beautiful pictures speak for themselves.

Kissing Camels

And the rain came tumbling down...

Right at the base of the Rocky Mountain foothills is the Air Force Academy. Since it has its own Visitor’s Center, we decided to stop by. It’s a pretty impressive facility, which trains you to be an Air Force officer right out of college. Flying and learning right next to the beautiful mountains is probably exhilarating. I got a good laugh at the sign explaining where all “Explosive Laden Vehicles” should be going as well. However, it’s a very rigid and busy life there. There are regular white-glove room inspections, you must march between classes, and the summer break is only three weeks. When you get out of college, you’re indebted to the American Public to serve at least five years in the Air Force (yes, we taxpayers pay about $300,000 for each cadet to get through school). I know Nathan would have loved to go here and I actually started to think it wouldn’t be that bad. Just as I was about to ask what students with spouses do, I was told you had to graduate by the time you’re 23. It’s kind of a depressing thought that already at 26 you’ve missed out on at least one of life’s opportunities!


The campus gem is an aluminum chapel, which incorporates several religions and elements of airplanes with the idea that if cadets can learn, fight, and die in an airplane, they can worship in one too.


On the way home, we stopped in Denver for dinner. We really didn’t know what to get, so walked up and down their version of Madison’s State Street – 16th Avenue Walkway and Larimer Square. We settle on a place called Ted’s Montana Grill, which specialized in beef and bison. After thoroughly enjoying our tenderloin steak and bison pot roast, we discovered that this is Ted Turner’s restaurant. Perhaps the meat came from his personal stock!

After three days in Colorado, I would like to make the announcement that I will be moving here. I just need to figure out the job situation and convince Nathan, but it’s got everything one might need. Renewable energy tech jobs (for me), parks (for Nathan), decently-priced houses, mountains (plenty of tall ones to climb!), cowboys and rodeos, a big city in case we get sick of cowboys and rodeos, and a smoking ban. What more could anyone ever want?

A Real American 4th of July

Greeley, Colorado has one of the nation's largest 4th of July parades (it's broadcast on Denver television) and the nation’s largest 4th of July rodeo (according to them). It’s a far cry from Glacier’s peaceful celebration, which includes five fireworks shot up from the KOA campground. Here, people ooze patriotic pride and love their Greeley Independence Stampede. Their celebration is what a foreigner might assume we all grow up with after they first learn about the American West and cowboys. I’m starting to feel right at home in places like Greeley and North Dakota as I’ve stopped laughing at seeing veal huts in the aisles of Fleet Farm and considered purchasing a cowboy hat to keep the sun off my face this Saturday.

Greeley’s 4^th starts out with a parade to rival all 4^th of July parades. It always begins with a flyover of jets from the nearby Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. This being an economically challenging year, the flyover consisted of three helicopters instead, which still beats every other 4^th of July parade I’ve ever gone to. The next parade staple is the longhorn herd, driven by one of the local ranchers.

In fact, this parade has more animal than people participants, which means they need lots of these:

The rest of the parade had a lot of other things you might expect: plenty of floats, bands, and horse-drawn carts. However, this one also included Colorado’s governor, Bill Ritter, lots of Spanish (Greeley has a very healthy latino population), an appearance from Smokey the Bear and the Wyoming Forest Service, live country bands on trucks, and a giant, in-your-face republican float (my guess is the size of the float directly correlates to how scared the party is that year).

After the parade, it’s off to the Greeley Stampede fair grounds for food, then the rodeo! They had a few more vendors than the Pipestone Watertower Festival last weekend. I sunk my teeth into my very first Indian Taco, which is a fried, flat, donut-like “shell” covered with ground beef, pinto beans, lettuce, tomatoes, black olives, and usually lots of cheese. Fab-u-lous! I also got this Berry Kabab, which Sara’s sister, Christyn, is modeling below.

The rodeo started at 1:30pm. If you don’t know anything about rodeos, you might assume like I did that the only event they have is bull riding. That’s all you ever see on TV in short soundbites and news clips. In reality, it’s a lot more like a swim meet – crowded stands that can get pretty hot, watching several events with different people competing in their own specialties. This was the rodeo finals and there were cowboys and girls from all over the country - wait, scratch that - all over the Western half of the country competing. I found the rodeo pretty entertaining (if you subscribe to the mentality that PETA means “people enjoying tasty animals” it makes it easier to look past the fact that lots of poor calves are manhandled throughout).

It started out with Bareback Bronc Riding, whose goal is for the cowboy to remain on the horse for eight seconds (if not, he’s disqualified). He may also be disqualified if he leaves the chute improperly or touches himself or the horse with his free hand. Judges give each rider scores based on their spurring technique and I believe half the score for most of these events is actually based on how well the animal tries to buck the cowboy off so it’s kind of luck of the draw on whether you get a good animal or not.

The next event was Steer Wrestling in which a tiny steer gets a measley “headstart” on a cowboy who jumps from a galloping horse onto the steer and proceeds to try to flip it onto its side. As soon as all four of the steer’s legs are pointed in the same sideways direction, the clock stops and the winner is based on how fast he can wrench the steer’s neck and get him to succumb to the idea that it really should be on its side.

Next was Saddle Bronc Riding, which is very similar to Bareback except the riders use saddles.

The Calf Roping competition followed. This one really takes some skills. Not only do you have to first lasso the calf, but then you jump from your horse to quickly tie up at least three of its legs and make that stick for at least six seconds to receive your timed score.

Then there’s Team Roping. Same idea except that two guys team up on the calf – the first one lassoing it around the horns or head and the second roping its two hind legs before they can receive their time.

Now for the best event ever! Mutton Bustin’!! Take your small children, load them on a sheep, and hilarity ensues. One kid hung on until an adult grabbed the sheep and got him off. Most runs don’t last that long.

Child Abuse?

Finally, the last event, the one that everyone knows about: bull riding. Last time Sara had been to a rodeo, she watched a guy get trampled and then heard about how he’d been paralyzed from her mom who is a nurse at the local hospital. Luckily, all riders got off safely, although many did not make the 8-second cutoff. The clowns didn’t do as much as I thought they would, except at the end when they had a bull bulldoze (oh, I just realized where that word comes from!) a clown-filled barrel seemingly just for the crowd’s enjoyment.

Happy 4^th of July in this truly great county! Where you’re free to enter a ring with an angry, horned animal, weaponless and purely for the entertainment of your fellow countrymen! There’s no place like home.

Rocky Mountain National Park

My week started out in a less-than-stellar fashion with the following burner mishap:


However, it became a lot more Steller while on my 4th of July weekend trip to Colorado with my friend, Sara.

Steller's Jay

We ditched work a day early and ended up in Greeley Thursday night at 9:30 MST. We're currently staying with her parents who have been nice enough to take in the two of us, plus two other siblings, their spouses, and a cousin.

A subset of us decided to spend Friday in Rocky Mountain National Park. Yes, it was going to be a crowded day, but a little bit of Rocky Mountain is better than no Rocky Mountain.

The Old Fall River Road had just opened for the year. It is a one-way, dirt road to the Alpine Visitor's Center located at an altitude of almost 12,000 ft. Our first stop was the Alluvial Fan - a rocky, roaring river passage formed by a giant avalanche in 1982. On our way up, we also saw Chasm Falls, beautiful mountain scenery, a pair of elk, and a yellow-bellied marmot.

Chasm Falls

Yellow-Bellied Marmot

The top, where Old Fall River Road and Trail Ridge Road meet up was packed. I kept having flashbacks to any day of the summer after 10am at Logan Pass in Glacier National Park. I thought looking for a parking spot would be absolutely futile. But, as I was reminded all day by the beautiful, but somehow incomparable scenery - this is not Glacier National Park. We got a spot just in time for torrential rainfall to begin, keeping me from climbing the short trail to the top of a nearby mountain. I did, however, find some jelly bean rocks that I've been craving since my childhood in Arizona.

Our Route

We were forced to have our picnic lunch in the car while I marveled at the bag of chips and science in action.

Sara & Our Blown-Up Chips

On the way down, we hit a 30-minute traffic jam, which got me all excited. Could this be a bear jam??! Nope, we sat 30 minutes in the car waiting for.....ELK. Ok, they were three magnificent elk, but ELK none-the-less.


All-in-all, I didn't get a chance to do any hiking, but it was really fun to see the park. Like Glacier, RM has a couple roads and a whole lot of unexplored back country. I'm already planning my next major hiking trip, including the scaling of a few of their famous "14ers". (14,000 feet actually sounds pleasant now that we're off of Kili.) Hasta la vista, Rocky. I'll be back.