Not to sound repetitive, but today was not as productive as I would have liked it to be. For one thing the weather was gray and overcast again which always affects me negatively.
Then there are the interminable loose ends that seem to crop up daily. Death in our modern society generates a lot of paperwork. It really shouldn’t, because grieving people could use some peace.
I am really tired and going to have an early supper and go to bed early as well.
We should be getting around seven inches of snow by the time it’s over.
Not snowing yet, though.
Good.
God bless everybody
Patty
It’s sadly ironic that at the times we need solace, we are forced to jump through hoops.
Nothing even remotely snow-like hear, the air-conditioning is actually running, as I type. There are things I don’t like about Arizona, but the nearly ubiquitous blue skies and weather that lets me do yard work year round is to my liking.
I know I would like a little more blue sky and sunshine. I would lose my mind in a place like Seattle (and for more than political reasons.
I’ve spent all but, about, 18 years of my life in the West. Occasionally, I’ll meet someone with a midwestern accent and strike up a conversation. What happens is that someone moves here from the Midwest, then moves back home, only to find that they can no longer tolerate the winter gloom.
One of my closest friends practiced medicine in a small Arizona town for over 40 years, having come from the Midwest, and landing here when he did his turn in the Public Health Service. He’s a bright, positive person, but has mentioned that he doesn’t miss the gloom of the Midwest, one little bit.
In my own case, my parents moved from Minnesota to Denver, CO when I was in my early teens. It was like a new start in life, for me. I still love Minnesota and visit whenever possible, but I wouldn’t want to live there, unless I could afford a second home in the sun belt, a stout four-wheel-drive vehicle and had the freedom to leave for the sun belt the moment the gloom began to affect my mood.
As an interesting aside, I’ve watched a number of videos about Pallas’s Cats, many of which are filmed in Mongolia, which is known as the Land Of Blue Skies. It can get very cold there, but the skies are usually blue. I’m not planning any big moves, mind you, but I can completely understand the appeal of the place. The Steppes of Mongolia touch my heart quite similarly to my feelings about Colorado.
When all is restored, in the Kingdom, it is my fervent hope to get back to the high plains of Colorado.
It is really too bad what happened to Colorado. Made into another liberal “paradise”.
The contrast could hardly be greater. In my teen years, metro Denver was a very nice place, with a reasonable cost of living. Families worked hard during the week, and recreated in the Rockies on the weekends. I felt safe and secure, pretty much everywhere. I, and my friends, felt a part of something; people who lived on the Front Range, and we knew we had it good.
It breaks my heart to see what it has become. I would visit at least once a year, into the mid twenty-teens, but after about 2017, everything changed, dramatically. It became a drug culture and there was a different feel to the place. If I drove into a Motel parking lot, there were people there just hanging out. If you had anything of value, you had better lock it in your room. The last time I visited, I spent the night in a Motel about 30 miles away from Denver and the atmosphere was like a rave, with constant noise in the parking lot, all night long.
The place that I loved, and the only place had ever wanted to live, is no longer a place I consider desirable. The atmosphere is no longer wholesome, in the slightest, and whenever I visit, I can’t wait to get away. Places I was familiar with are now havens of criminal activity, and there is no sense of safety. The neighborhood I spent my teen years in is no longer the peaceful place it had been. I wouldn’t want to go there, after dark. So, I thank God that I am away from there, and realize that the place I loved so much no longer exists.
That is incredibly sad.
It truly is. Denver was a gem, circa ‘60 years ago. By the ‘80s, it was losing a bit of its charm, and by the late ‘90s, it had lost a lot of its charm. Flash forward another 20 years from then and it had lost all of the charm it held for me.
I was actually actually planning on moving back until I spoke to a coworker assigned there, during my time as a Federal employee, and when I heard firsthand of the ridiculous expense of living, not even in Denver, but in Colorado Springs, I realized that it no longer bore any resemblance to the place I had so loved. The setting is the same, the beautiful Front Range of the Colorado Rockies, but that’s really the only thing in common with the place I so loved.
It now reminds me of the situation in Los Angeles, which was America’s Promised Land for decades, but is now a place I strenuously avoid. Fifteen years ago, I used to love LA, at least to visit, but the last time I was there on business, about six years ago, I fled as soon as my work was done.
This happens over and over.
Sad, but true.