Current Diversions

Fly Fishing

2010-09-08T11:05:00.001-07:00

In my post on March 31, 2006, I said "Fly Fishing" was going to become my next Current Diversion. Four and a half years later, that goal is reality. Anybody want to hit the stream right now?

September, 2009. North Platte River,
near Saratoga, WY

North Platte River

Me, our guide Ryan Hudson, and
Joe on the North Platte River.

May, 2010. Back on the North Platte
near Casper Wyoming.

June, 2010. Big Thompson River in
Rocky Mountain National Park.

July 2010. Current River just below
Montauk State Park in Missouri.

September, 2010. White River innorthern Arkansas,
just below Bull Shoals Dam.

The House

2007-03-30T11:15:00.000-07:00

Italianate Architecture

This is the house at 6244 Fauquier Drive, across Skinker Boulevard from Forest Park. This is where I live with my wife, Peggy.

Our house was built on the ground used during the 1904 World's Fair's agriculture exhibits. The ground was owned and plotted by Thomas Skinker. He began selling the lots in our subdivision, the Ellenwood Neighborhood, in 1921. Our house was the second of about 68 houses built in this old subdivision.

A Final Goodbye

Anyway, I'm just typing away to check the page layout capabilities of my blog. Good bye for now.

Yesterday Was A Good Day

2007-03-08T17:12:00.001-08:00

Yes, it was

Water Dog in Colorado

2006-06-22T10:58:00.000-07:00

Hiking up the Three Island Lake trail outside of Steamboat Springs last week, our dog Trooper led the way!
She led us through the aspen grove, always checking to make sure we were still behind her.
Then she hit a little creek,
a stream
and splashed over a log in a river.
And finally, the big reward for the tongue-dragging three hour trek... Three Island Lake
and a beautiful high meadow that was saturated with the spring snow melt. Trooper galloped across the spongy meadow.
Click pictures for larger image!

New Blog Title?

2006-06-05T05:19:00.000-07:00

Heard a country song today and thought the title could substitute for "Current Diversions". That's it... "Time Well Wasted" by Brad Paisley. The refrain goes "And there's no way I trade a few more things that I could've crossed off my list, for a day I'll never forget. No, I didn't get a thing done. But I sure soaked up every minute of the memory we were makin'. And I count it all as time well wasted."

Mom's New Blog

2006-05-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

Been working with my mom to start her own blog. We are having trouble uploading pictures today. Is it possible Google is having a problem with the blogspot photo upload website?

UPDATE: No, that's not mom's garden, i was using that as a picture upload test. And YES, Google's photo.blog site was indeed having a problem with it's photo.blogspot site. Check it out mom's new site, all about her flower garden, at www.TimeBeganInAGarden.blogspot.com

IT'S A FRAMER!

2006-04-18T10:43:00.000-07:00

Yep. The is gallery material. The latest photographic art from up east. (It's Sarah's)

A BAD SEAT IN THE HOUSE

2006-04-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

The NEW Busch Stadium will mesmerize you with many of its views. But not the one from our season ticket seats. Front Office acknowledges "an issue" with ALL of the first row seats in Sections 237 - 240 and are "getting back" to us about a solution. That black wall in front of us is the back of the long horizontal electronic scoreboard down the lst base line. Click on picture for larger view. Picture is taken from normal sitting position...no attempt to exaggerate, I didn't need to. It's really that tall, that solid and that very close. Makes you ask yourself, "How could they have...uh, don't they have computer models?" If I lean forward to see, fans in Row 2 get a similar view of my head. Cards also claim "a cup holder for every seat." un uh. Already lost one of those $8 beers! Grumbling measured at 100% among the Cardinal faithful up here in Row 1.
UPDATE: The cards just emailed to say they are cutting off the top of the rail and lowering it 3" around the entire stadium second level by May 8th. That's a good start.

Google to provide free WiFi to San Francisco

2006-04-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

Yep. The entire city of San Francisco is getting FREE WiFi internet service from Google/Earthlink partnership. Can we be far behind? What's in it for Google? Answer. My recommendation, buy Google, even at $400/share. It will rule the internet for a loooooong time.

Google, Craigslist expand into real estate

2006-04-06T12:38:00.000-07:00

This article says average real estate commission has dropped to 5.1%, primarily due to Craigslist, Google and other websites taking the mystery out of marketing your home.

The Next Project: Flyfishing

2006-03-31T14:56:00.000-08:00

No, that's not me, but I want it to be. Anyone up for a flyfishing trip? (click image to enlarge)

Starbucks Gets Philosophical

2006-03-30T08:38:00.000-08:00

My Starbucks "The Way I See It" #76 cup was particularly thought provoking and reminded me of a good friend who seems to be "liberating" himself lately.

"The irony of commitment is that it's deeply liberating - in work, in play, in
love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the
fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational
hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life."

I was researching the whole Starbucks cup wisdom thing and found this website. Yep, there are people actively protesting about coffee cups.

My photo cut off the name of the author —Anne Morris, Starbucks customer from New York City. She described herself as an “organization builder, restless American citizen, optimist.”.

My Current Diversion

2006-03-29T14:08:00.000-08:00

This is it! Creating a blog.

Was reading the April 3 issue of Newsweek Magazine...an in-depth cover story about many so-called Web 2.0 sites like MySpace, FaceBook, Flickr, and YouTube, plus some brand new sites like Plum, Digg, Sharpcast and FilmLoop that "are rocking the web." Plum - not yet publicly released - sounds exactly like what I've been looking for. It allows you to pull together collections of searches, emails, documents, photos, etc. all into one well-organized file that you can share. So the next time I want to go crazy with an in-depth surf and research about a vacation destination, for example, I can organize everything, including reservations, into one file that I can save and share. I'll be anxious to see how it improves upon just sticking everything in one folder on the desktop. Can't wait!

Anyway, all that tech stuff made me decide that I need a blog. Don't know who will read it, or why. Or how long I'll contribute to it. I'm already thinking it seems like a waste of time, but at least I did it.

So here it is. My current diversion from the things I should be doing. Blogging.

Mystical, Beautiful Sedona

2006-03-29T12:37:00.000-08:00

Just back from 4 days in Sedona with Peggy.

Hiked Boynton Canyon, climbed Bell Rock, biked past Cathedral Rock. Drove to the Grand Canyon one day and spent at least five minutes at the South Rim, again. And tried to figure out what a "vortex" is.

Flew to Phoenix, rented a Nissan Murano (very nice little SUV) and drove the 2 hours north to Sedona. Stayed at the Hilton Resort in The Village of Oak Creek, 8 miles south of Sedona. The short drive into Sedona includes spectacular views and it was a pleasure to begin and end every day with such a scenic drive.

Rented the mountain bikes at a little place less than 1/4 mile from the Bell Rock trail head. Think it was called Bike & Bean. ("Bean" because they have a little coffee shop inside, too.) That was a lot of fun. Took that picture with a self-timer. Had to lay a little flat rock on the fork of a horizontal tree branch to provide a platform for the Canon Elf camera. (Next time, I'm going to have one of those cool little bendable tripods.)

Fantastic meal at Heartline Cafe...gorgonzola tort, spinach salad, pecan-encrusted trout (the house speciality), a bottle of Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc and yes, for desert, Kahlua mouse and coffee. I highly recommend it. Also had dinner at the Cowboy Cafe in "uptown." It was a good meal.

Sedona has become synonymous with vortexes, which are specific locations where human energy and spirtuality are supposedly enhanced.

I've come to the conclusion that the word "vortex" - now inexorably linked with "Sedona" - is basically a marketing term devised about 40 years ago by some local philosopher and promoted by the Chamber of Commerce. They claim there is something magical about certain locations - vortexes - that create within us amplified feelings of emotion and spirituality. I don't buy the attempts to scientifically measure increased magnetic or electical energy at those locations. Or that there are specific places where you can stand and "feel" the energy. But there is truth in the basic concept. These majestic surroundings do tend to lead you into a kind of soulful reflection about the important things in life. They tend to amplify whatever is going on inside you - for better or worse. Sedona definitely has the surroundings that lead to that kind of inward thought, but it doesn't have a corner on that market. The same thing happens to me standing on a beach at sunset watching the waves crashing ashore. What really causes that to happen to us? Hum.

OK, so I only made it to the second posting on my new blog before I tried to explain the meaning of life...as I see it. I'll try to keep it lighter and more materialistic from now on.