Bolder Boulder

A sunny spring day. The streets were aflurry of activity. People of all ilk have awoken from their winter blahs and are out and about.  

The Rubberband man and his bendable bones had his little assistants assisting in revealing how limber he really is. 

Musical instruments abound-- occasionally the sound that is heard is appealing and pleasant- other times? It's a lesson in what not to do on Pearl Street Mall unless you're desperately trying to drive people away. 

The Statueman shifts positions just in time to be not quite so statuesque

while the Busker enthralls with his dance of daring dos and do nots.

and the nimble hands of the musicmakers give off all the right vibes 

Just another beautiful Saturday in downtown Boulder, Colorado!

To Be Human is to be a Conversation

Andrea Rexilius debut's in the world of publishing with an amalgamation of poetry, essay, and memoir as it relates to her sister- twins with the same name who meet after a decade of life. Wading through the deep waters of knowing and not knowing, understanding and misconception, she explores the relationship that develops between the two even as they speak different languages yet sleep in the same bed, learning to read each other's thoughts before foreign words are uttered. Moving from memory to expression, the author tells us, "Our first conversation was performed by the body. An electrical charge, the light of sentences... A streak of light between our edges. It's true I could no longer say the word "I," to bear meaning. I flat-lined into "beyond the body," a darkness spreading, darkness gaining shape and I saw, the pupil of my eye forming, and then I saw her black hair."

Rexilius has presented us with a thought provoking and moving account of her awakening relationship with her (as I understand it) step-sister. Moving between genres with amazing swiftness, the reader is not jarred by the change so deftly is each section crafted. Poetry is inserted into essay and memoir as air is breathed between word. The format is body, swaying and dancing it's way through relationship. Easily read in a sitting, yet more profoundly understood if read over and over so intelligently is the text handled.*

*Disclaimer: Andrea Rexilius is a friend and former co-worker at the library. However, I would never give her a good review simply because she is a friend. If this were a poorly written book, it would behoove me to tell readers this.If, however, I were afraid our friendship would be harmed by a bad review I would simply not review her book.
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Corporate Tax Dodgers and Tax protests hosted by MoveOn.org at Meanderings of a Wandering Mind! 

Lillies of the field

 I carry my camera with me wherever I go in case there is a moment, like this one, where the day's beauty is found at my feet. Brilliant and shimmering on the path I am walking, I pause to consider how fleeting is life- both in those things beautiful and ugly and it is not something to take for granted.     

 Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen.  Keep in the sunlight.  ~Benjamin Franklin

Some of your hurts you have cured,
And the sharpest you still have survived,
But what torments of grief you endured
From the evil which never arrived.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief.... For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.  ~Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things"

Quotes found at: http://www.quotegarden.com/worry.html
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Also! A must read letter from the Coffee Party posted on my blog Meanderings of a Wandering Mind on the budget and the economy: "Let's get the facts about taxes and the debt"

Welcome to Colorful Colorado

Saturday dawned clear and bright. The pied piper skies beckoned us toward the great outdoors and without a second thought we loaded up in the car and headed out. We didn't have far to drive (just thirty minutes!) before we were in sight of vistas that are quite breathtaking (but then many are!)

The peaks in the distance are snow-capped but the temperatures break records. A winter with little snow leaves this semi-arid climate mostly brown when it should be greening in abundance. Fire danger is already high and a careless cigarette could result in evacuation.

I gaze out at the Flatirons, amazed at the wedge shaped features behind me. Their sharp angles in contrast to the mountains beyond. They earn their name from pioneer women who felt they resembled an upended household flatiron. (the likeness more obvious when viewed farther north in central Boulder- like in this picture)

 Consisting of a similar rock (conglomerate sandstone) as the aforementioned Red Rocks amphitheater, the uplifted earth reveals stories that are nearly 300 million years in the making: the dinosaurs that roamed here, the sealife that hatched. Tales that are written in stone and will endure longer than the humans that would come along to read the biography.

  It was a busy day on the trail- the trail abuzz with conversation and bicyclists straining. The first really warm spring day awakens the hibernating Coloradans from the winter doldrums in a wave of outdoor frenzy. And warm it was, shattering the previous high temperature by 6 degrees, topping out at 84!

click on the picture to get the effect of this panorama 

But in true Colorado fashion, the weather did an about-face as swiftly as a marching band. The next day there were snowflakes fluttering to the ground! Much needed moisture but a change so dramatic that one might be excused for fearing they'd been transported to another planet.
But that is what makes Colorado so colorful- not the green landscape as they might try to advertise- (it remains brown for most of the year except for the spring and only then if we've had enough snow) but the weather.