an early October day trip

Taking advantage of fall

Capturing the moment

Amazing Majesty

Kenin at Summit Lake on Mt. Evans

Looking down from Mt. Evans

Forest on Fire

Kenin

It's me, Betsy.

The Rocky Mountain Balloon Festival

The flying of the flag

Sherbert Colors

Balloons

There's more than one way to fly

Almost Up, Up, and Away

Hot Air

Even Tony the Tiger was there

A Sky Full

Waffle House after takeoff

strange things are afoot in Highlands Ranch

I saw 2 things today that I really didn't expect to see, especially in Highlands Ranch.

As I was leaving my parents' house, I heard a loud noise, looked up and saw a black helicopter that appeared to be about to land on top of a neighbors house. Not something one would expect to see, is it? Nope, didn't think so. Anyway, the helicopter didn't land; it just made a u-turn and headed off in the other direction. And thank goodness, too, because I imagine that homeowner would've been a bit pissed off when the roof had to be replaced. And naturally, the 'copter would've disappeared and then, the insurance company wouldn't want to pay a claim, and well, you know how it goes from there.

And yes, as I was almost home, guess what I saw? Yup, the damn helicopter again. I began to wonder if I'd been caught doing something, but I knew I'd hidden that body really, really well, so I knew it wasn't me they were after.

But then, I had to stop in King Soopers - isn't that a dumb name for a grocery store? or any store, for that matter? - and I thought maybe I'd been put into a trance by the helicopter blades or something because when I was parking the car I didn't expect to see a guy in full cowboy regalia prancing around on his horse in the parking lot. I mean, I'd seen folks riding horses down the main street when we lived in Montana, and while I do live in Colorado, I don't live on a farm, in a small town, or any place where this would be okay to do. Then, eerily enough, the cowboy saw the helicopter and he galloped right out of there and off to who knows where.

Maybe the helicopter guy was chasing the cowboy? Now that's something out of the movies.

The Vacation Begins

We made it to Breck yesterday and today the rest of the family will be showing up. We took 2 cars - we had an ass of stuff to bring - and it went okay except that on the way here Kenin's car overheated and I got lost. Oh yeah, and I forgot my underwear!

On the plus side, I could totally live here. Actually, I think that when I win the lottery, I'll just move up here. After all, it couldn't be worse than living in the slums.

There were no witnesses

"There were no witnesses, so officials stopped short of saying the flaming bird was at fault."

I discovered this little gem while purusing todays edition of the Augusta Chronicle, my old hometown newspaper.

I don't know what school of journalism that reporter matriculated from, but I was surprised to see that single sentence was also an entire paragraph. That one line left me wanting so much more in the way of explanation. Why do they think the bird was at fault? Did it leave a suicide note? And if so, why didn't the note get burned, too? Was an avian autopsy performed? Did another bird whisper into someones ear that they had a terrorist within the flock? I don't know about you, but I'm a little worried. I mean, what if Hitchcock's The Birds was just a test run?