Golfing in Late November!

I suppose this wouldn't be a big deal for someone from the south or the west coast, but for us, golfing in late November is pretty unusual. We had a gorgeous, relatively warm day in Fort Collins yesterday. I believe temperatures exceeded 60º. Travis took us to play the City Park Nine course, which was very pretty and in really nice condition. There were quite a few golfers out for the day. Kathie and I hadn't played for probably three years. I know I hadn't played since before I broke my wrist a couple or three summers ago, so I didn't know what to expect. Turns out I did very well but only for six holes, after which I suffered a complete meltdown and couldn't hardly connect with the ball. Kathie and Travis finished nicely though, and we all had a great time being outdoors.

Colorado Railroad Museum and Iowa/Purdue Game

OK, if you are going to know me, you are going to have to put up with a certain amount of interchange regarding railroads and model trains. Kathie and I are visiting Travis in Colorado for a couple of weeks, including Thanksgiving. On Friday, we drove to Golden to visit the Colorado Railroad Museum and also to see Sandy's parents, who live nearby. (Duh! I forgot to take pictures while we were with them. We were so absorbed in conversation and in seeing Dick and Ruth's fine collections of railroad memorabilia, that I simply overlooked the opportunity!)

At the museum, we saw a first-rate HO layout which had incredible detail. Here are a couple of photos of portions of it. I found the swimming scene near the trestle quite amusing. Note the legs of the person who has just dived in as well as the person diving from the trestle. I don't suppose my eventual layout modeling will ever be this good.

The museum has protected lots of rolling stock and locomotives from roads that operated in Colorado, including the Rio Grande Southern. Many have been nicely restored, and there is an operating shop and turntable on the grounds that supports the volunteers who refurbish these treasures.

One of the things I most wanted to see was the collection of unusual Galloping Goose engines that operated on the Rio Grande Southern for a time. There is quite a good article in the archives of the Denver Post that you can find by clicking here, if you want to learn about them. They were an unusual creation based on a conventional automotive chassis that allowed for significantly reduced operating cost for passengers and mail delivery contracting. The idea helped the road continue to operate in the face of serious financial problems. But of course, the "locomotives" were very unusual and sounded so as well. They tended to wobble down the tracks, which led to their Galloping Goose nickname. Only seven were ever built. I got to see two of them. Turns out that I have an operating model of one of them in my own model train collection. I learned this past summer that a friend's grandfather was one of the designers and builders of these fascinating machines.

Switching gears now! How about those Hawks!? Yesterday, Travis, Kathie and I went to a local bar in Fort Collins that was hosting the local I-Club gathering of Iowa fans to watch the Iowa-Purdue football game. That was really fun, especially with the win. The Hawks are 11-0 now and, with Michigan State defeating Ohio State later yesterday, may climb into the top four current candidates for the national championship playoff games. However, Nebraska still lies in the way of a perfect regular season. So, we will focus on that game for now, one we may be able to see again together with local Iowa fans in the Fort Collins area next Friday.

One more thing. The local I-Club sells T-shirts that say "Iowa Fans with Altitude." Of course we had to acquire some of those!

Home But Not Home

Just for the record, we left our Wisconsin home in middle October after being there nearly nonstop for the entire summer. I believe the time spent there for 2015 was 126 days or about 1/3 of the year. Pretty nice!

Although we are supposedly back in Iowa, we continue to get out and about. Over the Halloween weekend, we were in Minneapolis to visit both Jessica's and Will's families and to celebrate Kathie's birthday. This was our first joint visit there since Jessica and Mike moved there from Marshall. (Kathie had been there for a couple days earlier in October.) Their new startup business is off to a rousing start. If you don't know about that, take a look at the Local Crate web site by clicking here.

Leo and Maia seem to have finally taken to their new surroundings, and Maia is enjoying her preschool. I don't know what Leo was trying to accomplish here, but he and his Nana are cute just the same.

The day before Halloween, we visited Maia's preschool so that we could see their Halloween costume parade. Jessica helped Maia don her Supergirl outfit.

Leo needed some attention too.

The array of businesses next door to the preschool were kind enough to allow the parade to wind through all their offices so that the kids could get an early start on their candy gathering. There were lots of different kinds of costumes, but the superheroes (Supergirl, Batgirl, Captain America, and others) were especially well represented.

In the afternoon, we went to Anders' school (School of Engineering and Arts or SEA). Last year he told us about the annual pumpkin drop. Each class creates a contraption that is meant to protect a pumpkin when dropped from the roof of their two-story school building. In preparation, each student gathers information on possible methods by doing the same thing with an egg from a six foot height. Most of the pumpkin contraptions involved a cardboard box and then all manner of foam, bubble wrap, stuffed animals, marshmallows, tape, and who knows what else. Some parachutes were involved as well.

The school janitor, decked out in a pumpkin outfit, launched all the contraptions. In those cases were parachutes were involved, I think he didn't do a very good job of helping them to unfurl, but who am I to criticize? I recall there being twenty or so in all––there are several classes for each of grades one through five. Kindergarten classes merely observe but, as Anders did last year, begin to dream about their involvement when they begin first grade.

After all contraptions have reached the ground, representatives from each class describe their class's construction while their box is opened

Anders provided part of the commentary for their box. His class was one of only three that succeeded in getting their pumpkin to the ground intact.

This same day was Kathie's birthday, and everyone came to Jessica's house for a very nice trout dinner, some cake, and other fun. Honest, I tried to get a nice photo of these women, but they weren't very cooperative.

The next day, I hung out with Will and Anders for most of the day, since there was lots of football to watch, including the Iowa-Maryland game. I sat back on the comfortable couch, but these two guys evidently always position themselves right up close so that nothing interferes with their watching. (By the way, Iowa is now 9-0 after beating Maryland that day and then Indiana this past Saturday. Hold onto your seats. Three games to go to complete the regular season. Anything could happen!)

Later, everyone else showed up, and then these three, accompanied by their parents, went out trick or treating in Will and Sandy's neighborhood. Kathie and I stayed at the house and manned the candy supply as numerous other beggars came by looking for handouts.