Do you believe?

The Colorado Rockies won the game today and have forced a tie-breaker for Monday at Coors Field. If they win, they’ own the Wildcard. For the first time in nearly twelve years the least of the likely have continually made a statement in the last month that they will never say die. The hardiest of the hardy have been focused on this goal as if they were Kevin Costner in the field. This is the moment we have all watched and waited for.

Colorado is on the hunt for the greatest prize in Major League Baseball. Filled with skill, courage and a will to win the Colorado Rockies may just do what we have been waiting for so long.

Can you imagine the moment if they go farther then ever before? The Rockies have treated us better than most. They’ve also been the focus of the least attention. People started perking up when the sweeps started pouring in like an avalanche. The win streak went to 11 and held. A minor bump with a loss but still they roar back into contention.

Remember this season folks. If they lose, they’ve still won. They’ve fought against the biggest coffers in the league and never blinked. They’ve felt the curve balls and the agony of defeat. And they keep on fighting.

Tomorrow night the Colorado Rockies will walk onto the field with a hunger for victory. Root root for the home team and if they don’t win it’ll still hurt as much as anything in sports. But take solace. With hope they’ll all be back next year playing under the lights of Coors Field downtown with a renewed vigor for the victory.

Here’s to the team for all the hard work they’ve done and to the future of your Colorado Rockies.

The Hunt for a Purple October continues.

edit 10/1/2007 @ 9:56pm

The game has gone for 12 innings and we are deadlocked at 6 to 6. Baseball at its finest.

edit 10/1/2007 @ 10:00pm

And we’re at 13 with 2 runs behind. This could be the end.

edit 10/1/2007 @ 10:15pm

And the Rockies return to tie the game and a clean slate. Believe…

…in Boulder and Fort Collins must contain something I’m not getting down here in Denver because there are some people who may need to rethink certain things. There’s two stories below with my comments. I’d love to hear your informed, mature and thought out opinions in the comments.

Before I go any further, I should lay out my cards on the table. I’m a registered Republican of the non-denominational Christian Faith with a conservative streak. There, got that disclaimer out of the way.

In Boulder some non-voting high schoolers apparently are all upset about having to say the pledge of allegiance even though they don’t have to say it. But that’s beside the point.

About 100 other students watched as the group recited their own pledge to both the American flag and the planet.

I suppose I’m someone who becomes concerned when students become activists about things that send red flags flying through the small mind I have. I express reservations because I have come to suspect parents, teachers and others who are older in age having pushed these kids to do these things and say these things to prove some kind of interesting point about church and state. Although I had to chuckle at the pledge to the planet because that’s typical Boulder. My suspects are somewhat confirmed with the quote from the article in question,

He said the school has no choice but to say the pledge because it is required by state law. Most of the students who watched today’s protest were sympathetic, and cheered on their schoolmates. But senior Donovan Ranta, 17, said, “I think everybody is doing it to get attention.”

You’ll also want to take a look at the picture of the logo of the student group (see the link above). The red star sends green and yellow flags in my mind because I’m used to seeing that type of imagery on Communist and Socialist propaganda. Again, I’m not saying these kids should be sent to Gitmo or anything (that’d be jumping the shark before we even caught it) but I’m also cautious about these kind of things.

On 850 KOA earlier this morning there was talk from the school district about how the pronouncement of “God” is not religion specific and can be interpreted to mean a general non specific Deity. Again, the kids making the move has me wondering about outside influences. Apologies to Boulder but y’all have earned this kind of questioning.

My second story is the now blazing firestorm of a controversy where a student newspaper decided they would so something everyone else in the last four or so years has done. Bash Bush. Oh my goodness! They’re breaking the mold! However did they approach such a tired (I’m sorry, but I’m really getting bored with all this “BUSH IS THE DEVIL” junk. It’s tired, it’s lame and it’s not helping anyone) and worn out maneuver?

They referenced the tazer incident (later proved the guy was a complete phony going for attention but the college newspaper staff didn’t seem to care) in a short and unruly commentary that included the use of the four letter word that starts with “F” and ends with “K”. That was the extent of their statement. Nothing for debate, no discussion of why they believe what they think is Bush’s fault in the incident that involved a kid at a John Kerry event or any kind of explanation of the column.

They have a right to free speech and I would defend it until the day I die. However as many have said, Free Speech comes with consequences. If your foray into free speech costs your college newspaper $50,000 in advertising you’re going to be under a microscope. If you decide to take all the learning, the teachings and real world experience you’ve had in the journalistic sphere and then throw it out the window with the baby and the bathwater, you’re going to find yourself with people very upset.

As a journalist at back in the day at Littleton High School , “blogger” and even now a writer here at Denver Metroblog I’ve always found that when writing a column or post about something that careens into opinion that a explanation of why I feel the way I do and how I got there is usually required. If you’re going to be someone to be taken seriously in this world and wish to show people you perspective without seriously pushing a major button, you have to be mature about it.

I don’t believe this guy should be fired. I think the advertisers are acting to protect themselves from the fallout. They don’t want to be associated with a petulant child who can’t seem to express themselves without throwing an infantile fit. And so, they’re pulling away. That is their right. I think our editor person should take a stand. If you believe what you believe, then so be it. Say it and stand by it.

But you have to accept the consequences of your actions. Nothing is free. The one thing more people in this nation, world, planet, whatever need to learn is that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For this blog post, there will be reactions. Some in the Denver community will probably have already stopped reading this column way up there where I talked about my background. Others have gotten this far and are probably steaming. And maybe a few are nodding their heads along with me.

An interesting note is that he’s retained David Lane, he of the Ward Churchill cluster of insanity and other local controversy. Most Denver news stations and radio stations have said that this guy hasn’t been charged with anything and isn’t in trouble with the law. Needless, if this story picks up much more steam and becomes another Mound of Churchill I’m going to do my best to express my opinions and feelings in a manner that is both professional, mature and informed.

It is the one thing J. David McSwane needs to take away from this.

So, what do you think?

The saddest sight in aviation… is a closed airport.

This runway belonged to the Fort Collins Downtown Airport, whose closure was planned awhile ago. Can you just make out the big yellow X painted at the near end of the runway, just before the numbers? That means “Runway Closed – Don’t Land Here.”

And you shouldn’t. You may think that it just got shut down administratively, but for all you know there are big holes in the paving that you won’t notice until your landing roll. Then you’ll notice ‘em all right. General aviation aficionados may remember that back in 2003, the then-Mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, “settled” a dispute concerning Meigs Field–keep the airport open or replace it with a park?–by sending heavy construction vehicles out in the dead of night to destroy the runway. What kept this action from being life-threatening on top of exceedingly undemocratic was that the stealthy destruction team made their ruts in the shape of highly visible Xs.

Anyway. Fort Collins. I was gonna consider flying there, dang it, back on the 13th when me and a friend went to Charles de Lint’s book-signing at The Book Rack. Google Maps put the bookstore at a 4 mile drive from the airfield, and surely the airport would have had shuttle service! If it were still open. My first hint: their old web page was dead. My second hint: my sectional map showed a big red X in a circle where older versions had shown the airport. It’s gone, folks–and I never got a chance to land there!

*sigh*

Anyway. After the jump: lots more aerial photography (of a more cheerful nature) chronicling Saturday’s cross-country flight from Boulder to Cheyenne. Includes the requisite corn maze. Clicky-clicky.
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To continue the “it’s my anniversary” theme, my wife and I went to the Brown Palace Hotel for dinner….

WOAH

if you’re looking for hoyty toyty, look no farther! If you’re looking for some freakishly tasty bison or abalone, also look no farther!

We started with appetizers, then a fresh cesar salad made table side, then my wife had a cooked to perfection bison steak, and I tried the abalone. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it, but it was damn tasty.

I wanted to try their Banana’s Foster, but was just too full to enjoy it, so I’ll be going back at least once more to try those bad boys. I’m a fiend for a well made Banana’s Foster, flames and all.

It’s definitely not an affordable affair… unless you make a small mint every month, or print your own money, but for a “night out” it was well worth it.

If you’re looking for a place to enjoy a night with your wife, husband, boy or girlfriend, foreign exchange student from botswana, or whatever, give the Palace Arms at brown palace a shot.

Oh, and really, I promise, I’ll have more to say that isn’t about food eventually… :D

So tomorrow is my 2nd wedding anniversary, Yay me!!

Since that falls on a Monday, we decided to have a nice weekend away from the house, dogs, lawn, this, that and the other.

My wife booked us a nice room at the Broadmoor hotel, down in Colorado Springs. We ate lunch there one day shortly after we moved, and thought it was a nice place. Let me tell ya. it is nice!

We headed down Saturday and stopped for a light hike (more like a walk, since we didn’t dress for the occassion, or get geared out) around the Cheyenne Canyon and Seven Falls. Nice walk, lotsa stairs.

We get to the Broadmoor and damn if it ain’t a nice looking place.

Check in was a little rough, but ended up very nice for us. We had booked the “Romantic Getaway” and when the desk agent rattled off the details, he was like “Double bed”. Woah there Kemosabe … Double bed, not very romantic. Cozy, sure. Romantic, not so much. He does a little looking, no other rooms with king beds… hmmm what to do? Upgrade us to a suite, that’s what!

Hotels always have so much stuff, you just never use, but is cool. This place, is no different. Our suite had a reading room, with it’s own AC, and TV… Who stays in a 5 star hotel and watches TV? apart from their significant other?

The grounds are great! There’s a sweet lake, with geese and paddle boats, a spa (we didn’t even look), some cool shops, lots of places to eat. Our package included dinner at Summit. Wow that’s a great meal.
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Well, we’re not dead. Yet. A heaping of apologies from me (and my fellow writers here at Denver MetroBlog). We’ve all been busy, sick and moving at the speed of light. However, never fear Dear Denver…we’re still around. I’m not going anywhere (unless that incident in the Philippines sees the light of day which if it does I deny everything. Except that I was married to Imelda Marcos for thirteen seconds. That part was true. She’ll disavow it of course).

Denver’s still here too and she’ll never leave us. Her amazing Spring, Summer and now Autumn has been a fantastic time to watch the weather. We’ve had an inordinate amount of thunderstorms and rain and thankfully the temperature never went above 100 degrees except for one day and I will never forget that day. Because my automatic door locks melted. That was a fun experience.

The Winter approacheth. I predict we’ll get socked by Halloween or even earlier if Mother Nature follows the path she’s been on since I got back to Denver. She’s a tempestuous beast of a woman and never likes to follow plans or general guidelines around here. She tends to slip us a mickey or two with a few left and surprise right hooks before she’s settled down.

Meanwhile I’m sitting in my apartment quietly counting the days as I change jobs. I’m not working in Highlands Ranch anymore (thank the gods) and will be a workin’ stiff over near I-70 and Peoria which is back in my Aurora area.

The title of this post now kicks in right here. Denver is a hard city to exist in as a single person. Maybe I’m one of a few, but this has been my experience. I’m not a drinker so all the vundarbar places of intoxication are out the window. Because that’s apparently where you meet ‘da ladies. Getting out is more of a challenge on a limited budget as well.

To top it all off, I don’t think my particular aura fits in The Mile High City. I’m a geek and a nerd. I maintain my own websites, write my own fiction and host my own online radio show three times a week. I like Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Superman, Batman and all kinds of things that you’d find in my mothers basement if I lived there anymore.

Find me a nice girl in Denver who likes those same things and sees eye to eye on my politics, religion and morals and I’ll pay you whatever I have left after the debt, tax man and bills clean me out. Denver is an odd place to be me and single. There’s churches around here where I could throw myself into the singles market but I have yet to find a satisfactory young adults group that doesn’t feel like a meat fridge.

So I look to you dear readers. Us single people need help. We need places to hang out. Meet people of the opposite gender. Get out of the apartment. Single people in Denver, share you tales of woe. And if I’m off target I’ll take my lumps.

I’ll post my review of some food places I’ve hit up in the last few weeks.

Yes, I did go flying this past weekend, thanks for asking. I’m just late with the blogging of it, is all. Plus it was kinda boring. It involved absolutely no corn mazes, for instance. But I’ve still got some pics to share! As promised! So there.

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I’ve been meaning to blog about Aviano Coffee for some time now, and on yesterday’s visit, the chalkboard “menu” outside was simply begging me to whip out the ol’ camera phone and capture a poorly lit JPG for you all.

As you may have noticed in my bio, I come from the Pacific Northwest. This makes finding a decent cup of coffee anywhere else a chore, to put it lightly. So one of the first things I did upon arriving in Denver was go on a tour… seeking out any and every fine coffee establishment until I found something worth consuming. Naturally, Starbucks and other chains are right out. Peet’s makes an okay cuppajoe, but we’re looking for the best stuff here. After three experiences that almost made me just give up on coffee in Denver, I landed at Aviano.

The first thing to notice, is that these guys pay attention to details. You can see it in the decor. The use Intelligensia beans out of Chicago, which excepting a couple world-renowned roasters in Portland/Seattle, is among the best beans you can find. This was a promising start. The second promising occurence was when I ordered a traditional cappuccino and wasn’t asked “what size?”. If you have to ask, just skip it and pour me some drip coffee, please.

The coffee is pretty good, ultimately… but, as usual, it depends on the barista. There are a couple baristas, including Doug, the owner, that hit the mark every time, with perfect shots and perfect milk. The rest are hit and miss… though I will say the guy in there yesterday (I didn’t catch his name) asked how my capp was, and upon my observation that it was a little bitter on the top (hardly a cardinal sin), he promptly made me a new one and insisted that he would keep trying until he got it right. The second one was excellent.

And, of course, there’s WiFi. It’s recently been encrypted for ‘customers only’, but they haven’t changed the password, so once you got it you got it.

Aviano is on 9th and Lincoln, in the Beauvallon building. Take a moment to enjoy a traditional double cappuccino, and don’t feel bad if you feel the need to muse out loud, “Starbucks, WTF?”.