The Colorado State Open Thread is written for friends and fans of our square(ish) state. I hope you all have had a good holiday season and you’re ready for a long year.
I’m not going to keep you here for a long diary. I just wish to make a few observations and then ask for what’s going on in your worlds. After all, I know (or at least I think I do) what’s going on with me and I prefer to learn what’s going on in your own world — it’s usually far more interesting. So, here’s what’s going on in my corner of the world and then I’ll open it up.
- Snow has fallen — not overly much, only somewhere around 5-6 inches at our house over a few days. However, it was enough to strand my car on New Year’s Eve, what with my SUV’s ground clearance, 4WD and winter tires. I was able to free it on New Year’s Day after about an hour of digging, putting special treads under the tires and taking advantage of the warmer weather. Fortunately we had a second car, a 2019 Subaru with less than 10K miles on it to get us to the party we were going to. We don’t usually go to NYE parties, but we did enjoy this one.
- I enjoyed, but my teams lost, two college football games this last week. Kansas was down 25 points in the third quarter and looked out of the game but somehow managed to come back and send the game into a third overtime before they lost. Michigan kept giving TCU opportunities by turnovers, missed tackles and poor referee calls, but still made a game of it right to the end. The KU basketball team was down fifteen points at halftime but managed to get back into the game and win by two points. So it wasn’t a total disaster of a week of sports and the games were competitive.
- I got a Covid booster today. I will be taking a trip (next bullet point) and I don’t want to sit on airplanes for hours and mix with people from all over the world without at least being up-to-date on my shots. The Mrs. doesn’t like the shots and now that they’re not being required for travel, she doesn’t want to get an update. She declines flu shots as well. Out of curiosity, do you readers get updates, are you through with updates until one of the shots comes out that would completely eliminate Covid risk or are you done with them? So far, knock on wood, I haven’t had a reaction to a shot and I don’t know that I’ve had Covid. Generally, though, I trust science and the CDC more than I trust the vaccine deniers.
- I purchased tickets today for a trip to Thailand, then to Puerto Vallarta and then back to the greatest place in the world, Colorado. A friend last went to Thailand about 30 years ago and he has been wanting to go back. He’s been encouraging me to go along and he has a long-time friend who lives in SE Asia, kinda wandering around various countries there and he’ll be our guide. We’ll be starting in Bangkok, then heading to Changmai for a flower festival in those northern mountains, and then, depending on timing, going to some beaches on the southern coast, though it’s not Phuket. It’s Pattaya beach, which is supposedly more for families and swimming rather than snorkeling, though I still have some time for research. However, I’ll be getting on board a plane and heading to Puerto Vallarta where I’ll meet the Mrs. and we’ll stay in Nuevo Vallarta in an all-inclusive resort and we’ll be right on a beach, so if I miss Pattya, I won’t miss a beach. Then back to Denver in time for the spring dump of snow for another three months.
- We’re also going to have Patrick’s two daughters meet us over there and this is their first foreign trip. They’re in their early 20’s so it may be a “Girls gone wild” type of adventure. He wants to leave most of the trip free-form. I’m hoping to be able to go on a short trip to Cambodia to see Angkor Watt, but I’m not sure the timing will work out. We’re also planning on seeing the Royal palace in Bangkok, but other than that, we’re open to suggestion. Please let me know if you’ve been there and/or if you have any particular suggestions. Note — I do not plan on eating insects, so no suggestions to try crickets, ants or scorpions, thank you very much.
- I can put the Colorado State Open Thread on hiatus for a month (mid-January to mid-February), I could have someone contribute their own diaries to the series or I could just use placeholders. I don’t think I’m going to take a laptop, so I’d have to write diaries on my phone. It would be easy to put pictures in, but those might be better to leave until I return. Do I have any volunteers to take over?