Jasonisms

I pulled into Parker, CO yesterday and when I tried to pass through Mainstreet the road was blocked off. Turns out there was some sort of classic car show going on and I was there a mere half hour before it finished. All I brought was my cell phone (Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra) and I was able to grab a handful of shots, most of which weren't very good. Either people were in the photo or the hoods to the vehicles were open or, as in most cases, sheets of paper on the windshields as you can see in he truck photo below. Photos edited with Snapseed.

Colorado, 1862  A couple of months ago a friend of mine who was involved with a political fundraising event, asked me to put together a piece of artwork that could go to auction. Sure, I said, as it sounded like a good idea. The problem is, I don't have the equipment to put together the piece I wanted to make. In years past, I used a maker's space's equipment but hadn't been back to the that maker's space since a couple of years before Covid-19 shut the world down.  But, we persevere.  I took out some old supplies that I had in my storage unit and contacted the maker's space. They had purchased some new equipment they were prioritizing over their older equipment that was collecting dust in the corner.  They allowed people to come in and work on this equipment in one hour increments and then did little to no help with setup or figuring out the proper settings. And with barely an hour, I didn't have time to do a test piece, so we ran the project through the eq...

A lot has happened in the past month and I decided to reward myself with a few days away from the world - I went camping.  I spent each night in a new place, got a sunburn and read a 600+ page novel and it was fun. First night was just up the mountain from Idaho Springs, CO so I could come down quickly the next day and take a video call.  The next night was spent at about 12,000 feet above sea level. It was cold at night and even during the day in the shade. I had to sit in the sun just to stay warm and, well, that's where the sunburn came from.  At night you could see the greater Denver metro area's suburbs from this view. Third night was from this old staple. I wanted somewhere a little lower in elevation so it wouldn't be so cold overnight, which this was,  but I ended up at a slight angle and couldn't sleep well through the night because I kept rolling to the right.    Saw this monstrosity in Glenwood Spri...

Last week, with the weather hitting triple digits here in Colorado, I decided to spend a few days in the high country where it was cooler.  As I walked around a trail I came upon this stack of stumps that had been piled by the forest service. This cross hatch caught my attention and I couldn't help but grab an quick snap.  This was taken with my Android as I didn't have my Pentax with me, but a friend saw it and said she thought it was wonderful so I had a print made and gave it to her.  She has to find her own frame so I haven't seen the final iteration yet. 

A cold front moved through North America this past weekend causing snow in such unlikely places as Texas and Louisiana. I was having a bit of cabin fever and decided to drive through the Rocky Mountain National Wildlife Refuge . The bison were out in force but unfortunately my DSLR was in the back of the truck and I couldn't get to it safely with the bison so near.  So, I have a couple of phone shots.  The weather at 1PM on Sunday, in case you were wondering. 

It is really hard to try and believe the modern #GOP isn't racist when they repeatedly surround themselves with them. _As the state continues to diversify, Republicans decided they could best learn what the population truly wants by inviting David Horowitz, the leader of a vehemently anti-immigration and anti-Muslim hate group, to keynote the gathering. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the David Horowitz Freedom Center as “a platform to project hate and misinformation.” But Colorado Republicans welcomed him with open arms – and he gave them what they wanted._ #Colorado #GOP https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2018/12/right-colorado-elected-gay-governor-state-republicans-huddled-hate-group-leader/

Maybe there will be a day in the future when I have 40 uninterruptable minutes and I'll have a chance to watch this video. Until then, I'm dropping it here. #GSuite #Colorado https://youtu.be/Eu7LRFISh4o

Finally Many many moons ago I volunteered with the Colorado Democratic party. This was during the first GWB administration when we all thought the world couldn't get any worse than it was. Somehow I was added to their email blast list and I've been receiving correspondence from them ever since. When I received their first email I nearly unsubscribed but I didn't. Then their second, their third and so on. Finally, more than a decade later, I was still receiving their emails. The problem is I wanted their emails so I would know about policy and politics going on in Colorado and yet, for the life of me, I can't think of one email in recent history that had such content. Instead it's always, "Give us money." Heck, sometimes, like this morning, it's: Hey, Jason, did you see our email yesterday asking for money? Well, we wanted to remind you we still need the money. Well, I don't have any money to give and while I believe the Democrats are far l...

Yesterday a friend of mine had to report for jury duty. Yes, jury duty. I know - I know, some of you are cringing in your chairs right now - jury duty?  - but someone's got to do it.  I've been called for jury duty three times, myself and consider it a civic duty I'm more than happy to comply with. Where else do you get a front row seat to the inner workings of the criminal justice system and have a say in, not only how the law is carried out, but the players in whatever case you're there to witness? And yet, my friend went in with trepidation. She'd never been called for jury duty in all her 36 (or is it 37?) years and since this was her first time she kept me as updated as she could throughout the day.  I don't know how jury duty works everywhere, but I'm sure the basics are the same: you get a noticed from the city/county/state, call in to verify you're needed the night before reporting, arrive the next morning to sit in a room full of people as...

Because ... I don't know. #Colorado Originally shared by 9NEWS When you think of Google shopping searches Coloradans make more frequently than other states, products associated with outdoor recreation may come to mind.          http://on9news.tv/2nI7Cew

Not a lot of information in here, but the entire state's election system is down right now. #Colorado #Election2016 https://www.google.com/amp/kdvr.com/2016/11/08/all-election-systems-down-in-colorado-denver-elections-office-reports/amp/

That's convenient. Good on #Colorado for making registering to vote easier. http://www.cpr.org/news/newsbeat/colorado-announces-text-smartphone-voter-registration

This is a long time coming. Other ACLU state offices have had this ability for a long time. #Colorado #ACLU http://www.9news.com/story/tech/2015/10/29/police-recording-app/74815178/

#lostdog in #Colorado. Loveland ski area is a pretty sparse area. That is, not a lot of people, no neighborhoods, parks, trails or anything else. The good news is the ski area should be staffing up so hopefully someone's around in case he comes close. Originally shared by Stacy Sanchez Help Find Chulo Th second cat was found on Saturday, and passed away yesterday. The third set of paws are still missing. Please share. Join the search: https://www.facebook.com/groups/886320554755533/

Grabbed this shot while out walking the dogs earlier today. Couldn't figure out how I liked the edit best: color, black and white or with the green tint. What do you think? This is a mobile shot edited with Snapseed.

I went riding. Nothing special, just a quick jaunt up Peak-to-Peak and back while the weather was good again. I'd made the same run last week , but this week the weather was more forgiving. Mid-80s in Denver with mid-70s in Estes Park and, unlike last week, there was little to no wind. I recorded the ride on my GoPro on the way up to Estes Park and then moved the camera to record the ride behind me. It's that video that I uploaded to Youtube. Unfortunately, I got caught up behind a few cars and even another motorcycle that was going extremely slow and had to tone it down a handful of times. To be fair, I tried adding music to the video just so you didn't have to listen to the engine's noise being picked up by the terrible mic in the GoPro, but I couldn't figure out how to add more than one song, especially since these videos are longer than a song's length. So, my advice is to simply turn down the volume and enjoy. This first video is from the intersection of Hi...

Well, that was unpleasant. Since we didn't go yesterday, I decided to take Dumb and Dumber to the dog park today for some good exercise and long naps afterwards. That it is cooler outside than it has been all week didn't hurt - Rufus loves cooler weather more than I do. Dummies Everything was going normally. We walked down one path, followed the creek, stopping at the usual spots so Rufus could jump in the water and cool off, until we arrived at the small lagoon-thing. I don't know what else to call it. The creek pools and then a small section breaks out and rejoins to the larger creek. At one point it was a called a pond, but to me it looks more like a pool of water. Regardless, we were there when a park ranger came walking buy with a brown Australian Shepherd or Mini Aussie. He was looking for it's owner which I thought was extremely nice of him since most rangers would have just taken the dog to a shelter and called it a day. Rufus at First Water Rufus...

Yeah. Sure. Yesterday as reportedly the warmest day of the week. With highs in the mid-80s I thought it was a good time to get some miles on my wheels and took the SV out for a ride. The original plan was to head south to Woodland Park and then out to Buena Vista, returning on 285 through Fairplay and the home. It would have been an all day ride, but for the most part, very long, very straight and very boring. So, at the last minute I decided to head up Peak-to-Peak highway from Golden, CO to Estes Park and back. Being a Monday the traffic was light, but still much heavier than I was expecting, especially after the fall viewing season was pretty much over, but I persevered - sometimes at speeds matching the speedlimit. What really annoyed me, though, was the fact that I went on the ride unprepared for the cooler temperatures up in the high country. Since I wasn't really going over any passes I didn't wear anything more than a light t-shirt underneath my motorcycle jacket and my...

Staging Point At the last minute I invited myself along on a overnight motorcycle trip. Now, I know what you're thinking: That Jason is a such as ass inviting himself on someone else's ride . But, you need to understand, the ride had an open invite and I was just one of 5 other people who decided to partake of the invitation. The plan was simple: leave Denver, ride out to Glenwood Springs , the long way, and return. The original (tentative) route was to take highway 285 out of Denver to Pine Junction, south to Woodland Park, west to Divide and south to Cripple Creek . After Cripple Creek we'd head down to Canon City and take highway 50 west and somehow make our way up to our final destination where we'd simmer our sore muscles in the hot springs for which the city is famous. However, like all well made plans, this plan fell apart before the first kickstand was up. We were supposed to leave at 9:00am but didn't get on the road before 9:20am. Bob, a former racer turn...