I'm torn about what to write about today as I've just had occasion to watch a clip from the movie The Big Short. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k5aVLi_yhM If you haven't seen the movie, well you just should. It still has the ability to weirdly move me, just from a clip. Perhaps the common thread could be places and houses.
I'm just back from another short trip to the cabin with Cooper our youngest dog. I've decide Cooper would like his name to be changed (at least while at the cabin) to Chief Wild Turkey. Deb and I have always said part of the enjoyment of the property is watching the dogs enjoy it. On our last visit Callie (the old one) found some fairly recent turkey bones and a pile of feathers. Callie of course was looking for a meal. Cooper grabbed one of the big tail feathers and jump and generally carried it around looking like a kid playing cowboys and Indians. It was on this visit the first place he snuck off to and came back with a couple more feathers. That's my boy!
I mention the turkey additionally because I think I figured out what killed it.
I've put on some Grateful Dead (another Friends find) with the hope that their rambling improvisational style would corral my thoughts and thus my writing. (does scattered x rambling = coherent I'll let you decide).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30f_Eo9ynW8 I've followed it with some Iris DeMent mostly because I've heard the name but don't know her music and yet bought the CD at the Friends sale so we'll see.
The turkey gobbled it's last, maybe 50 yards from the cabin in a pretty little spot that while our front porch faces that way I don't often walk into. So while pausing after putting a coat of shellac on the floor I was standing on the porch with Cooper. Cooper had been hooked to a long lead under the deck (don't worry water and shade and all that) so I could concentrate on some work I'd never done before and not have to worry about what he was up to. He of course took to writing to the UN about his Rights being violated and generally making such a dither that you would have thought he was being killed. I certainly wasn't able to lose myself in craftsmanship. Just saying! So we're standing on the deck when my eyes lock with this absolutely adorable little cat. I mean Simba from the Lion King adorable. He sees me and hurries but doesn't run back towards the turkey kill area. Thankfully Cooper didn't see him.
My first thought was bobcat as I didn't see a tail but the color wasn't right. This was a beautiful tan coat and I think some white on the butt. So I'm thinking cougar with either him or Mom having taken out the turkey. The hard part when you see a cute little one like that is shaking the city out of you head and reminding yourself, wild not cute!
I drove home last night to avoid both the heat and the traffic associated with the Renaissance Festival. About all the gardening I managed through tired eyes was a quick visit to the garden to pick lettuce and pea pods and some other tasties for salad tonight and put some water on the Butternut squash. I managed to get most of the garden onto drip hoses and a timer system last week but with new beds couldn't quite figure out how to hook in the squash and onions. My watering system would make Rube Goldberg proud. Someday I'll create a simple and logical system. Of course I pretty much figure that the day after you visit Someday Isle is the day you get hit by the bus so...
The heat is giving the summer veggies just what they need and I'll need to be pulling some of the volunteer Larkspur to give them room. The Larkspur reseeds itself and gets a pass from me during the spring as it's so damned pretty. Plus the bumble bees seem to like it and I've heard through my niece Zoe that bumble bees are uniquely qualified to pollinate tomatoes. She was working on some study at Cornell, something about bumble bee vibrations/ tomato pollination and other deep garden nerd stuff! Me I just know the Tomatoes are looking good. Especially Travis's Siberian varieties. I don't think it will happen but it could this year that my tomatoes are ripe before my lettuce bolts. Now that's a salad!!!!!
Before heading down to the cabin two ladies came to the door with a petition. I knew one from my time on Council as a neighbor and solid Republican conservative. Beyond the fact that I knew her it was a nice respite from the steady stream of sales people our neighborhood gets. Since the hail storm that field has been mostly filled with roofing salesmen and their kin. Thus I greeted them with "you don't look like roofers". She laughed and told me about the petition, a petition to limit growth in Lakewood. Now for my more liberal friends you might find it incongruent that a deeply conservative woman would be espousing what is traditionally thought of as a liberal cause. It is I've found a subject that cuts across the political spectrum. As a libertarian I've always found it a hard issue to find a pure philosophical path. Should we be subverting elected governments in Ukraine, spying on US citizens or any of a hundred other topics at the National level - eezy peezy I've got logic and philosophy solid as the dirt in my alley. Land use not so much. Thus I'll write with the hope that each of you will offer me some wisdom.
Lakewood like most of Colorado and perhaps a lot of the Country is booming. (and by the way what follows a boom?) The most obvious sign is housing. When my niece told me how much she was paying a couple of years ago for a small but nice apartment I assumed she was demanding some special amenities and thus the price. The stories about homeless having been run out of Denver and invading next door Lakewood. Well some folks are just lazy and seeing some encampments hidden in the wooded ditch behind the fast food places begging for workers, well there's proof. Heck when the neighbor told me over the fence what Zillow said our homes were worth I told Deb I might be willing to start gardening somewhere else. (gardens literally and figuratively give you roots.)
It's said that the cure for high prices is high prices. Thus every developer and guy who can swing a hammer (am I showing my age? I mean nail gun.) is building something as fast as they can. Lakewood is looking at annexing some vacant land into the City to help along some development and has tried to facilitate some other deals to "promote growth" (The quotes are because I do listen to all sides and this is a term of derision in some circles.) Additionally the decision to bring a lite rail line through Lakewood was opposed by some as it would bring density and urban problems to suburban Lakewood. Several years on they were proved clairvoyant. Old neighborhoods that developers couldn't find with a seeing eye dog a few years ago are sprouting hipster apartments. Jubilation that finally the crappy neighbors are gone. No more pit bull sleeping on the couch on the front lawn while the neighbors party inside or sleep off last nights raucous affair. The jubilation has been replaced with cries of "I can't afford to live here" or "I can't grow a garden when you replace the little house with a 3 story townhome/condo development" or "I bought for the view".
Iris DeMent has just come on and while nice will definitely affect my typing speed. Nice voice tho'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvQFk1Pv5Sw
Now in fairness to those that feel they bought a suburban Lakewood. Lakewood was created in 1969 and while I wasn't here than I understand it was at least partially to protect our children from busing and Urban Denver. (I have to laugh at that last bit as Denver was tiny and had a tiny feel when I moved here in the 80's let alone 1969).
Suburbanism was the professional planners mantra of the time just as New Urbanism is to today's planners. It really was what people bought right wrong, agree disagree with the philosophy of suburbanism that is what a lot of people bought. Who gets to decide now what you bought can be changed. Does your neighbor own some of your property rights? Which ones? Who says? This is a lot of what local politics boils down to and one of the reasons I didn't want to run for Mayor or later run for re-election. I don't know and it's philosophically messy and just to make it a gasoline and matches affair opinions are never lukewarm. The crazies might shoot up congressional baseball practices but if you want to see nuts go to you're local Council meeting for a lasts till 2 am zoning change.
It's hard not to be intense about home. Heck our cabin will never be more than a little get away. If however our neighbors all build, our little 3 acres of heaven will lose it's basic appeal not to mention the elk, deer, turkeys and occasional Simba. I get it. Sure libertarian will intone that you only own what you own but walk down that road just a short ways with me.
What do you actually own and what do you just think you own. Do you own the right to not have your neighbor build a structure that shades your lovely new solar system. Should your neighbor be allowed to rent out his Victorian mansion as a half way house for sex offenders or perhaps just an Airbnb. OK what about greater density an apartment building full of kids in a district with crowded schools? These are just the obvious examples that courts and laws have offered some guidance on. What about the subtle stuff like did you buy a short commute to work and now traffic well.. Or water for your garden and now your on restrictions.
Who gets to decide? What if the developer is what the community has been pleading for to improve the neighborhood but the only way he can make the numbers work is a little help from the City. Does he than become the slimy developer who's bribing your rights away to a bunch of crooked politicians?
I tend to fall on the you should be allowed to use your property as you choose side of the argument. This is what I told those two nice ladies but it at best a nuance conversation and I yearn for a bit more clarity. Got any?
Iris just came on with a great duet with Delbert McClinton knew I'd heard her before! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTT1g3m4bpE Gonna go. Doug A
I'm just back from another short trip to the cabin with Cooper our youngest dog. I've decide Cooper would like his name to be changed (at least while at the cabin) to Chief Wild Turkey. Deb and I have always said part of the enjoyment of the property is watching the dogs enjoy it. On our last visit Callie (the old one) found some fairly recent turkey bones and a pile of feathers. Callie of course was looking for a meal. Cooper grabbed one of the big tail feathers and jump and generally carried it around looking like a kid playing cowboys and Indians. It was on this visit the first place he snuck off to and came back with a couple more feathers. That's my boy!
I mention the turkey additionally because I think I figured out what killed it.
I've put on some Grateful Dead (another Friends find) with the hope that their rambling improvisational style would corral my thoughts and thus my writing. (does scattered x rambling = coherent I'll let you decide).https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30f_Eo9ynW8 I've followed it with some Iris DeMent mostly because I've heard the name but don't know her music and yet bought the CD at the Friends sale so we'll see.
The turkey gobbled it's last, maybe 50 yards from the cabin in a pretty little spot that while our front porch faces that way I don't often walk into. So while pausing after putting a coat of shellac on the floor I was standing on the porch with Cooper. Cooper had been hooked to a long lead under the deck (don't worry water and shade and all that) so I could concentrate on some work I'd never done before and not have to worry about what he was up to. He of course took to writing to the UN about his Rights being violated and generally making such a dither that you would have thought he was being killed. I certainly wasn't able to lose myself in craftsmanship. Just saying! So we're standing on the deck when my eyes lock with this absolutely adorable little cat. I mean Simba from the Lion King adorable. He sees me and hurries but doesn't run back towards the turkey kill area. Thankfully Cooper didn't see him.
My first thought was bobcat as I didn't see a tail but the color wasn't right. This was a beautiful tan coat and I think some white on the butt. So I'm thinking cougar with either him or Mom having taken out the turkey. The hard part when you see a cute little one like that is shaking the city out of you head and reminding yourself, wild not cute!
I drove home last night to avoid both the heat and the traffic associated with the Renaissance Festival. About all the gardening I managed through tired eyes was a quick visit to the garden to pick lettuce and pea pods and some other tasties for salad tonight and put some water on the Butternut squash. I managed to get most of the garden onto drip hoses and a timer system last week but with new beds couldn't quite figure out how to hook in the squash and onions. My watering system would make Rube Goldberg proud. Someday I'll create a simple and logical system. Of course I pretty much figure that the day after you visit Someday Isle is the day you get hit by the bus so...
The heat is giving the summer veggies just what they need and I'll need to be pulling some of the volunteer Larkspur to give them room. The Larkspur reseeds itself and gets a pass from me during the spring as it's so damned pretty. Plus the bumble bees seem to like it and I've heard through my niece Zoe that bumble bees are uniquely qualified to pollinate tomatoes. She was working on some study at Cornell, something about bumble bee vibrations/ tomato pollination and other deep garden nerd stuff! Me I just know the Tomatoes are looking good. Especially Travis's Siberian varieties. I don't think it will happen but it could this year that my tomatoes are ripe before my lettuce bolts. Now that's a salad!!!!!
Before heading down to the cabin two ladies came to the door with a petition. I knew one from my time on Council as a neighbor and solid Republican conservative. Beyond the fact that I knew her it was a nice respite from the steady stream of sales people our neighborhood gets. Since the hail storm that field has been mostly filled with roofing salesmen and their kin. Thus I greeted them with "you don't look like roofers". She laughed and told me about the petition, a petition to limit growth in Lakewood. Now for my more liberal friends you might find it incongruent that a deeply conservative woman would be espousing what is traditionally thought of as a liberal cause. It is I've found a subject that cuts across the political spectrum. As a libertarian I've always found it a hard issue to find a pure philosophical path. Should we be subverting elected governments in Ukraine, spying on US citizens or any of a hundred other topics at the National level - eezy peezy I've got logic and philosophy solid as the dirt in my alley. Land use not so much. Thus I'll write with the hope that each of you will offer me some wisdom.
Lakewood like most of Colorado and perhaps a lot of the Country is booming. (and by the way what follows a boom?) The most obvious sign is housing. When my niece told me how much she was paying a couple of years ago for a small but nice apartment I assumed she was demanding some special amenities and thus the price. The stories about homeless having been run out of Denver and invading next door Lakewood. Well some folks are just lazy and seeing some encampments hidden in the wooded ditch behind the fast food places begging for workers, well there's proof. Heck when the neighbor told me over the fence what Zillow said our homes were worth I told Deb I might be willing to start gardening somewhere else. (gardens literally and figuratively give you roots.)
It's said that the cure for high prices is high prices. Thus every developer and guy who can swing a hammer (am I showing my age? I mean nail gun.) is building something as fast as they can. Lakewood is looking at annexing some vacant land into the City to help along some development and has tried to facilitate some other deals to "promote growth" (The quotes are because I do listen to all sides and this is a term of derision in some circles.) Additionally the decision to bring a lite rail line through Lakewood was opposed by some as it would bring density and urban problems to suburban Lakewood. Several years on they were proved clairvoyant. Old neighborhoods that developers couldn't find with a seeing eye dog a few years ago are sprouting hipster apartments. Jubilation that finally the crappy neighbors are gone. No more pit bull sleeping on the couch on the front lawn while the neighbors party inside or sleep off last nights raucous affair. The jubilation has been replaced with cries of "I can't afford to live here" or "I can't grow a garden when you replace the little house with a 3 story townhome/condo development" or "I bought for the view".
Iris DeMent has just come on and while nice will definitely affect my typing speed. Nice voice tho'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvQFk1Pv5Sw
Now in fairness to those that feel they bought a suburban Lakewood. Lakewood was created in 1969 and while I wasn't here than I understand it was at least partially to protect our children from busing and Urban Denver. (I have to laugh at that last bit as Denver was tiny and had a tiny feel when I moved here in the 80's let alone 1969).
Suburbanism was the professional planners mantra of the time just as New Urbanism is to today's planners. It really was what people bought right wrong, agree disagree with the philosophy of suburbanism that is what a lot of people bought. Who gets to decide now what you bought can be changed. Does your neighbor own some of your property rights? Which ones? Who says? This is a lot of what local politics boils down to and one of the reasons I didn't want to run for Mayor or later run for re-election. I don't know and it's philosophically messy and just to make it a gasoline and matches affair opinions are never lukewarm. The crazies might shoot up congressional baseball practices but if you want to see nuts go to you're local Council meeting for a lasts till 2 am zoning change.
It's hard not to be intense about home. Heck our cabin will never be more than a little get away. If however our neighbors all build, our little 3 acres of heaven will lose it's basic appeal not to mention the elk, deer, turkeys and occasional Simba. I get it. Sure libertarian will intone that you only own what you own but walk down that road just a short ways with me.
What do you actually own and what do you just think you own. Do you own the right to not have your neighbor build a structure that shades your lovely new solar system. Should your neighbor be allowed to rent out his Victorian mansion as a half way house for sex offenders or perhaps just an Airbnb. OK what about greater density an apartment building full of kids in a district with crowded schools? These are just the obvious examples that courts and laws have offered some guidance on. What about the subtle stuff like did you buy a short commute to work and now traffic well.. Or water for your garden and now your on restrictions.
Who gets to decide? What if the developer is what the community has been pleading for to improve the neighborhood but the only way he can make the numbers work is a little help from the City. Does he than become the slimy developer who's bribing your rights away to a bunch of crooked politicians?
I tend to fall on the you should be allowed to use your property as you choose side of the argument. This is what I told those two nice ladies but it at best a nuance conversation and I yearn for a bit more clarity. Got any?
Iris just came on with a great duet with Delbert McClinton knew I'd heard her before! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTT1g3m4bpE Gonna go. Doug A
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