A Visit From Cajon

My son in law Cajon arrived in the Denver area last night. He will be staying with us for a couple of days while he looks for an apartment in the Denver area. Oh, my you say? What’s up with that?

Very good news.

Cajon is originally from Colorado and has always wanted to return here. The fact that he and my daughter, Cajenn, have lived in California for the past few years has made Colorado an even sweeter prospect and he has convinced his employer that he can do his job just as well from here as he can in California. To make things even sweeter, my daughter’s employer also has an office in the Denver area and she has been able to transfer her job location here as well. Their plan is to move to an apartment sometime in August and begin a search for a house…at their leisure.

The Bride and I are both excited. My work a day career took me to seven different locations and the closest we ever were to family was about a three hour drive for a few years. For most of my 35 year career we were five hours or much more from family. To have family in the same town, at this stage in our lives will be a real treat.

The Bride had previously scheduled a girls night with Pic-E and K. so tonight after Cajon finishes his search for the day I’m going to take him to Bud’s Bar for a good ‘ole greasy cheeseburger. He has heard me talk about Bud’s for some time now but has never had the opportunity to visit. I’ll fix that tonight. Guitar and Too Tall-Two Timing will meet us there and we’ll have a high old time, I’m sure.

Hmmm, the Ca part of Cajon and Cajenn refer to their residence in California. I guess I’ll have to give them new monikers. Not sure Cojon and Cojenn will work? Any suggestions?

Thanks for visiting.

Buffleheads, Goldeneyes, Mallards & Canadians

 

My first gig as a volunteer for the Division of Wildlife was a success and fun as well. My task was to complete a waterfowl count on a golf course on the Southeast side of the Denver metro area. I really had little instruction from the DOW other than to show up before sunrise and to count all the different types of waterfowl I saw so I arrived on scene at about 6:20 am with binoculars and a handy dandy bird identification book. The book was necessary because other than Canadian geese and mallards I really can’t tell a duck from a buck.

This past Saturday I drove out to the golf course to familiarize myself with the area and check out what kind of waterfowl were there. That day the only birds I saw were Canadian Geese….and there were probably 500 or 600 of them all over the course. When I arrived on Tuesday morning I was surprised to find only about 100 Canadians in the area and they were all in the water. (Now that I’m an expert, I know that they spend the night on the water and during the day move to the fields to feed.)

The golf course contains two different ponds and a creek that runs through the middle of the course so after I counted the geese at the main pond I walked around to the other pond and to the creek to see what might be there. When I got to the other pond I saw two other types of ducks/waterfowl that I hadn’t a clue as to what they were. I made some crude drawings on my notepad and headed back to my truck. After consulting the bird book I was still not sure about an identification and decided to go back to the pond and bring my camera as it was now light enough to get a picture and as they say “a picture is worth a thousand words for an old guy with CRS”

I got the pictures and on the way back to the truck again counted about 100 mallards along the creek. Fortunately between my drawings and the pictures…and the book I was able to identify the web footed flyers. In the picture above the smaller pair on the left are male and female Bufflehead and the larger pair on the right are male and female Common Goldeneye. I have never seen ducks like this before so I was thrilled at a new experience. By 8:30 am I had completed the count, drove home and completed my report which I faxed to the DOW office.

They must have liked my work because later that day I got an offer to help man the DOW booth at the International Sportsmen’s Exhibition this weekend in Denver. Unfortunately I can’t do that because on Saturday I’ll be driving down to Colorado Springs to attend another DOW orientation. At this meeting I’ll learn more about the opportunities to volunteer in Southeast Colorado. The orientation is two hours long and The Bride has agreed to come with me and then get some lunch in the Springs….which brings me to my next adventure.

Readers know that I like to investigate off beat places and down home food like BBQ and burgers. It just so happens that I recently heard about an unusual burger joint in Colorado Springs by the name of Conway’s Red Top. This burger joint has been written up in a number of national publications and is famous for it’s 18” hamburger….That is correct. Eighteen inches across. That’s way more than I could probably consume but the experience will be worth the trip as I see it. The soups and stews are supposed to be killer items too. So check back in a couple of days and see how this adventure goes.

Thanks for visiting.

Happy Birthday Too Tall-Two Timing and Corvair Man

Friday was the actual date of remembrance of that day, mrffj years ago, that Too Tall-Two Timing entered this world. It was also close to the ceremonial date of Corvair Man's birthday as well. Corvair Man is "related" to The Circle by a previous employer so we all have some common ground....and now that I write this I realize that Corvair Man is really quite uncommon, if you get my drift?

At any rate it was time for more festivities, so we all gathered at the celebration table at the back of Bud's Bar in Sedalia, CO. Since Bud's is not a place where you even speak the word "reservations" and since it was a Friday night, getting the celebration table took some doing. Bud's doesn't have a table marked at "The Celebration Table" but it's the only table that will accommodate 8 people at once and it's in the back of the bar so if a fight breaks out, we're kinda out of the way. I made sure The Bride and I arrived sufficiently late so as not to have to worry about jockeying for this choice table.

If you remember from previous posts, choosing off the "menu" at Bud's is not a difficult task. Their menu consists of a hamburger patty on a bun...with....or without...cheese. Don't even think about ordering fries because...."we don't have no damn fries". Chips are the only side.

These are, however, dynamite burgers. Not your fast food McDananld's type but flavorful and greasy enough to bring flashbacks to that simpler time in our lives when grease was a legitimate food group!

In the picture above, Corvair Man is speechless....no that's not correct, he's never speechless. Maybe the be better word is contemplative? His mind is churning about the multiple possibilities of a six pack of plastic beer bottles. A true environmentalist, he is pondering how he might extend the life of these plastic vessels.

Two Timing-Too Tall was sufficiently impressed with his tributes as well. Because he and his bride K, have now entered the ranks of RV enthusiasts and are spending more time in the wilds, I got him a bear bell. We explained to him that if he would put the bell on any bears in the campground area, they would not be able to sneak up on him. When he inquired how exactly he would do that we told him, VERY carefully! Not sure he believed us.

A good time was had by all and the group broke up pretty early as K and Too Tall-Two Timing were headed out of town the next day.

So, Too Tall and Corvair Man, Happy Birthday from your friends. May there be many more Bud's burgers to mark your journey through life.

Thanks for visiting.