I just wrapped up an interesting and enjoyable 36 hour sojourn to visit with some of my relatives. My youngest sister LAC and her two daughters, A and S, came up from NM to spend a few days in the Denver area for a little vacation and to see me and my other two brothers and their families who live in the Denver metro area. I arrived in mid afternoon Saturday after a drive that was inconvenienced by accidents and highway construction that forced me to detour off I-25 to US Highway 287 from Fort Collins to Longmont adding about 30 minutes or more for the trip. This was after dealing with the seemingly endless highway construction on I-25 ongoing in Wyoming for the first seven miles of interstate entering into the state from Colorado. This project has been underway since at least April and seems far from completion. The northbound side of the highway has been obliterated and an entire new highway is being constructed. This results in traffic going in both ways sharing the regular two southbound lanes which is kind of unnerving with the speed and volume of traffic especially at night with mere pylons and a few feet separating the opposite going high-speed traffic from each other. There is no lighting along the stretch and no shoulders. I imagine I will have to deal with this for at least another three months or more. I believe this project probably should have been done in a different manner as the current process creates a great deal of peril and danger for all drivers. Highway construction is also is in high gear in Colorado with the eternal widening project of I-25 in southwest Weld County continuing with work occurring for most of the stretch from mile marker 245, the Mead exit, south to mile marker 235, the Erie exit. It appears that completion of this stretch will not occur until sometime later in 2009, and then the project moves north towards the Berthoud, Lyons, and Johnstown exits. This widening of 1-25 is supposed to continue north to Fort Collins exit 269 so about another decade of ongoing work will occur to finish to next 24 miles. I also had to deal with nighttime overtime work resurfacing the road near the south Loveland exit for about three miles which slowed my return trip home slightly. The entire weekend was very hot and mostly sunny until late afternoon with temperatures near or above 100 degrees throughout the region. Fortunately the White Knight ran well and gasoline was about a $ 60.00 expense.
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I got to west Lakewood near Golden where LAC had gotten their hotel room. I got myself a room for the night. We visited for a while and then headed south to visit youngest brother HBL and his family's home in Castle Rock. We had a nice feast of some treats we had purchased at the grocery store of bratwurst, potato salad, watermelon, strawberry shortcakes, chocolate cake, and iced tea. We also had pork chops but his barbecue cooker was broken so those never got prepared. Instead HBL went and got a couple of pizzas to add to the feast. The young nieces J and C were excited and elated to see their NM cousins and they all spent some fun time together. We visited and conversed for a few hours before heading back to the hotel around 10:30pm. After we returned to the hotel, I took advantage of the bathtub in the room and took about a 40 minute soak which was quite soothing, as I have not had this luxury in well over two years due to just having availability of showers all this time. I also got to sleep on a nice thick firm mattress which had its benefits as well.
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Sunday we started out in late morning with a simple breakfast at the hotel restaurant. After an hour walking through the Colorado Mills mall, we took a drive down West Colfax and almost made it to downtown Denver before having to turn back to meet up with HBL and his daughters coming up from Castle Rock. All the cousins spent a good three hours almost swimming in the hotel pool and having a lot of fun while LAC and myself enjoyed some good conversation. I also had some good discussions with HBL. As evening apporoached we decided on a place for dinner, and after some disagreements, we decided on a place not far at the Colorado Mills mall. Middle brother VML and his family joined us although youngest brother HBL had to take off with his girls. It was a nice meal although smokers made some moments unpleasant. We then carpooled and spent about an hour or so walking along the 16th Street Mall in downtown Denver and taking a few short jaunts on the free Mall bus. We then returned to the hotel around 10pm and I headed home up I-25 for the one and one-half hour or so drive home and the very unpleasant thought of having to be at work at 6:30am for the start of another long hot week that was sure to bring me more pain and discomfort in my hands and wrists. As I feared, I was nowhere near being sleepy and did not retire for bed until after 2am. I tossed and turned and would get little if any sleep before having to get back up to start the workday. I know when I get home Monday afternoon I will do little but sleep and rest and deal with a body clock totally out of whack.
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All in all, it was a nice weekend with some enjoyable time with my sister and her daughters, as well as my other two brothers. Things never go perfect and there were some unsettling and disappointing moments, but it was not bad. I look forward to seeing my brothers again along with their families in the coming months and hope to travel to NM in late November to spend Thanksgiving with LAC and her family as well as my middle younger sister KVS and her family as well.
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Thanks to all for the nice weekend -- it was truly a nice escape.
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*****
Yesterday, 20 July, marks the 77th anniversary of the birth of my father. He was born in Erie, PA, into a world of difficulty and hardship, spent his youth in an unimaginably polluted and impoverished Pittsburgh, and lived his life often in the shadow of stress, tragedy and heartbreak, losing his parents and siblings while still a boy. During his long military career in the US Air Force which dominated and defined his life, he saw and experienced much and was exposed to truths, horrors, and sights that I cannot imagine and I wonder how he coped and cognitated with those moments. Yet he accomplished much and lived a full life with many successes, adventures and opportunities. The challenges he faced and struggled to overcome often compelled him to make less than ideal choices in lifestyle habits, many of which were strongly socially acceptable and required, but with health consequences not well known a quarter and a half century ago and more. I would like to think that I learned at least a few lessons from him and took his example and became a better and more responsible healthy individual personally. I never smoked tobacco, used liquor in a substantially smaller quantity, particularly after age 30, stopped drinking coffee in 1996, have tried to eat more fruits and vegetables. and not let stress get to me and keep my circumstances in perspective ( but I am nowhere near perfect).
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