Like to never...

Way too many ellipses...

[robredux]

Finally…

[robredux]

Governor's comments about FFP reporter infuriating, dead wrong - Flatwater Free Press

In August, reporter Yanqi Xu heard her name called from a stage in Philadelphia for a national award recognizing Our Dirty Water, her series

[ellenkushner]

[robredux]

Hen-rye

For 32 years we have driven past the signs on I-80 for the Robert Henri Museum in Cozad Nebraska. For 32 years we drove past the museum, often commenting 'We should stop at that Robert 'on-REE' museum' Today we stopped.

Least important, and yet somehow most important, his last name is pronounced HEN-rye. you coulda knocked me over with a feather.

Second most important, it is a made up name. His father, John Jackson Cozad, was a bit of an ass. A rich ass but an ass nonetheless. While living in Cozad Nebraska, a town he named after himself, he got into a pissing match with a fellow named Alfred Pearson over some land ownership and the end result was fisticuffs and the end result of that was JJC shooting his opponent in the face and his opponent assuming room temperature. This scandal was bad for JJC and bad for the family in general so they boogied to New York state.

The family decided that a change of identity to match their change of location was worth doing. Mom and Dad selected new names, brother selected an unrelated name, and 17-year-old Robert Henry Cozad changed his name to Robert Henri. AND since he had never heard the fancy French pronunciation, he pronounced it as memorialized above.

Robert went on to become a well known painter and an especially well known art teacher. He was a member of the Ashcan School, which meant nothing to me but is important in the early 20th century in opening up subject matter and technique. He went on to teach art and welcome both men and women into his classes. Among his best known students was Edward Hopper and Rockwell Kent.

I told you all that to tell you this. S and I visited the museum. It was very nice, with a large section that was a childhood home and a small gallery of his works. We had expected to wander around at our leisure and were interested to find that our $10 admission included a personal guided tour buy a docent. I apologize for showing off but I like the word 'docent', kinda a personal fave.

I was haunted by this work:

The toothless grin, the looking right you eyes. It looks much better in person. Get yourself to Cozad to see it, it's right around the halfway point between Boston and San Francisco. I can take you there if you'd like, just call ahead.

Following all this with a small-cafe fried chicken lunch two doors down made for a very good day.

10/10 would recommend the Museum and Cozad.

6/10 would recommend more frequent changing of fryer oil at the not-to-be-named cafe.

[robredux]

We did our first explore

We decided Wednesdays would be our explore day so we did our first explore last week. We have visited Nebraska so many times in the prior 32 years but really what we did was visit family. When your kids see their grandparents 10 days a year you hate to cheat them out of any of that time by taking side quests, so we were really just going place to place as quickly as possible and not branching.

Now we are ready to branch.

Lexington is a town of about 10,000 people that was our first quest. To be honest, Macs Creek winery just outside of Lexington was our first quest.

Earlier in the month I had conned S into joining me for an evening at the Upper Room brewery near our home and as she cannot abide beer she had a glass of Buzzards Roost Blush. It isn't a fancy wine or a fancy label but we aren't fancy people, and we both liked it. SO we set out to drive non-interstate roads to a winery in the middle of Nebraska for a tasting.

It all was surprisingly good, and unsophisticated, which I think is the best four word description of me I have come across. We paired the tasting with a meat and cheese board and we sipped and nibbled for a long pleasant afternoon.

And walked out with several bottles of wine.

Nebraska is surprising on many fronts, the option to get slightly tipsy on very nice wine on a Wednesday is our newest discovery.

[robredux]

Come and Go

Friendships are an interesting thing.

Did you ever notice that when someone states that what they are about to talk about is interesting it seldom is? But I digress...

I have found two methods related to the care and feeding of friendships. The first runs contrary to who I have become, but is the most successful. If you want to remain friends, you gotta be that smoke detector with a dying battery. Not constantly screaming for attention, just the occasional chirp that is impossible to ignore. you reach out at just the fringes of 'it's been to long, reaching out now would be embarrassing'. You reach out. You get comfortable with being ghosted. You don't ghost. Many of my most spectacular friendships are sustained through this method.

The second is waiting for the other person to reach out. 'I texted last, it's their turn, and if they don't they don't want to be friends anymore and they are just dumb poopyheads'. For most of my life I used this, and it generally ended as you would expect.

When we decided to move I had the impetus to both chirp and send one last reachout. I created a vast (almost 45) list of text numbers and emails I needed to inform. A lot of them were electric companies and credit cards and banks and the like. Most of them were friends. I reached out to all of them and let them know that in the next 60 days I was going to be gone, moved to Nebraska, and never moving back.

It was interesting to see the varied responses. Most started with 'Why would you do that?' When I explained the costs and crowds and generally (gestures vaguely) all this, almost all understood.

After that though there were basically three categories of responses. The first was 'thanks for letting me know, good luck to you' That was the Comcast response. We want to still be your friend but your moving away so... so long, farewell, and thanks for all the fish!

The second was 'OMG we have to get together before you go.' on further review those responses came from better friends and I could have predicted that, but not all were predictable. I had a few weeks of lunches and drinks and coffees with many good friends. These were people I will cultivate friendships with into the future and hope they are fruitful.

The third was especially heartwarming although just subtly different. 'OMG we have to get together, let's do lunch on Thursday at our normal spot. Should I invite Jenn and Michele too?' These were the care-enough-to-recognize-you-are-feeling-overwhelmed-so-they-will-take-charge folks. Not a ton of them but I was surprised by the reaction of all of them.

I appreciate all of them. Some friendships run their course and it's nice to have a clear clean break that does not include a sobbing breakup. Some last forever. Both are good, important, and cherished.

I fricking promised myself I would not use 'cherish' in the post and there it is...

[robredux]

Our kids came with us

When we decided to explore leaving Denver we felt it needed to be a group effort.

S really got the ball rolling when she decided that she was going to retire from teaching in June 2023. Teaching had become less about kids and more about everything else. She made the call to walk away with her head held high with pride over all the good she did and children she helped.

Our daughter A is 32 (Happy Birthday to her!). Her job had become the stuff of millennial legend. She was promised opportunities but the promises were not followed through on. She wanted to take on more responsibility at the company she had been at for 5 years. She received praise and stellar reviews. But her opportunity to take on more never happened. She was ready for a new environment.

Our son R is 30 and on the autism spectrum. Change is extremely hard for him He was really unsure whether he wanted to move.

We took several trips to scout potential locations. All four of us drove the cities, looked at homes for sale, traffic, amenities, everything. Ultimately, we all four decided it was time to try something new.

So, we had 3 households to pack up. 3 homes to sell, two new careers to start. Moving SUCKS y'all. I know you know that and it was only a 400 mile move, but it was not enjoyable.

Both kids started jobs that they subsequently left due to poor fit within the first week. AND both kids have found new jobs that have been good fits that pay living wages and they enjoy. Case in point, A was scheduled to be out of town this week for training. Her boss came to her last week and let her know her training had been postponed. When A asked why she was told 'No one should be on a business trip on their birthday' A had not mentioned this or mentioned her birthday, but her boss was in tune enough to make this very kind gesture.

We have been crowded into one home for 3 months now, getting used to it and sick of it at the same time. Each kid has ridiculously substantial down payment money from the homes sold in Denver and should land in a good space.

Until new homes are found and new chapters begun we all continue to learn from each other and from our new city about how life can be different, maybe even better.

[robredux]

What's the catch?

The change in attitude here has been fun and exciting. We have had several projects completed around the house and the approach and attitude of the tradespeople has been refreshing.

-I kinda nicked the paint here, can do you have any of this paint so I can fix it?

-I don't like the way this looks so I'm gonna run up to the lumberyard to get some new trim pieces to clean this up and make it better.

-I know I was at your house on a Saturday for 6 hours making repairs, but I WILL NOT accept a gratuity or a six-pack. It shoulda been done right to begin with and I'm sorry we had to fix it.

-I noticed this light is about 6 inches off center over your sink. I'm gonna come back and fix it tomorrow.

These sorts of things didn't happen in Denver. There was so much anonymity in the metropolis and some lack of pride I guess. We have waited for the other shoe to drop on so many of our projects and it just never did.

[robredux]

Small City living

When we moved we decided we wanted a small city, not a small town. S grew up in a town of 3,500, way too small and everybody up in, everyone elses business for us. But we also new that a city of 100,000 or more wouldn''t really be THAT signifacant a change fro where we were.

We landed in a town of about 34,000 people. It is big enough to have hospitals and shopping we need but still a small city. The longest drive I have had to deal with so far is to my Doctors office. It was about 7 minutes.

There is a brewpub about a 5 minute walk from our house which has been a pleasant surprise. It has a nice atmosphere, rotating food trucks, and a very good Belgian Saison. Our church is 5 minutes away and the priest knows me by name, (face-to-face confession is a dangerous thing I guess). The nights are clear and breezy and the bad news isn't ever THAT bad.

I have only found a couple things that are not as wunnerful as all this, things that are manageable but somewhat disappointing.

Pork Green Chili is ubiquitous in Denver. I have not found it anywhere here. I miss that very much.

The use of the accelerator pedal is VERY different here. I have not road-raged in the 3 months we have lived here, not enough traffic. I have been perturbed by folks taking 1/2 a mile to reach the speed limit. Even if the speed limit is 35.

That's about it, honestly if I start making my own green chili I will be in a very good spot.

It's a good thing.

[robredux]

No one will read this

Which is fine, and frankly kind of a needy way to start a blog. Oh please pay attention to me!

I am a retired banker who lived with his wife in the greater metro-Denver area. Our two grown kids lived on their own near us in Denver.

As time went on Denver got to be more and more and life became less and less interesting and fun. it evolved from living to surviving. And then my Mom died.

I wasn't a fan of my Mom, truth be told. But her passing helped all of us re-examine our lives. What mattered, what was enjoyable, and where should we spend our time.

So, all four of us sold homes and moved to the middle of Nebraska. Denver is 87 times bigger than the city we ended up in. We are adjusting to a new, slower, simpler, and so far better life. I will come here to share observations and brain-dumps and frustrations and joys.

Go big red.

[the-meme-monarch]

do you have a favorite number bc according to my siblings i'm fucked up for not having one

yes

no

Voting ended onSep 12, 2023

[elierlick]

Now THIS is art. 😍

[lady-sanctum]

“When I first saw the original painting, I began to do some research on that little boy. I could find everything I wanted about every other detail in the painting, but there was nothing about him. No history. And so I wanted to find a way to imagine a life for this young man that the historical painting had never made space for in the composition: his desires, dreams, family, thoughts, hopes. Those things were never subjects that the original artist wanted the viewer to contemplate. In order to reframe the discussion, I decided to physically take action to quiet [and crumple] the side of the painting that we’ve been talking about for a very long time and turn up the volume on this kid’s story. And that’s the reason why I started that painting.” Via Artnet News 2019/03/27

[robredux]

A New Life

TLDR: My loved ones and I have moved to another state, another life.

So, I've been quiet for a while. Quite a while. Updates coming, all good so no need to pucker.

A little over a year ago S and I began to ruminate on life, the universe and everything. We had visited family back in Nebraska and started to really think about the costs and simplicity of life there versus the Denver Metro area. We decided to start an exploration of a move.

I had nothing to lose, I had a job at a nonprofit but could replace it quite simply. S had 18 years teaching but had begun to grow weary of the percentage of her time at work spent on things other than teaching.

We knew that R, being on the spectrum, needed our support. If he wasn't interested in moving we wouldn't move. He was very skeptical but was willing to talk about it and explore options and keep an open mind.

Our daughter A was living paycheck to paycheck. She was in a dead end job, one of those where chances for advancement are held out as carrots but when a position was opened she would not even be considered, not interviewed, they brought in external hires. She was tired of it, and tired of...people.

Finally, my Mom passed away November 2022. My 81 year old Dad is very capable and independent but the prospect of being 2 hours away versus 9 was compelling. S has parents that are older as well so more time with them is also a plus.

So we began a quest. Do we really want to do this? What towns would be acceptable? What would we give up? Can we live with giving those things up?

Over the next year we decided yes, we want to move. I hope this isn't a humble brag; we were able to sell our home at a price so ridiculous that we were able to purchase a similar new home for cash. The kids were able to each sell their 800 sq ft condo for enough to have a 50% down payment on a small house with a garage and yard.

We now are 5 minutes from church, 5 minutes from the dentist, 10 minutes from the doctor. We're 10 minutes from a University with all the sports and performing arts we could want. There is a farmers market that is all food and zero Scentsy or Lularoe booths.

This has been a huge change for all of us. A and R are living with us until they get settled into new jobs, and that is taking a little time. The pace of life is much slower here and I have to admit that has challenged me a bit. Taking 3 blocks from a stop sign to get up to 35mph is NOT something I dealt with in Denver. Deliveries take a few days longer because we're sorta in the middle of nowhere. Nobody out here knows how to make pork chili verde.

All being said, we had a wonderful 32 years in Denver, but it just got too big, too peopley. We are very happy with the change.

Life goes on!

[wonderstruck]

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

[robredux]

A Chain of Thunder

[prideplus]

If you could add one new character to your life, who would it be?

platonic grouch

tranquil bud

sexy grump

chill sibling

romantic sulk

encouraging elder

opportunistic malcontent

Voting ended onJun 7, 2023

[funnypages]

We've all been there

[liberalsarecool]

Ponder your life choices as you rot in a cell.

To all the people who vote for Trump, work for Trump, simp for Trump, or shred all your values/integrity/morals to support Trump, this is not a hoax or witch hunt.

You are on the side of criminals, traitors, abusers, and domestic terror.

Your guy is next.