Friday, October 25, 2013

Returning to the Land of the Living

We had a beautiful little service for my mom last Saturday. We lucked out with the weather and got a gorgeous sunny day sandwiched between two little snow storms. The little mortuary chapel was actually freezing cold, so we moved the whole thing outside into the sunshine among the aspen leaves and mountains.


There are still a few details to wrap up, but my life is slowly returning to normal.


And that means that I'm back in the saddle again!


OK... more like this saddle...


At any rate, this week has been picture perfect for bike riding - sunny days with very little wind and temps in the 60's, so CatMan and I have been out making the most of it before the forecasted storm arrives on Monday.

Tuesday's Bike Ride. View from the C-470 bike trail
You might remember a while ago I wrote a post about Denver in which I talked about Denver's big flood back in the 1960's. After that flood, the city built three flood control dams, and also built a series of bike paths along all of the rivers and streams in the area.

So CatMan and I often ride to one of the three dams. Today we chose the Bear Creek dam.

View from the top of Bear Creek Dam
Bear Creek suffered a bit of flooding back in the September deluge, but it didn't really make the news. This is probably because the dam did it's job and protected the city stupendously. However, the reservoir reached the highest level since the dam was built, and they're still slowly draining it back down to normal levels. They've finally re-opened the roads through the park so we could ride through it.

Bear Creek Reservoir before the flood
So we crested the dam, and cruised down the hill into the reservoir basin. The scene that greeted us was bizarre and amazing. The road we were riding on had been under about 15-20 feet of water, and all of the grass, tree leaves and vegetation that was under water had been killed, leaving an eerie "bathtub line" across the entire landscape.

See the line where the leaves are yellow and green above, but brown below.

In this one you can see horizontal lines on the trees showing the different levels where the water was.

I'm not sure that the photos really do it justice, but it was one of the stranger things I've ever seen, and gave me new respect for the amount of water that fell, and new thanks for that dam! It was sorta funny actually, because every cyclist that came down the hill had the same exact reaction and pretty soon there was a whole gaggle of us standing there in awe taking pictures.

A truly surreal landscape
So, we rode through Bear Creek park, up through the town of Morrison and ended up at Red Rocks. It was incredibly beautiful.






I have to say that the entire day left me with a feeling of awe and gratitude. I guess recent events have made me just a bit more thankful for my life, and a bit more committed to enjoying it thoroughly.


I feel so blessed to lead the life that I do, to live in such a beautiful location, and to enjoy a healthy (if a bit tired) body that lets me get out to enjoy it all. So tell me, what are you grateful for today?



17 comments :

  1. I am grateful that you are getting a little normalcy to your life and getting a chance to appreciate the beauty that surrounds you. I am also grateful that one of my relatives got better than expected results on medical tests this week.

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    1. I'm so happy about the good news on the test results! And thank you for your weekly gratitude posts. I don't always comment, but I always appreciate them.

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  2. Are you kidding me? Those photos cannot be real! That is absolutely beautiful and inspiring. Since moving to Texas, we don't see any beautiful scenery such as that. Back in Missouri, the trees would change and it was quite lovely as well.
    When I observe nature in real life or in photos such as this, I feel warm and appreciative. Almost awestruck. Thanks for this post!

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    1. Pretty amazing, isn't it? It totally blows my mind that I can hop on my bike and get to all that without ever setting foot in a car!

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  3. So glad you're back!

    Today, I'm grateful for getting over my PMS anger/rage fit I was having earlier. Seriously, hormones really suck some times!

    I'm also grateful for healthy kids, healthy self, all the 1st world amenities we have, and a house full of food. I'm so used to being negative (thank you depression neurons/a-holes), that when I do take a step back, I'm overwhelmed by how fortunate we are.

    Oh, and I started blogging again, so that's making me pretty happy too :)

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    1. Oooo... I can't wait to go check out your new blog! I totally understand about the negative depression stuff. It's so, soooo easy for me to go there. But then when I poke my head up from it and look around, I realize that I live a blessed life.

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  4. Besides seeing your gorgeous photo from your mom's service and your phenomenal photos of the flood damage?

    I'm also grateful for getting to meet up with some people for dinner tonight and getting to go to two Halloween parties this year. And also thinking up an easy costume. (Since I have a shirt covered in trees, I'm going to wear that and find/make some DO NOT ENTER tape to wear over my shoulder like a sash, plus a sign in my hat explaining that national parks are closed during the government shutdown).

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    1. Ha! That sounds like a great costume! One of my favorite local newscasters came up with a great one last year. He wore a Colorado T-shirt and then took a small plank of wood and some rope and made a little swing... he was a "swing state". I Loved it!

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  5. Beautiful, and kind of haunting, photos. Thank God for that dam.

    Thank you for the uplifting post and the reminder that what we do today matters. Cheers!

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    1. Thank God for the dam indeed... or perhaps, thanking city planners with some sense of investing for the future good would be more appropriate! Glad you enjoyed the photos - what they can't convey is the smell... the whole are had a damp, musty smell as you might expect for an area that had recently been under water. Totally surreal.

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  6. I'm thankful you're back! The first picture is stunning and the pictures of the trees are mind-blowing.

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    1. OK. True confessions, that one isn't my photo. I forgot to take any at the service, but that's pretty much how it looked.

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  7. Glad you are well, Cat. Great photos and the water line really was so surreal. Like you, I would want to give thanks to those long-sighted city planners!

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    1. It was surreal indeed. I just wish the photos had turned out better because it was really an odd feeling to know that where you were standing had been under water just a few weeks before! All hail the dam building city planners!

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  8. What gorgeous pictures. My guy is off his bike -- someone (probably a kid) stole his helmet from the RV Park! And thank you for that Buddah quote, I had to sit through a religious lecture in the pool locker room last week from someone who insists I need to be reborn through Christ. I wish I had that quote to explain my belief system (multi-theist). Glad to hear life is getting back to normal for you (and your cats!).

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    1. You know, I try really hard to be tolerant of people from all religious backgrounds - but the whole proselytizing thing really turns me off. Do they really think that belittling my most sacredly held beliefs will encourage me to join them? Glad you liked the photos, and hope the Big Guy gets a new helmet soon!

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