The Adventures of T&A

Happy Holidays 2008

Andrew Koransky — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 18:33:00 GMT

Click here for our 2008 Holiday Card.

2008 Atlanta Pilgrimage Underway

Andrew Koransky — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:05:00 GMT

Well, as I write this, we find ourselves nearly packed and ready to head to Atlanta for our annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage. Lots has changed since we left Atlanta. My brother has a house, and many of my friends have had babies. We are really looking forward to visiting with our friends and family. If you are a friend of ours, and you are in Atlanta over Thanksgiving, don't be shy... give us a holler... we'd love to see you!

Just a quick update... My main customer, Nexidia, has decided to scale back a bit and I got caught in the cruft. December 5th is my last day. After a significant period of panic, literally making my self ill (caught a cold), and some soul searching, I finally found a path that feels right. It will involve a slight career shift. Much more to come on this... stay tuned, or if you're an Atlanta reader, ask me while I'm in town.

Lastly, I'm now on Twitter... Twitter me at http://twitter.com/AndrewKoransky ... gosh, I feel so 2006. :-)

Summer 2008 Wrapup

Andrew Koransky — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 21:58:00 GMT

It was a great summer here in Salida. Although spring/summer got off to a cold and cloudy start, the weather most of the summer has been fantastic... gorgeous mornings, with a few thunderstorms in the afternoon. Highs range from 70 - 90 depending on cloud cover... but even when it is 90, there's little humidity, and it's cool in the shade. Some people complain about the heat, but being from Atlanta, I simply don't mind it!

This summer, we finally started to enjoy the many reasons we moved to this mountain locale. I can easily see how someone can become an adrenaline junkie here. I've been out biking, hiking or running 2-3 times a week. I've gotten into the habit of tackling large hills on my road bike and mountain bike. Being in rural Colorado, there is little traffic on the county roads, and most of the "major" highways have wide shoulders. With flexible work schedules, I generally headed out in the rain-free mornings. While not great for the pocket book, this summer has been a total blast. The lifestyle is simply perfect for us. Assuming we can make our work continue to "work" for us, we could easily see ourselves living here the rest of our lives. For our lifestyle, this is simply paradise!

Speaking of work... Teresa is now Station Coordinator for KHEN, the community radio station that we've become involved with. It's part time 10am - 2pm weekdays, it doesn't pay much, but it's better than nothing when the drafting work falls flat (which has been happening recently). As for me, I help out with their tech stuff, but I'm also now on the board of directors for KHEN. So we both get the help out the organization we've become pretty tied into. I've come to realize the huge value that community radio brings to a small community. We really are the voice of the people... far more so than even public radio could ever dream to be. All programming comes from members of the community. It's a haven where DJs can play almost whatever they want, without commercial interruption... try to find that on commercial radio now-a-days! I'm excited to see where we can take this organization.

On my end, I'm still working with Nexidia. I've taken on some local work, but I'm considering throwing my hat into the local IT support market. I know it's something I'll be good at, but I hope I don't get bored with it. It feels as though it may help us stabilize ourselves in this community, which would be a good thing. I have lots of lines tossed out into the pond right now. We'll have to see what bites!

We also started some interesting projects this year. With gas prices as they are, we decided to purchase... well... this:

But the kicker? We are converting this beautiful VW bug to electric with the help of a local company which is now getting some national attention: Salida Conversions. As I write this, the VW electric bug car is nearly complete. Basically, it's just waiting for gauges, which are actually pretty important. The gauges allow the Salida Conversions staff to monitor the battery and engine performance and discover any problems. It will also allow us to monitor the systems more carefully. We can't wait to go for a test drive! Supposedly, we'll get about a 45 mile range on a single charge. We'll have to see how well it does in reality though. For example, we want to know... will it make it 15 miles with a 2000 ft climb up to the top of Poncha pass? (Altitude is ~9000ft)? We are free to experiment since I own a generator to charge the batteries if we run into a problem. When the car's batteries die, we can upgrade the batteries and go probably 2-3 times as far. In the mean time, we all hope cost on the better batteries will plummet as manufacturers ramp up production. Time will tell!

With Salida Conversion's help, we also took Teresa's old KHS mountain bike and converted it to electric. The bicycle electric conversion kits came from Wilderness Energy. Pete with Salida Conversions did the KHS conversion. Unfortunately, he didn't read the directions in full where it said DO NOT mount to an aluminum fork. The torqe that the front hub brushed motor produced knocked the stays out... IE the fork hit the ground, and so did Pete... and the wheel kept on going! Oops! Thankfully, Pete was ok. After a few weeks waiting for new more sturdy parts we finally had it working. Teresa's now riding it every day in to work and all around town.

After the success on her bike, I decided to do some research before converting my $20 garage sale score, a "salmon" colored Raleigh mountain bike (it is NOT pink darn-it!) I wanted to see if I could reduce the battery weight, and eventually went with a brushless Wilderness Energy kit from BatterySpace.com. I ended up with Lithium Polymer batteries about doubled the cost, but what a difference in weight! My bike probably weighs half of Teresa's. On the other hand, if you read all the warnings about charging/discharging LiPO batteries, you'd think they will catch fire just by looking at them the wrong way. So far, no fires thankfully. I did run into a few challenges piecing things together... for example, I learned the hard way that you have to apply max torque to both wheel nuts simultaneously to firmly attach the wheel to the frame. Otherwise, the high torque from the motorized wheel just spins itself right out of the stays during accelleration. I nearly shredded my motor's wires more than once.

Anyhow, the bikes are alot of fun. The strange looks we get, and ensuing discussions are fun too. I don't mind pedalling, but it's nice to know that we can now tool around town, and enjoy a beer in the evening without worrying about throwing up as we climb 400 ft up the incline to our house. :-) (PS I just came across this article in Wired.)

On the home front, unfortunately, we've managed to put off some house projects this year so far. We would have liked to put in a rock wall and a wood stove, but instead, we did get a little bit of landscaping done. Compost is happening, and we are in the middle of putting a swing gate we can drive through so we can start up some larger projects next year. I did manage to get some outdoor speakers set up above our back deck, so we can enjoy tunes on our back patio. I also gotta figure out where we're gonna put the sauna! :-)

That's about it from T&A's Sandbox here in Salida, Colorado. I finish writing this as the aspen leaves are starting to turn a beautiful shade of yellow and orange. We hope the warm weather continues while we wait for snow and ski season. :-) I hope y'all had a great summer as well.

PS We look forward to seeing our Atlanta/Birmingham friends and family in November for our yearly Thanksgiving pilgrimage.

Florida Alaska Adventure

Andrew Koransky — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 02:25:00 GMT

This from Teresa's Daily Diary on our recent Florida Alaska adventure. It's long. If you like, just skip over to photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/

07 Aug 2008 Thursday

What a crazy trip we have planned. A reunion with my family in Ft Myers, FL, then we fly to Anchorage, AK, drive up to Denali National Park, then another family reunion of sorts as we catch a cruise ship with Andrew's parent's Jack and Ellen and his brother Todd and his girlfriend Meghan. The cruise will take us down the Alaskan coast to Vancouver, BC. Then we fly back to Denver.

We knew we'd be in cars and airports all day, so we started off our day with a quick bike ride up to the top of "S" mountain and back home. It took about an hour and a half. We then dropped off Simon at Wag-N-Tails where Doug and Trish will pick him up next week. A long drive to Denver where we will catch our flight about 5pm Mountain time. We arrived in Tampa about 10:30pm Eastern time. OMG!! A miracle occurred!! My bag was the first off the plane!! Andrew's was tenth or so. When we got to the hotel, I realized my bag had been searched by the TSA! I wonder what was in there to attract attention? Or was it really a random search? We'll keep track on this trip to see if were searched more. Our cheap Wal-Mart luggage is falling apart, so we'll spend some time tomorrow morning getting some new bags.

08 Aug 2008 Friday

A late night = a late morning. Andrew had made an appointment to pick up our rental car by 8am and we didn't make it there until about 10am. Since we were late, we didn't get the car we wanted, we got a V8 extended cab pickup truck. It was a nice ride, but with gas over $4. gallon, this trip all over the state of Florida is looking painful. It reminds me of a joke I saw recently, "Congratulations! You've been upgraded to a sub-compact hybrid!"

After a brief trip to Ross for luggage and a bite of lunch, we're off to Ft Myers. We arrived at Pioneer Village about the same time my sister Sue and family arrived. Pioneer Village is kind of a seasonal mobile home park, but they have several "cabins" for out-of-towners to rent. The cabins are really small, one bedroom mobile homes, but it's perfect for a weekend. They also have a big recreation center with ping pong table, billiards and a swimming pool. And what gathering place in Florida would be complete without Shuffleboard Courts!

We made some impromptu plans for dinner and went off for some groceries. Sue had a cart overflowing with groceries in a matter of minutes. She assures us she'll be back at the store four more times at least this weekend. Sue and John have their two boys, Nick and AJ with them and two of the boys' friends. Four teenaged boys seventeen to nineteen will eat an amazing amount of food!!

Richard and Kim drove in shortly with their son Adam. Ashley is still at classes in college. They joined us for the feasting. The local family, Dianne, Bud and Debbie, nephew Jonathan and his new wife Amanda with little Kaylee were also there. This is just an impromptu dinner on the grill, the real reunion is tomorrow.

09 Aug 2008 Saturday

We awoke to thunder rumbling. It's raining with lightening and thunder early this morning, finally calming to a steady drizzle. The reunion is planned about 1pm and family started showing up around noon-ish. All of my brothers and sisters came and many of the nieces and nephews, a few great-nieces and great-nephews. Ann and Kenny, Gay (Dave didn't make it), Bud and Debbie, Richard and Kim, Sue and John and Dianne. My niece Cathy was there with her new boyfriend and two babies, Jonathan and Amanda just moved back from North Carolina, Mindy, Mike's daughter that I haven't seen in more than 15 years was there! Tony and Jackie, Sue's kids, Nick and AJ (plus two of their friends), Richard's son Adam is now 17 years old and 6'-5" tall!! We all ate too much and chatted with everyone there. Later, our lunch leftovers became dinner for most of us. More talking, family gossip and telling tall tales!

Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-09+Ft+Myers/

10 Aug 2008 Sunday - Our Anniversary

The sun was shining early in the morning, but rain clouds moved in quickly for another downpour. The rain were having doesn't seem to cool things off, it's still 95+ degrees and the hot rain just makes the air steamy and unbearable. Richard, Kim and Adam headed back to Orlando, Sue, John and crew head off for airboat rides in Everglades City, Andrew and I checked out of Pioneer Village and went to Dianne's for lunch. We're staying with Dianne tonight. We helped Dianne with some simple home improvements and rested (in Air Conditioned comfort!). A smaller group of us got together again for dinner. This family has mastered Recreational Dining! (Not much of an Anniversary though)

11 Aug 2008 Monday

Everyone in Ft Myers is back to work and we're off to Boca Raton to visit with Andrew's 90 year old Grandma Rose. On our way out of town, we stopped for a minute to put some flowers on the graves of Mom, Dad and Momo. The little angle I put on Momo's grave several years ago is still there.

Our long drive across from the west coast to the east coast of Florida was accented with intermittent downpours and sunshine. We met Grandma Rose and Yolanda for lunch at a place that looked out on the beach. Rose is doing better than last time we saw her. Her eyesight is still bad, but she's no longer seeing people that aren't there anymore. I think the cocktail of drugs she was on was causing much of the problems. After lunch we visited a little more with them and headed back across the state via the Florida Turnpike, this time heading north- west to Tampa. We're due to return our rental car tonight and catch our flight out in the morning. Florida gets pretty big when you drive from coast-to-coast-to-coast all in one day!

Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-11+Boca+Raton/

We got back to Tampa about 8:30pm and grabbed a fast-food sandwich to go. We returned the car, got a shuttle to the airport, called for a hotel shuttle to pick us up from the airport and was told the driver was "out of commission". We grabbed a cab and the hotel paid for it. We relaxed, showered and went to sleep. We've got a REALLY long day ahead of us tomorrow.

12 Aug 2008 Tuesday

5am Eastern time wake up call. UGH! The sun is barely rising in Tampa. We had a quick coffee and caught the shuttle BACK to the airport. Our flight leaves at 8:30am, but we have to allow enough time to get thru security. It's a game of "Hurry up and Wait". Our flight from Tampa to Anchorage has a long layover in Denver (where we started, of all places!). So we've planned to fly from Tampa to Denver, leave our bags checked while we leave the airport for lunch.

We ate at Jack and Grill's in Denver, a place that was recommended by a few friends. It was good, more of a traditional Southwest fare rather than a gourmet Mexican fare. Andrew ordered some fried jalapenos and I tried a small bite of one. Big mistake! I couldn't feel half my mouth and part of my throat! OMG! This was hot!

We next went to REI in downtown Denver to spend our dividend coupons. We both needed new rain jackets. We got our jackets and went for a short walk outside along Confluence Park, a water park of sorts on the river. The building REI is in was an old power plant for the trolley lines. The power for the trolleys was generated by a small dam in the river. Today we saw kids playing in the water and floating downstream. It was hot and I really looked refreshing.

It was time to head back to the terminal to continue our flight to Anchorage. We found out from some Denver natives that we could park for free at the RTD park and ride lot at 40th and Pena. Most of the buses go from here to DIA and return here, continuing on to points beyond afterwards. We showed up and found a couple of TSA workers and other airport workers there catching the bus. This is the way the locals do it. This time we left the car at a cheaper RTD park and ride lot and swapped out our carry on luggage filled with dirty laundry from Florida, shorts and sandals with an Alaska carry on bag filled with hats, gloves and jackets. We headed back to DIA via RTD, thru security and on to Anchorage. Once again, "Hurry up and Wait". We have to be early enough for security, but now we have a couple of hours to kill. So we kill a few beers.

It was a long 5 1/2 hour flight to Anchorage. It was still daylight when we got to the hotel. We started our travels in Tampa at 5am Eastern time; that's 1am Alaska time. We arrived in Anchorage about 10pm Alaska time, that's 2am Eastern time. We just had a 21 hour day of traveling. UGH! We knew this was going to be tough.

13 Aug 2008 Wednesday

I still woke up early, even though it's only 5am local time. I got up, dressed, realized the time... and went back to bed. But I still couldn't sleep. Jet lag does weird things to your body clock. After tossing for a while, I finally got up about 6:30am. Andrew was still asleep, so I snuck out for coffee and breakfast. I wondered thru the hotel and found the restaurant. The hotel restaurant is across the street via a tunnel under the road. Going from a pretty traditional hotel to a pretty traditional restaurant, this tunnel is painted in some funky wild colors, with stylized images of salmon all over it. Cool!

I sat in a stupor with a cup of coffee in my hand staring at the TV with some Olympic coverage. Until I realized I was staring in a stupor. I found the workout room and spent a few minutes on an exercise bike. Andrew found me after a few minutes and we went to see if Jack and Ellen were up yet. We all met for breakfast and repacked our bags for 2 days in Denali National Park. The larger bags we stored at the hotel's storage room.

It's a long drive north to Healy where our Bed and Breakfast is. The Denali Touch of Wilderness is just north of Denali Park. We drove into the park and got tickets for the shuttle bus for tomorrow. The then checked in to our B&B. We all went on a short walk near sunset, about 10:30pm before bed. The days are really long up here!

Pictures here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-13+Denali/

14 Aug 2008 Thursday

We started off early. The B&B gave us a good breakfast and packed a lunch for us. We talked to the B&B owner about how bad the winters are, if they lived here year round. She said they are surprisingly busy for winter. Hunter come up and they hold retreats for different groups. And many people want to come up "to see the school bus where that kid died", it's just up beyond the end of this road. This is the area where Chris McCandless, the guy that "Into The Wild" was written about, came out to live and tragically died. Right here, out Stampede Road. People take snowmobile tours out a few miles, about 15 minutes, to the bus that's still there. We looked at a map and can see that Stampede Road juts out deep into Denali Park, into a very little touristed area. It was little touristed until now, anyway.

And so we headed off for Denali National Park and caught the shuttle bus at the park headquarters that will take us to the Eielson Visitors Center deep in the park. You can't drive into the park, traffic is limited to the shuttle buses. The animals have grown accustomed to the buses and aren't spooked by them. Along the way, the bus stopped many times for people to photograph all sorts of wild animals. We saw moose, caribou, grizzly bear and cub, ptarmigan (a type of bird), and fox. We also saw sheep on the cliffs, but they were LWD's (little white dots). I got some great photos of peoples elbows as we all were craning to get a photo of some animals. We were really lucky with the weather, it's beautiful! It's a long 66 mile drive to the Visitors Center and with the incredible weather, we had the most beautiful views of all the surrounding mountains. And then it happened (gasp!)... we rounded a corner... there it was.... Denali. The base of the mountain was surrounded in mist and clouds, but the top of the mountain magically appeared, peaking through the clouds. It's said that the mountain only shows itself to less than 20% of visitors. We heard one woman say she's been here 6 times and this is only the second time she's seen it. Everyone on the bus is trying to get a photo while the mountain it still visible. It's so tall, at 20,320 feet above sea level, it actually makes it's own weather. At the visitor's center, we all get out and take lots of photos. We can see the wind blowing across the face creating a cloud of snow off to one side. At 20,000+ feet, it dwarfs the 10 and 11 thousand foot peaks surrounding it.

The last time Andrew and I were in Alaska, we experienced 30 year flooding. Mudslides closed roads and rail lines, streams breached their banks and roads washed out. We made it as far as Talkeetna when we got word that the Park Road, the only road that goes to Denali National Park, had washed out in TWO PLACES! It was at that point that we determined Alaska didn't want us there, we'd come back later. We're glad we did!!

We ate our packed lunch and caught our shuttle bus back. It was a long beautiful drive, with long stretches of green hills with snow-capped peaks trailing snow-melt streams and waterfalls. We were exhausted by the time we got back, but we had a great day, seeing lots of wildlife and the top of the mystical mountain, Denali.

Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-14++Denali/

15 Aug 2008 Friday

Another beautiful morning at the B&B. We got our stuff packed up and checked out. We took a short hike near the Denali Park Headquarters around Horseshoe Lake. We have to meet up with Todd and Meghan who are flying in today, so we loaded up the rental car and headed back to Anchorage. It was a long drive, several hours, but we had to get the car back this evening. We checked back in to the Quality Inn and picked up the bags we had stored there.

Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-15++Denali/

16 Aug 2008 Saturday

We all met up in the lobby and caught two cabs (too much stuff and people for one cab) to the Elgan Center where the cruise buses will pick us up. The Sapphire Princess will dock in Whittier, about an hour away. We checked in and had some time to kill, so we walked two blocks to the Glacier Brewhouse, Anchorage. Todd and Meghan had "researched" it previously and insisted the calamari was fabulous. We ordered some and completely agree!! They slice the body of the squid into strips and soak it overnight in buttermilk. Then lightly batter it and fry it just perfectly. The beer sampler was impressive, but we're still spoiled by our local Colorado Brews.

The bus loaded and our driver gave us a brief history of Anchorage as we drove south. The last final leg of the ride was thru a long, 2 1/2 mile tunnel, blasted thru the mountain by the military in the 40's. In all the wisdom of the government, the tunnel is only 1 lane wide. It's the only route into Whittier. All of the cars and buses line up in order of occupancy. Because of the length of the tunnel, several "Safe Houses" were built into the walls along the tunnel. In case of some event that might close the tunnel (they have had earthquakes here), they only allow the number of people in the tunnels that can be housed in the Safe Houses. Only one tour bus is allowed per 160 yards, and there is a red light to space the vehicles. Passenger cars are allowed to enter a bit closer, but they monitor this closely.

We got to Whittier, a tiny town of a few hundred residents. The cruise ship is there waiting for us, the Sapphire Princess. We had to go thru security, similar to airport security. We were herded onto the ship, trying to take in everything at once. Total sensory overload. Of course, this is when they shove us in front of some fake background and take our photo.

We found our stateroom, dropped our bags and went out to explore the ship. This is HUGE! We had a map and went from floor to floor, fore and aft, back and forth several times. We were exhausted! They announced a drill would be at 8pm. We had a nice dinner at one of the many restaurants on the ship, the Pacific Moon. The drill is called Muster and it's In Case Of Emergency, how to put on your Life Jackets and DON'T go for the life boats unless it's a last resort and you're instructed to do so. Andrew and I didn't have anything like this on the ferry, but then, it was a fraction of the size. This ship is nearly the size of Salida!

We set sail about 9:30pm and leave Whittier.

Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-16+Whittier-Sapphire+Princess/

17 Aug 2008 Sunday

We woke up in College Fjord in Prince William Sound. One of the TV channels in the stateroom is a live camera on the ship. We turned on our "window" to the outside and found we were in the midst of glaciers. We got dressed and headed out about 7:30am, just as the ship was leaving College Fjord. We saw an area loaded with glaciers, one next to another. We later met up with Jack and Ellen, Todd and Meghan at breakfast.

Since we're on the ship all day, the cruise line has lots of different activities to keep you busy, in case the four swimming pools, eight hot tubs, fitness room and spa aren't enough. I took a "Ceramics at Sea" course in which I bought a piece of greenware, a covered box, and painted it with paints they provided. I kept joking about it being my "ashtray" that you usually made at camp on summer vacation.

Tonight is "Formal Night" and we made reservations at Sabatini's, one of the nicest restaurants on the ship. It was an interesting dining experience in that we got ALL of the seven appetizers, a little of each, a choice of soup or salad, a small bit of two pasta dishes and an entree. It was a little disturbing to Andrew and me that they cleared all the silverware and tableware about every two courses. With about eleven or twelve courses, each of us used more silverware than we OWN in our house! The "green" in us started having problems with that.

Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-17+At+Sea-College+Fjord/

18 Aug 2008 Monday

We stayed on the ship again today. We're cruising thru Glacier Bay National Park. It's beautiful and untouched, except for the cruise ship we're on. They limit the number of ships and boats allowed in the bay at any time to reduce the impact on the animals and the area. We saw several glaciers, some coming all he way to the water's edge. We saw some glacial "calving", where huge chunks of ice fall from the face of the glacier and drops into the bay as icebergs. The Marjorie Glacier is very active, moving as much as seven feet in a day. We slowly moved thru Glacier Bay Park, seeing some wonderful snowcapped peaks and glaciers flowing down the valleys. The weather has been fabulous! It's cool and a little misty, but not raining and foggy. We have great weather for viewing.

Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-18+Glacier+Bay/

19 Aug 2008 Tuesday

Our port of call today is Skagway. Skagway is a tiny town of about 800 residents. There are four cruise ships docked here today, each carrying approx. 2,000 passengers. This town is inundated with tourists! We have a trip reserved this morning for a train tour on the White Pass Narrow Gauge rail. This is along the path that Gold seekers took during and Great Gold Rush of 1896-1898. Within two years, Skagway "boomed" to over 20,000 people, then "busted" to a few hundred when the gold ran out. Our train ride took us up to the summit of White Pass, on the Canadian boarder. The scenery was magnificent. We were told about all the horses that died at the hands of the gold seekers, who knew nothing of handling horses, they were bankers and merchant's from back east. They'd load down their horses and mules with way to many provisions and the horse would slip and fall, break a leg, and there was one account of a horse simply walking off a cliff to his death rather than enduring any more abuse. The locals say that you can still find the bones of many horses at the bottom of this steep valley. Molly, our tour guide, told us of a tradition for guides on this line to take a swim on their last day here at the summit. This happened to be Molly's last day, she was leaving for college. Ok, it was really more of a "dip" than a swim, but I'm sure that water was cold!

After getting back to the ship for lunch, we headed back into Skagway to rent some bikes. Jack and Todd stayed on the ship, so it was just Andrew and "the girls". Andrew was able to rent a mountain bike, but the rental place was out of bikes our size for the rest of us. Ellen, Meghan and I rented some one-speed cruiser bikes with coaster brakes. Andrew went off on a more serious ride to the ghost town of Dyea while the rest of us went tooling around town. After having 2 gears on a road bike and mountain bike, I felt really awkward and clumsy on this cruiser. We rode from one end of town to a small park on a point of land near the airport. It was a cute little park and lots of people are out enjoying the rare Alaskan sunshine. We cannot believe the luck we are having with the weather on this trip! Alaska is known for being cold and rainy this time of year and many people have said they've had several weeks of solid rain before today. The whole time we've been in Alaska, even in Denali, we've had great weather! Amazing! After we cruised around the point park a bit we headed all the way to the other end of Skagway, about 23 blocks. There we found a gold rush cemetery we saw from our earlier train ride. It looks like most of the wooden headstones are regularly replaced. Some of the granite and stone ones are still there. Most date 1890-1900 and most of the people only lived to be 25 to 45 years old. Life must have been incredibly hard then!

We returned our bikes and Ellen was in search of coffee. Many of the local coffee shops were closed by now (about 4:30pm), so we ended up at Starbucks. Andrew soon joined us and he and I went off the Skagway Brewing Company and tried out a few local beers. We headed be back on board the ship for dinner. More good food!

Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-19+Skagway/

20 Aug 2008 Wednesday

Today's port is Juneau. We're up early, but we're not sure what we're doing yet. At breakfast, we decided to check out a shuttle bus to the Mendenhall Glacier. The shuttle bus raced through the city of Juneau, a town of about 200,000 people. The driver/guide gave us little bits of info about the city as we drove through. We pointed out the local Wal-Mart which has a glacier behind it. The city has many glaciers hanging out in he surrounding mountains. Juneau is the capitol of Alaska, but has no roads to the outside. It can only be reached by boat or by air. The Mendenhall Glacier is huge, flowing into the Mendenhall Lake, with the majestic Mendenhall waterfall of to one side. It rests in the Mendenhall Valley and can be reached by the Mendenhall Loop Road. So who was Mendenhall? A noted scientist, Mendenhall also served on the Alaska Boundary Commission that was responsible for surveying the international boundary between Canada and Alaska. And now you know.

On a boardwalk near the glacial lake, Meghan saw a bear! It walked slowly by, from one bunch of bushes to the next. It scared her, but of course, everyone else wanted to go searching for it. We all walked around, photographed and lake, glacier, waterfall and the thousands of people there, but no bears. All of these small towns are packed with tourists from several cruise ships every day. But tourists are the lifeblood of these towns. If the ships weren't here, the industry would only be logging and fishing. The local artists and artisans are supported by all the tourists.

At the Mendenhall Glacier we escaped the crowds a little and walked across the street, looking for a short hike and bears. Meghan was secretly hoping we didn't see any more bears and she got her wish.

Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-20+Juneau/

21 Aug 2008 Thursday

Next stop, Ketchikan, one of the wettest places in Alaska getting an average of nearly 200 inches of rain per year. We're in port by 10am and have plans for a flight-seeing tour. Once again, we have amazing weather! In Juneau, we got reports of it raining before we got there and after we left. Here, it's been raining every day for weeks and it's beautiful today. There seems to be a ray of sunshine following our ship! The ships naturalist, born and raised in Alaska, said this would be considered a "Sunshine Holiday", schools would be let our and stores would close and everyone would be encouraged to get out in the sunshine! I can't even imagine living with that much rain!

We caught a float plane to the tour at Trader's Cove for a bear watching tour. Even though we're enjoying the sunshine, it seems the bears don't. We got to a viewing platform and wait. Another tour group is there and we watch with them for a while, watching salmon jump by the dozens in he river. After the other group leaves, a small black bear comes out and swats for a while before snagging a fish. We checked out two other areas, a bridge and a lake where our guide says he's seen lots of bears, but it seems the bears don't like the sun as much as we do. Our flight back took us over some wonderful scenery, but the clouds and fog are moving in. It's also getting really chilly.

Everyone else headed back to the ship while Andrew and I stepped into the Artic Bar, the home of the "Happy Bears", for a beer. We split a small beer, a decent IPA and bought a pint glass to take home. We saw this place two years ago when we were here, but the ferry's schedule didn't allow us to try it out. It looks like a typical locals dive bar.

Back on board, I dragged Ellen and Meghan up to the Skywalker's Lounge, the disco lounge on the ship. There are several lounges/bars on board, probably as many as Salida. The Skywalker's Lounge is not very busy and a great place for viewing the ship disembarking. Andrew and I watched from here as we left Juneau and it was really beautiful, waterfalls hundreds of feet tall along the coast. Ellen and Meghan agreed it was a great place to watch the ship come into and leave port.

Photos here: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/2008-08-21+Ketchikan/

22 Aug 2008 Friday

We're ocean cruising toady. The ship has a formal "Tea" at 3:30 that we haven't made it to et, so we did so today. The wait staff all had on white gloves and trays of tiny sandwiches and petit fours. And, of course, tea. We chatted with some other ladies at our table, they were telling us about other cruises they had been on. We started packing before dinner, since this our last full day on the ship.

Cruise Impressions:

The cruise was nice, but Andrew and I had some issues with it's sustainability and "green-ness". Beyond the food waste on the buffet, the restaurants provided lots of extra dishes; three plates under a bowl of soup, extra plates under appetizers and lots of silverware. We spoke with several of the staff, all internationals. They had staff from the Philippines, Russia and other Slovak countries, Germany, Mexico, India and many other places. It seems Princess Cruises heavily recruits overseas. Cruise ships are tough places to work. the staff worked seven days a week, sometimes 12 hours a day for 9 to 10 months at a time per contract. They get only 2-3 months home and then they can renew their contract for another 9-10 months. The new guys work in the buffet and restaurants, working three meals a day starting at 5am. My only guess as to why they accept such conditions is that it pays much better than what jobs they can get in their own countries. It made us a little uneasy to have so many people catering to us. We'd sit at a restaurant and the waiter would grab our napkin and place it in our laps. The cabin person made our room up in the morning and turned it down in the evening, leaving little chocolates, of course, every day of the cruise. If we asked for something now on the menu in the restaurants, we got it, no problem. If you didn't like your entree or just wanted another, no problem. If you wanted both soup AND salad, two appetizers, extra desserts, no problem. We all really ate WAY too much.

23 Aug 2008 Saturday

We got to port in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Andrew and I got up early to get breakfast on the ship before departing. We're all packed up, although it was a challenge to get all our stuff back into the suitcases. We were in the first group to disembark and got lucky, we were near the exit door. Andrew and I were the 5th and 6th people off. We still had to wait for Todd and Meghan. We're all staying overnight in Vancouver, leaving tomorrow morning. We go a cab from the port to our B&B where we dropped our bags and took off to see the city. Catherine's Bed and Breakfast is right on the bus route and Robert gave us the bus numbers we needed to get us downtown and back.

Ok, I'm an idiot. We head out to see the city and I forgot my camera! Our ray of sunshine has followed us to Vancouver and again we have great weather. Our first destination is Water Street. The bus trip to downtown took us through a rather sketchy part of town where three women got on, started yelling at each other, rode about three blocks and then got off in front of a homeless shelter. They were calling each other drunks, messed up, whatever. The shelter had lots people sleeping on the sidewalk out front, a woman leaning against a post, swaying with her eyes rolled back in her head. Oddly enough, a few blocks further, it was a typical downtown. Of course we had several people panhandling us, asking for money. Todd said one guy asked for a drink of water because he was terribly hung-over. He didn't feel real sorry for him.

We had researched a brew-pub, Steamworks Brewery, that Andrew and I want to check out later. It's too early right now, but we noted where it was. We found the Visitor's Center a block or so from there and looked for other things to do. We're back at the port where we got off the ship and the Sapphire Princess was still there.

We caught another bus and headed for Granville Island and their famous Farmer's Market. The market was huge, with all kinds of vendors, prepared foods, vegetables, and all types of arts and crafts. We found the Granville Island Brewing and stopped in to check out the beer sampler. It was ok, kind of traditional styles, not the "Over the Top Ales" that we like. We had lunch and wandered a bit. There's a large Asian population here and the foods are represented. Canada seems very tolerant of many cultures blending. The signs on the buildings reflect Polish, Asian (Japanese, Korean, etc.), Sikhs (or other turban wearers), women in burkhas. But the dark side to such tolerance, we also saw a lot of homelessness and mental illness on the streets. It's still a big city, after all.

We left the market about 3-ish and headed back to Water Street downtown. We found a steam powered clock built in 1900. This steam clock is powered by underground steam vents that are still used to heat many of the downtown buildings. The clock plays Westminster chimes on steam whistles every fifteen minutes and a larger chime on the hour. It gathered quite a crowd while we were there. We walked a couple of blocks back to Steamworks Brewery for a sampler, purely for research, of course. The sampler had 7 beers. They were good, but we still have our Colorado favorites. We're just too spoiled as beer snobs. The brewery overlooks the dock where our cruise ship landed and I noticed the Sapphire Princess had already set sail. They're on their way back up to Whittier with a new load of passengers.

It's getting about dinner time so we asked for directions to Chinatown. At the Visitors Center earlier we were told about a "Night Market" in Chinatown tonight along Keefer Street. We were told that the best route was to walk. We found out that for a big city, Vancouver is really pretty small and compact. The bus system is great, going pretty much anywhere you'd want to go. Even though the maps aren't good, the bus drivers are great! Very helpful and very friendly. In Chinatown, we found many places closed. We asked for a restaurant recommendation and were directed to Hon's Wu-Sen Restaurant. We got less than stellar service. We asked for forks and got plastic, though we saw other customers with metal forks. We had to ask three times for water before we finally got it. The food was interesting, but not great. A few blocks away, at the Night Market, we saw far better food that smelled great. We regretted our dinner choice. We got bac to the B&B kind of late, about 8:30 or so. We were exhausted!

24 Aug 2008 Sunday

We woke up to find our ray of sunshine has moved on without us. It's raining one of those steady drizzles that's going to be around for a while. Robert, our B&B host had called a cab for us. We talked with a few of the others staying at the B&B over breakfast. We talked with a guy from London, Stu, who was trying to move to Vancouver because the weather was better than in England. There, he said, it rained like this all the time. We told him about Salida and how much sun Colorado gets. He said he may try to visit sometime.

Once we got on the plane, the flight back to Denver was uneventful and much shorter that the flight out. I guess we had the Jet-Stream working with us this time. Once again, I'm an idiot... I was kidding Andrew about having to drink his tea before getting on the plane and I had forgotten all about a 16 oz. water bottle I had in my pack! "Ma'am, is this your bag? Could you step over here, please." Idiot!

Only in rural Colorado...

Andrew Koransky — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 19:37:00 GMT

Only in rural Colorado...

From the 9/5/2008 Mountain Mail. Caption reads:

FOUND: Cow, found at 12,000 feet in basin between Mt. Harvard and Columbia. Alone and frightened. Orange-red tag in right ear. Have photos. Will lead to cow for reward steak.

Freedom of the Press?

Andrew Koransky — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 22:53:00 GMT

This is really disturbing. While I don't necessarily agree with Democracy NOW's stance on everything, no member of the press deserves this kind of treatment just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The video below shows Amy Goodman, host of Democracy Now simply trying to inquire about her other staff which have been arrested. As a result, she gets arrested herself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080902/ap_on_el_pr/cvn_convention_protests

An AP photographer was arrested as well... again, hardly covered by the major media. To make matters worse, none of the major media houses are reporting on this. Is this really the USA? Seems more like China to me... <sigh>

From CREDO action:

Jailing journalists is unacceptable in a democracy. But that's exactly what is happening at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Award winning journalist and host of "Democracy Now" Amy Goodman was arrested by St. Paul police while covering a protest outside the Republican National Convention. Though clearly identified as press, Goodman was charged with "obstruction of a legal process and interference with a 'peace officer.'" Two of her producers were arrested for "suspicion of felony riot."

To tell you that this arrest was brutal and upsetting simply doesn't do it justice. Watch this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYjyvkR0bGQ to see for yourself. Then take action.

Please have a look and take action.

http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/dont_arrest_journalists/

Spring 2008

Andrew Koransky — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 23:23:00 GMT

WOW! It's been a long time since I updated our site here! I figured I'd better type up a quick update so you can see what we've been up to the past few months. Thanks to Teresa, we have a nearly up-to-date gallery posted at the usual site: http://koransky.com/gallery/v/Salida/

We last left you in April... Teresa and I realized we hadn't taken a vacation for ourselves in a little over a year. (On all recent trips, we simply visited family.) When you live in paradise, the need to vacation isn't as high on the priority list as it once was, but we decided to take a week for ourselves and go explore Arizona and Mexico.

We started the trip with a visit to some friends we met last summer. I met them through the running club. They purchased a straw bale house up here in Salida. They teach on the Hopi reservation in Northeast Arizona. They invited us to come and visit them on Hopi, and this past spring, we actually made it happen. And it was an incredible experience.

Teresa writes:

We traveled though the Navaho reservation and finally arrived at the smaller Hopi reservation within. After traveling through first and second mesa, we finally made it to third mesa, where Chris and Jessica live and work as school teachers. We hiked up to a nearby mesa and village, Old Oraibi (Old Orayvi). Oraibi is the location of an older Hopi village, one that split several years ago. There's an old Christian church that had been hit by lightening twice and many of the natives felt that was the sign of bad spirits. They split off, moving to a location off the mesa, where the village of Kykotsmovi is. Because the natives feel that a photograph will steal their spirit and because photographs have been used for negative purposes in the past, I respected the culture and didn't take any photos, even though it was killing me not to shoot something so beautiful. On our way out to hike, we ran into a couple of local kids and they guided us up to the church and then showed us a different trail, along a ledge of the mesa, that was lined with pottery shards and ancient petroglyphs. The pottery shards had the most amazing patterns and had been there hundreds of years, scattered all along the trail. The kids told us that the Hopi are not allowed to touch them, it shows that they have been there. They have ALWAYS been there. We asked the kids about some of the petroglyphs and they responded with, "Oh, those are just some kachinas", very nonchalantly. A couple of images showed the Spanish on horses, dating these around the 15th or 16th century. These were ancient rock drawings from their great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents!!

Later, we went to Second Mesa and took a short hike (about three miles), down a short stair step carved in the rocks, following the edge of the mesa. Some of the local boys joined us for the hike, running and playing "Kachina" as we walked. I couldn't take any photos of the village.

Larson, a local potter, showed us around First Mesa. Again, I couldn't take pictures in the villages of First Mesa. He took us up to his village, Tewa, first village on First Mesa. We also took a semi-guided tour of the Middle and Third Village (Walpi) of First Mesa. The tour guide allowed us to walk in front of the group while Larson gave us a very personal tour. He told us more about how the kivas were used at different ceremonies and by different clans. He also told us a bit about the different clans and how some clans have died out, as well as some of the ceremonies.

It's sad to think that their traditions that lasted hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, are on the verge of dying out here in the 20th and 21st century. Many of the villages are now only inhabited by the families for ceremonies. After our walk through the villages, Larson took us for a drive to the backside of the mesa where he and his cousins have been planting some fields. The only photos I could take were of the fields outside the villages, with Larson's permission.

You can find the pictures we were allowed to take here.

The Hopi, as well as many natives I suspect, are a people caught between two worlds... the world of their native past, and the world of the modern man. They walk a fine line that is difficult to convey in words.

The people have a very strong sense of family and native traditions. Many desire to stay on their native lands close to their family, but poverty can often drive people off the reservation to find jobs and more money for their family. As a result, the reservation doesn't have enough of an economic base to support their own infrastructure. Doctors, teachers (like our hosts) are "imported," which allows the community to "function" in the modern world with education, hospitals, and libraries. We discovered you can't get a traditional home loan on the reservation because you cannot own land on the reservation... land is granted by the tribe to the head of household. (Being a matriarchal society, this is usually the "mother" of the house.) As a result, most homes are mobile and therefore can be reposessed if the owner defaults.

We also discovered a lot of trash heaps outside of family homes. I found this surprising, given their respect for the eath. I guess, in the past, midden mounds were typical traditional ways of dealing with trash... but the "natural" garbage decomposed a lot better back then. I asked others about this behavior, and I think their reasoning was "poverty angst."

Then there is technology versus tradition. For many years, many Hopi would take ancient stairs down from the top of the mesa to get water. But now, they have the option of installing a pump. Which would you prefer?

There was a sense of distrust in foreigners. When we were with our friends or a native, we were welcomed with open arms... even to the point of being invited over for dinner one evening! But when Teresa and I wandered into a grocery store, unknown faces without local friends, we felt a tiny bit out of place. People weren't really unpleasant... just guarded. I walked away with a much greater understanding of the dilemma facing the natives of our country. Thanks so much to our native and non-native hosts! It was a special cultural experience I won't soon forget.

On to the rest of our trip...

We like to travel with no agenda, and this trip was no exception. Our vague plans called for us to head towards Chaco Culture National Historic Park, but we left plenty of time in our schedule. After studying the map for a bit, we decided to take a circuitous route to Chaco, first stopping in El Morro. (photos here) From Teresa:

We drove into El Morro, where a natural waterfall and pool used to draw travelers from all over the area hundreds of years ago. There's a cliff face of sandstone with petroglyphs and historic engravings. While people camped here and filled up on water, they carved their names and other sayings onto the cliff walls. Almost all of the engravings were Spanish, many dated. The oldest one was dated 1605, several years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock! Some sayings were poems, others were simple declarations of who they were and why they were here. Some declarations were quite boastful, with another saying close by mocking the first. There are several Native American petroglyphs and other elaborate carvings.

Next stop? Bandera's Ice Cave and Volcano... a bit of a tourist trap, but still kinda neat. (photos here) From Teresa:

We'd heard about this before, but missed it on our previous journeys. In a very volcanic area, the bottom of this cave always contains ice. Of course, we asked about why. It seems that the bottom of the cave is insulated from the earth temperature by several feet of lava and the top is also insulated from outside temperature swings. Cold air sinks into the cave and the water there remains frozen year round. Workers on the local railroad in the early 1900's used to keep their beer cold in the caves.

El Malpais was surprisingly nice. It's basically a massive volcanic flow with a few cinder cones scattered about. There was tons of hiking and open terrain. There is so much to explore, we may return another time. (photos here) From Teresa:

El Malpais is the location of a 2,000 year old volcano. We did some hiking on the lava. The surface was erratic and rough, but your shoes stuck to it like glue. We rock-hopped out to the ancient caldera, jumping over large cracks in the lava. It seemed strange the way the lava suddenly stopped at the edge of the flow.

On to Chaco, but the super high winds (50 mph) kept us in Grants for an extra night. Chaco is exposed, and the last thing we wanted was to try to sleep with our truck rocking back and forth. Part of the way to Chaco, we turned around and headed back to Grants for a hotel/laundary night. We did finally make it the next day, and although the winds were up, they apparently weren't as bad as the day prior. (photos here) From Teresa:

Chaco is the ruins of an ancient Puebloian culture. The Hopi are believed to be the decendants of these people. This site is not easy to get to, possibly saving it from too much tourism. It's many miles out on a dirt and gravel road into the middle of nowhere. It's the largest collection of Pueblo Great Houses that's been discovered. Some of these houses cover acres of land in the desert and are believed to be used mainly for ceremonial purposes. We visited many of the ruins, but Pueblo Bonito is the most famous. We saw it from above while we were hiking up on a nearby mesa and it's truely amazing! We also saw a "ladder" up to the mesa from below that was carved into the rock face. I can't believe someone perched on the side of the rock wall while carving the next step! If you ever get a chance to go, GO! But it's not a place that you'll just pass thru, you have to WANT to get there.

We stopped in Navajo City (blog) while we enjoyed their wonderful food and talked to Pat. You meet some amazing people on the road, and Pat was one of those people. Intelligent and engaging, we probably chatted with her for an hour or two before heading on to Santa Fe, where we managed to get a priceline hotel smack next to the Blue Corn Cafe brewpub! Beer? It was ok. The IPA was descent. Finally, on to home! It was good trip, and it was nice to spend time together, just us two, for a change.

As I wrap up this blog entry, we now find ourselves on yet another family trip. I write this from Florida, where we are attending a family reunion (Teresa's side) as well as visiting my grandma. Next, we head North to Alaska for more family fun. My mom is turning 60, and she's taking the family in a cruise. Hopefully, the weather will be better than last time! I plan on updating the blog with our summer activities as well (assuming I can find internet) during our trip.

Chicken Lips moved

Andrew Koransky — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 18:29:00 GMT

Howdy Folks...

Just a quick note to state that our Chicken Lips show on KHEN.org is now being podcasted from the newly revamped KHEN website, and will no longer be a part of our podcasts here at adventure.koransky.com. We also will limit our podcast to 10 shows in the feed.

To subscribe to the podcast, check here:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/KHEN-ChickenLips-Podcast

Thanks for your support!

T&A

Mo Chicken, Mo Lips

Andrew Koransky — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 02:41:00 GMT

Err... I should have posted this a few days ago when we actually made the decision, but life has been a bit crazy recently.

Teresa and I have decided to do another hour of Chicken Lips. We start tomorrow at 7 AM now, and go until 9 AM Mountain time zone.

Bike Ride 250-5630 Shavano loop

Andrew Koransky — Sun, 18 May 2008 23:16:00 GMT

Nice bike ride this afternoon. Felt good to get on my mountain bike for a serious ride! Headed up towards Shavano on CR-250 and back on 5630/Wash Out Rd loop (13 mi) Check it out here:

Pangea Day

Andrew Koransky — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:28:00 GMT

We participated in Pangea Day last Saturday by going to a local viewing here in Salida. We were originally going to host a Pangea Day gathering, but ended up merging with a larger gathering in downtown. The goal of Pangea Day is to bring the world together through the power of film.

http://www.pangeaday.org/

Not being a huge fan of movies, I was originally skeptical, but in the end, I was deeply moved by the production. I was glued to the screen for nearly 4 hours. I think the most powerful thing they did was show how we all, regardless of where we live, experience the same emotions, such as love, hope, fear, etc... To me, the most powerful message was simply: we are all human.

Here is an example. A film about, perhaps, the bravest people in the Palestinian and Israeli conflict:

http://www.pangeaday.org/filmDetail.php?id=68

Pangea Day started through TED, a forum for amazing ideas:

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/55

Be careful... the TED website is addictive.

My only complaint? Let's hope they get some better musical talent for next year!

Chicken Lips On The Air

Andrew Koransky — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:09:00 GMT

As mentioned in our last post, Andrew and I have been considering trying our hand at DJing at our local community radio station KHEN (Community Radio = Volunteering = No Pay). We did our first show as volunteers for another DJ as she was out of town one evening.

Well, we will begin doing a morning show, Chicken Lips, this Wed, 8-9am (Mtn Daylight Savings Time; adjust your time zone accordingly). KHEN does have streaming of their broadcast, so check it out if you can. We may archive it after the fact. We will be doing this regular one hour morning music show on Wednesdays, I guess until we get tired of it. Let us know what you think of our show!

Chick's Voices - Our First KHEN Broadcast

Andrew Koransky — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 16:31:00 GMT

As I've mentioned before, we have a very cool local community radio station here in Salida: KHEN-LP 106.9 (website). I've been spending many hours straightening out the KHEN computers, the KHEN network, and getting their radio automation software up and running. It's fun working with all the good folks down at the station.

Just last night, we did our first radio broadcast on KHEN-LP 106.9 Salida, CO. The DJ for a program called Chick's Voices was out of town and asked us to sub for her second hour. (With a name like KHEN, shows names generally have something to do with chickens. My favorite show name is "Mechanically Separated." ) We were pretty darn nervous, but started relaxing a bit towards the end. Attached is a low quality (48kbps to protect artists' interests) copy of the show.

Where is the audio? Check enclosure/Attachment(s) links at the bottom of this entry for the audio!

Here is our play list:

Name	Artist	Album
White Rabbit	Blue Man Group (featuring the voice of Esthero)	The Complex
Sweet Tooth	Mudcat (Atlanta artist, featuring the voice of Lori Beth Edgeman)	Mo' Better Chicken
Throw No Stones	Liz Barnez (Colorado artist)
Circle	Sarah McLachlan	Fumbling Towards Ecstacy
Having A Hard Time	Paris Luna (another Atlanta Artist)	City Lights
Scooter Boys	Indigo Girls	Shaming of the Sun
I Try	Macy Gray
Poetry Cocktail	Candye Kane	Swango
It Might As Well Be Spring	Sophie Milman	Make Someone Happy
Come Away With Me	Norah Jones	Come Away With Me
Summertime	Angélique Kidjo	Spirits of the World
Marta's Song	Deep Forest	Deep Forest
Destiny	Zero 7	Simple Things
Seven Wonders	Nickel Creek	This Side
Oh, Atlanta	Alison Krauss	Now That I've Found You

Epstein-Barr drops by for a visit

Andrew Koransky — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 21:53:00 GMT

It had been a good winter so far. Work has been steady. And after a slow start, the snow has been quite plentiful, but not to the point of being debilitating... at least, not in our immediate area. A couple of miles North of us, people couldn't get out of their driveways or down some of the county roads due to snow drifts. Apparently, blown snow forms drifts which are far more difficult to remove than the freshly fallen stuff. Some folks were stuck for a week or longer. However, here in Salida, especially in our subdivision, it can snow far less versus the surrounding countryside. We never had any problems, making us extremely thankful that we made the choice to be near this little town. There have been so many days when we look up at the mountains, encased in snow showers while we enjoy sunshine here in our rain-shadow, desert paradise... or other times, I drive out of a raging snow storm at Ski Monarch into sunshine on my way home.

I've really come to enjoy our local ski resort. When I skied my first few runs there last season, I was kinda down on the place due to the slow lifts and short runs, but you know what? Monarch has got a lot of fun runs, ne'er a lift line, and there's almost always powder around if you look hard enough. And after some skiing at Ski Cooper, where I literally skied a black (advanced) run which could have been a green (easy) anywhere else, I'm even more thankful. (Ski Cooper would be a great place to learn though!) This season I made it up to Monarch at least once a week for about 7-8 weeks because I signed up for Town Challenge, a locals' race league. I suck at racing... It's a totally different technique compared the skiing I learned. My skis are short and soft, so they aren't really designed for racing. There are people twice my age blowing my doors off, which, if you think of it, is actually pretty cool! There aren't many physical sports where an 80 year old can beat a 34 year old sheerly on technique! In any case, I figure it gets me up there for the day, skiing with friends, and it keeps me active, which is the important thing. My ski season, however, just came to an abrupt end (or, at least I'm experiencing an extended interruption) due to an unwelcome visitor.

Epstein-Barr has paid me a visit, and unfortunately it it will likely be an extended visit. Come Wednesday (a week and a half ago), Teresa and I headed up to Monarch for her first lesson this season, and I wandered off with a friend to explore some of the steeper runs. The lesson went well, and I had a good time, but on the way back, I started feeling like total crap. It just went downhill from there. I kept telling Teresa that something just felt "different" about this. It wasn't a typical flu virus. I couldn't sleep it off, or at least, sleep didn't make me fell any better. It kept getting worse. I didn't want to eat, and I felt nauseous. I had a fever and visibly swollen glands. Over the next 5-6 days, it just got progressively worse. The sore throat so intense, I went on a liquid diet for 2-3 days. Finally, after multiple discussions with my dad (a doctor), I went in to the local doctor and asked him to run a culture test to rule out strep, some blood tests to check for the Epstein-Barr virus, and what do you know... my dad was right. I came up with a positive test for mononucleosis (cause: Epstein-Barr virus).

It's so weird... according to everything I've read, I should have contracted Mono years ago... 95% of Americans have already had this virus by my age. Also known as "the Kissing Disease", the virus is mostly transmitted via saliva, so maybe this says something about my teenage love life... (hah.. who am I kidding... what teenage love life? I was a GEEK! ) What's also interesting, is that Mono virus stays in your blood and can become active at any time. But since 95% of the population has had it and are immune, it's no big deal. Unless you've never had it... Lucky ME! I may have very well caught this from Teresa, or anyone. And like chicken pox, it is worse to get as an adult. Anyhow, it's not fun, and there's no vaccine, just lots of acetaminophen... and I could have up to six months recovery time! I'll probably have a full recovery six weeks (2 down, 4 to go), but that's still a very long time. I'm definitely on the mend now, so that's good news.

Enough of my whining! To wrap up our winter fun, here are some photo highlights...

In mid January, we hosted a post-holiday house warming:

Nice winter shots:
Check out ther herd of antelope which decided to call Salida home this winter.

Trip to Rocky Mountain National Park...

And Lyons, CO (home of Oskar Blues brewery)
Yes folks, good beer can be canned!

Engineering at KHEN
I've been volunteering at our local community radio station a bit recently, trying to get their computers straightened out. Here you see me manning the computer at the "underwriting recording party!"

Leadville
We took a trip up to Leadville with the Arkansas Valley Brewing Club. I skiied a day at Ski Cooper, and Teresa hit a snowshoe trails with friends. Check out this car!

More Photos of Leadville, Rosie's Brewpub, and Teresa's snowshoe hike.

And a little soapbox rant: In case you hadn't heard, we are in danger here in the Arkansas Valley. It is thought that nearly one BILLION gallons of water contaminated with heavy metals is backing up in a mining tunnel in Leadville, and the fear is that this water could "blow out," destroy a nearby neighborhood, and surge down the Arkansas River destroying water quality and wildlife habitat. This is all thanks to Leadville's dirty mining past and Federal Government inaction. More info: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_8266153. Let's hope Leadville's mining future is monitored more closely!

An era has ended. The Holiday Ramber rambles on (sold!)...

You know you are a Coloradoan if...

Andrew Koransky — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 03:01:00 GMT

I got this in an e-mail and thought it funny enough to post. It is interesting to note, for our Southern friends out there, that there are rednecks everywhere...

It's in a Jeff Foxworthy style, but I am unable to actually figure out it's source. It probably started as a chain, went back and forth a few times, while folks added their own lines to it. We had to add the last line. :-) Unfortunately, our employers don't truly understand the meaning of Powder Day. Well, here goes...

You are a Coloradoan if...

You switch from 'Heat' to 'A/C' in one day.
You know what the 'Peoples Republic of Boulder' means.
Your sense of direction is: towards the mountains and away from the mountains.
You're a meat-eating vegetarian.
The bike on your car is worth more than your car and you have your own special bike lane.
You're able to drive 65 miles per hour through 13 feet of snow during a raging blizzard without even flinching.
You take your out-of-town guests to Casa Bonita even though you would never go there otherwise. (I haven't been here yet!!)
You think your major food groups are granola bars, tofu and Fat Tire Beer.
You design your kid's Halloween costumes to fit over a snowsuit.
You think that sexy lingerie is wool socks and flannel PJs.
You know all 4 seasons 'almost winter, winter, still winter and spring blizzards
You've been tear gassed in a riot to celebrate a CU/CSU victory.
You know the 'correct' pronunciation of Buena Vista or Salida.
Your car insurance costs more than your car.
'Timberline' is someplace you have actually been.
You know what a 'Chinook' is
You know what a 'Rocky Mountain Oyster' is.
You know what a 'fourteener' is.
...But you don't know what a 'turn signal' is.
Your golf bag has a 9-iron, a 3-wood and a lightning rod.
You have surge protectors on every outlet.
You can never figure out why your out-of-town guests faint from altitude sickness on a picnic to the mountains.
When you visit friends at sea level, you can drink a case of beer and not get a buzz.
People from out of state breathe 5 times as often as you do.
A sudden loss of cabin pressure is not a big deal.
Having a Senator named Nighthorse doesn't seem strange.
Thunder has set off your car alarm.
You have an $800 stereo in your $300 truck.
You think a red light means 3 more cars can go.
Where we're going, we don't need roads!!
You know where the real 'South Park' is.
You can recognize the license plates of all 50 states on sight.
Driving directions usually include 'Go over_________ Pass.'
You've checked for ticks.
You've dressed in shorts, sandals, and a parka with a hood.
April showers bring May blizzards.
You've gone snow skiing in July and... You've played golf in January and... They were in the same year!
You've urinated on the Continental Divide just so it could run into both oceans.
You get a certain feeling of satisfaction from knowing that California and Texas are both down stream.
You know what a down slope and an up slope weather pattern is.
You actually understand these jokes and send them to your Colorado friends.
You can drive over a 12,000-foot pass in 4 feet of snow, but can't get to work if there are 4 inches of snow.
You (and your employer) knows what "Powder Days" are.

Hope this made you laugh...

In recent news, Teresa and I celebrated Teresa's birthday with a trip over to Lyons, CO, doing some snowshoeing in Colorado's Rocky Mountain National Park, and visiting Oskar Blues for some outstanding blues music and phenomenal beer. Watch for photos, and maybe a more detailed post later...

An Interesting Argument for Action

Andrew Koransky — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:45:00 GMT

Here is an elegant argument which applies risk management to a problem that's making headlines nearly every day now:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mF_anaVcCXg

Ok... so maybe it ain't so elegant, but it is hard to deny his reasoning.

I do have a few issues with the way he presented it though. I do realize he had limited time to make his point, and he chose to look at the big picture mostly. Here's where I think he missed a few things:

What about the power of the individual? So what have you done to reduce your carbon footprint? Have you analyzed your footprint? For example, have you replaced any of your incandescent light bulbs with CFLs? How about them leaky windows or your ancient refrigerator?
Second, he ignores the secondary benefits of fighting global warming:

Reducing our oil consumption - we're gonna run out of it eventually anyway! A sudden end to our oil supply would certainly prove to be catastrophic, so why not look for alternatives now?
A more just foreign policy - as a result of less dependence on foreign oil.
A more sustainable future - our children won't be as reliant upon an ever shrinking supply of resources.
Healthier air and water.
A new thriving sector of the economy - green products.

So what do you think?

Holiday Rambler for Sale

Andrew Koransky — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 00:16:00 GMT

Anyone interested in owning a piece of history? You can now own our 26 ft 1972 Holiday Rambler for a bargain price... approximately what we paid when we bought it, even though we've made many improvements. We lived in it full time for a while and everything works. For it's age, it is in phenomenal shape. We are getting rid of it because we don't really have a use for anything this big. More info here:

http://denver.craigslist.org/rvs/531725966.html

Let us know if you are interested.

Own a classic piece of history: 26 ft, 1972 Holiday Rambler, four season (extra insulated, plumbing runs thru enclosed flooring that also houses the heating ducts), no leaks, we've sealed the roof, replaced much of the plumbing, new 10gal water heater, in great shape and everything works! AND a built-in BLUE VELVET SOFA and tie-dyed curtain, just bring your own velvet Elvis painting! It's great for someone who wants to use it as temporary housing or a hunting/fishing cabin. It has 4 brand new tires (1 year old, only traveled from Denver to Salida, CO) and we're including insulated plywood skirting to go around the bottom to keep it warmer in winter.

Happy Holidays 2007

Andrew Koransky — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:36:00 GMT

Happy Holidays to everyone! Please check out our 2007 Holiday E-Card, hot off the press!

And a little bit of news... Tanda Enterprises, our little company recently joined the Heart of the Rockies Chamber of Commerce, was recently on the local radio stations KVRH/KBVC. You can hear all the excitement here or you'll catch it if you are subscribed to our podcast.

Happy Holidays everyone!