Author: Matt (Page 22 of 23)

Ronda and I drove down to celebrate the harvest of the Mira Sol Chile in the 10th Annual Chile & Frijoles Festival. The Chile & Frijoles Festival is a fun, fall event designed to promote the area’s agriculture of Pueblo-grown chilies and pinto beans, as well as to display the works of many talented artisans and craftsmen. The festival, which is free to the public, takes place in the heart of downtown Pueblo.

It was quite a large festival with at least 6 or 8 blocks of food and craft tents. As we entered the festival we went by the area where they were roasting the green chili peppers. They roast the peppers in large wire cages that are rotated above a gas flame. The roasted peppers were available for purchase in small bags all the way up to bushel bags. It was interesting to see pallets of green chili peppers sitting in the back waiting to be roasted.

We wandered up and down the streets for awhile looking at all the different goodies and crafts. There was a Corvette show on one street with a nice selection of old and new Vettes. My favorite was a black 72 Stingray.

While I was down at the end of the block waiting for Ronda to finish looking over some clothes I did a double-take. Coming down the street was a 68 Shelby GT-350. I managed to get a quick snapshot as it was turning the corner.

We eventually dined on some of the tasty food and purchased some things to take home. Like: a quart of locally produced honey, a few bags of roasted pueblo peppers, some salsa, and a 20lb bag of pinto beans.

The weather was marvelous, sunny and mid-70’s.

I have been meaning to get down to the local map store and pick up some detailed (1:24,000) USGS topographic maps. The map I have been using while hiking is a larger scale (1:75,000) map which covers a large area but does not have the detail necessary for making those ad-hoc trail decisions.

Today I drove down to the local Macvan Map store in Old Colorado City to see what they had. They stock a nice selection of the USGS maps and pretty quickly I had half-dozen or so laid out. The 1:24,000 maps have great detail but don’t cover a very large area. Naturally, one of the areas I wanted was on the edge and spanned two maps. At nearly $9 a pop this was quickly becoming expensive.

The clerk that was helping me suggested I consider going with the digital solution. There are several companies marketing topo map software and you can get the entire state for around $90. Didn’t take me too long to do the math on that one. 10 sheets covering a small area or the entire state…. hmmmm… I think I’ll go the digital route.

Now all I have to do is decide which one to buy. Both of them seem to pretty much have the same features. One of things that sold me was the programs ability to “stitch” together all the maps so they are seamless. You can select the area you are interested in, add your own markings, routes, etc. and then print out just that section.

I’m leaning towards the National Geographic package. But the Maptech one looks pretty good too.

In late April 2004 Ronda and I started a new diet. I use the word in the proper sense (Webster – food and drink regularly provided or consumed, habitual nourishment). In fact, I like the origins of the word from the Greek diaita, literally, manner of living, and from diaitasthai to lead one’s life.

I’ve seen or heard about many different diets over the years. Never participated in any as I did not really consider myself as “fat”. I had managed to put on some weight over the years though. It all started when I stopped smoking back in 1989. Prior to that I could eat anything in any quantity and never gain weight. My metabolism began to change after I quit smoking and I slowly gained about 20 lbs. A fairly common occurrence I was told.

I didn’t like it but it was tolerable. I was still not considered “fat” according to the Army’s standard so I bought new clothes as required and winced at the occasional photo that really proved what my midsection had become. I seemed to have stabilized and it seemed ok. But, during the past five years as I hit my mid-forties it started getting worse. Little to no exercise did not help matters any. There were several small things that spoke loudly to me “Grimes… you’re getting fat and slothful!” My 36in pants were getting too tight and the ‘ol belly was hanging way out there. Then there was a short hike up to the top of a sand dune while vacationing in the summer of 2003. I could not make it all the way. Very humbling.

Then I read about the South Beach Diet. It made a lot sense to me. A balanced approach that I could live with in the long run. We did it together. I never could have done it without Ronda. She started cooking the South Beach way and made everything taste good. For my part, I gave up the candy addiction I’ve had forever. The first two weeks (phase one) are the most difficult as you detox your body from sugar. I lost 14 lbs during phase one. Since then I have continued to lose 2-3 lbs a month. Overall, I’ve dropped 30 lbs in five months.

I heartily recommend the South Beach Diet. It has made a big difference in my life; I feel a lot better about myself, I look a lot better, and I’m getting more exercise. And, yes, it has worked equally as well for Ronda.

I made some progress today on my “other” Jeep project. The Comanche pickup I bought last November was not intended to be a long term vehicle. I bought it to provide something for Kristina to drive while she saved her money to buy her own vehicle and because living on an acreage it’s just plain handy to have a truck. I figured to sell it once we moved to Colorado. Here’s what it looked like –

Getting it cleaned up has been a major project. It sat under a tree for a couple of years before I rescued it and the crud seemed to have gotten in everywhere. But it is coming clean with some heavy duty cleaner and elbow grease. I have the interior all done except for the upholstery and carpet.

The exterior is quite another story. I’ve been working on the easy parts like grinding off some surface rust and touching up the paint. The body is typical of a Jeep that lived it’s whole life in Iowa. Quite a bit of rust. A lot of it I will be able to take care of but those nasty spots over the rear wheels wells… I’m not sure how to tackle.

The front was was looking pretty rough as the trim pieces has rusted badly and the bumper was munched up. So, encouraged by my success on the Cherokee, I pulled the front off, cleaned up and repainted the rusty trim, the grill, and headlight surrounds. Then I made another trip to the junkyard and grabbed another front bumper. Then I put it all back together. It looks 100% better. I also cleaned up the engine compartment.

Tomorrow I’m going to take the paint code and go buy a pint of automotive paint. I think I can use my airbrush to repaint some of the larger areas where I ground off some the surface rust.

Kristina is now driving her very own Jeep Cherokee. This little quest started a rather long time ago and the quarry changed a number of times along the way but the safari is finally over and the game has been bagged.

We rescued a 1988 Jeep Cherokee from Walt’s Towing that was likely headed to the salvage yard . The Jeep had taken a light hit in the front which had munched up the front grill, headlight panel, bumper, and right fender. The motor seemed to run fine when we started it up although it does have nearly 200,000 miles on it. The interior was in pretty sad shape and the paint job was also pretty rough. We tried to take it for a test drive but could only get a few blocks as the fender was rubbing against the wheel and the radiator had a hole in it.

The Jeep did have some merit though. Sometimes you have to squint a little bit to see those diamonds in the rough. The body is rust free, it has excellent tires, the interior can always be cleaned up, the 4-wheel drive works, and, the price was right. So, we forked over some cash and had Walt use one of his handy tow trucks to bring it home.

Then the real work started… Continue reading

Arrgghhh! School starts tomorrow. In case you didn’t know I made the decision last fall to go after a Master of Engineering in Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The program is part of the Civil Engineering College at the University of Colorado. I completed the first course last fall but decided not to enroll in the spring term since we needed to sell our house and proceed with the move to Colorado.

Now, however, it’s time to get back on track with the program. I have signed up for two course this term; GIS Spatial Database Development, and GIS Management/Policies. These are Internet based courses by the way. I intend to complete the entire program via the Internet.