Lounging in Colorado

My trip from China back to Colorado was as unplanned as the rush to get there. One of our daughters had done some whoopties in her car on a snowy highway, and though physically fine, some moral support was in order. Three weeks in China was plenty anyway.

I ended up with a 12 hour layover in Incheon Airport - btw there is no better airport to get stuck in. I got a room on the air side, slept, got a hot shower, and had plenty of time to find breakfast.

I was back a few days and Sherri was ready to come home too. I made some calls and she was just 10 days behind me.  (Nice to know she missed me a little)

Pretty hard to beat Colorado.  It was crazy cold the first few weeks, but usually sunny and blue skies.  I got back into playing the cajon with friends once a week. Managed to get in a day of goose hunting. Life is better here, though circumstances make it necessary to spend time in Oklahoma during the winters.

Have been thinking about what "the next big thing" will be for me and Sherri. Some sort of small business that can work from anywhere, and doesn't need 24/7 attention.

... and Chinese New Year

The house in Dong Chong is pretty amazing.  Three stories, white marble everything, a beautiful home in a very pretty gated community. When Sherri and I stay there, the top floor master suite is all ours. Plenty of privacy and a big balcony.

It was a perfect 75 degrees the whole time we were there. Warm breezes and singing birds.

Oh - and fireworks.  LOTS of fireworks. It was Chinese New Year!  And getting out of the city meant that all those restrictive "no fireworks" rules were overlooked by local officials.

Sherri's dad had settled in to a good eating schedule. They had a maid who cam to clean once a week.  And other than the occasional load of laundry (and Sherri cooking for her father), we were practically on vacation.

Really nice in the dead of January.

Doing what I can,

Being back in Denver was a bit of a surprise. I had forgotten how beautiful our house is. No, it's not perfect, hell, it's not even decorated, but after the dreary old lake house and the somewhat "roughing it" appeal of the cabin, the Colorado house is down right "pretty" to walk into.

I managed to unload the truck. At some point soreness becomes relative and you just gut it out.

I set up a Saturday breakfast with my three best friends - it ended up lasting 7 hours.  I'm pretty proud of that really.

Flew Asiana Airlines to China. Especially nice because the flight left SFO in the middle of the day. The flight was good, service was great, and the food - believe it or not - was excellent.

Got into a conversation in the Incheon Airport with an old Spetsnaz guy and his wife.  They picked me out because of my fresh haircut.  I had worked with Spetsnaz when I was in the Corps, and he had worked with some of us in his day.

Mostly we we trying to translate stuff on our phones, but "Brother Marine" and offering me a drink from his duty free whiskey said it all. They were kinder and more respectful than any American has ever been to me. Seeing the way his wife beamed when they talked about his service was really something.  It means nothing to no one here. They put a value on service that Americans couldn't comprehend.

Made it to China, ate a pile of fried noodles from a street vendor (at 2am), and slept straight through the next day.

I settled in to a routine while Sherri's father was in the hospital. I'd get up and drink some instant coffee, eat some toast with butter, and set to cleaning house. If I didn't clean, then Sherri's mom would do it - and she was running herself ragged trying to take care of dad. So I decided it was important to get that done.

In the early afternoon I'd take the bus to the hospital with Sherri. In China they don't feed the patients in the hospital - so family has to bring it. If nothing else, you're assured that your family won't forget about you.

So we'd deliver lunch and visit while Sherri's mom ran down and got some lunch at the cafeteria. Then I'd travel back to the house with Sherri's mom. They started calling me BaBiao "guard". I liked that.

Sherri's dad was doing well, and a couple days after getting out of the hospital we all moved out to Sherri's brother's house in Dong Chong.

Back to Denver, on to China

The morning after packing up the cabin as best I could, was a bit rough. I had planned to get up early and hit the road. I had 11 or 12 hours driving back to Colorado.

The night before I had put off unloading the truck, ribs were hurting too much to lift anything.  Took a hot shower and crashed.

There was now a 3 day window to make my flight from Denver to China, I could wait a day if needed. But after sleeping through the alarm and scavenging a pain pill, I drank a pot of coffee and decided that the boredom of staying another day outweighed the discomfort of getting my shit together and heading out.

I drove around back, unloaded the tools and lawn equipment into the shed. Drove around front and added my box of clothes to the truck. Loaded the rest if the guns. I was too sore to lift the cooler and the food,  so that was just going to have to make the trip to Colorado with me.

Got a shower, turned off the hot water heater, turned the heater down. Collected up the trash, took one last look around. Hit the road.

No way to mince words here, it was painful to drive. But the usual run - 760 miles - went as it pretty much always does.  Far less fun without Sherri,  but knowing I was on my way to her made it bearable.

Packing up the cabin

So the gist of packing up the cabin is this:

- clean out the fridge and freezer so I can turn off the propane.
- take any food that a mouse or rat can get into
- take anything of value that might encourage thieves or that you can't replace without a big expenditure.

Along with all that, prep the little Raider to be left behind. Pack up the blinds.  Pull the trail cams.

I arrived at the cabin that morning about 10 am.  30+ mph winds, some fog (turning to rain), and that kind of cold you only feel in Oklahoma. I get to work.

Pack the fridge and a box dry foods. Get the rest of the guns and ammo. Pile all that and misc "valuables" by the door. Decide I better take a look outside.

I walked out and turned toward the South, the wind grabbed the hood of my rain poncho, and sucked it right off of me.  I chased it across my road and the hickory tree had grabbed it for me. Put it back on.

I probably should have thought a bit more about that event, but I had things to do!

Sure enough, if you've ever hired a contractor, you know they always find some way to fuck you. No matter how much they blab about customer service and all that.  You'll always get it in the end.

So what was a 3 inch hole in my eves with some rotted wood around it, is now a 3 foot hole in my eves. The roofer, who had agreed to repair this,  had pulled the rotten wood off, and never fixed the hole. 

I decided that I needed to keep the coons and the weather out - and I'd just have to fix it before I left. At least tack some wood over the hole.

That picture of the truck backed up to the cabin WAS going to be titled "ladders? we don't need no stinking ladders?" Because,  well, I don't have a stinking ladder...

...surprisingly, standing on top of the truck, in 40 mph winds, with rain freezing on everything it touches...  NOT nearly as safe as it sounds!

At some point I realized that I couldn't hold the wood over my head, hold a screw in place, and hold the electric drill to screw it in - at least not all at the same time...  ...this had just gotten stupid.

I tossed the wood.  Set down the drill-driver, and started my decent from the roof of the truck.

The very first step I took was the last.  The rest of the trip down was a collection of reaching, grabbing, slipping, and - let's be honest - FALLING.

Apparently, freezing rain covers everything with ice, and ice is not that good for climbing around on the roof of your favorite 4x4. Or so some would say.

The good news: I landed in the broken flower bed (well, it's more broken now) which is normally crawling with fire ants - and you may know that I am not a big fan of fire ants. But, fire ants are smart enough to go away when it's freezing. So no fire ants today.

I smashed the back bumper hard - and bruised my ribs pretty nice on the right side. I've been here before, should be all better in 3 months or so.

That said, I still have to take down the big blind, collect the trail cams from two different stands, and load all the crap into the truck. Plenty of huffing and puffing later - hard to get a full breath when your ribs hurt like that..  Guns, food, stuff, and all my tools from the shed are loaded up. 

I head back to the lake house.

The much abandoned blog

A winter colder than expected, an unplanned trip to China, and rediscovering the luxury of Colorado has taken us far away from that (glorious) lonely mountain top in Oklahoma.

By January 3 we were getting Sherri on a plane in the wee hours from Tulsa, ensuring she was in China before her father's surgery. Her daughter had visited for the holidays, and she was on the road - back to Colorado - within hours of my return to the lake house.

...and there I sat.

Surprising how we can do nothing together and be blissfully happy with that. But nothing without Sherri was like 24/7 in a dentist chair.  Unbearable.

So I made the decision - I believe my exact words were "fuckit, I'm going to China".

But it wasn't quite that simple. I had a roof being finished at the cabin. Delayed a bit due to weather. If we were leaving for an extended period,  then there were two houses to pack up - food to be sorted and removed,  and lots of heavy lifting to be done.

Too many movies

Starship Troopers

Absolutely the best movie ever made. While not entirely tied to the book, it touches on some of the social and political aspects that are important. "The social sciences had brought mankind to its knees. It was the veterans who stepped up and imposed the stability we still enjoy today. "  The book goes on to explain that only veterans had proven that they could put the good of the group above their own personal benefit. 

The "mobile infantry" is the 3rd best movie depiction of the Marine Corps (after Heartbreak Ridge and Aliens) I've seen.

This has been my number 1 favorite movie for at least the last 10 years. I have the other 3 movies and the TV series as well, though those are just about fighting bugs, but leave the politics out of it. 



The Avengers

Pretty sure I am the last person on the planet to see this movie. Sometimes when something is so overhyped, I just can't bring myself to buy in. 

So from the unhyped perspective, it was a good picture. I still think they give "iron man" way too much capability, but I guess that stems from the comic - and which actor they have to pay the most. Scarlet Jo rocked.



Escape Plan

OK, so a couple of tough guys in their 60s may not make for an edge of your seat action movie. But Stalone and Schwarzenegger do manage a solid pic.  Going a bit more cerebral and a bit less "blowing shit up" worked well enough. The third act was lacking due to some plot flaws, but good entertainment overall. 



Runner Runner

This movie feels a lot like "The Facebook", with girly-man Justin Timberlake as "the smart guy" who gets embroiled in the back office side of on line gambling. Ben Afleck fails to be a convincing boss man/villain/mastermind type, but the picture flows well enough in spite of that.



Vikingdom

Once you get past the impressively low production values, mish mash of miscellaneous accents, and complete disregard for actual Norse religion, Vikingdom actually draws you in. I'm not saying that you'll "care" about the characters, but you will want to know what happens next. 



Parker

Statham driven "Pay Back meets Reservoir Dogs", but not quite that good pic. A disappointingly thinned down J-Lo has a supporting role that holds up well enough.  



Rampage


Dark Shadows

Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, Danny Elfman joint poking fun at the idea "what if a vampire was buried for 200 years and came back in the modern world?".  Good fun, GREAT supporting cast. 


Dark Skies

American Mary

Sleepwalk with Me



Bangkok Adrenaline

This feature is centered on poor acting and awesome muy thai fight scenes. Like an ode to Jackie Chan, cast members use misc props to fight in around and on Thailand's mean streets.

The plot is ridiculous. The actors are obviously fighters first and actors second. The writing, well, there probably wasn't any...  ...but you'll still watch to the end to see some great well planned fights. 



Skinhead Attitude

Documentary from 2003 trying to show the dichotomy of racist skin heads verse the original two-tone skins.  Some good history for those into the genre, but it's a "scratch the surface" attempt. 



Nikita   Seasons 2 and 3

"We have a black box, and we're going to try to right all of the wrongs Division has done."  That premise holds up for maybe half of season 2, then it goes on a bender and gets totally lost. 

The season ends abruptly, and season 3 launches assuming a bunch of stuff has happened that we learn about from blurbs in conversation.  "I dropped Percy down a 12 story shaft" is all we hear about his demise, and Melinda Clarke becomes enemy number one. More Melinda is always a good thing. 

There is an episode in season 3 that delves into Amanda's beginnings. Very well done, and brilliantly twisted. 


The Pacific 

Binge Watch:  Entourage seasons 4 through 8.

Misc episodes of Archer