40th Ann. as a Leather Artist

I was getting scared I wouldn't get this thing finished. April was my 40th Anniversary as a leather artist. Here's my 10 min. retrospective. 40th Ann. as a Leather Artist Pt. #2

Jethro Tull: Back to the Family (Jan. 1969)

You should have been there.

Junior Brown - Broke Down South of Dallas

Colorado Bob's Internet Tombstone

I've been building this palace since last August. It's the tail-end of my life in the archive here. Read some of my stories. Bob Dylan - Isis (Live 1975) When this tour played Ft. Collins, Colorado, they stayed at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado. Bob Dylan nearly drove over me one night in downtown Estes Park. We were both under the influence. "Enjoy every Sandwich" The Wallflowers and Jordan Zevon - Lawyers Guns and Money The Eagles ..... "GET OVER IT" fleetwood mac oh well

NPR's Climate Connections

NPR & National Geographic have started a year long series on the Climate. All that hamburger money from Mrs. Croc is being put to work. NPR's Climate Connections

A Bit of Clarification

I should have gone into some detail about my condition, but having shared it with my friends at Crawfordslist for some time, I slowly forgot that information wasn't tattooed here. I am not suicidal, but I have the liver of Poppa John Phillips [Before he got his 50,000 drink over haul]. It's not really a bad way to go. Your liver doesn't have nerves, so pain isn't a big problem at this point. But my ability to sit up, and type has taken a turn in the past week or two. So I haven't been visiting the places on the web as much as I once did, and I haven't had the energy to do all those things with my MAC that are so much fun. One thing about the web, it saves lives. I ended up on the web because my lower disks gave up a few years ago, and needles invaded my legs and feet. I started looking around the web, and ended up at Crawfordslist .... That move has kept my mind going for the last couple of years. Brain Rot is far more deadly than Liver Rot. Pin-Heads like Chris Matthews think the web is populated by guys like the one in the MAC commercials. But there's a hell of a lot of people like me who use it as a line to minds that keep them going. Someone should do a post about this, it's a fertile subject. I'm concerned that in the not too distant future I won't be able to write any more. That's why I posted the one below. I've never been a big fan of mysteries ... I'm a Virgo, I want to know what's going on, hence my reason for these comments. Many thanks for the concern, and kind words... But I water skied under a helicopter, and danced with a lot of beautiful women. Some even took me home. What more can a man ask for ?

Piss and Vinegar

The mind is a funny thing, take Art Buchwald for example. He fought depression all his life, but last year when he decided to quit fighting the effects diabetes, and moved into a hospice to play out his string, he turned into the Energizer Bunny. The surrender to that fate was something that probably kept him going and going and going. A sense of peace with his decision was no doubt a big factor. Like Art, I was a manic/depressive all my life. Most of the time it was just "Piss and Vinegar" that kept me going, when that failed, I relied on just dumb luck. Back in December, [8th & 9th] I wrote that my string had run out too. At the time .... I was pretty sure I didn't have much left in me. But this site, and the interest in foolin' with it had a real medicinal effect. But in the past couple of weeks my energy was been flagging, and I'm afraid that my posts are going to be few and far between. It's getting hard to sit up right for any length of time. I set-up this site last year to spin out some of my stories, along the way another idea occurred to me. That it could be a sort of tombstone. With that in mind, I have a graphic to go along with it. I didn't want to put it up, and freak out everyone, but don't be shocked when you see it. No pity please, I'm a guy who had one fine trip through this world, even when I didn't know it.

Save Net Radio

The Deadliest Massacre in U.S. History

December 29th 1890-Miniconjou Chief Big Foot Today was not the deadliest massacre in US history. Just off the top of my head here are two : Sand Creek November 29, 1864 Colonel Chivington and his 800 troops of the First Colorado Cavalry, Third Colorado Cavalry and a company of First New Mexico Volunteers marched to their campsite in order to attack the Indians. On the morning of November 29, 1864, the army attacked the village and massacred most of its inhabitants. Chivington proclaimed before the attack "Kill and scalp all, big and little; nits make lice." Only 9 or 10 soldiers were killed and three dozen wounded. Between 150 and 184 Cheyennes were reported dead, and some were reportedly mutilated, and most were women, children, and elderly men. Chivington and his men later displayed scalp and other body parts, including human fetuses and genitalia in the Apollo Theater and saloons in Denver. Wiki Page for Sand Creek Wounded Knee December 29 1890 By the time it was over, 25 troopers and 300 Lakota Sioux lay dead, including men, women, and children.[2] Many of the dead are believed to have been the victims of "friendly fire" as the shooting took place at point blank range in chaotic conditions, and most of the Lakota had previously been unarmed.[3] Around 150 Lakota are believed to have fled the chaos, of which many likely died from exposure. Wiki Page for Wounded Knee

Randy Fisher

I just love this guy's work .

Technorati Now Counts 70 Million Blogs

How the hell did you ever find this place ? The number of blogs or weblogs on the Web continues to grow at a breathtaking pace. The Technorati blog search engine is now tracking over 70 million weblogs. The company sees 120,000 new weblogs being created worldwide each day. As Technorati’s David Sifry’ says: “That’s about 1.4 blogs created every second of every day.”

Tornado Gallery Opening

Neon and ceramics by Tony Greer Click the title for more pictures.

PLANET EARTH

The Discovery Channel's series is just some of the best television ever. Last night this fellow was on, he's a Tibetan Fox. Here's the link to the animal pages .... Some stunning images. Animals in the Series

A Picture from Spiffy

Spiffy sent me a picture. He's still doing heli-drillin' with Xtreme Drilling. This is from the Book Cliffs Utah. Last Oct. Hell of a location ain't it ?

Best Buddies

Don't you just long for a simpler, more innocent time. With simpler, more innocent people ...

Charlie "Blaze"

Lama toeing in, High Uintas Utah. (Submitted by Laura Cullen) Via USA Doodlebuggers I nearly cried when I saw this picture. It could be the best shot of a Lama ever taken. Which brings up the "Best Long Line Pilot" I ever saw. "Charlie "Blaze" I, and all my co-workers put our lives in the hands and feet of these pilots. So, we were pretty good judges about how good these guys were. It was an interesting group of men. Mostly small in height, but never short on balls. We flew when the Vietnam pilots were all getting 10 or so years into their careers. That's mostly who we rode with. I did a little flyin' with a fellow that became a helicopter pilot from Korea, and one who put himself through helicopter school .... Charlie "Blaze". We were drillin' in the Flat Tops of western Colorado. And like the name says, we were on pretty flat ground. Which was a treat. Plus it was a beautiful open meadows with little Aspen stands. So long about 2 or 3 in the afternoon I'm drillin' this hole, and I go down about 12 feet of easy footage .... and Boom I'm into this beautiful blue granite. Running on top of that granite, was the water table for one of these meadows. So I come out of the hole, and put on my : Mission #3115 Down Hole Rock Hammer. [I always loved to say that phrase] It was a beast. I change out the bit and go back in the hole, tag bottom, and start drillin' again. Then granite starts making these great cuttings. Big Flakes of granite are coming up the hole mixed in with water ..... all being hurled in the air by a Gardener Denver Air Screw runnin' straight into a Chrysler 360 with this itsy-bitsy muffler. Modern Man Any way ..... It's was really a mini Spindle Top Moment. Now, that morning I had a dead battery on my drill. We screwed with more batteries. They just didn't like being in the out doors "bun-geed" down under that hot engine. As I'm watching this fountain of noise, water, and granite. A long comes B.J. Walker, our party manager and O.B. Olberlander the Field Coordinator. We chit chat away from the rig, and after a while we call Charlie on the radio and tell him to come pick these two birds up . B.J. knows there's a deposit to be had from my dead battery so he tells O.B. to get my dead one. So Mr. Oberlander gets two of my shop towels [paper], gets the dead cat out of my support basket, and moves off into the meadow to await the helicopter ride. Pretty soon we hear the beautiful sound from that piece of French Engineering the Lama. By this time I'm back near the drill, and the two visitors are about 50 yds. away with the meadow rolling out behind them. Then that helicopter popped-up .... made this big sweeping turn in the meadow, and set down in the grass right next to B.J. He comes out of his crouch and runs around the front of the ship and jumps in the front seat. O.B. is trying to manage two paper shop towels and my dead battery. Charlie is watching O.B. in his prop wash fumble with this battery, and he tells B.J. to close his door...... Then he picked up that helicopter, and started pushing that battery around in the grass with the skid. Pushing it toward O.B. After a few moments of this and O.B. getting frazzled, Charlie cuts it...... and the ship settles back down in the grass. O.B. is just outside Charlie's bubble mouthing profanities ..... The shop towels are long gone, and everyone else is laughing their asses off. So O.B. finally grabs the battery and begins to run around the nose of the ship. When he gets to the very tip of the nose, Charlie picked the ship up again, and started to rotate around to match O.B.'s speed. O.B. peels off about 55 degrees on a circle him and Charlie are making, and stops again .... mouthing profanities ... Charlie sets the ship down. Charlie assures him through the plexi-glass .... he's through screwing around. O.B. runs another 55 degrees on that circle. At this point I can see B.J.'s side of the ship, and he's eggin' Charlie on to make a full 360. Sure enough, O.B. Grabs that battery, and they both did a full 360 out in that beautiful meadow. O.B. never lost his position on the nose of that Lama. Then O.B. stops, gets on his knees, and pleads with the plexi-glass to please let him in. I'm still laughing as I type this. This story is the God's Truth. More drilling stories : " HELLO LAMA " - 40 BELOW at STRAWBERRY RESERVOIR How I Became A " Flying Squirrel " I SPENT MY WHOLE LIFE in the 20TH CENTURYScroll down Another Doodle Bug Story Life, Near Death, and Other "Feats of Strength"

Big Earth Quake

This one is damn interesting have a look at the two epicenters. Click title for the USGS page on this one.

Tornado Gallery

Old friends Open Gallery One thing about living in the Real Tornado Alley, is that one can develop an your face attitude toward the things. My friend Tony Greer's father owned a business at the corner of 19th and Buddy Holly Ave .... for many many years. It was an iron works most of it's life, Tony grew-up in it. Now, with some of his friends, # Jennifer Greer # Larry Simmons # Randy Fisher he's transforming the the ole' girl into an Art Gallery in part of the whole complex. I stopped by yesterday and had a look, it's going to be a great space. Here's the web page for the over all project I've been puttin' together for them. IDEA WORKS

Fish Rot From The Head

A senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department has repeatedly altered scientific field reports to minimize protections for imperiled species and disclosed confidential information to private groups seeking to affect policy decisions, the department's inspector general concluded. The IG noted that MacDonald "admitted that her degree is in civil engineering and that she has no formal educational background in natural sciences" but repeatedly instructed Fish and Wildlife scientists to change their recommendations on identifying "critical habitats," despite her lack of expertise.