Has it been 17 months?

Hi there...where ya been?  OK, so I'm a slacker.  Waste.  Layabout.  Lazyman.  Wait, wait just a second -- I may epitomize those terms sometimes, but I've been up to some stuff...even a lot of stuff.  Interested?  No?  What if there are travel tips, and wacky photos, and random experiences, would that work?

New (yet old) wheels for Colorado: the "Jagranner"

I honestly have no idea whether or not this revived blog might appeal to anyone, at all...but since I need a place to lay down my thoughts & observations, and www.afghanidan.blogspot.com just isn't the right forum for my stories of Colorado and travels elsewhere, I'm willing to give it a shot.  Even when I started it, in fact, I had the intention of making this a home for travels over the previous few years -- the Afghan blog of course covering half of 2006 and most of 2010 (into this year).

The "Standout": Redondo Beach, CA - Apr '11

Just over this summer, I've notched a few random firsts: scaled my first 14ers (mountains over 14,000 feet in elevation), rode my first Boulder cruiser ride, tubed the length of the local whitewater creek, reeled in mahi-mahi off the Outer Banks of NC, tried zip-lining in Mexico, hit a bluegrass festival in the Colorado mountains, experienced Seattle's famed Solstice Festival, and a whole lot more...all in the name of science.  Well, not exactly science...enjoyment?  Yeah, that's the word.

This is MID-JUNE at Arapahoe Basin, CO

What we should do with it...well, I'm open to suggestions.  When I manage to drag myself out on a trail run around here, or a scenic hike, or (even rarer) a gym visit, or have one of those briefly illuminating beer-soaked discussions with friends about what I enjoy doing, the idea surfaces of doing...well, something like this.  Only one that people would read.  The obstacles are many: I have a habit of snapping a thousand photos when a few well-timed ones will do -- and then leaving them unedited while I move on to the next occasion; the thoughts that strike me in those moments mentioned above simply fade quickly or lose their priority status when my attention span latches onto something else ("Squirrel!"); and sometimes, anxiety and depression kick in too heavily...the last thing I want to do when obsessing about where I'm going is sit around looking at the past.

The legendary Red Rocks amphitheater, Aug 2011

Here's hoping I can jump around a bit -- thereby dropping the obsession on backtracking a million miles in the quest to present events in order -- and stay on it regularly.  There is no shortage these days of material as I try to throw myself into pastimes that make Colorado so amazing, travel to new destinations when I can, and battle to overcome my personal limitations which have made post-deployment life even bumpier than the one which preceded it.

Gutting out the Bolder Boulder 10K, May 2011