Who'd'a Thunk It?

It wasn't "only a cough", as I claimed yesterday. It is bronchitis and now, I am on medicine. Hopefully, it means that I can sing Sunday night. Even if I cannot, I will stand with the choir (unless my cough is still bad), and I will lead my small group as we sing "Silent Night."

Have you ever heard of a giraffe dog? No, me neither, but....

NLTD just pointed me to a great video of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer done to the Hamilton soundtrack called Hamildolph. Eclipse 6 did a great job with it.

I found another funny screenshot from Family Feud with Richard Karn. Well, I am assuming they are correct transcriptions from the show.

Here's something I learned today from one of the tech-y sites I frequent.
A Backronym (short for Backward Acronym) is a type of acronym that is created by choosing a “set” of letters, then a name/title (multi-word term) that fits the letters. An example is NASA’s naming its ISS treadmill C.O.L.B.E.R.T. (Combined Operational Load-Bearing External Resistance Treadmill) after comedian Stephen Colbert.

This is an example of the type of roads we usually take in the backcountry of Southwest Colorado. Looks fun, doesn't it? Yeah, it is. You can see one of our Jeeps up ahead of me.

I am embarrassed to tell you about what a horrible driver Preacher Bro is. So, instead, I will show you. Look, his better half is trying to escape through the roof. I think I heard her saying, "Let me out or I'll smack you!" You can even see her raising her hand.

Is it Friday already? I hope that you understand when I don't have time to write a new blog post. Sometimes, I have personal things I want to share. Sometimes, I find web stuff to share. Sometimes, though, I just don't have enough content, or maybe I don't have enough time. Trust me, people, I will warn you if I ever decide to end the blog. Today is not that day. See you next week.

I'm Telling Myself It is Only a Cough

Last night, I tossed and turned all night with a nagging cough. Don't you hate that? As a way to pass the time, I ended up thinking about Hamilton, the musical, which then led me to think of the other major, political musical that I have seen. Do you know what it was? Sure, 1776. It looks like I first saw it in 1970 in Dallas and it was amazing. Probably as exciting back then as Hamilton seems right now.

I don't think that I mentioned that one of my aunts passed away last week. The folks and Architect Bro and his wife attended her funeral. She has had Alzheimer's for some time, so the last couple of times I saw her, she did not remember me. Man, that disease is such a challenge to deal with, probably for the person afflicted as well as those of us who interact with them. Let's pray that some research will lead to a breakthrough in treatments.

Don't you feel sorry for this dog?

I must have missed this episode of Family Feud.

I liked this view of town because it highlights the American flag flying on the mountain south of town. The street you see in the middle of town is, you guessed it, Main St.

This is the sign at the overlook where we stopped for the flag photo.

Who want to see one of those great Pinterest fails? I know that I do. If you don't, skip over the next image right now.

I hope you are ready for Christmas because your shopping days are almost over. I hope mine are all purchased, too. I'll have to check with MBH on that.

Take a deep breath. Did you get enough oxygen? I think that I did

I had my biannual cardiac stress test and they said I made it 10.75 minutes (compared to just over 9.5 minutes two years ago). And based on that, it seems that my VO2Max (a measure of a person's aerobic fitness) is just over 37. So what, right? According to charts, that is in the Good range. What does this mean? Is a higher number “good”? All else being equal, a higher VO2 max is a good thing: it means that your body can take in more oxygen and deliver it to your muscles, enabling you to run faster for a given effort (not that I run). Still, it does imply I am doing OK right now.

How are you feeling now that Donald Trump is the president-elect? I know that he hasn't taken office yet, but at least the stock market is doing well. What about his cabinet selections? Are you pleased with them? They seem OK to me, and I hope that he actually listens to them. Madonna feels like women gave up on Hillary. She said “A lot of it has do with jealousy and some sort of tribal inability to accept that one of their kind could lead a nation. Other people just didn't bother to vote because they didn't like either candidate, or they didn't think Trump had a chance in the world. They took their hands off the wheel and then the car crashed."

Here's looking at you. kid.

OK, cat lovers. Where's the cat?

Downtown Ouray this fall.

Here is a view of the town from the road south of town.

In case you gave up, here is the cat.

And I don't know about you, but I am ready to get Tuesday underway. See you on the other side of today.

Nothing to Worry About

Somehow, I've been busy at nights and have not taken the time to write a new blog post. And so far, I've been just too busy at work to even think about it during the mornings. So, I am starting this on Sunday to be sure I have something ready to share. How do I like my new job? As you might hope, I am really liking it. You may remember that I took this position knowing that it was only funded through the end of December. I am getting a little nervous, although my manager said he is working on 2017 funding for all positions including mine. So, a little nervous but not too much...yet. Worst case, I go back to my contracting company and let them find me another new, exciting job. He did good on this one, right?

If I do have to leave this job, maybe they will get me a goodbye cake? I hope it is better than this one (actually, this is pretty clever).

Sunday's Stupidest Things calendar entry was fun. I included their clever opening commentary on the calendar entry because it added to the fun:
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2016
FROM THE 365 STUPIDEST THINGS EVER SAID 2016 PAGE-A-DAY CALENDAR »

ON “THEY PUT DOWN THEIR BRIEFCASES AND JUMPED HIM”

COLORADO MAN ATTACKED BY THREE COYOTES WALKING TO WORK
headline, AOL Entertainment (thanks to Bill Heard)

Do you have anyone in your family (maybe a great aunt or something?) who wears ugly Christmas sweaters? If so, I still imagine they cannot easily beat this one.

What do you think of the new chip cards instead of using magnetic strips on your debit cards? Have you noticed that it takes longer to complete the transaction now? Plus, it also means that we cannot use the debit card in credit mode because you are forced to enter your PIN (at least, I see that at our grocery store).

I saw this headline online, but did not follow the link. Would you have?

Check out this photo of a bridge in the Dennis Weaver Memorial Park in Ridgway, CO. Sure, it is just a normal bridge over a stream, but it is the first time I flew my drone out of my sight. I walked up onto the bridge and then flew my drone underneath it. hoping that I did not miss anything as I watched the passage only using the camera on the drone. When we watched the footage later, I had not told anyone I did this, so they were all debating whether or not I would fly it under the bridge. It was fun.

MBH shared this video with me and I enjoyed it enough to add it to today's blog. It is clips of the cast of ST:TNG saying the words to the Christmas classic Let It Snow. Well, almost all the words. If you ever watched that series, watch this Youtube video.

Back to my photos, here is a shot from the drone footage as I prepared for the bridge fly-by. You can see me on the bridge making sure I would not lose my drone in the Uncompahgre River.

Well, I need to get ready for our Chorale Christmas concert with the orchestra tonight.