Day 60

Title: Shades of White

After a lucrative day at work I rode my bike around the neighborhoods just north of Pearl St. I thought that maybe I'd head into the Mapleton area to get some pictures of some of Boulder's oldest homes, but I never quite made it that far. One block north of Mapleton is High St., a quarter mile long road that stretches east of Broadway between Casey Middle School and Sacred Heart Jesus Worshipers School and dead ends at its own cul-de-sac. Whenever I can't find parking for work, I use High St. as a backup since there are quite a few spots on it between Broadway and 13th St. that are never ever all taken, but I've never ventured beyond that point. Just past 14th St. it rises up a slight hill and then turns into a quiet, quaint little neighborhood. It's incredible how close it is to the relatively noisy hustle-and-bustle of Boulder's small downtown and yet how you can't hear any of it. My parents have a house tucked away in one of Boulder's slowest-paced neighborhoods, and this was nearly as noiseless as that.

I noticed a few interesting things about the houses and their inhabitants. Either the homes were small ranches built most likely in the mid-50's (they look quite a bit like my grandparent's in South Boulder), or they were gargantuan specimens of modern custom architecture conceived within the last decade. These primarily had Porche Cayenne Turbos and BMW 3-Series parked in their driveways, whereas the smaller homes had more modest Oldsmobiles and Buicks, leading me to believe that elderly q-tips occupied these. So either you have to be a rich hotshot lawyer or have owned your house since the 1960s to live in that neighborhood.

If you lived on the north side of the street, you had full 180 degree views of North Boulder, the north-eastern plains around Gunbarrel and Longmont, and the beautifully snowcapped front range. If you lived on the south side, you had full views of Downtown and South Bouder, as well as Chautauqua Park, CU campus, the whole breadth of Boulder's flatirons, and probably all the way to DIA on a clear day.

Which view would you prefer?


......


This evening when I was coming home from a good round of frolf (probably one of the best games I've ever played) I saw a bumper sticker that said "Give War A Chance". The car was pumping Disturbed out of its cheap sound system (at least it has a functioning one, though, unlike my car...) and had other bumper stickers that led me to believe that the driver was of the angsty goth variety. At first, I thought that the pro-war bumper sticker was a typical way of being different and just a tool for making others uncomfortable. But then I got to thinking...

Where would we be without war? It's true that the last few wars (ie Vietnam and Iraq) have been vastly unpopular and have drawn criticism from all walks of life (right and left wing alike). But take a look at all of the good that previous wars have resulted in. We would still have "negros" tending our gardens, FDR would have been hunting buddies with Hitler, and we would still be governed by a foreign parliament that would care very little about us, as is the case with Australia.

So sure wars are unpopular and sometimes unnecessary, but I'm sure glad that some of them have happened. As a last-ditch effort, maybe would should give war a chance.

...Or humans can stop being so god damned stubborn and just get the fuck along. We're all a bunch of ass holes, you know that? We never should have come down from the trees. Life would have been much easier if we all just munched on our abundant leaves all day (without having to worry about salmonella...stupid tomatoes). Until the fig trees started to fruit. Then it's on.

I gots to have me sweets.