Friday, May 31, 2013

Aspen Delays

Well, I should be on a plane headed for Portland right at this moment, but instead I'm at home standing in the blaring sunlight writing this.  Weather delays.  One of the very few things that get on my nerves (it's too windy today).  I'd say 4 out of every ten times I come or go from here I'm delayed in some fashion, often till the following day.  It's not so much the weather that irks me, it's the whole throw a wrench in the plans and the hassle of rebooking.  I've been inconvenienced because it's been too snowy, too cloudy, too windy and because some radar thingy was out of order for a few weeks (I had to fly out of Vail on that occasion).  Drives me nuts.

Now this has nothing to do with the aeroport itself ... that I really like.  It's very small and therefore has a short security line and it's very close to town.  So close in fact that I walk or ride my bike in the summer.  Know anyone else who rides their bike to the aeroport?  Didn't think so.  I also noticed today that they got rid of the millimeter wave scanning machine.  They had it in February so they must've ditched it recently.  They just had plain old metal detectors.  I'm down with that.

I don't have much planned for the visit.  Mostly just hang out with the family.  It's suppose to be real nice weather!  One day I do have to go to a UNFI table top show where hundreds of vendors showcase the latest and greatest grocery products.  Kind of a circus really, especially since these days I'm all about fresh foods, but it is my 'profession' so I guess it's best to keep abreast of all the happenings.

The Paleo food cart that opened in Portland last June (I visited and blogged about it a year ago) now has two more locations, one just opening this week (the carts are called Cultured Caveman).  That's an encouraging sign I must say.  I wonder if Portland, or any other city for that matter, is ready for an indoor Paleo/Primal restaurant? 

Saturday, May 18, 2013

I'm a Coloradan !

It's official.  When someone asks me where I'm from I can now say Colorado.  I've been calculating when this day would arrive on some of my walks this spring, knowing that I was getting close.  You see, I've now just surpassed my total time living in Colorado over that spent living in New York.  I've lived in N.Y. on three separate occasions and here in Colorado on two.  I have also lived a couple of other places, but the majority of my life has been spent in these two states.

I remember clear as day driving into Colorado Springs all of those years ago with my bike strapped to the back of my car and everything else I owned in the trunk.  I would have never guessed then that I would wind up here for so long.  And it's been mostly fab and very little drab!  If this ends up not being my forever home, well, at least I can say I'm a Coloradan 


Clearly this post has nothing to do with Paleo so if that's what you came for you can stop reading now.  Also, the story that follows is just a brief recap as to how I'm actually the fourth generation of my family to live in this great state of Colorado.

In 1941 my great grandfather, Henry Walter Henderson (know as Judge Henderson - his title) came down with Tuberculosis while living in Warsaw, Missouri.  He was advised, like many people back then, to move to Colorado where the dry climate and sunshine could possibly help with the disease, which it did.  While visiting him for a planned two weeks, my great grandmother decided she loved the place and wasn't going back to Missouri.  So they rang up their daughter Laura (my grandmother), told her to sell everything, and move on out to Colorado with them.

My grandmother was in her early twenties then and found work at some point (as a secretary likely) in Camp Hale, near Tennessee pass (then headquarters of the 10th Mountain Division).   This is where she met and married her first husband, Claude (Shelby) Ford.  As a matter of fact, my mom has some pics of them walking down the 'aisle' together under a bunch of ski poles held up by 10th mountain guys.  Unfortunately, Shelby was gunned down in Italy during the last official battle for the 10th on the 30th of April, 1945, just 7 days before the Germans surrendered. 

A few years later, in 1947, my grandmother then met my grandfather in Colorado Springs, who was stationed at what was to become Ent Air Force base (which is now, oddly, the U.S. Olympic training center).  They married later that year and began the typical military lifestyle of moving around the globe every 3 years or so. 

Enter Mama Aspen Paleo.  After graduating from high school in Alaska, she moved to Colorado Springs in the late sixties where she was a nursing student at the Penrose hospital nursing school.  She didn't actually graduate from there, instead, finishing her degree in Brooklyn. 

And then there came me.  I moved to Colorado Springs after graduating from college and soon found my way to Manitou Springs.  I then went back to N.Y. briefly and finally returned, this time to Aspen, destined to become a Coloradan.  Good stuff.





Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Cool Story

Here's a cool, quick, little story.

Mama Aspen Paleo received a phone call out of the blue from a childhood friend a couple of weeks ago who happened to be vacationing near where my mom currently lives.  Mom invited her and her husband over to catch up on old times.  Like really catch up.  50 years of catch up.  You see, they were best friends in 8th grade when both of their fathers were stationed in Indiana and have only exchanged Christmas cards since then.  They hadn't seen each other face to face in half a century.  I can only imagine what was going through each of their minds as their reunion approached.  Cool, no?

They had a great little visit reminiscing and catching up and such, but it turns out they had something recent in common as well ... they're both Paleo!  My mom's friends daughter got her started just like I got my mother to 'buy in' a couple of years ago.  I guess this stuff is a craze.  Mom's friend actually lives in St. John's, Newfoundland and it was interesting to hear of her frustration getting quality dairy at any kind of a reasonable price up there.  Probably living on an island doesn't help matters.  Anyway, she's into 'smuggling' the max amount of Kerrygold bars back into Canada (from the U.S.) when she visits, and I know she's not alone among Canadian Paleo types in this little habit.  When you think about it though, it must be kind of irritating as living in St. John's, they're literally the closest one can get to Ireland on the North American continent.  Ah well, c'est la vie.

 I guess it's not that close