Monday started off with the bestest news that Initiative 16, a citizen initiative created by animal rights activists that would have ended animal agriculture in Colorado, was struck down by the Colorado Supreme Court on the grounds that it did not satisfy the single subject requirement of an initiative and would have proven confusing to the general public. The vote was a decisive 7-0. The proponents can and likely will come back with another initiative but they'll have to start the process all over. Such a relief, at least for now. There were a couple few groups that formed to fight it and I'm going to see if there's any interest in having an initiative that would require initiatives that change the state statutes to have signatures from all of the states 35 senate districts in order to make the ballot. Oil and gas succeeded in getting this passed for the state constitution because they got tired of fighting citizen led anti-fracking initiatives. Applying this to the statutes would prevent the urban Front Range from dictating policy to the rural areas of the state which dominate in land mass but not in population. It would also make it much more difficult for any crazy legislation to make the ballot. I'm sick of the extremism from both sides of the fence and I think I'm not alone on that one.
And today I woke up to partly cloudy skies and a break in the interminable heat wave we've been having for weeks now. I was even able to go for a run and make some good progress in setting up the next round of cow pastures. I have some friends coming for the next 4 days so I want to have everything set up as best I can so I can go play. Then tonight we were treated to a full half hour of unpredicted rain. Such an amazing thing. The drought here is historic. I really should be fretting over this and not stupid vegans trying to destroy the state. I guess I have plenty of angst for both.
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I was hoping to get that post done before my house guests arrived but it never happened, oh well. I had a fun but tiring 5 days of guests, some good mountain bike rides. It's good to see people again and have them stay over but poor Tess was beside herself. It's been over a year since we've had people stay and it's already not her best thing. It didn't help that my friends showed up with a 'stray' dog that they'd picked up on my street. I see loose dogs on the country roads all the time and I almost never do anything because likely the owners have just let them roam and they'll find their way home. I hate that people do this, they did it in Boulder too and I finally gave up returning loose dogs to owners because they were almost always annoyed. Sometimes you can tell when a dog is truly in trouble and if that's the case and I can do something, I will. But these friends didn't really know any better and picked up a loose dog on my street and Tess went out of her mind with it in the yard as well as strange people. Her worst nightmare. We eventually found a neighbor to take the dog off our hands and as luck would have it, the owner lived practically across the street from the neighbor and dog and owner were eventually reunited. But it was a stressful few hours getting it all sorted out and I got Facebook involved and ugh. It all worked out but Tess was extra stressed out with the strangers in the house.
I have more guests coming this summer so hopefully she'll continue to improve and at least get back to where she was before COVID.
I had a fantastic hike to the high country a couple of weeks ago. Very difficult, super steep and it starts at 10,000' elevation, but so beautiful at the top.
Despite a historically low snow pack there were still some white bits here and there.
Lizard Head
We had to cross some snowfields on a steep pitch, always a bit unnerving. This part of the trail was o.k. but some parts of the trail were covered with snow on a steep angle like the snow shown below.
The San Juans never disappoint.
More Lizard Head. Just because.
Another wonderful thing last week was my return to the outdoor pool. It was shut last year and had a delayed opening this year due to staffing issues but finally, finally, I was able to swim again.
It wasn't pretty but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. I've gone 5 times now and I'm starting to feel some of my stroke coming back. There's a sprint triathlon in Durango in September that would be a perfect goal. And really, Xterra Nationals might not be too ridiculous of a pipe dream. I swam 600 meters non-stop as a little test to see how my endurance is and it was no problem, I could have easily gone way longer and Nationals is 1500 meters. The question is can I get up to that distance and still have some speed. Because right now my 'speed' is non-existent. I'm focusing more on getting my form and endurance back and then I'll start looking at the pace clock. Which thankfully they don't have at the outdoor pool, I have to go by my watch which is much easier to ignore.
Biking and running are coming back too. I'll see how the summer progresses. Next I'll have to get back to agility training. We've got a break in the weather, I'll have to find a little exercise to set up.
