Ann and Mark Udall at the Colorado Democratic
Convention May 18, 2008Colorado Springs didn't know what had hit it when 10,000
Democrats came to town, complete with bumper stickers saying
things such as, "Focus on your own damn family."
Robert and I left here Friday afternoon about 12:30 or so in the
Prius, arriving about 3:00 in Colorado Springs. Robert was
driving and he got 62 mpg on the trip down, 55 mpg is our over
all average since we bought the car.
Using some of the points from previous stays at Best Westerns
I had booked us a suite which had a small kitchen, a couch,
easy chair, desk, two TVs, one in each room and armoire and a
kingsize bed. It was very nice, quite new and very clean.
We also discovered it was across the street from the Convention
Hotel. It turned out we had to walk a couple of blocks to
an intersection with a stop/go light in order to get across
the 8 or 10 lanes of traffic, but it was still within 1/4 of
a mile.
After we got settled in we went across to the Double Tree (the
convention hotel) because I wanted to register. Delegates only
were allowed to register on Friday and I figured there would be
a shorter line than on Saturday when everyone had to register.
For every delegate there was an alternate and they were told they
couldn't register on Friday. I think that turned out to be false
because the line when we got there was the longest line of people
I have ever seen. It took 5 minutes to walk from one end to the
other! I headed for the front to make sure this was a line I had
to be in while Robert went to the end to save a spot. It was the
right line and it snaked back and forth through this huge hotel,
and the line was not a single file, it was more a 3 or 4 people
wide..and all Democrats, whew! and all talking. One woman said,
Oh, this is so much fun, you can say anything and no one is
offended because we are all Democrats!"
We stood in line for about an hour and a half and I was talking
and not paying much attention when Robert grabbed me and said
go talk to that guy over there, he's talking about another
registration table that has just been set up. We left our line
and went where the guy was pointing and got in another line, but
a much shorter line and in less than half an hour I was finally
registered.
We went back to our hotel and I made us supper. I'd brought a
cooler with frozen entrees and salad stuff. We had meat loaf
and salad and, of course, dessert while we watched the News Hour.
On Saturday Viki who car pooled down that morning and arrived
for breakfast at our motel shortly before 8 AM. We were just
going into the breakfast room when she arrived. We ate and
then Robert drove us to the World Arena and dropped us off.
She had to register and the line was MUCH shorter than the
day before. I was glad for her, but sorry I hadn't waited.
We separated and I went up to the top of the Arena, where the
privileged sit at big events. This was where Mark Udall had
his headquarters for the convention. He is running for a
US Senate seat from Colorado. It was very nice up there. There
were glass partitions so the noise was muffled, but the huge TV
screens were easy to see from there. There were comfortable
chairs, a bar (nothing stocked) and coffee, tea or water.
I attended the 8:30 AM meeting of Udall volunteers and they were
giving out instructions for the volunteers to roam the crowd and
hand talk to people about Mark and to be ready to join a parade
just before he was to speak. They gave elaborate instructions
of where to meet, when, etc and I was thinking, "I don't want to
do that." After all those instructions were handed out, Jimmy
who was running the meeting and with whom I have been
corresponding for months turned and said, "One more thing, we
need someone to assist the photographer." I piped up loud and
clear that I could and would like to do that. So I spent my day
up in that box. There were four of us running the photo-shoot
operation. Udall was posing with hundreds of people,mostly in
groups of 5-10, but some single shots, too. My job was to print
the digital photos and if there were 20 people in the picture I
printed 20 photos. Actually, it was my cup of tea. I quickly
had it all organized so the pictures got numbered to keep track
of which group each was, printed the pictures, dried them and
placed them in envelopes with the name of the county and the
group leader. When my group showed, and bless their pointy
heads they all showed up on time, I got in the picture, but I had
my eyes shut so it's not a great picture and you won't see it here.
The other three in the group were very young and I'm sure to
them I seemed very old. They brought me lunch and water at
about 11 and then all afternoon were pestering me to bring me
pop? or tea? or coffee? and I did drink three bottles of water.
Finally, about 4 o'clock I said, "yes, I wouldn't mind if you
brought me a martini."
No martini, just being goofy: Ann, Therese
and Anthony
The four Intrepids: Therese, Ann, Laurie (the
photographer) and Anthony..behind the Colorado
flag our leader: Senator, to be, Mark Udall
Finally, just before 5 o'clock I went down to the arena to get my
ballot and vote. I voted for Viki for a delegate and I voted for
a couple of electors whom I don't know, but who promised to vote
for Obama no matter what!
My only regret is that I didn't call Viki and get her to come up
and help me. I could have used the help and she could have used
a break from the noise in the Arena. But I didn't. She did text
message me to let me know where she was sitting. She'd tried to
call me, but I couldn't hear what she was saying so she sent a
text message. Later I should have text her back.
After I left the Arena, I as usual, was totally turned around. I
didn't come out the same door I came in, but I looked at the
traffic jam and figured that calling Robert to come and get me
would be a mistake. I knew I could walk to the motel faster than
if he drove over to where I was and then we would be in the
traffic jam and it would take an hour to get the 1/2 mile. It
was a nice walk and people were friendly and there were a number
of us headed for the Double Tree. I knew if I could get to the
Double Tree I could find our hotel so that's what I did.
I got "home" about 6 and after putting my feet up for a while I
fixed us some supper. We went to bed early. I was really
zonked.
On Sunday we had a leisurely morning and then drove to the Black
Forest area of Colorado Springs to visit with Barb and Dennis
Ellis. They have a lovely home on about 3 acres. It's near, but
not in the Black Forest so they are growing lots of trees to make
their own forest.
Dennis has been really sick. He had a blockage between kidney
and bladder so had to have a stent put in and in the process they
did something to his pancreas! That was exceedingly painful and
caused all sorts of problems. In addition to that he had a cough
for a long time and the doctor kept telling him it was nothing
until Barb finally dragged him to her doctor who ordered an MRI
and that exposed a viral infection in a ventricle in his heart.
By that time the blood flow that his heart was pumping was 11%
instead of 100% and the doctor said if he hadn't had care PDQ
he'd be dead. Another doctor told him they often don't figure
out this problem until the autopsy..! I think he called it
cardio-myopathy. In any event some time later he had another
cardiac arrest so now he has a combination
pacemaker/defibrillatorin his chest. His blood is being
pumped at about 37% now so he is improving, but he has a
long way to go. He says he feels pretty good and is doing some
projects around the house and still going to work. He likes
his job and doesn't want to give that up.
I was really glad we took the time to see them. He may really
get better or he may not. I certainly hope he does, but if he
doesn't I would have felt awful to not have visited them.
We got home about 6 PM last evening and had a late supper. I
fell asleep right after I had the kitchen cleaned up, so we went
to bed early again. Today I feel great.
It is a gorgeous day. I walked and then did some laundry and
some cleaning, took a quick trip to town to pick up two library
books we had ordered.
It's fun to travel, but it is always nice to get home, too.
