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Robert and I went to town. Our
first stop was for me to get a
hair cut and while I was doing
that he went to Eco-cycle to
drop off our recycle items.
From there we stopped at Target
to kill time and to get Robert
a cheap belt to wear with his
work pants.
On to get our flu shots at
Passport Health Center. We
had vouchers from NCAR so
didn't have to pay for them.
Yea NCAR...finally a perk for
being retired (only took 22
years).
And finally on to a small cafe
at the CU Research campus in
east Boulder. It turned out to
be a great little cafe, nice
setting and reasonable food and
very quiet. A great place to
stop for a quick lunch.
Our main focus for the day was
a tour of the Laboratory of
Atmospheric and Space Projects
(LASP). This Lab is not a
theoretical lab, but a hands on
satellite research lab. They
currently have 5 satellites they
are monitoring with differing
research on each. The one I
found the most interesting is
called Kepler. They are orbiting
in the earths orbit and looking for
other starts, similar to the sun with
planets orbiting, similar to earth.
The pictures they get back are
interesting and of a magnitude
not reached by any other satellite,
to date. Far more magnitude than
the Hubble. It would be interesting
work there. They have 150 students
working there on a ration of 1 grad
student to 5 undergrads. The grad
students are totally supported; the
undergrads are not. They have to
work 20 hours per week in addition
to their course work; it's not an
easy task. They also have to be
available 24/7 365 days a year. BUT
they get to actually run and monitor
the satellites.
During our tour, we stopped to admire
a "clean" room and hear at what
lengths they go to guarantee it's
clean. Robert, however, pointed out
there was a spider on the floor of
the clean room...ooopppps.
Dang bear! One of them went into the pool
and attacked the aerator. Punched a couple
of holes in the rubber top. Now, instead
of a zillion little air bubbles coming out
a couple of big ones come out which don't
really deliver much O2 for the fish. Robert
is trying to fix it, but we may have to
go for a new one and those things aren't
cheap. S/he also knocked one of the
papyrus pots off the table, but it landed
right side up and the water level in
the pool is so low that the green tops
are still sticking out of the water. I'll
leave it. I hope we get more water before
we get a killing frost or I may lose it.
We drove home Gothic on Tuesday, the 29th
and on Wednesday Robyn took the attached
photograph. Clearly, we lucked out with
our 4 days of sunshine!
RMBL, Gothic, CO 
photo by RDEdwards
We stopped for lunch on the way home in
a small town on route 285. I'm blocking
the name of it at the moment. Everything
was closed except Pizza Hut so we ate
there. It took a long time, but the pizza
is always more than eatable and we had
another chance to talk about the good time
we had visiting Robyn. And how happy we
are for her that she is employed for the
winter in Antarctica. What an adventure
she'll have.
I finished unpacking on Wednesday and
stashing the food we didn't use and
doing some laundry.
On Thursday Robert drove at Tebo's and
I cleaned. I use Thursdays to clean so
I don't have to clean around Robert.
Friday morning I called NCAR to order
vouchers for our flu shots. NCAR is
providing them for retirees and spouses
at no cost to us. They were e-mailed
to us. Very nice. We'll get our
shots this week.
I went to the knit shop in Table Mesa
and was happy to see it is still there.
It has doubled in size in its 17 years
of existence and has half of it devoted
to weaver's supplies. I picked out
some washable wool yarn and a pattern;
bought some of the "modern" needles and
as soon as I finish the sweater I
started some 15 years ago...I'll start
the new project. I finished knitting
the sweater yesterday. I just have to
put it together.
At 11:30 I met Suzanne at Murphy's for
lunch. We had a good time catching up
with what each had been doing over the
summer.
In the evening we went to the Ochs'
ranch for a lovely dinner and evening
with the Ochs. We always have a good
time catching up with their doings and
sharing ours.
Saturday I went to Boulder Democratic
Headquarters for training on the new
data base system we'll be using. It
is called Vote Builder and is being
used by all precincts through out the
state. It is the software that the
Obama folks were using during the
election and since the local Dems
had a different one it caused all sorts
of overlap, duplication and worse,
errors. This looks pretty nice. It
is linked to Google Maps so we can
print out walking lists, with maps.
I haven't used it yet, but looking
forward to finding out all it can
do.
