People gathered at the most scenic square in Frankfurt for a Catholic service this morning.



The view from my "kitchen" window.

Okay, I know the blog name is luke in Colorado, but I didn't feel like setting up a new blog just for my time in Frankfurt. All is going well here, I live in a nice, but spartan place near the German stock exchange. It is a nice part of Frankfurt to be in. I have gotten as settled as I can for the moment. Today is a public holiday so only cafes are open for business. I was going to get some things that I need for my apartment, but that is going to have to wait for another day. Work is going well. Things are a little slow there right now as I think alot of people are away on business and will be back on Monday. I think I will like it and it is very interesting. I bought a cooler to keep my milk and cheese and stuff in, so that was very necessary. Food at the grocery store is very very cheap here, so that is wonderful. This weekend I will go to Munich and hopefully get a bike and a hotplate to cook on. This will improve my life greatly. I am tired of instant noodles. The weather is warm and humid here. Yesterday I finally got my visa. It was a crazy affair where Carola and I ended up running throught the streets of Frankfurt trying to find the American consulate (after being mistankenly told to go to the Mexican consulate) P.S. if you ever get lost in Frankfurt the Mexicans are very helpful about it. Well, I can say that the smoothies are good and the beer is better here. Allthough a word of caution to those who would consider starting a war out of some egoism of the nation: Frankfurt used to be a beautiful city, but in the rushed reconstruction that took place in the 1950s, there are still some huge scars of ugliness on this city.



My refridgerator.

Over spring break I went with Carola to visit Tim in St Louis. We had a good time. More posts to come. I am back!

Today I went up to Loveland and saw my cousin Carson play football. It was an extremely windy day, so I did not watch all of the game, but I did get to see most of it. The team is looking quite good, and I look forward to seeing other games this fall. It was very nice to see relatives again. I hope to get out to Julesburg to watch a game. It would be exciting to see on on home turf.

We have snow!! We awoke the other day to the first major snow up on Pikes Peak. What a great sight! Autumn is coming!

In other news, I have started graduate school at the University of Denver. I am very excited about starting, but there are a couple of wrinkles that need to be ironed out before I really feel like I am there. First, I have come to the conclusion that commuting up to Denver everyday is a bad idea. Well, it is not a bad idea, per se, but there are many better reasons to live close to DU. I think once I get settled near DU I will feel much more like I am at school. Tomorrow morning I go and look at a house to live in. The lady who is renting it out is the owner occupier, and this I like. It sounds like a comfortable, relatively close place to live.

The second wrinkle is the rain. We have had a spate of rain lately, and only today did we get the final coat of paint on the deck. The deck will be done soon and then I will post heaps of photos of the finished product.

Tomorrow I will go and watch my cousin play American Football. I am excited to see this. I can't wait. I will have some photos to upload tomorrow hopefully.

Oh! last weekend we had a hot air balloon event in town, and a hot air ballon came near our house.

This morning I awoke to a nearby rock formation, The Garden of the Gods, bathed in early morning sunlight. It was a very nice way to start the day, and as I said earlier, it is one of the things I like best about Colorado. I just wish I had been closer, in order to get a more detailed photo.


Once I got to work, we had some bagels, and then it was time to unload a flatbed truck. The truck was loaded with steel that will be used to build a huge lean-to shed in the back of the shop. It took a lot of concentration to get everything off safely. It was nice to do some work that didn't have anything to do with pipes or a deck.

After that, Bob and I went around campus to check things out. It turned out that one of our irrigation clocks had stopped working. We had to get into the German House in order to fix it. Inside the German House I saw all these old movie posters in German. I figured that maybe some German-type people would be looking at my bloc, so I decided to include a photo of it for all of you.













After that, Bob and I went to my irrigation system on the west side of Slocum Commons. They have recently laid sod down upon the earth there, and so we went to check and see that everything was getting wet. It was.



For those of you who have been reading this bloc earlier, you know by now that we have undertaken a major deck restoration project. Tonight we entered a new phase. Replacing the trek Decking back on the stringers. It is nice to see part of the deck take shape again.

My friend Tim was heading down Interstate Highway 80 the other day. He was on his way to architecture school in St Louis. He called me and asked if I could meet him in Cheyenne Wyoming for the day. So, I took a day off of work and headed north. I took along our mutual friend, Miss Holly, for some company on the ride. It was a pleasant drive up, and it was very nice to see Tim. We sat by a lake with ducks floating by when the wind changed directions. A foul odor came wafting by. Tim noticed the smell first and commented on it. Miss Holly said, "There is a factory over in that direction." Tim responded, "What do they produce, stink?" Miss Holly smiled wryly, "Actually, Tim, they produce the odorous chemical that is used to make natural gas have a distinct smell. So they indeed did produce stink. But that was the only unpleasant moment over the next two days. We had a wonderful time together talking about old times and old friends.


Holly's parents live in Cheyenne, and I used to live in Cheyenne as well. So, I had to stop by my old house and see how it is doing. It is fine. But back then I was half the size I am now and everything seemed twice as big to me then. It felt as if I was in a miniature world. A very strange feeling. But I think the house has held up quite well, which is nice to see.


Miss Holly and I headed back through Denver on the way to Colorado Springs. I stopped at Denver University to ask some questions of the Financial Aid office. It was nice to see the campus again.


Oh Dad and I had some success last weekend getting the deck primed and painted. Very good news indeed. We spent quite a bit of time tonight putting the decking back on.

Well, as I said earlier, the deck is progressing despite the rain. Above is a before and after picture showing how it looks now that it has a good coat of primer on it.

Well, I can't say that much has been happening here. The summer drags on. I go to work at Colorado College, and come home and help Dad work on the deck. The deck is turning into a huge project. We seem to just use more and more putty, primer, and wood preservative. But today we finished priming the entire south side of the deck. Now a cold front has come through and the thunderstorm are firing up and bringing some cool air and rain. The rain is much needed, but it limits the time we are able to work on the deck.


I finished putting in my irrigation system on the west side of Slocum Commons on the CC campus. I think the system turned out quite well and it gets everything uniformly wet, which I guess is the point. It is nice to work outside and I enjoy it, but I look forward to school starting August 30th.





Just after lunch the other day we saw a butterfly feeding on all the flowers near our grounds shop. I took some photos of it. I think this one is particularly beautiful. Nothing much in the way of news. I have started reading a book on the history of finance and democracy. I find it very interesting, and it is good to get my mind on the subject for graduate school.

Well, it didn’t work out to live and work in Münich this summer, so I am back in my native state of Colorado. I love the weather, the thunderstorms, and the views. These are some of the things that I deeply missed about Colorado while I was gone. I look forward to the autumn, it is my favourite season. I flew into Denver on the third of July, and went almost straight to work a couple days later. I now work for the Colorado College grounds crew. It hot and tiring work, but it is outside and that aspect I love. I also like that I know everyone there and the atmosphere is very comfortable. I’ve been installing sprinkler systems and doing various things related to the maintaince of the College’s irrigation system. It is a bit strange to be back on campus, and I feel much more like an outsider than I used to. But there are still some people hanging around that I know, so that is nice. I would like to say that I’ve been up to some exciting adventures since I have been back, but my days are fairly preditable and unlively. But this is a nice time. It is very nice to be able to spend so much time with my parents. I think that it will be hard to spend this much time with them in the future, so I am quite happy to just enjoy this time here in Colorado Springs.

I have decided to try and live in Colorado Springs and commute up to Denver University to go to gradutae school. This is a bit of logistical problem. I don’t want to drive because it is expensive and detrimental to my health. So, I think that I will take the front range express bus up to the Arapahoe park and ride. This bus is quite nice because they have a nice wireless internet connection on board. From the Arapahoe park and ride I will have to drive on in to DU. However, starting in December, there will be a light rail train that will take me directly from the park and ride into DU. I look forward to this time, and I think that it will make the journy bearable. I am not sure how long I will want to commute like this, but at least it will give me some time to look for a place to live, and take the pressure off finding a place in the summer rush. Maybe I can find a nice quiet little place for not much money. We will see. There is much that I just can’t know until I get up there and see how things work out.



Dad and I are spending quite a bit of time working on refurbishing the deck/verandah on the west side of the house. The beams that suport the decking has started to dry rot in places, and we need to get in there and mitigate that before it spreads and presents and structural hazard. This is one of those very necessary aspects of home ownership, but it is not sexy. When we get done the deck will largely look just as it always did.

Welcome to my new blog. I figured that I should start a blog that is specifically for the time that I will spend in Colorado over the next two years. I will start graduate school in the autumn and so I plan to spend a bit more time in Colorado. After that, who knows? But I will probably end this blog and start a new one then. Life has a way of showing us paths that we did not intend to walk, but that is part of the fun and adventure of it all. So, I hope this becomes a bit of a path of its own and perhaps it will allow others to walk with me for a while and see what I have seen. After all, what else are friends and family for, but to provide support, comfort and fun as we walk together down this road?