The Shelby American Collection

   The Shelby American Collection is a non-profit historical museum run by volunteers (read: rabid aficionados) that celebrates American automotive engineer, designer, driver and visionary Carroll Shelby and his entire team of fellow engineers, fabricators and drivers who conceived of, constructed and raced the legendary AC Cobras and helped develop the Ford GT / GT40 series of race cars in the 1960's, the story of which is now widely known outside racing circles courtesy of the recent movie Ford v Ferrari.

   The museum's focus is primarily the late 1950's/early '60's Shelby AC Cobra years, and the 1960's Ford GT and Mustang years. You're going to have to go to another museum if you're interested in the Shelby Dodge or Oldsmobile years.

   This small museum in Boulder, Colorado is another one of those little gems tucked away in a small office park, quite off the beaten path but well-worth looking for. The only catch is the very limited days and times the museum is open.

   Saturdays, 10:00 to 4:00. That's it. Admission is five bucks, kids 12 and under are free.

   Pack up the entire family and spend a Saturday afternoon basking in the glow of a singularly remarkable automotive genius, you will not regret a single second of it.

The Man With The Lop-Sided Head

   There once was a man with a lop-sided head. It wasn't a dramatically lop-sided head - in fact, it was extremely difficult for most people to notice the lop-sidedness of his head - if the features of his head that he thought were lop-sided were not clearly pointed out, most people just looked at him - his head, his face, and just saw an ordinary head (& face).

   But an ordinary head (& face) was not what the man with the lop-sided head saw when he stared into a mirror.

   What he saw every time he looked in a mirror was every single feature of his head (& face) drifting ever-so-slightly down to his left.

   And it made him both sad and angry.

  Every morning after he shaved, the man with the lop-sided head (an appellation he gave himself, for, as mentioned earlier, no one else, not even his mother or father, had ever taken note of the features he considered lop-sided) would push the left side of his face up in an effort to correct the lop-sidedness he gazed upon.

   Of course, the lop-sided features he saw would return immediately after he took his hand away, which frustrated him each and every time. 

   His self-loathing grew to the point where he became a hermit, hiding himself away from what he assumed would be the judgmental eyes of the world. To keep himself fit, however, the man with the lop-sided head took walks around a large park in the evening, when there was less chance of anyone having to look upon his lop-sided head.

   On one such walk, when the moon was full and the usual cloud cover in the area was absent, he chanced upon a man walking towards him. The man was wearing a hat pulled low to shield his face, but even with the hat obscuring the approaching man's features, the man with the lop-sided head could see that the features of the man's face were perfectly symmetrical. 

   It was, remarked the man with the lop-sided head to himself, an incredible face, absolutely flawless. 

   As luck would have it, the man with the absolutely flawless face noticed the extremely faint lop-sidedness of the man with the lop-sided head's face, and it nearly stopped him in his tracks.

   As it was, he slowed his stride considerably, as did the man with the lop-sided head. They approached one another as if in slow motion, neither one of them able to take their respective eyes off the extraordinary unique features of the other.

  Just as they were about to pass each other, they both suddenly stopped. The bright moonlight cast a pale yellow hue on their countenances, and they stared at each others faces as if reading a faint treasure map.

   After a few minutes they simultaneously cleared their throats and almost in harmony they both said, "Wow, you have a most incredible face!"

   Then silence. Each seemed to suddenly become embarrassed.

    Finally, the man with the absolutely flawless face spoke. "All my life I have despised the fact that my face was without flaws, and thus without character, and tonight I have had the good fortune to have chanced meeting you, a man with such slight lop-sided features your face has been graced with character beyond the pale!"

   The man with with the lop-sided head became momentarily slack-jawed before recovering his composure and replying. "Most extraordinary! I too have spent my life despising my face, specifically because it is not what yours is, flawless and perfectly symmetrical!"

   They both then burst out laughing. Hysterically, like madmen in the throes of serious delirium, they laughed. 

   They laughed loudly, clutching each other for support as the convulsive laughing racked their bodies. They laughter disturbed the entire neighborhood, which prompted some of their neighbors to contact the authorities, who soon arrived with a cadre of large men in stark white uniforms.

   The cadre of men in stark white uniforms grabbed each of the now hysterically laughing men, put each of them of them in jackets that featured extra long sleeves that wrapped their arms around them front to back, and took them away to what is known as a "happy home."

   Which is where the man with the lop-sided head and the man with the perfectly symmetrical face reside to this day, laughing their heads off each and every time they see one another on their daily walks in the yard.

   

Less Jake, More Cowbell

 

Yolanda & The Drummer

 Yolanda had the drummers name 

Tattoo'd on the inside of her thigh

Where he'd signed it the night

They got so incredibly high

And she wound up hospitalized

The Cussler Museum (Of Rare & Classic Automobiles)

   American Author & Undersea Adventurer Clive Cussler (1931 - 2020), familiar to many for a series of Techno-Thrillers featuring the character Dirk Pitt, left a legacy of not only eighty terrific novels and sixty or so recovered shipwrecks, but also a fantastic collection of fully restored classic automobiles.

   Some of these classic automobiles were featured in his literary works, and some were just incredible works of automotive art and craftsmanship that he (and his family & friends) passionately believed were worth preservation. 

   The collection is housed in quite possibly the most non-descript building imaginable for such an incredible collection, off Indiana & 69th in west Arvada.

   If you are automobile buff there is little doubt in my mind that you are aware of this wonderful place and duly appreciate it. If you are not an automobile buff you might want to skedaddle on over for a visit as it will alter your perception of what can be considered sculptural art. 

                   As evidenced by the sign, only two more days this year to visit the museum

                                    One of 815 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz manufactured in 1958

    1952 Meteor custom sportscar built by Dick Jones. Mr. Jones built 25 of these between 1952 - 1962

                             1960 Chrysler Imperial Crown Convertible Bombsight Tail light

                                         1932 Auburn V-12 Boattail Hood Ornament 

 

The Jefferson County Beltway

   The sign above was put up 15 or so years ago. The only construction undertaken has been the development of several subdivisions and strip malls. 

   The same old trail that eventually became a two lane highway (created when the area was still known as Ralston's Creek or Ralston's Crossing, before it's current name of Arvada was settled on) is primarily how people still travel north or south

   Not too far from the former site of the Rocky Flat's Nuclear Weapons Plant - as in, you could throw a rock in any direction and it would most likely land within the site. 

   Can you say Plutonium Hexafluoride?

A Sad Day In Denver Sports Talk Radio

   Yeah, yeah, it's only talk radio, and worse yet, it's only sports talk radio, but dangnabbit, the Drive with Darren Mckee (aka DMac) as the primary host (he's had a few different cohosts over the years) has been canceled, to be replaced by the Drive with Phillip Lindsay and Zach Bye. 

   Which, no offense to Mr Lindsay and Mr Bye, is just not going to cut it for me. I've listened to both of them (well, only a few interviews with Phillip Lindsay, but quite a bit of Zach when he was paired with Brandon Stokely) and I guess I'm just not their demographic - too much about gambling on sports and not enough about what makes sports entertaining.

   DMac was a bastion of irreverence without indifference on the sports talk airwaves for over twenty years, and though the opinions and views of sports talk show hosts doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the long (or short) run, DMac's opinions were at least thought-provoking and entertaining.

   On top of DMac being let go by the station, so were former NFLers Orlando Franklin, Nate Jackson, and Chad Brown - all of whom were always interesting and insightful with their commentary.

  Hell, Nate Jackson and Chad Brown were probably the two smartest talk show hosts on the station - not just football smart or sports-in-general smart like most sports talk show hosts, but smart smart. They made driving around in the van during the late morning hours almost like being in on round-table discussions at a think-tank staffed by thinkers who also happened to play football.

   Now I'm probably going to have to go back to listening to classic rock stations like all the other cranky old dudes.  

But Of Course You Want To Give Up

Of course you want to give up

Hell, to thine own self be true

No one's going to think less of your efforts

Then they already do

Much, much easier to give up

Than to fight your way through

Those obstacles getting thrown in the way

Your so-called friends tell you to push through

They don't know about real pain and suffering

Those are emotions exclusive to you

Yell and scream, wail and punch

Beat yourself up until you're black and blue

Much, much easier to give up

Than to fight your way through

The Afterwards

 As we had to make another trip north it was decided to drive through Boulder and tour the area around CU to see if there had been any ill-effects of the celebration of the CU Buff's 2-overtime victory over the CU Rams.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that there were no overturned police cars or the like - in fact, the area in and around CU looked pretty much exactly like what it looks like on an average Sunday morning when a semester is in session.

Here are a few pics from the immediate vicinity of CU:

Since the CSU campus is only a mere 41 miles up the road, in the interest of complete disclosure we checked the area in the immediate vicinity of CSU for any negative results of the CSU loss.

Here are a few of the pics taken of that area:

    

   Nothing much there either.

A Tale Of Two (Relatively Small) Cities

   College football fans were sure to be out in force to support both the CU Buffs and the CSU Rams for todays 92nd edition of the Rocky Mountain Showdown (according to every sports program on the radio, television, and internet), so we headed out with camera at the ready to get a gander of the various tailgate parties that got underway early this fine Saturday.

   Our first stop took us to Boulder, were we saw Buffs fans gathered in the hundreds if not thousands to show massive team spirit and school pride.

 

   Couldn't find any CSU fans tailgating in Boulder, probably a bit to early for 'em, so we headed up to Fort Collins, a mere 41 miles north up I-25. I somewhat expected to see a caravan of CSU fans driving down in the southbound lanes, vehicles bedecked in CSU Ram flags and banners, but I did not.

   However, we did find CSU fans tailgating when we arrived at the CSU campus, showing as much team spirit and school pride as the CU crews did

   Uhm...that was it, right there, all the tailgating we could find. 

   There were, however, a lot of people enjoying the CSU flower garden.

The Dutch Girl Reflects

Thoughts of the British guy who committed suicide

Still keep her up late at night

If only she had known he felt totally alone

She wouldn't have slammed the door on him after the fight

The Short Conversation At Willy's Long Bar

   She sat down in the barstool next to me and proceeded to pull up an app on her phone.

   Her perfume was strong, but pleasant. A floral scent, with some other aroma underlying - possibly vanilla.

   She looked over at me and smiled. Her face was made up to the degree that I wondered to myself what she really looked like under the mask.

   Without hesitation she stated, "Buy a girl a drink?"

   Catching Willy's eye I gestured him to come over. "Hey Willy, put a drink for the beautiful lady here on my tab." She looked up at Willy and requested a Cosmo, no garnish. Then she tapped a few times on her screen, closed the app and placed her phone on the bar in front of her.

   Turning on her barstool, she looked at me in a fairly welcoming manner and said, "I'm a sex-worker, so if you're looking for company tonight we can cut right to the chase."

   Smiling the stupid smile I reserve for moments when I know I'm going to say something stupid, I replied as dead serious as I could, "You're a sex-worker? That's a wild coincidence. So am I."

   Recoiling just slightly, she gave me a quick once over from head to toe. "You're a sex-worker? That's a new one. How long have you been a sex-worker?"

   "Pretty much my entire adult life and even the last couple of my teen years. Seriously, every single time I wanted sex, I pretty much had to work for it."

   She did not appreciate the joke.

   

    

The Calm Before The Media Storm

  

The CU Buffs football team were 1-11 last year. So the house was cleaned out and a new coach was brought in, who cleaned out the house to an even greater degree.

That coach was NFL Hall of Famer Deion "Prime-Time" Sanders, who was hired 10 months ago with the promise that he was going to shake things up.

Like an earthquake, he did.

This Saturday the CU Buffs play the CSU Rams at Folsom Field in Boulder. This annual game, known as the Rocky Mountain Showdown, has never been much of a National draw. 

Until now. This Saturday will mark the 92nd meeting between the CU Buffs and the CSU Rams, and it appears that the game, courtesy of Coach Prime's elevation of the CU program, is now the hot sports issue du jour.

It certainly is the biggest sports issue in these parts, outdoing even the hallowed Broncos for print, radio, and television coverage.

Saturday should be a very exciting day in Boulder.

Here's a few pics of the before.

                                                                        TLDR: Behave

The Game is sold out...and tickets on the secondary markets are going for over $500.00, the highest priced tickets for a college football game in the nation.

The average price for a ticket to a CU football game last year: $5.00