Saturday, January 2, 2016

Not Your Grandfather's Bluegrass




Hello 2016!  We went to an early party at a friend's house and then to see the Yonder Mountain String Band  at the Boulder Theater.  I had spotted an ad for the concert and thought it would be nice to hear a classic string band but we got something entirely different than what I expected.  

Think string band meets rock and rock wins.  Think a smallish theater in downtown Boulder with all the seats on the main floor removed and a young (twenties and thirties) crowd standing and dancing to the very loud music.  An older crowd (thirties to forties; what? no fifties to sixties?) observed the fun from seats in the balcony.  Throw in the pungent odor of weed (despite the managements' use of incense to cover it) and a lively bar and you have all the makings for an exciting New Year's event.  (I suppose the cannabis was being smoked with vaporizers since, thankfully, there was no smoke in the theater.)



We were surprised, especially at the strong smell of cannabis (isn't it illegal to use in a theater, or maybe that's not considered "public"?) but we enjoyed the music and the scene for an hour or so before heading out to ring in the new year in the peace and quiet of our home.  Ben was asleep before midnight but I watched the ball fall in Times Square before I realized that of course it wasn't live, having happened two hours earlier than my mountain midnight time.  Paul and I wished each other a Happy New Year and so 2016 began. 

The new year to me is always the time to clean up and declutter.  I tackled my computer yesterday, sorting through and reorganizing all the photos I took in 2015 and deleting tons of duplicate files.  I had already put away all the holiday gift wrap and recycled all the Amazon boxes.  Soon we'll tackle the holiday decorations.  We did get our little silver tree decorated and enjoyed its simplicity.  Fetcher has really enjoyed sitting under it.   



We had a week of cold weather with the daytime highs in the twenties which kept the pretty snow from melting.  We hiked several times on the snow packed trails in Chautauqua and on Flagstaff which was a cool experience.  In the shade it was quite cold but when you came out to where the sun was shining the white snow glistened  and was strikingly beautiful.    Here's a couple of photos from a hike we did on Thursday with our friends Paula and Kate and their Handsome Dog Gus.  



You have to be carefully not to start hiking too late in the day or you'll still be out when the sun starts its early descent behind the mountains.  The late afternoon skies are picturesque but you quickly feel the increasing cold.   After this hike I had to stand in a hot shower for twenty minutes before I was thawed out!




Today the weather has warmed up and a nice week of highs in the thirties and forties is predicted. That's a pretty good way to start the year.

2 comments:

  1. Happy New Year, Mary! Good on you for getting out there and hiking in the frigid air. Wowzer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Happy New Year, Mary, Ben, and Paul! (You are not wearing gloves out there!)

    ReplyDelete

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