Click

The above clickbait photo and caption caught my eye. My first thought was that there is no state more landlocked than Colorado. Even if one gets into a boat on the mighty Colorado River you run out of water long before you reach the sea.

And then I thought:

• Being a senior-friendly cruise, will there be adequate Metamucil provided at the buffet? This could be a deal-breaker.
• How good, really, is the dolphin-watching in New Mexico?
• When the norovirus inevitably hits, will we be kept on the ship, or would we be issued one of those little camping trowels along with four squares of toilet paper and put over the side?

******

From The New Yorker

******

******

There has been talk for years about building, if not an exact replica, a new version of the ship Titanic. In the stratosphere where the rich and eccentric live, it actually might happen. It’s bit controversial, especially with those who lost relatives when the original went down.

Let’s say that a modern reimagining of what is maybe the most famous ocean liner of them all does make it to being tied up at a pier somewhere. Who will get on it? The only connections with the original are the name and in the mind of billionaire promoter Clive Palmer. For the sea-going traveler there might be the smallest bit of a frisson at they walked up the gangplank, but unless one is exceptionally weak-minded, that would be about it.

There would be no Rose and no Jack. Steerage would undoubtedly be cleaned up quite a lot from those old days when you jammed non-affluent people into very close contact with one another, and paid less attention than you should as to whether they actually had a lifeboat seat to count on if things went south.

******

******

More signage from El Arroyo

******

******

We were to have house guests this Easter. Amy and her family were to join us on Saturday, to return to Durango the following day. But weather has intervened. Just recently Robin was trapped for two extra days on a visit to Durango by snow in the mountains, and the reverse is exactly what threatened the Hurley family if they had followed through on the plan. So those plans have been scrapped.

The mountains are beautiful, often inspirational. Daily reminders of forces at work in Nature whose power we can barely imagine. Too big for my mind to really appreciate, no matter how much i might understand the science involved.

A crack in the earth appears, and one side of that gap raises up and slides over the other at a rate so slow that one human lifetime is not enough to track the progress without very sensitive instruments. But one day … voila! … the Rocky Mountains have risen. We come along and name them, and we use them as examples of solidity, changelessness. Which of course, they are not.

Before they were even fully formed they were already being worn away by wind and water. The Black Hills of South Dakota were once bigger than the Rockies, but now the tallest peak there is 7200 feet.Thinking about this whole process makes me feel … I don’t know … less of a big deal?

******