The Colorado State Open Thread is for all those people interested in any or all of our squar(ish) state. We discuss politics, nature, community, events, sports, entertainment, news and whatever else is of interest. Please feel free to add your thoughts in the comment section or, if you dare, volunteer to write one of these diaries yourself. Ooh, scary! Well, not really.
I finally decided upon where I’d like to have the funeral service for my wife Deb. Some of you may have met her as she helped out with Crawfish boils and Kosack meetups in Morrison and at our Denver house. For those who may have missed the announcement, she passed away in mid-March of a heart attack. She was not as vocal a progressive as I am, but she did support the idea that people’s bodies are their own to control and manage. She was in favor of universal basic healthcare, including reproductive care for however people decided for themselves, and she was against all the gun violence that made Denver less and less desirable as a place to live. She was the inspiration for our moving to Estes Park, and while she is gone, she will forever be here in the form of her ashes.
The service will be at 10AM on July 24th at the Overlook Amphitheater at the top of the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. If you’d like to attend, please contact me or the YMCA for directions — there doesn’t appear to be a good map that I’ve found so far.
I know she wanted her ashes spread in Estes or Rocky Mountain National Parks. I am uncertain whether I should scatter her ashes or seal them in something because she was always quite upset at bugs and creepy-crawlies — the more legs, the more she hated them, and I would usually be the one to come get rid of them so she wouldn’t have to smush them. I also would have to clear away worms so things didn’t have to have legs — just anything on the ground, walls or ceilings were unwanted. If I seal the ashes in a jar, she won’t intermingle with the nasties, but she won’t truly be scattered. I think I asked her about that part of her wishes, but I can’t remember the exact answer. I think she said she wouldn’t care by that point, but I don’t want her to be upset in her final resting place. No, she didn’t leave final instructions written down anywhere.
I think the Overlook amphitheater will be a very nice place for people to come pay their final respects. She loved Estes Park for many years prior to our moving up here and she was very happy to be able to move up here and have a large house with the view over the National Park that we have. That she had. I still use the plural, and will likely continue doing so for a long time. At this time, I’m still planning on remaining in Estes Park because I love the view, I have many friends, I live right on the border of the park so I can wander into it any time I wish, I’m close to Denver, a major metropolitan area, as well as multiple smaller, yet substantial cities in Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Boulder and I have a role to play as Santa Claus for Estes Park. I don’t think I would have such an opportunity anywhere else.
In other Colorado news, the legislature had a rush on bills at the end of their session. Governor Polis got to sign some gun restriction bills (and was awarded a lawsuit by the Rocky Mountain Gun Owners before he even put his pen down). One that might have slipped beneath your radar was his signing a bill to help towns fight big telecom companies by being able to create their own service offerings — www.dailykos.com/…. Hopefully you’ll have high speed access coming soon.
There is more on Colorado Politics.com —
- The House gave final approval to a bill to set aside a portion of TABOR refunds for property tax relief, as well as a last-minute measure that would equalize the refund amount each Coloradan would get.
- Colorado is the No. 1 state in the nation for auto thefts. On Saturday, state lawmakers passed a bill they hope would help change that… If enacted, Senate Bill 97 would remove the value-based system and make all auto thefts felonies.
-
Indecent exposure is the only child sex crime in Colorado classified as a misdemeanor, instead of a felony. But that will soon change if Gov. Jared Polis signs a new bill into law.
House Bill 1135 would make it a felony crime if a person over the age of 18 exposes or touches their genitals for sexual gratification while they know they are in the view of a person under the age of 15. Under current law, an offender must commit indecent exposure three times before they are charged with a class 6 felony.
- Under House Bill 1120, mediation would involve a landlord and tenant meeting together with a neutral third party to discuss a voluntary settlement in lieu of an eviction. If an eviction is ordered, the bill would give tenants 30 days to leave the property, instead of the current 10 days.
Please let us know what is on your mind this evening. The floor is yours…