Last evening we had a great family night at the theater with Bryn, Joel and Charlie (although we missed having Erin and John with us.) The Lion King first opened on Broadway nearly thirty years ago, but this was the first time seeing the show for all of us. Although reviews varied amongst the five of us, we all could agree that the production, costumes, and especially the puppetry were great.
Of course, the best thing was that we could all be together as a family. We are just a block away from the Denver Center for the Performing Arts, so getting to the show is just a matter of a five minute walk, and we try to go as often as we can.
Being adults of a certain age, we are eligible for discounted rush tickets which go on sale an hour before curtain time. If the show is popular, it is sometimes hard to score a ticket, but more often than not, we manage to get tickets and often in a great seat. Last night was fortunately one of those times when we were able to get both tickets and choice seats!. We were seated on the aisle in the 11th and 12th rows, so when the parade of animals started coming down the aisle we were surprised and delighted.
Sue and I so enjoyed having this opportunity to spend time with Bryn, Joel, and Charlie. With work and school and crowded calendars, these opportunities are too rare, so we treasure them.
From this week on, the White House will no longer be the People’s House. It’s now Trump’s Palace, complete with a Ball Room that will be twice the size of the White House itself. The following two photos from the New York Times, provide a good perspective of what’s happening.
Current White HouseWhite House dwarfed by proposed Trump Ballroom
Even though the project has not been approved, demolition of the East Wing of the White House began, even though the president said that any construction for the Ballroom would not affect the East Wing and there would be no demolition.
Department of the Treasury employees, who work next door to the White House and have a clear picture of what’s happening there, were forbidden from sharing any photos of the destruction. A strange reaction from an Administration that says it is proud of this project.
Demolition of the East Wing of the White House
Do you think that Trump will pay for this desecration with the $230 million he is claiming that the Justice Department owes him for indicting him for stealing and hiding top secret documents?
While this is going on, millions of Federal workers are either furloughed or being made to work without pay. In addition, millions of lower income folks will be seeing their health insurance costs more than double or lose it all together. Meanwhile we are engaged in an illegal undeclared war in the Caribbean, while the feckless Congress continues to do nothing about any of this.
It was a glorious day to be an American; Sue and I joined thousands of others patriots here in Denver yesterday. We were united in our love of our country and concern that the democracy we as Americans have longed cherished is under threat.
Fortunately, anger, though, was not the primary emotion–I think you would have to describe the feeling of the crowd as one of joy at being alive and being able to voice our dissent.
Gathering at the Capitol
We gathered at the Capitol Building in the center of Denver; Sue and I arrived there just before 12:00. There were already a lot of people about, but by the time that the march stepped off at 1:00, there were some 25 to 30 thousand people, according to the police who are used to counting such crowds.
The crowd around us as we marched
We marched down 15th street, which runs right in front of Brooks, our condo building. When we finally got to Brooks, after a few rest stops, we stood and cheered on as the demonstrators streamed on by. The last of whom passed by about 2:45. The end of the march seemed as excited and exhilarated as those who led off the march.
There was a lot of whimsy and playfulness among the crowd. Throughout the day we marveled at the cleverness of the posters and the hilarity of the costumes and slogans.
We loved the clever posters and the costumes. We were pretty tired by the time we got back home, but what a wonderful and exhilarating day!
Santa stood in front of our building, reminding everyone of who is on the naughty list!
Sue and I are hoping to make it to the No Kings rally here in Denver, this Saturday, October 18th. How about you?
Every day brings fresh reminders of why this is necessary.
Armed and masked paramilitary troops are patrolling our cities–indiscriminately arresting men, women, and children, be they citizens or not, but almost certainly being people of color. But be assured, it won’t stop with them, it will soon be anyone who disagrees with them. Just look at Jim Comey and Letitia James. All of our civil liberties are at stake.
Transforming the Justice Department to his own private law firm to protect Trump and his cronies and weaponizing it to prosecute his so called enemies.
This administration is waging war on science and health; people will die needlessly from preventable diseases. Children especially are at risk; come on folks; protect your babies!
Trump and his henchmen are eviscerating our Federal Civil Service for no reason except it threatens to thwart his plans to destroy American Democracy. I was a career civil servant; the vast majority of people I worked with were conscientious and hardworking, and believed that they were working for the good of the American people. We all depend on the civli service to protect our clean air and water; provide housing assistance; protect our public health; manage Medicare and Medicaid; collect taxes fairly, and do thousands of other things that make our society just, healthy and fair.
Our National Parks don’t have the staff to serve the millions of people who visit them every year or, more importantly, to take care of these national treasures. Our national monuments and forests are being auctioned off to the highest bidders.
How much longer can the overworked and understaffed air traffic controllers work before our skies become unsafe?
We all depend on the National Weather Service–so many of us are just one weather disaster away from ruin. When that disaster strikes, FEMA will no longer be there to help, so why are we cutting these vital services while our environment becomes more unstable and unpredictable?
Handing our energy future over to the Chinese; now that’s smart. Green energy is not a scam, but vital to the survival of our planet. Denying that climate change and global warming are happening while giving the fossil fuel industry carte blanche is duplicitous madness and will harm us and our children and grandchildren.
Graft, dishonesty and lying are emblematic of this White House. This president is enriching his family to the tune of billions of dollars while stealing from the American public. Giving tax breaks to the very rich while making medical insurance unaffordable once again for millions of Americans is wrongheaded.
Attacking the finest system of higher education in the world while willy nilly canceling essential scientific and medical research funding makes no sense. This weakens our universities and colleges and threatens the future of all Americans. Turning away the finest minds from around the world, only forces them into the arms of our enemies.
Cozying up to dictators and strong men, like Vladimir Putin and Victor Orban is anathema to our American ethos. Brokering a peace deal in Gaza, while leaving Ukraine vulnerable to Russia’s ongoing unjust war doesn’t make any sense. Ukraine is literally fighting for our freedom, not just theirs. Stiff arming our allies and coddling our opponents is undoing the alliances that have protected this world for the last eighty years.
Imposing illegal and foolish tariffs on a whim, saddling the average American with unwarranted taxes and weakening our economy is undermining our future.
Finally and most egregiously, this president is ignoring all democratic norms and trying to impose an Imperial Presidency. His lackeys in Congress and the Supreme Court do nothing to stop him and seem to support all of his unjust and illegal power grabs. The Founding Fathers created a system of checks and balances, but they are no longer working.
If we don’t stop Trump now, our American Democracy is in peril.
Summer is in the rear mirror; and winter is ahead, but in the meanwhile, we have the beauty of Autumn in the Rockies.
Scenes from Kenosha Pass
Since moving to Colorado, we have come to look forward to “Aspen Season.” Unlike back east when fall seems to linger for many weeks, your opportunity for viewing the glory that our golden Aspens provide is quite fleeting…usually lasting only a couple of weeks, before a wind & rain storm or even an early snow ends their beautiful display.
This year was no exception with snow, wind and rain playing havoc, but still what a beautiful display. Fortunately, we had two opportunities to drive up into the mountains, only a short scenic hour’s trip. Even better, being retired, we can avoid making the trek on a weekend when the traffic can be horrendous and the crowds off-putting.
This season’s first trip was with Mart & Bob Larson and Martha Birney, two Mondays ago. This is an ongoing tradition for our small group. iPhone photos can’t do justice to the beauty of the scene. The aspens leaves sparkle in the sun and whistle with every breeze; you have to be there to understand and appreciate the experience.
Fall in the Rockies
The second foray was with our neighbors, Reid, Ping & Emma Hawk. For Emma, who is ten and in the fifth grade, it was her first time! She liked the aspens, but perhaps even more enjoyed playing in someone’s abandoned teepee skeleton.
Ping, Emma & Reid
Both trips were very successful and delightful; it makes one feel more alive being out in the fresh air and admiring Nature’s handiwork. Whenever we drive up to Kenosha Pass, we always make sure to stop at The Shaggy Sheep Restaurant, usually for breakfast. If you find yourself there, make sure you order the jalapeño and cheese biscuits with gravy–oh my!
Finally, as some of you might know, this past week, Sue celebrated her 81st Birthday; she has long been superstitious about this birthday (her mother died a month before her 81st birthday), so it was good to get this one behind us! I
It was made even better because on her actual birthday, Charlie & best friend and honorary grandson, Dylan, were able to join us for a dinner that featured Sue’s favorite food, oysters on the half shell. Charlie says he enjoys eating a couple, but still prefers them to be fried. Dylan thought one was enough thank you.
When we got home that evening, Erin’s flowers were waiting for her; Erin & John are sill in Cuba and will be until next summer. Bryn & Joel couldn’t be with us for the birthday dinner, but they made up for it by taking us to their favorite neighborhood diner, Looking Good, making it nearly a week of celebrations!
Margaret Renkl is one of my favorite writers. She lives in Nashville, TN and often writes about her hometown in both observations about what’s happening in her backyard as well as local and state politics. I am most familiar with her opinion pieces that appear regularly in the New York Times, but I have just started listening to an audio recording of her book, A Crowd of Crows, which has been described as “a literary devotional: fifty-two chapters that follow the creatures and plants in her backyard over the course of a year.” I highly recommend the book and following her in the NYT as well.
Today’s opinion piece, entitled “How to Count Butterflies” describes in Renkl’s gentle prose her joy in walking in her fall garden and seeing the butterflies who are to be found feasting upon the various native plants she has carefully chosen to propagate to encourage butterflies and other beneficial insects to stay and hopefully reproduce.
Most of us can recognize monarch feasting on native milkweed as seen in the photo below.
Butterflies, like so much of our native insects, are in a precipitous decline, due to lose of habitat and global warming. I am a terrible observer of what’s going on about me, but even I can remember times past when there were a lot more insects and butterflies buzzing or flitting around us, but Renkl, a careful observer and documentarian, is a much more reliant narrator.
Zebra SwallowtailPainted Lady Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
She closed today’s piece with the following: “Like so much of the still-living world, the butterflies in my pollinator garden are a reminder of what I most need to remember. That we must find some way to keep faith in the future. That we must find some way to save them.” And I might add, ourselves.
We can’t give up hope, but we must do all that we can to save and protect our natural world.
A friend recently wrote a blog in which she mentioned Chef José Andrés of the World Central Kitchen saying that he was always “looking for the helpers.” What a good admonishment for all of us. I have admired Chef Andres for a number of years, especially since his work in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria and more recently in Gaza. Fortunately there are helpers everywhere you look.
Last Friday we attended a gala fund raiser or Lotería for Focus Points Family Resource Center, a local non profit here in Denver, that provides community support and outreach. The organization certainly meets my criteria for “helpers.” Their motto is “Building better communities by strengthening families.”
Lotería is similar to bingo, but uses pictures of familiar objects on its playing card. We didn’t win anything but had fun playing, knowing the proceeds were going to helping the community
Until Bryn started working for the organization last November, we were unaware of the organization and the wonderful work that it does, but attending the Lotería we learned so much more about their mission. Our friends, Mart & Bob Larson came along with us, and Bryn acted as our host. What a fun evening in support of a good cause.
We are proud and delighted that Bryn is now associated with this extraordinary organization and attending their Lotería annual fund raising gave us an excellent opportunity to learn more about all of the services that Focus Points provides. Bryn serves as their financial controller, a daunting task given the challenges currently facing organizations like hers that serve immigrant and diverse communities.
Focus Points is a strong and vital organization and has been around for thirty years. They have developed a multi-pronged program focusing on family support, community development, education for both children and adults, financial literacy, job training, creating opportunities for new entrepreneurs and small local businesses, and urban farming.
Like most non-profit organizations, Focus Points depends on community support, volunteers, donations, and grants. Until this year, this formula meant that the organization could grow and enhance its outreach.
Unfortunately, this year federal grants for cultural enrichment and services, especially to new immigrants, have been slashed. As a result, Focus Points has lost a half million dollar federal grant and will have to discontinue its Wildflower School, an English as a Second Language learning center, that has operated for the last fifteen years.
Eight experienced language teachers will lose their jobs, and hundreds of children and adults will lose access to skills helping them integrate into American society, do well in school, or find meaningful work. Bryn and her colleagues are devastated, as you can imagine, and we were appalled to hear this news. All the teachers were at the event and everyone tried to put a good face on a bad situation, but it is a blow to the organization and the entire community.
Enjoying some time with BrynDancing to the fantastic Latin bandBryn and a good colleague Bryn & her Mom
We hope to do more with Focus Points in the coming months as Bryn tells us that there are always volunteer opportunities. Denver cannot afford to lose Focus Points and the valued “helpers” who make up the Organization. Perhaps we can help in some small way to make sure that Focus Points is around for another 30 years.
I made a quick trip to Western North Carolina to join more than 50 friends and family at the 2025 Mackey Reunion. (Unfortunately, Sue, still recovering from Covid, couldn’t accompany me.)
The Mackeys first came to Weaverville, Buncombe Country, North Carolina early in the 19th century and settled in the northern part of the county in and around Weaverville. Our branch of the Mackey family has been gathering for nearly 50 years, starting when my “Granny Mackey” was still alive and reigned as the matriarch of the Mackey Clan.
I think Granny would be delighted and happy to know that so many of her progeny showed up–this was the best turnout in years. She and my grandfather had eleven children, six girls and five boys, over the course of twenty years. There were forty in my generation of cousins, and I don’t know how many great grandchildren and great great grandchildren there are now.
Austin & Eujena Mackey
Weaverville, NC is situated in the rolling hills of North Buncombe, CO; in my opinion some of the prettiest country around, though it is just now recovering from the devastation of Hurricane Helene which wreaked havoc in the area, not quite a a year ago now in September 2024.
My cousin Paul kindly drove me all over the countryside to show me the damage that had been done by the storm. Many people, although fortunately no one in the immediate family, are still waiting to receive the assistance they need to rebuild and restart their lives.
On a ridge above Weaverville & Reems Creek Valley Siblings Bobby & Paul Clauhs
My mother, Carlie (now 97) and two sisters, Isabel (99) and Marie (88), are the only ones of the children still with us. Mom and Aunt Marie attended the reunion, along with much of their extended families.
This year all of my siblings planned to attend, but my sister, Glenda, who was to chauffeur Mom, was laid low with a severe sinus infection, leaving her with fatigue and vertigo. My brother Dale & his wife Carrie brought Mom instead, and my sister Sandy & her daughter Sarah took her home. My nephew Glenn and his wife, Garland, and their two children, Art & Harvey came on their own. They have been some of the most consisten attendees at past reunions. Mom was in 7th Heaven and it was great fun for us all, but we missed not having Glenda with us.
The Clauhs children, Freddy, Paul, Bobby, Laurie & Margaret, really have played a vital role in keeping the reunion going these last few years. I can’t thank them enough for their thoughtfulness and hard work in providing this wonderful opportunity for all of us Mackey Descendents.
Carlie and Family Aunt Marie & Uncle Fred and their children
Aunt Bell who will turn 99 on September 28th was not able to attend, but some of us visited with her after the reunion. She now lives in a care facility and doesn’t get out much, but she remains a feisty and an entertaining conversationalist and raconteur.
She had us laughing and hanging on her stories throughout our visit–despite her hearing problems. We reluctantly had to leave after more than an hour visiting. I am just astounded by her mental acuity and cheerfulness. I have to ask myself that if I live so long, will I be as alert and sociable?
Aunt Bell & CarlieAunt Bell with me andmy cousin, Bobby Clauhs Carlie, me and a young cousin Aunt Marie & Cousin Janet (like me attending after a long absence)Bobby & Patty ClauhsJohn & Peggy Hensley (cousins) and me My brother Dale and his wife Carrie Cousins Regina & Janet and niece, Sarah Cousins Dewain & Bobby
It would not have been easy for me to attend the reunion without my cousin, Tracie Mackey & her husband, Jimmy Emory, who picked me up at the Asheville airport; Aunt Marie & Uncle Fred, who hosted me Friday evening and provided a scrumptious southern supper of ham, green beans, creamed corn & potato salad, all lovingly made by Aunt Marie; and Patty & Bobby Clauhs who hosted me Saturday evening at their mountain cabin, fed me & then carried me back to the airport on Sunday morning. Bobby and I stayed up after Patty went to bed, sitting around a campfire Saturday night, talking, catching up, and recalling family stories until a passing rain storm finally drove us in.
Thanks to all of you!
It was a very short, but action packed, visit. I loved the reunion and loved re-connecting with family, many of whom I had not seen for years & years. I especially liked seeing the youngest cousins.
Bethany Mackey (Dewain & Kathi’s daughter) and her family surrounding her Mom Kathi.
I haven’t mentioned everyone who came–I probably didn’t even talk to everyone who was there, but the experienced has warmed my heart beyond description.
Now that Charlie is a teenager, we often don’t see him as much as we would like, although during the school year, he would have us pick him and his buddy, Dylan, up after school at least once a week. Maybe it’s because we are always good for a fast food foray. They were almost always voracious and wanted to stop at Panera, McDonald’s, or their current favorite, Taco Bell, We don’t mind, as long as we can be along for the ride.
As many of you know, Charlie has been break dancing since he was about six; he is very diligent about it, attending class usually a couple of times a week and practicing at home. Just as school was letting out for the summer, he participated in a Cypher which we got to attend. We certainly think he was one of the best there; if you want to see Charlie dancing, click here: Charlie at a B Boy Cypher
Thanks to a friend of the family who does PR for a local TV channel, Charlie had the opportunity to visit a studio and make a short promo video for the summer movie release, Freakier Friday. We were his ride and got to watch the filming. The people at the channel could not have been more welcoming. Not sure Charlie has a TV career in his future, but everyone, including Charlie, had fun. Click Denver Freakier Friday for the video.
If it’s a board–snowboard, surfboard, or skateboard Charlie is game. This summer as in previous summers, Charlie got to fly to Florida to visit with his other grandparents, and once again go surfing in the Atlantic. Later that same visit, he and his Dad, did a skateboarding tour of Miami. What a lucky guy!
There’s always time for a getaway with his Mom as well, whether it’s a baseball game or a weekend in Glenwood Springs.
Any day spent with Charlie is a good day for his Oma and Opa. We can’t believe that he is 13 and has just started the 8th Grade…where has the time gone? Wasn’t it just last summer when we took him to Rocky Mountain National Park?
