a phoneless cord

Things move forward…

I just signed my Caprice over to Wolf and they just left to take it down to Denver. This takes care of two problems:

One, Lyon was recently involved in a car accident and totaled his bronco. He’s fine but the bronco is porked. So his insurance will pay off what he owes on the bronco and as the Caprice is paid for, that frees up some extra cash per month for them. This is a good thing to be sure.

The other thing this fixes is the fact that I no longer have to worry about the Caprice just sitting here rotting in the driveway or have to worry about all of the associated expenses that come with each car you own; namely tags, taxes, insurance, maintenance, and the zillion other things that go along with it.

So, that’s two less things to worry about just by signing a piece of paper. I like it.

Wolf and Lyon got here at about 10pm last night to pick up the car and as they were both exhausted, they spent the night here. We went over to Denny’s for dinner and here’s where things got surreal…

The local Denny’s here now has a fine dining section called “Denny’s Uptown” which serves amazingly good food with all of the presentation and texture one would expect from a place costing three times more to eat at. This section of the Denny’s was resplendent with white table clothes, candles, nice piano music in the background, indirect lighting, and expert service… But it was still *in* the Denny’s, they had just turned the “party section” into a fine dining establishment.

Wolf had a Tuscany salad that she says was extremely good right down to the caramelized walnuts. Lyon had a big t-bone that was prepared flawlessly and I had lemon-pepper chicken that was really quite amazing. The meals were complete with a large selection of excellent sides which for us were seasoned steamed veggies and mozzarella topped seasoned red potatoes in Lyons case and excellent garlic mashies in mine.

We really had to keep checking that we were still in a Denny’s during the meal and this is what made it very surreal; we were actually sitting in the back area of a Denny’s…

The price is nice too… We had eaten fare that was on par with places like The Broker or Black Angus, yet for the three of us, including deserts, it was a mere $41.

So there ya have it. Be sure to swing by the Denny’s in Avon on a week night (it’s right off the highway) and try out this new idea. Sam, the new manager there (and all around nice guy), has bet his job on “Denny’s Uptown” succeeding. I know the three of us sure hope it does.

Other than that it’s another weekend up here in the thin air. I meandered over to Glenwood Springs after work yesterday to take some pictures which are up on the OMFUXS web site now.

In the “major life changing event” column we have the offer I recently received from a rather prestigious tech school in Virginia. Chances are I’m going to go for this position as it sounds like they will pay well and are even throwing in a town home to live in. That and I like teaching and it’s intellectually stimulating.

While work at the shop here is fun and it does manage to keep me busy, I’m not going anywhere with it. One can only learn so much by selling snowboards to the local knuckle draggers day in and day out. Sure, there is the fact that I’m tech support for most of Vail Valley, but the really hard things to fix take all of about 10 minutes and even then it’s nothing new.

It’s become stale and I’ve been feeling the urge to move on again…

What’s got me bummed is that I’ll once again be leaving everyone I know behind. Sure, a round trip flight from DC to Denver is only $169 so I can drop in and visit all the time, but…

As a wise man named Otis once said, “Things change. Always do. You’ll get your chance! Important thing is, when it comes, you’ve got to grab with both hands, and hold on tight!”