{"id":160601,"date":"2024-11-26T15:44:47","date_gmt":"2024-11-26T22:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=160601"},"modified":"2024-11-26T15:44:47","modified_gmt":"2024-11-26T22:44:47","slug":"rocky-mountain-milestone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2024\/11\/26\/rocky-mountain-milestone.html","title":{"rendered":"Rocky Mountain Milestone"},"content":{"rendered":"

So today is a milestone date for me, which means I’ll probably blabber about it far more than anyone is interested. But, for the record …<\/p>\n

Today, 30 years ago, I arrived in Colorado.<\/p>\n

I was born and raised a California boy, starting up in the Bay Area, then moving down to LA when I was in early elementary school. Except for a brief 9 month stint up in Fort Collins (Colorado) when I was in high school (as my dad tested out a different twist on his career, which he decided he didn’t care for), I lived, went to college, got jobs, got married, in California.<\/p>\n

\"1994<\/a>
That is the year that was<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fast Forward to 1994, which was not a great year for me — going through a (zany but moderately amicable) divorce, tied up for several months living out of a hotel for a project I was trying to rescue for my employer, and, subsequent to that, sort of kicking around the office, trying to figure out what was next (and learning all about this amazing Internet<\/em> that the company was finally connected to).<\/p>\n

Then my boss asked me if I wanted to move to Denver and become the IT Manager for an office they were expanding there.<\/p>\n

\"Denver<\/a>
Denver? DENVER?! (Hmm. Denver …)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All other factors aside, this was nearly a non-starter because (a) I don’t take changes in expected life paths well, and (b) I was very much dating a new girlfriend (and an old friend at that) and didn’t relish the prospect of screwing up a long-distance relationship and losing her.<\/p>\n

Sure, I had some indication that I liked Colorado from that brief high school stint. And it was a chance to break out of my funk, not to mention to advance my career.\u00a0 But … still … even after I got over the surprise, there was that relationship thing I did not<\/em> want to screw up.<\/p>\n

I was smart enough not to outright say “No” (or “Yes”), but told my boss I’d sleep on it.<\/p>\n

I called the girlfriend, explained my concerns, and she said to take the offer and we’d work it out.<\/p>\n

\"stapleton<\/a>
Everybody in Denver who bitches about DIA forgets about how much more they used to bitch about Stapleton.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

So I did. And then, at a big Thanksgiving Dinner (with my family and hers), I popped the question. Yay, romance. And the next day, we hopped in the car and I moved to Denver. (She only came along for the ride, and headed back home shortly after, juuuuuust before Stapleton was decommissioned).<\/p>\n

And I’ve been here ever since, and never looked back. And, if things go as planned, I’ll be here the rest of my life, because I love this town and this state.<\/p>\n

\"Our<\/a>
So far so good on the Happily Ever After thing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oh, and we did<\/em> work it out, and got married the following April. (Which means\u00a0we<\/em> have another big milestone anniversary next spring. Hmmmm.)<\/p>\n

So that was one milestone. Another comes tomorrow. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time passages …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,14,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-160601","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-love-and-marriage","category-personal"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":160610,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2024\/11\/27\/and-another-milestone.html","url_meta":{"origin":160601,"position":0},"title":"And Another Milestone","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 27-Nov-24 1:34pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Milestones galore!","rel":"","context":"With 2 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 2 comments","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2024\/11\/27\/and-another-milestone.html#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"sailing into the sunset","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sailing-into-the-sunset.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sailing-into-the-sunset.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sailing-into-the-sunset.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sailing-into-the-sunset.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/sailing-into-the-sunset.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":137293,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/10\/09\/a-few-signs-of-hope-for-the-colorado-river.html","url_meta":{"origin":160601,"position":1},"title":"A few signs of hope for the Colorado River","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 9-Oct-18 9:49pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The states downstream that draw water from the Colorado River -- California being the 800 lb. gorilla, but Arizona and Nevada doing their share -- pull more water from the river than is actually put into it by upstream states (Colorado in particular). The result has been decades of agreements,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135479,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/01\/n-comes-finally-colorado.html","url_meta":{"origin":160601,"position":2},"title":"In-N-Out Comes (finally!) to Colorado","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 1-Dec-17 12:31am","format":false,"excerpt":"Colorado is apparently an interesting bird when it comes to national chains. Denver (the population core) is a remarkable distance away from other major population centers, leaving supply and distribution networks as a significant barrier. But, over time, as we've lived here, those barriers have slowly fallen. Trader Joe's. IKEA.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/In-N-Out-Burger.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8151,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/05\/06\/ships_in_the_ni.html","url_meta":{"origin":160601,"position":3},"title":"Ships in the night, or something like that","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 6-May-05 10:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"In one of life's little ironies, at the same time as my folks are driving out from California to Colorado next week, I'll be flying from Colorado to California on...","rel":"","context":"In "Job Jollies"","block_context":{"text":"Job Jollies","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/job-jollies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13588,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2008\/11\/07\/tit_for_tat.html","url_meta":{"origin":160601,"position":4},"title":"Tit for Tat","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 7-Nov-08 9:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"After Colorado passed Amendment 2 (I think it was) a while back, a lot of folks found the state-approved homophobia so off-putting that Colorado ended up losing a lot of...","rel":"","context":"In "Elections 2008"","block_context":{"text":"Elections 2008","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law\/elections-2008"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":877,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2001\/11\/06\/i_am_now_offici.html","url_meta":{"origin":160601,"position":5},"title":"I am now officially a Coloradoan","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Nov-01 11:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Southern California? Mountains are north. Front Range Colorado? Mountains are west. Guess who got confused this afternoon as to why the sun was coming in through a \"northern\" window in...","rel":"","context":"In "Personal"","block_context":{"text":"Personal","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/personal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160601","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160601"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160601\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":160607,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160601\/revisions\/160607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160601"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160601"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160601"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}