It's official...

The sky really is bluer in Aspen.  I thought it might have just been my Maui Jim's.  Go ahead and Google it.  Also, I Googled "blah blah blah" and received over 32,000,000 hits in 0.51 seconds.

On a lighter note, believe it or not, today was quite busy.  I awoke with a mild headache but got that under control quickly with 400mg ibuprofen and a few cups of joe.  Did a bit of pre-cleaning since I didn't want the housekeeper to think we were slobs.  Maya muscled through her morning routine in time to get a short practice in before heading up to the music campus for the day.  She had a rehearsal with Ms. Tamara, studio class and then her final lesson for the summer with Mr. Kantor.

Upon returning from dropping off Maya and Taryn, I... wow, I don't recall what I did.  One thing that comes to mind is that I spoke with Peter who will be flying back to Santa Barbara from Michigan with Shalini on Friday.  They are going to stop over in Aspen and spend most of the day with us before leaving on Saturday morning.  We're looking forward to that.  Then Abe and I rode bikes into town to get bananas, coffee, a book from the library, and a cheeseburger (to go) from Little Annie's.  Abe also had one of his favorites, some organic chocolate milk.  Kids!


During our bike ride we encountered a few interesting art objects that we had not seen before.  One is this figure made of chicken wire.  Personally I think her nose it a bit big.

Also, near the gondola ticket booth we found this bike-like thing with a bunch of miniature cars attached.  It was trying to make some kind of statement about how much more colorful cars are than bicycles, or something like that.  Anyway, the lady on the bench was wondering why I was photographing her but I just left that a mystery for her to ponder.

On the path back we always pass this neat underpass that allows for safe riding under highway 82.  We all like the mirror.  If you look carefully you'll see Abe flying up the hill.  The highway is above and just behind my point of view in case your thinking "underpass???".

Then I headed back up to the music campus to attend Maya's studio class.  All good things eventually come to an end (really?) and today was the last class.  We heard a bunch of great performances and then started the long goodbye.  One fun thing is that we invited Gloria and her mom Anne, and Tamara, to go rafting on Thursday - and they accepted the invitation.  We are all looking forward to that.



After studio class Maya had her lesson with Mr. Kantor.  We are taking photos every year so when Maya is here for her 10th season (could we be that fortunate) and Mr. Kantor is here for his 50th (!!!) we'll have a fun chronology to look at.

I'm presenting this construction zone photo as a reminder of the absurd amount of noise and diesel fumes that permeated the studio class room.  I think they call that ambiance but I'm sure there's a better term.

This final shot may actually be my greatest discovery of the summer.  Too bad I stumbled on to it so late in the season.  The portable restroom across from Mr. Kantor's studio appears on the outside to be one of those "last resort" facilities.  Inside the walls were marble green with gold fixtures, artwork hanging on the walls and a nice wooden floor.  No kidding.  Probably the only thing I would change is the way the toilet paper is installed (I prefer the loose end to be on the front of the roll, away from the wall).

Wednesday night offers a physics lecture re high temperature superconductivity and then and Edgar Meyer recital.