My family carved some spooky pumpkins last night and set them outside with candles in them just so I could take this picture.

A cold gray, snowy day today, the exact kind of day that I became a full-time RVer to avoid. Temperatures in the low teens at night, high teens in the daytime, and worse, not better tomorrow. But on the bright side, by late next week, it's supposed to be in the 60s again.

The Internet is my savior on days like this and gives me some interesting entertainment. My TV works, and there are many stations available here in Denver, but I find TV rather dull nowadays. I don't find the shows interesting at all because on the TV I have to watch what they want me to watch when they want me to watch it. But on the Internet, I can watch what I want to watch when I want to watch it, and that makes all the difference in the world.

And on what TV have you ever been able to watch shows and get information about your hobbies? Whatever your hobby is, photography, golf, collecting beanie babies, fishing, cooking, whatever it is, you can find it on the Internet and watch it whenever you like.

And as for the news and weather, I don't have to sit there waiting for the 6 o'clock news to come on and listen to some talking head tell me the same thing every other talking head on the TV news is telling me. I can watch and listen to Internet news anytime I want and get varying opinions on what's happening in the world around me. And that's why I find TV boring and no longer entertaining. Because just like in real life, I want to live on my schedule, not on someone else's.

So there's not much else to do on days like this except stay inside and stay warm. The roads are icy with a little bit of snow on them, so driving is out of the question. The bat flu is still a concern, so I mostly stay to myself in less I'm with the family outside, but it's far too cold to be outside. The Arctic Fox is a four-season trailer, and I know that because it's written on the wall right outside the door, but I don't think this is one of those seasons.

                          theboondork

The neighborhood roads are icy with a dusting of snow on top. Fortunately it's Sunday so there won't be many people having to get out and drive on roads as slippery and dangerous as this.

You can see my tracks in the snow as I wandered aimlessly, lost and confused in this frozen wasteland, supplies almost gone, down to my last match. My mind becoming numb as my frozen fingers search for the shutter button on the camera to take this final picture before the effects of hypothermia cause me to lose consciousness....It appeared all was lost.... So I went back in the Arctic Fox and made a cup of coffee.

It was 25° outside when I crawled out of bed this morning, and everything was pretty frosty. At least the sun was shining, but it looks like it's going to be a couple of days before that happens again since a cold front is coming through tomorrow, and we're supposed to get about 8 inches of snow with nighttime temps in the single digits. So I guess you can expect a bunch of snow pictures on my blog for the next couple of days.

Having to deal with cold weather again reminds me why I don't like it and why us old geezers and geezeretts migrate south in the winter with the Sandhill Cranes. And here are a few of the reasons I came up with.


I wanted to go to the store yesterday, but there was so much ice on the windshield of the truck I didn't feel like scraping it off.

I have to run my furnace at night to keep the pipes from freezing in the basement.

I almost slipped on the ice, covering the top step of the Arctic Fox yesterday. My two bottom steps are covered with outdoor carpeting, but my top step is just metal and freezes rather quickly.

I'm wearing so many layers of clothes I walk like Frankenstein, and I'm scaring the grandkids.

I'm spending more money on propane to keep warm that I am on diesel fuel for the truck.

It's too cold to stand around outside and talk to anyone, and with the bat flu picking up again, outside is the only place I feel safe talking to anyone.

All the flowers have frozen and died.

                    
                        theboondork

It's hard to tell but these leaves are covered in ice.

Covered in ice and frozen to death, this could be me if I'm not careful.

 Alamosa city government offices. I wish those were Sandhill Cranes on top of the building instead of pigeons, it would've saved me a lot of time and effort.

I finally had to give up on the Arctic Fox being self-sufficient while in Denver. The weather is temporarily changing into cold, cloudy, and snowy mode, which doesn't give my solar panels the remotest chance of fulfilling their duties. So as an admission of defeat, yesterday I hooked my 30 amp extension cord up to the Arctic Fox's 30 amp power cord and plugged into my daughter's garage, so I'm no longer boondocking in Denver. I'm dependent upon others for my electrical needs for at least the near future.

Colorado is a very sunny place, which makes it an excellent state for solar panels. It might be hard to believe, but Colorado is sunnier than Florida. But don't confuse sunny with warm. It can be bright and sunny in Colorado and still -10°. So it's not too often that I need to plug-in when I'm at my daughter's house.

But this year, cold and snow have come early, with the cloudy weather, the sun low on the horizon, which is partially blocked by a tree in the front yard. Me staying here longer than normal means I need a more reliable source of electricity than solar panels, which may be covered by snow even when the sun comes out. With below-freezing temperatures forecast every night for the next week, and my furnace needing to run to keep the basement pipes from freezing, it looks like I'm going to be using a lot of propane.

                               theboondork

The agony of defeat. Wimping out and plugging in. I covered the extension cord plug with a plastic bag so it won't get wet when it snows.

The Rio Grande, Or Rio Bravo Del Norte to the Spanish. Alamosa was built next to the river, as were most towns back in the old days if possible. Everywhere I see the Rio Grande in my travels it's just like here, very very low. When I see the Rio Grande in New Mexico or southern Texas I can understand why it's low  because of all the use and irrigation draining it dry along the way. But Alamosa is only about 70 miles from the headwaters of the Rio Grande, and you can see how low it is already. I wonder where all the water is going in those 70 miles. I know the San Luis Valley is a big farming area and they use a lot of irrigated water from the Rio but the Rio Grande is almost 1900 miles long and if they were using up that much water right here there wouldn't be a trickle left for New Mexico or Texas. Like they say in the West.... Whiskeys for drinking, waters for fighting.

I love old business signs, especially ones that are as expressive as this one in Alamosa.