Wimping out and plugging in.

Roses are red violets are blue, click all the pics before you are through.

 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.