Expedition 5280: 8/5/07

Sunday, August 5, 2007

The Art of Living

Moving out of my comfort zone has segued into a natural time to evaluate life goals and priorities. While in CA I had become frustrated with the ease of creating excuses to not pursue that which I am passionate about. Though moving does not change the person, it does produce a "clean slate" to reestablish priorities. We are given such precious time to live and breathe that not a moment should be wasted. The truth is, as adults with responsibilities it is difficult to find the time, energy and resources to "live" that we often putter out.

If you've viewed the survey to the left, you will find my personal excuses for "not living". What is your excuse for not pursuing your ambitions right now? Like a recovering addict, daily I face these excuses and strive to conquer them. Even if you haven't moved, what will you do this day to change your tomorrow? A year from now, where could you be if you pursued the dreams in your heart? Go for it and amaze yourself!

The survey is anonymous, so vote!

A Recent Rare Phenomenon

Last night we were at a local coffee shop with some friends. While sitting by the widow, we noticed that it had unexpectedly begun snowing. A few minutes later we all looked up to notice bright flashes, similar to that from a camera flash reflecting in the window. Since you never see lightning (or hear thunder) during a snow storm we all looked around for the abnoxiously bright flash from someones camera. It was nowhere to be found. Next thing we hear the boom of thunder and immediately car alarms start sounding. At this point we all look outside to see what looks like hail....but its not. It is simply pea sized snowballs that are falling like rocks from the sky. Needless to say, this was the first time any of us had experienced anything like this. The snowballs were not hard but soft...just like snow. The lightning and thunder continued for a while longer, as most everyone who was in the coffee shop either was glued to the windows or went outside for closer inspection. Bethany, who was sitting with our group, said that she had heard something like this happening before and said it was called a "thundersnow storm". Well, it is a true and rare event that is even more rare in a "land locked" state like Colorado. Here is the local newspaper headline from the Rocky Mountain News: "We were enjoying the lights, sights and sounds of a thundersnow that rolled through downtown around 9:30 p.m. And, we didn't make up that word thundersnow, either. It's a real, but rare phenomenon (and very rare in landlocked Colorado), according to a quickie Google search. In the simplest of terms, cold air meets warm air. As those two air masses interact, it causes friction, or a convection (up- and-down movement of air), which if violent enough, can cause lightning and thunder".

If you are still interested, check out the Wikipedia article for it : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thundersnow