Boulder

When I was moving west, I really wanted to go through Boulder on my drive out. In my mind Boulder has been one of the ideal places to live. When my friend in NYC said that she was plannng to try out some cities in the west -- thinking she wanted to move --including Denver, I encouraged her to think about Boulder. So we decided to meet in Denver, check it out and then go to Boulder.

I knew that I had built it up in my mind a bit, so it would be hard for it to meet my expectations. So I was a little concerned about that. I was also concerned about Virginia enjoying it. We're different people and there's not too much reason to think that we're going to be looking for the same things in a place to live.

Anyways, it's been just horrible. For starters, the weather sucks. It's pretty much been raining and cold since we got here. We're in bad moods and we've been hanging out in our hotel room way more than I like. Yesterday, I was trying to be positive. I'm done with it. Out loud, I'm practicing only saying positive things for the moment. I think that taking positive actions and saying positive things can make things better. But I'm so miserable.

The silver lining: my fascination with Boulder is over. I'm pretty sure that Boulder would be a fabulous place to live, but it's not magical. I thought being here could make me sad about where I live. It's got the night life and culture that Logan lacks. It's a good place to be single. To be honest, I didn't move to the Cache Valley to be in this location. I moved for a job. I have been trying to make the location work. There's lots to enjoy about the Valley. Approaching 30, I don't really need a night life anymore. I get to be close to family. And enjoying one's home is determined by how you live your life far more than where your home is.

I'm not a person that gets home sick and I can't think of a time in recent memory when I have wanted to be in my home more. Cache Valley, I'm so happy I get to wake up with you tomorrow.

Crowding Out

I was all curious about how crowds would be a factor in the more rural environment. Observation: don't try to do laps in the Sports Academy pool before work. Really, it doesn't take too many people to crowd out a lap pool, so this shouldn't be too much of a surprise. This is the second morning that I've had to retreat from morning laps. I've never had a problem in the evening though.

I used the time to go grocery shopping and to learn how to subscribe to RSS feeds. I'm using Google Reader and changed my homepage to iGoogle, where I can display it. I've been clicking on those subscribe to blog feed links on people's pages for a while and nothing ever seemed to happen.

Snow!

We got snow! Not in the valley, just on the mountains and a bit on the bench. We got snow a couple of weekends ago in the mountains as well, but there was much more this weekend. Yesterday was all grey and ugly, but it was gorgeous today. I switched up my run today so I could take in the best view of the valley that I know if from the Bonneville Shoreline Trail.

There was great constrast between the autumn colors of the leaves and the snow. It's hard to see in pictures, but from across the valley, you can see the snow line on the Wellsvilles and below it, it's still all red.

It took me an hour to run 3 miles because I kept stopping to take pictures. I felt like such a tourist. I'm just all excited about having snow. Plus, while there will be plenty more snow, the fall colors won't be around for much longer.

Wellsvilles

I have long thought that the Wellsvilles were the steepest mountain range in North America, but Wikipedia can't confirm it.

First Dam

You can pick up the Bonneville Shoreline Trail, by parking at First Dam and going through the tunnel under 400 N. This is the view on the way up the switch backs.

The Island

The Island is formed where the Logan River comes out of the canyon and there is no bench against the mountains. The bench is the old shoreline from Lake Bonneville and it sits higher than the rest of the valley which would have been under water. So the trees that are low in this picture are on the Island; the houses that are visible are on the bench.

Snow and Maples

On the Bonneville Shoreline Trail Wasatch Range. You acn also see the sage brush, which was particularly fragrant. Perhaps the snow brought out the smell.

Malt Beverages

I was half listening to NPR this morning and heard something about a vote to change the status of malt beverages in Utah. I interpretted it as the 3.2 rule being overturned. This rule limits the beverage that can be sold in grocery/convenience stores/some restaurants to 3.2 percent alcohol by volume. This means that there is a whole class of low alcohol content beer and malt beverages marketed in Utah. Restaurants with hard liquor lisences and package stores (State stores) may sell normal content beer and other alcoholic beverages. I've been trying to untangle Utah liquor laws from the mythology. There are further rules about how alcohol can be served in restarurants and different classifications of restaurants (private clubs).

Anyways, the 3.2 rule is not being overturned as I had hoped. Nope, the State liquor regulators have voted to pull flavored malt beverages of the shelves of grocery and convenience stores (they were already less than 3.2 percent) because they are marketed to appeal to minors. There was some talk of taking this to the legislature, but that would have opened up the issue to unfortunate debate, so the requlators are just going to go forward based on the Alcoholic Beverage Control Comission vote.

Correction: "Also you refer to the alcohol limit in beer as 3.2% by volume. That's incorrect. The alcohol measurment your thinking of is by weight. Utah beer available in grocer/convenient stores maxes out at 4.0% by volume. Or 3.2% by weight. those are two different types of measurment." That's according to Mikey. I'll have to ask him what the impact is on the beer. Mikey seems to keep abreast of state/local liqour laws. He scooped NPR here. He also has some information on local beer related events.