Spoke Too Soon...

Leave it to Fate to make a liar out of me.

I wrote in an entry here at the beginning of the month that Colorado generally doesn't have the same kind of autumn season other regions seem to have. While everything east of Colorado's border with Kansas blossoms into shades of green, yellow, brown, red and purple come September and October, the trees and shrubs in the Centennial State typically go from green to yellow to dead. Well, not this season, apparently.

When I wrote the entry, the trees around here were just starting their change. It was pretty, just as it always is, but nothing new seemed about to happen. Now, two weeks and change later, everywhere I go I'm surrounded by a cornucopia of autumnal hues. Driving along the main road outside my housing area, the landscape down the median is a veritable rainbow of color. The same colors I've talked about missing before are now transplanted to Colorado; a traveling exhibition of the East Coast's greatest hits has come to the Mile High City, and the result is nothing so much as exhilirating.

To see such a grand change in the low-oxygen air - or, perhaps, just noticing it for the first time, which makes me look bad - serves to remind me even more why I love fall. Summer's nice, especially when you're a kid, but fall is something special. Something...more. I mean, any season that has both Oktoberfest and Halloween just has to be better, right?

Glad you're coming with me on this.

Of course, Halloween is just around the corner. And for those of you living in Colorado, you know what that means: Figuring out how to maneuver a hooded parka over your kid's costume. It's regular as clockwork - come Halloween, it's gonna snow. A White Christmas? Nah, that's too easy. Here, at the gateway to the Rocky Mountains, we have to do things a little differently. We're not going to snow on Christmas...or even New Year's, for that matter. We're going to do you one better. We're going to snow on Hallo-frickin'-ween and April Fool's Day! Hah! Didn't see that comin', did ya?

It's already starting this year too. Temperatures have dropped quite a bit the last couple of days, the wind's just about ready to drop someone's house on a poor, unsuspecting witch, and snow can be seen all along the peaks of those beautiful mountains. A freeze warning was in effect for parts of the state, so it's going to happen. Will it happen here in Denver? Not sure yet. And it doesn't matter what the weather "forecasters" say, either; they predicted it would rain last Monday (it didn't) and last Saturday (nope, try again...), so we won't even try to locate their "predictions."

We're in the final stretch of October, and overall it's been a good month. Still haven't found a job, but that's about the only real problem I've got right now. I've been looking for full-time, part-time, temporary, seasonal; I've considered every possibility from clerical and administrative to warehouse and logistics to groundskeeping and landscaping. Nothing. No nibbles, no phone calls, no emails. I've driven to malls and office buildings, dropped off or emailed resume after resume, and I'm lucky to even get an acknowledgement. Such is the state of things right now, but it's still frustrating as all hell.

Good thing I've got a video to be proud of, huh?

The application video I submitted to The Canyons resort in Park City, Utah, is up on their website. As things currently stand, mine is the third most popular, but the second most voted. Not too shabby considering the guy in first place has more than twice the views I do, and the lady in second place is five spots behind me in the "most voted" category. It looks like you can only vote once, unless you're craftier than I am in figuring out ways around that. If you've already voted, thanks a million. If you've passed the link along and told all your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors, etc., about it and asked them to vote, then thanks a billion. That's right, passing it along gets more thanks than just voting. Circle of Life, dude. Hike up them Iron Man underoos and deal with it, okay?

In case you're interested, all of the posted videos, including mine, can be found at this lovely website. Mine is titled "How I Mountain." Not terribly original, I know, but it was late at night when I finished editing it and I wasn't entirely sure how they were going to set those up. Hindsight may be 20/20, but my butt's still wearing glasses. I mean, my eyes need glasses, not my butt. Cuz, y'know, my eyes are...

sigh

Never mind. Moving on...

The thumbnail for my video has the title "How I want to camp..." on it. Like I said, it's currently #3 in the Most Popular category, or #2 in the Most Voted category, so it's easy to spot. You could check out the competition, if you're so inclined, but bear in mind that any viewing adds to their total. Don't want to let your curiosity ruin my chances, do you? Thought not.

Now then...it's early afternoon, the sun's shining, and the outdoors are calling my name. Of course, the wind's blowin' something fierce, so I may just be hearing things. Regardless, I'm done for the day. Smoke 'em if ya got 'em, just not anywhere near me.

Ciao