When you have to renew your license plates in Colorado you can do everything online... UNLESS you are moving from out of state. Then you have to go through multiple steps ending with a dreaded trip to the DMV office. First you have to get the VIN number on your car verified. There are numerous places you can take it, but since we live in Douglas county they will come directly to your house and do it (I have NEVER had a government office offer to come out to your house before). Then after filling out reams of paperwork, we headed off to the DMV in Castle Rock (the only place we could get an appointment in a timely manner). After a 30-minute wait, our turn finally came up and we walked away with plates for my car and a new title. I'm not sure it's ever gone that fast in Missouri, but since the line didn't seem that long, we walked over to the drivers' license station and got those as well. I'm sure I will discover many perks to being a Colorado resident, but for now the biggest one is being able to park at the light-rail parking garages for free.
I took up a new sport this week - pickleball. Pickleball is kind of a cross between tennis and ping pong. The court has a net and similar markings like a tennis court, but is much shorter and narrower (at our clubhouse, they replaced 2 tennis courts with 6 pickleball courts). The paddle is short and flat like a ping pong paddle, but a little bigger. The ball is a plastic whiffle ball, which probably wouldn't be that bad if you were playing indoors out of the wind. I think most of us in the beginner 101 class had problems controlling the ball. If you hit it too hard, the wind blows it into the adjoining court, but if you don't hit it hard enough, it won't go over the net. Hopefully I'll get the hang of it soon.
This past Sunday, I drove up to the Black Hawk, CO and met my friend, Sharon, at the Ameristar Casino for breakfast. Black Hawk is in a gorgeous part of the mountains just a little west of Denver, but it almost looks like a miniature Las Vegas - there are so many casinos.
On the drive back, I couldn't resist stopping for a quick sketch of Clear Creek Canyon. Being a Sunday, there were tons of people out hiking and biking for the day. When all the tourists go back to school in September, I'm going to take Bruce back there for our own hike...
But in the meantime, we're still exploring the state parks near our house. Last week, we went to Roxborough State Park. Bruce wanted to try it out, because it's got a lot of red rock formations along the canyon (just like Sedona, AZ). They also don't allow dogs, bikes, or horses, so it was a very peaceful hike.
We're also still chipping away at the house. This week I got the bright idea of making a headboard out of vinyl plank flooring. It was fairly easy to put up and almost matches the existing hardwood floor (though that wasn't necessarily my intention). Now I need to decide on where to hang a few pictures. On top of all the other shortages in the world, I just found out (after visiting the Sherwin Williams store) that there is a paint shortage. So I need to make up my mind before I put any unnecessary holes in the wall. Sheeesssh. Are the after-effects of COVID ever going to end???
