Strasburg Rocks!

Celebrating Strasburg, Colorado, a small, friendly town in the plains east of Denver...

GoPro Time Warp Bicycle Ride

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Congratulations 2020 Strasburg Graduates!

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Graduates in car throwing hatsStrasburg won’t let the Coronavirus get in the way of us celebrating our awesome 2020 graduates!

Congratulations Strasburg Seniors! Pat yourselves on the back!

We were lucky enough to have this start in our neighborhood. Some cool cars were involved in the parade. 🙂

To all the 2020 graduates…in Strasburg and elsewhere…I know this was a suboptimal way to end your secondary education…but you made it.

Great work!

Music thanks to Envato Elements:

  • Pomp and Circumstance Theme” by Edward Elgar
  • “Remember These Times” by StudioMonkey
  • “Won’t Stop Dreaming” and “I Found Something I Was Searching For” by pinkzebra

Quick Trip to the Zoo (Summer Is Almost Over)

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Bird at the zooIt was a teacher workshop day, so we quickly snuck over to the zoo for a quick visit. Augie got a bunch ‘o Pokemon in Pokemon Go along with hanging out with a friend.  It was a beautiful day, and although the GoPro isn’t zoomed in, you’ll still see some neat views (close and distant). On the right is a bird that decided to nest (with eggs?) near the fence.

Hope summer wrapped up well for you and yours!

A Few More Summer Bicycle Rides

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Video snapshotI’ll be away for a week at Boy Scout camp with Augie, so here are the last few bicycle rides before we leave tomorrow.

Today (when it was greater than 95Âş when I left):

Beautiful day…and the ride wasn’t bad. Low humidity rules! 🙂

This was Tuesday’s ride in two parts (out to the Strasburg Convenience Store and back).  The “back” is in the dark. It’s not 100% clear, but you can see a cool light that makes a rider safer by putting a green LED bicycle image in front on the road.

Now, the best video from my GoPro HERO7 Black (at this point) is the GoPro Time Warp Bicycle Ride. If you are someone thinking about moving our way, you’ll see most of downtown Strasburg at the equivalent of 50 MPH. 🙂

Winifred Welcomes You to 2018!

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Winifred

Happy New Year!

We enter the new year with a new family member, Winifred. Augie did his research (which included creating a PowerPoint presentation) to learn about how to care for Bearded Dragons, so mom and dad allowed this beautiful girl to join our household. (A big thanks to our friend Dave, who not only originally rescued this pretty lady, but who also was kind enough to allow her to move in with us.)

BabyCenter says Winifred means friend of peace and Nameberry translates it as blessed peacemaking.

To everyone in Strasburg, surrounding towns, the I-70 Corridor, and everywhere on this small planet of yours, may peace and prosperity come to you and yours in 2018…and may you be called a…

Friend of peace.

Still Here, Honest!

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Memorial Day sign at the Strasburg Convenience StoreHi everyone…

Really sorry about the silence on the site…we are really still here. Life has been busy, and I’ve gotta admit that it is so easy to post on Facebook we put a ton ‘o stuff there…so please be sure to like our Facebook page. However, I will get better at sticking stuff up here too. For instance…

Dragonfly in Limon, ColoradoYou may want to check out our new photo galleries on SmugMug? It isn’t terribly curated right now, but as we go forward we’ll get some of our best pictures up there…and they will focus on Strasburg (although Limon dragonfly and Denver International Airport pictures in this post are kind ‘a cool, aren’t they?)

Hope everyone is having a great start to their summer!

Southwest airplane

Catchin’ Up

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Who Would You Kill?I think I’ve mentioned it here before that I am a Church of Christ minister. However, I am a volunteer one, and as such my breadwinning job (which I thank God for) can take varying degrees of my time.

And let’s just say a couple weeks before Christmas, right through now, it has been taking 100%+.

However, this past week was less so…and finally I caught up my sermon notes. (I had been getting the audio up, but not the notes.) Please check out my last for talks…or even better…

Consider visiting us in person at the Strasburg Church of Christ.

P.S. I also hope that now that we seem over the hump I’ll be posting more here. My silence means nothing but a lack of time. I love our town. Strasburg still rocks!

“For Amber Waves of Grain” on Two Wheels

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At home we have a Bowflex Max Trainer (yes, it is expensive, but it really works). However, in Strasburg nothing beats climbing on a bicycle in beautiful weather. Not quite amber waves of grain, but still a appealing view…especially to a New Englander like me who isn’t used to be being able to see so far:

View of fields east and west

For those “not from around here,” top is west, bottom is east.

My short trip also brought me past one of my favorite sites in our humble little town:

Trees, buildings, and grain towers
No, not the trees…the grain towers! 🙂

Now, to finish a Diet Pepsi at the Strasburg Convenience Store and head home!

First Bicycle Ride of 2016

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Alan Fahrner with clouds behind
Me in bicycling gear with beautiful clouds and sky
Well, I finally pumped the tires and took my bicycle out for its first ride of 2016. What a beautiful day, and what a great way to make up for work appropriating part of a Sunday!

 

American flag at the Strasburg Convenience Store
American flag at the Strasburg Convenience Store
 Today it was a short route…since said work means I am exercising about half as much as I wish…so I avoided the temptation to overdo it. Successfully. To easily. 🙂

How did you celebrate the amazing weather? Did you catch some opening day baseball? Something else?

Building Strasburg

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Ron Morse at his deskA while back I sat down with Ron Morse, Pauls Homes‘ local representative. I’ve know Ron since March, when he was kind enough to stay late on a Saturday to allow my wife, son, and I to check out a new house in their Coyote Ridge development. We bought that home…but not only did we get a house in a great town, I got a good friend in Ron. He was kind enough to agree to an interview about the company he works for, what they’ve done up to now in Strasburg, and what their future plans are…along with more about himself. (Pauls Homes and Ron received 5 out of 5 bulls and “We Recommend” from Strasburg Rocks! in our review.)

Who is Pauls Homes?

Pauls Homes is a subsidiary of The Pauls Corporation, a real estate and investment development company. They are heavily involved in commercial, light industrial, and apartments. With residential units, they are not like DR Horton, building huge complexes, instead creating developments sized in the couple hundreds. Sometimes they finish what another developer didn’t complete (e.g. the last 50 homes where someone else failed). With Coyote Ridge they built all the units, but the land was in foreclosure and the company saw a vision and opportunity (with Denver growing) and purchased it.

What have they built so far in Strasburg?

Pauls Homes has been building in Strasburg for twenty years, completing three developments, soon to complete one more, in phase one (of four) for a fifth, just starting a sixth, and planning to build a seventh. They have been here for the “long haul” and will continue to be here. Those that have already been finished or have sold units are:Continue Reading

Tecsun Q3 Review

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Tecsun Q3Since I wrote before about the tremendous Tecsun PL-880 shortwave radio, I figured I’d also do a quick review of my latest electronic toy purchase, the Tecsun Q3. This is an extremely small combo of a FM radio, computer speaker (with music controls), MP3 player, and audio recorder (from built-in mic, FM, or line in).

Instead of repeating it here, please take a look at my Amazon.com review of the Q3. Short version is that it is an amazing piece of technology and well worth the $36 I spent on it. Strasburg Rocks! gives it 4 1/2 stars out of 5 and highly recommends it!Strasburg Rocks! Recommended!

4 1/2 bulls

UPDATE August 8, 2016: A reader who had a Q3 with Chinese characters asked if I could scan the English manual so he could know what the buttons did. I searched on-line and couldn’t find one (kind of odd)…so I did…and figured I’d link to a copy of that scan here.

“Invincible” by Shayne Leighton

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"Invincible" by Shayne LeightonIn the “you’ll never know what you’ll find on Strasburg Rocks!” category is this review of an album I purchased last night. 🙂

“Invincible” is Shayne Leighton’s new, debut EP (6 songs). It is titled after her remake of Pat Benatar’s hit of the same name. Now, to start off, I think it is always dangerous to do a remake of a classic song…and especially when that classic version is done by an artist who defined the female side of her genre during the time it was recorded.

But, you know, Shayne pulls it off! Is it as good as Pat’s? That’s an unrealistic question to ask a guy who was a rock-lovin’ hormonal teenager when Pat was in her heyday. 🙂 Instead, I’ll say that Shayne’s version is very good, doing justice to the original. It is a great addition to an EP where all the tracks are strong.

Strasburg Rocks! Recommended!Having said that, it’s not my favorite tune on the album. Instead that award goes to “Midnight Man,” the fourth track. That song is so good I basically had it on repeat half the time I was mowing the back lawn this afternoon. It’s a catchy work that speaks to how desire and temptation combined with rationalization can lead us to doing what we know is wrong. Maybe that wasn’t the author’s intent…but that’s the message I heard. 🙂

I highly recommend purchasing this EP (Amazon Music | iTunes | Spotify). I give it 4 bulls (out of 5). In case that seems low…with music it is near impossible for me to give 5 bulls. I grew up when groups like Led Zeppelin and Queen were ruling the rock music scene, and 4 bulls is as much or more than I would rate some recent releases from my favorite bands. Four means it is really good.

Great work Shayne! I look forward to seeing what your future holds, both for you and my listening ears! 🙂

You can check out the album’s title song below:Continue Reading

Tecsun PL-880

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Tecsun PL-880Between Internet radio (we have redundant TDS and Bijou connectivity in our home) and SiriusXM satellite radio (which I also listen to mostly over the Internet)…I don’t really have a need for “normal” radio anymore.

But I miss it…along with a former hobby of mine, shortwave listening.

So, I decided to save up some money and get a new shortwave radio, settling on the Tecsun PL-880. I could not be happier. However, instead of repeating why here, please check out my short Amazon.com review.

Strasburg Rocks! Recommended!If you have never listened to shortwave radio, give it a try. There are much cheaper options (e.g. down toward the $30 range)…so you don’t have to spend $150 on the Tescun PL-880 to start (although, it is so sturdily and beautifully built and performs so well, it’s worth that even if you only listen to AM and/or FM). Two great sites to check out as you consider this purchase (and associated hobby) are SWLing.com and RadioJayAllen.com.

Strasburg Rocks! recommends this device and gives it five bulls!

5 bulls

Launching Off the Weekend

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On the way to our weekly dad-son-only breakfast, we had a letter to drop off at the Strasburg Post Office…which just happens to be across the street from the local hardware store (Western Hardware). Last weekend we used up all our Estes rocket engines on Father’s Day, so it made sense to grab some more by walking over to that great establishment. However, we didn’t escape without an additional purchase. 🙂

Augie with an Estes air rocket

And the first launch was successful!:

What are you doing this weekend? How has yours started off?

Our Purpose

The sole purpose of Strasburg Rocks! is to celebrate Strasburg, Colorado, a small, friendly town in the plains east of Denver. It does not exist to make money. However, should Strasburg Rocks! produce any net income, it will be donated back to the Strasburg community.

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