Photo Observations

Mushroom on a side street in Denver. Since the only mushrooms I eat are found in the grocery store, I passed on the opportunity to do a taste test on this harmless looking specimen.

The frequent rain fall and cloudy days have made for hot and humid days. That has provided some spectacular cloud formations. Captured a few of them with the camera. Here is one taken overlooking the Platte River Valley near 15th Street in Denver.

To get exercise, every other morning (very early before the heat) I head to nearby Jim Baker Reservoir where I walk around twice to get about a three mile walk. On the south side of the reservoir and about 100 feet away is a rail track. During my walk, frequently a train will pass. Some are coal trains headed for power plants along the Front Range. Others are mixed freight trains with tankers and box cars and open flatbeds. Once I saw an Amtrac train headed to Union Station in Denver.

That close to the train tracks, the unusual sounds make me wonder about my safety. Could those wheels seize up and the train accordions and one of those cars hits me. Okay. So that might be a bit dramatic.

However, no one on the train engine can hear that one wheel that seems to be going kerlunk kerlunk kerlunk. Kind of like the bearings are shot. Or another carriage seems to be squealing down the track -- metal against metal. Sounds like lubrication might be needed.

A sound like that coming from Silver Slug would be a warning that something was seriously wrong. Instead, today the sound was plop plop plop when it sounded like it was a flat tire. It was. So I changed the tire. Jeesh. That is hard work. Had to get out the owners manual to find out how to do that. It's been years since the last flat.