1. If where you live were to be convicted of a crime, what would that crime be?
geesh, that is a weird question. Didn’t we just find out the NSA went all Patriot Act on our asses regarding our emails? Probably harboring a fugitive. For the sake of this question, we’ll also assume the fugitive is me. Yeah, I roll that deep.
2. What is something tourists constantly get wrong about where you live?
people assume Denver is a snowy cold place that is gray and icy all Winter, like Buffalo. People don’t realize Denver is a sunnier city than Los Angeles. A bigger, and more interesting incorrect assumption is when I tell people I went to school in Flagstaff, AZ. For totally understandable reasons, when people think of Arizona they think desert and super hot. That is about 80% of the state. However, Flagstaff is at 7,000 feet, and is located in the largest stand of Ponderosa Pines in the world. They have a ski resort, and a 14er. That term is something I hadn’t heard until I moved to Colorado, of course.
When I moved to Denver and told people I was from Arizona, they would caution me about the altitude here. Flagstaff is about 20% higher than Denver. Here are some cool pics of Flagstaff to give you a feel for the joint. We called it ‘poverty with a view’.
3. Given the city where you live, what is needed to make it perfect?
rain. It never rains here. Ever. Sure, it snows plenty, but never rains. Last month when we had a good batch of rain I went looking for my umbrellas. We have a few, and I couldn’t find them anywhere. They were packed deep. It seems to rain here maybe a couple of days a year. It rains more in Phoenix than it does here, considerably in fact. At least, it sure seems that way. I am making NO claims to science or even general understanding of meteorology here.
Obviously, our super spate of forest fires has brought all that to light.
4. If you could take something from where you used to life and move it to where you live now what would that be?
the size. Flagstaff is a small town. About the size of Parker, 50,000 people. You could get anywhere on bike. I loved that. I didn’t have a car when I lived there, just my mountain bike, and it was all I needed. This is practical for so many reasons. No car payment or insurance overhead, and no DUIs. In college, we went out drinking a lot. You know, college… nearly every night of the week. Having a bike be my only transpo also meant I was always in shape.
Here is how perfect and small that town is. The pizza joint had a delivery guy who worked on bike. Because the campus took up the whole middle of town, he could get anywhere on bike faster than you could on car. Quite impressive.
Flagstaff’s charm and beauty is why I chose to live in Denver. I wanted a major city with a major economy that was as Flagstaff-ish as possible. Really, Oregon would have been a better choice, but i wanted to stay fairly close to Arizona.
5. Would you rather: Live where you are at now for free but you have to take 82 flights of stairs to get there – or – Live in your dream home but in a small village in India and with a 10 foot hole through it that travels to infinity.
I am not sure I even understand the second part of that question. however, after 3 knee surgeries and 3 back surgeries, I am going to go ahead and NO take the stairs option.
* update –
that top pic of Flagstaff you may recognize from two films. In the movie Easy Rider, they drove across this intersection… going from left to right as you look at the picture. Forrest Gump also filmed here, going up that street that leads away from the picture taker. This was the ‘shit happens’ scene in the movie. That gave me insight as to how expensive movies must be to make. They shut that street down for 12 hours (I was there that day) and had all these production trucks. 12 semi’s of gear were set up and parked all around town. The police had to re-route traffic all day. Remember, too, ALL these guys are union. You have 200 people standing around making union money. That shot probably cost half a million bucks, and was on screen for 13 seconds.
Here is the clip. Also, seeing Tom Hanks in person was rather disappointing. We thought it would be handsome likeable sexy confident Tom Hanks. Instead we got this scary hobo guy. Plus, they use doubles for camera coverage and rehearsals… so I don’t even know if it was even Tom Hanks we saw that day. He could be been in his trailer sipping mochas letting his double do the work.
I am Correct 