Having Teenagers in Alternative, Colorado - Week Two Living Here

When we moved to Alternative, I thought about the fact that we had teenagers and it concerned me. It didn’t so much concern me that we had teenagers as it did that we were moving them to Alternative from our, or their, hometown. They have friends there. They went to school there and would probably continue to do so. Since my wife still works in Fort Collins, I have to drive into town anyway, so I promised them that they could continue attending their school.

Alternative has a school. It has three in fact. It has an elementary school, a middle school and a high school. Alternative, in fact, is the seat of the school district in this part of the county. They provide schooling for over 600 children, which is less than the entire population of the high school that my kids attend.

Marcy McDonald teaches tenth grade math at Alternative High, home of the Aardvarks. The principal, Jordan Beavens, always liked to say that “there are a lot of A’s in Aardvark, and a lot of A’s in Alternative High.” Mr. Beavens liked to think that he was everyone’s best friend, but if you asked Miss McDonald, you would find out that students thought about Mr. Beavens as all students thought about their principal. They feared him as an authority figure. Miss McDonald liked Mr. Beavens and thought that he was a good man who cared about the students.

Miss McDonald happened to be at the only restaurant in Alternative, which happens to be a Mexican restaurant. She happened to be there when my family walked in and sat down for a meal away from the house. Miss McDonald, seeing our teenagers sitting at the table, came over and introduced herself asking if our kids would be going to the local school this fall. We told her that they wouldn’t be. She seemed sincerely disappointed and even though the kids really liked her, I had a feeling that they were going to stick to their guns. I watched as Marcy spoke to the kids about the local teens. Alternative is small but easily hides most of the people there, especially because of the hot days. But Marcy seemed to know the names of several teens that lived in Alternative much to our surprise. She talked about one in particular named Charlie Tanner. He liked to go by Chuck, but people still called him Charlie. She wasn’t sure why, but they did none-the-less. Chuck and his family moved to Alternative from Maryland about two years earlier when his dad got fed up working for the corporate office of one of the countries largest banks and just wanted to settle down in a simpler and quieter life. He figured that moving to a small unassuming town like Alternative, would be good for not only his sanity, but his family’s sanity as well. His first day in Alternative, Chuck’s father felt as if a large weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He felt more relaxed than he had in a long time. His wife was unsure at first, but quickly learned to love the small town and the people that preceded them there. Chuck took a little longer to convince. As a teen, Chuck had to work at not being an outsider, or at least, that how it felt. His first day at school, though, he was the most popular student there being the new kid. Everyone wanted to know about him, his family, his past and what he wants to do after high school. He had never been so popular and he was happy. Marcy talked about this with my kids. They smiled and nodded and stuck to their guns of going back to their old school. They would eventually meet a few of the local kids and learn that their popularity wasn’t being called into question at all.

The main thing was that our family was together. We had each other to cling to, to grow with and to support. My kids were going to maintain their status in their old school and maintain their mystery in town, bring hoards of new friends to find out who they were and where they went to school. But that’s another story for another time.

That’s the news this week from Alternative, Colorado, where people think different things in a little different way.

A Lazy July Day in Alternative, Colorado. Week one living here.

It was just another lazy and hot day in Alternative, Colorado in the middle of July. Even the birds decided to get as far into the trees as possible in order to escape the heat. That sometimes happens in the summer in the mountains. Temperatures reaching into the lower 100s are not uncommon.

Those who had air conditioners ran them and those who didn’t ran fans and swamp coolers. Our new house came with A/C so we were among the fortunate, although we quickly became popular among the folks who had no air conditioning. Martha, our next door neighbor, was one of the unfortunate ones who had no cooling system, and so it came as no surprise when she showed up at our door with a home baked cherry pie, baked a few days earlier when the weather was cooler. Once inside, it was important for her to begin telling us a few stories and suggest that the pie be eaten right away, perhaps with a scoop of ice cream, even though it was two in the afternoon.

Most of the cars in Alternative had air conditioners, and so people weren’t at all averse to taking a drive to some nearby larger city like Greeley or even down to Denver to go to the malls and shop and possibly see a movie in the air conditioned buildings there. Had it been three years ago, they might have stopped at Jimmy’s Market on Main Street and do some grocery shopping, as it was the only business on Main Street that had air conditioning. Jimmy had run the store for twenty years. After getting it up and running and being successful during the first two years, Jimmy’s wife blessed him with a baby boy. They named him Jimmy Junior and just called him JJ.

Jimmy couldn’t remember a day during that last eighteen years that he had the store, when JJ wasn’t around. Jimmy figured that eventually, JJ would take over running the store and Jimmy could retire and take his wife, Clarise, on a cruise to Alaska or even down to that Disneyland Island around Florida. But when he turned eighteen, JJ announced that he was heading off to Montana to get a job on a ranch. Jimmy was crushed but wouldn’t forbid JJ from leaving and figured that he would eventually come back, but after two years of waiting, Jimmy decided to just close the doors on the grocery store and sell the building. Some out-of-state investor came in and bought the building and used it as a write-off, pretty much leaving it to fall into disrepair, until the city council had to contact him about it and he had it torn down.

But the heat, lack of air conditioned buildings and especially, the lack of a grocery store in Alternative, gave Lester Timberwick an idea. Lester arrived in Alternative about three years ago from California. Martha thought that she heard him mention once that he was a lawyer in California and that he just didn’t want to deal with the injustices of the world anymore, so he found his way to Alternative. At least, she was pretty sure that she heard him say that sometime when she was out. None-the-less, Lester had an idea. He bought a van and offered, two or three times per week, to shuttle people back and forth to either Greeley or Fort Collins so that people could do their shopping without having to drive themselves or put wear and tear on their cars. His van was air conditioned, and so whether they had to go or not, numerous people would pay the few dollars to have Lester take them into town and drop them off at the local air conditioned establishments. Lester was good at his job and managed to talk non-stop during the half hour drive into town. He’d talk about law, and Colorado, and the local politics, such as they were. Most people liked the current mayor, Mayor Tom as he liked to be called.

Mayor Tom was great at fishing, and encouraged people to buy their fishing licenses from city hall and go down to the well stocked pond near Alternative Park. People would take their families and sit on the shore of the lake, catching trout and throwing them back, They’d talk about where they wanted to go and the things that they’d like to do. But most importantly, they spent time together as families and loved every minute of it, waiting for the sun to go down and the cool breezes to fill their homes for the night of rest and recuperation to prepare them for the next hot summer day. They’d hug each other, and walk home, maybe stopping at Lyle’s Pizza by the Slice shop on the way, and dream about Alternative becoming a bigger town.

And that’s the news this week from Alternative, CO., where people think about different things.

Alternative, Colorado: Where the People Think of Other Things to Do

My family and I recently moved to a smaller town here in Colorado. Alternative. It might sound like a strange name for a city, but it’s nice here. The cost of living is lower than where we were before in Fort Collins, and housing is more reasonable.

Before we moved, I did some research on the history of the city, just to find out a little more about it.

This fine city of 687, (a little more since my family of five moved here), was incorporated in 1968. Originally, they wanted to name it either Summitsville or Rocky Mountain Town. The mayor at the time, Ike Atckinson, was in charge of finding out which name the townspeople wanted the most. He asked around and they had a vote. Turned out it was a tie, so Ike went to his brother-in-law, Marvin, to break the tie. Now Marvin was not the shiniest apple in the barrel, and Ike knew this. He had assigned Marvin a city job to keep his wife, Becky, happy. He never really thought that he’d have to come to Marvin for anything, but he thought that this job would be simple. So, he went to Marvin and asked, “Which name do you like better?”

            “What are the choices again?” Marvin asked.

            Ike sighed and said, “Summitsville or the alternative.” He was just flustered enough that he could remember the other name.

            So Marvin announced that he had made a decision and went off to register that decision and incorporate the new city.

            Originally, then, the city was named, “The Alternative” and people just nodded and accepted it. Mayor Ike, however, thought it was a little cumbersome and got the people to agree to shorten it to just, “Alternative”. So it was then that Alternative, Colorado was born.

            Our family was the main attraction for the single day that it took us to unload the moving truck and get everything into the house. Most neighbors walked slowly by, giving weak waves or looking away and walking their small dogs quickly to their destinations.

Our new next-door neighbor, Martha, tried twice to bring us cookies. The first time, she had been watching out of her window and thought that we were done moving in when in reality, we had only stopped unloading to set-up a few things inside the house and grab some lunch. When we headed back out to the truck, we saw Martha with her cookie tray ambling up the toward our driveway, but with her eyes growing ever wider, she decided to make a u-turn and head back toward her house.

            Once she knew we were done and had closed the door to the truck, she came timidly back and knocked at our door. She introduced herself and cheerily peered around my daughter, who had answered the door, in an attempt to see where we were placing our furniture. We all decided to come to the door and expressed our appreciation for the cookies. Martha made sure to tell us that she had been baking all day and that when was certain that we would love them. They were oatmeal and raisin cookies and she put in extra raisins because they were so much better for people than chocolate chips, although she admitted that she occasionally snuck a few chocolate chips when she was feeling scandalous. She proceeded to tell us that she would come by tomorrow and let us know all about the town and who we should and should not know about. I had a feeling that we would find out about all of them, one way or another.

            Martha smiled and with one more peek around us, announced her departure, waved and waked back down the path toward her house, stopping once to wave and smile one last time.

            This would prove to be an interesting new adventure for us.

That’s the news from Alternative, Colorado for this week, a small town where people think of other things to do.

A New Path

Last night I took the dog for a walk. I always give me time to think, plot and plan.

As I walked along the path that I’ve walked with my dog for the past six months, and thinking about how I’ll be moving from this neighborhood soon, it made me sad thinking that soon I wouldn’t be walking along this path that I’ve come to love and know so well. I’ve really come to enjoy the evening walks in the park; feeling the coolness of the evening and seeing all of the wonderful houses and green expanse of lawn and old established trees. It’s a path that I’ve become very comfortable with. But then I started thinking about how life is a lot like this path.

We walk a path everyday of our lives. We have our routines that we go through that make us comfortable and content. It’s when life throws in a difference that we become uncomfortable. Personally, I’ve always enjoyed change and look forward to the challenges that they bring.

So thinking about a change in paths should have been something like that, exciting and challenging. Then why was I feeling so sad about this?

It was at that moment that I changed my way of thinking about this. Where I move, which won’t be far from where I’m living now, I’ll still be taking the dog for a walk each night. It will be the same, cool air. The sky above me will be the same, with the same clouds and the same moon. Only the immediate surrounding will be different. Different, but not bad. It was then that I decided that this would, in fact be an adventure.

In our lives, we sometimes view change as bad. But when change comes, we should look hard to see if that change is something that we can use to improve our lives. How can we use that change to propel ourselves toward our dreams and goals? How can we change our discomfort into a new level of comfort? It’s important to embrace change and move upward using that change as the momentum that will drive us to new heights and new levels in our lives. So tonight, when I took the dog for his walk, I enjoyed the path and looked forward with anticipation, to the new path that is coming my way in a few weeks!

Life Goes On

The other day I learned that my father had passed away. I didn’t hear it from immediate family and I didn’t even hear about it the day he died. In fact, it was two days later that a distant relative contacted me and told me what had happened. I thought that my sister or my step mom would have contacted me, but that wasn’t how it played out. But that’s not what this article is all about, so to the point.

It was two days after his death that I was told about it. In the meantime, life went on. Since then, life continued. It made me realize that even when someone close passes away, life goes on.

I guess I realized that with all of the celebrities that have passed this year, but they weren’t someone close that I had known. I didn’t know that my dad had passed away, and my life continued on as it did each and every day. I woke up, I worked, I provided transportation to my family and did everything that I did all of the time. Even though my father was gone, I still had life to live.

We all lose someone, but until we don’t wake up one morning, we have a choice to make a difference. We have a choice, each and everyday that have breath in our bodies, to make someone else smile, to make someone else feel good about themselves and to tell someone that we love them or forgive them. The moment that we stop breathing or our heart stops beating for the last time, we loose that opportunity. As long as life goes on, we can make a difference in the lives of others.

Your life is going on. If it wasn’t then you probably wouldn’t be reading this. Take a moment to think of someone else. Take another moment to say a kind word and smile at someone. Change a life one small deed at a time. When that person leaves, you’ll remember that moment for the rest of your life.

Food for the body, Food for the soul.

As most people do, I have my favorites regarding many things. I have my favorite people, my favorite movies, my favorite books, my favorite places to hang out and so on. I’m sure that you know what I’m talking about, because I’m certain that you have your favorites as well. When our favorites overlap with other people, we tend to get new friends. Sometimes, however, discovering new favorites can be hard. It can be difficult to tear ourselves away from the routine and venture out into unknown territories to discover what could become out new “favorite” of something.

A couple of weeks ago I decided that I was in a rut. This is not a good thing. The rut, not the discovery of it. Anyway, I decided that it was time to get out of the rut and start trying new things. I asked friends about new places to eat. I figured that might be a good place to begin and by golly, it didn’t disappoint!

I was given several suggestions, and at first I was resistant to them. Not that I didn’t want to go, but my rut was fairly deep and it was difficult to get out of. I’m a strong and persistent person and finally made it out after speaking with one of my friends in person who asked me if I had tried their suggestion yet. “We have a really goo Sunday Brunch,” he said. “We?” I questioned. “Yeah, I cook there. We’re open on Sundays from 10 - 2. You should stop in and try it. You won’t be disappointed!”

I told him that I would be there and, being a man of my word, I was there.

At first I wasn’t sure what to expect from a place called “The Blind Pig” but after arriving, I was pleasantly surprised. The brunch was incredible! Not only was it a brunch, but it was an all-you-can-eat buffet brunch. The atmosphere was relaxed with a lot of college folks and a few families. The line wasn’t long at all at the buffet and going from station to station was an incredible journey of delight. From the normal scrambled eggs to the breakfast mac-n-cheese to the breakfast lasagna, this place was the epitome of original. I was even determined to try a few things that my brain has told me before, I don’t like. Well, I ate everything that was on my plate (and the plates are really good sized!) and went back for more. There was nothing there that I didn’t find extraordinary. On Saturdays, they have a breakfast menu and during the weekdays they have an incredible menu for dinners. Truly a one-of-a-kind restaurant, you’ll spend a good chunk of time wanting to order everything, as everything looks amazing.

So, if you’re looking for a restaurant with a great atmosphere, fun people, great service and yes folks, if you want there is a full bar for the drinkers among us, then take my advice and that of the amazing chef that I call friend, Gary Rosen, and visit The Blind Pig. You can find it at 214 Linden St. in Fort Collins, or check it out online at http://blindpigfortcollins.com/ to see what they have to offer as well as their hours and menu. I promise that you won’t be disappointed. I know that I wasn’t!

Intelligent Imagination

Imagination can take you anywhere and allow you to do anything. But when you’re writing, imagination needs to make sense to the person reading it, and that can only happen if you can draw the reader inside of the world that you’re creating and make them believe that an entirely new set of laws exist. 

If you ask just about anyone what powers Superman has, you will most likely receive answers like: he flies, he has heat vision, he’s indestructible, he can see through walls (x-ray vision) and so on. No one really says in answer to your question, “There is no Superman. He is a fictitious character that was created to the entertainment of children in a comic book.” At least, I don’t know anyone who would say that, and if someone did, I’d probably back away, slowly.

The fact that so many super hero characters have become household names, and their abilities well known, if due to the fact that we’ve come to accept this universe as something that, although not possible, is plausible in an entertaining sort of way. Super heroes touch us on a subconscious level. They can do things that we only wish we could do.

It’s difficult to do, but when I create new fiction, I attempt to find something that has never been done before. As an example, in my book “The Sounds of Tomorrow” I created a world where a young girl attains the ability to hear the sounds of traumatic events, 24 hours before they happen. When she hears a murder taking place, she has to figure out a way to let the police know without implicating herself or having those around her think that she’s crazy. In most stories, people can “see” into the future, but I had never heard of anyone only hearing the future.

In my series, “The Eyes of Tokorel”, I created a universe in which Permac and the Tokorellan people have the ability to mentally sense the emotions of someone else. In addition, they can influence others to feel any emotions. A person who is suspicious of you could be made to be trusting and accepting of you without understanding why. Have you ever met someone for the first time and decided that this is a likable person? Yet, you know little about them. Perhaps they are Tokorellan. So this ability plays on our subconscious desire to be able to enter any situation with confidence and control. If you could control the emotions of anyone you met, you could pretty much control the world. This give rise to numerous situations, especially when we find out that one person can actually “taste” when she’s being influenced. It makes for an interesting series. Good guys and bad guys alike have this ability, so the classic battle of good versus evil taken to a new level.

So the next time you create a new universe, think it through. Make it seem real and plausible. Convince your reader that such a universe exists. It’s great fun to know how much your readers will follow this new and intriguing universe that you have created!

Drew