Life on the Plains

I keep telling myself to blog about cookies but today is not the day, little cookie research has taken place in the last few months, nothing to note other than a bakery in NYC (www.rubyetviolette.com) that is rumored by Stephanie seen above to have outrageous cookies.

Pukes craggin' at it's finest seen above.

Before leaving Vail I finished reading Impact of Inequality, here are 2 quotes. I highly suggest the book.

Wilkinson explains the "group density effect": "all human beings are genetically 99.9 percent the same.... Skin color reflects the power of the social meanings attached to it.... African Americans who live in predominantly white areas, where they are more likely to feel both conspicuous and more discriminated against, tend to have less good health even though they are better off. This is the so called group density effect."

Wilkinson later quotes Robert Frank: "study after study show that beyond some point average happiness is almost completely unaffect by increases in average income level... average satisfaction levels register virtually no change even when incomes grow many fold." Wilkinson shows earlier that mortality rates within a country show the same relationship with average income. He goes on to add "In short, happiness and measures of well being in rich countries are more closely related to social status and relative rather than absolute income"

Above in Ben Collet on a pre-send burn of a new route called The Badger Traverse ("13a"/12c-ish) in Boulder Canyon.

Leaving Vail has been rough, about twice as rough as it was leaving Boulder for Denver. Quite simply, Denver's cramping my flow. As far as I can tell it all adds up to city planing: congestion, traffic, distance from trails, and lack of I-70 public transportation add up to a place that's hard to live and play. I've estimated that I spend 7-10 hours per week MORE in the car when I live in Denver vs Boulder or Vail. That's about 35 hours per month! The disapperence of time hit me hard when I came back.

Vail rotation reflections still to come.

I'm looking forward to spring temps and finishing up on my projects that I left unfinished last Fall.