One Piece at a Time

Frozen Dead Guy Day

Seriously friends, it’s things like this that make me really glad I live in a somewhat quirky county in Colorado. Let me just add that I am not making any of this up, scouts honor. Also…sorry if you are offended by my gallows humor…I will be back with a quilt post later this week…promise.

Every year in the tiny town of Nederland Colorado they has an event called, Frozen Dead Guy Day. This is all in honor of Nederland’s most famous resident Bredo Morstol. It turns out that shortly after Bredo died in Norway his family brought his cryogenically frozen body to the U.S. He was kept in a “facility” until his grandson and daughter moved him to Nederland. No one knew any of this until the grandson was deported for outstaying his visa. As you can imagine, it was quite a sensation.The town tried to outlaw such behavior but there was such an uproar they had to pass a special exception, a “grandfather clause” to allow Bredo to stay (kinda gives new meaning to that legal phrase). Since then a cryogenic company has taken over preserving the body and he is now in a Tuff Shed.

The town of Nederland celebrates every year with the appropriately named event, Frozen Dead Guy Day. Happenings include coffins races, slow motion parade and a Dead Guy look alike contest. There is even a movie, Grandpa’s in the Tuff Shed and now an even more recent movie, Grandpa’s Still in the Tuff Shed. You can even take a tour of the Tuff Shed.

I sure do love living here!

P.S. aren’t you glad I refrained from sharing the Youtube video?

Um..am I the only one that thinks this is…just a tad…EXTREME

I found this FULL page advertisement in my local newspaper.

 

Many of you know that from time to time I enjoy making fun of my (almost) hometown Boulder Colorado. Technically I live in a smaller and mellower town just east of Boulder so I really shouldn’t mouth off too much for fear that this young man might come looking for me.

As my children have gone through public school here I’ve grown increasingly concerned about the amount of pressure on teens today. I can’t even really write about it without becoming upset. When did it become OK to rob children of their childhood? What’s with all this fear?  Just read this excerpt:

 

Apparently now I should start worrying about PRESCHOOL age children falling behind and becoming criminals. Who knew?

If anyone else is concerned about this I want to suggest checking out the new documentary coming out this fall, Race to Nowhere. I’m going to be first in line.

Irritable Parent Syndrome

And now for a new category I’m calling ONLY IN BOULDER

I’ve lived in Boulder County for nearly 20 years and I have to admit I find it more than a little amusing sometimes.  If you don’t live here you should know that Boulder Colorado definitely has its share of “Alternative Lifestyles”. We probably have the highest per capita yoga studios, natural food stores and acupuncturists in the world. Basically, wherever you go there is always someone ready to lecture you on anything from cleaning your bowels to the color of your aura. It’s great fun really…especially if you can smile, nod and move on. I like to collect these stories so today’s article in the local newspaper was perfect. It’s called “Irritable Parent Syndrome: there is a cure”.

The article begins with somewhat alarming phrases as “tragically undiagnosed and untreated” and “screaming epidemic” and seriously I thought they were joking. The gist of this “syndrome” is that by the end of August we, parents, are getting annoyed by our children and if this happens then there is something wrong with us. Apparently, according to Chinese Medicine our livers are out of balance. Who knew? Now, I’m not advocating that we all lash out at our children whenever we want but here’s an idea. Maybe it’s okay to get annoyed by our children because they are, well, annoying. Maybe if they see us being frustrated by their behavior they will learn from that. Maybe it’s okay to be human and for them to see that people aren’t always going to be patient with them. Maybe when the parent gets a little too angry they can say sorry and the kids can learn a little about forgiveness.

This article wasn’t all bad. Some of the suggestions were quite good but others were infused with pure Boulder silliness. The idea for getting sleep included “adopting a mantra”; I think mine will be “leave me alone I want to sleep”. The suggestion for being active was to take a swim; every mother knows this is the MOST STRESSFUL OUTING EVER. The remedy for depleted liver energy was to get lost in a good book, yeah right, only if you don’t mind getting interrupted every 2 minutes.

I know this post is proof positive that I am suffering from Irritable Parent Syndrome so I’m going to go clean my liver, whatever that means. Plus, school started last week so now I’m only working 16 hours a day.