Colorado Contemplations — Journal

Filed in Family, General by Clyde Jones

Happy Holidays

From All of Us to All of You, All the joy of the Holiday Season and a wonderful New Year.

Filed in Events, Family by Clyde Jones

Halloween Greetings from Aidan and Elizabeth

Happy Halloween from “Thomas the Tank Engine” and “Vampire Princess”.

Filed in Events, Family by Clyde Jones

Happy 4th Birthday, Elizabeth

Elizabeth celebrates her 4th birthday today.

Filed in Family by Clyde Jones

Aidan celebrates his 3rd

Happy 3rd Birthday Aidan!

Love, Papa

Filed in General by Clyde Jones

One Hundred Years Ago

The year is 1906.

Here are some statistics for the Year.

• The average life expectancy was 47 years.
• Only 14 percent of the homes had a bathtub.
• Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.
• There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads.
• The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.
• The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
• The average wage was 22 cents per hour.
• The average worker made between $200 and $400 per year .
• A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, A dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.
• More than 95 percent of all births took place at HOME.
• Ninety percent of all doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION!
  Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as “substandard.”
• Sugar cost four cents a pound.
• Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.
• Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.
• Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
• Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from entering into their country for any reason.
• Five leading causes of death were:
  • 1. Pneumonia and influenza
  • 2. Tuberculosis
  • 3. Diarrhea
  • 4. Heart disease
  • 5. Stroke
• The American flag had 45 stars.
• The population of Las Vegas, Nevada was only 30!!!!
• Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea hadn’t been invented yet.
• There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.
• Two out of every 10 adults couldn’t read or write.
• Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
• Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.” ( Shocking? DUH! )
• Eighteen percent of households had at least one full-time servant or domestic help.
• There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!

What a difference a century makes!

Filed in General, News, Politics by Clyde Jones

Why the HullaBaloo

As reported online in the Drudge Report and in Wikipedia, USINFO does contain four Spanish translations of the Star Spangled Banner, but these date back to 1919. Our site links to the Library of Congress which has a copy of the sheet music from 1919 which shows that the translation was done at the behest of the “U.S. Bureau of Education” under the direction of a committee which included John Philip Sousa. Even President Bush, during his 1999 campaign, would sing along when the Anthem was sung in spanish during stops in Hispanic comunities. The version on the State Department website is not the newly released ” Nuestro Himno. ”

Filed in General, News, Politics by Clyde Jones

Whats Wrong with this Picture?

Surely there must be something terribly wrong with an organization (the U.S. Army) who orders one of their members into harms way and then, when that soldier is wounded seriously enough that he has to be discharged, the organization in question charges the soldier the dollar amount of the equipment that saved his life because it was damaged and he can’t return the item he was issued. And they wouldn’t continue to process his discharge until he paid up.

The military is spending Billions of dollars a day on this war and yet they want to collect $700 from someone who put his life on the line doing his duty for them.

Maybe thats the price for becoming “Battle Hardened.”

Filed in General by Clyde Jones

Merry Christmas

From our family to all our firends. We wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2006.

Filed in General by Clyde Jones

Blatant Self Promotion

We’ve just opened a new on-line store called Mystic Mountain Naturals.

All our products are hand crafted right at home using only the finest natural ingredients on the market. I’m certainly not going to have my family use something that is second best, and neither should my customers.

Mystic Mountain Naturals currently has 9 products in our line, but as we find and try out recipes that too will grow. We currently have 50 scents available to our customers. We only use essential oils to scent all our products. These have the highest concentration of scent and are the finest available on the market today.

Drop by Mystic Mountain Naturals and see what we have on offer.

Filed in Events, Family by Clyde Jones

Beating the Heat!

Instead of baking in the 90 degree plus temperatures in Colorado Springs, we decided to beat the heat by making the trek (along with hundreds of others) up Pikes Peak.

Its a 19 mile trip to the 14,110 ft. summit and as the posted signs say – a two hour round trip.

By the time we got to the tree line (about 12,000 ft.) the temperature had dropped some 20 degrees and when we reached the top it had dropped another 10 degrees.

As we made our way up the twisting, turning unpaved portion of the road at a stately 25 MPH, we kept wondering how and why the drivers in the Pikes Peak hill climb managed to do it at an average speed of 110 MPH.