It is now Saturday and everyone has had time to let the tragedy sink in. I don't believe the media have done a very good job. Watching the news on TV the journalists seem to jump from one sensational story to the next (their probably no different from home). When watching interviews the first question after someone has stated their name is, "how do you spell that?"; it is very annoying. After about day 3 or 4 the only question they seemed to be interested in "When will the 911 tapes be available?", haven't we heard enough detail, do you really need to hear the anguish and fear in someone's voice to know that a tragedy has occurred.
Anyway, the issue now is what can we do so that this won't happen again. The Oprah show has declared it as a national boy crisis, we are not raising our boys properly. Others are saying it's the movies, videos and video games, the internet, or last but not least the accessibility to guns. It doesn't seem like anyone is going to make the hard decisions in this free country so it is inevitable that this tragedy will reoccur. Based on the statistics of guns found in schools over the last two years it is a very real and frightening issue. Miss Amy starts school in August……
Our good news is that everyone is back to being 100% fit and well. What a relief. Now all we need is for the snow to go away and look forward to a good summer. We woke up Thursday morning to a very heavy snowfall, perhaps the heaviest since we have been here. They were forecasting 12" in the metro area and 3ft in the foothills. This was some storm. Back to shovelling the driveway unfortunately. The spring snow is noticeably different from the winter snow, it is a lot heavier and moist. It turns to slush very easily and the only good thing is that the temperatures don't drop so low that it freezes on the roads (in some places it might).
Anyway we are just into May and hopefully the weather will improve soon. We are again planning some trips away in May, and in June we are spending a week in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, near Mt Rushmore. Looking forward to that.
Other little differences:
A law is about to be passed allowing people to carry concealed weapons. Previously if you carried a weapon in your car for example it had to be out in the open but now you can carry them in bags or the boot of your car. It also means that you can carry concealed weapons into public places like schools, etc. (This was written before the tragedy at Littlelon, the passing of the bill has now been delayed, not cancelled, just delayed.)
The due date for tax returns is April 15. Most of the major post offices in and around Denver stay open till midnight on April 15 allowing people more time to get their returns post marked by the 15th. (As an aside, we had to apply for an extension because Kyle, Amy and I all had to apply for a tax file number which takes 6-8 weeks to be issued, pity nobody mentioned this to us before…)
Spring is obviously the time when everyone starts to come out of hibernation and things really happen. For instance, in our street alone 5 houses have gone up for sale and there is another three available for rent. People are out playing golf and tennis and swimming lessons are getting crowded.
The baseball season has commenced and it is unbelievable how many games these guys play in one season. They play 162 games in 170 days. The Colorado Rockies is not one of the most winning sides in the league but it isn't too bad watching the games, bit like a slow game of cricket.
Managed to see an interview with a democrat from Texas (a woman) who said that if all educators were allowed to carry concealed weapons then the shootings in schools would never occur…