Greetings loyal airmen, and here we are, home, safe and sound after a wonderful ten days in Ft.Collins, Colorado.  I certainly hope all of you have had as wonderful a Christmas as we did, with our son, Alan, and his family, and that Santa brought you all tons of new toys.  I've a half dozen terrific new DVD movies that I can't wait to watch.

If you've been watching the weather at all on your TV, you'll all know that Denver got socked by a major snow storm only days prior to Christmas.  Luckily for Valerie and I, that was two days after we arrived.  Denver and parts of eastern Colorado, that sit on this side of the Rocky Mountains, generally do not get lots of snow like this, especially in December.  That stuff is usually reserved for the ski country on the western side of the mountains.  Thus, you can imagine on how unexpected this storm was and the crippling effect it had on the region.  Denver International Airport was shut down for a whole two and a half days!  Over 3,000 travelers were stranded there and many didn't make it home for Christmas.

While in Ft. Collins, where we were, Alan and his snow removal crew were out all night battling the steadily falling snow.  His men worked tirelessly in a valian attempt to keep their residential and commercial customers clear.  Of course they fell behind, as did every other such enterprise.  The day after the snow let up, we went grocery shopping with our daugher-in-law, Nicole, only to find empty shelves in all the local supermarkets.  The bread shelves were empty, as were the milk iceboxes and other stables.  That's just how severe the area was hit.  Major highway arteries were shut down and nothing got through, except emergency services.

I left Denver yesterday morning at 7 AM with rumors of a second snow front on its way.  When I reached Midway Airport in Chicago, I called Valerie, still in Colorado, and she said it had started snowing, but they weren't sure if it was going to be bad or not.  Well by late afternoon, when I touched down in Manchester, NH, my brother-in-law, who picked me up at the airport said, “Man, you got out of there just in the nick of time!”  Sure enough, upon getting home, I turned on the weather channel and learned that Denver and points north were once againg getting dumped…and dumped bad!   Val called last night and said Alan and he crews were at it again.  Amazing.  Meanwhile, southern New Hamphsire, which should have all that stuff this time of year, is still drab and gray with bare ground!  Believe me, things are just plain upside-down.  Ha.

                            
Now the name of Alan's landscaping business is Yard Elves, something I came up with years ago when he first got started.  Once he accepted the name, I recruited my long time artist friend, Gary Kato, to design a logo and then start drawing up several cartoon elves that Alan could use in his marketing and advertising.  Over the years Gary has done a half-dozen of these loveable little guys.  And Alan has used them in many ads and we even produced a coloring book for his customer's childrens a few years back.   In a few short months Alan will be publishing a full color childrens book based on these characters.  

The thing is, ever since he got the business up and running and started plastering these cartoons all over Ft.Collins, I've wanted to do something truly unique for him.  Last summer, I was introduced to an amazing young sculptor named Ver Curtiss.  The guy is a genius.  I showed him the above illustrations from Gary and asked if he could possible turn it into a three dimensional statue.  He took the commission and delivered the amazing piece you see below.   He then wrapped it carefully and shipped it to Colorado, where, on Christmas morning, it was Alan's premier Christmas gift.  He lit up like a little kid when he saw it and it now sits atop his shelf in his main company office.  It was a special moment for all of us and I wanted to share it with all of you.

                         
The craftsmanship in this piece is amazing.  Ver was going to do the wheel barrel that appears in the sketch, but it would have taken more time and Christmas was only weeks away when he started sculpting.  So we lost the wheel barrel. Ha.  Not that it makes any difference in the end result.  Thanks, Ver, I owe you big time.

So there you have it, airmen.  A fantastic holiday, and now we are home and once again getting the Pulp Factory cranked up anew.  I've lots of projects in the wings for 2007 and am very anxious to get to them.  Stick around and I'll keep you posted as always.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AIRMEN….Ron, over and out.