Day 37: And now I glow in the dark.

Cheyenne Mountain and Downtown Colorado Springs from Palmer Park.

What I'm listening to today

Angel Miners & the Lightning Riders (2020, by AWOLNATION) - I preordered this album and then sat around at 10PM reloading the page in the Google Play Store until I could download and listen to it. It's no secret that I love AWOLNATION. And this album in its versatility and sheer musicality is everything that makes AWOLNATION great. It bounces between pure guitar rock and electronic concepts. At times it is silly, and at times it is very dark. One listen in and I am already appreciating the music more than its predecessor Here Come the Runts. The most powerful and moving song on the album by far is "California Halo Blue," a ballad about the devastating 2018 Woolsey Fire and the personal impact it had on Bruno's family. But my favorite song is the finale "I'm a Wreck," which tricks you into thinking it's a slow ballad about personal turmoil, but then it shifts gears, goes metal, and punches you in the face with it's direct and NSFW commentary. Angel Miners & Lightning Riders is solidly in the #3 (out of 4) slot when it comes to AWOLNATION albums, but that is not an indictment of the album whatsoever. After all, #1 Megalithic Symphony is near perfect, and #2 Run is so consistently good from end to end.

What I'm doing today

Gravel sieving - A gravel landscape homeowner's work is never done. I picked up where I left off a couple weeks ago and continued cleaning up the gravel landscaping that rings the back yard. This involves removing the gravel, running it through a sieve to separate out dirt and organics, laying down weed barrier, and then replacing the gravel. I was able to do about 10 linear feet before the skies opened up and poured on us. I did have a little 3yo helper that had a lot of fun sorting and counting rocks. He was unbelievably cute, asking "Why?" after everything we did.

Sightseeing - I needed to get the kids out of the house for an hour this afternoon, so during a brief window in between rain showers we took a drive up to Palmer Park. Palmer Park is a really unique kind of opportunity that exists nowhere else. This city park is completely surrounded by urban areas, but itself contains canyons, cliffs, and a plethora of other geological formations to look at and climb on. When you're there you feel like you're out in the middle of nowhere, that is until you get to the top of a butte and look out over the sprawling views. To the south you have Cheyenne Mountain and downtown. To the west are clear views of Garden of the Gods and Pikes Peak. To the north you can see all the way to the Palmer Divide near Monument. And east are sprawling plains. It's one of the most advantageous spots for taking in the scenery around. We took advantage of the spot and the break in the rain to watch a storm making its way past Pikes Peak and over the Rampart Range.