the globe rover

Denver, CO

To the person that found my lost casio exilim camera in Steamboat Springs, CO last Saturday:

You can keep the camera. I would just like my photos back. As I’m sure you have seen, there are pictures of my niece, nephew, family, and friends that I cannot recreate nor replace. I am not concerned with the camera and will even give you a replacement memory card. I just want my photos back.

No questions asked, contact me and I will find a way to get you a new card so you can get mine to me with the photos. End of stories.

Look forward to hearing from you soon,

Lara (lara@larabancroft.com)

Denver, CO

Heavy thoughts this week of many different things. Honesty is a beautiful thing and is so appreciated in the smallest of forms. Without honesty, what is there?

Moments and their meaning and impact…

Another quote I like:

“We do not remember days, we remember moments. The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten.”

Cesare Pavese

I am still being impacted daily by one of my newest heroes who is no longer on Earth. Miles is the man/boy that I wrote about a couple of weeks ago that suffered from cancer yet faced his fate with grace and saintliness. Miles’ Mom is continuing his blog with daily thoughts and writings from the family. They are amazing and the strength of Miles clearly comes from his family as they are evidence of good coming out of bad.

From Miles Levin’s blog June 4, 2006 one year after his diagnosis of stage IV alveolar rhabdomyosarcoma:

“Nobody knows for sure what we’re doing here, or how to gauge our successfulness, but I tend to think that if you leave the world a better place than when you got here, as much as was personally possible, you’re doing pretty good. Taking that as a quantification of success, you then realize that your biological vitality means very little..having a beating heart and operational lungs does not define you; your effect on the world around you does. Once you fulfill that service, your shift is done; you’re off work and it’s time to go home. So you don’t necessarily need a lot of years to have a lot of effect. In fact, maybe the opposite: if the good die young, it is they that have the most profound effect of all. If you can truly embrace this - and I’m trying - that’s sainthood.”

If only the world were full of Miles Levins….

Denver, CO

“Be conscious of your choices and responsible for your actions.”

Great quote from a powerful movie that I just watched tonight (”Peaceful Warrior“). Excellent movie with lessons to apply to life. Moments…what they mean and how you live them.

Another lesson:

Life has three rules:
Paradox - even if you gain everything you want, you will never have it forever

Humor- especially about yourself, because you should never take yourself too seriously

Change- nothing stays the same

Vail, CO

Yesterday brought another adventure, trip to the mountains, and great festival. Vail Oktoberfest is an annual event held in beautiful Vail Village in which German beer is poured, Oom Pah bands sing and dance, and brats are consumed. Before I moved overseas, my crew of friends and I would attend an Oktoberfest in one of the mountain towns annually, so I thought best to continue this tradition upon my return to Denver.

This year was not disappointing although the rain, wind, hail and smaller than normal crowds would have indicated otherwise. Our crew of four (Lynette, Scott, Cathy, and I) was determined to have an adventure and enjoy yet another festival of fun. And the adventure started early as our 10 am departure and anticipation of a two hour journey became a three and a half hour tour of Leadville and Minturn due to the overturned gas truck that led us on a detour.

Alas, we did arrive in Vail just in time to catch the start of the rain and make a mad dash to find a bar that serves beer (that is why we drove to Vail after all!). And just in the nick of time as the hail started flying down just as we ducked into the bar. Quite a site to see all the vendors having to hold down their tents as the weather worsened. As usual though with mountain storms, we had barely finished our first beer (a lovely Pyramid Apricot Ale) by the time the storm had blown over.

Out to the streets we went to find and enjoy the Oktoberfest festivities. After a few stops with some of the local Vail celebrities (aka the statues), we found the main tent selling the mugs. And check out these jugs mugs! Typical German beer haus style mugs large enough to hold a litre.

So are you wondering what we did all day? Here’s the short list of our eleven hour fiesta fun:

• beer drinking (we all got a bicep workout curling the mugs to our mouths)
• dancing (save the terrible, terrible Chicken Dance that our poor friends Lynette and Scott insisted they dance to)
• visiting with local people and tourists alike (dirty old men, crazy women, muddy bikers, free drink pouring locals, etc.)
• eating brats (mmmmm)
• drinking jager bombs (who would have thought at a beer festival!)
• having some more fun with statues
• making friends (can you say dirty old men - where are your wives!!)
• and just plain good mountain festival fun

The day was crazy and fun and fantastic and a great event for anyone that wants a taste of German beer in a beautiful mountain setting. On a day filled with grey skies and thinning crowds, make sure you take the right companions for entertainment!

Prost to another Oktoberfest!

PS - our adventure continued even after we left Vail as our bathroom pitstop in Silver Plume turned into lyrical entertainment with Remember May at Grumpy’s Roadside Tavern!

Denver, CO

After two and a half years of living overseas and mostly like a vagabond, I have my own home again. I am up early today awaiting both my shipment from Australia as well as everything from Georgia. It’s exciting to think that I will have all my belongings again in one place (even though it is only material goods I am looking forward to being surrounded by my books and pictures once again). Here’s to hoping there hasn’t been too much damage in my cumulative moves from Denver to Georgia, Georgia to London, London to Georgia, Georgia back to Denver and Sydney to Denver!

I’m living two blocks from where I used to live in Denver which puts a smile on my face. Waking up every morning to see the park is a magical thing in my book. And I’ll have a proper place for visitors in no time soon!

Hope everyone is enjoying their home and appreciating how fortunate we are to have homes!

Auburn, AL

It was amazing to be back at Jordan-Hare and feel the rush of the football season. Thankfully, our very close and frustrating game pulled out at the end to a victory for the boys. I would like to think that a little of the victory can be contributed to the amazing volume and support of the fans in the crowd. I was proud to be a part of the crowd cheering loud to encourage the Tigers onto a 23-13 win over Kansas State.

As always (and win or not), it’s great to be an Auburn Tiger!

War Damn Eagle