Cat Tales ~ Meowy Xmas

From Mes Humble Castle to Yours, May You Be Blessed With The Best of Everything This Holiday Season.

Purz and Catnip Dreams.......Gomez

December Alternate Perceptions issue

Be sure to check out the December issue of AP Magazine!

How do You Sense Color?

What sense do you use when interacting with a color? Your eyes? Your ears? Or maybe even your sense of smell?

Most humans utilize their sense of sight when a color is involved. But did you know that Dogs can smell color? And Bats can hear color? And there are some humans who can feel color.
But how is this possible you ask?
It is my belief that everything in this world is made up of vibrational energy. Different people, animals, and inanimate objects vibrate at different frequencies. This would also include color. Different colors have different densities and will vibrate at different frequencies. 
Many species have evolved specific senses in order for them to survive. Bats have a highly developed sense of hearing to enable them to locate insects or other edible objects in the dark. When bats use echolocation, they are discerning the difference between something edible and something which isn't edible by the way the sound waves bounce off the object. If their sense of hearing is that acute, then who is to say that they are not able to tell the difference between colors? There is a blind man who is able to use clicking sounds to find his way around in the world.  
Dogs have a highly developed sense of smell and hearing. They 'smell' in color. Because they utilize all their senses when observing their world, they have associated certain smells with certain items. Humans have a tendency to do the same thing though we do not think of it as 'smelling color'. When you take a deep breathe in late Spring, what do you smell? There is a freshness in the air which we humans often associate with the color green. Dogs have taken this talent to an extreme level.
Blind artists are often able to discern the difference between colors simply by feeling them. Different colors will have different textures because of the pigments used to give them their distinctive hue. 
Try utilizing ALL your sense when experiencing the world. You might be surprised with what you discover!

A Multitude of Senses

image source

How many senses do you have?  5?  6?  Or would you say a person has more?
You might be surprised to find out that humans are believed to have as many as 21 senses and possibly even more! 

Many of the senses which we already are aware of - sight, taste, touch are composed of more than one sense. With sight, we are able to perceive both color and brightness. Taste enables us to discern between sweet, salty, sour, bitter and umami (savory-ness). 

With our sense of touch we are able to tell temperature, pressure, pain and itchiness. But touch can be broken down even further. Pain can be felt in various ways - skin, bones/joints, and body organs. Itchiness is its our sense and pressure can be felt as a light touch or as something heavy.

Then there is our sense of hunger, thirst, equilibrium, time, smell, and sound.  And not to be left out is the sense of Proprioception (spatial awareness) or rather 'where our body parts are at any given time'.

A new, and some what controversial, theory is that hair is also part of our senses. It is believed that long hair is an extension of the nervous system and enables a person to be more aware of and better sense their environment. Native Americans have always been considered masters at tracking and discerning the environment around them. When these expert trackers enlisted in the US Army, their hair was cut and they lost their keen abilities. 

One of the most intriguing senses is Magnetoception or the ability to detect magnetic fields. This sense is highly developed in most animals since this is how they are able to follow their migratory routes. 

While most humans have varying degrees of development of the various senses, some have never developed their 'sense of humor' or  'common sense'. 

Click here to learn more!

The Latest Issue of AP Magazine

My latest article for AP Magazine. Click the title below.

Archaeo-astronomical Sites in SE Colorado

Check Out This Article!

Chimney Rock & Its Companion - A Spiritual Outpost

Misc. Pikes Peak Photos

Santa's Workshop - This is a major source of revenue for Santa Claus. He has to fund that workshop he has at the North Pole somehow! I do believe a Santa clone is running this place while the real Santa takes the Summer off.

image source

While sitting in the snack bar eating our donuts, we were amazed at the quantity of gnats that were everywhere. A person couldn't walk outside without breathing in a few or having them fly into your mouth.

Gnats on window at snack bar - yes, they are on the inside of the window

Kinda hard to see, but the roof of the trusty roadtrip car was covered with gnasty gnats!

Ravens were a common sight on both the drive up and back. Pairs of them could be seen cavorting in the air around the Summit House. I imagine they were feasting on the gnats!

Glen Cove Inn - Back in the Day, there was a ski area located here, which consisted of two runs. It is now just a gift shop and picnic place. There is a checkpoint located here for the vehicles traveling downhill/ A Ranger will check the temperature of the vehicle's brake pads. If the temperature is over 300deg, then the car must be parked until the brake pads cool off. The road up Pikes Peak is uphill to the top and downhill to the bottom. Driving in low gears is a must!

Checkpoint for brake temperature

Not too far from the Summit is a place called the Devil's Playground. It is so named because of the way lightning jumps from rock to rock during a thunderstorm. There is no cover on the mountain at this elevation. Not a place a person would want to be in a thunderstorm!

It was interesting how the rocks along the ridges would stick up. They looked like the spines or plates along the back of dinosaurs. 

This is the burial marker of Carl Lotave. His ashes have been interred below the marker. Carl Lotave was a Swedish born painter who moved to Colorado Springs in 1899 to paint Native Americans for the Smithsonian. His burial place is in the granite boulder field to the southwest of the Summit House.

Another interesting marker is located waaayyyyyy out on a rock ledge to the west of the Summit House. It is a Masonic (?) plaque/time capsule.

And now for the views. It is said that on a clear day - which is so hard to come by any more, what with air pollution and smoke from wildfires - a person can see from Denver in the north, to the Continental Divide to the west, to New Mexico in the south, and Kansas to the East. The Arkansas River can also be seen to the southeast.

Looking north towards Denver & Denver's famous brown cloud of smog.
The mountains in the foreground is the Rampart Range which is mostly bare
now because of the Waldo Canyon fire which took place in 2012

Looking down and to the east towards Colorado Springs.
Garden of the Gods in in the center of the photo

Looking to the southeast towards the city of Pueblo and the Arkansas River

Looking to the west and the Continental Divide

Looking to the southwest at the gold mine at Cripple Creek

I highly recommend this trip to anyone who visits this area. The road is open year round - weather permitting. So much history. So much beauty.

And despite the sheer drop-offs along the road, it really is a nice road. Just don't look down!

Road Trip ~ Pikes Peak

To celebrate the coming of Autumn., Hubby & I took our annual roadtrip into the mountains to view the glorious Autumn colors. Unfortunately the aspen were plagued with a fungus this year that caused  a lot of their leaves to simply turn brown and fall off. But there were still some glorious sights.

This year, we drove to the top of Pikes Peak. 

It was a gorgeous day so we took the trusty roadtrip car and headed out. Going topless allows for better pictures.

The road to the top is a toll road and is paved all the way. A nice drive with expansive vistas.

We made stops as pull-offs allowed. This was a MUST! And even though we didn't see the elusive Man, we did get a pic of a statue.

Approaching Timberline

The original road was all dirt (and probably not as wide) and opened in 1888. This first road carried tourists in carriages up to the top. 

In 1915 the road was improved for automobile use. In 1916, the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb began. This road rally to the top of Pikes Peak has been held annually ever since. Racers in all manner of motorized vehicles & motorcycles will race to the top - one at a time - for the best time. The record is a little over 9 minutes!

Guard rail for road can be seen at top of ridge

Road to the Summit

The distance to the top from the starting line is 12.42 miles with 156 turns and grades of 7.2%. I have no idea how those racers can do that!

Nearing the Summit

Summit House

By 2011, the road was completely paved - all the way to the top. 

old weather station

At the top, is a building which houses a weather station and has a camera on top which transmits images approx. every 10 minutes. There is also a US Army Research Facility for Environmental Medicine. Also at the summit is a monument to the song, 'America the Beautiful'. this song was written about Pikes Peak.

The top of Pikes Peak is a boulder field of Pikes Peak granite. This granite is pink in color and is what this amazing mountain is made of. In fact, this granite stretches for miles both north and south.

A wall of the original Summit House can still be seen nearby the current Summit House. There are plans in the works to build a newer, nicer Summit House. 

Cog railway headed down the mountain

There are three ways to reach the top of Pikes Peak - drive, hike or take the Pikes Peak Cog Railway. The next time we decide to get that high, we will take the railway!

Man walking up on Barr Trail

Barr Trail is the way to get to the top on foot. This is the way the AdAmAn Club hikes to the top of Pikes Peak to set off the fireworks on New Year's Eve.

While we were at the summit, we had to have a world famous donut which is cooked right there on the spot. A little heavy but still quite tasty.

All in All, a very nice Sunday drive. Despite the white knuckles which appeared on a few sections. I'll post more photos tomorrow.