Rocky Mountain High

Phil: I think people place too much emphasis on their careers. I wish we could all live in the mountains at             high altitude. That's where I see myself in five years. How about you? 

Rita: Oh, I agree. I just like to go with the flow. See where it leads me. 

Phil: Well, it's led you here. 

Rita: Mm hmm. Of course it's about a million miles from where I started out in college.

From  The Movie Groundhog Day

Many of you know that “Groundhog Day” is one of our favorite movies of all time.  We watch it about twice per year (and always on February 2^nd) and we are at the point where we probably use a quote from the movie at least once per week. 

 For example at least 10 times per winter one of us turns to the other while skiing on a beautiful “bluebird day” and say “Let’s Live Here” (Utah was certainly in mind when we remember the follow-up line “we’ll rent first”).  Our place in Vermont we named “Marmota Acres” after our furry friend and the groundhog that lived under our deck in Stowe was always referred to as “Murray”, after the leading actor in the movie.  In fact my Blog name as you may note is “Murray Rider”, a carryover from my first “travel blog” back in 2010.

Ok you might all be, wondering, where are you going with this?  Well a couple of places.

First, I want to ‘lighten up” a bit for a couple of weeks with some more “human topics”.  Ido  have a couple “heavier” pieces started but after my anti-IRS rant thought it best to get on some lighter thoughts.

Second, from a personal standpoint and in line with my movie quote lead-in, I wanted to let you all know blog posts will be hit or miss for at least a few weeks.  We have “ski company” coming Tuesday for a week (yea!) and then with the arrival of my sister next Sunday, Barbara and I will be heading out for three days in Winter Park Colorado.  We hope to purchase our new permanent residence in this Colorado Mountain Resort town (we do plan on spending a summers back East and keeping our Vermont Home as a Mid-summer and Autumn residence).  Utah has been great (more on that next post, as well as commentary on some other places we have lived) but Kids and Grandkids in Colorado are pulling us in that direction.

So that is where my movie quote came to mind,  Winter Park is at 9,000 feet and we are leaving Utah’s 5,200 feet behind (moving on up I guess).  I could not resist the reference to living at high altitudes!

I have a theory on this, picked up by looking at stories of people 110 plus years old, that living at high altitudes increases average lifespan and is a healthier lifestyle.  My “bias”  seems confirmed by at least some science-just see this article as an example…(from Colorado of course as my Dad once said “you never heard a huckster yell rotten fish”).

  https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-03/uocd-ssl032511.php )

So maybe a few of you have your own theories on how to live a longer, healthier life,  or other comments on why you live where you do, If so maybe you can share with the rest of us!  Otherwise I hope you all are doing fine and I will be back in a week or so!

 Until then

Adieu

(PS.  Yes I see this Colorado study also says smoking cancels out much of the benefit…I still intend to enjoy my cigar 2-3 times per week even in Winter Park! it keeps me mentally young!)