I need to correct Grateful Web over their bias over the impact of oil and gas on the environment.  First of all... the production that bush wants to open up in Colorado is GAS.  Gas is very clean,  not only for burning, but also to drill and produce.  An average house in Boulder is far, far worse for the environment then either an oil or gas well.  It only take a few weeks to drill a well, where a house is pretty much permanent. An oil well normally has a 20 year life span... if the producer is lucky.

I hope you are all doing well and had an enjoyable summer!  It is getting near spring here, evident by the pink flowers of the blooming peach trees.  Yet the weather in the Highlands is still very cold!  Some days, when it is cloudy or windy the temperature doesn't get much above 65, and when the sun is out it will get maybe up in the 70s.  The crops and grasses are brown and have died down, but the pine, eucalyptus and other evergreen shrubs remain as a presence of green.