Hardscrabble Times

I recently read that Brett Favre takes 800 milligrams of ibuprofen three times a day. Who knows if that is true, but it’ can’t be enough to take the edge off the physical and mental pain he must be going through.

I’ve spent the better part of a week trying to get my mind around the Minnesota Vikings’ loss in the NFC Championship game, and moreover, Favre’s game-ending interception.

Sure, the Vikes made plenty of mistakes throughout the game, but they were still in it until the penalty for 12 men in the huddle. That set up Favre’s bad throw in the final seconds.

Now regardless of what you think of Favre — I enjoy watching him play — he had a great season. Everyone talked about how “old” he is, but there are 28 younger quarterbacks in the NFL who can only wish they brought their teams that far. Clearly age is not an issue here.

And Favre had thus far played a pretty good game. Despite the fumbles, penalties, one interception and other errors — not to mention Favre taking a tremendous physical beating — his team was still in a position to win.

Then came the 5-yard penalty, and, with his team needing just a few yards to kick a field goal, the fated play. Favre later said he should have run.

Duh. I will not pretend to know what was going through his mind at the time he let go of that ball, but I was yelling “run” right here in my living room.

The whole thing brought to memory John Elway’s famous run and “leap” in Super Bowl XXXII. The difference is Elway did run, and the Bronco’s won the game. The irony is that Favre was the losing quarterback for the Green Bay Packers in that Super Bowl.

Elway, by the way, was 38 then.

You’d think Elway’s run would have been stuck in Favre’s mind. Maybe next year. I think Favre will be back. I just don’t think he can end his career with that play.

Had to make a trip to Taos, N.M., Sunday to pick up some materials to repair a damaged saltillo-tile floor at the ranch house. Ran into a little snowstorm on the way home from just south of San Luis to Fort Garland. As we drove out of the storm on the way up La Veta Pass, some of the most surreal mountain lighting I’ve ever experienced was provided by the sun setting below the ceiling of the clouds and illuminating the surrounding vegetation in a surprising last-minute display of color on what otherwise had been a drab winter day.

Taggers struck the old Goodnight barn just west of Pueblo some months ago. The graffiti on the historic building seems such an odd statement, though I suspect the artists know nothing of the structure’s history, nor do they care.

According to various historical sources, Charles Goodnight was the Texas cattleman whose life is said to have provided the loose framework for the book and movie “Lonesome Dove.” The former Texas Ranger drove thousands of longhorn-cross cattle from Texas north to New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.  He’s also credited with inventing the chuck wagon.

In the 1870s Goodnight settled at Rock Canyon Ranch along the Arkansas River just west of Pueblo where the stone barn still stands in the middle of a now-abandoned gravel pit.

Goodnight later established another large ranch in the Texas Panhandle, and died in 1929 at the age of 93.

Eighty years later someone spray-painted who knows what on the front corner of his barn (click on the photo for a larger view), on property now managed by Colorado State Parks. If nothing else, perhaps the graffiti will draw attention to a truly historic structure that really needs some attention.

First sunset of 2010 at the Out There Pack-Burro Ranch and Training Facility.

If I must find something good to say about 2009 perhaps it served as a year of passage, though I’m not sure to what. And now this year I face the big 5-0. If I’ve come up with anything definitive in almost a half century it is that this has thus far been a life imperfectly lived, and I suppose that applies to most lives. And most years.

Perhaps this photo sums it up best. It’s the first colorful sunset of the new year, Jan. 1, 2010. The sun is starting its northward journey. But there was no way to take the photo except how it is. And how it is is there is a big metal building that sprang up this past year right dab in the middle of that hillside. Look closely and maybe you’ll see it. That same metal building is also framed in our southwest livingroom window.

But as we enter 2010, I’ve decided to just take the photo as it is. See the sunset, not the building. As we embark on this new year things are what they are, and we are where we are. And that’s just that.

I don’t eat at restaurants often, and I don’t find that many places I like to eat in nearby Pueblo. But that’s where we do our major shopping and sometimes it’s more convenient to just eat there than to drive home and cook. Richard Warner, former chef at Steel City Diner, along with his brother-in-law Mark Oreskovich have opened up a cool hamburger joint called Bingo Burger. The menu features hamburgers made from natural grass-fed beef (no hormones, drugs or chemicals), as well as lamb and poultry burgers and interesting sides including sweet potato fries and green salads.

We stopped in the other night for dinner, and the experience was super. I rarely eat anything made from wheat flour, but put aside my orthorexia nervosa (a term I usually reserve for vegetarians but I suppose also could be applied to wheat phobics) that night for a Bingo Burger (medium rare with roasted green chile) on a really good bun. The food was really great — even Harrison tore into his Berry Burger, and he’s a picky eater.

We lived it up even more when Richard appeared at the table with a homemade chocolate malt. I highly recommend checking out Bingo Burger next time you’re looking for something good to eat in the Steel City.

As for my bun phobia, I suppose Richard could always toss a burger atop a salad next time, though I’m really curious about that lamb burger with goat cheese . . .

My old friend and former employer when I was at Sport and Fitness Publishing, John Winsor, recently gave the commencement address at the University of Colorado journalism school. The subject was “Dare to Fail,” and the talk was interesting in terms of the world that both new and longtime journalist face.

John’s speech made me remember that I, along with my buddy Andrew Lahana, actually founded the tradition of a J-school graduation ceremony at CU.

It’s actually an amusing story . . . Our friends in the business school had their own commencement and there was no such tradition in the J-school. We thought we’d show them how to hold a graduation — we’d get Jimmy Buffett to give our commencement address in Mackey Hall. Now there was someone who’d really done something with his journalism degree! He’d just played a concert that semester in the new CU Events Center and so we figured no problem getting him to speak to our graduating class. So we went through the channels, sent letters, made phone calls, etc. . . . and we waited. And waited.

Finally one day Russ Shain, who was the J-school dean, called us into his office and brought up that we had the entire class looking forward to this ceremony, but we had no speaker lined up. Andrew and I had never considered a back-up plan. The reality, Russ said, is that Jimmy Buffett was not coming. But Russ had connections, and so soon it was announced that WIlliam Hornby, who was some major figure at the Denver Post at the time, would be giving the commencement address.

Still, Andrew and I had to give the introduction, which I wrote and peppered with quotes from Buffett songs. Nobody got it, but we had dared to fail and today the J-school still holds a ceremony each semester. Twenty-seven years later I have former employers giving the commencement address.