Author Archives: AJ Bourg

I keep coming back, over and over again, to the recently released pictures of the Carina Nebula. Simply spectacular. It’s hard to imagine this beauty exists “out there” in the depths of space.

Joey Cofone has a free time menu that he uses to help narrow his focus during his free time.

I love this idea and am going to attempt my own version of it. Here’s my current free time menu:

Just got back from my last physical therapy appointment. Been feeling so much better since I started going. I’m always impressed at their knowledge of biomechanics.

They had me ring a bell. I laughed because it’s not like I beat cancer but I am glad to be back in a spot where my leg doesn’t hurt anymore.

Okay, sunset paddle boarding might be my new favorite thing.

Finally produced enough power to run our electric meter backwards!

I was super curious how this would show up. I was hoping it would show a negative sign, but instead it just counts down from 99999.

I’m a little anxious mess today, so I missed Friday but let’s celebrate with five things I’m happy for:

1. The past two weeks we have been fostering a boy we have known for a little over a year. The past two weeks have been like the ultimate sleepover, full of trips to Elitch’s, the game Gubs (best game ever), paddle boarding and more.
2. My father’s day started with Noah throwing my chicken Amelia Egghart to wake me. Alissa got me a wonderful Colorado cycling jersey I can’t wait to put on.
3. Last week while biking around, I came across some open space in Boulder county near a bald eagle nesting area. I saw three eagles in a single tree (they’re huge!) and one flying about 5-6 feet off the ground.
4. I installed ceiling fans in all the upstairs bedrooms. It has been a fair bit of work to figure out the wiring, but by the third (of three!) ceiling-fan, I got it. I used these braces and so far they seem steady!
5. Went to the Haymakers for Hope rumble in the rockies, to support a friend of mine who was boxing. I did not expect to enjoy a boxing event, but there was something super cathartic about watching a bunch of grown men try to beat the daylights out of each other! Would recommend.

We got a new Bosch dishwasher a few weeks ago and the hype for these dishwashers is spot on.

I love the third rack, we wash all our silverware up there and it’s large enough for small bowls and Tupperware lids which otherwise would blow around a bit on the other shelves.

Washing the silverware in the third rack frees up so much space on the main rack for larger pots and pans.

More than anything, it’s so great to have clean dishes. Our old dishwasher was super inconsistent about cleaning, but the Bosch has been super reliable.

I swear I’m not an ad for them. Just didn’t know a dishwasher could be so great.

The 1/6 Committee posted a powerful compilation video of the events of January 6th on Twitter.

It was hard to watch. Many of these videos I had never seen before. It brought up so many memories of that day. I was working and Alissa and I had been watching the news coverage off and on, wondering what would happen as the former-President steadfastly refused to concede.

I remember pulling up live YouTube coverage and seeing a riot unfold. I called down to Alissa to pull up the video. We watched in stunned helplessness. I was glued to everything I could watch. It reminded me of watching September 11, 2001 unfold live when I was a freshman in high school.

Horror turned into relief as everyone rallied around the idea this was not ok. The country, briefly, was united that THIS IS NOT DONE. Not in America.

Through the years, I have been upset at the outcomes of various elections, or the action (and, more often, inaction) of the Federal government. But we take the wins and the losses together. We aren’t Democrat or Republican, primarily, we are Americans. And we can (and should) fiercely debate and disagree, and leave it to the voters. Sometimes what we believe is selected by the voters, sometimes it isn’t.

Every politician, every election says this is the One. This is the last great hope for our country. They stir up fear and concern to hopefully get people to the polls.

But it feels fundamentally different to me that we would go from that to this. That a mob of people would storm our government because this election didn’t go your way. That they would bring violence into our disagreements. That they would shout about assassinating our elected officials. And I have little doubt they would have if they were not thwarted.

And now, half of our political establishment seems to have decided that’s ok?

It’s not Ok. It would not be Ok no matter what side did this, and our Democracy faces a serious test. I hope we pass but I have exactly zero confidence we will.

Sunset bike rides, especially on my e-bike, are one of my favorite things right now.

A little bit of exercise, a little bit of Colorado beauty, a little bit of wind in your hair, a little bit of speed, and a whole lot of fun.

Life has been really busy, and I have not had a lot of time to post to my blog as I had hoped/intended. So here’s a dump of life updates!

We have an adult & high school graduate in the house! Noah turned 18, got a tattoo, and graduated high school. We don’t say p-words in our house, but we are really ROUD of him.

This is a bit older but I haven’t posted on the blog about this, we have 5 chickens! We got them when they were about a week old and tiny (so this pic with the cat is old) and they are probably about 10 weeks old now and beginning to really look like adult chickens.

We sadly had to say goodbye to our cat Lokie. I adopted him in 2004 and they guessed he was about a year and a half old, which would have put his birthday sometime around August 2002. 2002-2022, almost 20 years old. Lots of 2s. We had just celebrated 18 years together.

I knew his time would eventually come, and that’s quite old for a cat, but it is still hard when it does come. And I thought it would be rough, but honestly it was even harder to say goodbye than I expected. I think there are a few reasons for that. I was 17 when I got him, so I’ve had him my entire adult life, and more than half of my whole life. And I think there’s something intimate about a pet. He was there for all my highs and all my lows. No matter how my day went, I could always count on coming home and him greeting me at the door, and sitting on me when I sat down, and laying on or next to me when I went to bed. It’s jarring not to have that anymore.

He needed me when we adopted him. From his fearful behaviors with belts and brooms, he had been mistreated by his previous family. In 18 years, we never hit him with a broom, but he was always afraid when we brought it out and he never forgot.

And I needed him, too. My previous cat had just died and I had a hole in my heart and love to give. And he gave so much love in the years I got to spend with him.

It is hard to say goodbye and we have so much love to give and hated the sound of a quiet house without some furry creature in it.

So we got a dog. Found him at the same humane society I adopted Lokie from all those years ago.

We don’t know what kind of dog he is. His coloring is very Red Heeler, but he is the size of a Corgi or Dachshund. Maybe one day we will get a genetic test to see what he has.

His name at the Humane Society was Red, and it turns out they got 3 dogs together, and they named them Red, Solo and Cup. Poor dog named Cup!

We named him Stanley because that seems like a distinguished name (way more distinguished than Cup) and Stanley seems like a distinguished pup. He’s 2 years old and super well behaved. He has been a great addition to the family and has helped us grieve Lokie.

Other miscellaneous updates: I quit a job I loved and started a new job. The new job is a career pivot for me, in helping a bunch of companies adopt DevOps practices and helping coach engineering teams on how to improve and adopt both the cloud and DevOps. It was a really unique opportunity and it was really hard to decide to quit a job I loved (and had not been at for all that long) but an opportunity like this does not come around often, and I would have regretted not trying it. So far it has been really good!

We “ran” the BolderBoulder this Memorial Day. It was so nice to have this bit of normalcy come back after 2 years of pandemic. I have been going to physical therapy for a hamstring/leg pain, so I did not run it and walked instead. Turns out I enjoy walking WAY more than I enjoy running and worrying about my times. This is probably why I like hiking. I think I’m open to doing additional 10ks but only fun ones that are walkable. I just don’t like running, and the stress/worry about time just sucks all the joy out of it.

For June I’ve decided to go off social media again. At least on my phone. Tired of scrolling away my life. Tired of seeing how horrible people are, and how this makes me feel horrible about people, too. I did this earlier this year in March, and I am just not so sure social media was ever a good idea. I will try to spend more of my downtime working on projects I want to get done, and posting here. So if you care at all about what is happening in my life (it’s ok if you don’t! it’s fairly boring!), follow along here for the month of June. (for info on how to follow blogs, check out this post)