At five o’clock this morning I watched a quarter moon come up in the east, backlit by the sun and nearly obliterating my view of the stars. Lights at the top of the mountains fade as the sun begins to place the majestic (homage to Dad) mountains themselves in focus.
One of my favorite late-night adventures out west is looking at the stars, and in the winter, seeing the sno-cats grooming the mountain trails. Watching sno-cats probably evolved from my early childhood interest in having an ant farm, because that’s what they look like from a distance, ants with headlights.
Listening to the early morning mortars go off to prevent avalanches is now a comforting sound. Even the dog doesn’t mind it. Loud thuds let me know where we are and how much we love it here.
But life is a series of adventures. I’ve followed my husband to the heat and humidity of Texas. We do love the West, the mountains and the sense of freedom that they bring.
He liked shedding his “banker image” for what I call “Utah Formal,” cords or nice jeans with a starched plaid Stetson or Resistol shirt. Indiana Jones hat for summer, Cossack hat for winter. And believe me, we have year-round clothing and boots that’ll take us anywhere.
Now it appears other forces are at work and our locale will change, at least for a while. While I prepare for the future, I plan to appreciate what we have here for a short time before driving across this country of ours once again, dog in tow. Well, she’s not in tow, she’d be in my SUV sleeping soundly on her 4″ thick orthopedic mattress with two-hour potty and water stops until she awakens and pops her head up as soon as I slow down at an off-ramp. Great travel dog!
We promised not to buy anything here, but ended up with my husband getting an AWD car, eight snow tires, books, kitchen equipment and a lot of paper with taxes et al. Portable heater, humidifier, grill…. He thinks we can fit everything in the cars or a small container, WRONG! He has no idea even what clothes we’ve had to buy him to get through three years with everything we own in storage! But he’ll find out soon enough.
He’s on the ground checking out temporary digs today. We miss him. The dog keeps looking for him out the front windows at her Watch Station (the far bed in the guest room). I’m keeping up the same old routine of dog walking and feeding, cleaning, laundry et al.
We’ve met some really good folks up here, who will be missed. While I’ve gotten used to living at a high altitude, I won’t miss shredded hands from the dry air, or being unable to successfully boil an egg, failures due to no atmosphere and total freshness of the produce we receive here. Up here you need a week-old egg and to place it in cold water and bring it to a hard boil for 12 minutes, then ice and peel.
I guess I can live near sea level for a time. Mark my words we will be back in the mountains, if only to retire. Perhaps Montana or Colorado, states that have more freedoms than where we are now. Cheers looking to the future, and future posts, Dee
