Headed back home to Colorado today, if the ice permits. I’ve been in Kansas for a couple weeks helping my father with some issues after the passing of my mother. There are many things that I could have managed to accomplish — he’s got loads of things that need to be cleared from the house in part to make walkways clearer and safer for walking, and my sister, wife and I managed to donate a number of boxes and bags of clothing and miscellaneous to some shelters, but that will truly take months rather than weeks (at least if Dad’s got anything to say about it). When I leave, he’s going to be facing the big house on his own, without the distraction of going to visit Mom every day. He’s going to need to be called on a frequent basis, but he’s also going to get to experience true loneliness for the first time in over 65 years since he married my mother. I wish there was a way to get him to visit us in Colorado, but his last visit he had issues with the elevation and he’s scared to try it again, not that I can really blame him. In addition, he has said on multiple occasions that he’s lost all interest in travel.
I hope Colorado’s economy is still strong enough to provide gainful employment upon my return. I have not been informed that my position is disappearing, but I have been told to avail myself of whatever opportunities exist because those opportunities may not be available much longer. So, fun, fun, fun when I get back. If I wind up with a great deal of time on my hands, however, I will avail myself of some Constitutional rights while they still exist. Freedom to assemble, freedom of speech, perhaps freedom to petition my elected representatives.
In any event, I look forward to returning to the Centennial State. Though I grew up in Kansas and still nominally consider that home, Colorado, with my wife, my furbabies and my residences for more years than any other state, is where I consider my home these years. I long to return to the hills of Denver where my house is, where I can see the continental divide, Mount Evans and Pike’s Peak, and where the air is delightfully thinner and has a freshness with hints of pine, sagebrush and granite, along with occasional wood smoke.
Don’t forget, the Caffeinating Liberally on January 28th, at Common Grounds coffeeshop, 44th and Vallejo from 9 to noonish.