Random thoughts from the mind that never sleeps.

"Curiosity killed the cat, but for a while I was a suspect." Steven Wright

As I was driving to visit some friends in Ridgway Colorado recently I traveled through an area that I had not been through before. Along the way there were many deer and other critters grazing and, apparently, just hanging out near the road I was driving on. It had been raining throughout the late afternoon hours so the foliage and animals were soaked with moisture - though they did not seem to mind. There are many of my acquaintance who live in this part of Colorado, though most of our interaction takes place at church or in the Montrose area. I realized as I was  headed into this somewhat unfamiliar territory that there is a lot of this part of the world that I have not spent time in. My loss.

A few days ago my sweetheart (Cindy) made a comment that went something like, "You would think that after living here for 8 years I would be more familiar with the surrounding area. People talk to me about local geography and I have no idea what the heck they are talking about!" I invited her to ride along with me last night but she had other commitments that made that impossible. We need to spend more time exploring the surrounding territory over the coming months and years. If nothing else good comes from the effort at least we will be a little more familiar with where places are and what they look like.

A long time ago but not too far away, it did not take a lot of outside input for us to drive an hour or two to spend some time in the outdoors - exploring those venues that could be reached in that time frame. We knew most of the geography of the area where we had grown up and did not hesitate to go anywhere. Things changed with the introduction of small children (though it should not have) and the big change came when we moved to the Metro Denver area. The motivation to go into the wilds of Colorado diminished as life got busier and pressure to maintain a home and family grew.

Now the nest is empty. It is time to get back out there.

Just a short post today. Thanks for checking in. More to come soon. See you then.