Springtime in the Rockies!

It's finally happening---Springtime in the Rockies is slowly waking the trees, the birds and the bees. It moves in first with warmer temperatures, sounds of birdsong, longer days, but you can really tell it's here, when the young girls begin to appear in cut-offs and flip flops on a 45 degree day, which after this winter feels like heaven---hallelujah!! This is rugged country---5000 miles up where the air and oxygen are so thin that athletes come here to train in order to build their endurance. If you have a weak heart, this is not the place to be. Even entertainers that come here for a night or two, usually end their numbers huffing and puffing,out of breath, while we smile in amusement at their sea-level fragility. We, on the other hand, are a hearty lot. Hikers, bikers, skiers, and authentic cowboys from nearby Cheyenne, Wyo. with pick-up trucks and authentic cowboy hats are found in abundance here. The rest of the real men wear heavy down parkas and drive honkin' big SUVS, and so do the women. We can spot a Californian a mile away because they usually buy the biggest, most expensive house in the neighborhood----and think they've died and gone to heaven, as they luxuriate in our lower cost of living, mostly sunny days, and outdoorsy life style. Yeah, we pretty much rock here in the Rockies. But come Spring, our mountain ways become coastal, as everybody breaks out their shorts, sandals, bikes, kayaks, geraniums, convertibles, and all things sunny and warm---until a rogue snow storm comes barreling across the mountains, stripping all the newly flowering trees cruelly of their blossoms. Not to worry, it never lasts long----but neither do the summers. It's usually all over by September, when it can and does sometimes snow, big time, turning us all into mountain people again. So, we play summer hard and fast here, well aware that like many things, it too shall pass--all too soon.

In case you didn't notice, Fort Collins,Colorado, my home town these days, was just noted, per USA Today, as having the most fit people in the country! If you want to get lean and mean, come on up--bring lots of water and oxygen---and a parka just in case! You'll find me on a tennis court or near a body of water---I'm one of those migrant Californians. I like it here, and my tribe lives here. So this is home, but I pretend that the big up-close sky is the ocean and the whispering winds are the waves .Never judge a person by their parka---it may be hiding a restless, coastal heart. But then, I may just have a touch of Spring fever---