Last Day

Today is the last full day in the god-forsaken place. We come back to the world tomorrow. We are both chomping at the bit to get back to dust, extreme heat, dentist appointments, and preparing for school with endless hours of IEPs (you don't want to know). No more sitings of wild animals looking and smiling at you and welcoming you to their town. What a relief.

The Bad Boys of Ouray were out this morning. They ganged up on the flowers in the yard of the house just up the hill from 3rd Avenue on the un-named street just west of the toboggan run. They saw me and looked up from their gorging. We know each other by now over the years. They can see it in my eyes and I them, those bad boys. We have developed a mutual respect for each other. I tipped my hat and coffee cup to them. They looked long at me. Then went back to eating. Since they have no thumbs, and don't wear hats, they can't tip anything but the fact they were eating flowers some poor smuck planted in hopes of decorating their yard and add color to it, was sign enough. They knew I cheered them on. "We will consume it all and leave no stem untouched," they mentaled to me. Ah, those are my boys!

This time of year, you don't get a real good picture of this town. Tourists are here, leaving their snail trail everywhere. In June or after August, this town gets quiet. The businesses like it because the tourists come in and leave their money in exchange for yelling at 1:36am while stumbling back from the bars to their hotel rooms or rentals. The animals know it the best. You can see it in their eyes. They tolerate it. Soon, it will get quiet again. Then winter and the blanket gets pulled up and over this town until the International Ice Climbing in early January. Then she sleeps again, until spring and the summer migration of outside influences. Nope, you really don't need to come here. Nothing here worth seeing, unless you're in to a change of heart, spirit, soul, and go on long walks with God. Who the heck wants that?

Nope, we're coming back to the world. Yep, here we go. We're on our way.



Shit