My brain has been a torrent of activity. Ideas and thoughts buzz around my head like bees on crack. It is so hard for me to sit down and make any of them coherent enough to make sense to anyone but me. I will start talking to Eddie in the middle of a thought which leaves him wondering what the hell I am talking about. I also will start a thought and not finish it because my mind has already hopped through 6 different thoughts before I realize that I didn't finish the original one. He likes to hear the trail the thought took before it came out of my mouth because sometimes the things I say seem so random to him.



I love to see the marks people leave behind. I love to think of Dave, in 1956 carving his mark in this tree. The tree, unknowing and uncaring grew and left Dave's mark where he put it. Dave in his chino shorts and button down shirt. I wonder if he thought about people passing his signature 50 years later and thinking of him.

What marks will I leave behind? I think this is part of my obsession with the metal detecting I've been doing lately. The only thing of value that I found this weekend was a silver band. At the picnic spot, I found a spot someone had buried their garbage. That was more interesting than the ring. A sizzelean package. Coke cans with a date of 1988. Melted beer bottles. Unwittingly, someone left their mark behind because I dug it up. Evidence of the people that went before.

History in Colorado, for American's is only around 200 years old. Having grown up on the East Coast, that history feels sparse. I know the Spanish, Native Americans and Mexican history is much older and richer than I'm giving it credit for, but the buildings aren't really here. Especially where we live. We're the East side of Colorado Springs. Everything out here is pretty new. Germany was a special treat. Wurzburg was celebrating its 1300th anniversary when we arrived. They had buildings, that in spite of wars, still stood after 1100 years. In our disposable culture, most knock down the buildings rather than restoring them. The history is gone as soon as the wrecking ball swings in order to make way for cheaper and larger structures. Something has to accommodate the exploding population of this country.

I guess this is the natural way of things. If not by human hand, nature will renew.

We drove through the beautiful, scenic countryside of Colorado. The weather was amazing and everything seemed a little bit more beautiful because of it. I think the one thing I have come to love about Colorado is the scenery. It can be overwhelming sometimes and I find myself paying extra close attention to the things we see as we drive along the dusty, dirt roads that wind through the various state parks. As enchanting as some places can be, others can be equally disturbing.



Thousands upon thousands of acres of burned trees. Standing up tall, they are a sad reminder of how beautiful they once were. One fire and millions of trees burned. The countryside bare and exposed. More than likely, this was a fire caused by a human, but these things can happen from nature too. One strike of lightening in the right conditions can set the trees ablaze. Without human intervention, even more of the trees will burn and nature will renew itself again.



If you keep going east from Colorado Springs, you drive into, what I refer to as prairie. That picture was caught during a grass fire that spread over some of the land here a few weeks ago. Eddie and I drove out toward the smoke until we found the fire. It is easy enough to find it because in that direction, the land is so flat. It is in stark contrast to the mountains toward the west. When we leave here, other than a few of the close friendships that we've maintained, I will miss the land most.