montaña cumpleaños

The morning winds were whispering, "...go west young woman...well...not so young woman, but west is still good! Now go!" So, I packed up the cameras, The Siva Strotavali (in Sanskrit of course...) and a picnic and hiked to the spot where my mother had my 10th Birthday party, perched on the red rocks that overlook Boulder. It was surprisingly fun to be hiking by myself. With nobody else's pace or conversation to consider it was easier to slow down into the slightly more technicolor panorama. I could feel the mountain lions and bears (with their empty spring bellies) eyeing me from afar but even my mortality was feeling pleasantly perfect. At one point I was laying face down on a huge rock and just listening to everything, thru the din of birdie banter I could almost hear the dinosaurs that lumbered over that rock however many million years ago.



After several hours of photographing alpine fleurs and lichen I frolicked back down the mountain and stopped in at the seediest bar in town (The Sundowner Saloon), bet you weren't expecting that, huh? I went in not for a drink silly!....but to inquire if perchance the bartender knew my father (who hasn't spoken to me for 3 Birthdays now.... oh! did I mention it was my Birthday?). Low and behold, the chatty lad did know my father, "Ohhhh yah...he comes in her alllllllll the time, probably see him tonight in fact." So I purchased 3 drinks (whisky and Coke) for my father (1 for each Birthday of course) for when he next pays a visit to the saloon. It felt a bit like a scene from an obscure Russian spy novel, "No, I haven't seen my father in 20 years but I bought him a drink last week."...As I was leaving I informed the barkeep that I'd see him next year and it would be 4 whisky's.... egads!