Wednesday, July 1, 2015

First Comparisons: Who's Whining Now?

I am a little tired of chronological-event-recap posts. So I will write a bit about settling in to Colorado Springs.

These are in no particular order.

  • I haven't resided here for over 10 years. The streets are familiar to me, but so many of the stores and landmarks have changed. Is this disorienting? Yes. Is this comforting? Yes. It reminds me to consider living here to be like living in a new city.
  • In fact, I'm a different person now. In 10 years, I've become a wife, a mommy, a thirty-something...so different landmarks and stores (in the 5 days I've lived here this time) remind me that this is a new experience. I'm new. It's a new city. With familiar roads.
  • Also, the mountains are familiar. However, they are so different from the smaller, closer Appalachians that surround Chattanooga. These Rockies are so distant. Compared to Lookout Mountain, Signal Mountain, and all the others 'back home,' these feel less like close, intimate mountains and more like a backdrop that changes with the day's changing light.
  • These Coloradans have been talking about the heat, but for Pete's sake it's a dry heat. I feel the heat, but I don't have sweat pouring down my back and neck, and the humidity isn't as thick as breakfast grits, so I feel fine. The light is brighter, though. And the shoe will be on the other foot when fall starts in September, winter starts in October and lasts until April for sure. Hoo boy. Then it will be my turn to whine.