Just Pixels

If I'm honest, it's all a bit blurry.

The past month. The past summer. Three months. Half-year. Whole year.

All of the above.

If you'd told me in May '07 that by Aug. '08 I'd be living in eastern Wyoming and working for a weekly newspaper (Converse County's "leading" paper, no less), and living in the basement of complete strangers (who happen to be quite lovely folk), I would probably say you are a lying son-of-a-bee.

Thus, the curiousness of the situation is apparent, in that I am indeed living this very lifestyle in the above place in the above mentioned accommodations.

But fortunately, when you learn to sky dive, there's a bit of schooling beforehand. Royally Dismayed is the name of the man who finds himself suddenly at the yawning airplane portal with a chute on his back, not knowing how he arrived at that point in time, and awakening from an amnesiac stupor to the sound of whirring props and the imperative "JUMP, DUDE! JUMP!"

So, thankfully life comes in transitions, if only brief ones, that give us some heads-up context (and prevent us from wetting ourselves completely).

But that doesn't mean it's not an interesting or scary ride by any means.

Shoot.

So as I consider my new home of Douglas, Wyoming, perhaps the seeming randomness of my new place of residence is in keeping with my previous year's sundry wanderings.

For different reasons and at the behest of Adventure's beckoning, I've traveled to South East Asia and back (OH, the food!), lived in Costa Rica for some months (so much rain!) and seen the better half of 27 American states, from Florida to California to Maine. It's been a busy time, or a deliberately mobile one at least.

But each phase kind of led (fell, tripped, blundered) into another it seems, and here I find myself in the least populated state of the Union, living amongst a gathering of 6,000 other high-plains kinsmen, most of which have never met a stranger in their life. Or so it seems.

So here I am. Writing for a newspaper, living in the Equality State, and in a new way am more attentive to, and more trusting of the Placid Providence that carries real concern and compassion for every fiber of my being. (remarkably)

So it's good to be here, with the grab-bag of emotions it brings. Mostly positive. Some scary (lots of jeans out here!). But new and exciting and refreshing by definition.

And though I couldn't have penciled the plan on paper a year ago — or even two months ago — I have to think this is where I am meant to come, for a while at least. And it's what I needed at the time, certainly. I'm thankful for that.

So, all this to say clamp on your stirrups, friends. Grease your saddles and pat your palominos. Cinch your sixer and squint the horizon. The sun may not rise here, but it sets here. So I'll be here too, come what may. And that's pretty exciting, or worth a good blog post if nothing else.

And I always wanted to go sky diving. It seems I've finally gotten my chance.

Zane Grey, eat your heart out...