Somebody pinch me.

So today I run over to the super giant store that shall not be named that starts with a "W" to get shampoo, etc., and as I walk out, I'm struck with how few people get to enjoy the view we Coloradans enjoy when doing such simple errands like going to the grocery store. As I walk out, facing West, Pikes Peak rises royally above the other mountains around her, all of which I know the names because I'm weird like that. The sky is a Crayola Cornflower Blue and clouds which I usually call "white puffies" but that I know are technically called cumulus clouds, float above the Peak. Yep, as you might imagine, it's breathtaking.

I remember when I first moved here and walked out of that same store and that view just knocked me over and I thought how amazing it was going to be to live in a town where that view is visible from nearly every point in town. And today, seven years later, that view still knocks me over and I've seen it a million times. There are people who have lived here their entire lives and they don't even look at the mountains any more. They drive to work, drive home, and never even look. I just can't imagine that.

I remember as a kid in Texas, when driving on a farm road, I would squint my eyes and imagine the clouds on the horizon were actually snow-capped mountains. It actually worked if you did it just right. And now, I have them all around me. I am grateful to be here and know I will never take them for granted. I still look to them every day.

Each passing minute they change, as the sun's ray hits them at different angles, as the clouds cast shadows across the foothills and suddenly you're able to see ridgelines that weren't visible earlier in the day. The dark pines and spruces are punctuated by the bright lime green of new leaves on the aspens. Patches of late snow are sprinkled like powdered sugar across the top of the Peak and in the right light you can even see the sun glinting off the roof of the Summit House and you know there are hundreds of people up there right now, each paying 25 cents to look through a high-powered telescope at those of us coming out of Walmart. Most of them are Texans. And most of them are shivering because they thought since it was 78 degrees in town it would also be 78 degrees on top of the Peak and wearing shorts and flip-flops sounded like a great idea. But actually it's closer to 50 and the wind is blowing about 45 mph or so. I was a tourist once too. But now I live here.

And I still can't believe it.