Coming home to Colorado in the waning days of the Bush Disaster is a somber journey, the people more uncertain and restrained.

I don't have health insurance right now and there are cars off the road, traffic lights skewed to the side in the wind. 

The land is immense and cold and the big cars and big stores and big people and even the big skyscrapers of Denver seem fragile and small

Before soaking in the Cottonwood hot-springs, we drive higher into the mountains beyond Buena Vista, through the aspens to a beaver pond.

The snow is windblown, but the sun is still high and our thick jackets keep us warm.

There’s no one up here, just the mountains and my old friend and our music: a pocket of warmth in the immensity of late December cold. 

Here's a link to a video from the drive to the beaver pond.  The music is by Bossa n Roses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnVWtQiMNdo