I've finally chosen my fabric for curtains for my little house on wheels. I want a Shabby Chic look but without all the pastels and ruffles and little birds and cutsie stuff. I want soft yet sophisticated...sort of organic to reflect my writing style.

I had an issue with one of the two small shirt closets. I hung shirts in one and hung a sweater organizer from the rod in the other to use as storage for my dainties. After a year, the organizer began to sag and every time I opened the door after driving, my dainties ended up on the floor. I needed shelves in there. Daughter #1 and I went to IKEA the other night and found these great wire baskets that connect and hang down as many as you need. My closet fit five of them and now my lingerie is neatly folded and placed inside.

The sun! It came back…outside AND inside! Just as I predicted, I was perfectly fine when I woke up yesterday even though it was still raining and grey out. But by 3:00, the sun broke through and the world was fresh and green…swept clean by the downpours of the past week.

There's always going to be a stumbling block on this path. I've spent the last eight months in West Virginia…a place Mr. Virgo visited once for a week. I've been back in Colorado a week and he's around every corner. I didn't realize how much impact that would have until I lived it. I need to change my reaction. Instead of feeling grieved when I "see" him in familiar places, I need to feel the joy in the memories. Find the happy. The rest will take care of itself.

The weather has been pretty dreary in Colorado. It has been grey and stormy just about every day since I left Missouri last week. It has left me in a dark mood that matches the skies above me. And when I go to that room inside, my thoughts follow and pretty soon there's a conference going on that I have no business attending. My sparkle dims and I hate that. I know, intellectually, that there was absolutely nothing different when I wrote this. Every circumstance was exactly as it was a few hours before. The only thing different was my thoughts.

They don't call it Colorful Colorado for nothing. Look at this sunset. I do love the Colorado skies. Very dramatic! And thirty seconds later it was gone. That's the way of so many beautiful moments. You blink and you miss them. We have so many distractions today that divert our attention from the beauty around us. I'm as guilty as the next person with my nose pointed at a screen. How did we get so dependent on electronics? It is insidious. You don't even know you're doing it. How did we live before the cell phone? I'm trying. I'm really trying to unplug more often. But I write...every day. And I write at odd times when the mood strikes. I often get my material from the things I read and the interactions I have online. It's just such a habit to reach for the phone.

When your children have grown, parenting changes dramatically. Of course, long gone are the braces and swim practice and adolescent angst. Now, it's the grandchildren doing it and it is such a joy for me to watch my older daughter parent her 'tween daughter. She is so patient and so wise. Far more wise than I was at her age. She empowers her daughter to handle her own problems as best she can before stepping in. Me? I was an over-involved helicopter mom who was hyper vigilant. Yet, the girls are doing fine. Daughter #1 is a beautiful mother. Daughter #2 is still in college, unmarried, no children…still finding herself and her place in the world. My kids are very nearly 16 years apart so there is no comparison.

I had an unexpected surprise this week. I received a text from a high school friend that was coming to Denver to actively participate in the Clinton Global Initiative Group…part of the Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea Clinton Foundation. We hadn't seen each other in 44 years and spent four hours in an Irish Pub catching up. What a delightful way to spend the afternoon!

I'm celebrating my birthday week. Well…MONTH really, but I don't want to sound greedy. I'm about to celebrate my 62nd trip around the sun. Sixty-two is NOT old. Not to ME. What does 62 feel like, anyway? What does it look like? Am I supposed to take naps and buy sensible shoes? Am I supposed to color my hair and wear purple? When my kids look askance at my fringed biker-chick bag, I tell them fringe is in…leave me alone.

I got out on my bike yesterday. I rode the area bike path east till I ran into flooding. I turned around and went west and found the same thing so I ended up circling around the reservoir, which was lovely. The altitude kicked my butt though! It's been 9 months since I've lived here so it'll take a little time to adjust.

Now that I'm here and got some rest, I'm ready to go out and ride my bike and kayak but I'd like to find some folks to join me. It will take some looking around, but I'll find some like-minded individuals. I went to the movies with the kids yesterday and saw Pitch Perfect 2. I've watched the first one so many times. This one was just as good, I think.

This is not my photo…I found it on the Internet. But, I have seen one. It occurs when there is a very bright, full moon with rain and the position is the same as a rainbow in the daylight. I went out on the front porch of my Colorado house and looked up to see a beautiful moonbow.

I love thunderstorms at night. The flashes of lightning, the crashes of thunder. I'm not crazy about it when it gets too close but overall, I've always loved them. But now I have a much bigger concern. Hail. Hail and campers aren't a good mix. I'm not worried about the skin of my camper because it is vacuum laminated vinyl over wood. But the roof is rubber and I'm not sure how well that will hold up under the hail storms Colorado is famous for. I wish TOW-Wanda was under cover. We had a really severe thunderstorm here last night. Areas north of us had five to six inches of rain in an hour with localized flooding. Tornadoes all along the plains and front range. Crazy weather.