Phase II begins & The Prodigal Returns

So, the kidney thing is pretty well under control and I am now convinced it was a good thing to do. I can't believe how great I feel, and I am overjoyed to hear from Terry how well he is doing.

But it's now time to fill the hours between now and Thursday morning, when I'll be allowed to return from Denver to Durango. Denver has never been my favorite city--not since the mid sixties when it literally sucked the life out of smaller towns in the region, like Casper, Wyoming, where I grew up. So I am determined to overcome my old preconceptions and learn to like the city that I have studiously avoided ever since I moved to Colorado.

Joyce and I started the process yesterday by going to the Art Museum. We were completely impressed by the beauty and scale of the place. And we enjoyed a very well-done exhibit of "Cities of Renaissance Italy." Then I took the photo of Joyce sitting by the cow sculptures, just to prove that Denver is still, despite the sophistication of the Art Museum area downtown, still an overgrown cow town.

Then I lost my camera, with the photos still on the card. That was probably payback for my "attitude."

Then, this noon, I got a bit tired and took a mid-day nap.

Then, when I woke, I put my hand over to the middle of the bed, and there was the camera, under the covers. So now I'm going to practice saying only nice things about Denver.

Doug Brew is here to help me with that process. Joyce had to leave and go back to Durango this morning. Doug drove up yesterday, so he could be the one to keep reminding me that I have just gone through a fairly major surgery and that I should take it easy from time to time. But we'll also do a little cruising when we're here. Tomorrow, for example, we'll go to the Botanic Gardens, do a little walking around, act like we know what we're seeing, and have lunch.

Who knows, maybe I'll start to think of Denver as something other than the place where I lost a kidney and almost lost a camera.