Three Mile High places to visit @ 98F!

Today I spent part of the morning speaking to a well-read Oklahoman at Highland's West Side Books (http://m.facebook.com/westsidebooks): the owner Lois Harvey. We chatted about the British comic strip series, "Rupert" (a book displayed just behind the counter), the job possibility that fizzled for me yesterday and my dad's passing 18 years ago today.

Lois and I have spoken before while I've roamed the stacks at West Side, but this morning with her tent sale undeway, she noticed what I'd picked off the indoor shelves and led me to her Richard Rodriguez collection (I bought all three). We talked about whether or not we use Kindle or Nook, and then some more about poetry once outdoors--what a great pre-Independence Day treat! I found out Lois lived in NM before coming to CO. We talked about writers who are coming to town in the fall and how getting personal recommendations from friends on what to read is the best way to go. I also learned about the NPR book group reading Rachel Carson's Silent Spring and where to log on and find out who the "One Book, One Denver" finalist will be. Thanks TONS Lois! (I will look up Luis Alberto Urrea soon!)

But that isn't how my pre-Indy Day activities began! On Saturday I swooped into Littleton downtown district (Woodlawn Shopping Center www.shopwoodlawncenter.com) to hear a bit of the band playing in the parking lot in front of Angelo's CDs and make my way into A Timeless Tale. There, owner Pam Smith and I caught up on the TomKat gossip after I sifted through her sidewalk sale books--enough to fill a bag. We decided Katy Perry's (ex to Tom C's co-star in "Rock of Ages") probably got some stories she could share!


Also in Littleton, a shop of a different sort--Romancing the Bean (www.romancingthenbean.com)--can find me perusing the book swap rack; when I'm not chatting with 2011 Western Welcome Week Grand Marshall Jeannie Pershin about Pinterest, that is! Today I got off at this light rail stop and indulged in a spicy burrito and a cold drink before heading home with two bags of good reads from West Side. This historic train depot site is a must-see. (Be sure to ask how Jeannie acquired her doll Lily!) Total travel time wasn't bad--now I've just got to clear some space on the shelves for the summer reading to begin in full swing...thanks ladies, for providing the respite spots and Happy 4th!


Below--a bit of verse which I hope brings some comfort to those who have recently endured fire and flood this summer season:


"Two Horizons" by Arnold Sherman (1940-1994)
--written in Anchorage, AK 1985

Grey-white clouds of foggy cotton strands
Wander oh so slowly over streams and ponds
Ghostlike they swirl, curl and silently settle down
Warmed tendrils of vapor fighting the cold downpour
Soundlessly they rise, fringing as a nearby horizon.


Behind them are distant gray-green peaks and ridges
Massive in rough grandeur, survivors of centuries,
A jagged backdrop to the lower, shifting fog.
These snowladen ranges have a fixed, lonely loftiness
That only their daring climbers know, once on top.


From the faraway peaks of freezing winds and ice,
The newcomer fog seems to try and measure up,
But its tiptoe stretching, its puny ebb and flow,
Is bur a shifting curlicue challenge below the summits,
They have been there forever, soft fog must lift and go.