we go out of the gray and into the blue above

I am spending the day in Monument, at the last forensics tournament of the year.  If you don't know, "forensics" is the name they give to a public speaking/performance activity in middle & high schools.  We didn't have any of this when I was a kid.  Then again, we didn't have a football team either.  Or a middle school, for that matter.  The girls did this for years, and now Owen is in it.  If you've ever been to a tournament of any kind, you'll know that the vast majority of your time is spent waiting for things to happen.  One benefit, I guess, is being able to revisit your blog after five idle months.

So it's February already, almost March.  We didn't have much of a winter, and I'm anxious for spring to get here.  I might just take the bikes down and give them an anticipatory tune-up.  The stated goal is to spend as many days as possible biking or hiking this coming year.

With spring break coming up, and the rare opportunity to actually get "away" for a while, you might be tempted to head to warmer climates.  But we like it here, and it's plenty sunny.  So we're heading up to the mountains for our vacation, and it's going to be great!