What is it like in Cheyenne...without the hype, the tourist propaganda, and all the other hoopla? Well it is just another town in rural America. Some days it reminds me of back East, in Virgina, where I grew up. Then another time, it reminds me of Memphis, Tennessee. And other times, it seems to be like Hawaii.

Sorta sounds silly, but when you look up at the sky and see no clouds, and see how brightly the sun shines, even when the temperature is 90 or minus 40, you'll think ' oh yeah, this is Wyoming'.

Maybe if I hadn't lived in so many other places I would not notice little things like that. It's like one of those drizzly overcast days when the wind is not blowing and it is still. Actually, it's sort of morbid to me, but it is like I was a kid back in Virginia, when it would rain and be overcast for weeks at a time, and you did not see the sun for that extended period.

When I was in Hawaii it was sunny, but all at once a cloud would come up and it would rain. Then walla! Five minutes later, it was nice and sunny again. I guess, as I have said many times, the main thing about Wyoming is that it may be fifty below, or the wind may be blowing ninety miles an hour, but the sun is shining, and the sky is blue. It is so neat when you look at the sky and it is clear, then you can see one or two little wisps of clouds. It seems that you see the wisps over toward the mountains: The Rocky Mountains, that is. The Rocky Mountains in Colorado, which are fifty or one hundred miles away. Yeah, it is neat to see a few little clouds over snow-capped mountains in the far distance.

The sun and the clear sky make it seem happy. Now, not too many things these days are happy, but if you stop and as they say, smell the roses and relax, you get the light-hearted and happy feeling. I guess it seems silly, talking about the sun and sky being happy...or that these atmospheric conditions and the surroundings make you feel happy and gay. Not so happy and gay that you want to run and dance and sing, of course. But that they just make you feel better and make you smile.

Yeah, it's the weather that makes you want to smile and say to someone, "have a nice day". It seems to be catching, because if you do it, then someone else will do it, and so on, sorta like a pyramid effect.

The older I get, the more cynical I become, and the less I think and feel like I used to. It seems that the hustle and bustle, and the dog-eat-dog attitude of the country has made me forget, rather not forget, but ignore all the things I used to think, and how I used to act toward others. I guess that is why, in a way, that I like being a semi-recluse....really not a recluse, but the sort of person who likes being by myself, away from others most of the time, and just doing my own thing.