lili, it is snowing up here. It’s been snowing off and on since Saturday and we’re supposed to get up to 4 more inches today. I’m still stuck in bed but it does look pretty cold outside.

I do still want a horse. I have enough land now to have up to 3 horses of my own but I don’t have a barn nor do I have the cashflow to own one yet. Plus, I want to be able to take care of one properly before committing to that. I actually have coworkers who are willing to show me all of the duties that go along with owning a horse…how to properly care for them, etc. They do classes on this for their 4-H groups and are willing to share that knowledge with me, as well. If I’m able to afford a horse, I will definitely take them up on it.

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There was never a time in my childhood when we were much more than poor. There were times, however, when we were more poor than others.

We were homeless before homeless was vogue.

When we left San Diego and moved to Montana, we left with barely anything but what would fit inside of an old Metro van (remember what milk trucks and ice cream trucks looked like? That’s what a Metro van looked like). My dad had fashioned a way to put up cots so they stacked like bunk beds in that van. My brother, Todd, and I slept in those cots. My parents slept on the floor with my little brother who was still an infant.

We heated the van with an old kerosene heater that was brown and had mica windows. I remember those because occasionally the mica would flake off and the windows would be different thicknesses in areas. I loved how mica could do that. It was an endless fascination for me and, perhaps, the precursor to my fascination with geology.

I can remember seeing the flames through those windows. They danced a beautiful orange glow. The heat coming off of that heater was powerful but whenever I woke up in the morning, it would be so cold. I wouldn’t want to get out of bed because it was so cold.

We lived in that van for what seemed like an eternity. We lived in a KOA campground for a time. At least there, we had showers, a laundry facility, and even a pool.

One of my most cherished childhood memories happened at that KOA.

My brother, Todd, and I found out that the campground had bike rentals. They had regular bikes but they also had bicycles-built-for-two. It was $1 an hour (this was the early-mid 70s). That was a lot of money, though, and my parents couldn’t really afford to splurge a dollar to let us do something as silly as riding a bike.

Somehow, we got the money together and for one glorious hour of my childhood, we rode a bike together.

I don’t think I had every felt so free.

That is another day that I can remember the color yellow. The sun was shining down on us. There was laughter. There was joy.

It was a perfect moment.