Traveling light

I'm packing this morning for a trip to Colorado to visit my parents.  Our dad has been hospitalized in Woodland Park for several days now with a nasty respiratory virus.  He is a strong, amazing man at age 90! and holding his own (I hope I inherited some of those genes) but getting well at his age is a slow and dicey business.

As you might remember, our mom (who turns 90 this week) still lives at the Care Center in Cripple Creek.  Dad typically visits her every day, so of course she's lonely while he's in the hospital.  Hopefully I can take care of a few little things for them this week.

Here's the Cripple Creek downtown webcam this morning: Elevation 9,600 feet, 23 degrees and snowing.  But no worries-- this is Colorado weather. If you don't like it, wait a day.  Hopefully by  tomorrow afternoon it looks more like this:

I'm not checking a bag this time and using a small carry-on, which is a good mindfulness exercise for cold-weather packing. And definitely not as much fun as warm-weather packing, where you can take stacks and stacks of nice light clothes and not worry about things like bulky gloves, sweaters, wool socks and down jackets.

The daffodils and cherry trees are blooming on our street, so real winter will be a rude shock.  Another rude shock will be the 5:30 am flight departure in the morning, but with luck I should be in the mountains by mid- afternoon. My laptop is staying home, so don't worry,  the blog is just taking a breather for a few days.
Ciao.