I certainly am not in Kansas anymore.

Boy howdy. Time flies. Can you believe it's already late March? April is peeking it's head from behind the rain and snow clouds, ready to pounce.

It's been a long week. I've been slacking on practicing my cello and keeping up with school work. I'll pull through, I always do. Every now and again though I need a day or two to catch up with how fast I'm running.

Speaking of running, Sam has been kind enough to run with me! Well...technically HE runs. I just jog. I take Pax. He takes Ash. We usually do a 3.5 mile loop. It's very refreshing. We run around the track on base and then cross the street to go on the dirt road around housing. It's a lovely jog towards the evening. The dirt path is wide enough for a car. Car tracks are indented in the dirt and mixed with shoe prints and animal prints. It's not as windy as one would think, facing wide open kansas-like land (flat and boring, but wonderful). The dirt stirs up behind our feet as we climb the incline of the road, leading to a long stretch of road that seems to never end. Yet...we reach the end and turn back towards housing and run the rest of the way around. It's so wonderful.

Although I enjoy Colorado weather, landscape, and the general feel of it, I much prefer Kansas. I think Kansas' weather tends to scare people away and anger the locals...ya know? The change of the winds that bring rain one day and blistering heat the next. The whiplash of high winds to a calm cool night. I have come to love Kansas the more I am away from it.

I always loved harvest time in Kansas. I'd drive my malibu on Burma in the cool of the evening, my window rolled down, and the wheat all around me swaying in the dying sunlight. Sometimes if no cars were in front or behind me, I'd just stop the car and sit and watch the wheat sway. It's the most calming thing to me. I can only relate that feeling to the calm of being on the side of Pikes Peak, looking over the land and trees, or hiking through the woods of the trail to Pikes Peak.

Still, nothing beats the warm grain smell swirling around you. You can watch the wind rise up from the corners of the horizon. The wind would sprint towards you, leaning on the wheat stalks for support. The wheat waves and the wind races closer. You brace yourself for wind's attack and all you get is a cool breeze, a kiss on your cheek, and the warm earthy smell of dirt and labor tickling your nose. All you can do is smile! How lovely is that scent. The feel of the earth moving around you through the wind and carrying a glimmer of hope and a bit of homegrown life.

I miss Kansas during harvest time.