My new home in West Vail is a small bedroom with two twin beds, a wardrobe, a chest of drawers and night stand in the lovely three bedroom condo of Roy White from Zimbabwe by way of South Africa and his lovely wife Lilla Asmund who is half Icelandic (she likes to say "Viking") and half Native American. Roy has his own painting business and Lilla works for the new Ritz-Carlton over in Beaver Creek, about 5 miles back west down the valley.

The condo is about 4-5 miles from Lionshead Vail where I'm working. I could drive in about 5 minutes or less but parking is expensive, so I take the bus. Vail, so I am told, has the most extensive system of free buses anywhere in the country. Not surprising, really, when you consider that 73 dollar a day lift tickets buy a hell of a lot of public services.

The bus stop is about a 3 minute walk down the road. There are two buses, West Vail Red and West Vail Green that make reverse 30 minute loops around the area so it never takes too long for one to show up nor to go the three or four stops up the road to where I can cross the pedestrian bridge over I70 into Lionshead.

I'm still getting settled, but I'm very comfortable and happy to be here. Roy and Lilla seem to have taken to the kittens. They even moved their bird cage from the main room upstairs into their bedroom to avoid an iminent Slyvester-Tweety moment between Fil and their cockateil.