Cactus Butt!

I have been in Canon City for 9 days now.  That is nearly two weeks.  You all may be very interested in what I do with my time.  Well, I have our first official middle school youth group this evening.  There is something like 15 boys and 3 girls.  I'm not going to lie, I get middle school girls but middle school boys are like aliens from Mars.  I'm going to make my group fill out an evaluation about who they think Jesus is and why they don't come to church.  Although, I'm not sure why I'm going to bother asking that latter question.  I went to church last Sunday and as far as I could tell, I was sitting with a bunch of dinosaurs.  

This youth group should be interesting.  We ACTUALLY have diversity.  There are a couple black kids and a couple of latinos.  The latest news on the street is that the high school and middle school allow kids to call the black kids niggers.  Great.  Welcome to the capital of the KKK in Colorado.  Oh, did I forget to mention that?  Not only did the Grand Dragon of the KKK live in Canon, we have the most prisons per capita than most cities in the U.S.  Neat, huh?  In fact, the minimum security prison was built right into the ridge of mountains as you enter out town.  We have a little thing called, "Skyline Drive," -- a drive that goes on the skyline so you can see the city and what lies behind.  If you time it right in the summer, you can either drive or walk up to the top and watch the inmates playing baseball.  Or watch the people who park on the top make-out.  Sweet, huh?  Another bonus are the Stegosaurus foot prints on the way to the top.  Ooooo and don't forget the Hogbacks on the other side.  Golly, don't you all want to come visit me.

Today, Cooper and I took a five minute drive to one of my favorite places in the world -- Red Canyon Park.  You may be wondering, where is the snow?  Well, I happen to live on the banana belt of Colorado.  No, we don't grow bananas but we get both snow and 70 degree weather in the winter.  It's a good balance for folks who get tired of one season.  Cooper had his first run-in with a cactus and I had a reunion with one.  In middle school my nick-name was Cactus Butt because on a field trip I fell down the side of a hill and got cactus in my rear.  The nurse had to remove it for me because it was so aggressively in my behind.  

Well, that's all for now.  I miss you all tons.  My only companion is still Cooper.  I mean, I thought about befriending the Cherry Peddler Guy but he's just too creepy.