Who You Soak with

There are numerous natural hot springs in this part of Colorado. A couple of days ago we thought we'd go to the naked hot springs in Ridgway, but when we got there it had just been drained and only refilled up to two feet, which just wasn't enough coverage!

So we went to the Ouray Natural Hot Springs Pool, a pay to swim public pool with giant hot springs outside as well. Bathing suits required. There were at least twenty people there, more women than men. You can't help but hear their conversations. A lonely holistic doctor would be in heaven there: score! Everyone was talking about surgery and health problems, everyone but us. One woman told her friend she'd thrown I Ching that morning and it told her to come to the hot springs! Wow, when did you last hear about I Ching?

Later in that same soak this woman managed to have her legs sticking straight up out of the water while she was sitting on the ledge still talking to her friend about health problems. Meanwhile she was a human pretzel.

With the canyon mountains surrounding the pool so abruptly, it felt like we were at a sanitarium in Switzerland, or a scene from Thomas Mann's "Magic Mountain", a book I could never get through.

There was one other person, a really scary guy, who appeared and disappeared in the water. He was huge, with stubbly blonde hair on a small head, tiny eyes. He didn't seem to have a keeper watching him, but he'd go underwater swimming, (and the temp is 100) and then blast suddenly out of the water making a growling sound and spitting. Misplaced human Orca.

Been getting some charming goofus emails from unknowns lately. One, from man dylan thomas starshine, said "you are my ideal prom date." Another, more poetic, "I've always been a fan of your style and the way your animations look like living lava lamps..."

Have a jolly Saturday!