My hometown

I love visiting Colorado Springs. It's gorgeous, it generally has good weather, and I have lots of fond memories from growing up there. As an added bonus, when I visit my family I get to see my dog, who is the awesomest dog in the world.

But this weekend made me realize that I could never live in the Springs again. This weekend I got a persuasive demonstration of just why I can't live there.

On Sunday afternoon Mom was driving me to the airport. While still on the winding neighborhood roads we came across a deer in the middle of the street. It had been hit by a car. There were two cars and their respective owners nearby. One guy, presumably the one who hit it, had a rifle drawn and pointed at the deer. I don't think I could ever shoot an innocent animal, but I do understand that he needed to prevent the poor thing from suffering. Problem was, for some reason the gun was not firing. He would aim at the deer, steady himself, and... nothing. He would then tilt the gun upwards -- to steady his grip? To re-cock it? I'm not sure what the problem was. But he repeated this process several times. At one point while he was waving his rifle around it went off and shot across the street. At this point I began to fear for my life.

"Oh my God. He doesn't know what he's doing!"

This *idiot* was waving around a *rifle*, pointing it in the air, across the street, just about any direction, *in the middle of a neighborhood*, *on a Sunday afternoon*!! For a few moments I actually worried that I might die.

I think the other driver got sick of him too. He finally walked over to his car, pulled out his handgun, and shot the deer.

God, I could so never move back to Colorado Springs.