Article Contributed on: 1/3/2008 10:43:52 PM
HELLLLOOOOOO ARVADA (to borrow a phrase)! As one of the "8000's" newest residents, I'd like to take a moment to introduce myself, if I may:
I'm a forty-something married to a forty-something with 3 very young kids who just moved from Evergreen into your neighborhood. So I'm a newbie, except that I'm not, really. I "came of age" while living across the street from Arvada West High School and I've just moved my family into a house in very close proximity to what was once a competing school.
I'm still struggling with that ...
But here we are and we're slowly coming to terms with the new terrain. It's a shocking development, frankly, and I'm taking each baby step as a major victory. For example, as I continue to carry load upon load of our stuff from storage, I'm shocked by how often I'm mentally charting a course up the mountain, instead of North To Arvada.
I'll get over that, eventually. Just as I will the fact that we're now able to take the clan to dinner without having to bring along a snack for the ride to the restaurant. And of course the best benefit of the move: We can now have pizza delivered directly to our door! Oh, the joy!
Which brings me to an interesting point. When - on the fifth evening under our new roof - the Pizza Guy rang the doorbell, there was almost no response whatsoever.
That's right - as the bell sounded, nary a person nor beast moved within our walls, save The Wife and I; we scrambled like crazy to lock up the dogs and control the kids and keep all potential sharp/sticky threats to outsiders contained, lest we be sued.
Further, just this morning when someone rang our doorbell quite unexpectedly and in error, our dogs and kids paid no attention at all. It was something with which they were completely unfamiliar and therefore had no basis upon which to act.
I guess the clash of "Mountain culture" and "Suburban culture" is both larger than I expected and expressed in ways much smaller than I expected. Go figure.
It's probably further proof that we needed to move off the hill much sooner, but I'll hear none of it. I'm still not convinced that we're where we're supposed to be anyway ...
Chris Stone is a slightly different - hopefully better father and man than he was yesterday ...