LYONS – “This is a small town.” How you utter that phrase tells me a lot about you. Most people I know are clearly divided between those who yearn to live here and those who think of small towns as mini-federal disaster areas that politicians should fly over in a great show of pity and sympathy.

FORT COLLINS – I asked my son if I could write about it, but chose my moment carefully – I remained off-hand, low key, and aimed the car for the Taco Bell drive through, his favorite for second lunch – the one most Junior High school boys need after school, after healthy and sustaining first lunch, but before late afternoon kitchen raid, before second later-afternoon kitchen raid, and before dinner.