My wife and I traveled to Washington D.C. for a convention one year. While we were there we visited the US Capitol Building. The building is quite impressive in size and detail. I felt like an ant admiring a big beautiful white washed porch. Looking up at the walls made me feel almost dizzy and all the walking to it made me fairly tired. I ended up falling asleep on the stone/granite steps of the huge building. Thanks to my sleep apnea, the hard steps were not too uncomfortable. Along with the steps, the rest of the building is made of stone. The long columns were immense and there seemed to be hundreds of them. The dome seemed to touch the sky and the peak was not visible from the bottom where I was standing. The proportions of the building were almost unreal and the feeling I got from standing in front of such a massive building was both terrifying and exhilarating. I had always seen the pictures but I never imagined it would be so massive.

When I think of Grandpa’s house I think of cheer. It was a 23 hour trip from Oklahoma City to Los Corrales, Durango, Mexico. I spent most of my summers there growing up. The house was always busy. It was built when the village was established around late
1800’s early 1900’s. It was passed down generation to generation of organized farmers and community cattle ranchers. The ceilings were 5 meters high. The roof was constructed of tree trunks with planks running diagonally. There was a top layer of limestone that weighed a ton literally. The walls were a meter in width made of adobe and later covered in concrete. The layout was a traditional square around a plaza or open area. The stables were on the back side of the house. I remember that it didn’t rain much but when it did it was engulfing. Like here droughts were a big problem. I remember feeling free because of the remoteness and lack of city problems.