(3.27.10) Reflections on Reno

It sounds like people live here. The Truckee River provides a running commentary, a base layer to the sounds of a city alive. Babies cry. Birds tweedle. The ducks desperately battle the current to swim to that perfect spot upstream (the water is always warmer upstream?). Country music blends with heavy metal as the ambulance blazes past. It is Saturday afternoon. The college students are avoiding homework. Young children quietly complain that the afternoon bike ride is too hard (I was there once...just keep peddling). It is a casino town, but so far everyone I see seems too alive to play a part in the casino industry. They don't try to sweep the homeless under the streets, here. They don't try to sweep ugly under the carpet here. Everything and everyone just is. Real people live here. I think I'm going to like it.