I was at the dentist’s getting my teeth cleaned today.  As is the customary practice in such circumstances, the pleasant young hygienist asked me a question that I couldn’t answer til I had finished swishing out my mouth and she had sucked the fluid away with the little straw.

“Are you still in the legislature?”

“No,” I replied, flat on my back, peering through the protective dark glasses, “I was term limited out of office last January.” Before she plunged her hands back in my mouth, I managed to get out, “You can now call me the ‘formerly honorable'”.

She chuckled.  “So you haven’t done anything wrong? But what did you think of your time down at the Capital?  Was there anything in particular you were able to accomplish?”

My answer, while necessarily abbreviated, was the one I usually give:  it was a great 8 year run. I wouldn’t have missed it.  But I was also ready to move on; I’ve gone back to my insurance business and we have a wonderful new grand daughter (our first) who lives just down the road.  Did I achieve anything of particular note?  I bobbed and weaved:  I was only one of 100 Colorado legislators.  But I met a bunch of wonderful people; it’s almost impossible not to when you have spent countless hours during four campaigns knocking on countless doors talking to countless constituents.

So the plan is that this blog will play some part in the next stage of this “formerly honorable” politician’s life.  Give me a platform to comment, occasionally, on those things that I think need commenting on.  Maybe even on the hygienist herself; a bright, lovely young woman three years married who, when I ventured that her parents would probably like to see grandkids of their own replied, “We like our life as it is.  And we like our dogs.”

Go figure.  And stay tuned.