I grew up close enough to the ocean to have salt water in my veins, but the stars brought me to Colorado in 1981. Grad school in astrophysics didn't bring the stars any closer but I learned a lot about the universe. I worked in a few observatories and labs, retired, and moved from the Boulder foothills to Niwot in 2014.

I dove headfirst into the balmy waters of Niwot and found myself in a sea o...