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"  When sweetie (the wife) and I pass Ralph Lauren&amp;#039;s spectacular ranch on the drive from the airport to our house in Telluride, Colorado, we always admire his hand-painted tepees. Somehow Ralph has placed them so perfectly that they seem to be perpetually illuminated in late-afternoon sunlight. Each time I say, &amp;quot;Hey Sweetie, let&amp;#039;s get a tepee.&amp;quot; And each time she looks at me with resignation \u2014 and the slightest tinge of fear \u2014 because she knows, at some point, I&amp;#039;m getting one.  Since grade school, I&amp;#039;ve sought out the perfect enclosure (probably in an attempt to hide from my mother). At five, I tucked in my blanket so tight that I could sleep off to the side of the mattress in a makeshift papoose. Fifth grade, I lived in a tent in my bedroom. And one college summer I lived in a geodesic dome I built in a birch forest in Massachusetts. A tepee (like above, from Design Within Reach, $2,200; dwr.com) seems like the next evolutionary move. My buddy John, Telluride&amp;#039;s former mayor, had one, and he considered it a perfect structure. He found the lack of ceiling spiritually uplifting. You can have an open fire on the floor, and the smoke goes straight up and out. Sleeping in a tepee is a special combination of being inside and outside, and when the moon is full, or nearly so, the tepee captures the light so well that you can read by it.  This sounds perfect. Even if I can&amp;#039;t find total peace, at least I can make fires, smoke cigars, and continue my 15-year quest to meditate for more than five minutes without thinking about all the things that make me angry. There will be issues, of course, like wildlife, ghosts, and aliens. Maybe I can post Lucky, my 110-pound Rhodesian ridgeback, outside for safety. He&amp;#039;s been quite brave chasing bear off our property \u2014 although I have no idea how he&amp;#039;ll handle the supernatural. RELATED STORIES:  SUMMER BBQ GUIDE: Esquire&amp;#039;s Big Backyard Bonanza 2009   PLUS: More Technology Reviews from the Digital Man   "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/food/a5748/teepee-review-0509/>