DENVER -- Residents and officials in Colorado took Monday's new federal security warning in stride, 7NEWS reported.

Monday's alert won't change the already high security at Colorado's Capitol and other major local buildings, 7NEWS reported.

Attendance at sporting events, like the Avalanche game Monday night, are among indications that 83 days after the Sept. 11 attacks, life is more or less back to normal in Colorado.

"I think it's so easy for us to just fall back into our regular schedule, not that you don't think about what's going on," Littleton, Colo., resident Bonnie Paine said.

"There's not much you can do. If something's going to happen, it's going to happen, I guess," John Talbot, of Castle Pines, Colo., said.

The man in charge of America's homeland security said that now is not the time to back off.

"The further removed we get from Sept. 11, I think the natural tendency is to let down our guard. Unfortunately, we cannot do that," director of homeland security Tom Ridge said.

Ridge said that new information, plus the convergence of Christmas and the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, make it even more imperative that people be vigilant.

"To be on guard when they're in public places, to look out for suspicious people and packages, and to report those to the proper authority," Sue Mencer, director of the Colorado Department of Public Safety, said.

"Well, I think it's probably just to keep us all focused on what's out there and what could happen and to be alert," Littleton resident John Paine said.

"We're very lucky to have the freedom we have and I just think we have to be aware," Bonnie Paine said.

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