Vanity, Thy Name is TL

Our friend Carol returned last week from her six-month California sojourn. Recently retired, this is the longest she’s been away from home — although she spent the time at her ancestral home — probably since she left her point of origin in the first place. So she sounded a touch surprised to find everything in […]

Under Contract

In May or June of 1969 (an anniversary I forgot to mark — 50 years ago!), coming off Monarch Pass in a snowstorm that I don’t recall but my mom does, a Ford Falcon station wagon pulled up at 412 Tincup Drive in Gunnison and disgorged my parents, my two sisters and me to begin […]

Fur is Flying

Today is Haircut Day for Oz, but he’s not looking forward to this as much as everyone else is. Actually, he doesn’t even know yet that it’s haircut day, and once he finds out, he won’t be happy. Ultimately, we’d like to think he will be a happier dog, or at least a cooler one, […]

Elemental

This weekend, right on schedule, might be the high-water mark for the Gunnison River — and it is high. Lynn reports that there is some flooding at Almont, where the uncontrolled East River meets the dammed (but not damned) Taylor River to form the Gunnison. And the sheriff has closed most, if not all, of […]

A Dusty Sort of Place

About a decade ago the siding was crumbling off our house, necessitating replacement. My friend Vikki, now more-or-less retired but then a full-time bookkeeper, had several construction clients, and she recommended a guy named Dusty. She called him a “good man, and an honorable one.” I found Dusty just down the street from my childhood […]

Caveat Venditor

Once, several years ago, a college student (before they all became members of a university) came into my shop. She asked if it was owned locally, and if I was the owner. She then asked if I would come speak to her intro to business class. Her teacher had offered students extra credit if they […]

Cabinet Meetings

The other day, while walking the streets of Gunnison (there are streetwalkers, and then there are street walkers), I came across my friend Bonnie, who has worked for a local computer store forever. She was in front of her place of business, enjoying the sunshine for a brief moment. What she said resonated, perhaps depressingly: […]

By a Nose

I have had precisely two bloody noses in my life. The first came way back when we lived in Denver, so at age 6 or younger. I barely recall it; I think neighbors were adding onto their house or building a garage — anyway, there were 2 x 4s raised slightly off the ground, and […]

Not the IT Boy Any Longer

Laugh if you must, but I’m what passes for an “IT” department at work. Not “it,” as in the game of Tag or actress Clara Bow, but I.T. as in Information Technology. And that’s me. Yes, the person who can’t figure out the most basic features of his cellphone functions as the IT department at […]

Gress: Pro- or Re-?

Since I’m sure you’ve been in suspense since yesterday, I did not open my retail store for bicycle visitors, and I did not get caught up on the 100 work projects I am behind on. I let myself get talked out it rather easily by my breakfast companions — what are friends for, hm? — […]