Multi-tasking, Badly

In this year where very little makes sense — right on cue, Na Ki’o shows up to help — schedules have been turned on their heads. And so, while it is not July anywhere in the world, Le Tour de France set off on Saturday and now that we are well-removed from May, preparations are […]

Six Years of Ki’o

Today is Na Ki’o’s foundling day. He came to live with us six years ago today, which we think makes him about 12 1/2 years old. Since we don’t often know our pets’ origins, figuring out an actual birthdate is often a challenge. Guessing at Marrakesh’s birth year comes with wild swings, since the animal […]

Painting Over the Problem

Yesterday must have been Monday, and this is why: I watered the lawn, a term I use very loosely, you understand, in the rain. There were other Monday indicators, but that was the cap on the day: there I stood, hose in hand, under a sunny sky, getting rained on. For not having a decent […]

Crazy Like a Fox

I was trying not to go here, but here we are again, right in the thick of a political discussion. Although I would argue — perhaps you would not — that this moment has transcended politics and is now in a different realm. One that could be divided into Reality and Unreality. We are not […]

The Area According to Kara

It’s hard to find help when “affordable” housing starts at $258,000. Kara is my business partner, a very sharp woman 20 years my junior whom I first met when I was teaching a mini-unit in journalism at the elementary school across from the newspaper office. She was in the fifth grade. In the years since, […]

Home Sweet Home

A week ago today was a year ago today that we moved into our new house, mere steps behind the certificate of occupancy and barely ahead of the sale of our old house. Back then — way back when, in an entirely different time — everything felt rushed and chaotic, and the status of this […]

Feed the Birds

KT and Nate Lund lived for many years in Gunnison, all of my formative years, before eventually moving to the Pacific Northwest. I did not stay in good touch with them (nor they with me), and I have been led to believe KT died several years ago from Alzheimer’s complications. While I failed at long-distance […]

Business “Assistance”

Today is Day 166 of Pandemia in Gunnison County, if you care to believe our public health officials. (I would ask, why wouldn’t we believe them, but there seem to be many, including the president of the United States, quick to believe the nuttiest of conspiracy theories, who think for some reason that public health […]

Hazy Shade of Summer

We have one airless, mask-free corner at Pat’s Screen Printing. It’s the corner where the printer (since we’re generally down to one person printing at an given time) has to work. Our building is wrapped by another so we have no back door and thus very poor airflow, and the press sits in the most […]

Motherly Advice

This is an easy sentence to toss out there: “In 1920, women won the right to vote.” But to get there took nine — nine! — decades of activism. And one letter from a mom to her son. When we think of prominent suffragists — [When I conduct coin flips at middle school volleyball matches, […]