Conflagration

Shortly after Lynn got to town, back in the ’00s, we signed up for ballroom dance classes at the Gunnison Arts Center with Anita, psychologist by day, Arthur Murray-certified dance instructor by night. Our inaugural class was rather large, 10 or 12-ish couples learning to move their feet in tandem. One of the most nerve-wracking […]

A Rose for Christmas

Pretty much everything planned for our Christmas unraveled this year. Let’s start with the weather, which was supposed — ahead of the fact — to be a major impediment to everyone’s travel plans across half of Colorado and many points west. In places it must have been, and we had our moments here in Gunnison, […]

Grinched

You know that White Christmas we all sing about? The one we really need for immediate ski resort economics and long-term drought issues? Well, it looks like Santa is going to deliver — right as people are trying to travel. Every day I check the 10-day forecast from Wunderground, and then, just to make sure, […]

Desserted

One of our restaurants held its last supper a couple days ago, closing its doors after 31 years of feeding Gunnison. This closing, by the House of China, was motivated not by finances but by the owners’ desire to retire after decades of long hours and seven-day weeks of work. The owners did attempt to […]

Fear Itself

The last time I wrote about covid, I received a nearly-anonymous comment from someone hiding behind his or her WordPress handle, mocking me: “So much fear!” And taunting, reveling in his or her “freedumb,” although the commenter forgot to spell it that way. I opted not to post the comment; while I believe in free […]

The Natural Order

I got my first snow shovel of the season in yesterday, which probably makes it sound like it snowed yesterday. Which it did, sort of, in lots of soggy fits and starts. The snow started before I got up, and CBS Denver — whose weather staff seems to love Crested Butte, based on their number […]

Merry Making to the Max

December is eight days old, and kind of sort of started looking like December a day or two ago, and may or may not really look — and feel — like it starting today, but already it’s made me look and feel about 100 years older. In the Before Times, and I can’t really tell […]

Snow What?

Once upon a time, I don’t remember how long ago, but certainly before social media and “pow cams,” the Denver Broncos hosted some other team for a Monday Night Football game in December. I remember nothing about the game itself; I probably didn’t watch it. But it was back in the day when you could […]