I did not spend this morning on a bus, although perhaps you thought I did, since I didn’t report in a timely fashion. I’m still here in Gunnison, banished from the family birthday party in Arvada by my mother, who already has her own germs and wants nothing to do with mine. So instead of […]

A friend of mine is studying for her masters in counseling, and one of her upcoming assignments is a 260-question self-assessment. This is some professional assessment that costs money and can only be administered by a licensed professional (in this case, her teacher), but my first thought was: Who has 260 things to say about […]

Yesterday’s tax activity at work reminded me of something I am reminded of every time I go to fill out on-line tax forms: this is something the federal government is much, much (much) better at than the State of Colorado. This still surprises me, all these years after I first started using on-line forms. I […]

Today feels like Monday, and I am ready to set out with purpose, tackle everything that needs to be taken care of before my Friday morning meeting with my accountant, five long days from now . . . but then it turns out it’s Wednesday, and I now have two days to do four days’ […]

Space Germs, as the Pat’s crew learned a little while back when we sat down to play the card game Alien Hotshots, freeze all the action. Everything gets put on hold, and players are all required to put in another card. Unless someone has a 4. Fours are “germ-proof.” Today I am wishing my hand […]

Here’s today’s report: It’s foggy, outside and in. Without confirming it for myself, I am taking the Denver weathercaster’s word for it that it’s -16 F in Gunnison, which appears to be the statewide low. Usually when it’s that cold it’s sunny and bright, but there’s no sign whatsoever of a sun anywhere. Which is […]

Kara, I think, did this in the right order: she went first to the funeral for her across-the-street neighbor who died suddenly and unexpectedly while in his early 60s, and then she went to the baby shower. I am doing this in reverse order: baby shower first, and today is the service for my across-the-street […]

Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. –proposed Constitutional Amendment The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, a some month if not august body politic with a 401-year history, has made a lot of history already this […]

A variety show with Muppets, at the moment when variety shows were going out of vogue, was perhaps a more daring idea than I’d previously considered, but that’s what Jim Henson and ABC put out for public consumption in the mid-1970s. For those of us who only knew the Muppets through the wholesomeness of Sesame […]

Well, here is news I wasn’t expecting to hear this morning: chocolate may soon be more difficult to source on Colorado’s Western Slope. I frankly never expect to hear much Colorado news in the half-hour I have the Denver news on the TV. As near as I can tell, the entire purpose of these morning […]