All in the Family

The City of Gunnison got its start in the 1870s when a bunch of naive — really naive — white people thought it would be a great place to found an agrarian colony. With a growing season of less than 60 days, this turned out not to be such a good idea, but Gunnison was […]

A New Skill?

Oops: wrote this, then never posted it. I’m sure it’s worth the extra wait! “Skilsaw” is a brand, around since 1924, I just learned, when the company created the first portable saw, complete with “worm drive gearing,” whatever that might be. But last night I learned why it’s called a “skill saw” — it’s because […]

Cool Cats

It started, as everything involving the internet does, with cats. Kara was apprising me of possible absences from work when she said, matter-of-factly, that she might miss a day due to Cat Fest. “What?” I asked, sure that I had heard her wrong. No, that’s what she said: Cat Fest. I finally said, “I have […]

The Unfoodie

The other day I mentioned Svea, a woman I’ve known since we were both young, and that got me thinking about the one time during childhood I was invited to her house for dinner. Her mother was — presumably still is — a gourmet cook. This is what I mean by gourmet: Svea and I […]

Gaining Traction

When I was growing up, my family had cars, regular ol’ automobiles, every last one of them propelled by rear-wheel drive. As a teenager, I learned some of this from my dad, but also by checking books out of the library, so I feel fairly authoritative when I tell you this means that while the […]

Unsprung

As we discussed just yesterday, I can’t remember if I mentioned it to you or not, but downtown for the last month I have been surrounded by people sure that spring is just around the corner. Or maybe it’s less certainty than hope, but most of the people espousing this foolish belief have lived here […]

Repetition

I was several paragraphs along in today’s entry when it started to feel familiar. I used the surprisingly effective search feature for my blog and sure enough, I was covering, sometimes thought for thought, a topic I reviewed just over a year ago. So I will spare you the repeat. This occasionally happens as I’m […]

Got Your Number

This morning I am wondering how we function without phone books. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m not sure how we all manage to “reach out and touch someone” without a handy paper book listing all the phone numbers you might ever need, along with lots you’ll never need. When I woke up today I […]

Lumbering Along

I am enjoying my new makers’ space on any number of levels, several of which I never even stopped to think about. Like, for instance, other people’s ineptitude. I am of an age now where I don’t have the same issues I once did around hiding my shortcomings from others. I pretty much walked in […]

Living in Denver

Kids these days. They probably have no idea they’re missing out on what was a major rite of passage for people my age, back in the day. That would be the day of the stereo phonograph. When I was little, both my grandparents and parents, and probably every house on my block, had a “high […]