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 […]

Our Dinner With Tia

My Dinner With Andre arrived in movie theatres in the fall of my sophomore year of college, right at the height of my infatuation with art films. And yet somehow I never got around to watching this one, which is one of those more beloved by people who find films “significant” than people who just […]

Help Wanted

This morning I thought I’d go looking for a job. The thought didn’t last long, stymied at every short turn I took. I don’t actually want a new job. What I want to know is what people are getting paid in Gunnison, relative to Pat’s Screen Printing. I don’t need to know what any one […]

Unseasonable

Once upon a time everyone who lived in Gunnison had multiple stories of multiple winters of cold. Like fish, I find these stories grow larger with time, and everyone I know can remember winters where it was 20, 30, 40, 50, no, maybe it was 60 below for an entire week, two weeks, no, maybe […]

The Eleemosynary Mr. Campbell

When I was in grade school, I had a classmate named Mike Campbell. While we weren’t unfriendly, we weren’t friends. We didn’t do things together, or play on the playground together, or interact other than in classroom fashion. I seem to recall him being quite an artist. Mike lived one block due south of Lake […]

Room for Bookshelves

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 […]

No Time for Tomorrow

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 […]

Everything’s FEIN

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 […]

Taxed

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

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 […]