Down on the Farm

My dad was raised on a dairy farm in upstate New York. I don’t know at what point this became the family avocation, but it’s what his father did, and his brother, and presumably still my cousins. But when it comes to me, we are looking at a lot of spilled milk. I think it’s […]

Woodn’t It Be Nice?

I think woodworking could be more hazardous for me than I was expecting. Sure, there’s the nail gun, which in my hands becomes an object of randomness — although at least I haven’t shot anyone with it (yet) as I understand a fellow makers’ space member did inadvertently. But of course I am on my […]

State of the Street

For about 10 years after I left the newspaper, during which time my by-line never appeared in it, I wasn’t spotted with my camera at any sports event, and I was rarely in a school, I had people routinely ask me, “Are you still at the paper?” Which proves, I like to think, that we […]

Tulsa Time

Today is Juneteenth, which means more to some of us than it might have in the past. For myself, I was mildly aware of it as something celebrated in the Five Points district of Denver, traditionally a black neighborhood, but not the historical significance. The reporting of this history is a bit more varied than […]

Status Unquo

The 20th of each month, which seems like it is always around the corner, is when sales tax is due for both the city and the state. I’ve used these tax reports as a metric to track the gross sales for my business month by month, year by year. It doesn’t account for a single […]

Hue-man

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina is making the media rounds these days, and invariably his introduction is as “the only black Republican in the Senate.” Last night he and TV host Trevor Noah discussed this notion of “tokenism” as he becomes the face of his party’s proposals for police reform. There are some things […]

Risk Averse

I don’t suppose there are too many people who look forward to getting sick, so when I say, “I don’t like getting sick,” the immediate follow-up probably ought to be: Well, who does? But there are clearly people who worry about this far less than I do, and I live with one of them. Left […]

Home Improvement

It is 8 a.m. on a Sunday and there are men on our driveway, working. Just so you know, in case you were wondering, this would not be a job I would be signing up for. Never mind that is is shoveling gravel — any job that requires me being on the jobsite by 8 […]

In the Neighborhood

Since Oz and I have been walking to work from in-town locations, we only get out and about in our own neighborhood on weekends. Last Sunday we took in what used to be the highest of my holy days, High Water Weekend for the Gunnison River; instead of rafting, which I haven’t done in decades, […]

Got This Covered(?)

One complaint that has been lodged rather consistently and across the political spectrum regarding Gunnison County’s response to Corona has been a lack of clear communication. You’d think by now the county would be well aware of this issue and work toward fixing it, but it seems, looking at the front page of the local […]