Mea, Sort Of

Three things have happened this young year, probably not in the order they should have, but nonetheless I have become obsessed, and it’s interfering with my blogging, big time. I can’t tell you why, because I set no resolution, nor resolve, nor anything else, but the first Saturday of January I opened an unsorted drawer […]

Talkin’ Trash

Perhaps this does not strike you as absurd, but it kind of does me: I have been driving my trash around the county, even getting up early to do so, and paying big bucks to dispose of it. Let’s just note that I am not very good at throwing things away. As a child of […]

Quantum

Quantum. Say it long enough and it starts to sound like a Patuxet name, and it actually kind of is, because the man we call Squanto called himself Tisquantum, so there it is, right there in his name, as he made that foolhardy mistake of being friendly to the Pilgrims, which, I only just learned […]

In the Neighborhood

When I first saw them, the couple walking east on Riverwalk Drive as Oz and I were walking west, they struck me as notable for a couple of reasons: they had no dog, and both were smoking cigarettes. For being a sprawling neighborhood of so many acres, we are still a small sort of place, […]

Dona Nobis Pacem

Update: My friend Mary texted yesterday, after finally managing to get some sleep, to say that a neighbor had let them know their whole neighborhood is still standing after the fires that tore through Louisville and Superior two days ago. She and her family will go today to assess their situation, but her initial report […]

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 […]