Winter Salts Us

Well, Winter Solstice has occurred and we are in the first full day of winter. This is one of the days of the year I look forward to as the amount of daylight becomes longer as the old Sol starts travelling higher in the sky. Sol, he’s good for the soul, especially this pagan one.

The town of Ouray, Colorado celebrated Festivus this past Sunday. It was a grand celebration on one of the side avenues off Main Street. It had been a balmy 40+ degrees in the afternoon, but once old Sol disappeared behind the western ridge of the San Juan Mountains, old Jack Frost started nipping at our noses. But there were burn barrels to keep our exteriors toasty while there were various beers and other imbibements to warm our interiors. There was even a vendor there selling ice cream. He seemed out of place but was drawing a lot of business. And then there were the fire dancers with their blazing batons, fans, and spinning fire pots and flaming ice. It was quite a street fair for this small town. These events always remind me of episodes of Northern Exposure, as Ouray is about the same population as the fictional town of Cicely, Alaska and has as many quirky characters – and we are one of them.

So to all: Have a Wonderful Winter whether it be in the snowy mountains, sandy beaches, or the flatlands.

One Last Thing: I saw Saul on the Salton Sea aside Sol sun screening with saline solution during the Solstice.

There’Snow Business Like Snow Business!

OK, the title is a bit corny (like corn snow the skiers are familiar with), but it’s been a while since my last blog entry and I’m a bit rusty. Perhaps I’ll warm up as things go along here and I start writing more frequently.

We woke up to the results of Ouray’s first almost-Winter snow storm this morning. We had some snow in November, but that was the wet, heavy stuff and most of it had melted into the appropriate waterways. I believe this snow is here to stay for the rest of the season and laying a nice foundation for those yet to come.

Tamara and I lifted the blinds this morning to check out the accumulation. It appeared to be 6 to 9 inches on our upper deck. Not bad. We decided not to shovel the decks and roof yet as it was still snowing and predictions were for another 24 hours of the stuff. We decided to lie in bed for a while and sip our coffee as we looked out our bedroom windows at the newly snow-covered San Juan Mountains.

We now also have another element in our life’s equation – a dog! We picked up a Golden Retriever puppy in Greely, Colorado in October. She’s a beautiful dog. Her name is Aspen since she has the same coloring as the trunk of an Aspen tree. Aspen is a white-colored Golden Retriever, which comes from her European mix. She is off-white enough that we haven’t lost her in the snow yet.

Even though we delayed the removal of snow at the house, I still had to go to our store, Mountain Fever Shirts & Gifts, and move the snow off the sidewalks there. I say sidewalks because we have a corner location, so we get to shovel the front and side sidewalks. If we only had a sidewalk in the front, would it be a frontwalk?

As I was shoveling and not expecting much business today because of the weather, two women walked by and asked if anything in town was open. I pointed to our store and said this one is open. Of course a sign on the door that says OPEN and a neon OPEN sign above the door must leave a question in some people’s mind. They were from Southern California and naturally asked about the winter weather in Ouray. I gave my canned speech about being from SoCal and not missing it at all, and that when I am shoveling snow I remind myself I would rather be shoveling snow than sitting in traffic on a rush hour freeway! Besides, with all the shoveling, who needs CrossFit?!

That’s it for today. The goal is to make more frequent entries here and comment more about things that have happened in our lives since last spring.

One Last Thing: I had to go to the local Ouray Variety Store today to get some stuff to de-ice the sidewalk and an energizer for my flashlight. I told the clerk I was there for A Salt and Battery!

Happy Tax Day Eve!

Well, it’s here upon us. Most of us survived the Ides of March without a Ceasure, and now the bane of employed Americans is nigh – Tax Day. Some have already filed and gotten their refund while the rest of us wait until the last day to submit our dues to Uncle Sam and the Infernal Revenue Service for the privilege of living the US of A. On the 15th the big city newscasts will have a reporter stationed at the post office drop off that stays open until the official filing deadline of midnight. They will report on the procrastinators and show the lines of those dropping off their tax returns just before midnight. Watching such reports can be overly taxing.

It has still been spring time conditions here in the San Juan Mountains – sunny and warm one day and rain or snow the next. It has been fairly mild the last two days, but a cold front is blowing this way and moisture in the form of flakes. At least it doesn’t stick and no shoveling required. I guess I’ll just have to do pushups for exercise.

One last thing: If gainful employment creates income tax, does being unemployed cause anxiety attax?

Friday the 13th

Oh, boy! Friday the 13th -- just another great day in paradise. We ended up getting just over an inch of snow last night – just like a little powdered sugar on a donut. No shoveling required, but I did scrape the sidewalk in front of our stores on Main Street just so the sun could hit it and melt it off. It was supposed to snow today, but the sun has made an appearance all day through some high, hazy clouds. Someone in Silverton told me a few weeks ago that the only people who try to predict the weather in the San Juan Mountains of Southwestern Colorado are people new to the area and fools! Living here in the natural amphitheater we have learned to watch the weather radars and such, but until the weather gets here we never know what we’ll get – kinda like that Valentines Day box of chocolates.

There was a mention as part of a story arc in Doonesbury this week about the Telluride Film Festival. I actually made a post to the comments section on Thursday and mentioned that some people actually come to Ouray to escape Telluride. If you ever get a chance to visit the two locations I believe you will realize why quite a few tourists think along those lines.

Well, this is a triple-header weekend – Friday the 13th, Valentines Day, and Presidents’ Day. We are hoping for a good weekend business-wise, but just as we don’t try to predict the weather here, we don’t try to predict the customer traffic either until it actually happens. I’ll let you know.