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!
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
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?
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?
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Mother Nature's April Fools Day
Well, Mother Nature had her little April Fools joke here in Ouray, Colorado today. This morning showed the results of snowing about 3-4 inches last night. I got up to get the morning coffee and looked outside to see some blue sky to the north and figured the sun would make quick work of melting the new snow off the roads and sidewalks by noon. Figuring I would help things along, I went to the shop to pick up some recyclables to bring up to our curbside pickup at home since the Waste Management will not pick up recycled material, especially cardboard, at the office location. Go figure. While I was at the shop I figured I would go ahead and shovel the sidewalks and have them nice and clear for when we opened the stores at 11am and the sun would be shining.
After getting back home and putting the recyclable cardboard at our curb, I went back into the house to have a second cup of organic and locally roasted coffee. As I sipped the hot brew, out the window I noticed blizzard conditions. Where the hell did that come from? Tamara and I continued to get ready to go to work and the snow continued to fall from the sky in all different directions. We headed out at 11am, and after I brushed off the 4 inches of new snow that had accumulated on our truck during the hour I had been home, we headed out the driveway and turned left on Oak Street. Some guy was walking his schnauzer without a leash and the dog almost ran under the truck. I started down the Oak Street hill and noticed the trash truck heading up the hill. Since Oak Street is a 1 ½ lane street, I pulled into the nearest driveway and turned around to head the other way. Even in 4-wheel drive I was spinning the tires a bit and the trash truck was trying to keep its momentum going and not coming to a stop, thus causing my rearview mirror to be filled with the image of the grill of the Waste Management truck. I was able to get headed straight and took the long way around to the shops and used some side streets to navigate the partially plowed streets of Ouray.
We made it to the shops and opened the stores. Of course, the weather was not conducive to shopping, so for the most part, shoppers stayed off the streets. Oh, well, there are always more shirts to be folded and back rooms to organize. I hope Mother Nature enjoyed her little April Fools Day joke. We were not amused.
However, the forecast for tomorrow is for a full day of sunshine and warmer temperatures. We’ll see how that works out.
One last thing: If April showers bring May flowers, when did the pilgrims get here?
After getting back home and putting the recyclable cardboard at our curb, I went back into the house to have a second cup of organic and locally roasted coffee. As I sipped the hot brew, out the window I noticed blizzard conditions. Where the hell did that come from? Tamara and I continued to get ready to go to work and the snow continued to fall from the sky in all different directions. We headed out at 11am, and after I brushed off the 4 inches of new snow that had accumulated on our truck during the hour I had been home, we headed out the driveway and turned left on Oak Street. Some guy was walking his schnauzer without a leash and the dog almost ran under the truck. I started down the Oak Street hill and noticed the trash truck heading up the hill. Since Oak Street is a 1 ½ lane street, I pulled into the nearest driveway and turned around to head the other way. Even in 4-wheel drive I was spinning the tires a bit and the trash truck was trying to keep its momentum going and not coming to a stop, thus causing my rearview mirror to be filled with the image of the grill of the Waste Management truck. I was able to get headed straight and took the long way around to the shops and used some side streets to navigate the partially plowed streets of Ouray.
We made it to the shops and opened the stores. Of course, the weather was not conducive to shopping, so for the most part, shoppers stayed off the streets. Oh, well, there are always more shirts to be folded and back rooms to organize. I hope Mother Nature enjoyed her little April Fools Day joke. We were not amused.
However, the forecast for tomorrow is for a full day of sunshine and warmer temperatures. We’ll see how that works out.
One last thing: If April showers bring May flowers, when did the pilgrims get here?
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Beware The Tides Of March
Here in Ouray, Colorado it appears March will be going out as a hybrid of Lion and Lamb. After a few weeks of mild spring weather with high temperatures sometimes near 70, Mother Nature turned back the clock and decided to let winter stick around for a bit longer. About a week ago the temperatures started falling, or should I say springing, back towards winter climes. With the lower temperatures came some spring snow. It has been snowing on and off for the last week – sometimes a little, sometimes a lot! Within the last 24 hours it has snowed about 12 inches. Over the last week it has probably snowed about 24 or more inches here in town at 7800 feet. Who knows how much has accumulated at the higher levels. This final day of March started out sunny with plenty of blue sky, but by noon had turned to grey sky and the scent of snow in the air. March can be as changeable as the tides.
The good thing about spring snow is that the ground is no longer frozen and it tends to melt fairly quickly on the streets and sidewalks while covering up the brown spots from previous melting. By melting quickly, that means less shoveling. However, what shoveling there is to do is with wet snow and can be like moving around wet concrete.
The other thing about this time of year is the locals can get complacent about their driving and think the road conditions are better than they actually are. Just yesterday I was shoveling the sidewalk in front of our stores when the local emergency siren located above City Hall went off. The emergency siren is a throwback to the mining days when the siren would sound three times to indicate that there had been an accident at one of the local mines and all local emergency personnel were needed. That still holds true today. The Ouray Volunteer Fire Department and Ouray County Emergency Services still use the siren to call out the volunteers to respond to an emergency. So, the siren went off about 11am and the sirens on the emergency vehicles started wailing and heading northbound. I found out later one of the long-time locals had tried to negotiate one of the well-known curves that was still icy and ended up in the Uncompahgre River. Luckily she was ok as was rescued before hypothermia had taken its toll.
The other thing about this time of year is the results of our buying trip to Denver at the end of February. The merchandise has started to arrive and most of it is T-shirts. That means checking it in and then folding those shirts that don’t get hung up in the showroom, and we are talking numbers of shirts in the thousands!! Folding, folding, folding, keep them shirts a movin’. It is like in the autumn we get the autumn foliage and in the spring we get spring foldiage.
That’s it for this March Madness. I plan to submit more in April and not be such a fool.
One last thing: If warm weather in the fall is called Indian Summer, is cold weather in the spring called April Fools? I take that back. Whatever it is called, here in Ouray we just get Ute to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Ouray
The good thing about spring snow is that the ground is no longer frozen and it tends to melt fairly quickly on the streets and sidewalks while covering up the brown spots from previous melting. By melting quickly, that means less shoveling. However, what shoveling there is to do is with wet snow and can be like moving around wet concrete.
The other thing about this time of year is the locals can get complacent about their driving and think the road conditions are better than they actually are. Just yesterday I was shoveling the sidewalk in front of our stores when the local emergency siren located above City Hall went off. The emergency siren is a throwback to the mining days when the siren would sound three times to indicate that there had been an accident at one of the local mines and all local emergency personnel were needed. That still holds true today. The Ouray Volunteer Fire Department and Ouray County Emergency Services still use the siren to call out the volunteers to respond to an emergency. So, the siren went off about 11am and the sirens on the emergency vehicles started wailing and heading northbound. I found out later one of the long-time locals had tried to negotiate one of the well-known curves that was still icy and ended up in the Uncompahgre River. Luckily she was ok as was rescued before hypothermia had taken its toll.
The other thing about this time of year is the results of our buying trip to Denver at the end of February. The merchandise has started to arrive and most of it is T-shirts. That means checking it in and then folding those shirts that don’t get hung up in the showroom, and we are talking numbers of shirts in the thousands!! Folding, folding, folding, keep them shirts a movin’. It is like in the autumn we get the autumn foliage and in the spring we get spring foldiage.
That’s it for this March Madness. I plan to submit more in April and not be such a fool.
One last thing: If warm weather in the fall is called Indian Summer, is cold weather in the spring called April Fools? I take that back. Whatever it is called, here in Ouray we just get Ute to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chief_Ouray
Monday, March 16, 2009
St. Patrick's Day Eve
March 16, 2009
It’s St. Patrick’s Day eve. I’m already practicing. Some of us seasoned drinkers refer to such “drinking days” like Cinco de Mayo, New Year’s Eve, and St. Patrick’s Day as Amateur Night. That’s when the amateur drinkers come out to play and embarrass themselves. Leave the serious drinking to us pros. :-)
It’s a slow keyboard day here in Ouray, but I plan to submit more in the coming days, after I get over my St. Patrick’s Daze.
Speaking of drinking daze, we are noticing the spring break crowd coming into Ouray. Unlike Florida, Padre Island in Texas, and Baja Mexico, the spring breakers coming into Ouray are more interested in the ice in the Ouray Ice Park than the blended ice in margaritas and Long Island Iced Teas.
One last thing: What do you call a frigid flirt in New York – a Long Island Iced Tease.
It’s St. Patrick’s Day eve. I’m already practicing. Some of us seasoned drinkers refer to such “drinking days” like Cinco de Mayo, New Year’s Eve, and St. Patrick’s Day as Amateur Night. That’s when the amateur drinkers come out to play and embarrass themselves. Leave the serious drinking to us pros. :-)
It’s a slow keyboard day here in Ouray, but I plan to submit more in the coming days, after I get over my St. Patrick’s Daze.
Speaking of drinking daze, we are noticing the spring break crowd coming into Ouray. Unlike Florida, Padre Island in Texas, and Baja Mexico, the spring breakers coming into Ouray are more interested in the ice in the Ouray Ice Park than the blended ice in margaritas and Long Island Iced Teas.
One last thing: What do you call a frigid flirt in New York – a Long Island Iced Tease.
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Back in Ouray
Well, did March come in like lamb or a lion. It would depend where you are, no?
Tamara and I made it through the Denver Gift Show and did a lot of buying for our stores. The fortunate thing is that most of it won’t be delivered until May and it doesn’t have to be paid for it until July or August. We heard a lot of positive stuff from vendors about their sales being up and hearing from their customers that attendance at the national parks, resorts, and destination locations (of which Ouray is one) is projected to be up for 2009. The reservations for lodging in Ouray for the summer season are up for this same time last year. People just want to get away.
The exit from Denver was another adventure. We were going to drive back the same way we had come in from Ouray (minus the flatbed tow truck), but as we were heading in that direction to get on the main highway over Monarch Pass and through Gunnison and Montrose, I missed the turnoff for highway 285. We figured out how to get back to it by a detour. As we got close, I turned one street too soon (nowhere I’ve been has as good as road signage as California) and had to make a U-turn and finally got back on another highway that would take us to our desired 285. On the approach to 285 there was some road construction, and with no warning signs they had the exit we needed to take blocked off. It was either continue to the next exit, turn around, and get the exit from the other side, or take a couple more miles and get to Interstate 70 – the route we normally take. Screw it! I-70 it is!
Then the worry was about the weather over Vail Pass, which gets snow at the drop of any barometric pressure. Having not yet had breakfast, we stopped in Frisco (that would be Frisco, Colorado not San Francisco, California, which hates being called “Frisco.”) at a familiar diner from the past and had our repast. The weather looked good ahead and we forged on to the west. The only memorable thing about the trip was seeing big-horned sheep along side the highway as we got close to Glenwood Springs, but then, we see those along the highway just north of Ouray.
We stopped in Montrose to pick up some crystal products for one of our stores, get the cat out of kitty jail, pick up info from our accountant, get supplies at Office Depot, beer and wine from the liquor store, food from the grocery store, gas for the Expedition, wash the Expedition, and head the last 35 miles to Ouray. Can you tell we don’t like going to Montrose and do as much there in one trip as possible?
Driving into Ouray we could see that no snow had fallen during our absence and the ground was looking barren and brown. With March and April being the wettest months, it is just a matter of whether the wetness will be in the form of rain or snow. Snow would be preferred at this point.
So things are back to abnormal and we have customers coming into the store. There are 25 ice climbers from Spain in town this week who have been coming in the store for clothes and souvenirs to take back to those left at home. We call that type of buying “guilt gifts.” Even though I lived in Southern California for 35 years, I was not much assistance when the Spaniards were asking me questions about their potential purchases. One guy bought a child’s t-shirt and I finally figured out he was asking if the shirt would shrink. Then he was asking if the child’s shirt he had selected came in a larger version for women. Of course not. I was pretty worn out by the time they left. Maybe someday I’ll finish those Spanish tapes I purchased years ago. The trick will be finding a tape player on which to listen to them.
Today it has been snowing on and off between times when the sun comes in and out.
One last thing: If rain creates rainbows, can snow create snowbows?
Tamara and I made it through the Denver Gift Show and did a lot of buying for our stores. The fortunate thing is that most of it won’t be delivered until May and it doesn’t have to be paid for it until July or August. We heard a lot of positive stuff from vendors about their sales being up and hearing from their customers that attendance at the national parks, resorts, and destination locations (of which Ouray is one) is projected to be up for 2009. The reservations for lodging in Ouray for the summer season are up for this same time last year. People just want to get away.
The exit from Denver was another adventure. We were going to drive back the same way we had come in from Ouray (minus the flatbed tow truck), but as we were heading in that direction to get on the main highway over Monarch Pass and through Gunnison and Montrose, I missed the turnoff for highway 285. We figured out how to get back to it by a detour. As we got close, I turned one street too soon (nowhere I’ve been has as good as road signage as California) and had to make a U-turn and finally got back on another highway that would take us to our desired 285. On the approach to 285 there was some road construction, and with no warning signs they had the exit we needed to take blocked off. It was either continue to the next exit, turn around, and get the exit from the other side, or take a couple more miles and get to Interstate 70 – the route we normally take. Screw it! I-70 it is!
Then the worry was about the weather over Vail Pass, which gets snow at the drop of any barometric pressure. Having not yet had breakfast, we stopped in Frisco (that would be Frisco, Colorado not San Francisco, California, which hates being called “Frisco.”) at a familiar diner from the past and had our repast. The weather looked good ahead and we forged on to the west. The only memorable thing about the trip was seeing big-horned sheep along side the highway as we got close to Glenwood Springs, but then, we see those along the highway just north of Ouray.
We stopped in Montrose to pick up some crystal products for one of our stores, get the cat out of kitty jail, pick up info from our accountant, get supplies at Office Depot, beer and wine from the liquor store, food from the grocery store, gas for the Expedition, wash the Expedition, and head the last 35 miles to Ouray. Can you tell we don’t like going to Montrose and do as much there in one trip as possible?
Driving into Ouray we could see that no snow had fallen during our absence and the ground was looking barren and brown. With March and April being the wettest months, it is just a matter of whether the wetness will be in the form of rain or snow. Snow would be preferred at this point.
So things are back to abnormal and we have customers coming into the store. There are 25 ice climbers from Spain in town this week who have been coming in the store for clothes and souvenirs to take back to those left at home. We call that type of buying “guilt gifts.” Even though I lived in Southern California for 35 years, I was not much assistance when the Spaniards were asking me questions about their potential purchases. One guy bought a child’s t-shirt and I finally figured out he was asking if the shirt would shrink. Then he was asking if the child’s shirt he had selected came in a larger version for women. Of course not. I was pretty worn out by the time they left. Maybe someday I’ll finish those Spanish tapes I purchased years ago. The trick will be finding a tape player on which to listen to them.
Today it has been snowing on and off between times when the sun comes in and out.
One last thing: If rain creates rainbows, can snow create snowbows?
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Towed to Denver
This being the last day of a short month, a short entry should be in order.
Tamara and I left Ouray on Tuesday, February 25, to attend the Denver Gift Show. Things were going well until we reached Fairplay, which is a small town 80 miles southwest of Denver. As we slowed down to the city limit speed, I felt a pop in the rear of the truck and a grinding noise. Thinking it was a blown tire, I pulled over to the side of the road to check it out. As I toured around the Expedition, all tires seemed fully inflated. A check under the check did not reveal where the noise had come from. I got back in the truck, started driving, and did not notice any more noise, and decided to continue driving toward Denver. About 3 miles on the other side of Fairplay, the noise came back with a vengeance and increased volume. Fairplay was not playing fair. Deciding that things were not going well, I turned around and headed back to Fairplay, where a small garage still had activity visible inside, even though the sign said CLOSED. The three workers agreed to look at the truck, and after one of them took off the lug nuts to the right rear wheel after burning his hands on the hot hub, he surmised it was a break failure and possibly even a broken right rear axle. Luckily, the garage was a AAA tow service with a flat bed truck, and we ended up being towed the rest of the way to Denver. That is a heck of a way to save gas.
The truck was towed to a Ford dealer in Denver, but by now it was nearly 7:30pm and the service department was closed, as were any nearby rental car agencies. We called a friend of ours in Denver who we had known in Southern California. He came to the Ford dealer to pick us up, took us to Denver International Airport to rent a car, and we headed back to our other friend’s condo who had been gracious enough to let us stay there, even though she was out of town on business. So our plan to arrive in Denver at around 6:00pm and have a leisurely evening was replaced by a hectic evening and arriving at 11:30pm and going straight to bed.
I’ll probably write more later, but for now as February nears its end, so ends this tale.
One last thing: Can money be held for ransom?
Tamara and I left Ouray on Tuesday, February 25, to attend the Denver Gift Show. Things were going well until we reached Fairplay, which is a small town 80 miles southwest of Denver. As we slowed down to the city limit speed, I felt a pop in the rear of the truck and a grinding noise. Thinking it was a blown tire, I pulled over to the side of the road to check it out. As I toured around the Expedition, all tires seemed fully inflated. A check under the check did not reveal where the noise had come from. I got back in the truck, started driving, and did not notice any more noise, and decided to continue driving toward Denver. About 3 miles on the other side of Fairplay, the noise came back with a vengeance and increased volume. Fairplay was not playing fair. Deciding that things were not going well, I turned around and headed back to Fairplay, where a small garage still had activity visible inside, even though the sign said CLOSED. The three workers agreed to look at the truck, and after one of them took off the lug nuts to the right rear wheel after burning his hands on the hot hub, he surmised it was a break failure and possibly even a broken right rear axle. Luckily, the garage was a AAA tow service with a flat bed truck, and we ended up being towed the rest of the way to Denver. That is a heck of a way to save gas.
The truck was towed to a Ford dealer in Denver, but by now it was nearly 7:30pm and the service department was closed, as were any nearby rental car agencies. We called a friend of ours in Denver who we had known in Southern California. He came to the Ford dealer to pick us up, took us to Denver International Airport to rent a car, and we headed back to our other friend’s condo who had been gracious enough to let us stay there, even though she was out of town on business. So our plan to arrive in Denver at around 6:00pm and have a leisurely evening was replaced by a hectic evening and arriving at 11:30pm and going straight to bed.
I’ll probably write more later, but for now as February nears its end, so ends this tale.
One last thing: Can money be held for ransom?
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