Covid-19 day 5

so far no one has been voted off the island (for those of you old enough to remember Survivor) however I have asked my neighbors to ignore any shotgun blasts in case someone is voted off my families island.

What the heck is the right tone to take--looking at news stories the top headline is: "are we going to run out of food" and the next headline is "where is tom brady going to play."  That pretty much sums up the source of much cognitive dissonance.

To be honest my family is doing great (so far).........  My wife, son and I worked setting up a food pantry for families that rely on school for food.  This will be an ongoing need and if you want to sign up follow this link.

food pantry sign up

Yesterday we often had too many people (ergo the sign-up we need to maintain social distance while doing the work).  Also no one under 8th grade please its super important to maintain a clean-sterile environment when working with food that is going to go to hundreds of people.

One of the neat things in times of crisis is watching a community work together.  Right now people are looking for things to do to help---if we could make ventilators or gowns and masks in our home I bet we could supply the world with all that was needed in a month.  I hope our President and other leaders figure out what to do with the great community spirit that is out there.  For example, maybe we could put people to work delivering food to those that are in isolation.  There must be tons of things people can do, we should have bright minds figuring that out and telling America---learning a new language is nice but mostly selfish, right now people are listening to their better angels, they just need to be told what to do.  (as an aside I kinda wish that cleaning up dog poop stopped Covid-19, if so Smuggler and all other trails would be clean tomorrow).

Also on better angles (and this is a tuff one because it crosses the line to taking care of family first)  there is a food drive at AMS tomorrow.  See Below

Dear Pitkin County Community,

Aspen Family Connections is organizing a community food drive on Wednesday March 18th from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Non-perishable food items ONLY will be accepted from the public at the Aspen Middle School on Wednesday 3/18/20 from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM.

Aspen Family Connections and our partners will ensure that food donated to us will be distributed to those families most in need in our community.

Instructions for drop off: 

• Follow the outer ring at the middle school parking lot - food will be collected under the overhang entrance
• Please spend as little time as possible out of your car and maintain 6 ft social distance from anyone you see.
• Please bring your food to the the tables, and set your donation on the tables provided; 
• Perishable, prepared, hot, or opened food will not be accepted
• If you think you or members of your household have any type of symptoms related to the COVID-19 illness or any concern about contact, do not drop food off at the middle school. 
• All donated food will be handled with gloves and will be sanitized prior to distribution.
• For larger donations or questions call Katherine Sand at 970-205-7025
• We welcome donations of small denominations ($20-50 City Market and Visa gift cards) to support families with specific needs (diapers, formula).  Please place them in the provided receptacle.

Stay tuned for opportunities to donate food. We appreciate your support in this effort.

Sincerely,

The Aspen Family Connections Team 

If you are still reading my daughter has started cooking like a contestant on Iron Chef (banana bread last night, carrot cake tonight) my son went sledding (6 feet separation of course) and my wife was back at school trying to coordinate volunteers (while helping companies figure out how to message in this time of COVID-19).  

Other interesting tidbits from the COVID-19 zone--my son got a very interesting offer to help a couple female friends of his break quarantine around midnight. He considered it but took a pass, so far.  Or as he said you would have heard the garage door go up and then all hell would have broken loose.  I do suspect when this all ends the young adults (??) might go a little nuts.  Maybe I should be buying stock in Trojan, although at the moment I am buying MJ (marijuana stock ETF).

Please keep listening to your better angels and any good ideas about good deeds to be done please let me know. 

Day 4 COVID 19

Don't Pet my DOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Life Aspen style with mountain closed and social distancing in full effect (ish).  Turns out people live in Aspen who want to recreate (duh)--with the mountain shut and a lot of trails covered in snow and slush there are limited number of places to safely recreate and social distance.

Yesterday, I was walking the dogs up independence pass and it was crowded.  Half of the people knew not to pet my dogs, 80% of the others started to pet my dogs but responded to my entreaties not to.  And then the other 4 people just petted the heck out of em.  One guy even challenged me as to why not--I said COVID and he looked at me like 'What'?  I said coronavirus on your hands then on my dog and then on my hands.  He gave my dog a good rub and kept walking.  I took my dogs home and gave them a bath, wiped the car down, then bathed in bleach.  Never had I wished I owned pit bulls instead of Golden Retrievers.

Things to add to the list:

1.  don't go grocery shopping for one or two items.  If you are making a spicy Mexican dish and it calls for jalapenos and you don't have any don't go to the store for them.  Use cayenne or tabasco or anything else.  Make a different dish, but try to limit trips to the grocery store to once or twice a week.  Ditto the pharmacy if necessary.  When China locked down Wuhan they allowed one person per family out of the house every 4 days to shop for necessities.  You don't need to shop for a months worth of food at a time (that creates runs on supplies) but you also should limited the amount of times you head to the store.  To be honest, the grocery store is probably the most dangerous COVID-19 place in the world right now.  Fewer trips with excellent hygining before and after is best.  Best time to go tends to be early as well because traditionally they stock first thing in the AM.  So far no signs of shortages so don't go creating any--buy what you need for a week and come back in 6 days.

AND THEY WILL NOT CLOSE THE GROCERY STORES.  IF IT COMES DOWN TO HAVING THE COUNTRY STARVE OR EVERYONE GETTING COVID-19 THE FEDS WILL CHOSE COVID---1% mortality vs martial law, dystopian hunger games type world the government will go with the flu.  Absolutely.  No doubt.  So don't worry about food supplies.  China made it through, we can and will too.

on that front my daughter made fettuccine alfredo last night with homemade pasta.  Excellent and time consuming.  She also asked if we thought her kids would ask her someday about what the COVID-19 pandemic was like and we said yes.  She nodded her head and absorbed the fact that she was living through serious history.

2.  Another nexis of COVID-19 is housekeepers.  If you are lucky enough to have one live in your house full time have em clean away.  If they clean 5-10 different homes and they have their own home you might want to think really hard about letting them into your home.  If you decide to keep them away, you might want to consider paying them something because it's doubtful they have lots of savings to cover pandemic work stoppage.

3.  lastly if your kids are to be trusted it might be possible to have them x-country ski or bike near friends.  Yes you have to make sure they only get together via their own transportation and that the will stay 6 feet apart, but it might be doable for certain kids with certain friends.

AND TO YOU STUPID PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO THINK THIS IS NO BIG DEAL, BY VIOLATING THE SOCIAL DISTANCING POLICIES YOU KINDA WRECK IT FOR EVERYONE ELSE.  Also as I said before listen to actions not words WHEN THE ENTIRE COUNTY CANCLES SCHOOLS, SPORTS, TELLS YOU TO WORK FROM HOME AND THE STOCK MARKET IS DOWN 30% ITS NOT A JOKE, HOAX ETC--TAKE IT SERIOUSLY.  If 30% of the town is all over each other at the White House and Mi Chola and then you go to City Market to buy something I am not just touching you with one degree of separation I am touching everyone you where close to with two degrees of separation which ain't enough separation.  That will help to keep transmission flowing which risks both overwhelming our medical resources, prolonging the length of social distancing and increasingly the likelihood of the government enforcing a more aggressive ban.

Think of it like this---if 50% of the town looks like its still going to travel for spring break (and yea the FEDs know who you are) then it increases the likelihood of them locking down the town.  If they lock us down and your friend's kid who is in boarding school in UT shuts maybe the sheriff's deputy on 82 or I70 lets your friend pass to get their kid.  But maybe not.  Do the right thing so the government doesn't have to force the right thing on us.

We are all in this together.  Listen to your better angels and think of the stories you can tell your kids.

day 3 COVID-19

no I don't have it as far as I know (as mentioned before we have stopped testing in Pitkin County because...........well good question and the bad answer is because its not therapeutic.  Of course, it would give an idea if you should self isolate for 14 days but I feel fine........well as fine as  you can feel when you are stuck at home with two teenage kids, a wife and an assortment of animals.

I feel a little like I should be filming Blair Witch style but I am not that tech savvy

Blair witch trailer

Right now I am trying to manage the disappointment of not going to Hawaii (family has decided it's mostly all my fault).  We are not letting the kids interact with friends but we are asking them to do chores, exercise and do homework (designed by parents).  My house is not a happy place. 

Things for kids to do---online standardized test prep, read a book and write a book report, watch a historical movie and discuss, play social media games with friends (forte nite might make a huge comeback) watch a movie with a friend on facetime (Blair Witch any of you kiddies?).  Cook.  play an instrument.  walk dogs, ride bike (alone) shoot pucks, kick soccer ball and do burpees till you puke.  Clean closet.  Clean under bed. 

Yea, if I am murdered during the night the kids have good motive.

Things for them not to do.....hang out with friends anywhere but especially in town.  It's like having unsafe sex where you are not just with your partner but all your partner's partners' and their partners' partners.  Pretty quickly you might as well be licking the screen at the self checkout at City Market.

And to you stupid ass highschool boys I saw in Clark's market parking lot sharing a Jewel and buying snacks OMG your stupidity is shared with all of us every time you go into the grocery store which given the high likelihood of you having munchies is very HI.  Your parents need to man up and stop your stupid ass behavior cause the longer Aspen is a hotspot the more its gonna hurt all of us economically.

Why day 3 you might ask---I am counting day 1 as the day ASD announced that school would be canceled and I starting getting too much quality time with my family.  Since then Aspen Ski Co has said they would keep the mountain open (day 2) been forced to close the mountain by the governor (day 3) and I expect on day 4 we (either Aspen or Pitkin county and maybe Garfield and Eagle county) will be put in quarantine-limited mobility to essential people on essential tasks.  Initially that will be a shit show as everyone tries to sort out what is essential. 

"I mean it's pretty essential that I go shopping at Aviator Nation and then hit Caribou Club officer."

Right!!!! Oy.


Here is what we are doing:

1.  Limit-eliminate social contact
2.  wash hands before leaving house (going to grocery store, pharmacy, going to school to distribute food to 150 families who rely on free school meals to feed their kids---yea 150 families lose weight when school closes in Aspen)
3.  when returning home clean phone with alcohol wipe THEN wash hands
4.  stay active (no sitting in room and watching all of Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and Narcos Elijah)
5.  Listen to actions not words--err on the side of caution and remember you will have great stories about what you did during the pandemic


Be smart.  Be safe and be a good citizen.

remain calm (and freak the fuck out)

trying to figure the right tone to very is very hard .....maybe impossible

Some info from small town living......

We have basically stopped doing tests so if you think Aspen is 'safe' because you don't see a large jump in positive COVID-19 tests that is a assumption made on faulty information.  You won't see a large jump in test numbers because we are not testing---because according to the Health folks testing is not therapeutic and we don't want to overwhelm the system and we can assume we have community spread in Aspen. 

How much community spread?  We won't know that because we are not testing.  Have a cold and not sure if it's just a cold or COVID-19, I guess assume the worst and stay in your house for 14 days even though you feel fine after 3-5 days.  How many of you are going to follow that guideline? 

I am a bigger fan of seeing what seems to work.  It looks like countries that are testing aggressively are seeing more positive results.  The USA has massively shat the bed in terms of testing, and now we are going to pay for it.  While health care pros are trying to put a positive spin on not testing (ie its not a treatment) knowing for sure that you need to self-isolate for 14 days is more likely to happen with a positive test result. 

Ditto social distancing---do I let my kid hang out with friends?  A friend?  Well if I know that 20% or god forbid 70% of the town has tested positive I am only going out to buy food every 4 days and then I am taking a 30 min shower and bleaching the car.  If the numbers are high, but we don't test to know, then I fear we will kinda practice social distancing but we won't really do social distancing powerfully.

Likewise, the rest of the world might choose to visit Aspen (from as close as Glenwood Spring to the Italian guy at the bar yesterday who had come over from Northern Italy the week before) might give us a wide berth if they know Aspen is a COVID super hot spot.  I fear Aspen might have a lot of COVID and we might spread it all over the world.  Shoot half the locals have spring break plans coming up---do you really want maybe 500 asymptomatic positive people traveling all over the place?  It's easier to convince Aspen to lock down with evidence, and that is number of people tested, and number of positive results from those tests.  Without that, or pulling out the national guard to limit Aspen mobility you got the gamut of locals from the family in a Sprinter van heading to Moab to families in their private jets flying to Tahiti. 

Clearly you can't listen to or believe Trump.  After god knows how many lies and just outright stupidity which also infects those around him, I fear press briefings are only useful to give examples to the kids of SAT words like disingenuous and obfuscation.  (psychosomatic is another useful word to define for the kids).  What you can and should do is forget what is being said by Trump et al and look at the actions.  School closures.  Travel bans.  Canceling everything from Coachella to taping late night talk shows.  Actions speak louder than words, and while numbers can be fudged (WE HAVE MILLIONS OF BEAUTIFUL TEST KITS but we can only run 100 tests a day) the actions tell you what you need to know.  Stay home.  Keep your kids home.  Exercise outside by yourself (not on the ski mountain).  Don't eat out.  Probably don't even order out.  Error on the side of caution because the bottom line is its a freaking pandemic even if the CDC won't call it that.  Act as if, and if in 1 month you feel like you where foolish for overreacting that is soooooooo much better than wishing you hadn't let your daughter have 3 friends sleepover and then flew to Hawaii where you were quarantined because symptoms developed 5 days later (of course after you do a group snorkeling trip and where they had a buffet on the dive boat).

this is a really good source--worth the read


this is not a snow day

Be smart and listen to your better angels.  We are an amazing country, we have a long history of willingness to sacrifice for the greater good.  Let those angels guide you and if I see you while walking the dogs up the pass, I won't pet your dogs----and maybe you shouldn't pet mine.

Covid-19 comes to Aspen

ok this is a unsettling topic but lets discuss

We have 9 cases in Aspen in a town of 7k people--that puts us per capita at a level similar to New Rochelle is under National Guard lockdown.  There is a couple quarantined in the little nell---OMG are they on the hook for their room for the next 14 days---wonder what Congress will say about paying for a suite at the little nell?  And who is going to clean it?  And a recent story I read indicated it might actually be able to transfer via air for 2-3 hours---so yea the HVAC at little nell might be getting the rest of the guests and employee's sick.  Doubtful but possible.

Sadly aspen is a bit like a cruise ship as far as coronavirus goes.  There is a lot of eating at buffet style restaurants (pretty much every mountain restaurant) there is a lot of eating out and many workers interact with tourist all day long as part of their job.  Where we differ is unless they bring in the national guard it's easy to get out of Aspen (for now) and I fear not only will Covid 19 spread all over town, we will also be pretty good at spreading it all around the world. 

Fun examples of the human condition in action (the human condition in this case is the want to feel like we are in control, and also manic (OMG its the end of the world) or way too blase (I washed my hands and I am young what is all the fuss about)

1.  proper protection




or



2.  unwillingness to admit mistakes and learn from them----as of today the US has tested about 11k people for Covid 19, S Korea is testing 10k people a day---US population is about 6x larger than S Korea----and yet we have a Presidential administration who spends most of its time talking about how great President Trump's actions have been.  How do you rate our response 10 weeks after first case S Korea is testing 10k people a day and we have tested 11k people?

Ditto disingenuous use of big numbers namely to impress--Trump et al have been banging on that we should have 4m test kits out by the end of the week.  Initially that sounds impressive but who knows if they will have the regents in each kit or lab so that you can actually get the results.  It's like selling 4 million printers but no ink.  Kinda useless.  On the ground in CO our state can currently only get results for 161 tests per day, and it takes 2-3 days right now to get results.  In Australia turnaround time is ........4 hours once the lab receives the test. 

3.  Trying to project confidence, actually projecting clueless.  Again its kinda like what should you believe someone's words (wash your hands) or their actions (full bio weapons gear).  Listening to Trump downplay the dangers of the virus for weeks has been depressing.  Today he continued to say that it should go away in a couple of months.  Yea well maybe, but maybe not.  Coronavirus is not like the flu, which Trump doesn't seem to get.  It seems possible that getting coronavirus does not confer immunity--if that is the case it seems to this non-infectious disease specialist that a vaccine might be very hard to impossible to create.  No one wants to admit that and honestly I don't think our President could wrap his mind around that.  The most honest person regarding the virus is Angela Merkel who feared that 70% of Germans could get Covid-19.  Scary but if you aren't honest with people there will come a point where no one will believe anything you say and that might be costly.  I fear our president with his incessant lies and unwillingness to admit any mistakes ever (Sharpie gate and Alabama) can't effectively lead our country, and has not only destroyed his credibility but damaged the credibility of all those surrounding him (CDC I am looking at you).

Stay in shape, wash your hands and avoid cruise ships (like Aspen, colleges, boarding schools, etc), not all cruise ships come with Julie McCoy and the lido deck.

where have I been (clue hockey)

The season is wrapped up (well not quite and just maybe not quite at all........)

my daughters u-15 finished their season last weekend in Denver clinching a banner and laying claim to the best u-15 team in the state of CO and NM.  Yea girls.

But why haven't I been posting?  After winter break my uber driving services and all around hockey mom coordination skills required:

Jan 10-12 denver
off week (yea no tourney for holiday weekend )
Jan 25 Eagle (vail)
Jan 26 Eagle (vail)
Jan 31-feb 2 Denver
Feb 8-9 Durango
Feb 15-16 home (steamboat came to us and yeaaaaaaaaaaa and we went 2-1-1 against em)
Feb 20-23 Denver

and coming up Feb 28-march 1 denver
ohhh yea and if that team wins in Denver then Phoenix march 13-15 and if they win that Phili April 3-5

that is a grand total of 2450 miles over 8 weekends (not including that potential drive to Phoenix).

But wait......that isn't all---outside of the trips to Eagle there has been snow---pretty much everytime coming home and often on the outbound trip.  Heading to Durango I made the mistake of leaving a bit too early which resulted in adding about 60 miles to the trip to Durango because million dollar highway (AKA 550 between Silverton to Ouray ) was shut for avalanche mitigation.  The hockey parents that left later didn't have to take the Lizard head detor so they only had a 242 mile drive down vs my 304 miles.  But not to worry on the way home it was open (although puking snow on Red Mountain pass).  For you East coasters and midwesterns who think you drive distance, look at these roads and then please reconsider how you feel about your interstate highway system before lodging complaints.

highway 550 named to 'most dangerous list

And while Vail pass is a big old interstate highway I can tell ya there ain't nothing like that in the midwest or East coast either. 

Cost of all this---maybe $400 in gas, another $40 in windshield wiper fluid, $80 in car washes (with 400 miles of driving over mag chloride you gotta get your car washed) and however much damage 2.5k miles puts on your car and snow tires (yea ya gotta have snow tires not those all season snow and mud tires).  Figure the hotels run another $2000.  Should I include the pepcid I have to take and the value of my time--nah that is just part of being a parent.  So not including my time and stomach lining we are talking about $2.5k but I am sure that is way low.

Remember this is mostly not travel hockey (she does play on an AA team--that is this weekend games) but most of this is just regular hockey.  Sometimes it's easy for parents to forget (or at least this parent) to remember that this is kid hockey.  Sometimes they are off their game, sometimes they are tired or sick or just not excited to spend a weekend driving to denver, staying in a cheap hotel, and eating crap food.  Sometimes perspective gets lost---and sadly I fear that makes sense.  Its one thing to watch your kid play like crap and then jump in the car for a 40 min drive home, its another thing to drive back to the hotel, stay around a bunch of parents who are also doing a cost benefit analysis of time and money spent vs kid effort and then after 2 or 3 more games drive home.

Which reminds me of a great line from a East coast hockey dad (2 boys)

Parent of Mites--think their kid will play in the NHL
Squirts--D1 college (full ride of course)
pee wee --high school hockey
Bantams---we should have gone skiing

as a father of a hockey girl I might add

u-15 thank god they smell bad (boy deterint)
u-19 thank god they kept at it ---this is pretty good hockey


Hope they win this weekend, but if they don't well there is a huge silver lining of money saved and a weekend at home.  Either way this should be my last trip to Denver for awhile.

more things aspen

I screwed up my knee skiing which is for sure is a right of passage in Aspen.  Only a partial ACL tear and some other strained ligaments and such.  Not too bad, but my skis are gathering dust while the snow is pretty sweet.  It sucks but it's just part of being an Aspenite.

And of course my wife had to one up my a couple days later breaking her wrist while ski instructing trying to save a never ever from falling on the magic carpet.  Mrs Greenacres always grabs the attention.

Last week Derek Johnson was sentenced to 6 years in jail for stealing a lot of skis from his employer and selling them on ebay.  If ya want some of the juicy details a quick google search should help or you can find some here  article on derek johnson sentencing

A couple of things leapt out at me---one was the hand wringing over sending a family man to prison (and interestingly his wife will do no time in the clink so that the children aren't left without a felon (I mean parent) at home to help the Johnson kids grow into fine adults).  Somehow you don't see the same concern with separating refugee children from their parents when they enter the US looking for asylum.  But I am gonna drop that political hangrande and point out something different.

The article notes that Derek was one of the highest paid Aspen Ski Co employees making $116k a year.  While I really wonder if $116k makes him a high paid ski co employee, I can tell you it is barely a living wage for someone living in Aspen with 3 children.  Even with employee housing (and the Johnson's have an amazing employee home) that salary doesn't go far in the suburbs of St. Louis and really doesn't go far in Aspen.   And Derek had a very senior role at Ski Co overseeing their entire retail business.  That is pretty big business and includes a lot of employees.  SVP at REI for merchandising is making $750k --yes for sure that is a much bigger job, but while Kent Washington isn't cheap you can buy a pretty sweet home for $400 a square foot there ---you are looking at double that for a spot in the trailer park in Aspen.  And while Derek isn't likely to be a engineer at Google anytime soon starting salaries there are over $100k.

So the first thing that kinda surprised me was how little Ski Co was paying one of their senior executives.  Another thing was the tone that I often hear from some locals that comp is pretty good--even the judge pointed out that 116k is in the top 10% of salaries in the country.  That kinda talk both ignores the cost of living in Aspen, and what would be a competitive compensation for a retail store sales manager with his number of stores, revenue and headcount.  Why do so many Aspenites get bent out of shape when they hear about a local making 6 figures?  I see this regarding the superintendent of schools or the city manager as well.  If you want to hire and retain good people, you got to pay and many Aspen locals seem stuck 80s in terms of what is a good salary.  Which is weird when our home prices are up about 2000% over that period of time.

I am not at all saying that if Ski Co paid Derek better he wouldn't have stolen thousands of skis over more than a decade, but I am saying this town might want to think about how it pays people and why there sometimes seems to be a bitter edge (jealousy) regarding other locals' compensation.