fun stuff

 started a biz making and selling awesome ski racks---why stick your skis on top of your car when you can use a hitch mount---if it is good enough for your bikes why not your skis?

Gravirax

That has me pretty busy ergo fewer posts.

But some other fun facts ---Pitkin has an unofficial policy for covid--we are aiming for herd immunity.  Pretty much everyone has it but life continues as normal except for the sick folks.  Wonder what the end of shoulder season and prime x-mas-new years will bring.

We got no snow---well you can top to bottom on Aspen but that is about it, which ain't too bad if you are a local and looking to get a couple of laps in on a sunny 50 degree day but kinda sucks if you travel here and are paying a bunch of money.  Silver lining is Ski Co doesn't need a lot of employees to manage a couple of 100 acres of skiable terrain so the employee shortage don't matter.

Daughter's hockey is in full swing--one of her teammates was ejected from a game and has to sit out an additional game because VAIL sucks :)  

Also they now have to wear masks all the time---last night post practice all I heard about was how doing suicides in a mask sucks.  I told her back in my day...........---ok it does suck.

And her team now has to change in the open because COVID is really bad in locker rooms I guess (has anyone from the  heath board looked at the high school lunchroom?).   Meanwhile SafeSport is having a fit.

We went under contract on a bit of land near Wilts and then in disclosure found that a soils report indicated a chance of a sink hole in our building envelope.  Called my insurance guy who said 'never heard of that in CO and after looking into it we can't insure against a sink hole'.  We are back to the drawing board and I guess the top in real estate isn't in yet cause that can only happen after we buy something.

Lastly and surely least our Congressional Rep Lauren Bobert continues to be ummmm special.  Kinda wish a special school bus could take her away to a special place for people who serve tainted meat at the state fair, endanger their kids in their car, ignore health regulations at their restaurant, and wear a gun everywhere cause they are a scared little bi@ch.  Good news is it seems with her GED level education she hasn't figured out what Congress does nor how to actually do anything (good or ill) for her community outside of saying nasty things.  Would someone from the real world in the GOP please primary her?

Anyone want a rack?  

don't compost because no good deed goes unpunished

We get our compost collected every Wednesday AM.  Today my son and daughter went into the garage, opened the door got ready to leave and then closed the garage and returned to the house.  Why?  Da Bears.

The white can the yearling is playing with is our compost.  My son didn't want to drive between the mother and her baby bear so we waited and took some video.  As a result my kids were late to school.  

late to school=tardy

too many tardies =report on academic record

negative report on record=poorer college options

Bottom line composting means my kids colleges options are negatively impacted.  So while composting might be good for the Earth it isn't good for my kids chances of success.  Think big picture?  Or family first?  Aint that always the question.

Dang that cub is cute.  

digital billboards

In Snowmass Village you are greeted  with a billboard telling you to keep you dogs on leash because of multiple dog-coyote interactions.  Interactions is a nice way to say coyotes eating your dog.  In the past week there have been 4 'incidents' in Snowmass Village.  Sadly my dogs don't know how to read the billboard and are not pleased with being on lead all the time.  There does seem to be more human-wildlife interaction every year.

Heading into Aspen the first digital billboard you see at the town line tells you that you must wear a mask indoors. The second one you see at the end of the S curve tells you that you must lock your garbage or face a fine.

Think about that.  If you don't lock your garbage you will be warned and then fined.  If you don't wear a mask you might or might not be warned but for sure you will not be fined.  Does Aspen put more weight on the lives of bears than humans?  

That got me thinking about what would happen if I shot a bear that broke into my house vs shooting a human doing the same.  I asked a couple of friends in law enforcement and while they wouldn't go on record nor say they had really studied the issue their first thoughts where that  you could be in more legal jeopardy from killing a bear than a human.

Lastly, for all you visitors it looks like Aspen is going to try to deliver a very 'normal' ski experience this winter.  For instance the BOH has indicated they will not reduce restaurant capacity until the hospital suspends elective procedures.  Yes you got that right, you can spay champagne to your heart's content (or your wallet's limit) at Cloud 9 until the hospital is in such dire straits that they can't function normally.  And the BOH has indicated they won't shut restaurants until after the hospital is in crisis mode triaging patients and rationing care.

Is it at all possible that we have got our priorities mixed up?  I believe there is a Chinese curse 'may you live in interesting times'.  Yes indeed.   

PS ---Pitkin county has been in the COVID RED ZONE for the past three weeks of our off season.

FUCK Texas

Aggressive title.  But it got your attention, so fuck yea.

Check out this lovely Texas native's parking job.

If you can't tell what you are looking at that is an Audi Q5 rockin Texas plates (plate GWS 9797 if you really care).  They did a great job parallel parking in downtown Aspen.  They got their tires straight--and left plenty of space between the trees---wait trees.  Yea they parked on the sidewalk.  And why not?  There was space so why not park where you want.  Sure there is a parking garage around the corner but that costs money.  Yea you could drive into the east end and circle for a bit and find something because its off season, but that is a pain and I am from Fucking Texas so I am gonna park right fucking here and own you libs.

If you wonder why some Aspen locals are getting frustrated with some of our part time citizens this picture sums it up, they got the Aspen sticker and the Texas plates and they act like they own the place.  

In a similar vein my son almost killed someone on Highline road (Snowmass) yesterday.  He was driving up the road (yes 5 mph over the speed limit) and an oncoming car was flashing their lights at him.  He slowed down, assuming around the curve there was a deer or a cop.  Nope, it was two visitors standing in the middle of the road taking pictures.  He slammed on the breaks and avoided contact, but if the other car hadn't warned him it could have been very ugly.  Why do tourists think this is some kind of bizzaro lifestyles of the rich and famous Disneyland.  If you wouldn't stop in the middle of the street in your hometown to take a picture don't do it here.  Do you park on the sidewalk in Texas?

Now to get political---do you know what society is with no laws?  It's called anarchy.  Laws infringe on your personal liberty (whether to take a picture in the middle of the road, park on a sidewalk, get vaccinated, or carry a gun).  As an employer or employee do you really want to have a workplace full of unvaccinated people?  Do you really want no limits on firearms---just think of 7 year olds with AR-15s and handguns.  Or to move to a less loaded topic how about a world with no driving rules (speed limits, stop signs all those things that infringe on your right to GO).  Who wants to live in a world with no driving laws?  Thought so, now shut up and go get your COVID jab.

On a slightly different topic some friends of mine made a mistake and went out to dinner with a couple from out of town.  A bottle of wine, 2 apps, 3 mains and a couple of orders of veg and they walked out $800 bucks lighter.  They won't be going out to dinner again any time soon.

$800 dinner menue

OMG I won Powerball

 Actually I didn't.  

I was at Citymarket in Aspen and after finding the shelves bare of seltzer I looked up while checking out and noticed the current powerball jackpot was $20 Million.  That got me thinking---if I won powerball what kind of home could I buy in Aspen?

Answer is not much.

I figured I would take the lump sum, pay the taxes and take my powerball winnings to Aspen Sotheby's and buy myself an excellent Aspen mansion.  Except after the lump sum discount and taxes my payout is 'only' $8.8 million.  The 'average' home sales price in Aspen for September was $12.2m and price per square foot was $2k.  So yea you could buy a meh 4k square foot home with your powerball winnings.  Or you could keep $1m for some improvements and taxes etc and buy this gem for $7.75m.

powerball winnings home

Anyone besides me wondering if Aspen homes might look a bit like tulip bulbs.

fun new aspen tidbits

 I served like 300 burgers yesterday at the hockey fundraiser and now my dogs think I am the best most tasty human EVER.

I have run into a bear each of the past 3 days (twice in horse ranch and one family on the ditch trail).

My daughter was driving into town and ran a (very) stale yellow light at Cemetary lane.  The person who was first in line turning onto 82 followed my daughter into town and when she pulled over to park near Koch park proceeded to yell at her for running the light.  Yes, I had already used that as a teaching moment in the car to talk about timing and how she had plenty of room to stop and should have but this most helpful Aspen citizen decided to help as well by following her 1.5 miles and then informing her that she is a shit driver and shouldn't drive.  Sylvie asked how she was going to learn and that resulted in more screaming---glad she wasn't armed.

My son was driving in horse ranch.  He tends to drive fast but in this case seeing an off lead dog he slowed down to about 8 mph and gave everyone a wide berth.  The home owner chased my son down (gives you an idea how fast he was going) to yell at him, but my son decided he didn't want to deal with some old guy yelling and him so he drove away.  Next thing you know at the HOA meeting my son is the subject of scrutiny for his reckless driving.

Thank you Aspen vigilantes.

And best of all in true Western slope style due to construction, cars were deviated off Owl creek into the dirt.  The car in front of us kicked up a stone and cracked the windshield.  Big long spider crack that needs to be fixed.  Called the local shop and they quoted $1050 (the national average is $550) and Safelite in Glenwood Springs was at $700.  I schedule an apt (having given my Vin to ensure the glass was available), get lots of texts and emails confirming and reminding me of my apt.  I get there at 9:25 for my 9:30 apt.  Leave car per request with instructions that it will be done by 5 pm.  Ugh.  I go to the park and do some work and get some mex food, and at 1:45 Safelite calls to tell me they don't have the glass--that it got sent to Denver the day before.  I let them know that sucked.  They let me know it sucked for them too because they would get less business done today but I could schedule for next week and this has happened with their computer system before.  I let them know I had to drive a hour each way and missed a day of work for this and they said well it sucks for them too.  

Fuuuuuck

Can I please give Safelite less than 1 star.  Ohhh yea and then I went on the corporate website to see about compensation for my time and gas and after waiting 30 min for chat feature was told to call the shop--the same shop that basically told me to fuck off.  Or I could call corporate but its too late now as they closed while I was waiting on chat.   GRRRRRRRRR

One week into Jewish new year and graciousness is failing me.

she is negative (i think), happy new year and ohhh yea we got rats (and chipmunks and mice)

 first things first---Monday at noon we got a result (negative)  that is 6 days after the school asked her to get tested and 5 days after test was taken.  Only one test result although they took two samples (nasal and spit they only return spit (I believe)).  Heard from the board of health that they were surprised over the need for testing---AND they are trying really hard.  I could give a lot of snarky comments but seeing as its Yom Kippur I will just say----ummmm poor job.

Happy and healthy new year to one and all.  I hope that you can find a way to find joy and happiness in our new weird normal and I am going to be more understanding and gracious to others.

I am having trouble being understanding with my new landlord and his agents.  I am paying a HUGE sum of money to rent an ok house.  OK assuming not having a working laundry machine is ok.  We moved in and next thing ya know I am driving to El Jabel (25 min away) to do laundry at the laundromat.   But wait there's more---when we viewed the house in May we noticed a lot of mice traps all around the house.  I asked the rental agent if there was a rodent problem and they said 'NO'.  The previous renters had moved out early and they put out the traps because the house was unoccupied but no rodent problem.  Today the pest control person showed up to do their monthly thing and we spoke about rodents.  Turns out the house has mice, chipmunks and rats.  We found evidence of woodrats in the house.   I have been hearing them in the roof at 4 am tearing up the roof (can't wait for the snow to melt and the leaks to start).  And it seems they are fond of taking toothbrushes and shiny objects.  Earlier this summer they had a chipmunk infestation--I asked how many chipmunks does it take to be infested and pest control estimated that they had killed 20 in the house.  And then there are the mice droppings in the garage which pest control said was our hotspot.

I am already having trouble with the understanding and gracious party of the new year.