Aspen SKI CO bankrupt

 Figure that headline would grab some eyeballs.  There IS something weird going on in mountain towns.  Was the start of the snow season so bad to crush interest in skiing?  Has it just gotten too expensive?  Are the wealthy feeling poor?  I don't know, BUT

Aspen Ski Co has shut two lifts (gents ridge, and Coney).  Why?  They say not enough skiers.  I
 would guess that is partially true but the real answer is money.  If Ski Co was flush they would run the lifts.  If there were a lot of skiers they would run the lifts.  

Seeing a bit of the same everywhere---the energy and volume of skiers is why down, hotel capacity down, retail down, restaurant revenues down.  Aspen does seem to continue to lead the way in non skier visits who just want to party and post on insta, but wouldn't have a clue how to put on a ski boot.

Fun fact, a friend of mine worked coat check at Caribou Club all presidents day weekend.  Total tips for 3 nights---$36.  Do the ultra wealthy not carry cash (possible) or are just cheap (very likely) or a bit of both.  Either way Caribou has lost a coach check employee.

some fun lines

 1.  riding the chairlift the other day with some 20 somethings---they were enjoying Aspen and thought it was awesome we lived here---then the guy asked "Is it worth it?"  My wife and I are both still chewing on that question and wondering about the answer

2.  friend who manages high end short term rentals---the Kardashians asked if they could send someone over to remove the deer poop---to which I wish she responded 'shit happens' but instead said "ok, but more deer will poop there tomorrow'

3.  my son was crossing the street at a cross walk in town (slowly pimp rollin it) and someone in a rental car got very upset with his pace.  The guy honked, rolled down his window, flipped him the bird and said " go back to where you came from"  pretty rich from the guy in the rental car to the local

4.  speaking of my son--he is going to work at the newly opened Mollie hotel.  Check out the outfits the valets wear.

Someone clearly had a thing for Jim Carrey in the Mask.

That is it for now---seems all the POW is at the Caribou Club and sadly not on the hill.

Merry X mas

its like that and thats the way it is (getting cold in our casa)

 We moved to the Aspen area about 8 years ago.  We have rented 6 homes during that time.

First house---boiler failed in a shaking smoking is it going to explode mess.  Took 3 weeks to get heat back.  Daughter's room never had heat--property manager said ' I didn't have heat in my cabin growing up what is she complaining about'

Second home--we only lived in it for 3 months---their version of 'furnished' channeled the furniture found in delta house in the movie animal house.

Third home---dear lord.  When we moved in it wasn't clean the the closets and drawers were full of their stuff, the pantry was full of their stuff (7 coffee machines) the WiFi lighting system didn't work (no lights in rooms under ground---yea we used head lamps) the heat broke and took weeks to be repaired, the roof needed to be repaired and the AV system was so screwed up that while watching Avengers End Game the audio from the TV was from little fires everywhere.  It was amusing for about 5 min and then annoying.

4th home--- not too bad.  WiFi didn't really work during COVID with kids doing class online and the property manager tried to kill one of our bunnies but aside from that we had heat (and everything else was ok)

5th home---total shit or as my bro in law said 'this house has a lot of deferred maintenance'.  Example--the front door was stuck shut for 3 weeks, the washing machines didn't work when we moved in, the master bedroom didn't have heat, the lights in one bathroom didn't work, the window hardware on casement windows was broken AND best of all the grill wasn't installed to code in exploded resulting in the gas line rupturing and spraying flames everywhere.  The house and the neighborhood almost burned to the ground.

6th home (current)  heat pump failed.  Its cold.  Heating guys said they can get to it in a week.

Is this normal?  Is construction that bad in the valley.  Are all home owners too cheap to do maintenance and get work done right?  Is it even possible to get work done right.

The view sure is nice though.

PS its not just me---the Burlingame project was supposed to have move in this week.  Now that is TBD on cert of occupancy --end result is 100s of people who don't have a place to live.

expect up to 3 hour delays

 I was driving my wife to the hospital (a colonoscopy don't freak out) just before 6AM and was greeted with that message.  Luckily this early the drive from my house to the hospital took about 12 minutes.  We were smiling about how nice Aspen can be when there are no people.  But a 3 hour delay to get into town for paving roads.  WTF.

The drive from my house to Aspen is about 10 miles.  Given that there won't be any traffic for the first 3 miles or so of that drive they are suggesting that it could take up to 3 hours to drive 7 miles.  I struggle to get my head around that.  And this is for repaving---which seems to be an annual thing.  Again WTF

Other things I struggle to get my head around:

Snowmass Village roads have been under construction for about 3 months with no end in site.  The drive from my house to the post office has gone from 2.5 miles to 4 miles.  There are sink holes appearing all over the place and it seems that all the roads are collapsing.

The woman who cuts my sons hair had her rent go from $700 a month to $6,000 a month.  That is an 850% increase.  I guess to keep her margins the same my son's hair cut would go from $75 to $650.  I struggle to figure out how much to tip on a $650 hair cut.  She no longer cuts hair.

I had to put down one of my dogs (Wiggins) recently.  The costs around it were very high.  Why?  Well when vets' rents and vets expenses in Aspen Snowmass are sky high they gotta charge sky high rates.

Everything around here costs an arm and a leg and yet we still live rural AF (as fuck).  Grocery shelves are often empty (finding lime seltzer is like winning mega millions), the emergency vets office only had a vet, no technician,  no front desk person because they can't find labor.  A friend of mine had a weird growth on his ear, took 3 weeks to get it biopsied, and 10 days later he still hasn't heard from the doc if its cancer (but heck not to worry, when the doc did the biopsy after asking him why he waiting so long to come in she said 'it looks like cancer').  Aspen and the roaring fork valley is broken.  I am not sure there is a fix.

opps I did it again (political)

 Well no I didn't do it again but my daughter and her hockey team did.

How do you win state championships wearing both home and away jerseys?  You play women's hockey in CO where there are different governing bodies giving you a chance to play not 1 but 2 state tournaments.  And in case you were wondering the boys never play more than one game in 48 hours but the women in this tournament played as many as 7 games in under 48 hours.  Way to go Aspen Skiers ---and if you were wondering how the boys Aspen skiers high school hockey team did--both the varsity and JV teams disbanded due to lack of players/interest.

But that is not what this blog is about.

Its about our congresswoman Lauren Bobert who proudly announced at a CPAC luncheon that her 17 year old son is having a baby in April making her a very proud 36 year old grandma.  To quote Lauren when making this announcement she is very proud that her son and his girlfriend are making the 'responsible decision'.  We do not know the age of the young woman carrying Lauren's grandson (yes they have done ultrasounds to determine the baby's sex and one would presume the health of the future Bobert grandson), but why do an ultrasound when the only responsible choice according to the GOP is to have the baby.  Other responsible decisions her son has made include premarital sex and not using birth control. I could provide all kinds of statistics about outcomes for both parents and children who have children while in high school but they are pretty much what your would expect.  Not good.  Interestedly children of teen mothers (Lauren, Lauren's son and Lauren's grandson) are at greater risk of becoming teen parents themselves (Lauren's mother was 18 when she had Lauren).  Children of teen parents are more likely to have health problems, not graduate from high school (again Lauren) be jailed and be unemployed.

Heck if Lauren's son and baby momma want to chose to have the child, fine.  But please don't outlaw abortion so that every other couple is forced to make the same decisions your son is making.  AND for God sake don't preach to America that you should only have sex if you are married and want to have a baby.  I mean come on just take a look around the dinner table at Thanksgiving.

When your family life resembles the title of a Brittany Spears song, I would suggest you do not preach to America about making smart decisions.  However, I do love some Brittany.

opps I did it again

a fakie

 No one hurt.  No one injured.

Well except for the mental damage (I found my daughter binging info on school shootings).  And of course missing a day of learning.  And then there are the costs for everyone scrambling around.  But aside from that no one was hurt.  Thanks goodness.

Our country looks like a case study for psych 101.  Doing something that you think makes your feel better even though it actually makes you worse off.  What am I talking about?  Guns.  More guns do not make you safer from gun violence, they make you much more likely to be hurt by gun violence.  Why won't/ can't we take all handguns and guns that use magazines out of circulation?  

If a person walks into a school, or store, or church, or roof top with a bolt action rife how many shots you think they will get off?  If they are lucky and good a handfull.  How many from an AR15 type weapon or an auto handgun?  Many magnitudes more.  Why do we allow our country to be so dangerous?  Cause some guys wrote something in the founding rule book (constitution) about guns in a well regulated militia?  They also allowed for slavery and didn't allow women or people of color to vote.  Maybe they got the idea that individuals should be allowed to posses weapons of war wrong (or maybe the current courts are interpreting the 2nd amendment wrong).

Now I gotta see if I can get my daughter back to watching something sensible and safe like Real Housewives.

daughter home safe

 her science class is just behind the police man

lots of rumor very little facts at this point.  maybe a nothing burger maybe much worse.  What I know for sure is these kids won't feel the same about school any time soon.

also how the heck do you pratice run, hide fight?