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elegraph the durango
FREE July 7, 2022 Vol. XXI, No. 27 durangotelegraph.com
inside
T H E
O R I G I N A L
I N D I E
W E E K L Y
L I N E
O N
D U R A N G O
&
B E Y O N D
Locking horns
From the ground up
Heating up
Recreation, development battle with bighorns for habitat p8
Think opening a climbing gym is easy? Think again ... p9
No longer in survival mode, local food scene is on the move p10
2 n July 7, 2022
telegraph
lineup
4 La Vida Local
Sublime madness Under the clouds of dark times, fighting for justice requires fervent action by Kirbie Bennett
4 Thumbin’ It 5 Word on the Street
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6-7 Soap Box 8 Land Desk
Locking horns Recreation, development taking a toll on the West’s disappearing bighorns
Ear to the Ground: “My womb will remain as empty as the Capitol at Trump’s inauguration.” – Now that’s a protest sign we’d like to see
Dog days of summer
thepole
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RegularOccurrences
Looking for a four-legged furry friend as a temporary roommate? The La Plata County Humane Society has you covered. Of course, LPCHS is always looking for foster parents to provide housing for animals in need of a quiet space and one-on-one attention. But, right now, LPCHS is in need of foster parents as the shelter undergoes a full kennel renovation. “We need people in the community to step up and foster adult dogs so we can continue to care for these dogs but have these kennels empty for the updates they most desperately need,” the shelter posted on social media.
9 Local News
by Jonathan Thompson
10 Let’s Dig In 11 Murder Ink
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12-13 Stuff to Do
Solving problems What it’s (really) like to open a climbing gym in Durango
13 Ask Rachel
by Jennaye Derge
14 Free Will Astrology 15 Classifieds
10
Heating up
On the Cover A sheet of rain backlit by the sun moves over the Gladstone area near Silverton during a recent afternoon shower./ Photo by Stephen Eginoire
Durango’s food scene is showing signs of post-pandemic recovery by Sinjin Eberle
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T
he Durango Telegraph publishes every Thursday, come hell, high water, beckoning singletrack or monster powder days. We are wholly owned and operated independently by the Durango Telegraph LLC and
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friend or dog, we will accept full responsibility in a public flogging in the following week’s issue. Although “free but not easy,” we can be plied with schwag, booze and flattery.
telegraph
Indeed, the LPCHS shelter has struggled with an outdated facility for years. The current building opened in 1997, but due to increasing demand, LPCHS quickly outgrew the space. For this current renovation, LPCHS saved up funds for 15 years. The project, which is currently under way, will include new floors, paint, ceiling tiles and state-of-the-art kennels (paying it forward, the LPCHS will donate its old kennels, which are still usable, to other shelters in need). “(This project) is finally coming to light,” LPCHS said. LPCHS is looking for foster parents that can take dogs from one to three weeks (the shelter houses up to 50 dogs). The Humane Society will also cover all the costs of supplies and food, so there’s no expense to people who foster. Also, if you want to help transport dogs to surrounding shelters, LPCHS will offer gas gift cards. As of Wednesday, about 15 to 20 dogs were transferred to other shelters in the Boulder/Denver area to be adopted. About 20 dogs were fostered locally, which leaves about 15 dogs that are still in need of a temporary home. “We got an overwhelming amount of applications, but we’re always in need of fosters,” Cassidy Crisp, LPCHS’s marketing and social media coordinator, said. For info on fostering, go to https://bit.ly/ 3IyvubD or call the shelter at 970-259-2847. In the meantime, the LPCHS is still taking in lost or stray animals with what little space is available. But the shelter is asking people who want to surrender their animals to wait a few weeks until construction is complete. “Of course we’d never turn anyone away, but we are asking to give us a few weeks,” Cassidy said.
July 7, 2022 n
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opinion
LaVidaLocal Brave faces, everyone
and art – the imagineers weaving together through storytelling our messy desires and despairs. “For reasons I don’t fully understand, fiction dances out of me,” InLately, all I can see is darkness. dian author Arundhati Roy once said. “Nonfiction is wrenched out by the aching, In the void of a quiet night, I find it difficult to close my eyes, because I know our broken world I wake up to every morning.” rights can vanish before the sun sees the sky. One morning I woke up and Roe v. Wade In the epigraph to her 1997 novel “The God of Small Things,” Roy quotes from legwas overturned, ending a constitutional right to abortion. While mourning that loss, endary English philosopher John Berger: “Never again shall a single story be told as Indigenous sovereignty was then stripped away. Before I could take a breath to process though it were the only one.” Because fascism seeks to crush the multitudinous experithat, the regulation of carbon emissions was also curtailed – all but accelerating the ence of humanity, the multiplicity shared in storytelling can be an act of resistance. devastation of climate change. Lately, all I can see is darkness, but sometimes I see light. Some take glory in the tightening of these chains. And more than usual, I’m suspi“Pidre came from a storytelling people … but he couldn’t help but think that Ancious of American flags, because we are in a new epoch of radical evil. glos were perhaps the most dangerous storytellers of all – for they believed only “Total domination,” German-Jewish scholar Hannah Arendt wrote, “strives to or- their own words, and they allowed their stories to trample the truths of nearly every ganize the infinite plurality of human beings” into “a never-changing identity … for other man on Earth.” When it comes to subversive, sublime storytelling, moments to destroy individuality is to destroy spontaneity.” This totalitarian act of removing such as this are why I adore Kali Fajardo-Anstine’s latest novel “Woman of Light.” spontaneity and autonomy of people The reader is transported to various eras compelled Arendt, a Holocaust surof Colorado as the novel follows the vivor, to invoke the term “radical evil” main protagonist Luz Lopez on her clairin describing this stage of fascism. voyant journey to collect her ancestors’ These recent Supreme Court rulings stories. While doing so, Luz must also erode the rights of women, people of navigate through a turbulent, Klan-incolor and Indigenous nations. To make fested Denver in the 1930s. this even more horrifying, other rulings Offering snapshots of Indigenous terriscale back the separation of church and tories in this region, before Colorado and state. When the Supreme Court begins New Mexico gained statehood, and a look its next session in October, it will be on at the darkness of 1930s Colorado, Faa mission to dismantle protections for jardo-Anstine honors her Indigenous Chithe LGBTQ+ community and our anecano ancestors, alongside my own Diné mic electoral system. ancestors. Through Fajardo-Anstine’s viSince Democrats and the liberal class brant storytelling, our kaleidoscopic Incontinually fail to confront these Chrisdigenous lives are given a remembered tian fascists, when it comes to the presence, letting the world know how midterm elections, I don’t have any tethered we are to this land. hope in that political party. Time and When people are in control of their time again, they dangle the promise of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s painting, “The Unfinished Flag of the United States.” own narrative, we can take the pen away progressive policies only to instantly from the white male colonizer, and we can abandon them in favor of cowering to right-wing reactionaries. write the rich stories contained within us. American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr was especially aware of liberalism’s bankThe Supreme Colonizer Court, among other reactionary forces, is currently workruptcy. Liberalism, Niebuhr wrote, “lacks the spirit of enthusiasm, not to say fanati- ing against the radical democracy we desire – a world where many worlds fit. By cism, which is so necessary to move the world out of its beaten tracks.” denying us rainbows and rights, they seek to put us in cages on a scorched Earth. Lately, all I can see is darkness, and things will get darker. When Black scholar and activist Angela Davis was imprisoned in the 1970s, James For Niebuhr, justice requires embracing “a sublime madness of the soul.” When Baldwin sent a letter of solidarity to her. Baldwin concluded the letter with a statement under the clouds of dark times, “Nothing but such madness will do battle with mawe should all heed: “We must fight for your life as though it were our own – which it is lignant power and spiritual wickedness in high places.” That sublime madness is – and render impassable with our bodies the corridor to the gas chamber. For, if they found in people taking direct action, such as when the residents of Westside Mobile take you in the morning, they will be coming for us that night.” Home Park formed a co-op to buy their property. Or when Durango folks mobilized Lately, all I can see is darkness, but I see light in you, dear reader. This failed state a rally after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The emergency hearts that flourished is ready to be devoured by fascism. But if we keep our emergency hearts open with through downtown, at times disrupting “business as usual,” offered a glimpse of sublime madness and organize and lift each other up, we can build something betwhat we can radically achieve when we organize. ter, something beautiful. Sublime madness is also found in the prophets dreaming out loud in their poetry – Kirbie Bennett
SignoftheDownfall:
Thumbin’It Reports that legalizing psychedelic mushrooms in Colorado could come up for a vote in November. And just in the nick of time, because if ever there was a time to be transported away from reality, it’s now.
The Supreme Court thwarting the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to … protect the environment … by limiting its ability to curb carbon emissions from power plants. Really on a roll there, SCOTUS.
The Public Service Co. of New Mexico shutting down one of the two remaining units at the San Juan Generating Station, with plans to shutter the entire facility by the end of the year.
Another person getting too close to a bison at Yellowstone and, not surprisingly, getting attacked. Perhaps the only punishment to get through to people to give wildlife space would be to take away their Instagram accounts.
Joey “Jaws” Chestnut winning his 15th Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest after downing 63 hot dogs. Oh, and he also found time to put a choke hold on a guy in a Darth Vader costume who rushed the stage.
4 n July 7, 2022
A federal court shooting down a petition to halt the construction of the giant Oak Flat copper mine in Arizona that would destroy a site sacred to area tribes.
telegraph
Down-y’all Texas has been downfall fodder before – like when Norway added “Texas” to their dictionary, the definition being “crazy and/or ridiculous.” But this week, Texas has out-downfallen themselves. On 6/15, during a State Board of Education Meeting regarding the 2023 social studies curriculum, a group of Texas educators suggested that “slavery” be taught as “involuntary relocation” to 2nd graders (this is from the same state that got in trouble back in ’15 for calling slaves “workers” in a textbook). Something tells me that group of teachers wishes they’d be called “hood-wearing friends who like vertical fires” instead of what they really are.
WordontheStreet
Q
With Old Navy opening a store in Durango, The Telegraph asked: “What other business would you like to see come to town?” Hans
“An authentic French pastry shop and bakery.”
Kay
"I’d like to see more great restaurants open, but no chains!” Brian
"Trader Joe’s. Totally."
HighlyConvenient Highly >>YOUR >> YOUR JOURNEY STARTS HERE Just minut minutes es ffrom rom Dur Durango ango worry self-parking self-parking No worry Sho rt TSA Lines Short ] ÎŇİÀ¸½ö ] ÎŇİÀ¸½ö
Tim
“I would like to see some bigger art stores. There’s a lot of photography, but I want more art-specific studios.”
Ryan
"MOD Pizza (a chain in Denver). Think Subway, but for pizza."
>>S >> S E R V I C E S Las Vegas Vegas Phoenix Phoenix
telegraph
Denver Dallas
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July 7, 2022
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SoapBox Don’t go there The problem with letting people have rights is that they get used to having them and react badly when you take those rights away. I’m talking, of course, about the June 24 Supreme Court decision that takes away women’s constitutional right to control their own reproductive functions – and also declares that you have no constitutional right to privacy. The decision by the right-wing court supermajority to overturn Roe v. Wade takes women way farther back than the bloody coat hanger days. Instead, it takes us back to 1873 when Puritanical anti-vice activist Anthony Comstock got Congress to pass the stunningly repressive Comstock laws that made not just agents of abortion but also contraception illegal. It banned “obscene” literature and “articles of immoral use,” as well as sex toys or mailing any information about banned items, even in personal letters. So much for First Amendment freedom of speech. About half the states passed related laws. The Supreme Court overturned restrictions on contraceptives in Griswold v. Connecticut in 1965, but that was only for married couples. The 1972 Eisenstadt v. Baird decision opened it to unmarried people. Then the Roe v. Wade decision proclaimed women’s right to abortion based on a right to privacy “implied” in the Constitution.
Before Comstock, abortions apparently were provided fairly routinely by midwives. In the early 1800s, methods were published on how to end an early pregnancy. After the draft Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade leaked in May, NPR reported that Benjamin Franklin produced an Americanized version of a British pamphlet of useful household information. Franklin’s version included information such as a 1734 medical handbook in Virginia that had all the best known herbal abortion and contraception agents of the time. Apparently this info was no big deal back then, but the leaked draft opinion claimed, “a right to abortion isn’t deeply rooted in the nation’s history and traditions.” Now that’s swept away, along with that implied right to privacy. But hate speech and ever more guns on the streets are fine. As if all this wasn’t bad enough, the right-wing justices have agreed to consider an extreme proposal in their fall term that could be the nail in the coffin for democracy. It’s a claim from North Carolina that state legislatures (controlled by the GOP, of course) can do extreme partisan gerrymandering and even overturn election results, with no check and balance from state courts or state constitutions. Why allow something this extreme on the table unless the agenda is to take our country there? Are they seeking to predetermine the result of the 2024 presidential election? The majority in America who want to
D-Tooned/by Rob Pudim
keep democracy and have government officials protect rights instead of canceling them will have to suck it up and do whatever it takes to resist where SCOTUS and the GOP are taking us. Government is supposed to be based on the consent of the governed. We DO NOT consent! – Carole McWilliams, Bayfield
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We want options
Among many discussions about whether or not our elections are fair, most center on the voting process. However, fair elections must begin much earlier than Election Day. Do you know our choices are purposely limited and often offer no
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6 n July 7, 2022
telegraph
choice at all? In last week’s primary, the Democrat and Republican nominees for every La Plata County elected office featured only one candidate. Executive leadership of local political parties follow the long-standing tradition of pre-arranged party candidates, making a deal with the candidate they favor and supporting them through the general election. Contrast that to the independent candidates who are required to gather hundreds of voter signatures to be included on the November ballot. It’s a lot of work to personally contact a huge pool of citizens, listen to their concerns and enlist their support to be allowed on the ballot along with the parties’ automatic candidates. It’s understandable that you are likely unaware we have three independents working to get their names on the ballot for this year’s election. They’ve stepped up to challenge political party status quo and offer real choice. Jack Turner (county commissioner), Tiffany Lee (county clerk) and Erin Hutchinson (treasurer) have until July 14 to gather voter signatures to qualify for the election. Any registered voter can sign their petitions regardless of political party. Please give these independents a chance and sign their petitions. This doesn’t obligate you to vote for them, but it benefits all with more choices come Nov. 8. – Sean Wren, Durango
Think twice According to Matt Cornell in last week’s Durango Telegraph, “This is a scary moment.” Sure is when you are calling for the Judiciary Act to pack the Supreme Court with four new justices. Even Franklin D. Roosevelt couldn’t pack the court, and he was a heck of a lot smarter than President Joe Biden. Also, please reference the poll indicating that a majority of Americans support increasing the number of justices. And an MSNBC poll doesn’t count.
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Feds fell asleep As a Babson College MBA graduate, I am highly disappointed with the Federal Reserve’s very late recognition of the runaway inflation impacting our country. Inflation is running at 8.5% compared to a year ago, and the Federal Reserve (Fed) only started to increase interest rates in March 2022 to try to reach its target of 2%. How did we reach this debacle? The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the implementation of relief plans, which had the Treasury Department pump almost $4 trillion in programs and tax credits into the U.S. economy. The availability of these funds and the savings accumulated by consumers in 2020 and 2021 provided a springboard of demand unleashed in the last half of 2021 and into 2022. This created the primary impetus for escalating inflation. A secondary cause has been the supply chain constraints, and a tertiary cause is the Russian invasion of Ukraine. But where was the Fed in its role to implement monetary policy and control inflation? During 2020-21, the Fed kept its federal funds rate at a bottom floor level of 0.00%0.25%, and with Quantitative Easing (QE), increased its balance sheet assets from $4 trillion to $9 trillion. This monetary policy was designed to combat the economic impact of the pandemic, but inflationary pressures were ramping up around the middle of 2021 when the Fed should
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Cornell’s letter calls for a hyper-partisan supermajority of conservatives to be replaced by a hyper-partisan supermajority of progressives. Biden can’t even get the Senate to waive the filibuster rules in order to get the voting act and to codify abortion rules. Lots of luck there. Finally, send me the link showing where abortion is mentioned in the Constitution or the Bill of Rights. We know that ownership of guns is in the Second Amendment. Colorado residents have access to abortion up until the day before delivery. Ain’t that just grand! – Dennis Pierce, Durango
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Same ole tune I have been writing for more than a year to stop the killing of wolves in Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. Hunters are allowed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to lure wolves across the Yellowstone National Park border into Montana to be killed. Now, 50 Yellowstone wolves (half of the wolves in Yellowstone) have been killed using barbaric methods: snares, aerial shooting and dynamiting of dens. All legal and sanctioned by Fish and Wildlife. One of the highlights of my life was to view the wolves, grizzlies and bison in Yellowstone. It is the park’s mission to protect these magnificent wildlife, which are part of our heritage. Wolves were reintroduced and listed as Endangered species, but former President Donald Trump delisted them, and President Joe Biden and Secretary of the Department of Interior (which oversees Fish and Wildlife and the National Park Service) Deb Haaland have done nothing to stop this murder of wolves. Science has shown wolves are a keystone species that improve the health of an ecosystem. Ranchers should use Anatolian dogs to protect livestock, not gruesome lethal means. Please contact Haaland, and ask her to protect the wolves remaining in Yellowstone and the northern Rockies. – Margaret Mayer, Durango
Let’s Show DO Cortez Some Love!
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have been increasing interest rates and ending its QE program. The Fed continued its near zero interest rate and large monthly purchases of tens of billions of dollars in Treasury securities into 2022, which increased the money supply and the availability of bank loans. This was expansionist and continued the upward inflationary pressures. As inflation kept surging, the Fed erroneously believed the increased inflation was transitory and would subside. The Fed finally woke up and determined inflation was pervasive and started belatedly raising interest rates and ending its purchases of Treasury securities in March 2022. – Donald Moskowitz, Londonderry N.H.
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Please Nominate DO Cortez For Best of 2022!
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The Alter native Resource telegraph
July 7, 2022 n 7
LandDesk
Canyon country crunch Looking at the land through the eyes of an iconic species by Jonathan Thompson
J
oel Berger – sunlight setting his wild mane of silver aglow – sits at a table in a remarkably uncrowded coffee shop, talking about desert bighorn sheep. The lack of a crowd is notable, because the establishment is a popular one in downtown Moab. And Moab is almost always swarming with folks looking to get out on the surrounding public lands, which, themselves, have grown more and more crowded with each passing year. Berger is a wildlife biologist who does “applied science for conservation.” These days he’s focused on a handful of desert bighorn herds that roam the rocky landscapes around Moab, in Canyonlands National Park, and on the San Rafael Swell to the west of there. Specifically, he’s wondering how those aforementioned crowds are affecting the animals. “What mammal shows up most in rock art and petroglyphs?” Berger asks. I ponder this for a few seconds and, though I’ve looked at a lot of rock art, I admittedly have no idea. “Bighorn sheep!” he answers. Later, when I look back at my photos of rock art, I immediately find one with a herd of bighorn rams etched into a desert-varnished rock face. That the animals would be so popular among rock artists should not surprise. Bighorn sheep once may have numbered in the millions in the Interior West, from the high Tetons to the lowlands of Death Valley to the crinkled landscape that is now Canyonlands National Park. Archaeologists excavating Fremont and Ancestral Puebloan sites in pre-inundation Glen Canyon found seven times more bighorn bones than those of deer. And when Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante crossed the Colorado River north of the current location of Glen Canyon Dam in November 1776, they saw signs of huge bighorn herds: “Wild sheep breed hereabouts in such abundance that the tracks look like those of great droves of tame sheep,” they noted in their journals. “They are larger than the domestic ones, of the same shape as theirs, but very much swifter.” Then the white settlers came with their rifles, livestock and extractive ways and killed off entire herds, both intentionally, via hunting and unintentionally, by way of grazing. Livestock operators drove millions of head of livestock into Western mountains and deserts in the mid- to late-1800s. Even the most remote parts of Canyonlands teemed with sheep and cattle for more than a century, beginning in the 1870s, and some 4,755 domestic sheep still wintered on the White Rim in the mid-1960s. Bighorns are especially vulnerable to pathogens carried by domestic livestock, and the cow and sheep elbowed in on the bighorns’ territory and gobbled up their forage. Beginning in the 1970s, grazing was
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phased out of Canyonlands, and by 1981, the livestock were gone. But by then, the humans had arrived en masse, first as miners in search of uranium, then as tourists, motorbikers, boaters, jeepers, backpackers and, a few years later, mountain bikers. As more domestic sheep, cattle and humans encroached on their territory, bighorn populations declined. By the mid-1970s, Utah’s entire bighorn sheep population numbered 1,000 or less, and the desert bighorn had been extirpated in Arches, Capitol Reef and Zion national parks. When Utah declared bighorns a protected species in 1986, fewer than 150 of the ungulates remained in Canyonlands National Park. This scant collection of herds, one of the only native populations remaining in the West, was used to seed reintroduction efforts elsewhere. Now some 3,000 bighorns roam the state, with a handful of herds scattered around Southeastern Utah. Yet the numbers aren’t growing as quickly as wildlife officials would like, and officials at Arches National Park, home to about 75 bighorn sheep, describe the mortality rate of first-year lambs as “alarming in recent years,” adding that no specific cause has been identified. Berger, who is a faculty member at Colorado State University, has spent the past couple of years in the Moab area looking for specific causes and trying to find out if and how long it takes for the bighorn to habituate to increasing human activity in their midst. He hopes his research will help public land managers come up with solutions. Berger launched his career with bighorn sheep – his doctoral thesis at the University of Colorado-Boulder focused on them – and later studied the effects of helicopters on bighorns in the Grand Canyon. He then shifted to the international arena, working in Namibia to stem rhinoceros poaching, and later in Russia, researching musk ox and climate change. That’s when he got arrested for getting in the way of the wrong people. He avoided a sentence in the gulag but was booted out of the country. He came to southeastern Utah to decompress and soon found himself studying bighorns, once again. It’s fairly obvious that the increasing numbers of “side-by-side” OHVs, which are like modern, souped-up dune-buggies, scare the heck out of bighorn sheep, most other forms of wildlife and humans like me. Less clear is exactly how so-called quiet recreation affects the animals. “They may look calm and look serene, but that doesn’t mean they are,” Berger says. A 2001 study conducted in Canyonlands National Park found that hikers disturbed bighorns even more than mountain biker or jeep traffic – though it’s careful to point out that may be because mechanized transport is confined to established roadways in the park, which bighorns may avoid or be accustomed to. And if mountain bikers or hikers stress the
Rock art depicting bighorn sheep in southeast Utah./ Photo by Jonathan Thompson animals, then the animals likely will avoid the areas frequented by people. That, in turn, might mean ewes stay up high in the spring, when they are in the third trimester of pregnancy and are jonesing for the nutrient-rich grass in the lowlands, which could lead to less healthy lambs that are more vulnerable to disease, predation and starvation. Moab-area modes of recreation also include motorized paragliders – which must look to wildlife like the return of the pterodactyls – drones, BASE jumpers, rock climbers, backcountry skiers and rock-spire slackliners. As the front-country gets increasingly crowded, the more adventurous recreationists are heading deeper into the backcountry – and bighorn habitat. Berger’s not looking to shut down vast swaths of landscape, even if he could. “We just want it to be a little gentler in the areas where these animals need security,” he says. He points to a compromise he worked on in Wyoming, where a 40-mile-long, one-milewide, no-drilling and no-fencing corridor was established for pronghorn migration. In other parts of the West, areas are closed to rock climbing during raptor nesting season, and trails are made off-limits during a few months in winter to give elk and deer a break. In the Tetons this past fall, a collaborative working group recommended prohibiting skiing in small sections of the
telegraph
mountains to protect bighorn sheep. Berger acknowledges that super popular areas, such as the Slickrock Trail or Factory Butte near Hanksville, which the Bureau of Land Management has sacrificed to OHV use, are never going to be bighorn breeding grounds. It’s probably too late to preserve or even rehabilitate those areas. Rather, he and his colleagues are doing triage, working to keep populations of the remaining herds above critical levels by directing use away from prime habitat. All the while, he keeps a key question in mind: What do we want this land to look like through the eyes of an iconic species a decade from now? Berger finishes his coffee, and I decide to run a local trail that slices across the urbanred rock interface. As I run, I think about what Berger said about seeing the land through the eyes of the bighorn. I do my best to soften my step on the red earth as I remember something he said that really sums up the conundrum facing those concerned about recreation’s impacts on wildlife and wild places: “We want people to visit places, we just don’t want them to destroy them.” The Land Desk is a newsletter from Jonathan P. Thompson, author of “River of Lost Souls,” “Behind the Slickrock Curtain,” and “Sagebrush Empire.” To subscribe, go to: www.landdesk.org
LocalNews
From the ground up Owners of the Gravity Lab on what it’s (really) like to start a climbing gym by Jennaye Derge
R
ock climbing is rarely thought of as easy. Challenging yourself is kind of the point. Maybe that’s why two local climbers decided to tackle an equally daunting task: opening a new climbing gym in Durango. Husband and wife Sebastiaan Zuidweg and Laura Chase are gearing up to open Gravity Lab, an indoor climbing gym on Highway 160 west of town. Although both Laura and Sebastiaan could be considered ambitious – in life and in climbing – neither of them would describe the process of opening a climbing gym as easy.
In fact, when the couple moved from Crested Butte to Durango in 2019, they had no idea that they’d one day be opening a gym. However, when Durango’s previous climbing gym, The Rock Lounge, closed in 2020, leaving local climbers without a community hub and training center, Zuidweg and Chase jumped at the opportunity. Or maybe it was more of a slow tip toe followed by a blind leap into the abyss. Both Zuidweg and Chase had backgrounds in the healthcare industry but had never owned a business. Gravity Lab was started on crumbs of ideas and bravery. Even though climbing gyms are growing in popularity, that doesn’t mean they are becoming any easier to build and successfully open. Climbing gyms can be challenging to finance, with buildings typically requiring a lot of construction, and
local and state ordinances can present unexpected obstacles. Despite the challenges, Zuidweg and Chase knew it was meant to be when they found the perfect location – a former manufacturing warehouse. “All of a sudden, what was once a pipe dream for us became a reality when we found an amazing property, and we found ourselves in a position thinking that maybe we could afford to do this,” Zuidweg said. It was important for Zuidweg and Chase to own the property for their climbing gym. They said many gyms close because of rent increases or the sale of the buildings. Such was the case with The Rock Lounge, which closed after its building sold. Zuidweg and Chase also wanted to be able to build as much as they wanted – or as much as permitting would allow – without having to worry about a landlord saying no or having to move locations in the future. But, once they found the perfect building, there were more obstacles. “There are a number of agencies involved in working toward approval,” Zuidweg said. “When we purchased the property, we needed to coordinate with every entity to make sure the use and intent of our project met each entity’s needs and expectations.” For example, the Colorado Department of Transportation required the climbing gym to provide an alternative entrance and fund a study determining how much traffic Gravity Lab would produce. The couple also had to perform studies to determine the gym’s impact on the sewer system and whether or not their well water was safe for consumption. And even though water met requirements for safe drinking, they were still required to add a chlorine filter system. Add to this fire codes, electrical systems, land easements, neighbors and financing. “We actually experienced a bank denying our loans based on the fact that they just couldn’t get comfortable with the … uniqueness of the climbing gym business model,” Zuidweg said. Despite the challenges, including supply chain delays of construction materials, Gravity Lab is shooting for a fall opening, at which point they will face a new moun-
Sebastiaan Zuidweg, left, works on the interior of Gravity Lab, his new climbing gym on Highway 160 west of Durango. The gym is slated for a fall opening./ Courtesy photo tain to scale: running a climbing gym. “We intend to have robust programming components including youth programming, adult training and coaching, specialty groups (adaptive programming, instruction, indoor to crag clinics,) etc. We will also hold community events, competitions and corporate events. We’ll have a retail shop with climbing-specific gear, clothing, drinks and snacks,” Zuidweg said of their future plans. He banks on the idea that the Gravity
Lab will be less of the traditional gym experience and more of a community gathering place for lovers of the outdoors. He plans on sharing the space with other climbingenthused entrepreneurs and simply, anyone who wants a place to go where they can be with friends, meet future climbing partners and share their love of climbing. This article is republished from Startup Colorado, an organization that supports rural entrepreneurs. See the original post at www. StartupColorado.org
Adjunct Teaching Opportunities Go to pueblocc.edu/southwest and click on “Adjunct Teaching Opportunities” under Quick Links
telegraph
July 7, 2022 n
9
LetsDigIn
The Durango (food) tango It has been a busy few months for the restaurant scene by Sinjin Eberle
A
fter enduring the doldrums of the past couple of years, a new energy and excitement to the restaurant scene has been emerging (the 5th Dimension’s song “Age of Aquarius” is ringing in my ears). If you had asked me about that a few weeks ago, this would not have been the description that first came to mind. Over the course of this past spring, I have found myself somewhat frustrated, feeling there is a lack of new life, new inspiration and new excitement around dining here. Too much status quo, too much just hanging on, trying to recover and bolster business that was so deeply impacted by the challenges of the past two years. That’s not to mention the major shifts in employment and staffing we have explored previously in this column. It just felt heavy and exhausting and was making me a bit melancholy. Lola’s Place has become a go-to spot for food trucks, coffee and now, an outdoor bar spearThen it hit me one morning as headed by Ska Brewing./ Photo by Sinjin Eberle I was walking down Second Avenue to grab a latte after a workof the friendliest and chill settings in town. Pizza at Three Springs and really enjoyed it. out – holy cow, in reality, a lot has changed Just sitting at Lola’s and watching people It’s more spacious than the other locations, over the past few months in subtle increcome and go, I am reminded of the very with both a larger dining room and bar ments. Maybe I simply wasn’t paying attenreal sense of the relaxed, community vibe of space. It was clean, bright and quiet, and tion, but they have now all come together, “off main street.” People walking by with simply relaxing. Also, the Home Slice on seemingly at once. What sparked this maltheir dogs, catching up with neighbors for a North Main Avenue is slated to move to the let-to-the-forehead revelation was how minute while waiting for a Cuevas burrito closed down Bird’s location. What will quickly Lola’s Place, in what was the home or a salmon bowl from Rokko. I have really come of the closed Home Slice is still being of Cyprus Café and Eno Wine Bar, undercome to enjoy a latte from Taste in the late worked out, but I got a few hints of what went major transformation this year and morning, when the sun is bright, and every- might be coming, and it is quite exciting! noticing that kind of transition in other thing just feels fresh and calm. Reminds me Lastly, on a sad note, one more major venues across town as well. Guess I need to to appreciate the vibe of living in our little change is on the horizon for the regional get out more! mountain town. fine dining scene. Olio, the absolutely Let’s back up a bit. I loved Cyprus Café This is not to imply that Lola’s is the wonderful restaurant in Mancos, has anand Eno, especially the patio space between only place making changes right now. Just nounced it has been sold and will close at the two buildings. Through several transilast week, Matt Steffens and Brice Ward the end of July (and, according to the webtions and a few different iterations of owncompleted the purchase of 81301 Coffee site, does not have any more reservations ership, this particular spot has experienced from Durango Artisan Foods, which has unavailable until they are done for good). I plenty of evolution over the past 24 dergone its own transition – abruptly vacattruly loved Olio and always felt the kind months. As Lola’s was just starting out, it ing the kitchen space next to 81301 and of personal, intimate experience you could was pretty lean for such an amazing spot – opening the Provisions: A Local Gourmet have there was truly unique. The fact that only two food trucks (Cuevas Tacos and The Market retail space at 934 Main Ave. Just they made it so long in such a small space, Soup Palette) anchoring the space behind down the road, Union Social House also has in such a small town, truly reflected upon the patio, and that was pretty much it. For a a new food truck and expanded menu, the chef and staff, and their commitment long time, it made me wonder if that was which opened mid-June. Another few to quality and creativity. It was amazing, the limit of the vision (or resources) for blocks south, Farm to Summit is close to and I am quite sad it will be no longer. such a great location. opening their new storefront. As change reminds us, nothing lasts forToday it’s a different story with six offerAnother food truck switcheroo to note ever. But as we continue to emerge and ings available including the new Taste cofcenters around Anarchy Brewing on E. 8th grow as a restaurant community, I am confee shop, Thimbleberry Smoothie Co. (and Ave., which last year featured food from tinuously inspired by the hard work, insmoothie bowls!), Mountain Stir Fry and Juicy’s Shanty, a Caribbean and BBQ-oritention and creativity that this town, its Rokko Izakaya Japanese bowls and tapas, ented truck. Juicy’s migrated a few months farmers and providers, and customers all with Cuevas Tacos still holding down the ago to the VFW near Rotary Park, while bring to the table. I always feel better fort. Wrapping a bow around the experiChalkboard Kitchen, with its “comfort food, being reminded that we are all in this toence is the new, 8-seat Ska Brewing Outpost elevated,” taking the spot behind Anarchy. gether, and there is so much opportunity outdoor bar, where you can enjoy beer, For the first time last week, I ventured to keep growing and changing and evolvwine and batched margaritas in easily one out and tried the new (to me) Home Slice ing. It’s beautiful.
10 n July 7, 2022
telegraph
MurderInk
Not your average whodunit Nordic noir dives deep into the sole of the Arctic stoic by Jeffrey Mannix
K
almann Ódinsson is a 34-year-old simpleton living independently in a small settlement in a remote northern area of Iceland. He’s the self-appointed sheriff of Raufarhöfn on the snowy hinterland of the Melrakkaslétta, about 1,000 miles from Reykjavík, where half of Iceland lives. Kalmann is a hunter and shark catcher when he’s not patrolling his hamlet, same as his beloved and legendary grandfather who taught him. You’ll have to forgive the simpleton label, but a more sensitive portrait of Kalmann’s cast of mind would be unkind. “Kalmann: An Icelandic Mystery” is a story about Kalmann and is written in the first person, often oblivious of the harsh light of what others think of his nonconformities. Let’s let Kalmann explain, and you’ll at once forgive the characterization: “I wondered how things would be for me if I reached Grandfather’s age. Because things with me had never really gone forwards. They suspected that the wheels in my head ran backwards. That happened sometimes. Or that I’d never progressed beyond the level of a six-year-old. I wasn’t
fussed. Or that my head contains nothing but fish soup, or that It’s hollow, like a buoy. Or that my wires aren’t connected properly. Or that I have the IQ of a sheep. ‘Run Forest, run!’ they used to shout during sport lessons, laughing themselves silly. That’s from this movie where the hero is mentally disabled but can run fast and play ping-pong well. … I can’t run fast, I can’t play ping-pong, and back then I didn’t even know what an IQ was. Grandfather knew, but he said it was just a number used to separate people into black and white, a unit of measurement like time or money, a capitalist invention even though we’re all equal, and then I lost track of what he was saying, and Grandfather explained that only Today counts, the Here, the Now. Me, here with him. Nothing more. I understood that.”
To embrace Kalmann to the full extent of his simple mindedness in Joachim B. Schmidt’s distinctly Nordic noir, you should read mysteries written by Iceland’s quintessential literary luminary, Arnaldur Indridason. Hit up the library for “Silence of the Grave” and “Jar City.” Your reading life will never be the same if you read these two novels. And as much as Indridason has raised the bar of crime fiction to genuine literature, Schmidt has reached deeper into the soul of the Arctic stoic with his character study of Kalmann. It happens that Ms. Hafdís, the high school principal and town councilwoman, asked Kalmann if he’d do his community the service of hunting and killing an Arctic fox who had been skulking around town in search of food.
telegraph
Himself sworn to the sanctity of sheriff, Kalmann set off into the tundra to track down and shoot the fox he knew as Schwarzkopf with his distinctive blue-hued fur. On his trek into the frozen Arctic, Kalmann came upon a pool of blood after losing his balance in the deep snow and falling hands first into the blood. He went back to town and visited Ms. Hafdís to report not having shot Schwarzkopf. Standing before Ms. Hafdís, Kalmann had bloody hands and sleeves, and herein begins the investigation of what happened to missing person Róbert McKenzie, who simply vanished some weeks before. Before long, Kalmann is being interviewed by Detective Birna of the criminal police department of Reykjavík, and before much longer the investigation of Róbert McKenzie has been staffed by a cohort of forensic investigators swirling around Kalmann. That puts us on page 45 and anything more I tell you about “Kalmann” the book or Kalmann the simpleton is a plot spoiler. Surely I shouldn’t have to convince you of the value of a $17 treasure, and don’t forget your 15% Murder Ink discount from Maria’s Bookshop.
July 7, 2022 n 11
StufftoDo
Thursday07 Ska-B-Q with Leadville Cherokee, 5 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St. Bingo Night, 5 p.m., Fenceline Cider, Mancos. The Yoties play, 5 p.m., Mancos Brewing Co. Jack & the Vox (and Company) play for the free Concerts in the Park series, 5:30 p.m., Buckley Park. Live music, 5:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave. Live music, 5:30 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave. Rob Webster plays, 6 p.m., Fur Trappers Steakhouse and Bar, 701 E. 2nd Ave. Jeff Solon Jazz Duo plays, 6-8 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Sunday10
Donny Johnson plays, 6 p.m., Fur Trappers Steakhouse and Bar, 701 E. 2nd Ave.
Durango Flea Market, 8 a.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds, 2500 Main Ave.
Ben Gibson Duo plays, 6 p.m., Fenceline Cider, Mancos.
Andrew Schuhmann plays, 1-4 p.m., 11th Street Station.
Merely Players presents “Damsels,” 7 p.m., Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center Dr. Bilateral Stimulation plays, 7-10 p.m., 11th Street Station.
Maggie Bernet plays, 6-9 p.m., Durango Hot Springs. Powerhouse Trivia Night, 6:30 p.m., Powerhouse Science Center, 1333 Camino del Rio.
Deadline for “Stuff to Do” submissions is Monday at noon. To submit an item, email: calendar@durangotelegraph.com
Spaghetti Western plays, 7-10 p.m., 11th Street Station. Geeks Who Drink Trivia, 8 p.m., The Roost, 128 E. College Dr. Comedy Show, 9 p.m., Olde Tymers Café, 1000 Main Ave.
Author Blake Crouch, 3 p.m., El Moro Spirits & Tavern, 945 Main Ave.
Durango Farmers Market, 8 a.m.–12 noon, featuring story time from 9-10:30 a.m. and music from One Heart Orchestra, TBK Bank parking lot, across from the Transit Center.
Live music, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Bayfield Farmers Market, 8 a.m., 1328 County Road 501.
Gary Walker plays, 10 a.m.-12 noon, Jean-Pierre Bakery & Restaurant, 601 Main Ave. Free Legal Clinic, 4-5 p.m., Ignacio Library, 470 Goddard Ave. Authors in the Parklet: Sylvester Allred, 4 p.m., Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave. Live music, 5:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave. Live music, 5:30 p.m., The Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave. Kirk James plays, 6-9 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave. Ru Paul’s Drag Race Watch Party, every Friday, 68 p.m., Father’s Daughters Pizza, 640 Main Ave.
Devin Scott plays, 6 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave. Reeder & Spencer plays, 6-9 p.m., Durango Hot Springs.
Tyler Reed Smith plays, 1-4 p.m., 11 Street Station. Purgatory Brew Fest, 1:30-5 p.m., Purgatory Resort base area. Southwest Colorado Genealogical Society BiMonthly Meeting, 3 p.m., Durango Recreation Center. Authors in the Parklet: David Stiller, 4 p.m., Maria’s Bookshop, 960 Main Ave. Live music, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave. Live music, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Comedy Show, 6:30 p.m., Olde Tymers Café, 1000 Main Ave.
Monday11 Meditation & Dharma Talk w/Kate Siber, 5:30 p.m., Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E. 3rd Ave., Suite 109 or online at durangodharmacenter.org Live music, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave. Live music, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave. J-Calvin Birthday Jam, 6-8 p.m., 11th Street Station.
Kirk James Band plays, 6-9 p.m., Weminuche Woodfire Grill, Vallecito.
Friday08
Open Mic, 2 p.m., Mancos Brewing Co.
Saturday09
th
Pete Giuliani plays, 6-8:30 p.m., James Ranch Grill, 33846 Highway 550.
Ron Lowe Band plays, 2 p.m., Weminuche Woodfire Grill, Vallecito.
Jack Ellis & Larry Carver play, 6 p.m., Fur Trappers Steakhouse and Bar, 701 E. 2nd Ave. Flyin’ Dirty Band plays, 6 p.m., Gazpachos, 431 E. 2nd Ave. Oblee plays, 6-9 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.
Tuesday12 Twin Buttes Farm Stand, every Tuesday, 3-5:30 p.m., 165 Tipple Ave. Live music, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave. Live music, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Community Yoga, 6-7 p.m., Yoga Durango, 1485 Florida Rd., C-201. Donations accepted. Garrett Young Collective plays, 7-10 p.m., 11th Street Station.
Brendan Shafer plays, 6 p.m., James Ranch Grill, 33846 Highway 550. Concerts in the Plaza: Rob Webster plays, 6-8 p.m., Three Springs Plaza, 151 Heritage Lane.
Merely Players presents “Damsels,” 7 p.m., Merely Underground, 789 Tech Center Dr.
Maddy & Kev play, 6-9 p.m., Durango Hot Springs.
The Monkberries & Carrie Phillips play, 8 p.m., The iNDIGO Room, 1315 Main Ave.
Durango Elks Lodge Pub Trivia, 6:30 p.m., Durango Elks Lodge, 901 E. 2nd Ave. Non-members welcome.
Silent Disco, 10 p.m.-1 a.m., 11th Street Station. Out On Work Release plays, 6 p.m., Fox Fire Farms, Ignacio.
DJ Voss, 10 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Summer is in full swing!
Saturdays, 8 a.m. - 12 noon
From great brands like Patagonia, Kühl, Prana & Chaco
Like us on FB or IG to see our live music schedule and fun news!
Lots of activewear for your hiking, cycling and water adventures.
Summer produce is rolling in! TBK Bank parking lot, across from Transit Center
Buy • Sell • Trade • Consign ~ Home Furnishings ~ Clothing ~ Accessories ~ Jewelry 572 E. 6th Ave. • 970-385-7336
12 n July 7, 2022
Full Moon Hike, 7 p.m., Canyon of the Ancients National Monument. www.sjma.org
Check us out on Facebook or at www.durangofarmersmarket.com
telegraph
AskRachel
Covert blow-outs, wet spots & ant farming Interesting fact: Coasters are also referred to as beermats in other parts of the English-speaking world, where clearly they do not drink lemonade or iced tea on warm, humid days. Dear Rachel, For as often as I see shredded tires on the side of the road (especially on 550 & 160), I never see a truck or car actually blow out a tire. When are all these blowouts happening? Just playing the odds, I ought to have seen at least one by now in my 45 years of driving. And where are all these vehicles crashing due to missing tires, like the movies have conditioned me to expect? – Blown Off Dear Over Inflated, I’m pretty sure that semis have 18 traditional wheels for just this scenario. A trucker is driving along, minding their own business and possibly even protesting god knows what, when suddenly one of the back tires runs over a Prius. Now, a truck tire can handle a Prius. But this Prius has a box of nails in the back for a do-it-yourself home repair project. The nails go everywhere. Most get picked up. But once in a while, like a phantom, one remaining nail will puncture the tire of someone on a unicycle, which is why you never see the cars shredding tires. You need to watch the unicycles more carefully. – Never above 35 psi, Rachel Dear Rachel, Please, can you tell me (perhaps in an InterOpen Mic Night, weekly 7:30-9:30 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave. Comedy Open Mic, weekly, 9 p.m., 11th St. Station.
Wednesday13 Gardening Webinar: How to Clean, Store & Prepare Vegetables, 12 noon. Sponsored by the CSU Extension Office. Info at https://bit.ly/3yGo3f2 Great Garden Series: What is a Curandera Garden? 4 p.m., Durango Public Library. Nuages de Desert Jazz & Swing plays, 5-7 p.m., Rochester Hotel, 726 E. 2nd Ave.
Animas High School New Building Tour, 5:30 p.m., 22 Osprey Way. New head of school Rebecca Ruland will be on hand to meet the community.
Live music, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Live music, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
esting Fact) why coasters are called coasters? You know, the little flat things you put on coffee tables to keep water glasses and soda cans from leaving rings on the wood. I’m also curious why most people don’t seem to have coasters on their dining tables. I thought it was due to the presence of placemats, but this seems to be the case regardless of table settings. – Coasting Dear General Coaster, If I answer your question in the Interesting Fact, that leaves precious little for a letter response. So I dodged it! But now I’m here to reveal to you what 15 seconds wellspent on Wikipedia could have revealed to you, too: the first coasters were trays meant to hold wine bottles or decanters for easy sliding around the table. The edge of the table is like the coastline of a continent, so that’s probably most definitely not why they are called “coasters.” – Believe it or not, Rachel Dear Rachel, I have little sugar ants coming into my house. This has never happened to me before. I know ants are clever, but this feels like a moral failing on my part. You know, cleanliness next to godliness and all that. Is killing the ants the righteous thing to do, to restore balance to my blemished soul? Or is the upstanding act to do something less harmful to coexist with them in my home? – Antie Em Word Honey Poetry Workshop, 6 p.m., The Hive, 1150 Main Ave. “Hard Times & Mobility in 13th Century Bears Ears National Monument area,” presentation by Thomas C. Windes, 7 p.m.. Hosted by San Juan Basin Archaeological Society. For more info visit SJBAS.org Gracie Jay Duo plays, 7-10 p.m., 11th Street Station.
Ongoing Music in the Mountains, July 7-31, info and event listings at musicinthemountains.com.
Dear Bugout, I see a middle road: lure the ants to your neighbor’s house instead. How? Fill some water balloons with sugar water. In the middle of the night, throw those balloons against your neighbor’s house. If anyone hears you, they’ll just assume that’s the quiet pop of an exploding tire way off in the distance. – Bugger, Rachel wrcdurango.org/events/scavenger-hunt or call 247-1242. Shock Wave Drag Night, first and third Friday of every month, 9 p.m., Father’s Daughters Pizza, 640 Main Ave. 18+ The Mysto Really Big Magic Show, Wed. – Sat., 7:30 p.m., Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Dr. The Hive Indoor Skate Park open skate and skate lessons. Waivers required. For schedule and online waiver, go to www.thehivedgo.org
Upcoming San Juan Nature Hike, July 15, meet at Andrews Lake upper parking lot at 9 a.m., hosted by San Juan Mountains Association.
Rocky Mountain UkeFest, July 7-10. More info durangoconcerts.com Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, July 7, 9 & 10, 7:30 p.m., Fort Lewis College’s Busby Amphitheatre. durangoconcerts.com “Heathers the Musical,” July 8, 14-16 at 7:30 p.m. & July 9, 10, 17 at 2 p.m., Fort Lewis College’s Mainstage Theatre. durangoconcerts.com Women’s Resource Center’s Scavenger Hunt Fundraiser, self-guided throughout July, more info at
Email questions to telegraph@durangotelegraph.com
Friends of the Library Summer Book Sale, July 15, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave. Dragondeer plays, July 15, 6 p.m., Memorial Park, Silverton, 1800 Greene St. Part of Silverton Summer Sounds concert series. Animas Valley Grange Yard Sale, July 16, 8 a.m.-2 p.m., 7271 CR 203.
Deadline to submit items for “Stuff to Do” is Monday at noon. E-mail your stuff to: calendar@durangotelegraph.com
telegraph
July 7, 2022 n 13
No swimming for 2 hours. (Hey, they’re big burritos.) Family owned and operated since 2002
552 main ave (near the train) durango, co l 970-259-4221 Open Mon. - Sat., 11 a.m. - 8 p.m.
FreeWillAstrology by Rob Brezsny ARIES (March 21-April 19): My readers and I have collaborated to provide insights and inspirations about the topic “How to Be an Aries.” Below is an amalgam of my thoughts and theirs – advice that will especially apply to your life in the coming days. 1. If it’s easy, it’s boring. –Beth Prouty. 2. If it isn’t challenging, do something else. –Jennifer Blackmon Guevara. 3. Be confident of your ability to gather the energy to get unstuck, to instigate, to rouse – for others as well as yourself. 4. You are a great initiator of ideas, and you are also willing to let go of them in their pure and perfect forms so as to help them come to fruition. 5. When people don’t get things done fast enough for you, be ready and able to DO IT YOURSELF. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I know three people who have told me, “I don’t like needing anyone for anything.” They fancy themselves to be rugged individualists with impeccable self-sufficiency. They imagine they can live without the help or support of other humans. I don’t argue with them; it’s impossible to dissuade anyone with such a high level of delusion. The fact is, we are all needy beings who depend on a vast array of benefactors. Who built our houses, grew our food, sewed our clothes, built the roads and created the art and entertainment we love? I bring this up, Taurus, because now is an excellent time for you to celebrate your own neediness. Be wildly grateful for all the things you need and all the people who provide them. Regard your vigorous interdependence as a strength, not a weakness. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Bounce up and down when you walk. Express 11 different kinds of laughs. Be impossible to pin down or figure out. Relish the openings that your restlessness spawns. Keep changing the way you change. Be easily swayed and sway others easily. Let the words flowing out of your mouth reveal to you what you think. Live a dangerous life in your daydreams but not in real life. Don’t be everyone’s messenger, but be the messenger for as many people as is fun for you. If you have turned out to be the kind of Gemini who is both saintly and satanic, remember that God made you that way – so let God worry about it. CANCER (June 21-July 22): As a child, Cancerian author June Jordan said, “I used to laugh all the time. I used to laugh so much and so hard in church, in school, at the kitchen table, on the subway! I used to laugh so much my nose would run, and my eyes would tear, and I just couldn’t stop.” That’s an ideal I invite you to aspire to in the coming days.
14 n July 7, 2022
You probably can’t match Jordan’s plenitude, but do your best. Why? The astrological omens suggest three reasons: 1. The world will seem funnier to you than it has in a long time. 2. Laughing freely and easily is the most healing action you can take right now. 3. It’s in the interests of everyone you know to have routines interrupted and disrupted by amusement, delight and hilarity. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In accordance with the astrological omens, here’s your assignment for the next three weeks: Love yourself more and more each day. Unleash your imagination to come up with new reasons to adore and revere your unique genius. Have fun doing it. Laugh about how easy and how hard it is to love yourself so well. Make it into a game that brings you an endless stream of amusement. PS: Yes, you really are a genius – by which I mean you are an intriguing blend of talents and specialties that is unprecedented in the history of the human race. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Novelist Lydia Peelle writes, “The trouble was, I knew exactly what I wasn’t. I just didn’t know who I was.” We all go through similar phases, in which we are highly aware of what we don’t want, don’t like and don’t seek to become. They are like negative grace periods that provide us with valuable knowledge. But it’s crucial for us to also enjoy periods of intensive self-revelation about what we do want, what we do like and what we do seek to become. In my astrological estimation, you Virgos are finished learning who you’re not, at least for now. You’re ready to begin an era of finding out much, much more about who you are. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): You need the following experiences at least once every other day during the next 15 days: a rapturous burst of unexpected grace; a gentle eruption of your strong willpower; an encounter with inspiration that propels you to make some practical improvement in your life; a brave adjustment in your understanding of how the world works; a sacrifice of an OK thing that gives you more time and energy to cultivate a really good thing. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): This might sound like an unusual assignment, but I swear it’s based on two unimpeachable sources: research by scientists and my many years of analyzing astrological data. Here’s my recommendation, Scorpio: In the coming weeks, spend extra time watching and listening to wild birds. Place yourself in locations where many birds fly and perch. Read stories about birds and talk about birds. Use your imagination to conjure up fantasies in which you soar alongside birds.
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SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21): In accordance with current astrological omens, I have four related suggestions for you. 1. Begin three new projects that are seemingly beyond your capacity and impossible to achieve with your current levels of intelligence, skill and experience – and then, in the coming months, accomplish them anyway. 2. Embrace optimism for both its beauty and its tactical advantages. 3. Keep uppermost in mind that you are a teacher who loves to teach, and you are a student who loves to learn. 4. Be amazingly wise, be surprisingly brave, be expansively visionary – and always forgive yourself for not remembering where you left your house keys. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): If you ever wanted to use the Urdu language to advance your agendas for love and romance, here’s a list of endearments you could use: 1. jaan-e-man (heart’s beloved); 2. humraaz (secretsharer; confidante); 3. pritam (beloved); 4. sona (golden one); 5. bulbul (nightingale); 6. yaar (friend/lover); 7. natkhat (mischievous one). Even if you’re not inclined to experiment with Urdu terms, I urge you to try innovations in the way you use language with your beloved allies. It’s a favorable time to be more imaginative in how you communicate your affections. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Author John Berger described birch trees as “pliant” and “slender.” He said that “if they promise a kind of permanence, it has nothing to do with solidity or longevity – as with an oak or a linden – but only with the fact that they seed and spread quickly. They are ephemeral and recurring – like a conversation between earth and sky.” I propose we regard the birch tree as your personal power symbol in the coming months. When you are in closest alignment with cosmic rhythms, you will express its spirit. You will be adaptable, flexible, resourceful and highly communicative. You will serve as an intermediary, a broker and a go-between. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): People who don’t know much about astrology sometimes say that Pisceans are wishy-washy. That’s a lie. The truth is, Pisceans are not habitually lukewarm about chaotic jumbles of possibilities. They are routinely in love with the world and its interwoven mysteries. On a regular basis, they feel tender fervor and poignant awe. They see and feel how all life’s apparent fragments knit together into a luminous bundle of amazement. I bring these thoughts to your attention, because the coming weeks will be an excellent time to relish these superpowers of yours – and express them to the max.
classifieds
Deadline for Telegraph classified ads is Tuesday at noon. Ads are a bargain at 10 cents a character with a $5 minimum. Even better, ads can now be placed online: durangotelegraph.com. Prepayment is required via cash, credit card or check. (Sorry, no refunds or substitutions.)
Ads can be submitted via: n www.durangotelegraph.com n classifieds@durango telegraph.com n 970-259-0133 n 679 E. 2nd Ave., #E2 Approximate office hours: Mon: 9ish - 5ish Tues: 9ish - 5ish Wed: 9ish - 3ish Thurs: On delivery Fri: Gone fishing; call first
ments. High starting pay, strong benefits & career growth opportunities. For details and to apply, visit fswb.bank/who-weare/careers. Member FDIC. Certified CDFI. SBA Preferred Lender. EOE. EHL.
Cash for Vehicles, Copper, Alum, Etc. at RJ Metal Recycle. Also free appliance and other metal drop off. 970-259-3494.
Services
Announcements Make America Great Again Jail Donald Trump and abort the Supreme Court.
Lost/Found Lost cell phone at Lyle Lovett event. Outside the venue near road in front of rodeo grounds. If found please call 970-382-1313.
Team UP AmeriCorps Positions Open! AmeriCorps: Do something big! Recruiting multiple f/t & p/t positions serving SW Colorado’s children and communities. Start 9/8. Living allowance, health insurance, and the opportunity to make a difference. Visit teamup-swco.org/ open-positions/ or email Program Coordinator at Mikek@unitedway- swco.org for more information.
Classes/Workshops West Coast Swing Dance 6-week class starts July 27. Learn the basics of West Coast Swing. Registration is required at www.westslopewesties.com.
16” Truck / Van Tires Continental Van Contact A/S 235/65 R 16 C. Like new < 1500 miles on them set of 5 $90 ea. or $400 for set. 970-749-9037
Brushlettering Fun! In The ArtRoom at the Smiley. Learn more and sign up at www.bit.ly/letterdu rango
Folding Bike Camper’s World brand, 22” wheels, 12 speed. Like new. $100 970-769-1437
Join Our Purpose-Driven Team We’re Hiring! Join our award-winning team dedicated to supporting rural Colorado’s nonprofit, agricultural and small businesses working to grow and enrich our communities. We put customer deposits to work to improve southern and rural Colorado’s social, environmental and economic landscape. First Southwest Bank is a locally owned, independent community bank currently seeking staff for our Loan & Deposit Services depart-
RSE Handyman Service Home repair - yard work - odd jobs 970-903-0449 Marketing Small and Local Businesses Media, website building and content editing, copywriting and editing, newsletters, blogs, etc. for small, local, independent or startup businesses. www.forward pedal.com or email jnderge@gmail.com
HaikuMovieReview ‘The Clapper’ The epic saga of an enchanted light switch! No, I’m just kidding – Lainie Maxson Lowest Prices on Storage! Inside/outside storage near Durango and Bayfield. 10-x-20, $130. Outside spots: $65, with discounts available. RJ Mini Storage. 970-259-3494.
BodyWork Lotus Path Healing Arts Now accepting new clients. Offering a unique, intuitive fusion of Esalen massage, deep tissue & Acutonics, 24 years of experience. To schedule call Kathryn, 970-201-3373.
Harmony Cleaning and Organizing Residential, offices, commercial and vacation rentals, 970-403-6192.
ForSale
Help Wanted
rather sell to people who have been here long enough to know what the Arc of History is, contact us at san.juaner1122 @gmail.com
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Massage by Meg Bush LMT, 30, 60 & 90 min., 970-759-0199.
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Local Tempeh Factory for Sale Do you love fungus? Local, profitable established fresh tempeh factory for sale with even more room to expand. Sale comes with training and equipment. Serious inquiries only please. info@luvbox foods.com Reruns Home Furnishings New inventory including patio sets, bistros, garden pots, nightstands, lamps, bookcases and lots more … Come in today! 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.-Sat. 385-7336.
Wanted We are in hell! We’re a young couple who has lived and been gainfully employed in Durango since 2015 (hey, one of us is a writer for this fair publication), but decided now was the perfect time to start looking to buy a home, because we’re idiots. But, if you are selling your home and would
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A turtle July 7, 2022 n 15
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