Boosting coal at the expense of renewables only sets us back by Jonathan Thompson / Writers on the
Fewer overnight visitors have state’s tourism economy in a slump by Jason Blevins / The Colorado Sun
Jazz, soul, Hotel Draw and Pokey LaFarge highlight August offerings by Stephen Sellers
While leaf peeping may still be several weeks off, widlflower peeping opportunities are still available in the high country around Durango./Photo by Missy Votel
Ear to the ground:
“Once you hit manboob stage, you’re done.”
– That fateful day when a man can no longer take his shirt off in public
Lockdown mode
You may have already noticed, but bear activity in town is heating up. According to the City of Durango, the “significant uptick” is driven, in part, by a poor acorn crop due to dry conditions. It’s a familiar yet sad scenario where the lack of natural food pushes bears into town in search of a quick and easy meal.
City officials have confirmed bear sightings and incidents in multiple neighborhoods, including near Manna Soup Kitchen, Riverhouse Children’s Center on Florida Road, and Three Springs. In response, the city has intensified its efforts to reduce bear-human conflicts by replacing broken or ineffective trash containers and deploying temporary dumpsters where needed. The city is also working closely with Colorado Parks and Wildlife to trap and relocate problem bears when necessary.
As for the rest of us, we’re asked to do our part, too, as bears that become too habituated to human food often need to be relocated or put down. City ordinance requires trash containers to be put out for collection no earlier than 6 a.m. the day of collection and removed no later than 8 p.m. the same day. Likewise, residents are asked to clean outdoor grills after each use, keep trash in garages, remove bird feeders and lock car doors, as bears are known to break into vehicles in search of tasty treats as miniscule as a pack of mints.
Any residents who allow bears to get into non-bear resistant containers will be required to upgrade to a wildlife-resistant model, with a $100 fee assessed at the time of delivery. If they already have a bear-resistant can that is found to be malfunctioning, it will be repaired or replaced at no cost to the resident. However, if the can is in working order and was overfilled or improperly secured, you may be sacked with a citation and/or fine. Bear activity within city limits is typically highest in the late summer and early fall as bears go on their annual feeding frenzy ahead of hibernation. In 2024, La Plata County had the second-highest number of bear sightings in the state, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife.
LaVidaLocal
Queen of the Desert
Reptiles have never been my thing. It’s not that I dislike them, I just lean toward the soft, furry pet variety. Which isn’t to say I don’t respect the heck out of them – which comes with the territory of living where reptiles (some deadly) are commonplace. I remember my first rattlesnake encounter in Durango. I had just gotten new bike pedals and was working out the kinks, when I had to make an unexpected dismount up a punchy climb. The shoe on the right popped out, but the left one stuck like Gorilla Glue. Try as I might to pry it free, it was no use. I had no choice but to remove my foot from the shoe – still attached to the pedal – and do the walk of shame to the top.
It was at this point, as I hobbled sock-footed up the steep incline, that I heard the strangest bird. Except it wasn’t a bird – it was a rattlesnake near my left, unshod foot. At this point, it was just The Sock Guy and a couple inches separating me from a certain demise.
I can’t remember what happened next, as I likely blacked out. But suffice to say, I lived to tell. As for the rattler, it possibly took pity, letting the idiot in one shoe pass, as she obviously was already having a very bad day.
Or perhaps it knew that, as a child, I once ran home and told on the neighborhood boys for torturing gardner snakes. Or that I am still traumatized by the time I accidentally ran over a snake with the lawnmower.
I guess I harbor a certain compassion for snakes and other members of the reptile kingdom. You try going through life close to the ground, with short or no legs, living in a hole with your entire cold-blooded existence dependent on the whims of Mother Nature.
Fortunately, I did not have any more close encounters of the reptile kind until recently. In the span of just a few days, I came across both a giant bull snake (harmless, but gave him his space) and another rattler, sunning itself on a rock (gave him a LOT of space.)
Perhaps this is why, a few days later, I was unphased to come across a very large lizard on a trail near my house. She looked at me side-eyed – because that’s really all lizards can do – but did not scurry away, even at the sight of my dogs. Luckily, she went undetected by them, and I quickly shooed them by without incident.
As I made my way home, I began to go through my mental Rolodex of reptiles. She was too big to be a horny toad. And the way she calmly looked at me, as if
to say, “Was’sup?” was curious. Then it dawned on me: that lizard did not belong there. I got home and immediately consulted the Google oracle, which turned up: bearded dragon, aka “beardie,” native to Australia.
How this poor animal got from Down Under to a hot, dusty trail in Colorado is beyond me. But the most likely scenario was that she was kept as a pet until she was no longer wanted and dumped on the trail to “be free.”
Needless to say, I started to panic – it was only a matter of time until she met her fate at the jaws of a more astute dog or the wheels of a pack of Devo kids. I considered using a 5-gallon bucket and rubber gloves to rescue her. But then what? I already had two dogs and a cat – I had no business adding a beardie, no matter how low maintenance, to the menagerie.
So – even though I knew it was a long shot – I called Animal Control. “I know this is going to sound weird, and I swear I’m not crazy,” I prefaced the woman on the other end of the line. “But I live downtown and just found a bearded dragon on the trail.”
Luckily, she did not think I was crazy, and within a few minutes, “Joe,” from Animal Control, called me back. I arranged to meet him and his partner, who I’ll call “Beyoncé,” because she was a total badass, at the trail. We walked a couple hundred yards to the spot where I last saw Priscilla Queen of the Desert, which I had now taken to calling her in honor of one of the
Thumbin’It - Special Downer Edition!
A Biden-era program gave $7 billion in federal grants to help low- and moderateincome families to install solar panels on their homes to help offset climate change. Wait – Trump is clawing that back, too? Nevermind ...
So as of right now, pretty much the entire Western Slope is on fire, with more than 31,000 acres ablaze and smoke-filled skies blanketing the region. (On an up note, thank you, firefighters!)
Bears are out doing their thing, like they do every year, yet every day we see trash bags strewn on local trails and alleyways. People, how many times do we have to tell you: don’t feed the bears!
A dark anniversary for the U.S. this week, marking 80 years since we dropped the bomb on Japan, which history now views as an unnecessary move based on lies that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Anyone paying attention out there?
greatest cinematic exports from her homeland. After poking around through the bushes to no avail, I think Joe and Beyonce started to suspect that maybe I was crazy. And that’s when I spied Priscilla, camouflaged under the shade of some tall grass. Beyonce and Joe came over, and we all gave each other that uncomfortable “Uh, you wanna grab her?” glance. Then, without a second thought, Beyoncé crouched down and gently scooped up Priscilla, sweet as a kitten. She gingerly turned her over, and we saw that life in the wild had not been good to Priscilla; she had a small but ugly wound. They put her into a crate, and I handed them the baggie of lettuce, red peppers and dog treats I brought (as we had no lizard food on hand.)
By now, I had grown maybe a little too attached to Priscilla, likely an outgrowth of my crazy dog ladyness. I implored them to please keep me posted on her fate. And, if Priscilla died, to lie to me.
A few days later I got a text from Joe: “A local vet did surgery on her. She is now at the Fish Connection and expected to be fine.”
But how did I know he was telling me the truth –especially when I told him not to?
A few weeks later, I dropped by the Fish Connection to check on Priscilla. But she wasn’t there. The kind lady who worked there told me they tried to keep her going, but after several trips to the vet, she succumbed to her injuries – likely a result of being out in the elements for too long.
And then, right there in the middle of the Fish Connection on a Tuesday afternoon, I started to cry. I thanked the woman for all she did and left, because who cries over a lizard that was not even theirs? (Apparently, the same crazy people who also name them.)
I guess I was hoping for a happy ending – that Priscilla would get taken in by a lizard-loving home, to sun herself in a big window and eat real lizard food. But instead, I was confronted with the reality that, despite all the good people who tried to help her, there are a lot of really shitty ones, too. The kind who think it’s perfectly OK to abandon their defenseless pet on the trail. May they suffer the worst kind of reptile dysfunction ever.
As for Priscilla, I hope on the other side of that rainbow bridge she is living her best life as Queen of the Desert.
– Missy Votel
SignoftheDownfall:
Caution, Assphalt Ahead
The Portland Borough of Transportation receives 8,000 pothole complaints annually and tries to make repairs within 30 days. But lately, they’ve fallen behind. So, “Wansky,” a local street artist took things into his own hands by tagging some potholes with genital graffiti, and it worked. PBOT sprang to action and fixed the potholes immediately. They also released a statement urging Oregonians to use the online pothole-reporting system instead of spray-painting phalluses. It makes me wonder if Wanksy’s tactic would work in other situations … I just mailed the IRS some artwork instead of a check. I’ll let you know.
WritersontheRange
The price of ‘progress’
Boosting coal at the expense of renewables a major step backwards
by Jonathan Thompson
Afew years back, my friend Norm told me that when he was growing up in northern New Mexico in the 1950s and early ’60s, his family often drove up to the La Plata Mountains in Southwestern Colorado. From there, he could see all the way to the Sandia Mountains outside Albuquerque, some 200 miles away.
His statement saddened me, since in all the time I spent on Four Corners high points, a persistent haze always limited my visibility to maybe 50 or 60 miles, blurring Shiprock’s sharp spires into a fuzzy silhouette. That’s because a fleet of massive coal-fired power plants in the region churned out haze-producing pollutants, harming humans and the ecology, blotting out vistas from the San Juans to the Sandias. It seemed as if I’d never get a view as clear as Norm’s.
But over the last decade, the failing economics of coal shuttered those power plants. That means the air on the Colorado Plateau – when not sullied by the ever-lengthening wildfire season –has become cleaner as the coal industry faded away.
The shuttered plants include Mojave, Navajo, Nucla, Escalante, San Juan and, most recently, Cholla. The closures certainly sharpened the view for folks all over the region. But more importantly, they kept tens of millions of tons of greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere and oodles of harmful pollutants (arsenic, mercury, sulfur dioxide and soot) out of the lungs of nearby residents, many of them on the Navajo Nation.
Yet in defiance of the free market that has boosted renewables, the Trump administration is acting to undo those positive changes and make the air dirty again by throwing multiple lifelines to the flagging coal industry.
It has eviscerated environmental pro-
The South Antelope Mine, in Douglas, Wyo., is one of the nation’s dirtiest and most harmful coal plants. Under the Trump administration, it will be allowed to continue operating as is. This allowance exemplifies Trump’s goal in “unleashing” coal from Obama- and Biden-era freezes and rescinding limits on carbon dioxide emissions. / Photo by Alan Nash
tections limiting mercury and other toxic air emissions, ended Obama- and Biden-era freezes on new federal coal leases and rescinded limits on carbon dioxide emissions. The administration has also blocked utilities from shutting down plants that are old, dirty and more costly than other power sources.
Trump purports to do this in the name of “unleashing” coal from regulatory constraints so it can be mined and burned to achieve American “energy dominance.” Yet it’s unlikely that unleashing the industry will reverse its decline.
It’s true that delaying implementation of the mercury rule will enable the
Colstrip coal plant in Montana –one of the nation’s dirtiest facilities – to continue operating without expensive new pollution control equipment. Generally, though, utilities such as Xcel Energy, Intermountain Power Agency and Tri-State Generation & Transmission are moving forward with plans to retire coal plants, namely because the aging facilities are dirty, inefficient, inflexible and, most of all, no longer profitable. They just can’t compete with natural gas, solar, wind and other, cleaner energy sources.
When signing one of his fossil fuelfriendly orders, Trump said he would “save” the Cholla coal plant near Holbrook, Ariz., from destruction, adding,
“We’re going to have that plant opening and burning the clean coal, beautiful clean coal, in a very short period of time.”
But its operator, Arizona Public Service, said it had already procured cleaner, cheaper generation for the plant, and had no desire to keep burning coal. There was no save needed.
If Trump were truly interested in energy dominance and abundance, he would have supported the fastest-growing energy sources: wind and solar. Instead, his administration is doing all it can to stifle them, from eliminating production tax credits for renewable energy in his “big, beautiful” budget bill to slowing down permits for clean energy developments on public lands. Both utility-scale and rooftop solar will be affected, boosting the prospects of oil, gas, coal and nuclear.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, in the Economist, revealed the philosophy behind the administration’s fossil fuel fetishization. He wrote that climate change is “not an existential crisis” but merely a “byproduct of progress.” He said he was willing to take the “modest negative trade-off” of climate change –along, presumably, with ever more devastating heat waves, wildfires and floods – “for this legacy of human advancement.”
He is probably correct in saying that climate change and the sullied air over the Colorado Plateau are byproducts of so-called progress. But they are also nasty, deadly and avoidable. Ultimately, going backward toward coal will not only wreck progress but perhaps life on Earth as we know it.
Jonathan Thompson is a contributor to Writers on the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit dedicated to spurring lively conversation about the West. He has long covered the West’s natural resources. ■
SoapBox
The real cost of tariffs
One does not have to be a wizard with numbers to realize that tariffs were affordable at 1.5% on goods from Europe for many years. POTUS was considering a 30% tariff before he talked with VIPs from across the pond in the last few days while golfing at his luxurious course in Scotland.
Trump dropped his original tariff plan from 30% to 15%. He also added 50% to steel and aluminum imports. If you buy a European good at a retail store, the 15% tariff will still be 30% because of the typical mark up. That $200 sweater yesterday is now going to be $260. Likewise, steel and aluminum will retail out at 100% higher. Reread all of this if you need to.
– Sally Florence, Durango
End suffering in Gaza
What is happening in Gaza is a humanitarian crisis. Where is the global outrage, especially from Americans? Neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble, and well more than 60,000 Pal-
estinians, many of them children, have been killed. Two million have been displaced. According to the United Nations, more than a million people now face catastrophic levels of hunger. Children are dying from malnutrition. Israel has bombed hospitals, schools and even food distribution sites, leaving civilians with nowhere to turn and no safe havens. How horrific that Israel slaughters Palestinians as they seek aid.
Gaza’s health, water and sanitation systems have been cruelly targeted, with 84% of health facilities damaged or destroyed, and the water and sanitation system operating at less than 5% of prewar output.
To add insult to injury, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claims no one in Gaza is starving. Data and witnesses challenge this lie.
What makes this even more devastating is knowing that our tax dollars are helping to fund it. The United States continues to provide military aid and political cover to Israel, even as Netanyahu’s government wages a relentless campaign aimed at eliminating Palestinians.
Many of our elected representatives
have failed to take a stronger stand against this genocide because their voices are muted by the powerful in-
fluence of pro-Israel lobbying groups like AIPAC that fund their election campaigns. The end result? Millions of dol-
lars of pro-Israel influence in U.S. politics and complicity in the genocide that is unfolding.
History will not only remember those who carried it out, but also those who enabled it and those who stayed silent, when outrage and action were needed.
Now is the time for all of us to speak out, demand action and hold our politicians accountable because our silence makes us complicit as well. Call your elected officials and demand they stop funding this war, push for an immediate ceasefire and insist on full humanitarian access.
– Claire Ninde, Grand Junction
Atomic bombs didn’t save lives
This week marks the 80th anniversary of the U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The killing of 140,000 civilians at Hiroshima was the effect of detonating a 60-million-degree Celsius explosion (10,000 times hotter than the surface of the sun) over the city. Richard Rhodes’ “The Making of the Atomic Bomb” reported, “People exposed within half a mile of the … fireball were seared to bundles of smoking black char in a fraction of a second as their internal organs boiled away.”
The use of atomic bombs was rationalized after-thefact using myths that transformed the burning of children into a positive good. President Truman and government propagandists justified the attacks claiming they “ended the war” and “saved lives” – stories still believed today. But, as historian Gar Alperovitz has demonstrated in “The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb” and the “Architecture of an American Myth,”
the pretext of saving lives was fabricated.
General Dwight Eisenhower, who had been the Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, notes in his book “Mandate for Change” that he told Secretary of War Henry Stimson at the July 1945 Potsdam Conference that he opposed using the bomb because it was “no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives.” Ike told Stimson, “Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary.”
Broad declassification of wartime documents has made the facts accessible to everyone, leading historian of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission J. Samuel Walker to report in the winter 1990 edition of the journal “Diplomatic History” that the “consensus among scholars is that the bomb was not needed to avoid an invasion of Japan and to end the war within a relatively short time.
Dozens of leaders who ran the war agree. Winston Churchill wrote in his history of WWII, “It would be a mistake to suppose that the fate of Japan was settled by the atomic bomb. Her defeat was certain before the first bomb fell.”
Admiral William Leahy, the Chief of Staff to presidents Roosevelt and Truman, declared in his memoir: “The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender. The use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”
Major General Curtis LeMay, who directed the devastating incendiary destruction of Japan’s largest cities
prior to August 1945, was more emphatic. Asked by a reporter at a Sept. 20, 1945, press conference if Japan had surrendered because of the atomic bomb, he declared: “The atomic bomb had nothing to do with the end of the war.”
Gen. “Hap” Arnold, commander of the Army Air Force, wrote in “Global Mission” (1949), “It always appeared to us that atomic bomb or no atomic bomb, the Japanese were already on the verge of collapse.”
Likewise, Brig. Gen. Bonner Fellers reported in “Reader’s Digest” that the atomic bomb neither induced the emperor’s decision to surrender nor had any effect on the ultimate outcome of the war. And the renowned Gen. Douglas MacArthur, said he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb.
Religious and cultural leaders contemporaneously condemned the attacks, as on March 5, 1946, when the Federal Council of Churches issued a statement signed by 22 prominent Protestant religious leaders saying in part, the surprise bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were “morally indefensible” and “unnecessary for winning the war.”
Nuclear weapons are still protected by lies like “limited nuclear war.” This month’s anniversary remind us to rebel against the lies, to demand that the United States apologize to Japanese survivors and their descendants; that the U.S. abandon its nuclear attack plans and preparations (“deterrence”); and that it finally stand down and eliminate the poisoned foundation of all government waste, fraud and abuse – nuclear weapons.
– John LaForge, co-director of Nukewatch, syndicated by PeaceVoice,
StateNews
Summertime slump
Mountain towns see rare drop in visitors as statewide tourism slows
by Jason Blevins / The Colorado Sun
After several years of record-setting traffic, it appears Colorado’s mountain town tourism economy has hit a plateau. Some communities are even reporting declines in visitor traffic and spending, marking the first slowdown since the pandemic.
State tourism officials started warning of a softening tourism market last year as vacationer traffic ebbed. Last year, Colorado hosted 95.4 million visitors who spent $28.4 billion. Although visitor numbers were up 2.1 million from 2023, they only spent a tiny fraction more than in 2023, which saw $28.3 billion in spending. According to the Colorado Tourism Office, most of the increase in visits last year were from Front Range day-trippers, with no growth in overnight visitors in 2024.
That’s the first slowdown in overnight visitors for Colorado’s statewide tourism economy since 2014, excluding the pandemic-triggered global collapse in travel in 2020-21. For more than a decade, visitation and spending have set records every year. That trend appears poised to end in 2025.
Hotel occupancy across the state is down 2% through June. Hotel revenue is also down, and the first quarter of 2025 has seen a 10% annual dip in short-term rentals. Ski-season visitor counts reached 13.8 million last season, a decline from the previous three seasons but still above the long-term average for Colorado resorts.
And since 2019, Colorado’s share of the country’s vacationers has slipped, which along with a precipitous drop in international travelers, poses challenges for the communities that rely on visitors.
“Our market share compared to the rest of the country continues to decline,” Tim Wolfe, head of the Colorado Tourism Office, said. For the 2023-24 winter season, the tourism office launched a $1.4 million ad campaign that drew visitors who spent $1.44 billion. That was the largest return on investment ever for any state’s winter tourism ad campaign, according to a market research firm hired by the tourism office.
“Even with all that, we have got concerns,” Wolfe said.
The Colorado Sun’s tracking of net tax-
able sales in 18 Western Slope mountain towns shows 2024-25 ski season collections dipping for the first time in many years. The 18 towns saw $5 billion in spending – which includes resident and tourist spending – from November 2024April 2025. That is a mere $2 million less in net taxable sales than the 2023-24 season but a 48% increase from spending in the pre-pandemic 2018-19 ski season.
However, mid-season reports from mountain towns across the West show a rare summer slowdown. The booking pace at 17 mountain towns in seven Western states declined every month in the past six months compared with the previous year. This marks the longest downward trend since the onset of the pandemic in 2020, according to Destimetrics, a division of Inntopia that tracks lodging reservations
across Western resort towns.
International tourism collapses
The slowdown is being led by a consistent and growing decline in international visitation to mountain towns. Bookings by Canadian travelers are down 58% compared with 2024; bookings from European visitors are down 39%; and reservations from the Aussies and Kiwis are down 21%. In fact, the number of international tourists to Colorado has yet to return to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. The drop is attributed to the Trump administration’s tariffs and chatter about annexing Canada, which have irked a growing number of America’s northern and southern neighbors.
“We are mostly concerned about what that international decline means for next January,” Eliza Voss with the Aspen
Chamber Resort Association, said. “I think the political climate and uncertainty around tariffs has impacted what you are seeing.”
International travelers stay eight days on average when they vacation in Colorado. And they spend three to five times more money per person than domestic travelers. Those international travelers can boost local economies with fewer people, creating a smaller impact than, say, lots of day-trippers who spend less.
“International is one of our top priorities,” Wolfe said. “We know these are high-value guests for communities.”
Combine the dip in international vacationers with growing reticence among U.S. travelers, and the booking pace for the summer across Western resorts is down more than 7%.
A climber on the Ouray Via Ferrata in July 2024. In 2024, for the first time since 2014 (and excluding the pandemic years of 2020-21) Colorado saw a dip in the tourism economy, attributed to more day-trippers, who tend to spend less money, and fewer overnight visitors, who spend a lot more./ Photo by Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun
“The biggest challenge right now is how long does the international decline continue?” Tom Foley, the head data cruncher at DestiMetrics, asked. “The largest visitor base coming into the U.S. is from Canada, and they are simply not reserving the way they were. Because of the very personal response of Canadian consumers to the tariffs and conversations around sovereignty, we don’t actually see any evidence that an end is in sight for lower Canadian numbers at Western U.S. resorts.”
Lodgekeepers are trying to offset the dip in numbers by raising room rates, which are up about 4% compared with 2024. But that can be a tricky game. Raise prices too much, and communities can eliminate an entire segment of visitors.
Owners of affordable lodging properties have struggled in the last year as demand ebbs and prices climb. But higher-priced mountain-town hotels and lodges have seen solid growth in recent years.
“Are we losing an audience at the lower end of the economic scale?” Foley asked. “And then will that play out this coming winter, as it did last winter with moderate and luxury properties dominating?”
The short-term rental community has been sounding alarms on rising rates and declining visitation for several years, ever since local leaders began cracking down on short-term rental properties.
Some communities could begin cutting budgets as visitor spending and tax revenue drops. Declining sales tax collections in Silverthorne, for example, has town leaders prepping for reductions in spending.
Silverthorne Town Councilman Tim Applegate said the closure of local businesses, including a car dealership, as well as declining tourist traffic led to the budget shortfall. He’s urging the town to more robustly embrace vacationers.
“If the tourists leave Summit County, there would not be a Summit County as we know it,” Applegate said. “My concern is that we treat tourists like they are wanted and welcomed. We need that revenue to sustain our lives. We’ve got to take care of the locals, but we also have to take care of the people those locals rely on. We are a tourist town.”
According to the Longwoods International tourism research firm that annually reviews Colorado’s visitor traffic, there were 55.6 million day trips in 2024, up from 53.8 million in 2023. However, day-trippers spend about $105 a day vs. overnight visitors, who spend $594 a day.
Rethinking short-term rentals
The slowdown in visitors has yet to push many communities to reverse course on recently imposed short-term rental regulations, said Julia Koster, head of the Col-
orado Lodging and Resort Alliance.
“I think there is an appetite in some of these places to ease things up, but there’s been no action yet,” said Koster, who lives in Summit County.
Since 2021, when communities began reining in short-term rentals, the vacation rental industry has warned of onerous regulations. If owners have to spike rates to accommodate lodging tax increases or require visitors to book several nights to accommodate limits on bookings, there will be ripple effects, Koster said.
“We’ve been saying this for years. And now the negative effect on our local economies is coming to fruition,” said Koster, whose alliance members tell her budget-minded, in-state visitors are booking less due to high fees and taxes. “This summer was really, really tough in the mountains, not just in Summit County, but every destination across Colorado I’ve spoken with,” she said.
The quality-over-quantity focus in mountain town marketing has been a growing trend as communities grapple with increasing crowds. But as traffic wanes, that approach is starting to shift, especially as competition ramps up over domestic travelers in a tourism economy pining for international vacationers.
Lucy Kay, who spent more than 25 years at the Breckenridge and Keystone ski areas before joining the Breckenridge
Tourism Office more than a decade ago, has seen these ebbs before. Yes, there are some troubling signs.
“What’s different this time is that we can’t peg what is off. We can’t point to one thing and say, ‘This is what’s wrong,’” Kay said. “Sometimes we can say it’s airline costs or room rates or market uncertainty. We see this as a lot of little things. We are talking about a thousand little cuts we need to mitigate.”
Typically, summer traffic to Breckenridge is about 50% vacationers who fly into Colorado and 50% people who drive. Now the mix is more like 30% flying, 70% driving. Tourism traffic is down about 15% so far this summer, and Kay expects the summer will end around 10% down.
She’s hosted roundtables with business folks who are wondering if the town can return to hosting more events. During the busy pandemic, tourism boosters backed away, reacting to concerns over large numbers of visitors overwhelming town.
“Now there is a feeling that maybe it’s time to dial some of those things back up,” she said. “We define our vision to find a harmony between these two sides, where business is good and residents feel good about their quality of life.”
The Colorado Sun is a nonprofit, awardwinning news outlet covering Colorado. Sign up for their newsletters, and follow them on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Bluesky. ■
RegionalNews
Summer’s end & rear ends
Tales from the underworld and a stacked concert schedule
by Stephen Sellers
Greetings, dear readers! Early last month, I was 10 miles deep, backpacking on the Continental Divide Trail with my girlfriend and her bestie when an old frenemy decided to make a surprise comeback tour. This angry little visitor – call him Hemmy Hendrix – has popped up over the years, but this time he brought backup. After a quick trailside conference with my fellow backpackers the next morning, I made the call to tap out and make the five-hour drive back to Durango instead of pushing through 30 more miles of unrelenting backcountry beauty and pounds of protein bars. Turns out that was the right move. Within 24 hours, I’d been to the ER twice and landed an emergency hemorrhoidectomy – aka the least rock ‘n’ roll surgery imaginable and certainly not two words you want to hear together ever. A month later, having supped upon large quantities of humble pie and Miralax, I’m finally vertical, just in time for my gig season to kick into full swing.
Huge thanks to the folks at Mercy, my girlfriend, parents, friends and a shout out to everyone who’s ever emerged from the underworld of nether-region suffering. Like Dante, I too have seen the ninth circle of hell … and apparently it has a copay and is flowing with waters of lukewarm epsom salt baths! As the old saying goes, “What doesn’t kill you, will make you squirm uncomfortably on public seating.”
Sending you all, dear readers, the best for a less dramatic end to your summer. We’ve got stacks of great music to welcome in the changing of light and shift in seasons. As always, see you on the dancefloor...just be careful with the “attaboy” posterior slaps, please.
• Leon Timbo, Buckley Park, Thurs., Aug. 7, 5:30 p.m. - Presented by the Community Concert Hall and KDUR, Timbo brings his raw, gospel-infused storytelling to downtown Durango’s beloved outdoor summer venue. Expect a soulsoothing early evening set under the trees on the well-trodden grass.
• Telluride Jazz Festival, Town Park, Fri.-Sun. Aug. 8-10 - It’s yet another heavyweight lineup this year featuring Kamasi Washington, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, Trombone Shorty, Cimafunk, Brass Queens and more. Expect three days of world-class jazz, funk, soul and Telluride mountain magic.
• Thylan & Nat Lefkoff, House Concert, Fri., Aug. 8, 7 p.m. - Colorado’s rising singer-songwriter Thylan and California’s Nat Lefkoff share an intimate evening of indie folk and pure acoustic poetry celebrating all things sacred and wild. Ask a friend in the loop for the address – these things fill up fast. You can also RSVP for tickets by searching “Nat Lefkoff & Thylan House Concert” on Facebook.
• Nuages Du Desert, American Legion, Sat., Aug. 9, 7 p.m. - Vintage Parisian café vibes meet Southwest swing. This Django-inspired quartet will transport you to a smoky 1930s speakeasy – accordion and all.
• Animal Soul & Alicia Glass, The Hive, Sat., Aug. 16, 6:30 p.m. - New to the Durango scene, Animal Soul teams up with kick-ass Alicia Glass for a night that blends groove and garage rock grit in the Hive’s all-ages, alcohol-free zone.
• BabyDel, Animas City Theatre, Sat., Aug. 16, 7
p.m. - The queen of house and techno returns to the Animas City for a Burning Man fundraiser with opening support from her Varsity Crew productions family in the form of YNGD. Consider the dance floor activated and this your final notice to try and snag tickets before this rager sells out.
• Betty Benedeadly, Jimmy’s Main Room, Thurs., Aug. 21, 5 p.m. - Known from the Austin, Texas-based surfpsych band Sheverb, Benedeadly conjures up spaghetti-western vibes and desert reveries. Expect twang, tremolo and grit in the best possible way in Durango’s most intimate listening room.
• iAM Soul Festival: Indigo Room &, Lola’sPlace, Fri.- Sun., Aug. 22-24 - iAM Music’s brand spanking new, genre-spanning festival kicks off with local groove-machines the Mojo Birds, The Quarks and Blu Phunk Collective serving jazz, funk and R&B with a homegrown, soulful twist.
• Pokey LaFarge, Animas City Theatre, Wed., Aug. 27, 7 p.m. - Yet another impressive booking by our local legend at the ACT, Eugene Salaaz. What’s in this guy’s Wheaties?! Pokey is the essence of old-school Americana with flair and finesse. Those who know, know. He’s a showman through and through – crooning like it’s 1940 while keeping it sharp as ever. It’s a Wednesday night show, but expect it to sell-out in the next week or so.
• Hotel Draw, The Monkberries, Ragged Oak & Lowfi, Animas City Night Bazaar, Memorial Park, Fri., Aug. 29, 4 p.m. - A North Main classic! The last Night Bazaar of the summer goes out with a bang: a four-band showcase of psych-pop, folk-rock and indie grit set against our best local vendors, food and community-based art installations. Great fun for the whole family, Durango style. ■
Pokey LaFarge
River of secrets
An intriguing British tale of family secrets and ‘floaters’
by Jeffrey Mannix
“The Black Highway,” by British novelist and screen writer Simon Toyne, is a front-list hardback that launched a month ago. From the prestigious William Morrow imprint of HarperCollins, it is a police procedural featuring an unmoored doctor of forensic criminology juggling melancholia over unsettling work and being a single mother. Her tetchy teenage daughter is champing at the bit to know who her father is while caustically disapproving of her mother’s unspeakable occupation and covert love interest and workmate, Tannahill Khan.
Police procedurals play heavy all crime fiction, but cops investigating criminality can easily get insipid. That’s why Murder Ink customarily selects craftier books with more subtlety and emotional substance. “The Black Highway” skims the cream off both.
The River Thames – the historic, 217-mile waterway bisecting London and discharging into the North Sea –plays a major part in Toyne’s story. It is a harbinger of one and then another and another gruesome corpse fetching in what quickly are deemed revenge murders. All the corpses are men dressed in tailored suits, absent their heads and hands. In usual police procedurals, those authors pride themselves on descriptions of gore.
But for Toyne, the vandalized, washed-up bodies are a plot driver only; once they’re discovered we don’t return to them. Rather, Toyne has constructed a multilayered mystery about real people who by chance have jobs in law enforcement and have the usual family issues, everyday predicaments and personal variances.
So here’s what you will enjoy with Toyne’s tale, minus spoiling the denouement. While forensics will come up with the identity of what London police call “floaters,” whoever is behind this grotesque messaging is the focus of investigation, not the deviance of the deed.
Laughton Rees, saddled with a family name from her late father who was the former commissioner of Lon don’s Metropolitan Police, fell into a dalliance 16 years ago with an unctuous bar li zard, Shelby Facer. She be came pregnant, gave birth to a daughter named Gra cie and hadn’t heard from Shelby until 16 years later, after his release from prison for a bungled dia mond heist.
Showing up at Laugh ton’s stately apartment left to her by her father, he wants to know the daughter he abandoned, along with her pregnant mother.
Gracie, something of a typical disaffected teenager, learns of her estranged father and wants to know him now that he has shown up with a whipped-dog gentle ness from 16 years behind bars.
Laughton has no lost love for Shelby, a poser she acci dentally encountered and married for a moment and who sexually misused her. Plus, with her experience in the underworld, she has no generosity toward criminals, exacerbated by her protective maternal instincts and distrust of Shelby.
It doesn’t take more than his first visit for Shelby to pursue an avuncular relationship with Gracie. Both are seeking the affection of lost years, at least is Gracie, while Shelby, as it turns out, is seeking leverage as con artists do to make up for what they feel are years wasted by others.
Gracie and Shelby meet for coffee and after-school strolls while Laughton and Tannahill track down the relationship between the floaters and the stillmissing satchel of uncut diamonds.
“The Black Highway,” a euphemism for the River Thames and its legendary disposal of centuries of secrets, becomes very clever at this point. Laughton and Tannahill piece together the relationship among the floaters with Shelby’s ongoing drip of information about his surprising relationship to each.
The story gets adventurous toward the end, adding a tenor of danger that reaches a crescendo that was unexpected and in some way hoped for. It is seemingly inescapable with nearly every fictional crime novel: endings are a challenge. Had
“The Black Highway” not been so intriguing, I would have scrapped it for its disappoint- ing ending. But it’s worth your time and a few Hamiltons to read a good story.
And don’t forget to ask Maria’s Bookshop for your 15% Murder Ink discount. ■
Stuff to Do
Thursday07
Weed Pulling at Boy Scout Meadow with MSI and Great Old Broads, 8 a.m.-3 p.m., Pine River Trailhead, Bayfield
La Plata County Fair, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
Walk & Wonder, Thursdays, 11 a.m.-12 noon thru Aug. 31, White Rabbit, 128 W. 14th St., Ste C-2
“Share Your Garden” surplus produce distribution, 4:30-6 p.m., Animas Valley Grange, 7271 CR 203
Ska-B-Q with music by Free Range Buddhas, 5 p.m., Ska Brewing, 225 Girard St.
Spanish Conversation Hour, 5:30-6:30 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Survivor of Suicide Loss Support Gathering hosted by The Grief Center of Southwest Colorado, 5:30-7 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
Concert Hall at the Park featuring Leon Timbo, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Buckley Park
Shane Finn plays, 5:30-8 p.m., James Ranch Grill, 33846 HWY 550
Bayfield Block Party featuring Yes, No, Maybe and the Shiny Things, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Mill Street
Jeff Solon Jazz, 6-8 p.m., Lola’s, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Trivia Night, 6-8 p.m., Paradise Pizza, Purgatory
The Pete Giuliani Trio plays, 6-9 p.m., Durango Hot Springs, 6475 CR 203
Leah Orlikowski plays, 6-9 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Adam Swanson plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Andrew Schuhmann plays, 6-9:30 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Trivia Night on the Plaza, 6:30-8:30 p.m., The Powerhouse, 1333 Camino Del Rio
Trivia Night hosted by Aria PettyOne, 7:30-9:30 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
Friday08
La Plata County Fair, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
BID’s Coffee and Conversation, 8:30-9:30 a.m., TBK Bank Community Room, 259 W. 9th St.
San Juan Nature Walks, 10 a.m.-12 noon, Andrews Lake upper parking area
Kirk James plays, 5 p.m., Cliffside Bar & Grille, 314 Tamarron Dr.
Friday at the Fair with Firefall and Orleans in concert, 6 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
Tom Ward’s Downfall plays, 6-8 p.m., Durango Winery, 900 Main Ave.
Agave plays, 6-9 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.
Dustin Burley plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Adam Swanson plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Friday Nights at Fox Fire with La La Bones, 69 p.m., Fox Fire Farms Winery, 5513 CR 321, Ignacio
Knfrmst (Conformist) plays, 6-9 p.m., Gazpacho, 431 E. 2nd Ave.
Standup vs. Improv, 7-9 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
Austin Lyle plays, 7-10 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Saturday09
La Plata County Fair, 8 a.m.-8 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
“Never Ever Pole Dance” free class, Saturdays thru August, 9 a.m., Durango Pole Dance, 3600 Main
Music at the Ranch presented by the JP Pritchard Charitable Foundation, 12 noon-5 p.m., K&J Ranch, 10434 CR 250
Peace: The End of World War II and La Plata County 80 Years Later, 1-2 p.m., Animas Museum, 3065 W. 2nd Ave.
Yarn Meetup, 1-3 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Saturday at the Fair Youth Carnival, 1-5 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
Austin Lyle plays, 5 p.m., The Nugget Mountain Bar, 48721 HWY 550
Wild Roses play, 6 p.m., Union Social House, 3062 Main Ave.
Jose Villarreal plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Black Velvet plays, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Jamie & The Dreamers play, 6-9 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Maybe Tomorrow plays, 6-9 p.m., Gazpacho, 431 E. 2nd Ave.
Kirk James Band plays, 6-9 p.m., Weminuche
Woodfire Grill, 18044 CR 501, Vallecito
Nuages Du Desert plays, 7 p.m., American Legion, 878 E. 2nd Ave.
La Plata County Fair Family Dance, 9 p.m.-12 midnight, La Plata County Fairgrounds
Sunday10
La Plata County Fair, 8 a.m.-6 p.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds
Eli Cartwright plays, 12 noon-2 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Shawn plays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Walk & Wonder, a walkers’ meetup, Sundays, 11 a.m.-12 noon thru Aug. 31, White Rabbit Books & Curiosities, 128 W. 14th St., Ste C-2
Silent Sundays with Swanson silent movie with piano accompaniment, 2 p.m., Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
Weekly Peace Vigil & Rally for Gaza & Palestine, every Sunday, 4 p.m., Buckley Park
The Durango Brass free concert, 6 p.m., 800 block of Main Ave.
Blue Moon Ramblers play, 6-9 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Devin Scott plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Emma Zink plays, 6-9 p.m., 11th St. Station, 1101 Main Ave.
Silent Book Club, 9-11 a.m., Hooligan’s Coffee Bar, 802 Camino del Rio
Monday11
Movie Monday: “Mufasa: The Lion King,” 2-4 p.m., Fort Lewis Mesa Library, 11274 HWY 140
Mahjong Mondays, 5-7:30 p.m., Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Adam Swanson plays, 5:30-10 p.m., Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Meditation and Dharma Talk, 5:30 p.m., in person The Durango Dharma Center, 1800 E 3rd Ave., Ste. 109 or online at durangodharmacenter.org
Terry Rickard plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Tuesday12
Durango Farmers Market in the Plaza, 5-8 p.m., Three Springs Plaza, 175 Mercado St.
AskRachel House of cards, kid talk and caffeine-flation
Interesting fact: Seven-year-olds have an average vocabulary of 2,600 words. Compare this to the average vocabulary of an adult male, which is about a dozen non-linguistic grunts.
Dear Rachel, Me and my wife were wondering – thank you cards: lost art or waste of time, paper and postage? Should we be polite, thoughtful, connective human beings who show gratitude in writing, or will a text or (shudder) social media shout-out do?
– Thank You Very Much
Dear Donkey Shane, Who doesn’t feel special getting a card? We’re tactile apes. We like pretty, shiny things. A text message is ethereal. I forget to respond to them all the time because they don’t even exist. That said: don’t be one of those people who
Concerts in the Plaza with Andrew Schuhmann, 6-8 p.m., Three
send thank-you cards for every stupid thing. “Thank you for rolling down my trash bin when I forgot!” “Thank you for waving when I drove down the street!” So maybe both are right.
– Grassy ass, Rachel
Dear Rachel, I don’t know how to talk to children. Not normally an issue, but one of my best friends is a single mom to an admittedly pretty cool kid who likes Legos, animals and stuff. I see her often enough but feel awkward every time, like I’m either talking down to her or over her head. How do I talk to a 7-year-old?
– Need a Decoder
Dear Kid Cryptograhper, There’s advice out there that we should talk to mansplaining men as if they are 7-year-olds making discoveries
Springs Plaza, 175 Mercado St.
Sean O’Brien plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Wednesday13
Weekly Bird Walks, 8-9:30 a.m., Durango Public Library Botanical Gardens, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Great Garden Series: Preserving the Harvest, 4:30-6 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Guys Who Give meetup, 5:30-7 p.m.,
for the first time. “That is fascinating information! Wow! Tell me more!” But the problem is, I think the typical 7year-old is better at catching BS and sarcasm than your typical man. So maybe we should talk to 7-year-olds the way we wish we could talk to grown adult males.
– Lost in translation, Rachel
Dear Rachel, I know, tariffs, inflation and all that. But the price of gas station coffee is getting out of control. I was on the road last week and stopped to fill up my own mug. Three dollars! A Contigo of coffee cost more than a gallon of gas. And it goes without saying, this was gas station coffee. What gives?
– Fueled Up & Fired Up
Dear Abuzz, I’ll pay more for a sense of humor.
Lola’s Place, 725 E. 2nd Ave.
Secret Circus, 6 p.m., Animas City Theatre, 128 E. College Dr.
Writers & Scribblers Writing Group, 6-8 p.m., Durango Public Library, 1900 E. 3rd Ave.
Adam Swanson plays, 6-9 p.m., The Diamond Belle Saloon, 699 Main Ave.
Chuck Hank plays, 6-9 p.m., Office Spiritorium, 699 Main Ave.
Comedy + Karaoke, 7 p.m., Starlight Lounge, 937 Main Ave.
“New Research on the Chaco South Road,” 7 p.m., Lyceum at FLC
Email Rachel at telegraph@durango telegraph.com
I’d like that gas station to offer $3 bottomless coffee, so long as you get it to go. Not valid at the next station up the road, where you’ll have to make a pit stop, because it’s coffee. I’ll also pay more for taste. If I find a $3 cup of coffee that makes me swoon, I’ll send that convenience store a thank-you note. – On the road again, Rachel
Durango Daybreak Rotary Club discusses “10 Years after the Gold King Mine Spill,” 7-8 a.m., La Plata County Fairgrounds Extension Building
Ongoing
“Balance,” exhibit by Studio ART Quilt Associates, thru August, Durango Arts Center, 802 E. 2nd Ave.
Bill Grimes “Light Industrial” art, thru August, Studio & Recess Gallery, 1027 Main Ave.
“From the Fringes: Dine Textiles that Disrupt” exhibit, thru Nov. 13, Center of Southwest Studies, FLC
“A Legacy of Gifts,” thru Nov. 13, Center of Southwest Studies, FLC
FreeWillAstrology
by Rob Brezsny
ARIES (March 21-April 19): The Tagalog word gigil refers to the urge to squeeze or pinch something adorable. It’s an ecstatic tension that verges on overflowing the container of decorum. In the coming weeks, you Aries could feel gigil for the whole world. Everything may seem almost too raw, too marvelous and altogether too much. I advise you to welcome these surges and allow them to enhance your perceptions. Laugh hard. Cry freely. Invite goosebumps. Please note: But don’t actually squeeze anyone without their permission.
TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In Japan, artisans practice yuki-sarashi. It involves laying cloth on snow to bleach, brighten, purify and soften the fibers through the effects of snow, sunlight, cold and ozone. Because this process doesn’t require harsh chemicals, it helps maintain the fabric’s strength and prevents it from yellowing over time. I propose you make yuki-sarashi a useful metaphor. Something fragile and fine is ready to emerge, but it needs your gentle touch and natural methods. You are often grounded in manipulation of raw material – what works, what holds, what can be relied on. But this burgeoning treasure needs maximum nuance and the blessings of sensitive care.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20): When African American dancer Josephine Baker arrived in Paris in 1925, she was seeking refuge from her country’s racism. Her electrifying performances soon made her a celebrity. Ernest Hemingway said she was “the most sensational woman anyone ever saw.” As she grew wealthy, she donated generously to charities, hospitals and schools. During World War II, she worked as a spy for the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation. Later, she became a civil rights activist in the U.S. I hope you will be inspired by her in coming weeks. May you use your natural gifts and stylish flair to serve the greater good. Look for opportunities to mentor, encourage and advocate for those lacking your advantages.
CANCER (June 21-July 22): When a glacier moves, it doesn’t rush. It presses forward incrementally, reshaping mountains, carving valleys and transporting boulders. In a metaphorical sense, Cancerian, you are now in glacial time. A slow, relentless and ultimately magnificent process is afoot in your life. Others may not yet see the forward momentum. Even you may doubt it. But the shift is real and permanent. Trust the deep, inexorable push. Your soul is hauling whole landscapes into new configurations.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): In the Arctic, the sun shines for 24 hours a day during midsummer. There is no night, only the surreal glow of prolonged gold. The human body, confused by the unending day, creates disorientation for some, and for others, a strange euphoria. In my astrological opinion, you have entered a metaphorical version of this solar dreamscape. Your creative powers are beaming like a relentless sun. There may be little darkness in sight. So how will you rest? How will you replenish under the glow of fervent possibility? Be wisely discerning with your energy. Don’t mistake illumination for invincibility. Bask in the light, yes, but protect your rhythms.
VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Now is an excellent time to swear sacred oaths. I suggest you get less comfortable with transitory arrangements and short-term promises. The near future will also be a ripe phase to make brave commitments that require you to go farther and deeper than you’ve ever dared. Forgo the cheap thrills of skipping along from one random moment to the next. Embrace a game plan. Finally, cast magic spells on yourself that will release your unconscious mind from old fixations that subtly drain your power. Please, please, please surrender trivial obsessions that distract you from life’s key goals.
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): In West African traditions, griots are key figures in their communities. They serve as storytellers, oral historians, poets, genealogists and advisors. Their presence is often central to events like weddings, funerals and ceremonies. In coming weeks, I hope you will embrace a role that resembles the griot. Your ability to enhance and nurture your network is at a peak. You have extra power to weave together threads that have become frayed or unraveled. Given your potential potency as a social glue, I advise you to avoid gossip and instead favor wise, kind words that foster connection.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): The phrase “elegant sufficiency” is an old English expression meaning “just enough” or “a sufficient amount in a refined or tasteful way.” I am expanding it to also mean “the simplest solution that solves a problem completely without unnecessary complexity.” It’s your power phrase, Scorpio. What you need is not intricate perfection but elegant sufficiency: enoughness. I suggest you welcome this gift with enthusiasm – not in a resigned way, but with a quiet triumph. Maybe your plan doesn’t need more bullet points. Maybe the relationship doesn’t require
further analysis. Maybe your offering is already thorough. Allow yourself the sweet satisfaction of having just the right amount. What you have created may be more organically whole than you realize.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): How do you become a maestro of desire? What must you do to honor beautiful yearnings and cull mediocre ones? What’s the magic that will help you fulfill your life’s purpose by trusting your deepest cravings? Here are some tips. First, jettison your inessential desires and cherish the precious yearnings that are crucial. Second, dispose of outmoded goals so you can make expansive space for robust goals that steer you away from the past and guide you toward the future. These are challenging tasks! The very good news is that the coming weeks can be a turning point in your quest to claim this birthright.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): I’m writing a fairy tale about an ancient land whose queen regards poetry as essential to the public good. She often invites poets to perform for her and her court. When they finish a stirring passage, they bow – not to the queen or other observers but to the silence they mined to access their inspiration; to the pregnant chaos from which the poem was born. The pause is a gesture of gratitude and acknowledgment. I invite you to partake in similar acts of appreciation, Capricorn. Bow toward the mysteries from which your blessings flow. Honor the quiet sources that keep you fertile. Praise the treasures in the dark that fuel your intense activities.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): When I advise you to “get naked,” I’m not necessarily suggesting that you doff your clothes. What I primarily mean is the following: Shed the armor around your heart; strip off your defense mechanisms; discard knee pads you wear while kissing butt or paying excessive homage; recycle shoes, jackets, pants and opinions that don’t fit you; and discard pride-spawned obstacles that impede your communions with those you love.
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Finnish word sisu describes a radical, unglamorous persistence. Those who possess sisu can summon extraordinary determination, tenacity and resilience in the face of confusion or difficulty. It’s not about bravado or flair, but about soulful gutsiness. I suspect it’s time for you to draw on your sisu, Pisces. It will empower you to tap into reserves of strength that have previously been unavailable. You will activate potentials that have been half-dormant.
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 classifieds@durango telegraph.com n 970-259-0133
ForSale
Vintage 1977 Airstream Land Yacht
$19.5k 970-759-0551
Reruns Home Furnishings
Patio sets, bistros and yard art. Also looking to consign smaller furniture pieces. 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.-Sat.
Classes/Workshops
Aikido Crash Course
Is Aikido sprint tai chi? Dancing for ninjas? You decide. Try the fast, fun $8 weekly crash course Mondays 5:30615pm. Must register online: durangoaikido.com
West Coast Swing
Ready to dance? Join our 3-week West Coast Swing Basics series for beginners! It’s fun, social, and easy to learn—no partner or experience needed. A new series starts every few weeks, so join us for the next one! We also offer a weekly social dance – a fun drop-in option or included with your series registration! Sign up at: www.westslopewesties.com
Lost/Found
Cid Come Home
Last seen in Durango, July 21, 2024, by St. Columba Church. He is chipped, mis-
sing left canine tooth, white, big black spots, green eyes. Reward. 970-403-6192.
BodyWork
Massage by Meg Bush LMT, 30, 60 & 90 min., 970-759-0199.
Wanted
Books Wanted at White Rabbit Donate/Trade/Sell 970 259-2213
Services
Boiler Service - Water Heater
Serving Durango over 30 years. Brad, 970-759-2869. Master Plbg Lic #179917
Chapman Electric Colorado Licensed master electrician. New, remodel, residential and commercial. Prompt professional service. Mike 970-403-6670.
Do have fruit trees? Want to help eliminate food waste, reduce human-bear conflict,and directly address food security? Check out the Good Food Collective website: we host a platform that specializes in matchmaking fruit trees with vol-
unteer harvesters. Need to borrow some gear? The Durango Tool Library has harvest kits available! Reach out to outr each@goodfoodcollective.org to learn how to join in the fun & thank you for listing your trees!
Dog Fosters Needed
Parker’s Animas Rescue needs foster families to provide temporary homes for rescued dogs: parkersanimal rescue.com.
Community Compassion Outreach at 21738 HWY 160 W is open Tues., Wed. and Fri. 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. for case management, client services, snacks, drinks, meals and support for those with substance-use disorders and co-occurring
