Gas Tax Holiday

John McCain is proposing to repeal the $0.18 gas tax for the summer, calling it a gas tax holiday. What a freakin' stupid idea, we have been on a gas bender since the 70s and this clown wants to hand us more of the drink that we have overused, exploited, fought wars over and down right wasted. Not only should we not have a gas tax holiday we ought to be marched into the nearest drug treatment facility where we are weened and shown how great our dependence on oil is and how it is the prime ingredient in everything we do, eat, drink and shit.

Kirk's Birthday/Last Day at Monarch

Kirk's 39th birthday was April 13th which was much cause for celebration seeing this is his last year in his 30's. We're preparing for the mid-life crisis next year. Ha ha! Kirk's birthday wish was to have a bbq party in the parking lot of Monarch since the 13th was also their closing day for the season. We haphazardly pulled together some 80's looking ski gear to fulfill a cheesy theme. We loaded up the trailer with our grille, some chairs, a table and coolers full of beer and food and took off early in the morning so we could arrive in the parking lot in time to get a good spot. We pulled up close to the front since tail gaiting is popular on the end of season day so the parking dudes save the closest spots for the people with trailers. Looking around our setup was pretty minimal compared to some of the other folks. Several people had set up decorated tents with full bars and people gathered around in costume. It was great people watching! We set up and then some of our friends started showing up. We took a few runs on the hill and then came back to fire up some lunch. We fed anyone around who ventured into our bbq since it was that kind of party. Unbeknown to us the ski area was having a bbq contest and sent judges around to each "camp" to judge their food. They bypassed us since we just had boring brats and burgers. The winner was a gang who were parked next to us that served pulled pork and homemade green chili. They said the winnings might just cover the cost of the food. Hmmm...I think we were better off spending less time cooking and more time enjoying the atmosphere and the last runs we would take until next winter. It was the warmest day of the season with sunny blue skies, great snow conditions and people having fun everywhere we looked. As the day came to a close Kirk and our friend Olivia decided to go for the last run of the day in their birthday suits. They hiked to an outlying run that ends in the parking lot and I waited with camera in hand. You can't even really tell they are naked in the photo. Good thing since this is the internet after all. They ducked into the trees before the end of the run and walked up to the bbq amidst cheering and laughs. A good time was had by all! We've decided this now needs to be a yearly event so next year we plan to do it bigger and better so be there or be square!

April 15, 2008

Isn't life grand? I love the saying, "Wanna make God laugh....have a plan." So true it is! We've zigzagged and sometimes circled through all sorts of plans in the 5 years that we've been married, so why am I still surprised when we end up in a totally different place than I expected? Human nature I guess. Buena Vista sure has been treating us right though and no matter what the road ahead brings and how unexpected it is, it always feels like the path we were meant to tread. When I turn around and look back it all seems to make more sense then when we are actually going through it so I can only have faith that the future will bring us right where we're supposed to be despite my plans, fears and worries.

These thoughts give me comfort when there is something that I really want that I may not get. What I'm referring to specifically is a house that is being built just across the street from our current little home. Kirk and I had been wondering for awhile who owned the lot since it sat empty for a long time with the exception of a slab foundation. We serendipitously came across the house plans when the builder came into our office to get copies from us. We looked over the plans and loved them! Then we saw the address and realized that this was the house that was going to be built right across the street from us. We quickly asked the builder if he already had a buyer for this house and he said he didn't. I told him, "You do now!". We couldn't believe our luck! The builder is a local guy that designs and builds one custom house a year here in BV. He has a couple of houses in town and a few outside of town and they're all very cool compared to other options which are either new/newer stamped out standard cracker box suburban houses (blah), old completely run down houses (double blah), or the overinflated lots to build on that have ridiculous covenants (can you say "boomers"). This house however, incorporated a lot of the ideas that we had designed into our own house plans at one point. It felt too good to be true because we also love the location we're in now, we just hate the house we currently live in. Our current house was built in 1910, it's maybe 600 square feet and it needs a lot of TLC. Ever since we moved in we have been talking about how nice it would be to just live in a new house where you wouldn't have to fix things all of the time. Don't get me wrong, I know new houses require maintenance too, but not to the degree that we are dealing with now.

Small towns are interesting. We agreed on the word of the builder that we could have first dibs at buying the house since we don't have anything in writing as of yet. If I were still in Denver I definitely would not trust that agreement, but here in BV things are different. When a local (meaning someone who's lived here for 20 years or so) gives their word you can count on it especially when it comes to a handshake between two locals (Kirk being the other since he grew up here). The other interesting thing is that word travels fast. We told maybe 2 people that we were going to buy the house across the street and asked them not to tell anyone else until we were sure. This builder has some notoriety because his houses are so different than the norm here and they tend to generate a lot of excitement with real estate agents, prospective buyers and lookie-loos. Since they actually started building the house back in February, the word was out that this builder is working on another house in town so he's had several people inquire about it, some of which are serious buyers, but he told them that he already has a buyer...us! Lately, we've had a bunch of people come up to us saying, "so I hear you're buying that house on Gunnison?". Being a city dweller for my entire life with the exception of the last two years, this small town news network is a whole new experience for me.

I also have a hunch that this builder is tired of selling homes to out of state folks looking to buy second homes or a retirement home and is excited about selling a house to another "local" and a couple younger than retirement age. We feel so fortunate that it's us! So we're keeping our fingers crossed that it will all pan out. We have our Trout Creek property with the tepee and our half duplex in Denver on the market hoping they sell soon. We are continuing to fix up the little house we currently live in so we can put that on the market in a month or so as well. Then we'll be free to invest our equity in a house that we hope to keep for a very long time. Ahhhh.....roots....now that's a happy thought.