Durango Telegraph. Jan. 14, 2021

Make America OK again

­elegraph the­­­­durango

FREE

Jan. 14, 2021 Vol. XX, No. 2 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

Weathering COVID

Sharper focus

A new route

With homeless pandemic plight, survival kits come to rescue p8

State clarifies plans for ‘fair and equitable’ vaccine rollout p9

Ice Fest out of the gorge & onto the screen for 2021 p10

Coming full circle.

Issue 14 of The Gulch is out now!

Wherever you find the Telegraph or at www.gulchmag.com.

To find out about advertising opportunities or to get a subscription, email: steve@gulchmag.com

2 n Jan. 14, 2021

telegraph

lineup

4

4 La Vida Local

Can we put down the Kool-aid and unite after last week’s events?

4 Thumbin’ It

Mob scene

by Jesse Anderson

5 Word on the Street

8

6 Retooned

Survival tools

6-7 Soapbox

Emergency packs help homeless who have few options in heart of winter

by Missy Votel

8 Local News 9 State News

9

Polis adds details to vaccine plan; promises ‘fair and equitable’ rollout

14 Free Will Astrology 15 Classifieds

10

15 Haiku Movie Review

A new route

On the cover: The wall of Artesano’s in downtown Durango reveals the layers of its history while awaiting a fresh coat of paint./ Photo by Missy Votel

Ice Fest comes out of the gorge and onto screens for this year’s event

by Max Owens

boilerplate

Redford at his Sundance resort, which he recently sold,

13 Ask Rachel

by Andrea Dukakis / Colorado Public Radio

EDITORIALISTA: Missy Votel (missy@durangotelegraph.com)

STAR-STUDDED CAST: Lainie Maxson, Max Owens, Shan Wells, Jesse Anderson & Clint Reid

REAL WORLD ADDRESS: 679 E. 2nd Ave., Ste E2 Durango, CO 81301

ADVERTISING AFICIONADO: Lainie Maxson (lainie@durangotelegraph.com)

MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box 332 Durango, CO 81302

PHONE: 970-259-0133 E-MAIL: telegraph@durangotelegraph.com

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER: Stephen Eginoire (steve@gulchmag.com)

VIRTUAL ADDRESS: www.durangotelegraph.com

MAIL DELIVERY AND SUBSCRIPTIONS: $3.50/issue, $150/year

distributed in the finest and most discerning locations throughout the greater Durango area.

We’re only human. If, by chance, we defame someone’s good name or that of their family, neighbor, best

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.

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

Last dance

The Sundance Kid is riding off into the sunset. Last month, Robert Redford announced he is selling his Sundance resort, north of Provo, Utah. The resort, which Redford founded more than 50 years ago, is being bought by real estate investment firms Broadreach Capital Partners and Cedar Capital Partners.

Despite the generic sounding names, the Palo Alto, Calif.-based Broadreach’s senior advisor is no stranger to the ski industry. It is headed up by none other than Bill Jensen, a 47-year ski area veteran. Starting as a liftie at Mammoth Mountain in the ’70s, Jensen went on to careers at Sun Valley, Sunday River and Northstar at Tahoe. In the ’90s, he transitioned to working as president and CEO in at Breckenridge, Vail, Intrawest and mostly recently Telluride, which he left last summer.

12-13 Stuff to Do

Man with a plan

T

Ear to the ground: “Most of those idiots probably think a coup is where chickens sleep.”

– Local speculating on the intellectual prowess of last week’s insurrectionists

thepole

RegularOccurrences

telegraph

According to Redford, the agreement is the result of a long-term plan to preserve and build upon the resort’s legacy of responsible development and land preservation. The 2,600-acre resort includes 1,845 acres of land preserved through a conservation easement and covenants.

"As stewards of this unique place, it has always been my vision that Sundance would be a place where art, nature and recreation come together," the 84-year-old film star said. “Change is inevitable, and for several years, my family and I have been thinking about a transition to new ownership.” Redford said Broadreach and Cedar share the family’s interest in maintaining the resort's character, while honoring its history and beauty.

According to Forbes, Redford discovered the area when he was riding his motorcycle from California to college at CU Boulder in the 1950s. He later met and married a girl from Provo, and came back and bought 2 acres for $500 in 1961 from a sheepherding family who ran a mom-and-pop ski hill called Timphaven. He built a cabin and lived with his young family between his early films. Years later, alarmed at the increase in development, be bought another 3,000 acres. In order to make money off the fledgling resort, he built 95 cottages in the late 1980s and eventually permitted more than 200 private homes, most nestled in the trees. The Foundry Grill and Tree Room, with a massive pine tree growing through the middle of the restaurant, were also opened.

In addition to the sale, Redford also announced protection of the 300-acre “Redford Family Elk Meadows Preserve,” includes the meadow below the iconic Stewart Falls, along with trails for hiking and cross-country skiing.

For their part, Broadreach and Cedar said they plan to enhance the ski experience, expand onmountain amenities and explore the possibility of a 50- to 75-room lodge at the base.

Jan. 14, 2021 n

3

opinion

LaVidaLocal Next Wednesday This paper’s editor has rejected three articles I’ve written, and all for good reason.

Writing is cathartic, and sometimes, I let the acrimony take over and say all the things most of us want to say but choose not to out of prudence. Missy passes politely from time to time because she doesn’t want people showing up at her house with pitchforks.

When I think about what happened at our Capitol last Wednesday, I can feel the vitriol bubbling up again. I start composing in my head an article that pulls no punches. Something scathing and inflammatory; something that sinks to the depths of the other side so they could understand my simple insults. I know my editor would enjoy reading it if I wrote it. I’m sure she’d smirk at the likeminded wittiness and fantasize about all the poorly written hate mail that’d come in if she published my diatribe.

But she wouldn’t actually run it, and my rejection count would go to four.

I’d harbor no hard feelings. You see, Durango might seem like a modern town thanks to fancy things like electricity and indoor plumbing, but beneath it all lurks a much older way of thinking. It’s the same type of paradigm that refused to believe the Earth was round back in Magellan’s day. The same type of people that burned witches and crosses; the type that breached our Capitol walls, even though they think walls are the answer. They get mad at everything I write (after they take the time to sound it out) and would do all sorts of strange things if The Telegraph published what I wanted to write, such as protesting outside our offices or posting Missy’s home address.

So, I’m going to say something cohesive this time, something kinder just like 2021 needs, and not just because I don’t want to piss off the Trumpublicans. It’s because nothing I could write would change their minds, and it’s because nothing I’d say would be new. Lauren Boebert (or Lauren Breitbart, if you prefer) is our very own guntoting, QAnon-believing representative, and she tweeted “today is 1776” while all those misled fools invaded our Capitol. She likened our nation’s birth to a bunch of toothless trespassers, and it’s not like anything I write could make someone that dumb think differently, so what’s the point?

And as to having nothing new to add, have you been on Facebook lately? There are memes galore in an overwhelming ode to the idiocy of the people who stormed D.C. last week. Thanks to the outcry, those people are losing their jobs and going to jail. Their orange leader has been taken off social media and silenced just like a spectacle should be. Really, there’s nothing I could accomplish by throwing stones of my own. So I’d rather look at next Wednesday instead of that other one; I’d rather write nicely about the future than spew the poison I’d planned.

So, let me start … I’d like for you to picture a simple spectrum, a horizontal line with a perfect center point. Now, imagine that the extreme left side of this spectrum represents being too skinny, as where the far right represents being too fat. If you think about it, both extremes will kill you, and the best place to be for a good bodyweight would be near the center, correct? What about “hot and cold?” It’s the same:

too hot and you cook; too cold and you crystalize. The most comfortable place is that goldilocks zone in the middle. Why isn’t this the way most of us see politics?

On the extreme right, we have the nutjobs who ruined the Wednesday before last. They’re too busy thumping bibles to learn simple science; they’re too selfish with their incomes to share our vast resources with struggling immigrants; they’re too occupied with waving irrelevant Confederate flags to wear a mask (even though wearing a mask would’ve concealed their identities).

But is the extreme antithesis any better? People on the far left have become so secure in their cushioned realities that it’s OK to be anti-vaccine; they’re so comfortable with entitlement that “redistribution of wealth” doesn’t sound like theft; they’re so “inclusive” that they exclude people who aren’t. Both extremes of the spectrum have become so benighted by insularity that they can’t see how horrid they are; they can’t see that their evil is just as potent.

How apropos would it be if I pissed off both sides and doubled the pitchfork mob?

Anyway, my point is that most of us try to live in between the opposite insanities. But that’s difficult to do under the magnetic force of polarization, and as time flies, divisions widen. It’s impossible to see similarities when we speak in differences.

The Wednesday before last changed things.

Now, people who voted for Trump are putting down the Kool-Aid and decrying what happened. Hell, even the people who chugged the Kool-Aid with a beer-bong are starting to notice the teargas and mirrors.

And I’m reaching out to the friends I unfollowed throughout everything, because why the hell not? We’ve got global pandemics, demagogic dictators and all sorts of terrors that’ll conquer us if we’re divided successfully. So, I’m turning to kindness and connection – call it a 2021 resolution, if you will. No joke. I’ve contacted friends I once blocked, and after a quick how’ve-youbeen, I ask about their take on Wednesday’s ridiculousness. All of them, so far, have said that it was disgusting. Boom: just like that, we have something in common.

Just like that, we can rejoin and restart, and the thought of that happening on a royal scale makes me feel good. Maybe that’s the stone I can throw that would add something to all of this, a rock of kindness that works backwards, gluing things back together instead of breaking them apart, like the lies from our leader have done. Forgive, come together, that sort of thing.

All it takes is a common enemy – perhaps the Gravy Seals who invaded our Capitol and the “police” who allowed them – for us to battle together. The divided halves will meld back together into the two sides of one coin, just like it used to be.

It’s a thing we must do. It takes will. Coming together means coming to the center, if you’ll picture that linear spectrum once more. If you’re too far right, figure it out. Just as you’d turn on the heat if you were too cold, come to the left a little bit.

Learn why other people want what they want, and then you might want it, too. If you’re too far left, be mindful of it. Learn why the other half wants to keep what they have, and then maybe, you’ll want to keep it, too.

Then, we could move on. How lovely next Wednesday would be.

Sign of the Downfall:

Thumbin’It Social media platforms taking the long overdue step to suspend or ban the Donald Trump’s accounts for stoking violence and insurrection and perpetuating dangerous lies

A new report that finds the oil and gas industry is responsible for 70 percent of Colorado’s greenhouse gas emissions, much higher than earlier estimations that pegged the number at 17.3 percent

Some GOP lawmakers taking the brave step to break with party lines and support impeachment articles against President Trump in the wake of last week’s Capital disaster

A record number of cases of the COVID-related MIS-C, aka Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome, a scary and severe illness requiring hospitalization, among Colorado kids

An anonymous donor yet again funding Durango Transit passes for a year for local veterans

4 n Jan. 14, 2021

– Jesse Anderson

Rep. Lauren Boebert serving as an embarrassment to the state with her idiotic tweets and refusal to allow Capitol security to search her purse after it set off a metal detector

telegraph

Man, a “T?” The Center for Biological Diversity is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone with information regarding a manatee found in Florida with “TRUMP” etched into its back. The animal wasn’t injured seriously as the lettering disturbed only the protective layer of algae on the manatee’s skin, but still. Patrick Rose, from the nonprofit Manatee Club, is calling this act “a molestation of an imperiled species.” However, for some Floridians, the incident is raising an important question: how many other species have been molested by Trump supporters?

Celebrating 10 years of business in downtown Durango!

WordontheScreen Now that The Arnold has come out against The Donald, the Telegraph asked, “What would a movie starring The Terminator and Trump be called?”

Q

Stop by Wed., Jan. 20, for cake, prizes, drawings and fun! re info., For mo us out check book! on Face

Thank you so much for your support over the last decade, Durango.

1099 Main Ave., under the big clock Mon.- Thurs., 7:30am-3pm and Fri., 7:30am-1pm

Becky

“‘Dumb and Dumber, the Final Episode.’”

Charlie

“‘Total Recall,’ as in ‘I totally recall the last time this guy was impeached.”

George

“‘Two Terminated A-holes.’”

Jessie

“‘When the Parler Door Closes.’”

Wilson

“‘Rise of the Trumpanzees.’”

telegraph

Jan. 14, 2021 n 5

ReTooned/by Shan Wells

SoapBox Best of luck to commissioners To the editor, Congratulations to Marsha Porter Norton and Matt Salka, La Plata County’s new commissioners. They were sworn into office Tuesday morning.

As candidates matched against them in the 2020 election, we gave our best effort to win the seats they now hold. Although the final count was disappointing to us, our families and supporters, and our campaigns, the election process was a wonderful and growing experience. The record turnout of voters was especially inspiring.

Despite the narrow margin of victory for commissioners Porter Norton and Salka, we are 100 percent confident in the election process, election officials (both paid and volunteer) and the final vote count.

All four candidates in the race ran on very similar issues, and we wish Porter Norton and Salka the best possible chance of success. We pledge our support to anything that will make La Plata County a better place to live, raise a family and earn a living.

Our most important mission, whether locally, statewide or nationally, is to get along with each other through respect, understanding and common sense. May we all work to that end, for the benefit the community, our families and the future.

We are all in this together.

– Jack Turner and Charly Minkler, 2020 Independent candidates for La Plata County Commissioner

Thugs can’t crush will of people To the editor, On Sunday, I was sworn in to represent Colorado in the United State Senate. Four days later, I was hunkering in a

Locally Grown.

Locally Owned. &

#!

#

!

The Alternative Resource Variety of Strains • Hash/Concentrates • Edibles • Tinctures • ATM Bodo Park

Recreational: 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM Medical: 9:00 AM - 6:45 PM 72 Suttle Street, Units F/G , 970.259.3674

6 n Jan. 14, 2021

" #

#

Grandview (HWY 160 East)

Recreational Adult Use Only: 9:00 AM - 8:00 PM 37 CR 232, 970.426.4381

$

telegraph

&

$$$

"%

! "

a secure location in the U.S. Capitol’s basement, texting my wife, Robin, that I was OK and to make sure she was safe.

It’s now been about 24 hours since the Capitol was ransacked by a violent mob of domestic terrorists driven by the president’s own false notion that our free and fair elections – the very cornerstone of our republic – were fraudulent.

It would be easy to point to Wednesday’s events as an unpredictable anomaly, but the truth is that they were simply the culmination of the work of a president who has spent the past four years stoking dangerous divisions and appealing to the most vile, most toxic elements of human nature.

As Nelson Mandela famously said, “No one is born hating another person. … People must learn to hate.”

And President Trump has been a masterful teacher.

It would also be easy to pin this squarely and solely at the feet of the president. But that would obscure the significant role played by Donald Trump’s enablers in Washington who knew better but still deliberately carried his dirty water to advance their own political gain.

I’m not sure which is worse.

President Trump is clearly unfit for office. I supported impeachment a year ago, and the American people voted to remove him in November. That’s finally happening Jan. 20, when President-elect Joe Biden will take over and begin to rebuild our nation. President Trump and the thugs who attempted a violent coup can’t override the will of the people.

Last night we certified the Electoral College results.

President Trump is on his way out, but over the next 13 days, I’d support any option that could remove him from power faster and take away the media spotlight he so desperately craves.

As with so many things over the painful past year, Wednesday’s events crystallized what’s most important in our lives. I held Robin a little tighter last night. I called my son Teddy and told him I loved him.

#

"

! #

"%

I suspect many Americans reacted similarly. Most people, whether they live in Denver or Cortez, San Francisco, California or Winston County, Ala., share a remarkably similar set of hopes and dreams.

They want to work hard in a job that will pay them a decent wage to help them meet their monthly bills. They want access to affordable health care in case they or a loved one gets sick.

They want an end to this pandemic and for their kids to have a better life than they did. They want to live in a community that is safe, and where the color of their skin doesn’t determine their treatment at the hands of law enforcement.

The rioters who assaulted the symbolic heart of our nation’s government Wednesday are not reflective of our country’s spirit and potential. But they are a frightening harbinger of what could come if we don’t fix our deeprooted problems – especially if some of our elected officials continue to insist on putting party ahead of country.

Without the benefit of hindsight, we don’t know whether Wednesday’s events will be the bookend to a sad and tragic chapter in American history or simply the beginning of a much larger section.

That direction is our collective responsibility. We are the guardians of this fragile democracy, and its endurance rests on our shoulders.

– Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo.

Thanks for the memories To the editor, It’s the day after the insurrection on Capitol Hill. I took a break from the news and walked along the River Trail with my Thursday goal of picking up a Telegraph at the Rec Center. Returning home, I was sitting with the Telegraph listening to NPR, reading “Top Shelf” by Chris Aaland on the breaks.

I was moved to tears remembering seeing and hearing Tony Rice in a small coffee shop in Nederland back in the day, and so appreciating Chris’ regular reports to us. Thank you. Thank you. I need this connection right now.

I also appreciated very much your article on Phil (Vigil, Telegraph, Dec. 31, 2020). This local reportage is one of the things that makes Durango special.

With much appreciation.

– Barb Dahl, Durango

Make more than Monday meatless To the editor, With the “year of COVID” barely behind us, we look forward to the New Year and the customary resolutions: reduce personal weight, reduce time on social media and reduce consumption of animal foods.

Yes, that. Nearly 40 percent of Americans are already eating more plant-based foods. Hundreds of school, college,and corporate cafeterias have embraced Meatless Monday. Even fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Burger King, Carl’s Jr, Chipotle, Denny’s, Dunkin’, Starbucks, Subway, Taco Bell and White Castle offer plant-based options.

Dozens of start-ups, led by Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods, are producing plant-based meats, milks, cheeses and ice creams. Every ice cream manufacturer boasts nut-based flavors. Even meat industry giants Tyson Foods, Perdue, Hormel and Canada’s Maple Leaf Foods have rolled out their own plant-based meat products.

The reasons for the skyrocketing popularity of plantbased meat and milk products are compelling: they are more convenient, healthier, more eco-friendly and more compassionate than their animal-based counterparts.

The resolution to explore plant-based foods requires no sweat or deprivation – just some fun visits to our favorite supermarket and food websites.

– Diego Horvath, Durango

% $ !" !" " #

Coming off a hard year?

Resolve to shop local.

Advertising in the Telegraph can help you come back from a tough season and get your name back out there.

For more information, email: lainie@durangotelegraph.com or call 970-259-0133

Hours: Tue - Fri 11-6 & Sat 11-5: www.jimmysmusic.supply 1480 E. 2nd Ave. & 15th St. • 970-764-4577 telegraph

Jan. 14, 2021 n 7

LocalNews

Weathering COVID With homeless plight worsened by pandemic, winter survival kits come to rescue

by Missy Votel

Can you help?

A

s if trying to survive outside in the winter in Colorado wasn’t hard enough, the pandemic has added to the struggle of Durango’s homeless population. However, an effort by Manna Soup Kitchen, with the help of the Durango Outdoor Exchange, is giving the area’s homeless some essential tools to survive the long, cold days – and nights.

According to Marissa Hunt, resources director for Manna, closures related to the pandemic have taken away what is often homeless people’s only way to warm up during the winter. Whether it’s stopping into a local coffee shop or coming into Manna for a hot meal or coffee, those options no longer exist.

“COVID has raised a lot more barriers for those who are unhoused,” said Hunt. “This has really affected a lot of folks.”

In years past, Manna was open for five hours a day, serving as a warming house and refuge from the cold. But now, with the pandemic, the doors are locked and only staff are allowed inside. Add to that the growing need for Manna’s services – it served 100,000 meals in 2020 compared to the average year of 50,000 – and Hunt knew something needed to be done.

That’s when she got the idea to hand out winter emergency survival kits. The kits include warm socks, gloves, hat, space blanket, headlamp, nail clippers and a hygiene pack. However, when it came to putting the kits together, one crucial piece was missing: a weather-proof bag in which to hold it all (as well as any other essentials, important papers and the like.)

“Dry bags are really expensive, they would’ve taken half our budget,” said Hunt.

That’s where the Durango Outdoor Exchange came in. Over the years, the Outdoor Exchange has partnered with Manna, donating items from the store that don’t sell by the expiration date. Hunt called the store’s Community Outreach and Market-

8 n Jan. 14, 2021

Manna is seeking dedicated community members to participate in its Volunteer Coordination Team. This is a long-term opportunity, ranging from 510 hours per week. The position will start out primarily as remote, but will gradually transition to in-person once COVID restrictions loosen. Interested candidates should have: • Experience as a volunteer • Effective communication and teamwork skills • Attention to detail and organizational skills • Computer skills Interested? Email Marissa Hunt at services@mannasoupkitchen.com or call 970-385-5095 Ext. 3 for more details.

Contents of a winter survival kit. According to Manna, the pandemic has worsened the situation of the area’s homeless this winter by taking away the places they seek refuge from the cold, such as Manna and local coffee shops. With the help of the Durango Outdoor Exchange and a community grant, Manna assembled 150 kits to be handed out to those in need./ Courtesy photo ing Coordinator Caroline Williams, who was more than willing to help.

“We are proud to work with Manna and

support the work they do in our community,” said Williams.

The store was able to buy 150 drybags

telegraph

at wholesale and sell them to Manna at cost. “That part was huge,” said Hunt.

The kits were paid for by a grant from the locally sourced Equity and Emergency Preparation Fund and assembled by Manna volunteers. Most of the bags were given out during Manna’s Christmas Day dinner, along with coats donated by Open Sky Wilderness, although some survival kits remain. Hunt said the kits are available to anyone who’s unhoused or experiencing a disruption in their living situation. All they have to do is stop by Manna during regular hours. “The doors are locked, but there are always folks here,” she said.

In addition to that, the City of Durango is holding a drive for clean, gently used gloves, scarves and hats as well as new facemasks. Items can be dropped off at City Hall, 949 E. 2nd Ave., through Fri., Jan. 15. The items will be donated to Manna on Mon., Jan. 18, which is MLK Day and a national day of service.

“We’ve been getting a lot of great community support,” said Hunt. n

StateNews

Sharper focus State clarifies vaccine plan, proposes moving ages 65-69 up ladder

by Andrea Dukakis Colorado Public Radio

G

ov. Jared Polis announced Tuesday that he plans to add Coloradans aged 65-69 to the priority list for an early COVID-19 vaccination after the federal government recommended expanded eligibility for the shot.

The decision follows Polis’ earlier choice to make the vaccine available to anyone 70 and older, an announcement that triggered widespread questions and concerns because it was not accompanied by a distribution plan – or enough vaccine to cover the more than 530,000 people in that age category.

Polis also said the state’s distribution network was coming together, and that he would formally announce the expansion of the age group soon.

“In the meantime, we want to focus on (70-years-old) and up,” Polis said. “And even within that group, of course, people in their 80s and 90s.”

In La Plata County, the Community COVID-19 Vaccination Team – a group of 400 doctors and medical volunteers – is hoping to start holding weekly vaccine clinics for people age 70 and older by the end of the month. The clinics would be by appointment, and people would be scheduled according to the order in which they signed up for vaccination alerts from San Juan Basin Health Department (available at sjbpublichealth.org). The team expects to be able to inoculate about 350 people with their first round of the vaccine at the first event.

The governor indicated he wouldn’t follow other CDC guidelines issued by the Trump administration Tuesday that recommend people with comorbidities also be moved up the priority list. Under the state’s current plan, those with pre-existing conditions will be part of Phase 2 of the vaccination program.

Polis’ office later issued a statement clarifying that the state would wait to formally expand eligibility once it had a better idea of how much vaccine would be arriving and how it would be distributed.

"Colorado will not be making any changes to our vaccine program until we can get concrete details on supply quantities, timelines for receiving that supply and engaging our partners who are on the ground administering the vaccine," read the statement, which issued after 6 p.m. Tuesday. "While the state is not making any changes today, the Polis administration is actively planning how we can scale up and expand eligibility in anticipation for receiving more supply of vaccines."

Can the state avoid the same confusion that followed the first time it expanded its vaccine eligibility?

When the governor moved to expand eligibility last month to those 70 and older,

Yvonne Gutierrez gets the first round of a Moderna vaccine at the Denver Indian Center on Jan. 8./ Photo by Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite Coloradans and health providers complained the change was confusing and resulted in hospitals unfairly giving the vaccine to some while forcing others to wait.

Health departments said they were forced to revamp their efforts to administer the vaccine.

“Sudden changes in guidance are a challenge to respond to,” Linda Smith, of the San Luis Valley Public Health Partnership, wrote in an email. “The upside is that the changes ... have mostly been good ones.”

Polis said the number of hospitals and health clinics offering the vaccine will expand as well. He said people affiliated with a hospital system will be contacted randomly for the vaccine or they can sign up.

Some hospital systems, like UC Health, are taking appointments from people who aren't connected to a hospital.

Polis predicted all people 70 years old and up who want a vaccine will get one by the end of February. He didn’t say when vaccines for those 65 and over would be complete.

He said that timetable could be moved up if, as the Trump administration indicated, the federal government releases all the doses on reserve. He also said the process would be accelerated if new vaccines from companies like Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca are approved for use.

Focusing on ‘fair and equitable’ The governor said a key focus of the state’s vaccine efforts will be a “fair and equitable distribution.”

“That means geographic, it means by income, by race, all the different factors,” he said.

He said community health centers, which serve low-income Coloradans, were

ramping up their vaccine efforts.

Salud Family Health Centers, which operates clinics in 10 different communities in Colorado, said it was offering vaccines to older Coloradans in all of its clinics and was turning its focus from seeing patients to vaccinations.

"The downside to that is not as many people are getting primary health care,” John Santistevan, Salud’s president and CEO, said. “But we are vaccinating more individuals, which we totally believe (is) the right thing to do.”

The vaccine rollout remains slow, but officials expect the pace to pick up.

Polis said currently hospitals, health centers and public health departments will do the bulk of vaccinations. Eventually, largescale drive-through sites will take on much of the job as well as pharmacies and local doctors’ offices, similar to the way the flu vaccine is administered.

As of Tuesday, Colorado had received 516,750 doses of vaccine, according to the CDC, but distributed just 238,766, according to the state health department. That means more than half of the state’s allotment is here, but has not yet been used.

That places Colorado 12th among states ranked by the amount of vaccine they have effectively distributed.

Polis said some of that is the result of a slow rollout of the federal program to vaccinate nursing home residents and staff. But he also promised that the pace would pick up as more places, including health-care centers and doctor’s offices, started vaccinating their patients.

This story was edited to add locally relevant content. To read more from Colorado Public Radio, go to: www.cpr.org.n

telegraph

Jan. 14, 2021 n

9

thesecondsection Maxim Tomilov, of Russia, pictured here, took first place in the men’s division of the 2020 Elite Mixed Competition. This year, first place in the men’s and women’s divisions will take home $1,250./ Photo by Max Owens

Taking a new route Ouray Ice Fest comes out of the gorge and onto the screen for 2021

by Max Owens

G

ymnastic performances of strength and control; upsets and narrow misses; and sharp, pointy metal things flying through the air: The climbing competitions at the annual Ouray Ice Festival are high-quality entertainment. But the spectacle, held in late January, has long been restricted to festival-goers, the few thousand or so people who congregate to watch the competition from the rim of the Uncompahgre Gorge in the Ouray Ice Park.

This year, though, excited spectators won’t even have to lace up their boots to enjoy the competition.

With a pandemic raging, an in-person festival was out of the question. But the festival will still take place – albeit in a virtual format that will feature, among other things, a livestream of the flagship elite competition Sat., Jan. 23.

The Ouray Ice Park has been open to recreational

10 n Jan. 14, 2021

climbers since the start of the season in December, with mask-wearing and social-distancing requirements. It was the hope of the staff and board of Ouray Ice Park, Inc. (OIPI), the nonprofit organization that operates the Ice Park and organizes the festival, to figure out a way to safely run the festival’s competition, with guidance and approval from local and state health officials.

“We cancelled a lot of the components of the festival that aren’t compatible with COVID protocols and keeping the community safe,” OIPI executive director Peter O’Neil said. “We decided we wanted to make sure we could do (the competition), because that’s part of the soul of the Ice Park.”

Ice Fest, reimagined The festival in Ouray, now in its 26th year, has long served as a get-together for the ice climbing community, with everyone from novices to professionals traveling to Ouray to its world-class ice.

In years past, its schedule of events has included, in

telegraph

addition to the climbing competitions, clinics, multimedia presentations, auctions and parties that thumped late into the night.

Sure, 2021 won’t be the same festival that climbers from around the world have come to know and love.

But, OIPI has created a lot to get excited about it.

The festival’s auction, like the elite competition, has moved online and will feature some of the latest ice climbing and outdoor gear from festival sponsors. Local artists have also donated to the pile of goodies. Last year’s in-person auction raised around $19,000 for the Ice Park, and festival directors hope to break that number this year. Funding for OIPI comes solely from sponsors, private donors and memberships to the Ice Park (memberships are encouraged, but the Ice Park remains free and open to the public).

In-person clinics with professional guides and athletes are still on offer this year, but with a different structure.

“Rather than having all the clinics on a single4

weekend, there’s actually five weekends (of clinics),” Lance Sullins, owner of Peak Mountain Guides, one of the local guide services hosting the clinics, said. “There are, in total, more clinics over those five weekends, but on any given weekend there are significantly fewer.” This is good news for climbers, who will be able to find plenty of open ice not occupied by clinic participants.

The highlight of the festival will be the live broadcast of the Elite Mixed Competition. A professional film crew will take viewers inside the action as athletes attempt to ascend a route that features a little bit of everything – of which a steep section of ice is the easiest part. They will begin by “drytooling” on bare rock at the base of the gorge before sinking their tools into a section of ice that takes them to the lip of the canyon. From there, they will transition onto a man-made tower equipped with a sparse collection of artificial climbing holds. This is where the nail-biting action will happen, as the steepness of the wall and arrangement of the holds require incredible strength and endurance just to hang on, let alone reach the top. Climbers are awarded a higher score for each successive hold they reach.

“Many of the competitors that have podiumed over the last several years are planning to come this year,” said Sullins, who is also the festival’s competition director.

Last year, a visiting group of Russian climbers dominated the competition.

However, the structure of the competition has changed drastically this year, Sullins explained. In previous years, they would accept as many athletes as they could get through the route in a day, he said. But this year, the competition begins with two qualifying rounds, which will allow more climbers to compete and will broaden the field to include younger competitors. “We’re expecting somewhere between 40 and 45 people to enter qualifying rounds, and we’ll take the top 16 competitors for finals on Saturday,” he said.

Fans watching from Durango will have a lot to cheer for, as several of the athletes slated to compete hail from this side of Red Mountain Pass, including young guns Liam Foster and Catalina Shirley, both of whom placed fourth in the men’s and women’s divisions, respectively, in the Elite Mixed Comp last year.

The festival will also feature a speed climbing competition, an entirely different

Festival Essentials:

The tower that tops the 2021 Elite Mixed Competition route is lowered into place by crane. This year, the tower is 8 feet taller than in previous years. Route setters will swap out holds by headlamp each night between qualifying rounds and the finals on Sat., Jan. 23./ Photo by Jacob Raab event in which adjacent climbers all but run up near-vertical ice in an effort to be the first to the top. This competition, scheduled for Sun., Jan. 24, won’t be broadcast live like the elite comp, but photos and videos of the event will be posted on the Ice Park’s Instagram feed throughout the day.

Big changes in little Ouray Since the birth of the Ice Park in the early 1990s, ice climbing has changed Ouray, transforming it from a sleepy mountain town to a winter sports destination. Now, according to O’Neil, the Ice Park accounts for 60 percent of Ouray’s winter economy, a number that may well be on the rise, with Ice Park visitation already up 13 percent from this time last year.

There’s no doubting the potential that various groups see in the Ice Park, the Ice Festival and Ouray in general. A coalition of four divisions of Colorado’s Office of Economic Development and International Trade, the Colorado Lottery, and the City of Ouray all pitched in to make the virtual festival a reality – more than $100,000,

which O’Neil said is “mostly going right out the door to do the live streaming.”

“All of these entities understand the value of the Ouray Ice Park to the state of Colorado, the community of Ouray, and the ice climbing community,” he said.

For decades, Ouray represented the cutting edge of ice climbing in North America. But, O’Neil said, “Ouray has sort of lagged behind over the last five years, and the world has passed us by in terms of (competition) ice climbing.”

Changes to the Elite Mixed Competition reflect an effort to return Ouray to the forefront. The structure and rules have been modified to adhere more closely to the standards set by the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, aka UIAA, the governing body of international ice climbing competitions. OIPI will bring in Canadian Nathan Kutcher, the only UIAAcertified route setter in North America, to place the holds on the competition wall, rather than using route setters of years past.

And a UIAA-certified judge will sit on the competition jury.

Feelings on the move to international

## ) %"

$ %"

• Competitions: The Elite Mixed Competition finals will be livestreamed Sat., Jan. 23. The link to the stream can be accessed at: ourayicepark.com/ourayice-festival. Updates from the qualifying rounds on Thurs. and Fri., Jan. 21 and 22 (as well as the Speed Climbing Competition on Sun., Jan. 24) will be posted on the Fest’s website and social media channels.

• Online auction: The auction opens at 10 a.m. Mon., Jan. 18 and closes Mon., Jan. 25. It can be accessed from the Festival’s website: ourayicepark.com/ ouray-ice-festival. All proceeds go to fund the Ouray Ice Park.

• Closing ceremony and virtual fundraiser: An online ceremony and fundraiser benefiting the Ouray Ice Park, featuring athletes and other special guests, will take place online at 5 p.m. Sat., Jan. 23. Registration is required but the event is free. Register at ourayice park.com/ouray-ice-festival.

• In-person clinics: Spots in Ice Festival clinics at the Ice Park throughout January and February are still available. For more information, visit ourayicepark.com/ clinics. standards are mixed. “Some people are excited and other people are going ‘Oh, you’re screwing it up,’” said O’Neil. “But we want to get back into a leadership position in the ice climbing world, and part of that is working with the UIAA.” While the competition in Ouray isn’t an official UIAA event, they have agreed to host the livestream of the competition on its channels. “They claim to have 3 million viewers on social media around the world,” O’Neil said, which would represent “a huge opportunity for the town of Ouray and the state of Colorado.”

Perhaps the direction the competition is heading this year – out of the gorge and into people’s homes – is simply the next step in Ouray’s evolution in the ice climbing world. O’Neil is optimistic: “Could we potentially get on the world circuit down the road? Who knows? But unless we sort of advance the standard, there’s not a chance.”

The festival’s livestream link can be accessed from the Ice Festival’s website: ourayicepark .com/ouray-ice-festival. n

!& )

!

)(" $&) ")&' ))$ !

telegraph

Jan. 14, 2021 n 11

StufftoDo

Thursday14 Heartwarming Soup Sale, featuring veggie Thai curry, 4-6 p.m., Dandelion Café, 725 E. 2nd Ave. $10 min donation/quart. All proceeds go to support local families in need. thehivedgo.org/upcoming-events

Friday15 City of Durango hat, scarves and gloves drive, ends today. Drop off clean, gently worn items and new facemasks to be donated to Manna, City Hall, 949 E. 2nd Ave.

Saturday16 Henry Stoy plays piano, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Jean-Pierre Bakery & Restaurant, 601 Main Ave.

Deadline for “Stuff to Do” submissions is Monday at noon. To submit an item, email: calendar@durangotelegraph.com

Ski-Up Beer Tasting with Telluride Brewing Co., 12:30-2:30 p.m. on The Beach at Purgatory.

Women’s Skate Ski Clinic for all levels, 1-3 p.m., Sat., Jan. 16, Durango Nordic Center. $30 w/season pass, $35 without season pass. Please call to confirm availability: 970-385-2114.

Sunday17

Tamara Payne, author of The Dead Are Arising, a book about Malcolm X that won the 2020 National Book Award for nonfiction, is featured in a current Zoom talk hosted by Telluride’s Original Thinkers. To watch the video, go to: vimeo.com/498442364

Wednesday20

Curbside service also available.

Henry Stoy plays piano, 10 a.m.-1 p.m., Jean-Pierre Bakery & Restaurant, 601 Main Ave.

Wolf Creek Local Appreciation Day. Lift tickets are $58 for adults; $40 for seniors; and $31 children. Tickets must be bought in advance: wolfcreekski.com.

MLK Jr. Fun Race, Wolf Creek Ski Area. Free and open to skiers and boarders of all ages and abilities. Sign up is from 9:30-10:30 a.m. in the Raven’s Nest building; race from 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Charisma run.

Ongoing

Monday18 MLK Day Meditation and Dharma Talk with Erin Treat, 5:307 p.m. Online at www.durangodharmacenter.org/

Tuesday19 7 Rivers Farmers Market, winter farmers market, 12-3 p.m. featuring local farmers, food vendors and artisans, La Plata County Fairgrounds. Masks and social distancing required.

Durango Rotary presents a Zoom talk with Brian Rose of Region 9 Economic Development District of Southwest CO, 6 p.m., Jan. 19. For more info or Zoom link, email Bruce Rodman at mtnman16@gmail.com.

“A Conversation with Tamara Payne,” author of The Dead Are Arising, a book about Malcolm X that won the 2020 National Book Award for nonfiction. Presented

by Telluride’s Original Thinkers: vimeo.com/498442364 Episode 4 of the “Actor’s Journal” featuring John Lithgow, of “The Crown,” as well as original works, essays, poems, remembrances by various actors.

Presented by Durango Playfest. Tickets at: www.durangoplayfest.org/actors-journal “daGeneral’s Wake Up Call” podcast series of local musicians hosted by Kirk James, tinyurl.com/y7yvb7al “Dinosaur Discoveries: Ancient Fossils, New Ideas,” a traveling exhibit from the American Museum of Natural History, Powerhouse Science Center. For gallery hours, go to: www.powsci.org.

Sunnyside and Fort Lewis Mesa libraries are open, providing books, movies, music, audio books and internet, Mon.-Fri., 2:30-7 p.m. or call 970-375-3816.

Durango Public Library Weekly Activity Kits available for curbside pickup every Tuesday. Kits include supplies for one project for preschool, elementary and teen-age students. A new kit is released every Tuesday while supplies last. To request, email reference@DurangoGov.org or call 970-375-3380.

PIVOT: Skateboard Deck Art exhibit, over 100 skateboard decks painted by 30 different Native American artists, on view by appointment through spring 2021, Center of Southwest Studies, Fort Lewis College. swcenter.fortlewis.edu/

Upcoming Mason Center Park Virtual Neighborhood Meeting, Thurs., Jan. 21, 5-6:30 p.m. City staff discuss the phased demolition of the Mason Center and gather community feedback on the property. durangogov.zoom.us/j/97061044783.

Ski Bike Rally, demos, displays, idea sharing and races, Jan. 23-24, Purgatory Resort, purgatoryresort.com Coke Nordic Race Series #2, 10 a.m. – 1 p.m., Sat., Jan. 23, Durango Nordic Center. Register online by 6 p.m., Thurs., Jan. 21 at durangonordic.org. 4

#(%& ( & + ' %#( (+ -

- %

'(% +

%) '

$$# "'! "'& )

- #"& " , #! (%" & " & , #' " , ' ) -

&&#% & , * %+

Free Divorce and Custody Clinic Presented by Colorado Legal Services

Tuesday, Jan. 19, 5:30-7 p.m. via Zoom For more information, call: 970-247-0266 12 n Jan. 14, 2021

telegraph

AskRachel

Kamala the Grinch, dream weeper and Blowbert Interesting fact: If revolutionary France, the Soviet Union and Nazis all failed to kill Christmas, it’s probably safe here too. I mean, we can’t even stage a proper coup.

Dear Rachel, My parents came over for dinner, which I try to avoid because of their political allegiance and I did not want to hear their take on the government coup. Anyway, they pretty much didn’t touch on that. But I did learn from my mom that we will definitely probably never be able to celebrate Christmas again with Kamala Harris in office. Is this true? Should I be worried? Together, can we resuscitate Christmas?

– Worst Present Ever Dear Coal Stocking, God, I hope last year wasn’t the last Christmas. It was a sad Christmas in the Rachel household. I didn’t even hang my droopy lights around the window. If I had known it was the last Christmas in America, I would have made more cookies and chopped down my own tree. I would have blacked out the calorie label on the eggnog. I would have bought an ice cream truck just to drive around blasting Bing Crosby. But now those are days of yore. Up in smoke, like whatever a Yule log is.

– Keeping the X in Xmas, Rachel Dear Rachel, I dreamed all night last night, the kinds of dreams that drag on and frustrate you for not ending. The kind where you wake up after Wolf Creek Local Appreciation Day, Sun., Jan. 24. Lift tickets are $58 for adults; $40 for seniors; and $31 for children. Tickets must be bought in advance: wolfcreekski.com.

Rocky Mountain UkeFest online ukulele jam, Mon., Jan. 25, 6 p.m. happy hour; music at 6:30 p.m. For info: rockymountainukefest.com Durango Rotary presents a Zoom talk on providing mental health services in Uganda, Tues., Jan. 26, 6 p.m.

Speakers include: Pavel Reppo, executive director of Finemind, which provides community mental health services in northern Uganda; and long-time Denver Rotarian Diane Messamore, who co-chairs Rotarians for Mental Health. For more info or Zoom link, email Bruce Rodman at mtnman16@gmail.com.

Animas High School Online Information Session, Wed., Jan. 27, 5:30 p.m. at meet.google.com/iod-tzkm-scx.

hours and hours and discover you’ve been in bed for 45 minutes. So you reluctantly fall back to sleep only to double dip in that dreadful dream pool for the rest of the night. Now I woke up feeling more exhausted than when I went to sleep. What is that about?

– Dream Woman Oh Dream Weaver, Here’s what’s never made sense to me. Gary Wright jumps aboard the dream weaver train and tells the driver to take away his worries of today and leave tomorrow behind. Trains aren’t like limousines. You don’t jump in and tell the driver what to do. The train is on a track.

You are along for the ride. So what is THAT about?

Sounds like you boarded the wrong train last night. Next time, pipe up and tell the driver what you really want.

– Get me through the night, Rachel Dear Rachel, I have hesitated for months to say peep about now-Representative Boebert. I didn’t want to risk any of my criticisms coming off as ageist, or sexist, or bimboist. I see how AOC gets ripped for being a young, smart woman, and I don’t want to participate in ripping another woman just for being stupid. But it’s time for a ruling: Is she really seditious, or just caustically brainwashed?

– Concerned Voter Dear Letter Writer, How dare you question the patriotism of a Congress-

Email Rachel at telegraph@durangotelegraph.com woman. Is this just because she tweeted out the House Speaker’s movements during the attempted coup? Or because she stumps for claims of a fraudulent election without evidence, while also being a white woman? This courageous soul is our only hope of saving Christmas, which is what America was founded on, right after sexy guns.

– Yippee ki yay, Rachel

Alpine Bank Full Moon Howler, 6-9 p.m., Wed., Jan. 27, Durango Nordic Center.

An event for the whole family. Pass required, rentals available.

Avi Rescue Clinic with Leo Lloyd, 9 a.m. – 3 p.m., Sat., Jan. 30, Andrews Lake/Molas Pass. Sponsored by Friends of the San Juans. Free course but pre-registration is required. Participants are also required to attend a virtual class 6-8 p.m., Thur., Jan. 28.

To sign up, go to www.thesanjuans.org.

Wolf Creek College Day, Sun., Jan. 31.

Lift tickets are $58 for students with a current class schedule and valid college photo ID. Tickets must be bought in advance: wolfcreekski.com.

Purgatory Demo Day, Sat., Feb. 6, 9 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. $20 for unlimited demos, all day long. Participating shops include: 2nd Ave. Sports; Cliffside; Pine Needle; Backcountry Experience; Boarding Haus; and Ski Barn.

Deadline for “Stuff to Do” submissions is noon Monday.

To submit an item, email: calendar@durango telegraph.com

telegraph

Jan. 14, 2021 n 13

FreeWillAstrology

by Rob Brezsny ARIES (March 21-April 19): As you ripen into a more fully embodied version of yourself, you will summon ever-greater discrimination about where to seek your inspiration. I trust that you will increasingly divest yourself of any tendency you might have to play around with just any old mediocre fire. More and more, you will be drawn to high-quality blazes that provide just the right amount of heat and light – neither too much nor too little. And you will steadfastly refrain from jumping into the flames, as glamorously dramatic as that might seem and instead be a master of deft maneuvers that enable you to get the exact energy you need.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Denstu is a major Japanese advertising agency headquartered in Tokyo. Annually since 1925, its new employees and freshly promoted executives have carried out a company ritual: climbing 12,388-foot Mount Fuji, Japan’s tallest peak. The theme of the strenuous workout is this: “We are going to conquer the symbol that represents Japan more than anything else. And, once we do that, it will signify that we can do anything.” In anticipation of what I suspect will be a year of career gains for you, Taurus, I invite you to do the following: Sometime in the next six weeks, go out in nature and perform an equivalent feat.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Today I received a new email from a Gemini friend who lives in London. It was datestamped Jan. 15, 2015. Weird!

In it, she talked about applying for a new job at a publishing company. That was double weird, because February 2015 was in fact the time she had gotten the editing job that she still has. Her email also conveyed other details about her life that I knew to be old history. So why did it arrive now, six years late? I called her on the phone to see if we could unravel the mystery. In the end we concluded that her email had time-traveled in some inexplicable way. I predict that a comparable event or two will soon happen in your life, Gemini. Blasts from the past will pop in as if yesterday were today.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Eugene Sue (1804–57) was a popular French author whose stories often offered sympathetic portrayals of the harsh living conditions endured by people of the lower economic class. Writing generously about those downtrodden folks made him quite wealthy. I’d love to see you employ a comparable strategy in the coming year.

What services might you perform that would increase your access to money and resources? How could you benefit yourself by helping and uplifting others?

14 n Jan. 14, 2021

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): The beautiful and luxurious fabric known as silk comes from cocoons spun by insect larvae.

Sadly for the creatures that provide the raw material, they’re usually killed by humans harvesting their handiwork – either by being stabbed or boiled alive. However, there is a special kind of silk in which manufacturers spare the lives of their benefactors. The insects are allowed to mature into moths and escape. I propose that we make them your spirit creatures in the coming weeks. It’s an excellent time for you to take an inventory of everything you do, and evaluate how well it upholds the noble principle of “Do no harm.”

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “Any time that is not spent on love is wasted,” declared Italian poet Torquato Tasso. Although I am sympathetic with his sentiment, I can’t agree that acts of love are the only things ever worth doing.

Sometimes it’s healthy to be motivated by anger or sadness or skepticism, for example. But I do suspect the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to be in intense devotion to Tasso’s counsel. All the important successes you achieve will be rooted in an intention to express love and compassion.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): I heard a story about how a music aficionado took a Zen Buddhist monk to a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5. The monk wasn’t impressed.

“Not enough silence!” he complained. I’m puzzled by that response. If the monk were referring to a busy intersection in a major city, I might agree with him, or the cacophony of a political argument among fanatics on Facebook. But to want more silence in one of history’s greatest pieces of music? That’s perverse. With this in mind, Libra, and in accordance with astrological omens, I encourage you to seek extra protection from useless noise and commotion during the coming weeks – even as you hungrily seek out rich sources of beautiful information, sound and art.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): “Some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal,” Scorpio author Albert Camus wrote. If you’re one of those folks, I’m happy to inform you that you have cosmic permission to relax. The coming weeks will be an excellent time to explore the pleasures of NOT being conventional, standard, ordinary, average, routine, prosaic or common. As you expansively practice non-normalcy, you will enhance your health, sharpen your wits and clarify your decisions.

telegraph

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22Dec. 21): Our lives tend to be shaped by the stories about ourselves that we create and harbor in our imaginations.

The adventures we actually experience, the problems we actually face, are often (not always) in alignment with the tales we tell ourselves about our epic fates. And here’s the crux of the matter: We can change the stories we tell ourselves. We can discard tales that reinforce our pain, and dream up revised tales that are more meaningful and pleasurable. I believe 2021 will be an excellent time for you to attend to this fun work. Your assignment: Be a self-nurturing storyteller.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn author Edgar Allen Poe named “four conditions for happiness: life in the open air; love of another human being; freedom from all ambition; creation.” I’m accomplished in three of those categories but a failure in being free of all ambitions. In fact, I’m eternally delighted by all the exciting creative projects I’m working on. I’m VERY ambitious. What about you, Capricorn? I’m going to contradict Poe and speculate that your happiness in the coming months will require you to be at least somewhat ambitious. That’s what the planetary omens are telling me. So what are the best goals and dreams for you to be ambitious about?

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): It’s time to launch Operation Supple Watchdog. That means you should be tenderly vigilant as you take extra good care of everyone and everything that provide you with meaning and sustenance. It means you should exercise rigorous but good-humored discernment about any oppressive or demeaning ideas that are flying around. You should protect and preserve the vulnerable parts of your life, but do so with tough-minded compassion, not ornery overreactions. Be skeptical, but warm; breezily resilient but always ready to stand up for what’s right. (P.S. The better you shield yourself against weird surprises, the more likely it is you’ll attract interesting surprises.)

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The atoms that compose your body have existed for billions of years. Originally created by a star, they have been part of many forms before you. But they are exactly the same in structure as they have ever been. So in a very real sense, you are billions of years old. Now that you know that, how do you feel?

Any different? Stronger? More expansive? More eternal? I bring these thoughts to your attention, Pisces, because 2021 will be an excellent year for you to come to a more profound and detailed understanding of your true nature.

I hope you will regularly meditate on the possibility that your soul is immortal, that your identity is not confined to this historical era, that you have been alive and will be alive for far longer than you’ve been taught to believe.

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 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

Great art glass, ceramics, framed art. 572 E. 6th Ave. Open Mon.-Sat. 385-7336.

New! Mens O.R. Carbide Ski Bibs Size L. MSRP $300; sell for $175. 970259-7179

Services

1-Hour Virtual Workshop “Finding Balance in 2021: Reconnect with what is important in your life” on 1/16/21. Go to CrystalRobertsonCoaching.com for more information and CrystalRobertsonCoaching@gmail.com to register.

Lost/Found: Found: Gear Box 12/27: Partially destroyed gear box Hwy 550 Hermosa. Contents intact. Text, describe, get your stuff! 970-317-7083

Wanted Storage/Office The Climbing Zine is looking for a place for our stash. Our zine and book stash that is. Could also be interested in additional future office space. Please contact Luke Mehall at 970-376-3116 or luke@climbingzine.com to chat.

Cash for Vehicles, Copper, Alum, Etc. at RJ Metal Recycle. Also free appliance and other metal drop off. 970-259-3494.

ForSale Reruns Home Furnishings Lots of new, fun, furniture and furnishings to brighten up your space. Tables, night stands, bar stools, rugs, lamps and linens. Two-seater table and chairs.

Studio Apartment in Quiet Neighborhood All utilities included. One pet allowed.

1 year lease; $850/month rent; $500 security deposit, $500 pet deposit. Available February 15. winterslaw@hotmail.com

CommunityService

Announcements

The Perfect Gift for your favorite dirtbag. Literature from Durango's own Benighted Publications. The Desert, The Climbing Zine, The Great American Dirtbags, American Climber, Climbing Out of Bed and Graduating From College Me are available at: Maria's Bookshop, Pine Needle Mountaineering, the Sky Store, or on the interweb at www.climbingzine.com.

ForRent

Remote Learning Support Nifty Nanny is offering full day remote learning support to help K-5 students complete daily/weekly assignments. Our classroom is clean and operates under State Child Care regulations, to maintain cleanliness and safety standards. Learn more & enroll: www.niftynanny.net / Call Mrs. Vivienne 970-403-4931.

Christmas Tree Drop-Off Locations Christmas trees free of decorations can be dropped off at the following locations: • Santa Rita Park, thru Jan. 31 • Bayfield Public Works roll-off dumpster, 905 Community Lane, weekdays, 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m. thru Jan. 15 • Bayfield Transfer Station, 4012 CR 223 • Bayfield, Green Thumb Daddy, 921 E. Oak Drive.

Application Extended for SCAPE Intensive six-month program teaches entrepreneurs about scaling, product development, marketing and finance. Program also includes access to partners and capital.Primary focus will be ventures wanting to market and compete outside the local area while remaining headquartered in SW Colorado with special emphasis on job creation, capability and resilience from local disasters. Deadline to apply is Jan. 31. Program begins in spring. To learn more or apply, visit: www.goscape.org

HaikuMovieReview ‘Death to 2020’ Mockumentary that allows us to laugh at a year all too real – Lainie Maxson

NewspaperOrigami

Tutoring All subjects, grades 5th – 9th. Classroom and homework support, masks will be worn at all times. 3:30-5:30 p.m., Mon. – Thurs., Crossroads Building, 11th & Main. For info, call Jessie Hamilton, 970903-9051.

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 Marketing Small and Local Businesses Media, social media, website content, SEO, etc. for small, local, independent or startup businesses. Email jnderge@ gmail.com

BodyWork massageintervention.life Voted best massage in Durango 2020.

Couples, cupping, local CBD. Reviews on FB + Yelp. 970-903-2984

telegraph

A penguin Jan. 14, 2021 n 15

Need to light your fire?

The Telegraph stocks old issues to burn on the lower racks at these locations: • Durango Post Office • 10th & Main (in front of the Boarding Haus)

• Peerless Tire • Mayer Building, 679 E. 2nd Ave. • Bayfield Post Office • Star Liquors plaza • N. City Market *Just try not to set the night on fire. And please do not take the current issue or leave a big mess.

It makes Jim sad.

16 n Jan. 14, 2021

telegraph