RBC | “Are you still shooting rattlesnakes?” a high school classmate asked me after reconnecting on social media. Having moved to the western slope of Colorado so many years earlier, I’d forgotten my long letters to friends and family regaling them with all of my “Back East meets Out West”[Read More…]
Tag: Loose Ends
Loose Ends: Keep your distance, go the distance
There are two phrases whose usage never seemed more appropriate. Keep your distance and go the distance are important in any conversation about the pandemic. The use of masks and staying at least six feet away from each other continue to be essential to avoid the spread of COVID-19. One[Read More…]
Loose Ends: “How long will you stay?”
“How long will you stay?” was the one question over the years that continued to plague Meeker’s newest residents. It seemed to be an integral part of the welcoming tradition and was included in an impromptu game that most all new residents unwittingly played in the early months of their[Read More…]
Loose Ends: Distance
“Remember to give them their distance all the time.” was the caption below the picture of a mother bear and her cubs in a recent edition of this newspaper. Those among us, who spend their daily lives up in the high country, never take the need for distance for granted.[Read More…]
LOOSE ENDS: ‘Sorry, Wrong Number’
“Sorry, wrong number” is not a message one hears often these days, unless a local directory has listed someone’s else’s phone number in its place. While some of us still keep a landline, there are growing numbers who have reverted to only to a cell phone. A few years ago[Read More…]
Loose Ends: Beans, beans and more beans!
MEEKER | This was standard fare out on the ranch or on the range, and usually included quite a few variations by using up whatever was handy in the larder. Facing our bare cupboards these days, many of us find enough fixins’ for an old Dutch oven dinner not simmered[Read More…]
Loose Ends: Learning from Max
RBC | You know things are going downhill quickly when you find yourself hiding from the dog. Everywhere we go, inside and out, he has to go too. He is suddenly needy. He isn’t used to our being inside the confines of home, all day, everyday-neither are we. Our chocolate[Read More…]
Loose Ends: A small price to pay
MEEKER | More than 100 years ago, members of this community had their own version of staying-in-place. It was called homesteading and eventually ranching. Stories passed down from the families that settled here always include the bond they felt with the people who lived the closest to them. They may[Read More…]
Guest Column: Loose Ends
MEEKER I A long time ago there was a special category of conversation called small talk. It served as a bridge to ensuring the continuance of a casual conversation. “How is the weather there?” was not a loaded question.
Loose Ends: The ties that bind
MEEKER | I never thought that the first page I would turn to in a newspaper would be the obituary page. I admit I do tend to glance at the significant dates (birth and death), so I might be accused of this tendency to assure myself, as usually I am[Read More…]
Loose Ends: The sounds of silence … loud
MEEKER | Reporting and telling someone else’s stories is an awesome responsibility. The editor of this community’s paper, Niki Turner of the Rio Blanco Herald Times, understands the importance of that. It also seems that she also understands that the word awesome seems to be put in conversation daily. Ask[Read More…]
{OPED} Loose Ends: A teacher or a writer?
MEEKER | “So, which are you, a teacher or a writer? The blunt question took me aback for a minute. I had only been teaching in this community (and anywhere else for that matter) for a couple of years. When I accepted the part-time teaching position, I was working in[Read More…]