Crested Butte heat wave?

Marketing suggestion: Buy billboards in downtown Dallas, Oklahoma City, Chicago, Houston, St. Louis, Atlanta, etc. (Denver, Grand Junction, Pueblo might be on the list as well). On one side, have a picture of the city with heat waves coming off the parking lot. On the other side have a picture of Paradise Divide. Each side should have real time thermometers. Get it? The people will flock here. It ain’t rocket science but it ain’t bad. Don’t do this in January.

Crested Butte almost set a new temperature record topping out at 88 degrees this past week. According to local weather watcher Taylor Davis, the town records show it hit 95 degrees in Crested Butte on July 17, 1936. Other than that strange day it rarely tops 88 here.
Bottom line: It’s hot here right now. This is an observation, not a complaint. No one should be able to complain about it being too hot in Crested Butte. It’s never hot for too long. And while we aren’t used to it and air conditioning is sparse, it is great to be able to sit outside after the sun goes down without three layers of fleece.
But the heat seems to be bringing a little edge. Tempers flaring, babies crying, car alarms going off, fights, someone stealing money from a yard sale, people pushing to put their bikes on the bus rack. Could the heat be pushing people over the edge? Maybe it’s time to move higher in the summer… North Pole Basin, anyone?

So, we are playing coed recreational league softball last week and a fight breaks out. Not an argument… a fight. Very weird. Which got me to thinking how fighting is part of the human deal but there are smart fights and dumb fights.
Fights at a Recreation League softball game are pretty dumb. Fighting to defend family, country, property might be reasonable and that may have complicated the softball scuffle but still…

To me, it seems President Obama sending more and more American ground troops to fight in Afghanistan is a bad choice in a fight. Fighting in Afghanistan right after 9-11 would be smart. Escalating that war now is dumb, just like invading Iraq to fight Saddam Hussein was really dumb. I’ll disagree with my colleague Denis B. Hall and agree with that crazy Republican leader Michael Steele and say Afghanistan is Obama’s war and I think it is a dumb one. There are better, smarter ways to fight terrorism than to escalate an endless war with ground troops in Afghanistan.

Political fights can be smart. I like the fight Andrew Romanoff is waging against Michael Bennet for a U.S. senate seat. Romanoff was in Crested Butte last week and was pretty impressive. He claims he wants to fight the status quo in Washington even if it means fighting his own party. Primary fights are smart because it toughens up the candidates and makes them think harder. Whoever emerges from the primary will be a better candidate.
Whether it is Bennet or Romanoff who ultimately prevails on the Democratic side, they will be better than Republican frontrunner Scott McInnis. That guy apparently thinks it is normal to write a paper for $300,000 (it’s not and some might say that is an attempt to kiss up and buy influence). McInnis apparently thinks it’s also okay to not bother to really even write the paper and instead steal the lines from someone else and then try to blame “a researcher” for the charges of plagiarism. The researcher refused to sign a letter McInnis tried to force him to sign and then the researcher called the former Congressman a “liar.” Three top campaign aides quit the McInnis campaign. Back in the 1980s, McInnis also tried to help overturn the Crested Butte watershed ordinance to open the door to a mine on Mt. Emmons. Rollo the Dancing Bear might be better suited to public office than this guy. Man, is it hot in here or what?

In the political vein, I like the uphill fight Kathleen Curry is being forced to wage to keep her seat in the Colorado state house. Denied a place on the ballot, she is going to have to run as a write-in candidate against a Democrat and a Republican whose names will be on the ballot. Curry is independent and a fighter and I like that battle. I think she can win and hopefully it will send a message to people preoccupied with party and not people.

The resort is fighting the Forest Service over Snodgrass but it sounds like both sides are realizing it might be time to take a breath, adjust, stop that particular fight and find another way to make it all work. Whether it means fighting a different way or starting over, adjustment might be necessary. Tim and Charlie will be sitting down to discuss ideas sometime soon. Plan B, anyone?

The towns of Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte are still fighting over fireworks. No real word out of the subcommittees but there seems to be a Cold War mentality between the two. Frankly, that fight may never end and that is a silly fight.

Maybe it’s all the heat. Maybe it’s the thought that despite the near-record temperatures in Crested Butte, we all know that winter can rear its head any time now. Snow will arrive before 90 degrees. That might put a few people on edge.
Incidentally, the three people who were involved in that softball fight apologized and suspended themselves for the rest of the season. Cool heads in a heat wave.
A Crested Butte heat wave? We have to ride it out but it is pushing the edge for everyone… now, maybe the marketing gurus can figure a way to make it work for us. Billboards with thermometers? An email blast with people actually playing outside? Embrace the heat my friends. It won’t last long.