Quick summer thoughts

In less than a week we will experience the longest day of the year and the official start of summer. These are good days and they are so good they don’t seem real. But there is a lot of reality hitting the valley right now.

Local kids mobilized this weekend to help one of their middle school friends who lost a limb in a tragic lake accident last week. A car wash, bake sale and young determination has raised thousands and thousands of dollars for their friend Nolee, who is home from the hospital in Denver. Welcome back. Pretty impressive stuff.

Add to that, events like the Adaptive Sports Center’s Roger Pepper Adventure Camps for Teen Burn Survivors summer 2011 session and some locals who participated in the Special Olympics, and there is some good but very real stuff happening in the valley.

Another child of the village lost part of his leg and is in Grand Junction. Our thoughts and wishes go out to Kibber.

Either someone really hates packs of bikes or they think throwing tacks on the road with hundreds of bikes is a funny practical joke. It isn’t really. The Chainless Race last year was the victim of a rogue tack thrower and now there are reports that a similar incident took place as Ride the Rockies road bikers headed up Taylor Canyon out of Almont on Sunday. It’s not funny. As a guy who has had more than his share, flats are not fun. The overall reputation of the mountain bike capital of the world is getting stained. Stop it, please.

I had a few people tell me that my editorial on natural gas drilling last week was “too middle of the road and not radical enough.” I don’t want to be middle of the road but I want people to be real. So when I argue that I am not against natural gas wells in the county but I want them to be regulated and controlled, it comes from the reality that I use the stuff to live here. So do most of you. The county commissioners put off the decision of whether or not to engage more regulation.

Look—local regulation of what can be a polluting industry is a good thing. Watch them. Regulate them. Don’t allow the rigs to pollute our water. But at least acknowledge that natural gas is a valuable commodity that we use and if it can be done right, let it happen.

Now, on that train of thought: it appears from Tuesday’s public hearing that the natural gas drillers can frack pretty easily with a “green” non-toxic fracking fluid. Then make them do it. That is a no-brainer and something most people would pay a bit extra for to keep the water clean and the heat coming in January. The commissioners should demand that toxic chemicals not be allowed. They should also require baseline studies and monitoring of the local water.

The trails are opening up, the softball season has started and the valleys are growing longer with each warm day. Each of these days is better than eight great days anywhere else and that’s unreal. But take the time to get out and enjoy them. It is summer at 9,000 feet and that reality can be fleeting.