“Hold my beer?”

A year ago, my editorial began with “It’s not warm, it’s hot. Weird.” Apparently 2026 is saying “Hold by beer.” It’s not just hot and weird these days, it’s crazy out of its mind blistering for March. Our friend billy barr in Gothic said he’s never ever seen temperatures above 60 degrees in Gothic in March. There have been five consecutive days of such heat this month there this year. March isn’t over.

A year ago, in my editorial I wrote about Trump toadies and their incompetent blunders using a common public app to spread war plans and middle school emojis. Apparently 2026 is saying “Hold my beer.” As part of his war of choice, Donald is lifting sanctions on America’s primary adversaries to fill their bank accounts. Remember when Donald and the MAGAs got all bent when Obama returned the first $400 million of an agreed upon $1.7 billion to Iran as part of his deal to curtail their nuclear program? Now Donald is lifting sanctions on Iranian oil that is estimated to give them a windfall of about $14 billion. In response, Iran is leaning toward only letting through ships in the Strait of Hormuz if countries pay for the oil in Chinese yuan instead of US dollars, thus destabilizing our currency. We lifted sanctions on Russian oil already and that will fund their invasion of Ukraine, making them by all accounts a big winner in Donald’s war of choice. And maybe instead of paying companies to shut down renewable energy projects like Donald did this week, perhaps boost ways to diversify our country’s energy supply.  I can’t take all this winning! Give me a beer!

One place I don’t want to hear 2026 say, “Hold my beer” is with wildfires in the Rockies. It was sketch last year. It’s looking worse this summer. Colorado has experienced 17 of its top 20 wildfires in the last decade. It’s been smoky in these parts several recent summers. But we’ve been fortunate to not experience the direct flames.  According to the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University, “essentially all of Colorado is in a snow drought.” Mountain ranges that would usually be covered in white this time of year have large patches of dirt exposed, and the amount of water stored in snow is the lowest it’s been since 1987, the Climate Center reported last month. Just look up and around.

Let us hope county and forest service officials start thinking fire ban sooner than later. And for once, let’s hope for one of those soul-crushing off-seasons, full of sleet and rain and even snow plus a return to normal monsoon patterns in early summer. God, I can use another beer…

—Mark Reaman