YOUR AD HERE »

Vail Daily column: The sneezing days of summer

“I’ve never seen it this hot this early in the summer before!”

Yes, you have.

“Well, I’ve never seen the pollen and cottonwood in the air this thick before!”



Yes, you have. You’re just a victim of rose-colored memories.

“OK, but I know I’ve never seen two candidates for the White House so damned unappealing!”

Support Local Journalism



Um …you got me there.

But who cares about that nonsense right now anyway, as we have at least a few weeks of actual summer to enjoy before the whole white gold thingy starts up again.

It’s been barely a month since Vail Pass closed due to heavy wet snow and heavy-footed idiots proving their superiority over responsible drivers, so we all need to hurry up and slow down, take in the scenery and make the best of our “no snow” season.

The first Hot Summer Nights concert at the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater is tonight. Enjoy the anti-folk sounds of Cracker while seeing friends and acquaintances you ignored since last summer and band members making lame jokes about how difficult it is to sing high notes at this altitude.

Savor the official Signature Cookie of the Amphitheater, “Colin’s Concoction Cookie” while you’re at it, and realize they taste just as good in the rain.

Next week we can look forward to the “CoverRock — Summer of Love” festival at the base of Beaver Creek, which some refer to as “Avon,” and those old enough can relive Woodstock to remind them of what they were too messed up to remember the first time around.

The rest of us can enjoy a few days of classic live music.

The KAAZOO Festival blew out of here faster than the Gore Creek tossed kayaks last weekend (no one wanted to hear those obnoxious humming sounds anyway), and even though the high river won’t reduce any of our high water bills, at least we don’t have any campfire bans … yet.

Had a friend stand behind that Justin guy in the Edwards Starbucks last week. Rumor has it he bought a house up in Bieber Creek.

We have 14 golf courses with which to lose golf balls, hundreds of trails to hike and bike, rivers to fish, road trips to cruise, sunsets to watch, campfires to burn, barbecue to eat, beer to drink, pollen to sneeze, grass to mow, weeds to pull, weed to smoke, Colorado chocolate to consume and TV to ignore (except for Game of Thrones, of course).

I suppose you could watch the Zika Olympics in Rio de Janeiro to see if the new drug-resistant “super bacteria” helps the Russians and Chinese athletes take home gold, but that’s a personal choice.

Either way, the summer is quickly taking shape, and before you know it 10 weeks will have passed and we’ll be dealing with frost delays on the links, leaves changing, football playing and the new school year beginning.

But in the meantime please stop writing “sneeze me” into the yellow devil dust on my car.

Richard Carnes of Edwards writes weekly. He can be reached at poor@vail.net.

Write a column!

What’s on your mind? Share your insights with the rest of the community. What’s going well, not so well? Send your submission to ValleyVoices@vaildaily.com. By submitting a column, you are granting permission for the Daily to publish it on the paper’s website.


Support Local Journalism