We're still resting up from the last couple of days, especially yesterday. We worked Thursday morning and caught a cattle drive going south on the Main Street of Mancos. Always adds to the atmosphere of the place!
Friday, however, we were off at 6:30 a.m. to attend the SW Business Forum at Fort Lewis College. I think this is the third one I've attended and they're always interesting. The basic message is, the U.S. economy is going to Hades in a handbasket, with Colorado and SW Colorado just a bit slower than the rest of the country.
The guys shown on the stage during the question and answer session are Dr. Richard Wobbekind, director of the CU-Boulder Business Research Division; Dr. Scott Anderson, senior economist and vice president of Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.; and Dr. Luke Miller, asst. prof. of business admin., Fort Lewis College. Anderson gave the national picture in a global context; Wobbekind described Colorado in the West and the nation, and Miller dealt with the regional context, Durango especially. The events of the last year appeared to have chastened them ... they kept saying they had never seen events such as we have been experiencing in the last few months. They seemed hopeful that "bottom" (whatever and wherever that is) would be reached mid-2009 ... barring other events they've never seen before. Two surprises to me ... TARP money that's gone to banks is basically sitting there, waiting for confidence to build in support of loans and expenditures, and the average local time a house is on the market was shorter than I had thought.
This year's Forum drew a pretty good crowd; they used the Community Concert Hall instead of one of the lecture halls.
Right afterward, we dropped off our entries for the Images of the Southwest juried exhibit at the FLC Center of SW Studies. After dropping some things off at the Durango Arts Center and having nice, warming bread bowls of soup and chile at Carver's, we did some shopping errands and still had a couple of hours to kill before the reception for the Four Corners Commission art show at the DAC. So, we headed north to see the skiers at Durango Mountain Resort, formerly known as Purgatory.
Well, we in a low visibility blizzard on the way up, starting as soon as we left the upper Animas Valley. At Purgatory itself, it wasn't snowing and there were lots of skiers and snowboarders, but as you can see, it was a grey, grey day.
There was an interesting set of buildings and fences on the way back, then blizzard and slick highway and then, as we reached the lower Animas Valley, the skies opened up again and there were spotlights of sunshine on the cliffs and peaks.
Anyway, we didn't stay till the last dog was hung at the reception. We got on back to Mancos through the dark and the snow, reaching home about 7:30 p.m. What a nice feeling to slide into bed with the knowledge that there wasn't a thing we needed to get up for this morning! tv
Oh, and it was seven degrees with a fullish moon when Scooby Doo and I took our morning constitutional at 5:30 this morning. Brrr!!
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