Snow it will!

Been tardy with the blog; been busy with the snow!

There was a brief respite Tuesday afternoon when the sun came out and made the eight inches of new snow outside the Mancos Valley Visitor Center look like a winter wonderland. The rest of the week has been the salt mines ... snow, ice, snow, more snow, etc.

It warmed up enough about 9 last night that it was raining a little, then settled back into snow again, leaving us with a layer of ice to deal with. When I walked the dog at 5, there was about three inches of new stuff to deal with.

So, I've got some shoveling to do here before going down to the visitor center at 10 and shoveling that sidewalk again. Too dark to guess yet what it's going to do today, but the forecast is for more snow through tomorrow ... all the schools are closed today, my dental appointment has been cancelled, etc.

Nonetheless, about 20 hardy souls made it to the visitor center last night for the annual meeting of the Mancos Valley Chamber of Commerce. One feature of the annual meeting is the revelation of who has been selected as Mancos Valley Citizen of the Year. The chamber sponsors the event, but the solicitation and selection is done by a committee of past award winners.

This year's award went to our neighbor across the highway, Malcom Cannon. Malcom's "retired" from the Mancos Valley Bank, where he was president. He still goes in practically every day and is president of the bank board. When he retired, he undertook a fitness program that included daily walks or bike rides from his home to the bank ... four miles each way! I'd guess he lost about 50 pounds and he probably added years to his life!

In any case, Malcom was hornswoggled into showing up at the meeting and he was truly surprised at being named Citizen of the Year. The pictures show him standing in the doorway at the point of being named, being presented with the calligraphed certificate by outgoing Citizen of the Year Julia Whelihan and being honored verbally by Mancos Valley Bank President Janeen Jameson. The pensive picture at the top doesn't capture the tear that was in his eye, but there was one. tv