epgarbage

And STILL no update on the candidates the recall-2019 group is fielding in the special election.  The trustees working behind Cody Rex Walker's back are grinding harder than the recall-2019 group.  C'mon, recallers, update your website to give your supporters "further details...on the candidate(s) as they declare their intention to run in the special election".  Did you find five candidate who signed the petition and were willing to run?  Will seven names appear on the recall ballot?  Inquiring minds want to know.

This is the most Ken Zornes has ever spoken "It is my contention that Trustee Walker had a clear conflict of interest and therefore should have recused himself from voting on the code amendment in June 2017." - Trustee Ken Zornes, wife of Liz Zornes, hydra-headed committee member, including president (according to their website) of the local League of Women Voters "We are much better off as a community when we can bring concerns out in the open, discuss them publicly, and work together to resolve things." - Trustee Ron Norris, term limited out in April 2020, and currently not openly discussing a potential run for mayor

Beth Chapman, wife of Dog the Bounty Hunter, died after battling cancer.  Shaka, brah. Beth Chapman was 51 years old

In fact, it is almost noon on the day celebrated by the United Nations as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.  There is still, shockingly, no update on the eprecall-2019 site regarding their candidates.  This is a slow-moving story, similar to the "fast breaking news" link on the EPCATS webiste, last updated in January of this year.  Stay tuned, sloth and snail lovers.  Perhaps their candidates will be made known sometime prior to September.

Baghdad Today article from 2089:  "Indeed, I recall it well," said 108-year-old curmudgeon Arthur "Mess in Pants" Messal of Estes Park, Western Iraqn, population 3, who actually claimed to be donning a shirt for the first time in six months at the behest of the reporter, who preferred not to see any more of those floppy things.  "It was for a town trustee named Cody Rex Walker, and I crafted most of the twitter (an ancient form of harassment) hashtags for the recall group," Messal gasped out, between pauses for breath.  "#CorruptCody, #ClownCouncilor, #CowboyBoob, those were some of my best ones.  We actually didn't have any reason to recall this individual, we were just bored, and our sex parties up at Good Sams (a place where local retirees spent their golden years engaged mostly in complaint) were starting to get stale."  Following the failed recall attempt, all the 454 people who signed the recall petition departed Estes Park for Sun Ci...

In Japan they say, "It's 9:00 p.m., do you know where your husband is?" In France, they say, "It's 9:00 p.m., do you know where your wife is?" In America, they say, "It's 9:00 p.m., do you know where your children are?" In Scott Schneider's home, they say, "It's 9:00 p.m., do you know what time it is?" And in Estes Park, the eprecall-2019 group says, "It's day #4 after the candidate filing deadline, does anyone know who our candidates are?"

One thing that concerns me about life under Scott Schneider is that the trains will never run on time, and the disappointment in never knowing exactly what is going on, unless you are part of the inner circle, will be palpable, and absolute.  We are now three days beyond the filing deadline for candidates in the special recall election, and the eprecall-2019 site has yet to let its readers know who they should vote for.

And the Eprecall-2019 group has yet to provide their audience with a list of candidate(s) who filed to run in the special election.  So now the counter is at 2. Actual screen grab from the Eprecall-2019 site from Sunday, June 23

One day after the deadline to file as a candidate in the special election.  Let's count the days, shall we, until the "Recall 2019" group updates their official website:  Currently, the counter is at 1. Further details will be available on the candidate(s) as they declare their intention to run.  Eric Blackhurst filed last week.  You knew that, right, Scott?

Steve Murphree hated the recall process he was subjected to as a member of the hospital board so much, he went out and signed the failed recall petition against Mayor Todd Jirsa And now he loves recalls.  I find it amusing that the local Estes Park folks who have been through recalls or threatened recalls themselves (Eric Blackhurst, Steve Murphree) are so eager to step up to sign petitions or sign on as opposing candidates in current recall efforts.  Steve in particular told me how much he hated recalls and the expense of recall election (having almost been through one himself, he resigned to avoid the recall process), and then went ahead and added his name to the failed Todd Jirsa recall petition. Let's look back at early 2013, shall we? Tom Gootz was one of the "two others" behind the recall effort.  Tom Gootz is behind the current recall effort.  I have said multiple times over the last six months that this recall clearly demonstrates how politics make...

Eric Blackhurst's biggest financial supporter Eric "Black Horse" Blackhurst was the only opposing candidate in the special recall election to complete his packet and turn it in (and have it verified) prior to the cutoff.  The other two packets taken out (one by Jeffrey Schwartz) were not returned.  This is a two-horse race.  If you vote for Eric Blackhurst and do not fill out the top part of the ballot (yes or no on Cody Rex Walker), the ballot will be thrown out.  So it will be interesting to see Eric Blackhurst move from his initial position of "I'm not running against Cody Rex Walker, I'm just a placeholder for stability of town government" to a vehement, frothing "I need you to vote to recall Cody Rex Walker" in the course of the remaining two months.  He will claim he was forced into this position or driven into this position, but I'm just here to tell you, he very much attended the Scott Schneider planning meetings, and very much ...

An Estes Park frequency was sold.  I don't know what is was ever used for (someone can educate me in the comments section), but does the sale mean Estes Park will be getting a Spanish-language FM station soon?

This GoFundMe site was started last year.  McKenna Fowler's body was recovered from the Big Thompson River one month ago.  "Had her car totaled" would indicate something done to her car, as if she was the passive participant/innocent bystander in whatever it was that totaled her car.  Fast forward one year, when the Toyota Rav4 finally located by an Estes Park police detective in the ravine below the "Welcome to Estes Park" sign had flown so high and fast from the road, it sheared off the tops of tall trees.

Check it out

Something, perhaps, to quease your stomach from our "finer" Estes restaurants? More "My Fair Restaurants".  I'm not asking for Estes Park to have $250 an entree Chinese-Cajun fusion brasseries serving molecular gastronomic cocktails, I'm just asking for safe places to eat.  Estes Park should be ashamed of so many restaurants that earn ratings one and two steps above "condemned for health violations".

Oh c'mon.  You have got to be kidding me.  Watch this entire video (bottom) to see the lengths a Chinese bakery went to in order to replicate fruits and vegetables (plus whatever a potato is) as starchy twins Likewise, not as it appears Yes, we know it resembles a potato, but inside, not a potato Yes, I'll eat my vegetables - If they taste like cake

Amazing Amy

Norwegian island declares itself first "time-free" zone Sommaroy ("Summer Island"), 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle and one hour (if hours mean anything to you) by car from Tromso, Norway, has asked the world to stop, because it wants to get off.  Other newspaper headlines indicate residents of Sommaroy, population 300, wants to "quit time" or "erase the concept of time", but in fact, they want to mfing obliterate time, and send any remaining pieces of the sun (or sundial) back to Zeus, cash on delivery.  Residents signed a petition requesting same, and submitted it to the town council.  Or will they in the future?  Who keeps track anymore? The bridge from the mainland is covered in discarded timepieces (maybe - I've hardly got the travel budget to confirm) and Kjell Ove Hveding, spokesperson for the "release us from the constraints of time" movement, speaks for those who want to mow their lawns at 2:00 a.m., or eat when...

I feel sorry for those of you who only know U.S. domestic airlines, none of which cracked the top 10 this year (and have rarely cracked the top 10 in prior years). Surprisingly, United's biplane service to O'Hare (circling for seven hours before landing with no food or drink) was not ranked among the top airlines for customer satisfaction To fly business class in a Singapore or Qantas airplane over an ocean is like being welcomed into a luxurious spa, or given a pass key to a harem of constantly requited kindness.  On American, you have to pay $5 to see a couple episodes of "Father Knows Best" with the captain constantly interrupting to let you know the wing is on fire.  On Cathay Pacific, you get noise-cancelling headphones and unlimited access to first-run movies, plus a Michelin 2-star meal about every three hours, including all the wine and cognac you desire. But keep on flying Southwest, suckas.

Great way to survey beetle-infested trees you need to clean the molasses off your glasses

And for my last trick, I'd like to lower myself into the Hooghly River near Kolkata (former Calcutta), shackled and bound. Authorities have yet to locate the body of Chanchal Lahiri of India, who duplicated an old Harry Houdini escape trick in every way except for the escape part.  Key in the mouth, Chanchal, key in the mouth.  Although the caption indicates this is the Ganges, it is actually a tributary of the Ganges.  Divers have been dispatched (hopefully to the Hooghly), but thus far report finding only two unrelated corpses.  The pudding thickens.

And now it's like I'm doing the work of three websites.  Parents Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Blackhurst of Sewickley, Pennsylvania.  Married Suzanne Rosener in 1976. Eric Wilson Blackhurst has filed as a recall candidate, running against Cody Rex Walker in the upcoming special election.  He is a realtor with Judy Anderson of Anderson Realty on South St. Vrain, served as a trustee on the town board from 2006 to 2014, and his wife Suzy Rosener Blackhurst served more recently as interim CEO of VEP when former CEO Elizabeth Fogarty headed west with a few hundred thousand of our dollars.  If you want sprawling development and double density workforce housing in town, he is your man. Here is where Eric Blackhurst's name (or Suzy Blackhurst's) would have appeared if he (or she) had signed the recall petition for Cody Rex Walker.   Eric (left) with Carissa McGill, Suzy Blackhurst, Michael Young, and Kurtis Kelly

Back when the Trail wasn't very good, but that probably wasn't his fault.  Google the article about the play he wrote regarding Walter L. Thorndyke's "Great Potato Hoax" pulled on an unsuspecting public in the late 1890s, when "Thorn" ran the Loveland Reporter and pretty much the town before pulling up stakes and heading to Oregon.

 Estes Park is quick to ape other tourist communities.  Once we get the Loop and destroy downtown in the name of progress, we won't have to restrict tourism, the tourists will stop coming.  Rocky Mountain National Park is already getting complaints from people who say they will never return because it's too crowded.  Note:  They did not say they will never return because they had to wait through two stoplights to get through downtown.  The Loop (we now refer to it as the "DEL", in order to attract Del Webb to complete the conversion of Estes Park to another elderhostel) is kind of a self-limiting bribe we took to let other communities have our excess tourism dollars. 

Poke Poke.  Okey Poke.  That wonderful marinated raw fish dish.  It can only be a bit worse (would you like the Salmonella poke or the Botulinum poke?) than eating at the Y (no pun intended) The weekly restaurant inspections are out, and Estes never fails to disappoint.  Remember, there is no shame in striving for an excellent rating.  The Waterfront Grille may want to stop serving trout caught from mercury-infested streams, though.  Just sayin.

Dekka Braveheart has agreed to vote "NO" on the Cody Rex Walker recall if all mentions of her are removed from this site.  Readers, leave comments below to weigh in on how best to proceed on a censorship versus first amendment rights versus another no vote from a convert question.

"The wicked flee when none pursueth." "I am not my brother's keeper" - Clinton Hoffmann, elder brother of alleged gunman Ben Hoffmann "I just hope people think Darwin is still a safe place to visit." - killing spree eyewitness Leah Potter "CU in the NT" - unofficial advertising slogan of Australia's Northern Territory, recently banned "The remedy for...dehumanization isn't deification." - Rachel Kadish, from "On the Search for Victims Who Are Too Perfect to Be Us" Seven days and 15 hours ago, 45-year-old Benjamin Hoffmann went on an hour-long shooting rampage following an earlier traffic stop for speeding, killing a taxi driver, a security guard, a roofer, and a retired mechanic with a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun in the city of Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. A January 2019 parolee with an ankle bracelet, Hoffmann apologized at his first court appearance, and also asked the judge for help.  A...

The eprecall-2019 committee claimed they were going to make us aware of their candidates in the recall as they filed.  Yet they have not made us aware of Jeffrey Schwartz, who signed the petition and lives on 2500 Grey Fox Drive (one of nine Grey Fox Drive residents who signed the petition, including Tom Gootz). So here is what Mr. Schwartz makes available to the world on Facebook, and here is the unfortunate reason why his status is widowed.

Here were are not wanting to be like Vail (and never having the slightest chance in hell of being like Vail) and Grand County doesn't want to be like us? That's Grand County.  On the left.  Ignoring us. Grand County is all of 15,000 people, spread out over just under 2000 square miles.  (Rocky Mountain National Park is around 360 square miles) . That's about 7 people per square mile, or about 100 acres per person.  I guess we all need to have someone to aspire not to be, but why lump Estes Park in with Steamboat and Summit County? So Estes Park really can't have agriculture (except for cattle ranching and lettuce) because of the short growing season, but, seriously, Grand County, home to the guy who leveled most of the buildings in the civic section of their largest metropolis with his "Killdozer", home to Estes Park's twin on the other side of the divide, Grand County don't want to be us?  That's like Dwight Schrute saying he doesn't...

Did you know Robin Givens attended Harvard Medical School for two years?  They're not just handing out slots at that place.  Did you know, when I first saw her name trending on Yahoo today in connection with Howard Stern, I thought somehow they were referring to Robin Quivers. Amazingly, still aiive I hate to be crude, but the top five Google searches for Robin Givens (who is exactly my age (share the same birthday) yet has lived three lifetimes to my 1/2) are variations of "How Did Robin Givens die?" (like "When Did Robin Givens die" or "Did Robin Givens die in a horrific accident?") Howard Stern?  Seriously?  I need to enroll in that Colorado radio school that is always being advertised on 104.3 "The Fan".  Your choices, ladies are Brad Pitt or Howard Stern.  So how in the world would you answer "No" to the first and "Yes" to the second?

On this date in 1990, one of the most expensive hailstorms in U.S. history occurred, causing $625 million of damage ($695 million in today's dollars) along the Colorado Front Range from Colorado Springs to Estes Park. In fact, I took pictures. I remember getting hit with the smooth hailstones was, paradoxically, much worse than getting hit with the "mace" or spiked hailstones ( kettenmorgenstern in German).  I remember how tape measures were also falling from the sky, so that we could measure them easier.  My car was demolished, pounded flat, then folded into thirds and a stamp attached, so I could just send my claim to the insurance agent.