We went to one of our favorite local restaurants, “Bird and Jim” to have an early dinner tonight. Estes Park will only allow outdoor dining or taking food to go, so we found that we should dress in layers and bring blankets for an outdoor meal. If we were lucky, we’d be able to sit under one of the heat lamps.
The weather forecast was for the temperatures to be in the 30’s. We felt we were properly prepared to have our outdoor meal and we treated it somewhat like an outdoor adventure.
Mrs. Colotim was the one who had the idea to go out this evening. She kept ribbing me when I started complaining about having snow congeal my short ribs and risotto.
The snow sent one family fleeing back to their cabin. We stuck it out to be the last ones on the patio as we sipped my snowed down beer and my wife’s watered martini. The drive home was through what the National Weather Service called a “Snow Squall” which was just short of white-out conditions. It was hard to see the road and very quickly, we were the only ones on our section of road. We made it home safely, just in time for the snow to slow to a light pace after leaving two inches of snow in about 20 minutes. It’s now picking back up, but I wanted you to know that sometimes some sacrifices must be made to keep local businesses operating in these tough times. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Good Riddance to 2020! And shop local!