 |
| Photo copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. |
It's not just the weather.
Not that long ago, we were able to make a decent, if exceedingly modest, living. We made at least one sale virtually every day — sometimes nothing more than a $20 keychain or a $5 bar of Pueblo soap, but still a sale. And those were balanced out by the occasional really good day, where nearly everyone who came in bought something, and some of them spent hundreds of dollars. And in the off-season, like now, when the Pueblo is closed, we'd still get calls from people in town for the skiing.
Well, there's no ski traffic this year. The snow levels are abysmal, and the tourist traffic is worse yet. It used to be that every day, all day long, huge jitneys went blasting past on the highway, ferrying busloads of people up to the Ski Valley, to say nothing of the little local buses that made the rounds multiple times a day. Now, we don't even get the local vans; I have not seen one single solitary jitney all season. A record, and not a good one.
The Pueblo is closed now, and will be for two full months. There will be no tourism centered around it. Everything in town is dead. Three days before Valentine's Day, the denizens of this arts colony are normally lined up out the post office doors, shipping orders. Not this year. Even Wal-Mart is less swamped, and of all the businesses in town (save the McDonald's franchise), it's the only one with any kind of steady trade.
I don't know what to do anymore. We had our worst holiday season ever, but that's kind of like talking about climate change: Increasingly, every year is worse than the last, and the margin for both profit and error narrows until there's no light left on either side. Survival? Not at this rate.
When I have to start planning to sell off my old jewelry (not Wings's or any he's made for me over the years; my own), just to get whatever we can for the silver in it . . . yeah, I'm dispirited. I'm tired.
I swore a few days ago I wasn't going to ask for site shares anymore. Tired of that, too, to be honest. But I guess I have no choice, because there are bills that have to be paid, electricity and propane and food and all the other things that can be so easily taken for granted. And fundraisers and donations are not an option. No. None. This is not negotiable. All we want are honest sales, value for exchange. [Cue bitter laughter] with Valentine's Day coming up, this used to be one of our best weeks of the year. Not anymore.
That's the other thing about this so-called society we live in: Unless you have money or power, you're left no space for pride.
All content, including photos and text, are copyright Aji, 2015; all rights reserved. Nothing herein may used or reproduced in any form without the express written permission of the owner.
