Is Colorado the Florida of the Rocky Mountain West

[00:00:00] The signs were becoming alarmingly clear that maybe, just maybe. Coloradans need to do a little

[00:00:07] self-reflection on our crazy. As a person who grew up here I was finding myself pausing

[00:00:13] more and more often and thinking that's wild. I can't believe that happened here and I began

[00:00:20] thinking that other people were having a similar reaction to some of the wild stories and experiences

[00:00:26] that we were having here. And Colorado doesn't have that Florida man thing because, well, we're Colorado

[00:00:32] but we don't have the access to public records that would have us reading and hearing about some of

[00:00:39] the stories that we do. So the fact that we were hearing about all these crazy things had me a

[00:00:45] little concern. And after the last time I asked on Twitter if we'd found that box of heads that was

[00:00:51] stolen off a truck a couple of years ago, I figured it was time for us to have this conversation.

[00:00:57] Is Colorado the Florida of the Rocky Mountain West with a slightly lefty twist?

[00:01:01] We're a little weird but are we getting weirder? Continue listening on. Also don't forget to check

[00:01:06] out Square State Colorado website and podcast focused on sharing the Colorado that I know and love.

[00:01:11] Go to squarestatesio.com for more fun content.

[00:01:31] Now here's the thing, legalizing pot wasn't really a big deal to us. In fact it just wasn't

[00:01:36] a big deal because it was kind of part of an outdoors and ski culture. You know, we're enjoying

[00:01:41] a little apres ski pot wasn't a big deal. You're just you've had a hard day on the mountain

[00:01:46] than you're just relaxing. So when the state legalized pot in 2012, we were a little off guard by

[00:01:52] the enthusiasm of the masses. And for me, I'm going to say this out loud, the first three years were

[00:02:00] rough. They were really annoying. And while I think we've done a pretty solid job with the policy,

[00:02:05] except for waiting until 2020 to pardon people with minor pot-related offices, it has been wild

[00:02:11] to watch the industry become a part of regular everyday Colorado life. I should mention by the way

[00:02:17] that I actually voted no for the legalization. I believe with great freedom comes great responsibility

[00:02:23] and at the time I just wasn't sure if we were ready to handle it. I'm happy to say that things have

[00:02:29] gone well. Then there's that time when we said no to the Olympics. It's been a while now but did

[00:02:34] you know that Denver is the only city in the world in the world to turn down the Olympics after they

[00:02:40] were awarded the games? Denver's citizen said fuck those games after being awarded the 1976 winter

[00:02:48] Olympics. And I'm glad that they did because I remember watching how Greece went into debt after

[00:02:53] hosting the 2004 Summer Olympics was a beautiful Olympics, but the financial aftermath cannot be

[00:03:00] understated. I will say that we could host them now because we actually have the infrastructure,

[00:03:06] but I don't think we're interested in all of the stress that comes with having a whole bunch of

[00:03:09] people come into our town. We have a festival here in the state for a frozen dead guy. I'm not

[00:03:15] making this up. I've attended this festival more than once. It's called Frozen Dead Guy Days and

[00:03:19] it's in tribute to a gentleman that many of us refer to as grandpa who died and then was placed

[00:03:25] in a tough shed and kept preserved via dry ice. I'm not making this up. I have to say this again.

[00:03:31] Frozen Dead Guy Days is typically held in March and includes music,

[00:03:34] horses, costume coffin races, and frozen turkey bowling to name a few of the activities that people

[00:03:41] enjoy as well as live music because of course when one is celebrating a dead man in Netherlands

[00:03:47] things happen. I do want to mention that Frozen Dead Guy Days has moved from the city of Netherlands

[00:03:52] to Estus Park but it's not surprising that this fun event came out of Netterland.

[00:03:56] Here's some other things that we've been doing. There's a random man that plays drums in the most

[00:04:01] unlikely of places like the middle median of a highway. I haven't figured out how he's able

[00:04:07] to set up so quickly to jam out or the time that a couple used a lime scooter on i25 unironically

[00:04:14] making their way from one place to another and there's actually video. This really happened

[00:04:19] on i25. I refuse to drive i25 anymore because there's so much traffic. Then there's our state reps.

[00:04:27] I don't want to really get into that conversation but there are several that have gotten into some

[00:04:32] awkwardly public shenanigans and then what about Mike the headless chicken? Mike is the chicken whose

[00:04:38] head was cut off down near fruta and Mike managed to live for almost two more years.

[00:04:45] After his head was cut off how does that work? You can ask those questions at the festival in

[00:04:52] fruta celebrating Mike the headless chicken and for more years than you could believe

[00:04:57] C.U. Boulder had the Alfred Packard Grill and Alfred Packard Days where they celebrated how

[00:05:03] Alfred Packard allegedly survived being out in the wilderness through allegedly eating the other

[00:05:10] people who were out there with him. This was a thing for my childhood. This was a thing and they

[00:05:19] during Alfred Packard Days I just remembered this. People would eat raw hamburger and onions kind

[00:05:26] of like they do in Germany but that's a whole different cultural nuance. Anyway we just stayed doing

[00:05:32] things that keep keep us in the news. How about that presidential ballot conversation we're currently

[00:05:38] in the midst of you know navigating through right now? It's going to be interesting to see what

[00:05:43] happens with the lawsuit that we're currently litigating on a national level. You know the case

[00:05:48] that I'm talking about but kind of like he who shall not be named in the Harry Potter series

[00:05:54] that person is not named on my content and then and it pains me to say this but it's important

[00:06:00] and then there are the bad things that we are known for infamous things events that we can never

[00:06:06] live down. You can look them up there are several throughout history and it's a blight on the state

[00:06:13] and something we should continue to fill shame about. However for all the horrible things that I could

[00:06:19] share there are also good things to balance those moments out. Colorado is different though from

[00:06:26] Florida and a couple of really important ways and i'm not talking about having mountains snow and

[00:06:31] no beaches and by the way we do troll you with our weather it's not like it's snowing all your

[00:06:36] lawn. I don't know what it is with people who come from warm weather states thinking that that's

[00:06:41] the only way everyone wants to live but i will say we're not living in Alaska. In Alaska is amazing

[00:06:47] I actually would probably really enjoy that but I think the idea that we're walking through 17

[00:06:53] feet of snow every day back and forth to school we're trolling you. Colorado has universal vote by

[00:06:58] mail all registered voters are sent their ballot for every election then they drop them off in a

[00:07:04] ballot box to be counted. Colorado recently passed a universal free meal's law allowing all students

[00:07:10] regardless of income to eat breakfast and lunch while they're at school and one of the things that I

[00:07:16] wish more people would talk about is when this law is passed it actually makes groceries more competitive.

[00:07:23] Grocery stores have the lower prices for certain goods a lot of parents are shopping for for

[00:07:29] their kids because they can just get them at school for free. We passed a family and medical leave

[00:07:35] bill that is now active in the state and solo entrepreneurs can also pay into it so if you're

[00:07:41] family you can pay a percentage into this paid medical and family leave but if you are a solo

[00:07:49] entrepreneur you can also pay a small percentage of your income into this as well. This is kind

[00:07:54] of a huge deal and one thing that I didn't add on in the notes that I put together for this episode

[00:08:01] is I really really appreciate connect for health Colorado and the ease of which we can sign up and

[00:08:09] use the system in order to get health insurance. I appreciate it so much the first few years were

[00:08:16] rough as you could imagine they were I do not forget hearing people having to navigate through

[00:08:21] really high deductibles and things like that. I am speaking for myself personally as a solo entrepreneur

[00:08:26] I have very affordable insurance with a low deductible through Kaiser which is amazing to me we get

[00:08:34] things wrong like every state but I am so thankful for the things that we've gotten right. Colorado

[00:08:40] keep on being you. I love that Colorado people are so freaking unpredictable kind of like our weather

[00:08:47] and continue to move to the beat of our own drummer like that guy on the highway. I know a ridiculous

[00:08:52] number of people who are making their way to California and stopped when they arrived in Colorado

[00:08:56] because they loved it so much or their car broke down but I do wonder at times if other people

[00:09:02] are asking what the hell is going on with Colorado kind of like I am let me know what you think

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