The Cortez Journal

more Dale Shrull

• Wade finds fun on the mat again

GRAND JUNCTION - The referee slapped the mat and Wyatt Wade sprang to his feet thrusting a right fist into the air.
Satisfied, yes. Relieved, definitely. Expected, you bet.

• He's Lance Armstrong - the man of steal

I couldn't watch. I couldn't listen to a man so arrogant and self-entitled, dispense his tale of woe.
Woe is him.
A cancer survivor, a hero, a bullet-proof athlete and supreme being. A man who was so indestructible and unbeatable that his dominance was almost laughable.

• 

  Samora family stays strong after accident

It's been a nightmare. A horrible, unimaginable nightmare.
On Sunday afternoon, Oct. 14, Rudy Samora got a phone call that every parent dreads.
An accident, a very bad accident.
It was his 17-year-old daughter Kiley on the phone. She didn't know where she was, she just knew that her brother Brett wasn't moving.

• New approach, same results

Two of the three winningest football coaches in Colorado high school history were at Dove Creek Saturday.
Neither one added to their win total and only one was one the sidelines. The other was a spectator rooting for the team he coached for a half century and amassed 305 victories.

• The NFL has become a joke

I never thought these words would dribble from my lips: “I’m done with the NFL.”
The greatest team sport, with the largest weekly gathering of superior athletes the world has ever known, has deteriorated into an embarrassing punch line.
I don’t need the frustration.

• The toilet — one heck of an invention

Watching intently as my tugboat turd swirled to its inevitable doom, my thoughts strangely shifted to inventions.
Saying goodbye to the solid waste that was once a bacon cheeseburger and fries left me fascinated with this contraption called a toilet.
Yes, it was a slow TV night.

• This is why the Games are priceless

Every four years, the world gathers and we are amazed.
Athletes convene for the Summer Olympics and we are taken for an emotional ride.
From humble beginnings to overcoming devastating circumstances — the stories make us root for them. Sometimes we even root for other countries.

• A tormenting final night with Dad

My father is going to die today.
It was 6:30 a.m. and Grand Junction was about to be bathed with sunshine. I’m sipping coffee in the hospital cafeteria.
My dad and I just spent a tormenting night together in hospital room 302. We reminisced.
I smiled and laughed a little at a story or two. And I cried.
A painful night.

• Memories of fire and a lucky day

Less than a quarter mile from my house, the ridge spewed choking black smoke. Ashes drifted through the air like evil confetti.

• 

  Riding the Rockies is really something special

As we leisurely rolled out of Hotchkiss — a mere 380 or so miles to go — I couldn’t banish the feeling of dread that poked at me like a fourth-grade bully in search of lunch money.
Fortunately, I discovered that the bully was an Olympic-caliber bed-wetter, so I was able to keep my lunch money in exchange for my silence.