Longmont Lessons: Weaving magic in writers’ group

I toured a factory. Shockingly, workers went about their assigned tasks without hard hats, which is a clear violation of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration Act of 1970. Nor were there forklifts, the brain-scrambling drone of machinery or delivery trucks queuing at loading docks.

What troubled me more than anything, though, was the presence of an underage human in the non-employee break room, slicing apple cake before whisking slices of it to non-workers on the non-factory floor. You can bet OSHA officers would be closing in no time.

Indeed, with the exception of the apple cake, everything I reported was fictionalized. You see, the “factory” I wandered through was Claire Gerthe’s brick-and-mortar home in Longmont. Beckoning. Warm. Sociable. Free(!) on-street parking