Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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Though I’ve called Thermopolis and Wyoming home for the past three years, I am a native Nebraskan and so the reports I’ve seen from friends and family across social media this past week have been, to say the least, increasingly disturbing. I, like much of my immediate and extended family, grew up on the western end of the state so most of the accounts have been about having to dig out vehicles and clear heavy loads from sidewalks. But those on the east side have faced losses of homes and other p...
As I was growing up we ate a lot of traditional Irish dishes, I just had no idea they were Irish, I just knew they were really good. On St. Patrick’s Day, everyone becomes Irish and not only imbibes in green beer, but they eat corned beef and cabbage, something they probably wouldn’t touch the rest of the year. Granted, most Irish dishes are primarily potatoes, cabbage and lamb or goat (we skipped the goat at our house) and are generally pretty bland, but there were a few I loved as a kid and...
Last Thursday the 2019 general session of the Wyoming Legislature adjourned, giving our representatives a break from the bustle in Cheyenne though the interim will keep them plenty busy with committee meetings until the budget session in 2020. Though we’ve brought coverage of the general session and comments from our local reps over the past several weeks, chances are if you’re not keeping up with the session on your own these stories might leave you with more questions than answers. While the...
Fake news! This is a phrase we’re hearing all the time now and Thermopolis became the victim of some online fake news recently. A self-proclaimed history buff who is an employee of a country radio station in Cheyenne, recently posted on the station’s website that Thermopolis should cover up the “swastikas” on one of our downtown buildings. This is how things start. One person reports on something they know absolutely nothing about and people across the country suddenly think our little town is...
I think I’ve finally reached a turning point with my oldest. I don’t mean he seems to be listening more or fighting less with his brother. This is a bit more subtle — the taste buds. Like many kids I’m sure, Mike used to eat just about everything as long as it was coated in ketchup. It was getting to the point where I had considered starting a massive tomato plantation and manufacturing my own to save on costs and trips to the grocery store. But one day, out of the blue, he declares almost...
Its out there, I know it is. Elusive Spring. Understandably, its hard to believe we are just a few short weeks from what the calendar tells us is the first day of spring. After all, I still have ice in my driveway and snow in my backyard, but its coming. Eventually. Spring fever hit me a couple of weeks ago and I found myself on the Internet pouring over seed catalogs and bulb companies, looking for something bright, beautiful and easy to grow. OK, I may have over done it. Soon there will be...
“Ten years” were the two words I both fell asleep ad woke up thinking. It’s hard to believe this time 10 years ago I was standing in a church repeating wedding vows. But that’s the funny thing about time. It can go by in an instant yet leave you with memories that last forever. In that 10 year span I’ve seen plenty. Two kids born with issues that sent them to ICU just hours after I saw them, loss of family, friends and other loved ones, changes on the political scene I never imagined. And don’t...
The possibility of there being drugs in our school system should be a worry for everyone in Hot Springs County. If we think back, at the same age, we thought we were “ten foot tall and bulletproof” and no one could touch us because we were smarter than the adults. We know better now. But I also want to say how very fortunate I am to get to coach some of the best kids in the district. I don’t want everyone to think all the kids are smoking and drinking and partying every weekend. It is liter...
This past weekend was the 2019 Wyoming Press Association Winter Convention in Cheyenne. The annual event is something I look forward to every year, and not just for the opportunity to stay in a fancy hotel and eat catered meals for a couple days. Each year, I and the rest of the staff at The Independent Record go through the articles we’ve written and the photos we’ve taken, submitting them to various categories for a chance at the Pacemaker awards given out every year. Additionally, there are...
I’m proud to say, I’m not a quitter. That’s why you won’t hear me say anything about New Year’s resolutions. Why start something I know I’ll never finish? Let’s face it, I love my chips, sweet tea and chocolate way too much to give them up for a measly 10 pounds. There would have to be something really serious involved for me to pass on cheesecake, too. I suppose I could vow to do something simple that doesn’t include depriving myself, like reading a book a week for the year. Fifty-two books...
It’s strange to think that we’re nearly into 2019 already. When I was in school, it seemed like the 21st century was so far away and couldn’t get here soon enough, especially with Hollywood, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera promising all the wondrous things it would bring. Flying cars? Nope. Accurate weather forecasts? Sort of. Houses with treadmills on the outside? No way. Hoverboards? Well, we’re getting there. Artificially intelligent robots? We’re making big steps, but the excitemen...
In just a few days, Santa will be making his annual trek around the globe and boys and girls everywhere will be leaving milk and cookies beside the tree before drifting off, dreaming of what they will find in the morning. While we all remember at least one special Christmas as a child, as we grow older our lists become shorter and our understanding of the season becomes more clear. I remember being under foot helping my grandmother make fudge and divinity, little sugar candies with walnuts,...
It seems that Christmas and the holiday season gets here faster and faster each year. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it means more time with family, shared meals, gifts and cuddles under a warm blanket. But as everyone knows, it can also get pretty hectic with all the shopping going on. I’m still not done, and probably won’t be until the 23rd, but the other night I was able to take in one of the calmer aspects of the season — the lights. One thing about Thermopolis when Thanksg...
Granted, we’re still a few weeks away from Christmas, but so far I’ve been really lucky in regards to my Christmas tree and my...cats. You’ve probably seen videos of nefarious fur balls eating ornaments, gnawing their way through light strings and even knocking the entire holiday beauty to the ground. I’ve had cats through the years who have done just that. “Fish” (yes, the cat was named Fish) was notorious for climbing up the center of the tree and peeking out at me from between the branche...
Christmas is half way over for me. That deserves some explanation. For more than 10 years, holidays have been split between my family and that of my fiancée/wife Louise. Occasionally in those years, several members of her family have been able to make it home for Thanksgiving, but not for Christmas. This results in quite the heyday at my in-laws, with Thanksgiving celebrated on its regular fourth Thursday in November and Christmas the following Saturday. That still leaves time for that Black...
Yes, I am one of those weird people that already has all my Christmas shopping done. Well, with the exception of a few little ‘stocking stuffer’ kinds of things. Nothing is wrapped and my tree is definitely not up, but I buy things throughout the year when I see them, knowing someone on my list is going to love this little trinket or that. I’ve definitely come a long way from when I was married. It used to be we would put off Christmas shopping until the very last minute and then it was a flurr...
Tuesday night I took in the annual Fall Showcase put on by the Hot Springs County High School Drama Club, getting a look at what the students are taking to the State Drama Festival next month. To say I was in awe would be a drastic understatement. Watching the individual and duo drama pieces, as well as the musical performances was incredible, and the applause the students received was well-deserving, though I wish it could’ve been more — more seats full, more performance time, more of eve...
We awoke Wednesday morning after a long, hard battled election, some feeling wonderful about the choices made, others, not so much. There are changes coming in a number of positions in Thermopolis and Hot Springs County, but now that its all over, we need to embrace those changes and understand that even if our candidate didn’t get in, we voted and our voice mattered. It was exciting to see so many people step up for the primary, putting their name on the line to make our little slice of h...
Well, Halloween has come and passed once again. The holiday has always been a favorite for me, even taking a higher place than Christmas, largely because of the amount of fun you get to have dressing up as a creature of the dark, a silly clown or some other figure and banging on doors to demand candy. In my childhood days, I always wanted something cute like a clown, but as I aged the costumes got a bit darker. Zombies, Riff Raff, the grim reaper, etc. I did once go back to being a clown, but Pe...
Halloween marks the start of the holiday season, from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Eve, with lots of food and family time. Holiday dinners with family were huge when I was growing up. My grandmother hosted them all in our house on Fifth Street, getting up at the crack of dawn to get things cooking. My job was to set the table and then sit with grandpa to wach the parades on TV. Just the scent of my grandmother’s rolls baking in the oven were enough to fill the whole house with that fee...
When I was graduated from high school and college, I thought I was done repeatedly going over lines in preparation of a stage production. Then along comes Dr. Fox and the Nosy Pig. For those of you who don’t know, this story of talking animals and learning to be yourself is what students in the Lights On program have been rehearsing and preparing for the past couple weeks, with opening “night” this Wednesday (Oct. 17). Not only have they been practicing their lines, but also getting invol...
I just completed watching the first episode of Ken Burns’ “Dust Bowl” which was originally aired on PBS several years ago. It had a special meaning for me since both my parents were “Kansas kids” whose lives were forever impacted by what some ecologists call the greatest ecological disaster ever on the North American continent. Memories of Mom’s response to questions about the “dusty bowl” as I called it were mostly confined to “It was just something that happened before you were born.” As the years passed, I discovered there were a lot of thin...
Its here! That smell of fall is here! You can step outside in the morning and the air actually smells different. There is no way you can escape the constant barrage of pumpkin spiced everything, either. Who decided we need pumpkin spice yogurt pretzels? Pumpkin spiced smoothies don’t really sound appealing to me, nor does pumpkin spice Jell-O. Non-alcoholic pumpkin spice sparkling juice? You can also find pumpkin spiced kettle corn, moonshine and salsa. I kid you not. Now that’s not to say I don...
The adage about March coming in like a lion certainly didn’t take Octobers like this one into account. It’s a very rare that I get woken up by nature, and when it does happen it’s usually something peaceful like a low roll of thunder somewhere miles away or raindrops hitting the roof. Not some kind of eerie howling wind that’s got me running around the house making sure the doors and windows are closed and wondering where I could go that has a storm cellar. But that howling seems fairly appropr...
We have hit that time of year when some days it feels as if Mother Nature is having some kind of psychotic episode – freezing in the morning and roasting in the afternoon. That’s the wonderful thing about Wyoming. It also makes it difficult to decide what to wear for the day, whether its sweater and boots weather in the morning or jeans and a t-shirt in the afternoon. I’ve lived in a few places in my life and it seems like the contents of my closet have been different everywhere I’ve been. F...
