Your source for news in Hot Springs County
Your source for news in Hot Springs County
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Thermopolis was recently designated as an “opportunity zone.” In essence, this means people – whether they live here or not – can invest money from the sale of companies into our community if they so choose. True, to be designated an opportunity zone it does mean our community is in something of an economic “low spot.” That is an unfortunate reality, but rather than making that a focus point let’s instead concentrate on the word “opportunity.” There are plenty in Thermopolis if you take the t...
Its time to pull out the shorts and tank tops! No, wait, jeans and a sweatshirt. Oh, let me grab my raincoat while I’m at it. Fickle Mother Nature in the spring, letting us wonder until the last minute what we need to bring with us when we leave the house in the morning. Having been born and raised here, I have realized keeping at least a sweatshirt and probably a rain jacket in my car year-round is a sound idea. And while we may be a tad frustrated at picking out a cute outfit the night b...
Sixty years ago (Oh my gosh, can it be that long ago?), Cody hosted Torrington in the state championship 3A football game in a November blizzard, 38” deep snow and 10 degree temperature. Most who braved the conditions have ever after described the conditions as the worst ever for a championship game. As a Blazer, I was doubly miserable because though we had the better team, the conditions took us out of our game. There were a total of two passes thrown that day...both incomplete. The canyon was closed and we spent a miserable night in Thermopol...
You can go on the internet and find a special day or special week for almost anything these days, from National Hamburger Day to National Coloring Book Day, but for all of us, one of the most important should be Teacher Appriciation Week. Let’s face it, without a teacher you wouldn’t be able to read this. Without a teacher, I wouldn’t be able to write this. I have had four special educators in my life that I appreciate on just about a daily basis, not just for what they taught me in the class...
May is officially here, and among the various celebrations coming in the next few weeks graduation and the end of the school year are certainly among the more prominent. Since I’m still 12 years off from celebrating my own kids’ graduation, I typically enjoy attending ceremonies for the children of friends and family. But, before all the festivities begin it’s good to hear what senior students are going to be up to next year. That’s what I got when I attended the signing day this week. Watching...
I’m going to give you a little tip. Go see the high school Drama Club’s spring production, “The Villian Wore a Dirty Shirt” tonight or Friday night. Director Mary McGillivray has once again taken our super talented kids and created an evening that will have you laughing, groaning (at the awful puns), hissing the bad guys and cheering on the hero. Poor sheriff Jack B. Nimble (Tyler Kay) just can’t talk to girls even though he’s in love with Sweet Sally (Shianne Yarrington) and instead mak...
This past week saw members of the Wyoming Tourism Board visiting for a familiarization tour and their regular board meeting. During a dinner with our visitors, a comment I heard over and over was that we have a real gem here in Thermopolis, a “hidden treasure.” This next week, our town will be home to the Wyoming State Chamber of Commerce. As they will also be receiving a tour of the businesses and other locales in the county, I expect many will have the same opinion of our town as a hidden tre...
Occasionally thoughts more profound than, “What’s for dinner?” and “Are you washing clothes tomorrow?” cross my mind. I visualize happenings such as running into an acquaintance who asks, “What do you think about eternity?” or “What are we going to do about the at-risk dams around the country?” It’s at times like these that I remove my glasses, making sure I point at least one bow at the person who would dare ask such a question on a nice spring day, and reply, “Now there’s a question for one to ponder.” I do that in hopes that by the time I...
I finally finished a project last weekend that has taken me literally two years to accomplish. I now have a “Heritage Wall” in my home filled with a panoramic photo of Gebo surrounded by photos of my Burnell and Stewart relatives. Its good, sometimes, to remember where you came from. While going through the old family album to pick out the photos I wanted to use I found a photo of my grandfather with his first car near the tunnels in the canyon. Although in his 20s, the photo brought back mem...
Over the spring break, my wife and two sons took one heck of a road trip, travelling from Thermopolis down to Arizona to visit their aunt Mandie. Everyone was excited about the trip, even me as it meant a little peace and quiet around the house and time to get some long put off projects done. Of course, four days into the experience I had run out of things to do and was wanting — just a little bit — for the return of my two young men and our regular WWE matches in the living room. Likewise, eve...
After asking around amongst friends and acquaintances, it appears that April 1st is not a common or even uncommon date upon which to celebrate Easter. The irony of having the greatest day of Christianity on April Fools Day is not lost on skeptics who take great pleasure in pointing out that irony to the discomfort to those of us who value to the utmost the person and position of Jesus Christ. Churches around the world will be crowded, though less so than I remember as a child, with "once a year" visitors who recognize the preeminence of the cen...
As we go through life there are often certain times or certain images that stick in our memories. As we approach Easter this Sunday, I look back on all the Easters I spent growing up here in Thermopolis and have to laugh at a few of those memories. As an only child, for some reason my family thought it would be cute for my mother and I to have matching outfits every Easter, and to be honest, sometimes it was OK. I vividly remember one Easter, I was probably four or five-years old, when mom and I...
Being a good Irish girl, my ancestral time for drinking and frivolity arrives this weekend. It is accompanied by corned beef and cabbage along with Irish soda bread. And yes, I may imbibe in a Bailey’s Irish float or two. One side of my family is Irish, the other side Scottish, so cabbage in all its possible forms was a staple in our house and I truly do love the sound of Scottish bagpipes. They will bring tears to my eyes every time. I think one of the funniest stories my grandmother ever told...
Can you feel it? Spring gets closer every day, and we’ve almost got another Wyoming winter in the books. But as spring acts as time of awakening for Mother Nature, take as a chance to open your own eyes to problems you might otherwise pass by. Our state is facing some drastic budgetary cuts, particularly with regard to our schools. That means budgets have to be cut at the local level as well, and our students are having to pay the penalties. Sure, there’s plenty of great things happening in the...
Just like everyone else, sometimes my mornings don’t start out the greatest. Maybe I forgot to set the timer on the coffee pot or I woke up later than usual, you know, the kinds of things that make you grumpy right off the bat. I have to say, though, regardless of how my morning starts, somewhere around 7:45 I always have a smile on my face. I don’t know who she is, I don’t know her name, but she is there on the corner by the church, Monday through Friday, rain, snow or sunshine, helping our s...
Thanks to this past weekend, I can now add “mount a microwave above a range” to my resumé, though it’s also painfully obvious — extremely so — that I won’t be signing up with any home renovation companies in the foreseeable future. Since the snow and cold were keeping my family and the visiting in-laws from doing much outside, we decided to take on some indoor projects to get them out of the way. For my wife and mother-in-law, it was getting their taxes filed. For me and my father-in-la...
So here we are, one of my favorite days of the year – the day after Valentine’s Day. Yes, if you know me, I’m very much a salty, spicy, chips eating kind of girl, but I must confess, I am sometimes a closet chocolate eater. Hence, today is one of the best as everything Valentine’s related has gone into the discount bin and just before closing you may find me at the store sifting through the leftover goodies that other girls in town did not get from their special someone. Milk chocolate is, of...
It’s time for the greeting card companies, chocolatiers and florists to really get busy, as Valentine’s Day is just a week away. Whatever your plans for Feb. 14, there’s no doubt that February brings with it the feeling of love in the air. Though you might feel pressured into buying something traditional for your special someone, whether it be jewelry, flowers, tasty treats or hand tools, keep in mind there’s alternatives as well. I’m not saying don’t buy the love of your life something,...
I have an arrangement with my landlord. I am going to die in this house...because I detest moving. He’s OK with that. We all go through life gathering this and that, not really thinking about all the items we have picked up along the way. That is until we decide to move. While its amazing the things I have found during this latest moving adventure, it is even more amazing to realize the places I’ve been, the connections with family and friends, old photos and assorted trinkets I’ve found. Every...
As any parent knows, one of the responsibilities that comes with having children is making sure visits from the Tooth Fairy happen. That little pixie had already visited my five-year-old twice, but I guess he wanted another chance to try and spot her so after a bit of amateur dental surgery he successfully removed his latest loose tooth. Now, in the past, the Tooth Fairy has left coins, but this time she decided to go with paper money. She didn’t know Mike is a big fan of shows and movies w...
An interesting question came up recently about the weather in Thermopolis. “Did we have more snow when you were a kid than we have now?” I would have to say yes, even taking into consideration that I’m taller than I was as a kid (OK, not by much), I remember huge amounts of snow. For us, snow generally started at Halloween requiring us to have costumes several sizes larger in order to fit over our snow suits. It stayed, sometimes until Easter. I even remember a snow storm in June during Wildc...
We’re a couple weeks into 2018, a time where I’ve typically reneged on a couple of those resolutions I made in the late hours of Dec. 31. This year, I decided to try a new tactic. Rather than just give up after the first couple failures, I’m looking at the bigger picture and reminding myself that there’s still 354 days to make my goals. While that seems like a long time, I also know those days are already passing quickly and I’ve got to keep my eye on that end goal. But, in looking ahead to...
We’ve been seeing some frigid temperatures each morning and of course, no one wants to get into a cold car, but starting it up and letting it idle may not be the best idea. According to Popular Mechanics, starting your vehicle in the cold and letting it idle may actually be damaging your engine. Internal combustion engines use pistons to compress a mixture of air and vaporized fuel within a cylinder. That mixture is then ignited to create a little controlled explosion that powers your engine. W...
If you’re anything like me, for the last few weeks you’ve been going at full speed, wedging in everything you can, between shopping and concerts to family gatherings and parties with friends. It kind of reminds me of those nights when Cookie and Cupcake decide they’re going to fly through the house at full speed at 3 a.m., sounding more like a herd of elephants than the delicate kitties they are. It usually starts with a little boxing match at the top of the cat tree, then one of them leaps...
The final weeks of the year are finally here. If you’re on the ball, you’ve got those holiday presents all ready to go and under the tree, any travel plans set out, the halls decked and the menu planned. Or, if you’re more like me, you’re still scrambling to find those final perfect gifts, and wondering why you just didn’t decide to send gift cards and family pictures to everyone instead. And don’t even get me started on wrapping. It’ll be a Christmas miracle if I can locate all the spots I’v...
