It's Better in Wyoming.

Since Maggie and I will be out of town for a week right in the middle of the holiday season, and since the past few weekends have been pretty busy, we decided against a trip to the Snowies to capture a Christmas tree in the wild.  But, since I also wanted to have something festive, I decided to assemble something that wouldfeel vaguely seasonal. Maggie is calling it her Christmas stick bundle, but I think it turned out pretty well.  It's a set of three baby cottonwood (??) trees from my backyard, from a stump that just won't die.  After the leaves came off these trees earlier this fall, I trimmed the stump back down, and these were some of the trimmings.  I drilled holes into a quarter of a pallet that I'd reclaimed from the local wood-stove store, arranged the trunks, and then decorated with white lights and some red jingle bells.  Happy holidays!

It's been a busy month.  And a busy fall, in general.  The last few weeks have been good, though, when they haven't been so busy.  At the beginning of the month, Maggie and her sister Colleen and I spent a bit of time at Curt Gowdy, wandering around in the fall colors.  Here's a picture of the Stone Pilot formation. For Thanksgiving, Maggie's parents came out from Wisconsin, and my dad and my sister's family also came into town, so we cooked up an 18-pound turkey and had a pretty relaxing time overall.  Time with my niece and nephew is always pretty fun. The past few weekends, Maggie and I have been playing pub trivia on Sundays.  This weekend her family also played along with us, and we managed a disappointing but respectable middle-of-the-pack finish.  I have a feeling next weekend will be too busy to make the trip to the Crowbar, but I'm glad to have the option. I'm also participating in movember this year, and have accumulated a disappoint

Maggie and I spent a quick 38 hours in Chicago this weekend.  Unlike the other masses of people there, we weren't running a marathon.  Oddly, though, we did get to see the last "official" finisher coming in around 3ish, before the organizers started taking down the fencing along the route. We were there for Maggie's cousin's wedding, at the Loyola chapel on Lake Michigan.  I've seen more beautiful churches, but I don't know if I've seen a church in a more beautiful setting.  Here's the school's official picture: I agree: pretty fucking beautiful.  I like a church that compels you to look out instead of only looking up . We also wondered Millenneum Park and saw the Bean.  It was ridiculously amusing. And we got to ride public transportation.  I am, obviously, so not cosmopolitan that the train still feels like an amusement park ride to me.

New Avetts and Mumford albums within a few weeks of each other: in my book this is a good September.  Currently, this is one I can't stop listenin' to: Oddly (or maybe not oddly), the song I like best from Mumford is also the last on the album, a bonus track called "Where are You Now."  It's here:

It's been an eventful month, getting back to another semester and trying to stay ahead of the endless grading. I'm only one set behind now.  Well, three-quarters of a set behind. In the meantime, though, I managed to get in a motorcycle ride this past Sunday with Maggie, up to the Friendly Store for breakfast and a three(ish)-mile hike out toward the Gap Lakes in Med Bow. The day before, I facilitated a session at the fall literacy conference, two-and-a-half hours of really excellent information and discussion about the gap between high school and college writing expectations.  My brilliant idea for the relatively long session was to assemble smart people from a range of disciplines, who then said smart things about the struggles and gaps they discover in working with first- and second-year students. A few weeks ago, Maggie and I made a trip down to Ikea to find a new bed, since hers got recalled by the friend-of-a-friend who'd originally given/loaned it to her.  Addi

Monday night, I spent the evening 3 blocks from my house, 10 rows back from the stage, being absolutely blown away by Mumford and Sons. I intended to write about the concert right away, and now I've waited too long and will fall into cliches.  But I still want to say something . For one thing,  I put some new words to the way I've already felt about live music.  Or maybe I just understand the feeling slightly better now: I want to be with people, but I want to experience live music--especially really fucking good live music-- by myself.  Individually.  Internally.  Selfishly. Not with the self-consciousness of wondering whether I should be dancing more. (Or less.)  Not with the expectation that I should acknowledge the responses of others except when I want to.  Not with any small fragment of hope that anyone else at the concert can feel the music in the same way I do.  Alone: intensely alone. On the other hand, though, here's a small effort to try to hold on to just

For me, the sign of a good weekend is a moose sighting. It's not the chance to spend a relaxing, long weekend with dad, or the free music at the Oyster Ridge Music Festival, or the amazing sky on our ride back over the Snowies, or the really fantastic visitor center at Fossil Butte, or even the tasty tasty gas-station cheddar dog. I'm lucky to be able to take so many things for granted, and lucky to find satisfaction in simple things. I will say, the music at Oyster Ridge didn't seem as interesting and fun as it's been in the past, and I missed the shandies and cribbage of my last trip there.  But all in all, it was a great weekend.  As always, my photos of the trip are random--I ended up with no pictures of the festival itself, but captured a couple other cool things. Here's Dad at the turnoff south of Saratoga, before we rode up into the clouds, on our way back to Laramie.   Against the odds, we didn't get rained on. A view of Bear Lake.  

My house, it's been under construction.  Happily, the current project is nearing completion.  Here's the "before" image: And here's the "after": This project solves a series of issues.  The asbestos siding is now encapsulated.  The non-visible/non-useful bathroom window is now covered.  The east and south foundation is now protected from water damage.  The slope in the front has been regraded for positive drainage.  The color is no longer Grandma Yellow. Next up: bringing the front yard back to life (perhaps with some wildflower landscaping rather than another attempt at seeding grass).  Also coming soon: cork floor in the kitchen. It's already great in Wyoming, and still getting better. Little by little, all the time.

I rode the motorcycle this weekend to Sidney to catch up with George and with Paul and Anne.  A quick trip, but a good one overall, even though it was 102 degrees in Sidney on Saturday.  I rode back along old Highway 30 and Happy Jack, and it was spectacular, sadly in part to a smoky red sunset due to the colorado fire.  A deer jumped out in front of me halfway between Cheyenne and home and reminded me that it feels great to be alive and healthy and employed and loved.

This year's Woodchopper Jamboree was as good as I remember it being, last time I was there.  Which, when I do the math, must've been three summers ago already.  That seems amazing to me--somehow it doesn't seem nearly that long ago, and I'm reminded that time is a Trickster.  The last eight years have been a new lifetime--or maybe multiple lifetimes, new starts and old failures and recursive mistakes wrapped in on top of each other in no order that makes sense.  I suppose it's dumb of me to think of time as a linear set of occurrences. Happily, this year's trip to Riverside/Encampment included a trip to the Mangy Moose , including a delicious cheeseburger and frosty Fat Tire.  (It cracks me up that the best link I can find for the Mangy Moose is yelp--which helpfully informs you that, nope, they don't have a coat check there.  In case you were wondering). Also, it seemed there were about twice as many contestants for this year's wood-choppin' as

The winds just shifted, and they're really bringing the northern Colo. fire to town now.  Burning eyes!

Thanks to Melissa for pointing out another amazing song from Walk the Moon: <p><p><p><p><p>Than</p></p></p></p></p>  And, for good measure, a song I heard this morning on NPR: Friday, yeah.

Just when I'm in danger of falling back into narrow-minded assumptions that Wyoming has a monopoly on wide-open spaces, I appreciate the reminder of eastern Oregon.  The drive across Highway 20, from Bend through Burns out to the Idaho border--that's some Big Desolation.  Beautiful, and not in a way that a photograph can necessarily capture. For the record, though, here are other people's attempts to capture it .

"Unlike the Eastern bride I knew who cried in fear when her husband first drove her into the high desert he loved, I felt liberated by landscapes where fences, phone lines, buildings and people were scarce. As Wallace Stegner, the elder statesman of Western literature, put it, in all of this space, Westerners feel 'the dignity of rareness.' It is also true that people chosen by Wyoming need tolerance for the claustrophobia of cabin fever. They need to be enjoying doing things that make staying inside on a winter day feel like a gift. They also need to be the kind of people who couldn’t care less about the lack of big shopping malls or gourmet restaurants." Read the full story here .

for tonight, just one picture of my and maggie's vacation: that's the picture from our hotel in long beach, washington.  sure, we were overlooking a parking lot.  but, beyond that, the pacific ocean!  like, 200 yards from our room! also: waking up to a view of the tetons just outside of jackson! cardamom ice cream in missoula! sweetest dog ever, in ellensberg! voodoo donut in portland! fish tacos at the lost roo in long beach! sleeping in a yurt at beverly beach state park! beer! and more beer! in bend! a fun new board game in twin falls! and, also (and more importantly): great people on the whole route.  it's great to have great friends.

I once dated a girl who worked for the Laramie Boomerang .  She was at least partially responsible for allowing to be printed a photo of a giant stone pyramid as a stand-in for Arnold Schwarzenegger's image--a mistake which made it onto the Headlines segment of the Leno show. Today the Tonight Show received from me this headline and pic, from today's online edition of the Boom.  I'm optimistic.

“The current business model and economic efficiency is based on the consumption of fossil fuel. They can ship stuff cheap, so they can grow it in Ecuador, or Mexico really inexpensively, throw it on a plane, fly it to California, throw it on an 18-wheeler, drive it across the continental United States, and dump it in Kansas City because gas is cheap. Will that business model persist in the long term? No; but will it persist for the next 15 years? Yeah, probably.”  -- Nate Storey, of Bright Agrotech

I've got a bit of a one-track mind.  Usually, if I'm working, I tune out song lyrics, TV, whatever noise is happening in the background.  But the Avetts can pierce right on through.  I've been thinking a lot about story-telling lately and about what it means to tell a "true" story.  Today it's these lines that pull me out of my grading haze and make me feel alive: Last night I dreamt the whole night long I woke with a head full of songs I spent the whole day I wrote them down but it's a shame Tonight I'll burn the lyrics Cuz every chorus was your name

As if you needed even more evidence that it's better in Wyoming: If you can't read that fine print (and I do mean fine), here's what it says: 3 warm unopened budlights with cardboard carrying box.  Easy access hole ripped in top.  been sitting in a garage for a while.  Must be 21

oh, amazon, you know me so well.  while i was searching for books about higher ed assessment, you encouraged me to check out the clothing over at doubleju .  which is awesome, really, for all kinds of reasons.  i DO want to wear the emotion, oh i DO!

Goodbye, Old Mill Inn .  Even though you haven't served me a decent meal in years, I'll miss you. I didn't know I could feel sadness about the loss of a building in Newcastle.  Corner Bar: gone.  Old high school: gone and gone.  Frank's station: mostly gone.  Old Gerty Burns Elementary: converted to senior center. Somehow, though, the Old Mill must've stood for something, to me, in a way that none of those other buildings did, in a way that I've never even realized.. I dunno why, but I feel a little hole in my heart.

The Core of Discovery page says this about the Gateway Arch: "A visit to St. Louis isn’t complete without standing at its base and playing professional photographer."  Thanks, Core of Discovery, for making me feel like a lemming.  Eff you, man. Saint Louis Front Page reports these additional details about the arch: The Jefferson National Expansion Memorial Park was established on the banks of the Mississippi River, on December 21, 1935, to commemorate the westward growth of the United States between 1803 and 1890. Cost for the $30 million national monument was shared by the federal government and the City of St. Louis.  The park features theGateway Arch, designed by architect Eero Saarinen who won the design competition in 1947. The stainless steel structure rises 630 feet high from a 60-foot foundation and spans 630 feet at ground level. Its classic weighted catenary curve sways 1/2" - 1" in 20 mph wind. The Arch weighs 17,246 tons. Nine hundred tons of sta

sixties in laramie this week, and a tulip poking up in the library flower bed.  that's a good spring break in my book.  here's a picture of maggie shooting the .17 out north of happy jack.  we killed a pineapple can.  maybe we'll make it a saint patty's day tradition.

Several months ago I reserved the Brooklyn Lake Cabin, hoping for another magical ski-in like two years ago . Sadly, this year was a bust. Maggie, her sister Colleen, and I headed out on Friday afternoon, ate some delicious green chili pizza at the Beartree, and then drove up to the end of the road. After 200 yards on the trail, we turned around and headed back to the Beartree for pie. It was a windy bitch on the hill this weekend--gusts up to 45 mph, and wind chills in the ice-crystals-forming-instantly-on-my-whiskers range.  Not to be easily defeated, we headed back up on Saturday morning. The temps were warmer, but the winds were worse. On the way up the hill, we passed pickups, loaded with snowmobiles, already headed back down to the flatlands. Colleen (who finished a 50k ski race last weekend) got blown off her skis. My hands were toasty warm in the new mitts my sis got me for Christmas, but the prospect of a first mile on mostly exposed slopes was enough for us to tuc

when i don't want to do work on a thursday afternoon, i check out the cars fo' sale.  here's an ad for a 2010 impreza: "The vehicle is two tone - silver on darker silver, with a black cloth interior. It has lots of great features, some of which are AWD (does excellent on snow and ice), cruise control, 6 disc CD changer, heated seats, auto dimming rear view mirror, cargo cover in the back, tinted windows, including the front ones which I had done after I bought it, a clear bra and much more. It has around 19,250 miles (it changes everytime I drive it). Come see this vehicle and drive it for yourself." wait, what? the mileage changes every time your drive it?!?  what kind of deal is that, man?!?

why is it that i automatically assume that i'll like a band called 'the parlor soldiers'? you tell me: i came across their stuff on this here blog:  http://commonfolkmusic.wordpress.com/   fuck, i could listen to the music showcased here, all day long.

Melissa sent a pic of the potrack I built for her at her new place in Missoula.  I like it!  And now I want to paint my kitchen! In other news, it's like winter for a change.  Must write a thank-you card to Punxsutawney Phil.

Finally got some snow today, a few inches mid-afternoon, and a forecast predicting more tomorrow.  Here's the view from my office window earlier today.  Most days you can Medicine Bow Peak there to the left of the evergreens.  Not today, though....

Today pandora tells me that I will like a song about shooting all the other kids , since I like songs about caves, thistles, winter winds, and little lion men . Oddly enough, pandora is right.  Well played, pandora.  Well played.

In other news, I mighta ruined my birthday cake by leaving out the egg yolks.  I'm pretty sure I'm gonna it eat anyway--it's just a little bit, um,  flatter  than it should be.  I'm okay with that.  It's all about the frosting anyway.