Two months later, what have I learned about the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself?

Polished red blood cells zipping along the Stent Highway 

Two months ago today, my heart revolted. A plaque logjam blocked the blood flow in my Lower Anterior Descending coronary artery or LAD. Lack of circulation caused my heart muscles to stop working. My ejection fraction fractured. My pump was on the fritz. Fluid built up in my lungs. I couldn't breathe. The EMTs hauled me to the ER. Congestive heart failure. Me?

Yes, me.

Two days later, I was in the CRMC catheterization lab with Led Zep blasting on the stereo. Dr. Chapman and crew installed a stent in my LAD. I wasn't totally under but I remember nothing until they were hauling me and my new hardware out of there and back to my room. I spent five more days in the hospital.  I recuperated at home for a month. My keister caused a permanent crease on the couch. I knew all 500 TV channels by heart. I was too wrung-out to read and write. Not even enough energy to blog!

So, as they say on TV news shows, what have we learned?

Heart attacks happen to all kinds of people. My colleagues in cardiac rehab are in their 40s to 80s. I'm somewhere in the middle. Some of them had a history of heart disease and others (me) did not. Broken hearts can be mended, although it depends on many factors. Some are out of your control and some art not. What kind of shape are you in? How severe was the blockage? How long did it take to clear the blockage? This last factor seems to be the key. Twenty minutes after I hit the ER, Cardiologist Chapman and his trusted assistant were at my side. The good doctor announced that I had experienced a heart attack and they were whisking me off to the cath lab. Not so fast, said the ER doctor. This man is in congestive heart failure and, since his breathing is compromised, can't lie flat for an hour while you work your magic. They conferred. Meanwhile, I watched and waited and tried to take some cleansing breaths -- any kind of breaths.

I waited two more days for my stent. It was worth it -- I have a nice long stent that keeps he blood flowing. I take medication to make sure that my blood doesn't try to clot around the stent. Blood does that when it detects a foreign object. The med is called Effient. The good folks at Eli Lilly sum it up on its web site:

Effient taken with aspirin helps reduce the risk of a future heart-related event, such as a heart attack or blood clot in the stent, in patients who have had a heart attack or severe heart-related chest pain that was treated with angioplasty. There is no generic form of Effient.

I take Effient with aspirin and approximately another dozen meds. It seems to be doing its job, as I continue to feel better and have had no signs of a gummed-up stent. I visited my cardiologist on Wednesday. Actually, I visited with the P.A. at the Cardiologist's office. She called me a "Problem child" because I had so many low blood pressure readings. It seems that many of the meds I take lower the blood pressure. This is handy because so many hearty attack patients have high blood pressure, which is one of the risk factors. Oddball patients like me who have normal blood pressures, see them drop into the low range. So she and her colleagues have been juggling my meds to see if they can raise my blood pressure without raising it too high. So much of this is a guessing game. "Educated guesses" might be a better term. There's an amazing array of heard medications. Some goose the heart muscles and some increase blood flow. Some thin the blood and others polish the surface of the blood cells. It's fascinating, really, that so much research had been conducted on the heart. Cardiovascular disease is the nation's number one killer, one of the main byproducts of the so-called "obesity epidemic." That has something to do with it. There's big money to be made. That's fine with me, as Eli Lilly & Company's products have kept me alive. I'm just happy to be insured, especially after I took a peek at my hospital bill. There apparently is an obesity epidemic when it comes to hospital bills. But I have to pay very little of it. What do people do who have no insurance, or are under-insured? That's been at the heart of the debate over the Affordable Care Act.

So I take my meds, attend cardiac rehab and think healthy thoughts. Eat well, too. The other day a friend gave me a New York Times article about the benefits of the Mediterranean diet.

About 30 percent of heart attacks, strokes and deaths from heart disease can be prevented in people at high risk if they switch to a Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil, nuts, beans, fish, fruits and vegetables, and even drink wine with meals, a large and rigorous new study has found.

This is something that I'm going to explore. My roots are more closely-linked to the Irish Sea than the Med. But maybe it's possible for a Celt to change his culinary habits from beer and potatoes to olive oil, beans and wine. More on this subject in future posts...

Good weekend for writers and artists in southeast Wyoming

It's a good weekend to be a writer or artist in southeast Wyoming.

Henry Real Bird, former poet laureate of Montana, will present a free writing workshop at the Laramie County Public Library in Cheyenne on Sunday, March 3, 1-3:30 p.m. No need to register; just show up with your journal and your imagination. Henry was born and raised on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana and is a often is a presenter at the annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. He's in town to serve as a judge for the 2013 Poetry Out Loud competition which takes place on Monday and Tuesday.

The Wyoming Arts Council and UW team up to present CLICK: A Weekend for Wyoming Visual Artists March 1-3 in Laramie. Hear from arts professionals in a series of panel sessions and attend hands-on studio sessions conducted by UW arts professors. On Friday at 7 p.m., hear from UW Eminent Visiyting Artist Judy Pfaff. Registration fee is $100. FMI: http://wyoarts.state.wy.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/CLICK-conference-registration-2013.pdf

Rodger McDaniel's new book, "Dying for Joe McCarthy's Sins," will debut on April 2

Here's some good news. Rodger McDaniel's biography of Wyoming U.S. Sen. Lester Hunt will be released on Tuesday, April 2. He's holding a reception at the Historic Governor's Mansion in downtown Cheyenne on that evening from 7-9 p.m. This will be your first chance to get a copy. 

Later that week, you may want to drop in on "The Trial of Joe McCarthy, et. al." on Sunday, April 7,at 1 p.m. at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Cheyenne (Lester Hunt's church). The U.S. senators who were involved in the blackmail of Lester Hunt will be prosecuted in a "mock jury trial." Former Governor and U.S. Attorney Dave Freudenthal will prosecute. Retired Supreme Court Justice Michael Golden will be the trial judge. State Public Defender Diane Lozano will be defense counsel. Witnesses playing the roles of Drew Pearson, TA Larson, Red Jacoby and detective Roy Blick will present the evidence. The jury will render a historic verdict, according to Rodger.

Question: May I serve on the jury?

Tales from cardiac rehab: The return of S

I posted on Monday about my cardiac rehab buddy S. She was hauled away by EMTs after complaining of chest pain and registering a very high blood pressure.

Glad to report that S returned to rehab on Friday. Once again we were treading treadmills side by side. She's 13 years younger than I am but, as I'm discovering, age doesn't spare you from heart disease. I've met people in their thirties who've had heart attacks. I've met people in their eighties who've had heart attacks. We have cardiac rehab participants who've had angioplasties and stents and single bypasses and quadruple bypasses. We are the lucky ones, the quick rather than the dead.

I'm reading Thriving with Heart Disease: Live Happier, Healthier, Longer by William M. Sotile, Ph.D. When the book was published in 2003, Dr. Sotile was the director of psychological services at the Wake Forest University Cardiac Rehabilitation Program. I checked out the book from the library at my rehab program. Nurse Julee recommended it, and I thank her for that. Sotile recommends an assertive approach to cardiac rehab. He urges us to get a second opinion, and possibly a third or fourth. He writes: "If you haven't been referred to a cardiac rehab program, find out why."

Research shows that people who begin cardiac rehab while still in the hospital and continue with the program after they're home -- even if it's only for a few months -- suffer less anxiety, depression and disability than those who try to manage on their own. Further, both rehab patients and their families have a fuller understanding of the illness and so they are better able as a group to weather the storms that invariably blow in.

I like going to rehab and, thanks to health insurance, can keep it up until I'm well on my way to some sort of normalcy. The CRMC Rehab unit employs a great group of cardiac nurses, exercise therapists and nutritionists who supervise our time on the treadmills, rowing machines and universal equipment. They monitor our vitals and intervene if things are going a bit haywire. Witness their intervention with S earlier in the week. The nurses have been a bit concerned over my low blood pressures and have worked with the cardiologists to fine-tune my many medications. This is the first time I've had to store my meds in a plastic container the size of a shoebox. I can begin to understand a patient's confusion over what drug to take and when. I have a list, and it's constantly changing.

Dr. Sotile notes that there is an aura of mystery surrounding heart attacks:

All known cardiac risk factors combined account for only three out of four cases of heart illness -- the others are attributed to unknown causes.

I have no history of heart disease. My family has no history of heart disease. I don't smoke. I exercise regularly and have lost 30 pounds during the past year. My cholesterol is not abnormally high. I don't have a high-stress job.

I still had a heart attack.

Unknown causes. This appeals to the mystery lover in me. It also speaks to my fiction writer self. Stuff happens. We don't always know why.

Many of us in Wyoming are just one emergency surgery away from ruin

Many of us are a couple paychecks away from ruin. Throw in an emergency surgery and lack of adequate medical insurance, you have a crisis on your hands. This dispatch comes from fellow prog-blogger Meg Lanker-Simons in Laramie:

One of our Bucking Jennys, Meg at Cognitive Dissonance, is recovering from emergency surgery. Like many of us, Meg is underinsured and a member of the working poor. She and her husband will be facing some stiff medical expenses. You've enjoyed her biting editorials on this page, show her some love here if you're able: https://www.wepay.com/donations/send-cognitive-dissonance-your-love

Meg writes that she now has 40,000 followers on Tumblr. That's an impressive number and illustrates how active this indie blogger is on her site. That's the thing -- some of the most interesting content on the web can be found on the blogs of creative people such as Meg. She writes and rants and has her own progressive radio show, not an easy task in Wyoming. But none of this brings in money. That's the blogger's lament, no matter the political bent or passion. We do it because we can't help ourselves. It's a creative outlet too, and unbridled blogging can take you to some amazing places. Meg was blogging at the Republican National Convention in Tampa last year, and at Netroots Nation in Providence.

To keep her  going, I'm kicking in a few bucks. I suggest you do the same.

Wyoming Legislature continues long tradition of anti-worker legislation

We shouldn't be surprised when more anti-worker legislation emanates from the Republican-dominated Wyoming State Legislature. It's a long tradition. Kerry Drake explores this long line of anti-labor legislation today in wyofile. Read it here.

Detroit duo rocks Rock Springs March 1

M.L. Liebler and Steve King rock the Rock March 1 with music and poetry.

Another eventful day at cardiac rehab

The EMTs hauled away S on a stretcher.

Fifteen minutes earlier, she was walking on the treadmill next to mine. She felt a chest pain and reported it to the nurses. One of them told S to step off the treadmill and sit. Nurse 1 took her blood pressure. It was sky high. Nurse 2 nurse arrived with a nitro glycerin tablet for S.

I kept walking the treadmill.

S said she might throw up. Nurse 2 moved over a big trashcan. "How you feeling?"

"Still hurts," S said.

The three nurses conferred. Nurse 3 went to the phone and called 911.

"I can drive to the ER," said S.

"No you can't," said Nurse 1. "Protocol says that the ambulance has to take you, just like you were at home."

I remembered the day that my wife Chris has to call 911. I was hauled away on a stretcher and boosted into the ambulance. The EMTs worked on me as the ambulance hauled my sick self to the ER. Two days later, I was on the catheterizing table and a cardiologist was inserting a stent into my Lower Anterior Descending artery (aka "The Widowmaker").

Three EMT's arrived for S. A young woman with two men. The woman had this on the back of her T-shirt: "EMT Student." She watched as one of the others hooked up S to oxygen and the other took her vitals. Another EMT team arrived with a stretcher. S was surrounded. I'd moved over to the rowing machine and could barely see her. Finally, one of the EMTs raised the stretcher and I could see her. She was smiling, which was good. The nurses waved to her and she waved back. I waved too but I don't think she saw me.

S and I started cardiac rehab on the same cold January day. She's only 49 but a whopper of a heart attack forced her to the ER. The docs did a bypass on her. She returned to work last week, which may have been a bit premature. I returned to work two weeks ago and it's been wearing me out.

S on a stretcher on the way to the ER. Made me wonder if I could get hauled off to the ER while striding on a treadmill or playing the stupid dart game on the rowing machine. It's all good, I tell myself. The exercise and meds and special diet are healing me. No more Big Macs, which seems l;ike a small price to pay for a longer and possibly healthier life.

But last Friday, after only a few strides on the treadmill, I was having trouble breathing. Nurse 1 saw my distress and asked what was wrong. I told her. She took my blood pressure, which was almost normal at 110/65. I told her that the docs had changed my medications. She called the docs. "They're changing them again," she said when she got off the phone. I was taken off diuretics but now I'm going back on them at a smaller dose. Diuretics help rid the body of excess fluid so a guy can breathe. You pee a lot. That doesn't worry me, especially now that we have indoor plumbing.

But that was Friday. Today, S was in distress. I wish her well. I'm hoping for the quick return of my treadmill buddy.

Paul Krza remembers Rock Springs as an "island of Democrats"

Good to see Paul Krza return to the op-ed pages. I used to love reading his rabble-rousing columns when he lived and worked in Wyoming. A good progressive voice in a sea of conservatives. He grew up in Rock Springs, a one-time "island of Democrats" due to its population of unionized coal miners and railroaders. That island has shrunk as union membership dropped over the years in this so-called "Right to Work" state.

In Sunday's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle, Krza wrote about how his own Sweetwater County collectivist roots were vindicated by President Obama's inaugural speech in which he stressed that "working collectively is the new political normal -- solving our problems 'together'."

Krza wrote about how his Slovene ancestors worked together to form a fraternal lodge, the Slovenski Dom, where the Socialist Party met and where members could buy health and life insurance. The lodge library was stocked with socialist tracts. Teno Roncalio, the last Democrat to represent Wyoming in the U.S. House, campaigned there. Meanwhile, says Krza, the Rock Springs schools were "an ethnic mishmash that nurtured open-mindedness and my own willingness to ask questions."

As we gaze upon the strange proceedings of our State Legislature, in which even the Sweetwater County delegation is rife with Republicans, one has to wonder what happened to Wyoming Left-leaning traditions. Gone with the wind....

Paul Krza is syndicated by Writers on the Range. Read his latest column, "When frontier socialism thrived in Wyoming."

Recommended reading: "Raising Adam Lanza" in the Hartford Courant

My wife Chris and I raised two kids with special needs. Our son was diagnosed at five with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Our daughter had learning disabilities and mental health challenges. They are both adults now and doing well. But Chris and I know only too well the frantic calls from school, the many meetings with teachers and counselors, the convoluted Individualized Educational Plans (I.E.P.s) and the heartache that goes along with it all.

That's one of the reasons it was so intriguing to read "Raising Adam Lanza," the first installment in a series in the Hartford Courant. It's the kind of article that newspapers used to be known for. Courant reporters interviewed friends, family, teachers and neighbors to try to get to the bottom of Adam Lanza's murderous rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Adam was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism, and sensory integration disorder.

The vast majority of teens with ADHD or OCD or any of the many alphabet soup of disorders or syndromes never turn to violence. Those that do tend to make big, bold headlines. That's why it's important to learn all we can about them. In hindsight, Adam Lanza's mother made poor choices in withdrawing her son from school, and keeping him isolated at home. She also chose the wrong hobbies to help her bond with her sons: gun collecting and target shooting. And Adam spent way too much time playing violent video games. All that taken together led to the Sandy Hook shootings. There may be other reasons, too. I suggest you read the articles and/or watch the concurrent airing of the story on PBS's Frontline. This is an interesting collaboration between a daily newspaper and a PBS show. Maybe it's the wave of the future.

Read today's Courant article here.

Wyoming may be red, but it ain't very religious

Gallup released its religiosity survey this week. Each state is ranked according to how many residents polled by Gallup admit to being "very religious." Red states tended to score high on the survey while blue states were on the lower end of the scale. Although Wyoming is one of the reddest of the red states, with the second-highest margin of victory for Mitt Romney in 2012, it's on the lower end of the scale when it comes to religion. Only 32.8 percent of Wyoming respondents admitted to being "very religious." This puts it just behind godforsaken places such as Connecticut (Damn Yankees) and Hawaii (alleged Obama birthplace). We're slightly less religious than neighboring reefer-mad Colorado, which came in at 33.5 percent. See the entire survey here. And thanks to Rachel Maddow's MaddowBlog, where I first saw this map.

Wyoming Senate passes HB79 on second reading

Democratic Representative Lee Filer in House District 12 posted this bit of news on Facebook:

HB79 passed second reading in the Senate. This bill will allow employers to take away your vacation pay that you all earn, if you decide to quit or get fired. Contact your Senator and tell them to vote no. I did my best to kill this bill on the House side but now it's up to the senators.

Find your senator's contact info at http://legisweb.state.wy.us

Read here what Rep. Filer had to say about this odious Republican-sponsored bill last week. 

Kerry Drake on Wyofile: Governor and Republican legislators blew it when they killed Medicaid expansion

On Wyofile, veteran Wyoming journalist Kerry Drake takes a long, hard look at the Medicaid expansion question in Wyoming:

Facts, common sense, what’s good for the people — they all fly out the window when some conservative Wyoming politicians are determined to show how much they distrust the federal government. 

It’s happened many times before, but never to the absurd level it did when Gov. Matt Mead and 22 state senators killed Medicaid expansion in Wyoming this session. 

No matter how one looks at the issue, they blew it — far worse than most people realize.

Read the entire sordid tale here. Progressive blogger Rodger McDaniel at Blowing in the Wyoming Wind has been writing about this issue for months. Check out his columns here. 

Wyoming Democrats hold annual legislative reception Feb. 15

The Wyoming Democratic Party will hold its annual legislative reception on on Friday, February 15, 6:30-9 p.m. at party headquarters, 1909 Warren Ave. in Cheyenne. Please plan on joining your friends and legislators for the reception. Learn about ongoing legislative events and bills that have already passed or died during this session. Please bring a snack to share if you are able.  Contact Linda Stowers for more information at 307-220-1219. 

Who's your favorite music teacher?

My two children had excellent music teachers in the Cheyenne schools. My daughter Annie was so smitten with music that she's now a vocal music major at Laramie County Community College. Justin Timberlake joined Grammy Foundation member Ryan Seacrest and of President/CEO Neil Portnow in announcing a new award for music teachers sponsored by the foundation. Earlier in the night. Here's the info:

GRAMMY Music Educator Award: In recognition of the significant role of teachers in shaping their students' musical experiences, the GRAMMY Foundation and The Recording Academy are partnering to present the first Music Educator Award. Open to current U.S. music teachers in grade kindergarten through college, the Music Educator Award will be given out during GRAMMY Week 2014. The nomination process opened Feb. 10 at www.grammymusicteacher.com. The deadline for submissions is April 15. See the awards announcement from last night's Grammies at http://www.grammy.com/news/neil-portnows-55th-grammy-awards-telecast-remarks. 

Other people inhabited Wyoming before the conservative know-it-alls arrived

This Facebook meme comes from my Cheyenne Dem pal David Neil Dibble. It adds a few more talking points to the Rep. Hans Hunt "love it or leave it" debate. See more here and here. 

Cheyenne joins Main Street development program

Cheyenne took a giant step into the future this week as it was accepted as the latest city in the Wyoming Main Street development program. If it's one thing the city needs, it's downtown development. It's been pursuing it in fits and starts. As part of Main Street, Cheyenne will be eligible for grants and technical assistance from all the good people involved in the program in Sheridan and Rawlins and Laramie and Dubois, etc. Laramie has made some amazing strides in developing its downtown.

Read more here.

Poet Mark Nowak wants to hear your stories about "Working in Wyoming"

Poet and labor activist Mark Nowak is coming to Wyoming and wants to hear your stories about work. This comes from the "Working in Wyoming" Facebook page:

Have an uncle or a sister or a cousin or a friend or a neighbor who works in Wyoming and always tells great stories about their job? Invite them -- no, BRING them -- to one of our "Working in Wyoming" workshops in February. We want all the great Wyoming storytellers to tell us what it means to work in Wyoming. 

The writing workshops will be held in the conference room in the Laramie Plains Civic Center in Laramie. We hope to see you there!

Wednesday, February 20th from 6-7:30 PMSaturday, February 23rd from 2-3:30 PMWednesday, February 27th from 6-7:30 PM

Jack Pugh takes on the intolerance of Rep. Lynn Hutchings in latest WTE column

Wyoming boasts a number of thoughtful and erudite commentators on the Liberal side. You can find some of the on my right sidebar under WY Progressives: Rodger McDaniel, Jeran Artery and Meg Lanker-Simons. There are others, too. Jack Pugh writes and occasional column for our local paper, the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. He wrote a terrific op-ed in yesterday's WTE focused on the recent legislative debates over a proposed domestic partnerships bill. Since the WTE has a very hinky and incomplete web site, Rodger reprinted the column on Facebook. Here's Jack's column:

Martin Luther King, Fred L. Shuttlesworth and Charles K. Steele founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957. It became the driving force in the civil rights movement. Its principal tactic was non-violent civil disobedience. “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline”, said Dr. King.

I thought of that when I read Laramie County Republican Representative Lynn Hutchings’ crude, brutish, and ignorant comments about homosexuals in her testimony against the Domestic Partnership bill. 

Rep. Hutchings is an African-American. It is always breathtaking to encounter raw, naked bigotry from someone whose race has endured so much of it. 

Describing homosexuals as dirty, diseased and dangerous, Rep. Hutchings told the committee that sexuality has no genetic basis, and that sexual orientation is a choice that can be changed “through the help of others”. 

She went on to express offense at comparing the struggle for full citizenship rights for homosexuals to the black struggle for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s. 

I sent Rep. Hutchings an email asking her some questions about her comments. I didn’t expect an answer, and didn’t get one. 

I asked for her source for the statement “science does not have evidence of a genetic involvement in sexuality”. 

I asked her about her understanding of sexuality as it relates to gender. 

I asked her if her homophobia was religion based. 

I asked her what her experience in civil rights activism was.

And I asked her this: were the principles and philosophy that fueled the civil rights movement limited to the movement or were they universal in scope? 

When ten percent of a species shows a particular trait, as humans do with homosexuality, biologists want to know why. In 1993 Dean Hamer and Simon LeVay published scientific papers in which they offered evidence of a genetic trigger that they said was a biological basis for homosexuality. Other scientists over the next few years supported their findings. Still others have challenged them. 

Debate among biologists and geneticists about the biological origins of homosexuality continues and the question is not scientifically settled. 

Many, if not most, psychologists and psychiatrists assume that homosexuality has a biological basis, and is not a choice based on environment or nurture. Testimony from people subjected to the “help of others” cited by Rep. Hutchings has revealed an ugly form of psychological brutality, and has led to these practices being outlawed in California. 

It was the denial of the civil rights comparison that interested me most. 

Rep. Hutchings wasn’t around when the civil rights movement started and she was a little child when the great events of the movement unfolded. She is one of those lucky ones who never had to run the personal risk of fighting for her rights. Others did that for her. 

That good fortune carries with it a responsibility, however, and that is to understand the nature of the freedom that was fought for, to forever nurture it, and to include everyone in its embrace. 

When Rep. Hutchings denies full citizenship rights to homosexuals she betrays the sacrifices of those who preached and marched and were beaten and sometimes killed in the name of those rights. 

She betrays the courage of the four college students in Greensboro, North Carolina, whose lonely sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter became a national symbol of injustice. 

She betrays the courage and the memory of the Freedom Riders, who endured insult and beatings as they rode their buses across the South to witness against racism. 

She betrays the memory of the civil rights workers, black and white, murdered and buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi because they were registering blacks to vote. 

She betrays the sacrifice of James Reeb of Casper, Wyoming, a Unitarian minister serving in Boston, who was beaten to death with steel pipes by racist thugs at the march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama.

She betrays the courage and conviction of all those, black and white, who linked arms and stood with each other as brothers and sisters and demanded justice from their country. 

And she betrays Martin Luther King’s vision that all of us, no matter who we are, will know the dignity of the Free. That is what the civil rights movement was about for those of us who joined it, and it is what the movement for civil rights for our homosexual brothers and sisters is about. 

Rep. Hutchings and others like her have won the day for now. But they are on the wrong side of history and the wrong side of the future and the wrong side of a vast moral question.

Just as racial discrimination was beaten, so this discrimination shall be beaten. The wall will be taken down, one brick at a time if necessary, but it will come down.

Henry Real Bird will conduct "Shadow of Home" writing workshop March 3 at the Laramie County Public Library

In conjunction with Wyoming's Poetry Out Loud state competition, guest judge and Native-American poet Henry Real Bird will be facilitating a public workshop on Sunday, March 3, at the Laramie County Library, from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m., in the Cottonwood Room on the main floor.

Henry's theme for the workshop, "Shadow of Home" will "take participants beyond reflection and past the stars, sending our thoughts in search of rhyme, exploring realms of dreaming in sound and tunes of a life." 

This workshop is free and open to the public.

Rep. Hans Hunt: Wyoming, love it or leave it

This comes from the Rev. Audette Fulbright's Facebook page. She's a minister in Cheyenne:

I wrote to my Representatives here in Wyoming about a concern I had with expanding carry laws in schools and about fracking. Here is the response I got from Rep. Hans Hunt: 

Rev. Fulbright:

I’ll be blunt. If you don’t like the political atmosphere of Wyoming, then by all means, leave. We, who have been here a very long time (I am proudly 4th generation) are quite proud of our independent heritage. I don’t expect a “mass exodus” from our state just because we’re standing up for our rights. As to your comments on fracking, I would point out that you’re basing your statement on “dangers” that have not been scientifically founded or proved as of yet.

It offends me to no end when liberal out-of-staters such as yourself move into Wyoming, trying to get away from where they came from, and then pompously demand that Wyoming conform to their way of thinking. We are, and will continue to be, a state which stands a head above the rest in terms of economic security. Our ability to do that is, in large part, to our “live and let live” mentality when it comes to allowing economic development, and limiting government oversight. 

So, to conclude, if you’re so worried about what our legislature is working on, then go back home.

Sincerely,

Hans Hunt
Representative Hans Hunt, House District 02

Republican Rep. Hunt ran unopposed in the general election. A good illustration of the dangers of a one-party state. 

"Prison," the horror film that almost destroyed the old Wyoming State Pen, gains cult status

My wife and I watched the recent "Ghost Adventures" episode set in the Wyoming Frontier Prison in Rawlins. Intimations of ghostly presences were everywhere, as always, but the most interesting part was the prison's history.

Zack and his G.A. crew aren't the only ones to film at the prison. Back in 1987, Renny Harlin ("Die Hard II," "Cliffhanger," "Deep Blue Sea") filmed a horror movie there. The film, "Prison," stars actor and poet Viggo Mortensen "("Lord of the Rings," "A History of Violence," Hidalgo")" and Lane Smith. Its recently gained status as a cult film and will be released Feb. 19 in a Blu-Ray disk from Scream Factory. The following info comes from Laramie Live:

Tina Hill, Historic Site Director for The Wyoming Frontier Prison, says that the production company made serious alterations to the historic site that still present problems to this day. One of which is a large hole that was made in the wall of the exercise yard. In the movie the hole was used to construct a second entrance for the prison, but after shooting wrapped the hole remained. 

“We still have the hole in the exercise yard. Which allows people to get in when they’re not supposed to be, and so there’s vandalism on our exercise wall,” Hill says. ”It’s a security issue. You can’t really get spray paint off of concrete. And being that we’re a historic site, we can’t paint over the graffiti because the walls weren’t painted. It would be inaccurate to paint them.”  

Hill also says that the historic site is currently repairing damages the production made to the prison’s A-Block walls. Plaster had been chipped off to expose the brick walls underneath to make the prison look older for the movie. Hill said that the plaster damage was being repaired at the time of the interview.  

Despite the damages, Hill says there’s no sour-grapes about the production of Prison coming through the site. ”Now, we’re pretty much happy that [the production] happened. We wish that the people who were in charge of the prison at the time would have taken a little bit better care, and maybe have not let the production do the damage that they did.” Hill goes on to say the historic prison now has measures in place to prevent further damage from film and television productions.

The "serious alternations" done to the prison caused locals to form a joint powers board that took over the facility and turned it into a museum. It now is on the National Registry of Historic Places. More than 15,000 visitors a year tour the place that's famous for its spooky Halloween tours.

See the "Prison" trailer at http://youtu.be/pYTHIs1c8uo. It's an action-packed flick, gory in spots, and  you can see how some damage might have been done.

Rep. Filer speaks out about HB79: "I believe that this legislation wages war on every employee in Wyoming"

The Wyoming Democratic Party's legislative update from yesterday contained more info about Rep. Tim Stubson's HB79. I wrote about this bill on Feb. 5 -- read the post here. This anti-worker bill passed the House and will be considered soon by the Senate. Here's more from the WDP's legislative update:

HB 79 Collection of Unpaid Wages: This is an example of legislation that is worded to imply the opposite of what the law would actually do. The bill amends Wyoming statute to exclude any accrued vacation wages from owed wages at termination if the employer states in writing that is their policy. Representative Lee Filer spoke out against this legislation stating "I believe this is legislation that wages war on every employee in Wyoming." It's currently on General File in the Senate. The Wyoming Democratic Party strongly opposes this bill. 

Flowers and glass art grow together at Cheyenne Botanic Gardens

US Bank Glass Art Celebration will be held at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens February 8-​​17. It’s free and open to the public thanks to main sponsor US Bank. Hours are Mon.-Fri., 8 a.m. – 5p.m.; Sat.-Sun., 10 a.m. – 3:30 p.m. Visit the tropical greenhouse while viewing the region’s largest Glass Art Show on display at the Cheyenne Botanic Gardens Greenhouse. Glass art includes stained glass, glass beadwork, etched, melted and other glass art creations. Many pieces can be purchased.

Rep. Tim Stubson takes aim at state employee benefits, part two

HB79 looks like another anti-state-employee bill to me. It passed the House while budget talks were going on a topic that always gets the lion's share of attention. Let's hope our senators have more sense. Read about Tim Stubson's HB 79 here: http://www.wyomingbusinessreport.com/article.asp?id=64480. What's gotten into those Republicans from Natrona County? One hopes that Laramie County senators have more sense than to sign on to this one, thereby alienating a key constituency. Contact info for your Reps and Senators can be found at http://legisweb.state.wy.us

Rep. Sue Wallis's Food Freedom Act makes sense

Hummingbirdminds supports Rep. Sue Wallis's Food Freedom Act (from Wyoming Business Report):

This week, the Wyoming House of Representatives passed the Food Freedom Act.

The sponsor of that House Bill 108, Rep. Sue Wallis, a Republican from Recluse, said the legislation will open up local commerce and help small business. 

HB 108 would deregulate the sale of homemade foods at such things as farmers markets and in individual transactions between producers and consumers.

Wallis said if all 200,000 or so households in Wyoming spent just $20 a week on locally grown food, more than $200 million would be pumped into the Cowboy State economy. That money will turn over at least three or four times in the economies of cities, towns and counties, she said economic studies show.

Detroit's M.L. Liebler braves spring jackalope roundup for gig in Rock Springs

Detroit's M.L. Liebler

Wyoming's Jackalope

Our Detroit pal, M.L. Liebler, will be returning to Wyoming in March. His last stop in WYO was last June in Casper. In the spring of 2010, he served as one of the judges for the Wyoming Poetry Out Loud finals in Cheyenne. He was traveling with Peter Lewis whom some of you of a certain age will remember as one of the founding members of the psychedelic L.A. band Moby Grape. M.L. and Peter gave a concert at the Historic Atlas Theatre and also taught a songwriting workshop at the Laramie County Public Library. The workshop was especially memorable as it's the only time that I've actually written a song and then tried to sing it in front of an audience. No Grammy for me, I'm afraid.

Here's the info on M.L.'s visit:

On Friday, March 1, 7:00 p.m., spoken-word poet M. L. Liebler will perform with Grammy-winning Eminem producer and musician Steve King at Western Wyoming Rock Springs Community College in Rock Springs. Free & open to all. We've warned M.L. to watch out for the Jackalopes on the highways to the gig as it's roundup time. Contact Professor Rick Kempa at RKEMPA@wwcc.wy.edu or go to http://www.wwcc.cc.wy.us/

Go out right now and buy Cowboy Tough at your local bookseller

Listen up, people!

Joanne Kennedy, my friend and one-time colleague in the Cheyenne Area Writers Group, debuted her new novel today. It's entitled Cowboy Tough. On the cover is a hunky cowboy, and this blurb: "HOT! HOT! HOT!" So says New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown. If you don't believe me that Joanne is one hot writer, better believe Carolyn, who's the author of the upcoming Blue Ribbon Jalapeno Society Jubilee. According to the book jacket, everything is big in Cadillac, Texas, especially the jalapenos.

I've read a lot of Joanne's writing but I'm not so hot on cowboy romances. That may seem hard to believe but it's the truth. Here's what Night Owl Reviews had to say about her previous novel, Cowboy Crazy: "A fast-paced, delightful read that will leave readers longing for a cowboy of their own." Sigh!

Lest you doubt my veracity as a writer and reader, won't you trust my word as an arts administrator? How many Wyoming-based cowboy romances do you know that open with references to Picasso, Modigliani and Van Gogh?

There I've gone and ruined it for you...

"Ladies in Red" event Feb. 9 raises awareness for women's heart disease

The good people at the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center's Heart and Vascular Institute saved my life after a recent heart attack. Turns out that February is heart month and the American Heart Association is promoting women's heart health. Why? Heart disease is the number one killer of women in the U.S., with 500,000 dying every year. A number of my colleagues going through cardiac rehab with me are women who've had stents or bypasses. They are outnumbered by us hard-living men, guys who never gave up smoking or Big Macs or stress. But the women's heart disease stats are a revelation.

The 4th annual "Ladies in Red" seminar and fund-raiser will be held on Saturday, February 9, 9 a.m. to noon, in the Kiwanis Community House at Lions Park in Cheyenne. Nationally recognized speaker Donna Hartley will offer insight and humor to share what she’s learned from her own journey of surviving a plane crash, melanoma and open-heart surgery.

To register, call (307) 633-6050 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays. $25 registration fee, includes brunch and giveaways. The completed form must be mailed to Cheyenne Regional Medical Center with payment. Or you can call (307) 633-6050.

High-speed rail map envisions a 22-minute trip from Cheyenne to downtown Denver

This was on Facebook today: New map: US High Speed Rail System. This map is inspired by ideas from various agencies and advocacy groups including Amtrak, The Transport Politic, Wikimedia Commons, Florida High Speed Rail, SkyscraperPage Forums, Southern High Speed Rail, Southeast High Speed Rail, Ohio Department of Transportation, California High Speed Rail Authority, Midwest High Speed Rail Association, US DOT Federal Railroad Administration, Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corp. Get PDFs and posters at https://sites.google.com/site/californiarailmap/us-high-speed-rail-system

New Greenpeace video about our Powder River Basin coal

New video about plans for our Powder River Basin Coal (includes model trains and special effects).

Groundhog may make appearance at Cheyenne Winter Farmers Market

The Cheyenne Winter Farmers Market is located inside the historic train depot the first Saturday of each month from November through April starting at 10 a.m. and ending at 2 p.m. Next winter farmers market is Saturday, Feb. 2 -- Groundhog Day.

All vendors sell items that are produced in Wyoming or northern Colorado, but within a 150 miles of Cheyenne. All items are produced by the vendors behind the tables, NO FOOD BROKERS OR FOOD RESELLERS are allowed.

Get more info here.

"Go Red for Women" Day is Feb. 1

Men and women both have heart attacks. Funny thing is, most people think that heart disease is an older guy's disease. An an older guy who's recently had a heart attack, I am secure in the fact that guys have heart disease. Most of my colleagues in the cardiac rehab program are men. But there's also Brenda from the post office who had heart surgery earlier in the year and Paula, a heart patient who taught high school kids for 30 years. I was also surprised to find that, of the many nurses who lead us through our paces in rehab, many have been heart patients. One has a pacemaker, another has had four heart operations, and yet another has two stents. They are heart patients looking after heart patients. What could be better than that?

Friday marks the tenth anniversary of the American Heart Association's "Go Red for Women" Day. People will be wearing red to mark the fact that more than 500,000 women die each year from heart disease, making it the number one killer among women.

Wear red tomorrow. I am. Do it for the women you love.

FMI: http://www.goredforwomen.org/wearredday/about/

Rep. Sue Wallis (R-Recluse) explains HB168 cowboy poet style

It was quite educational listening to the debate on HB168 today in the Wyoming House. HB168 is the Domestic Partners Rights and Responsibilities Act. Many of us were surprised when it made it out of committee on a 7-2 vote. That one small victory enable the bill to be aired in public, so both naysayers and supporters could sound off.

Most eloquent of the supporters was Rep. Sue Wallis (R-Recluse). Rep. Wallis is a rancher and cowboy poet, one of the founders of the annual Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko. One of my favorite Wyoming moments was listening to Sue and her late husband, Rod McQueary, talking turns reciting cowboy poetry at a humanities conference two years ago in Riverton.

Rod passed away in December. Rep. Wallis is still grieving. As she works on behalf of her constituents in the Wyoming House, she is missing the Cowboy Poetry Gathering. This year's event celebrates Italian cowboys and their poetry. Wish I was there to hear that. That's what makes Elko so special. The organizers include something new every year. It might be Basque poets or Native Americans or Mexican gauchos or the horsemen of Mongolia.

Rep. Wallis is cut from the same cloth. She thinks big.

She rose in support of HB168. She also is one of the co-sponsors. She recalled that when Rod died in December, she was accorded all courtesies and privileges that attached to being a survivor heterosexual spouse in Wyoming. She was at Rod's side the entire time and saw his out of this world. All the paperwork came to her, as did all property and possessions. Nobody questioned her choices of burial plans.

"I have numerous friends, colleagues and relatives who are in a relationship with members of the same sex," said Rep. Wallis. "Some of these couples have been together for decades. One couple - two elderly gentlemen -- have been together for 40 years." She paused for emphasis. "They are good and decent in every sense of the word."

But something terrible happens at the end of a relationship. "When one of my elderly friends loses his mate, on top of the heartbreak of losing his mate he will have to go through all sorts of contortions to justify himself."

"This is not just in any way, shape or form."

Rep. Wallis knows her Bible. She sounded astonished at some of the comments of the naysayers, people using The Good Book to justify their hatred and prejudices. She cautioned them not to cherry-pick certain passages that may or may not apply to the present situation.

"You don't get to cherry-pick what you like and then deny someone else the opportunity to love in all of its facets," she said, noting that the main tenet of the New Testament was Jesus's words to "love your neighbor as yourself."

But it was a passage from the Old Testament that got her fired up. She noted that some in the House chambers had quoted a passage that referred to a man lying with another man as "an abomination." She quoted some other "abominations" quoted in the Bible. She asked her rancher colleagues to pay particular attention to Leviticus. It's considered an abomination "to not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip the edges of your beard." She wondered aloud how many of Wyoming's bearded ranchers knew they were committing abominations with their razors.

Leviticus also warns against "sewing your field with mingled seed" and "mixing your herds."

Said Rep. Wallis: "Maybe you didn't know that cross-breeding your herd for hybrid vigor was an abomination to the Lord."

I'm a city boy. I barely know one end of a cow from another. But Rep. Wallis does. She lives on a family ranch in the most remote part of Campbell County. Her family's been on the land for generations.

She summed things up in a straightforward Wyoming way: "This is about simple common human decency and respect for our fellow human beings."

And then she sat down.

"Rent" auditions set for Feb. 3-5 in Cheyenne

Auditions for the rock musical "Rent" will be held on Sunday, February 3, 6:30-8:30 p.m., Monday, February 4, 4:30-6:30 p.m., and  Tuesday, February 5, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Call-backs will be Wednesday, February 6, 6:30-8:30 p.m. All auditions held at the Historic Atlas Theater in downtown Cheyenne 

Here's more info from the Cheyenne Little Theatre Players web site:

To audition, we ask that you sing a song from the show "Rent" or another contemporary musical. You may bring your own accompanist or an accompanist will be provided. There will be no cold readings of dialog. We may ask you to sing a song from the show after your initial audition. You will also be learning and performing a short dance. For call-backs, we will be assigning songs from the show "Rent," including duets.  

IMPORTANT!! The Director, Brenda Lyttle, is looking for singing actors who are confident and fearless. "Rent" is an adult show with adult roles, language and situations. The characters must be believable and real. The singing must be strong and confident. This show is set in the Lower East Side of New York City. Racial diversity is crucial. We strongly encourage singing actors of African-American and Hispanic descent to audition.  

Go to this link for more details: Rent Auditions

HB168 debate going on now in Wyoming House

Listen now to the debate on Wyoming House bill HB168: http://legisweb.state.wy.us/lsoweb/session/AudioHWindows.aspx

Ten Sleep's "Trailer Park Troubadour" performs in Cheyenne Feb. 9

Jalan Crossland

The Jalan Crossland Band will perform in concert on Saturday, Feb. 9, 7 p.m., at the Terry Bison Ranch just off of Terry Ranch Rd. on I-25 South. Exit before you get to to the Colorado border! Doors open at 6 p.m. Tickets are available at Ernie November in downtown Cheyenne. Tickets are $12 or $15 the day of the show.

This info comes from a press release:

If you've never experienced Jalan Crossland, you're in for a jaw-dropping experience. He has won many prestigious awards, including second in the National Fingerstyle Guitar Competion and first place in the state Flatpicking Contest. He has toured multiple times with Robert Earl Keen, and toured in Europe and Australia. He has been often showcased on NPR, made multiple TV appearances and been in the New York Times. Jalan is featured in a cover story in the winter issue of Wyoming Artscapes, the quarterly magazine of the Wyoming Arts Council.

The complexities of his combination of edgy, alt-country and traditional guitar and banjo picking seem effortless as he weaves tales of heartbreak, the sometimes-dark crevices of small town America, and most of all the joy, humor and love that can be found in every rusty-lining. 

Hell froze over and his band is back together. The massively talented duo of Shaun Kelley, who plays upright and electric bass and Andy Phreaner plays trapset, wackadoo, harmonica and percussion. You want a show? Well, folks, here's something you'll never forget. And don't taze him, bro! 

Jalan Crossland will receive a 2012 Governor's Arts Award Friday, Feb. 8, at the annual GAA Awards Gala at Little America in Cheyenne. He'll be performing a few of his trademark songs to wrap up the night's festivities. If you want more, and you probably will, catch Jalan and his band the next night in concert. Tickets are still available for the Governor's Arts Awards Gala Feb. 8, 6 p.m., at Little America. Call the Wyoming Arts Council at 307-777-7742.  

Wyoming Legislature may need therapy for gun obsession

The Wyoming State Legislature is obsessed with guns.

Guns in the classroom. Guns at public meetings. Silencers on hunting weapons. 

And legislators don't want the federal gubment to get in the way of Wyomingites owning semi-automatic weapons and high capacity ammo clips. How many rounds does it take to kill a deer or an antelope, anyway?

Yesterday, the so-called Wyoming Firearms Protection Act advanced out of committee. It has the has drawn national media attention by proposing to ban enforcement of all federal gun regulations within the state.

So, as the feds move closer to requiring universal background checks and forbidding the type of rapid-fire weapons that killed 20 six-year-olds in Connecticut, Wyoming moves closer to the margins of Gun Cuckooland. 

Federal law trumps state and local law except in the minds of Tea Party conspiracists and their fellow travelers in the legislature. Nullification! Freedom! Second amendment! Morons!

It's true enough to say Wyoming has a strong gun culture. My neighborhood may be better armed than most Midwestern cities. I've lived here for seven years and nobody's been shot that I know of. It's entirely possible that our low crime rate and incidences of B&E may be due to criminals never know who has a gun and who does not. When I walk neighborhoods for Democratic candidates, which in itself may be a cause for suspicion, I often see stickers on doors and windows. "Protected by Smith & Wesson" is a favorite. So is "C'mon, punk, make my day" that usually comes with an illustration of a bullseye or a big Dirty Harry handgun. I have never been confronted with a drawn gun, although I was reported as a suspicious character when I canvassed a south side neighborhood last fall. I must admit to looking slightly shady. I was wearing a ballcap and a blue T-shirt and carrying around a fistful of leaflets for a Dem running for the legislature. It was an October Saturday and I wasn't at home or at a bar watching college football, suspicious in itself. Cops rousted me, although they kept their sidearms holstered and didn't frisk me. BTW, I was old enough to be their grandfather and at least their father. But you never know -- I could be a frontman for a cadre of Colorado-based break-in artists. Can't be too careful.

Home protection and hunting and collecting and gunsmsithing I can understand. Right-wing whackadoodle paranoia I can understand too, but it scares me. Seems like our legislators are only too eager to sign on with the paranoid few.

House reps need to hear from us today in support of Domestic Partners Rights and Responsibilities Act

The Domestic Partners Rights and Responsibilities Act (HB168) will have its first reading in the Wyoming House today. Jeran Artery at Out in Wyoming posted an action alert last night, urging supporters to e-mail their reps in support of equality in The Equality State. The fundies have apparently been very busy contacting their reps with the same hateful and exclusionary messages they spewed at the committee hearings on Monday. Don't let the haters win. Imagine the good vibes and national recognition Wyoming will receive by taking this giant step for equality. And what a signal we would send to the rest of the world about acceptance and diversity. This isn't an exclusive LGBT issue. It's also about family and friends and fairness. Get more info at Out in Wyoming. The list of Wyoming House members can be found here.

We have winter-hardy strawberries in the High Plains thanks to the USDA Horticulture Research Station

Ogallala strawberries. Winter
won't last forever.

On Tuesday, Feb. 5, 8:30-8:30 p.m., in the Laramie County Public Library's Cottonwood Room, learn how the USDA High Plains Horticulture Research Station helped to settle the region and how the City of Cheyenne has acquired, and hopes to develop, 62 acres as a public arboretum. Presented by Shane Smith, Cheyenne Botanic Gardens Director. Lecture followed by cooking demonstration and food provided by Triumph High School Catering: warm salsa, pico de gallo and tortilla chips. Free and open to the public. This is part of the "Key Ingredients" series held in conjunction with the Smithsonian's traveling exhibit at the library and Botanic Gardens.

Farming is a challenge at 6,200 feet. The growing season is ridiculously short, the weather is capricious, winds are brutal and water is scarce. And that’s in the age of air-conditioned tractors and, irrigation and genetically-engineered crops. Imagine what it was like 100 years ago in the Great American Desert. Let’s say you were rolling into Laramie County, Wyoming, by train, having left the lush forested clime of Ohio or Tennessee a week earlier. You might have been tempted to say, “WTF,” or immediately get back on the return train. The United States Department of Agriculture established its High Plains Horticulture Research Station outside Cheyenne in 1928. At the station…

Over 1,300 varieties of tree fruits, (apples, pears, plums, cherries, etc.) and 300 varieties of small fruits (raspberries, strawberries, currants, and gooseberries) were tested for hardiness to drought and cold. To find a winter-hardy strawberry for the High Plains 42,000 native strawberries were collected from Montana to New Mexico. This work led to the release of several superior varieties, including Radiance, Ogallala and Fort Laramie. 

My modest strawberry patch has a selection of Ogallala and Fort Laramie varieties. I cover them with mulch every fall and they’re blooming when I uncover them in May. The station eventually moved on to study grasslands and grazing but it had a big impact on the area during its 80-something years. Its director during the 1970s was family friend Dick Hart, a cowboy poet and unofficial poet laureate of Cheyenne. He also recreates Teddy Roosevelt on occasion. His wife Helen is an artist and once led the Cheyenne Artists Guild. They’re retired now but remain active in the community. They've made a huge difference to their adopted land.

Interesting to note that the feds brought this oasis of fruits and vegetables to the Great American Desert.  Your taxpayer dollars at work.

Barrasso and Enzi among Republican hypocrites on Hurricane Sandy relief bill

From ThinkProgress:

When the Senate passed the long-delayed $50.5 billion Hurricane Sandy relief package Monday, 36 Republicans voted against the bill. But of the 32 no-votes from Senators who are not brand-new members, at least 31 came from Republicans who had previously supported emergency aid efforts following disasters in their own states. 

While opponents complained that the bill contained too much unrelated “pork,” each of the 30 of them who had been present earlier this month when the Senate passed the much-smaller $9 billion Sandy relief bill also voted no. All five top members of the Senate Republican leadership voted no on both. 

Most incredible among the no voters were Senators Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) and Pat Toomey (R-PA). Those two had not just backed disaster aid in the past — they actually sought disaster aid for their own states for relief from Hurricane Sandy. And Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) endorsed disaster relief for snow storms damages in Arkansas just four days before casting his “nay” vote. 

The “hypocritical” list includes: 

John Barrasso (R-WY), Republican Policy Committee Chair: Requested disaster aid after flooding.
Mike Enzi (R-WY): Requested disaster relief after flooding.

Not one of the opponents has co-sponsored Sen. Harry Reid’s (D-NV) “Extreme Weather Prevention and Resilience Act” which would encourage Congress to “prepare and protect communities from extreme weather, sea-level rise, drought, flooding, wildfire, and other changing conditions exacerbated by carbon pollution” and “reducing pollution, promoting the use of clean energy sources, and improving energy efficiency.”

We'll see how this Senatorial duo reacts the next time flash floods swamp Kaycee or Lander, wildland fires burn their way through thousands of acres of pine-beetle-ravaged Wyoming forest, a tornado lifts roofs off houses in Wright, drought wipes out Big Horn Basin crops, a plague of locusts descend on Wheatland or a 100-year blizzard inundates Cheyenne.

Here's the complete Senate roll call vote:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=113&session=1&vote=00004

Star-Trib: Wyoming House panel advances domestic partnerships legislation

This is big news: Wyoming House panel advances domestic partnerships bill. This is the first time that this legislation has made it out of committee to be discussed on the floor. One small step... Drinking Liberally Dems gather to celebrate at the Plains Hotel downtown at 6 p.m.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: "You've got to be kind"

“Hello babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. On the outside, babies, you've got a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- "God damn it, you've got to be kind.”

This is yet another memorable quote by the late Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. He valued kindness even while skewering the unkind -- book banners, know-it-alls, warmongers. One of the coolest things about the quote is that he's advising us to be kind while swearing at us. Very Vonnegut. And maybe that is just what we need for emphasis.

Kindness is not a rare commodity if you know where to look for it. I recently went looking for it at our local hospital. I didn't set out to do so -- congestive heart failure brought me to the place where they address such things. Once I stepped in the door, all I received was kindness. Competence, too, but those things seem to go together. 

It's difficult dispensing daily kindness. CRMC nurses work 12-hour shifts and take care of sick people. Sick people are cranky and demanding. I found myself asking people to do things that I've done myself for most of 62 years. It's humbling and frustrating. Wires and tubes trailed from various parts of my body and it was a chore just to get up and go to the bathroom. I thought unkind thoughts but didn't take it out on those around me. If I had been in the hospital another few days, that may have changed.

I once considered a career in medicine. I considered several career fields before deciding on English and creative writing. During my college years, I worked as an orderly and nursing assistant at several hospitals. I'm not sure if hospitals have orderlies anymore. They do have CNAs or Certified Nursing Assistants. I was never certified, with most of my training happening on the job. My first hospital job was shuttling patients back and forth to X-Ray and other treatment rooms. I was 21 and s college dropout and happy to have a job. I was young so hauling around old people was easy. A lot of lifting and pulling and pushing. Patients were not always happy to see me. "X-Ray again? Harumph!" But I could handle eight hours a day of crankiness as the beach was waiting for me when I got off, as was life with friends and family. I didn't give much thought to the end of life, that place where most of my patients dwelled. It was a long way off and I had nothing but time. After doing the transportation bit for six months, I transferred over to a regular ward where I worked as a CNA taking vitals, changing beds and answering the call buttons of cranky patients. The work was harder but I got to work with a CNA named Sharon whom I had a crush on and later dated and lived and traveled with. That made all of the difference. She was very kind to me and I wasn't so good but that's another story.

I worked two other hospital jobs, One was the night shift at a Shriners Burns Institute in Boston. The hospital liked me so much that it wanted to send me to nursing school and pay for it. I probably should have done so as writers need actual jobs to survive. Instead, I moved back to Florida and went back to college as an English major. I went to work as an orderly in the drunk tank at the county hospital. Not glamorous work but steady enough to get me though a year of community college. I worked he 3-11 shift. Most of my work was supervising and wrangling alcoholics and drug addicts. That should have turned me away from booze forever, as I witnessed some gruesome deaths. Me and my fellow orderlies also responded to the psych ward when some muscle was needed. Sometimes it took three or four of us to subdue a raging mental patient. That's where I learned about straight jackets and psychotropic drugs and the hard realities of being crazy in America. Nurses and orderlies did hard duty in this ward, as most of them had scars to show off. This gave me a chance to see the other side of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," one of my favorite books. 

I had one other hospital job. At the University of Florida, I spent one summer working as a cafeteria cashier in the world-renowned Shands Teaching Hospital. My only contact with patients was taking their money for salads and roast beef sandwiches. When you're a cashier at a busy cafeteria, people don't really see you. They're hungry and they're chatting with friends or they're concerned about a patient or maybe they've just experienced a death. I rang stuff up with a minimum of fuss and tried to be friendly and kind. Most people didn't notice. I was free to observe people's faces and behaviors. This was a good place for a writer. There were always stories passing in front of me. I imagined them later in my journal. 

I was kind and observant.

Thanks for all of your kindnesses, CRMC staff! I won't forget it.