UPLIFT Wyoming has vision

UPLIFT's vision is

Hope, health and well-being for all Wyoming children and families. 

You must have 20/20 vision for a statement like that. An abundance of hope.

The statistics are bleak. Alabama-bleak. Wyoming leads the nation is teen suicides. Not a single child psychiatrist lives and works within its 97,000 square miles. In 2012, Wyoming's overall health ranking dropped from 21st to 23rd. More than 23 percent of the population smokes.

OK, so maybe we rank better than Alabama by most measures. But we have problems. Most residents have to drive hours to reach mental health care. Youth are regularly sent out of state for mental health and substance abuse treatment. I know. My kids did just that. Broke the bank and almost broke the will. Only late in the process did we discover the state's children's mental health waiver, which paid for much of our daughter's care, both in-state and out.

Time will tell whether the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) will make a difference with accessibility to quality mental health treatment. We do know that insurers no longer can disqualify you for pre-existing conditions. And caps have been removed on quantity of treatment sessions. And we can keep our daughter covered until she's 26 (our son has aged out). Most students with disabilities take longer to matriculate than others. It's not unusual for them to take six or seven years to graduate. It's not unusual for them to be a boomerang kid, landing in your basement after graduation, Daft Punk tunes wafting up through the heater vents.

I just returned from a two-day board and staff retreat for UPLIFT. I've been a board member since 1999 and am just about ready to retire. It's a volunteer position. Most of us on the board have had personal experiences with challenging children.Our son Kevin was diagnosed at 5 with ADHD and, later, struggled with drugs and alcohol. Our daughter faced mental health challenges, first diagnosed as bipolar and then with borderline personality disorder. As often happens, she did some self-medicating.

It is tough on children to have these challenges. It is also tough on parents.

UPLIFT comes to the rescue. When it can. The statewide organization has its own challenges. Its budget was cut by a third when the state decided to re-channel its funding. It lost three offices across the state and 11 staffers. This is why you have retreats that address strategic planning and tries to come up with some big ideas for the future.

Funding cuts and priority shifts have caused the 23-year-old organization to look at itself anew. Wish us luck. And donate at the web site. Better yet, make a pledge to donate a certain amount every month. Go here. You never know when you may need expertise at your I.E.P. meeting or tips on applying for the Medicaid waiver or just a kindly person to listen to your dilemma. 

Tell them Mike sent you.

Smoking remains high at 23.0 percent of the adult population, with 100,000 adults who smoke in Wyoming.

The infant mortality rate declined in the past year from 7.2 to 6.5 deaths per 1,000 live births.

- See more at: http://www.americashealthrankings.org/WY#sthash.h6kmkDfZ.dpuf

Smoking remains high at 23.0 percent of the adult population, with 100,000 adults who smoke in Wyoming. - See more at: http://www.americashealthrankings.org/WY#sthash.h6kmkDfZ.dpuf

"Mean-spirited" is Rep. Cynthia Lummis's middle name

Thanks, Living Blue in Wyoming

With national parks closed, Jackson Hole quiet on the eve of ski season

When I was in Jackson Hole over the weekend, people were plenty sore about the Republican-spawned national park shutdown. Hotel reservations have been cancelled and tour buses rerouted to other parks, notably those in neighboring Colorado and Utah reopened by state funds. In Wyoming, alas, the constitution forbids state funds going to federal government operations. The tourism industry made an appeal to Gov. Mead. Alas, private dollars from Cody and Jackson were enough to plow the roads that got the parks opened in the spring but money couldn't be leveraged for general operating costs. That's fine with me, as I'm content to let Republicans stew in their own juices. Unfortunately, everyone in Teton County, D & R & I alike, is in that same gravy boat.

The newly refurbished Snow King bar wasn't dead, not exactly, but it's a jumping place on sun-drenched summer evenings and frigid ski-season nights. Last Saturday night, with baseball playoffs on one TV screen and an SEC tiff on the other, only a few patrons lined the bar. Most of the rest of the 20-some people were connected with the Wyoming Arts Council's conference going on around town. We made reservations for 10 on Friday evening at the popular Rendezvous Bistro. The place was half-empty by the time we got around to dessert.

Traffic flowed freely and no tourists seemed in danger of getting flattened by an RV; close calls are an every day summer occurrence. There just weren't that many targets (or RVs). 

We heard rumors about a protest by Cody Tea Party types set for Yellowstone's east gate. I don't know if that happened. It was snowing most of the weekend, and that tends to take some steam out of Tea Party gatherings, as most attendees seem to be of advanced years. We did hear about some daredevils sneaking into the park, but they risked getting a ticket from park staff still on duty.

Probably the best quote I heard about the closed national parks came from writer and activist Terry Tempest Williams. She's a Utah native but now lives in Teton County. At an arts conference talk on Monday, Williams spoke about taking a walk "on the periphery of Grand Teton National Park. I was surprised by how quiet it was."

She wondered what the animals were doing and thinking. " 'Frolic' came to mind."

The animals may be frolicking, but the humans, perturbed by Congress's antics, are in a sour mood.

Cardiac Chronicles: Bush's "Widowmaker" blockage worse than reported in August

The National Journal has a scoop today regarding Pres. George W. Bush's heart condition.

Apparently, Bush's heart crisis in August was much more serious than reported at the time.

If you remember, the ex-Prez went in for a physical in Dallas and his docs found some bad rhythms in an EKG during a stress test. A CT scan discovered a blockage of the Left Anterior Descending (LAD) artery, a.k.a. "The Widowmaker." Surgeons inserted a stent and, after a night in the hospital, sent Bush on his way. He's now back golfing and riding mountain bikes and clearing brush from his ranch. He does all of these vigorously, but not at the same brisk pace as before the surgery.

And getting featured in news stories:

Dr. Jonathan Reiner, an interventional cardiologist at George Washington University who has treated former Vice President Dick Cheney but was not involved in Bush's care, noted that a blockage of that magnitude wouldn't necessarily be fatal in all patients but is a very serious situation requiring prompt treatment.

Even with a 95 percent blockage, Reiner said, blood will still be flowing through the impaired artery, but the heart muscle must work harder, particularly during vigorous activity. The added strain when blood flow is diminished can lead to serious cardiac complications, including a heart attack.

"Every case is different," Reiner said. "It depends on several factors, including how quickly a blockage has developed. But it's a very important vessel. If you occlude that particular artery it can kill you."

And this:

A prominent internist who asked not to be identified added that Bush's blockage, if undiagnosed, would almost certainly have risked "a grave cardiac event."

Finally, this:

The 43rd president has exercised regularly for years and is generally believed to be in excellent health. 

Pres. Bush and I have something in common. As I related in a post in August, we both had occlusions in the same artery. I hate to brag, but mine was 100 percent and I lived to tell the tale. I too had a stent, but spent a week in the hospital recuperating from congestive heart failure caused by the blockage. I was floored to hear the LAD called "the Widowmaker" by my cardiologist. Both of us were in fine shape. I don't clear brush or ride my bike. But I do swim every other day at the local YMCA.

There are some differences. I went almost two weeks before my blockage was detected and treated. In the process, my heart muscles sustained what is probably irreparable damage. I'm not going to complain. If I had only known that stomach pain could mean "heart attack," I would have got myself to the hospital a lot sooner. I didn't have a crackerjack team of doctors available to the president at the renowned Cooper Center in Dallas. My regular doctor neglected to give me a stress test or an EKG. That would have helped. Instead, he treated me first for the stomach virus and then for pneumonia. I had lung congestion, but it was due to a malfuctioning heart and not a bacterial assault on my lung lining.

I also now am equipped with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD), just in case I get hit with an arrhythmia or, God forbid, catastrophic heart failure. 

We are both lucky, Pres. Bush and I. We remain among the living. And we both have plenty of blogging material, although I rarely see Dubya tapping out communiques in the blogosphere.

One other thing: If you're not a former president and don't have comprehensive health insurance, sign up for the Affordable Care Act. Heart attacks are expensive. Mine was $200,000-plus, almost all covered by a health plan that I have been paying into for 22 years, with the state picking up the lion's share.

Make sure you get a stress test or an EKG. Either might save your life. 

Sherman Alexie at UW on Oct. 15

Sherman Alexie, author of “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” will lecture and sign books Tuesday, Oct. 15, 7 p.m. in the University of Wyoming  College of Arts and Sciences auditorium in Laramie. The event is free and open to the public.

Furloughed NWS staffers keep the candles burning during Black Hills blizzard

Paul Huttner, chief meteorologist for Minnesota Public Radio, had a compelling story about the federal government shutdown in his "Updraft" blog today. Furloughed National Weather Service staffers, trapped in their Rapid City office by the blizzard, tracked the storm and provided crucial weather info as some places in the Black Hills were walloped with 55-58 inches of snow. Huttner sums it up this way:

The job performed by the staff at the Rapid City NWS was well above and beyond the call of duty last weekend. Especially considering they did it without the promise of a paycheck.

Read the entire column here.

Meanwhile, South Dakota's Republican governor has requested federal disaster assistance that probably won't arrive anytime soon due to the Republican shutdown of the U.S. government. Read more about that at Larry Kurtz's excellent and acerbic Interested Party blog.

Poe Ballantine puts Chadron on the map, and some are not too happy about it

I don't often attend a literary event that has its own security detail.

Face it -- it's not often that writers get death threats. There was that Iranian fatwa against Salman Rushdie, a threat that forced him into hiding for a decade. It had expired by the time I heard him talk in Laramie a few years ago.

A well-armed deputy sheriff was on hand at the Literary Connection on Saturday at LCCC in Cheyenne. I asked him if there had been a threat. He replied that the college was only interested in being prepared for all eventualities.

At the podium were author Poe Ballantine of Chadron, Nebraska, and filmmaker Dave Jannetta of Philadelphia. They spoke in turn about a the mysterious case of a Chadron State College professor, a neighbor to Ballantine. His body was found out on the prairie. It was bound and horribly burned. Local law enforcement ruled it a suicide. Ballantine originally agreed. After investigating the case, he eventually decided that it was a murder. He wrote a book about his six-year saga of discovery, and Janetta is working on a documentary about it.

The book is "Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere." I began reading my signed copy yesterday evening and can't stop. Not only is Ballantine a fine writer. But wind-whipped Chadron and its residents are interesting characters on par with Savannah and the people portrayed in John Berendt's best-seller "Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil." Who knew Chadron (pop. 5,844 -- a bit smaller than Torrington, WY, a two-hour drive across the border) could be so damn interesting?

Leave it to a writer.

And then there's the murder. In 2006, CSC math professor Steven Haataja disappeared. More than three months later, the man was found burned to death and tied to a tree in the hills behind the campus. Police were stumped. They finally ruled it a suicide. Ballantine, a novelist and essayist, was not particularly interested in writing a true crime book. But, during his short time in Chadron, he got to know most of the people involved -- so he jumped right in.

The first part of "Love and Terror" is devoted to Ballantine's itinerant life. The writer had spent his adulthood knocking about the country, working odd jobs and trying to establish a writing career. He'd been pretty good at the first two. The third? Not so much.

Until recently. With five books to his credit with the upstart Hawthorne Books & Literary Arts in Portland, Ballantine's career is on the move. Although he and his family are staying put in Chadron, despite the death threats.

Haataja's family wants the dead to stay buried (see Ballantine's posts on the Hawthorne Books blog and read the comments). The police want the case off of their to-do list. The town fathers and mothers don't think that murders are the proper promotional schemes for tourism (although they may be wrong about that). Its motto invites to come to town and "Learn The History. Explore The Bounty. Firsthand." And the college? It may have a harder time drawing math professors to campus.

I'm not sure why I'm blogging instead of reading Ballantine's fine book. So I'm going to remedy that right now.

One more thing: Jannetta played us two clips from the film on Saturday. He's raised $33,000 on Kickstarter to do post-production work. He hopes to get it into some film festivals. Let's hope there's a screening in Chadron. The town's kooky population deserves to see itself up on the big screen. Find out more at "Love and Terror the Movie."

Putting the blame where it belongs for national park shutdown: Wyo's lone congressional rep

Jim Stanford on Oct. 1 at JH Underground:

Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks are being barricaded today, and all public access closed, thanks in part to Wyoming’s lone congressional representative, Cynthia Lummis.

Lummis is part of an extreme faction of the Republican Party seeking to hold the federal government hostage over implementation of the 2009 health care law. She voted repeatedly this weekend and last night to send a budget bill to the Senate that was dead on arrival.

Without funding, all federal agencies, including the National Park Service, were forced to close.

On her website, Lummis said she did so to protect Americans from “the onslaught of Obamacare.”

Onslaught of Obamacare?

Read the entire column here. 

Albany County Democrats hosts Demtoberfest Oct. 12 in Laramie

The Albany County Democrats are hosting Demtoberfest Oct. 12 at the Lincoln Community Center, 365 W. Grand Ave.in Laramie. Barbeque! Vegetarian options! Beer! Music by Libby Creek Original and Jeff Duloz! Food will be served around 6 p.m  and music starts around 7 p.m. There will also be a silent auction.

Early birds arriving after the Homecoming game vs. New Mexico are welcome, as beer and beverages will be ready early.

RSVP by ordering your tickets at https://secure.actblue.com/page/albanydems

Tickets at the door, and the Dems will accept credit/debit cards as well as cash and check.

Suggested Donation:
Entry (Food, Drink, and Fun!) $15
Darling, Daring Democrat $30
Extremely Wonderful Democrat $50
Ready to Win Elections $100

Questions? Please email info@albanycountydems.com or call (307) 299-0204.

Drinking (and Talking) Liberally Thursday at the Albany

Drinking Liberally will be held Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Albany in downtown Cheyenne. Come out and drink and talk liberally among friends. Special guest will be Ana Cuprill, vice chair of the Wyoming Democratic Party. More info at https://www.facebook.com/events/597770450261148/

"Listening to Nature" features Navajo poet Sherwin Bitsui & friends

This comes from the fine folks over at the Wyoming Outdoor Council:

Listening to Nature is an annual community event featuring readings and visual artwork by scientists, writers, and artists!

Navajo poet Sherwin Bitsui will join Wyoming presenters to read poems, essays, and other works. The readings will be preceded by a reception.

This year you can catch the event in both Laramie and Riverton.

Receptions for both evenings start at 6:30 p.m., readings at 7 p.m.

Laramie: Friday, October 11
Berry Biodiversity Conservation Center, University of Wyoming campus
Riverton: Friday, October 25
Wind River Room, Intertribal Education and Community Center, Central Wyoming College campus

Both evenings are free and open to the public!

The Wyoming Outdoor Council is co-hosting both events along with the University of Wyoming’s Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources, the MFA Program in Creative Writing, the American Indian Studies Program, and Central Wyoming College.

For more information contact: Emilene Ostlind, 307-766-2604, emilene@uwyo.edu

Love & terror & poetry Oct. 4-5 in Cheyenne

Attend a free writing workshop on Friday, Oct. 4, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. at Laramie County Community College’s Center for Conferences and Institutes.

This Literary Connection event will be conducted by Poe Ballantine, Dave Jannetta and Lisa Zimmerman.

Ballantine and Jannetta will present “Love and Terror: The Infinite Fascinations and Complex Problems of Portraying True Crime in a Small Town.”

Zimmerman will talk about “Writing through the Block: Inventive Ways to Get Lines to the Page.”

Continental breakfast provided.

On Saturday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., the three writers will talk in detail about their work at the Center for Conferences and Institutes. It will be followed by a book signing. Lunch is provided.  Fee is $45. Online registrations are now closed. Please call 307.778.1285 to register.

About the Authors

Poe Ballantine: Born in Denver, Poe Ballantine is known for his novels and essays, many of which appeared in The Sun. His second novel, Decline of the Lawrence Welk Empire, won Foreword Magazine’s Book of the Year. The odd jobs, eccentric characters, boarding houses, buses, and beer that populate Ballantine’s work often draw comparisons to the life and work of Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac. Ballantine is the author of the true-crime book Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere (2012) and is also the subject of the documentary Poe Ballantine, A Writer in America. He has written four books – two collections of essays and two novels. Many of the stories he tells are taken from his personal experiences that include traveling, living on the road, and working some 75 odd jobs. One of Ballantine’s short stories, The Blue Devils of Blue River Avenue, was included in Best American Short Stories 1998 and his essay 501 Minutes to Christ appeared in Best American Essays 2006. He lives in Chadron, Nebraska, with his wife, Christina, and their son.

Dave Jannetta: Dave Jannetta is the founder of 32-20 Productions, a Philadelphia-based production company covering the full spectrum of film and video production with a focus on telling quality stories of all shapes and sizes. Dave has worked closely with Poe Ballantine to turn his story Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere into a documentary movie.

Dave will discuss taking a literary piece and working with it to create a visual representation.

Lisa Zimmerman: Lisa Zimmerman received a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from Washington University in St. Louis. Her poetry and fiction have appeared in the Colorado Review, Redbook, Paper Street, Poet Lore, Eclipse, Atlanta Review and many other journals. Her poetry has been nominated three times for the Pushcart Prize. She has published two poetry chapbooks as well as the full-length collections How the Garden Looks From Here, winner of the 2004 Violet Reed Haas Poetry Award, and The Light at the Edge of Everything (2008). Lisa is an assistant professor of English at the University of Northern Colorado and has been the poet-in-residence at Colorado schools in Aurora, Brighton, Longmont, Fort Collins and Idalia.

Recalcitrant Equality State legislators urged to come out and learn something about equality

Coming Out for Equality at the University of Wyoming

Wednesday, October 9 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. COE Library, University of Wyoming Room 506 Laramie, WY RSVP Today

On the 25th anniversary of national coming out day, full equality for LGBT Americans is closer than ever. Come learn about the progress we've made, and the steps ahead in our fight for full LGBT equality for everyone, everywhere.

Learn. Take action. Lead.

All HRC members, supporters, friends and family are welcome.

Recalcitrant Wyoming Republican legislators (you know who you are) are invited to come out and learn something.

Cowboy culture is important, but don't forget about the vaqueros, Native-Americans, railroads, dinosaurs, and so on

Nifty staff editorial in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle. It argues that the city's Downtown Development Authority should follow the recommendations of the national Main Street group. Main Street urges Cheyenne: "Do not adopt a theme, like cowboys, for its downtown."

The writers launch the editorial with this quote from the paper's comments section:

"Oh Please! Enough of this stupid cowboy stuff. It's past time for this ... town to grow up!"

Here's another one:

"Cheyenne is Western. It is cowboys ... Most citizens of Cheyenne do not need newbies to make non-Western decisions for the rest of us who love the Western way of life."

Just what is the "Western way of life?" Hard to say. The West's cowboy culture spawned a world of film, TV shows, books, handcrafted saddles, rodeo, storytelling, and song. That's a rich trove of material. It's celebrated in rodeos, such as our own CFD in Cheyenne, and in events such as the annual National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. Wyoming boasts a number of talented cowboy poets and musicians, many of whom actually spent time working on horseback -- Mike Hurwitz, Jared Rogerson, Andy Nelson.

Celebrate the cowboy but don't forget the Native American. The roots of the Western tribes go back much farther than the cowboy's. The dominant culture has just begun to appreciate this world. Much of what makes up cowboy culture was borrowed from The First Peoples and even The Second Peoples -- Spanish vaqueros predated the Wyoming cowboy by centuries. The term "buckaroo culture" is used by Hal Cannon, founding director of the Western Folklife Center in Elko. Folklorists contend that "buckaroo" is an Americanization of "vaquero."

And what about horse culture? Long before Lakota and U.S. cavalry clashed on horseback, the Mongols, Cossacks and Arabs used horses as weapons. Forget about Hollywood-style cowboys for a second. We should celebrate many centuries of horse culture in the West. It's a shame to carve out a few decades of Western history and declare this the theme for all time. We have a rich and varied history. And I haven't even mentioned railroads, energy booms-and-busts, politics, dinosaurs, weather, geology, immigration, the military and agriculture.

Let's not have one theme to our downtown. We are a complicated people. Let's reflect that in the ways that we revitalize our city.

How many Democrats would it take to fill in "The Hole" in downtown Cheyenne?

The mayor spoke to a small gathering of the Laramie County Democratic Grassroots Coalitions on Thursday night. He was supposed to keep his remarks to a half hour as he wanted to leave some time for questions and get home after a long day. We also wanted to get at those homemade cupcakes that Katherine brought to the gathering. 

Hizzoner brought a Power Point presentation. Normally this is cause for dread, as Powerpoints can be deadly dull. But his was quite interesting. All about the rebuilding of Cheyenne's infrastructure and planning for the future.

The good news? Cheyenne is growing at a rate of 1.5% to 2.5% a year. None of the Dems in the room asked what percentage of those are Democrats. About one-third, I'd say, as that's about the current rate of registered Democrats in Laramie County. Cheyenne is the Dem stronghold while the county's many Republicans tend to water down our influence, especially when it comes to writing wacky letters to the local paper.

This all gets a little dicey as I'm not very good with math, despite Sister Norbert's endless algebra drills. What would this problem look like on a quiz?

The City of Cheyenne has a 2012 populations of 61,303. The average growth rate is 2 percent. Thirty-four percent of those are Democrats. If newly-arrived Dems were used for some practical purpose, such as filling in The Hole downtown, how long would it take to fill in The Hole?

First of all, I'd have to know the dimensions of The Hole and those of your average Democrat, 18 and older. Once I had those numbers, the solution would be a breeze. Even English majors such as myself might be able to do the calculations.

But let's save that for another day. What we really want to talk about is progress. Cheyenne voters approved a big batch of public works projects during the most recent election. We have a new and improved Botanic Gardens in the works, as well as a new public safety building downtown. The "West Edge" project (already underway) will redesign that part of downtown with parks and parkways. Developers have already approached the city about housing and retail options, according to the mayor. We have a new airport in the works, as well as new downtown street lighting. Pershing Blvd., named for Blackjack himself, is being totally revamped. A new roundabout will debut in November that will solve the quandary of collisions at the intersection of three of the city's main drags. Why we have three major streets converging at one spot is probably a question for city historians. A new Safeway is planned for that neighborhood, and we'll be getting a new Wal-Mart at I-80 and College Dr. New sewer and water lines are being built to connect the Swan Ranch development with Cheyenne.

Everything's up to date in Cheyenne City.

This does not please everyone. Some people are wildly indignant about the roundabout. Others complain about all the streets being torn up. Some don't want to see Cheyenne grow at all, afraid it will lost its "Old West" feel. We don't want to be like Denver, some say about this other "Old West" town that long ago decided to live in the present instead of the past.

Remember: Wyoming is what America was. That's one of our old state tourism mottos. I'm glad it was retired.

Now, can anyone help me with this math problem. Just how many square feet cubic feet is your average incoming immigrating Democrat, anyway?
  

Hang out on the air during Banned Books Week

Banned Books Week, Sept. 22-28:

Hangouts on Air: Check out the awesome Hangout on Air schedule we have planned for Banned Books Week. Feel free to reshare the events and invite your circles. We’d appreciate any and all support to help spread the word.

9/23: PEN American Center and the ALA Presents: A Live Hangout On Air with Sherman Alexie

9/23: Banned Books Week event: Author Mark Vonnegut reads from Slaughterhouse-Five and discusses his father’s experiences with censorship 

9/24: Google+ and BookTrib Presents: A Live Hangout On Air with Jay Asher, 

9/24: Celebrate Banned Books Week - Discover What You’re Missing 

9/24: CBLDF Presents: Brad Meltzer on Banned Books Week, a Google+ Hang Out! 

9/25: Lauren Oliver and Friends: Banned Books Week 

9/26: PEN American Center Presents: A Live Hangout On Air with Erica Jong

The bounty of the neighborhood

Ruminations on the first full day of fall...

Our next door neighbor (let's call her "M") came over yesterday bearing carrots unearthed from her garden. The carrots were rotund and healthy looking, coated with dirt. Their tops were bushy. She has a bumper crop of veggies this year, plenty to cook and preserve and share. She brought me over to her garden to show that she'd only planted one-third of her newly-manicured plot. She's landscaped the plot with a dozen raised beds surrounded by brick and gravel walkways. Her three tomato plants have produced cherries and big juicy beefsteaks aplenty. Her pumpkin patch has jumped the garden fence and is heading for my house. Plump orange pumpkins are visible beneath the greenery. Her garden features three groupings of corn, the only corn I've seen hereabouts. I've never grown corn successfully, so I'm impressed.

We talked tomatoes. She has pureed, sliced, diced, stuffed and eaten them right off the vine.

"It's been a good year for tomatoes," I said. I have sliced, diced, pureed, put them on salads and eaten many cherries right off the vine. I've given them away. Sometimes I come home for lunch, stand out in the garden, and graze. Biting into a sun-warmed tomato sends shock waves to the brain's pleasure center. Someone happening upon me in this exalted state might be alarmed. They may wonder about my mental state, my state of sobriety. But I am high -- on tomatoes.

For dinner, I wrapped M's corn in aluminum foil and put them on the grill. I sliced the carrots and put them on a sheet of foil. Added snippets of my rosemary and basil, plus some olive oil and cinnamon. Wrapped it all up. Fired up the grill and put the corn and carrots on the fire. Marinated two Pacific salmon steaks. Put them on the grill for ten minutes. While waiting, drank a Pumpkick beer from New Belgium. This put me in the proper mood for dinner, which was marvelous.

It's Sunday morning and I'm still thinking about it.

September Colorado floods spawn toxic sludge

Wyoming writer Laura Pritchett surveyed the Colorado floods as a passenger in a small plane. Her article appeared today on OnEarth. Also on board the plane was a camera crew from CNN. The big story is one that's been almost ignored by the media -- how the flooding affected fracking wells in Weld County, the sprawling swatch of land just to the south of Laramie County in southeast Wyoming (my home). Great article, and scary for all of us on the High Plains. Read it at http://www.onearth.org/articles/2013/09/a-view-from-above-shows-how-the-colorado-superstorm-damaged-fracking-facilities

It's not good fences that make good neighbors

Neighbors.

Our tomcat Teddy chases my neighbor M's cat and, in return, M's tomcat sneaks in our pet door in the dead of night to eat Teddy's food.

We hear our neighbors' dogs barking but (we are thankful) not in the wee hours. The barking reminds me of our dog Coco, whom we had to put to sleep during the summer. Kind of a neighborly thing, really, dogs asking: "Why isn't Coco barking back as she used to do?" If it wasn't for our cat, the squirrels would be inundating our backyard. Coco's daily exercise was chasing the neighborhood's legion of squirrels.

Beyond the back fence are our neighbors from India. They've been in the U.S. for awhile -- their children speak as Americans while their parents have that Brit-inspired lilt of Indian speech. The wife occasionally holds garage sales with members of her church. I always drop by the purchase small items: a 1980s Denver Broncos' glass from Burger King; cartoonish alligator slippers that I wear during Florida Gators football games; some old plates emblazoned with a lightning bolt "S" as in "Shay." The husband works at our hospital. I was surprised when he was the one who conducted the most recent ultrasound of my heart. The family has put up a "Dead End" sign informing motorists that their odd little street that seems like an alley does not go through.

To the south, our born-again neighbor who's a teacher holds a Wednesday prayer rally. Cars line both sides of the street and I wonder how all of those people fit into that tiny house. Yet another miracle, I suppose.

To the north live my Mormon neighbors. The Mister is also a colonel out at Warren AFB. My wife and I were once quizzed about him by government agents doing background checks for a security clearance. We both gave him high marks for being a good neighbor. He must be a church elder too because he leads the Mormon handcart brigade down Capitol Ave. during the summer's Frontier Days parade. The Misses walks with him. They both dress in old-timey Mormon clothes. She is a terrific cook who bakes us Christmas goodies every year and who made me lentil soup after my heart attack.

Our neighborhood's only other known Democrat is T, M's wife. She's lugging around an oxygen tank these days. T knit us an afghan one Christmas. We rarely talk about politics.

Our tomcats carry on their little game. When shopping last night, I bought an extra bag of cat food. Teddy loves to chase M's cat when they are both outside. But when he comes to our house to dine, Teddy just sits and watches. Just his way of being neighborly.

Comic book writers are writers by any other name

I spent last weekend hobnobbing with writers and poets and editors.

One of the most intriguing ones was Kelly Sue DeConnick. She writes for Marvel Comics. Once upon a time I would have said that wasn't real writing. Comic books? Nah!

I've changed my mind. Not because I've read a bunch of recently-published comic books. I will, I swear, just as soon as I get over to the local comic book store. But it was DeConnick's talk at the Casper College Literary Conference that got me thinking about the comics and the literary world.

The literary world is M.F.A./fiction workshops/writers' retreats/coffee house poetry readings/small presses/chapbooks/NEA/grants/fellowships. Maybe some graphic novels based on cool books or short stories. But not comic books. 

The non-literary world is blockbuster best-sellers/romance/hobby writers/agents/New York Times Book Review/hard-boiled mysteries/big publishers/Barnes & Noble/advertising/marketing/film rights. And comic books.

We turn comic book superheroes into special effects-laden films. Batman/Superman/Spiderman/Avengers/The Incredible Hulk. And so on.

Kelly Sue DeConnick told a literary conference audience on Friday that she got her first jobs in comic books "by being a loudmouth on social media."

DeConnick is not only is on Facebook and Twitter (with 20,000 followers). She has a cool Tumblr site at kellysue.tumblr.com and her stand-alone western, "Pretty Deadly," which is set for an Oct. 23 release, is at pretty-deadly.com.

DeConnick, 43, grew up on military bases. "Very much a part of military culture to have comic books," she said. "It makes sense that people who sign up to give their lives for their country might see themselves in the heroic themes of comic books."

She loved "Wonder Woman" comics, although she noted that "Wonder Woman spent a lot of time in chains in the '70s."

Which brings us to the gender issue. Male writers and illustrators might feel compelled to portray a female superhero in bondage. DeConnick, now a member of the Comic Book Boys Club, has no such inclinations.

She writes Captain Marvel and Avengers Assemble for Marvel Comics. The Captain is now a woman, Carol Danvers. DeConnick wanted Danvers to be a real woman, one with flaws and good female friends, one who could also set right the universe when necessary.

This Captain Marvel in a long line of Captain Marvels began to gain a following. A group of fans called the "Carol Corps" grew with each issue. They submitted fan art based on the character, and they began to send Carol Danvers stories to DeConnick.

Then came the merch, such a Carol hoodies and dogtags.

"I got a letter from a civil rights attorney who wears Captain Marvel dogtags under her clothes every time she goes to court," DeConnick said. "I've heard from a doctor who wears dogtags when she goes into surgery."

The Carol Corps raised $2,000 online for the Red Cross after Hurricane Sandy. And it appears that a CarolCon-style ComicCon is in the works.

Issue No. 15 is out and DeConnick is working on the next installments. "The Internet doesn't know this, but she [Carol Danvers] gets her first kiss in issue 17."

DeConnick said that she works hard to present real women in her comics. She tries to avoid the Smurfette Principle -- the lone female character must represent all female traits. To avoid stereotyping, she applies the Sexy Lamp Test to her stories: "If I can replace one of my female characters with a sexy lamp and the plot still functions, I might need another draft."

DeConnick seems to enjoy her role as one of the few female comic book writers. Of the top 300 books produced in June, 6 percent were produced by women. Some of them were written by the same women, so DeConnick estimates that women might make up 2 percent of her industry.

However, when Marvel Comics asked her in 2009 to write the next saga of Norman Osborn, a.k.a. the Green Goblin, she was "proud to have been asked to pitch on a boy book." The result was "Osborn: Evil Incarcerated."

Still, it gets a bit old always being asked the same question: "What does it feel like to be a woman writing in a man's field?"

"I used to joke -- 'I write through my vagina'."

She's married to another comic book writer, Matt Fraction. who's never asked similar questions.

"I don't want to be He-Hulk," she said, "I want to be She-Hulk."

As is the case with most writers, DeConnick wrote a lot before getting published. She said that she may leave the comic book world behind some day in favor of novel-writing.

She often gets letters from young writers who ask how to get started in the biz."I ask them what they're written and they'll say 'nothing.' Nobody is going to ask you to fix a sink if you've only washed your hands."