Living in the West is Like Living on Vacation

While Lander may not be the end-all, be-all of small towns out west, I do have to remember how many cool things there are in this area. What most people do on a well-planned and expensive vacation, I can do on an impromptu weekend. Or even in a day, if I started early. Jackson Hole, WY and Grand Teton National Park are the same distance away as the nearest Target. In the summer with no construction, that drive would be similar to the commutes some people in Chicago or DC have to work.

Sometimes I do have to remind myself how lucky I am. These photos can be taken just on the other side of the Fremont-Teton county line. Perhaps this is why people think I'm continuously on vacation? :-)

The Misplaced Mountains

The Tetons are astounding if only because they can be right there, and you may not see them.


They aren't huge mountains, especially if you're used to the Fourteeners in Colorado. The difference is, you can be right next to them, as they slink through the trees, playing with light and shadow and mounds of rock and mud to pretend they aren't really there. But the trees clear for an instant, and the shoulder falls away, and there they are, throbbing awkwardly in the sky above the snowy plains, alone.


The Tetons are freak mountains, lost mountains, misplaced mountains, a skeletal spine of sullen granite that grew roots amidst the emptiness of the Wyoming plains.


You climb the top of a mountain in Colorado and you see empty mountains, an endless cacophony of serrated edges and invisible depths and parasitic mines and rich white Americans looking to conquer them all. But you climb on top of Grand Teton, and you see what you have been seeing on the entire drive across Wyoming... more flat, dusty, boundless Wyoming.

Why Women Fall For Cowboys

A photo essay, photos taken at The Nature Conservancy's Winchester Ranch:

These are the Voyages

As the Earth would look from space if it were really a globe of glass with delicately-etched continents. Lucky Lane, the final frontier... Is this the world or....?


If you guessed "wine globe decanter that I got from Jody as a wedding present and that is now sitting on my wine rack but WAS sitting on top of the BluRay player on top of a 19th-century school desk in my living room," you'd be right! Otherwise, you just have no imagination. :-D

Popo Agie Falls

Snow covers ice covers water covers frozen ground covers winter

The river runs, running, sputtering despite the chains of solid cold


Drips oozes sloshes, under the ice, you can see it shuffle by, blue in blue, bluer than sky, bluer than cold, trickling if you squint


The Falls don't fall as much as impose, silent and stiff, cracking with anticipation

of a warmer day.

Escape

It was cold, pushing zero degrees


but the sunshine and blue skies made it worth it.


Only a mile in, and we already felt completely alone, completely wild. No
more power lines or sewers or houses, just endless mountains and pine trees and snow.




The trail was marked only with idle footprints, but we knew the way.

Non Sequitur TV Confusion

On a completely non-sequitur note, I'm having trouble figuring out the method or madness behind TV/cable networks and why they show shows when they do.

For example: "Castle" is on at 10 pm EST, which translates to 9pm Central. I get that. But this also means 9pm MST, which is where I get confused. Why not 8? That would follow: 10 on the east coast, 9 in Chicago, and 8 in Denver.

Except "Burn Notice" is also on at 10 EST and 9 Central, and then 8 Mountain.

"Chuck" is on 8pm EST, 7 CST, and 7 MST. But there are several other shows that do not push as early as 7, and so though they start at 9 EST, they start at 8 here in Wyoming.

"White Collar" is on at 10 EST, 9 CST and 8 MST.

"The Daily Show" is on at 11 pm EST, and begins here in Wyoming at 9.

And I haven't a clue when things start on the west coast. Why does it bother me that there is no Time Zone Transition conformity and that they provide no explanation? Jeez.

And now you have a rundown of the TV shows I watch. Herm...