Wow! How big a slacker am I?

It has been entirely way too long since I’ve posted anything on my blog, and lots of things have been happening.  I have a lot of updates to make, but for the same reasons that I haven’t been posting lately, I won’t try to do them all at once.  Since I  returned from my trip to Wisconsin the throttle has pretty much been all the way open trying to get things ready at Red Lodge Mountain.  The resort opens each year the day after Thanksgiving and our busiest week is the one between Christmas and New Year.  Our fiscal year starts on October 1st so it seems inevitable that each year a bunch of projects get approved in early October and we spend all of October, November and December scrambling to get them all implemented and in place as quickly and efficiently as possible.  This year so many projects were approved that involved me, that I’m just now getting caught-up with everything.  It isn’t an ideal scenario, but it is somewhat predictable.  As we’re now less than 2 weeks from the end of  the season, I’m hoping that I will now find time to be more active with my blogging and with crossing items off of the list. 

Here are a few updates.  Expect more in the next few days.

15. Run for and get elected to the City Council

Well, election day came and went and no write-in campaign surfaced against me.  I ran un-opposed for the open seat on the Red Lodge City Council from Ward number one.  Election results can be found here.  I took office on January 11th of this year after being sworn in at the beginning of the first council meeting of the year.  Interestingly enough, the other seat from ward one was vacated by Jason Priest who was just elected to the Montana State Senate.  Jason was half-way through a two-year term and so we had to appoint somebody from the ward to complete his term.  So, almost immediately after being sworn in, I joined the rest of the council in choosing between two very qualified candidates to take the seat next to me.  Both gentlemen have a long history of service to our community in a variety of ways.  In the end, we selected Ed Williams to join the Council.  Ed is a very intelligent and reasonable person and I look forward to accomplishing several things for the benefit of Ward One and the City of Red Lodge.

Newspaper Clipping of Being Sworn-in as a Council Member

Another point that I’ve found interesting is that my friend Aaron is the second most senior member of the Council, but because he is from the same ward as the most senior member of the council he will still be the junior member from ward number 3.  Conversely, I became the senior member from my ward on the same night that I was sworn in.

24. Go to an opera each year with my mother.

Shortly after returning from Wisconsin, my mother helped Cass drive her troubled car back to Montana and then spent some time out here with me.  While she was here, the three of us went to see The Merry Widow, an opera presented by the Rimrock Opera Company at the Alberta Bair Theater in Billings.  Much like many other opera companies in what I would call medium size cities, the Rimrock Opera presents two operas each year: One in the spring and one in the fall.  I wasn’t familiar with The Merry Widow, a German operetta composed by Franz Lehar, but we were eager to see the show as this was the first opera we’d seen in Billings and the first Cass had ever been to.   My mother and I were a bit disappointed when we realized that they were performing in English rather than in German.  We sort of prefer to hear the music in the language originally written, especially since the super-titles allow you to follow the dialogue anyway.  (I’m told that the Rimrock Opera always does their fall performance in English and the Spring Opera in the original language.)

In the end, it wasn’t the best opera we had ever seen – well it was for Cass — but we all still enjoyed the show.

 

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