The grass is not greener on the other side of my career, in fact, it’s brown and is growing in sand with multiple cacti. 

I have a special opportunity to send you one more column for the Record-Times and the Gazette.  I am writing from an air-conditioned library on a very warm Saturday afternoon. When I came down, I imagined golf, softball, elk, wild horses in the Arizona mountains and taking pictures in the desert.

I underestimated the brutality of the warmth in the desert. But in its defense, I’ve never lived in a desert before. Suffice to say it is hot. Today it is 113 degrees and tomorrow will be 118.

It’s the kind of heat where the air conditioning in the car feels like a warm tropical breeze. So far, I saw dead horses in on the side of the road in the mountains of Arizona around Starr Valley and I had to take issue with a place called a valley that was 7,000 feet above sea level and the drop-offs made me a little queasy. 

Oh… and since this is more like a family Christmas card update, I will tell you that all working out is done inside, golf is for the brave and burned and swimming is done in pools where the water is 92 degrees.

I noticed that speed limit signs are not readily available on all roads so I guess you just have to be clairvoyant when knowing what the speed is. I thought to myself that it really doesn’t make any difference, because even if I speed, is there actually an officer that is going to stand outside my vehicle in the scorching heat and give me a ticket. 

Absolutely not. Again, I misspoke. Had my first taste of being pulled over for going 55 in a 35 mile stretch that was out of town. The officer was nice enough, but I don’t think cars in Wyoming can go as slow as 35 miles per hour.

I will actually be sitting down in my new office officially, July 14, but it will be bittersweet as memories of a place I loved and called home is ever on my mind and will be for a long time. The complaints of that 34” snowfall that I was busting loose in March have all but melted in the heart of the heat.

Instead of being somewhat in command, knowing how things worked, I shall venture into a sort of Twilight Zone where I have some angst about the unknown. 

I also am going to a town of almost 50,000 and compared to the traffic in Platte County, this is insanity. Heat and traffic. Oh, that just makes me get my grumpy on.

All in all, though, they say what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and I am looking forward to that.

I know, going forward that the bar was set high in Platte County, but I am confident that the new team will come in and continue and exceed the successes we have had. All I ask is that you have an open heart, an open mind and you open your arms as wide to the new people as you did to me.

Those open arms went a long way. They will again.