Good Morning All, or at least those few who read these words I put out every once in a while.


Haven't really had much to say for a while, and cannot say that I do today either. But, thought that my paltry "audience" would be wondering where I was . . .


As with most of you, I have just been going to work everyday, albeit in a beautiful place. August is an exhausting time for us in many respects. Firstly, we begin to lose some of our seasonal rangers to school and teaching. What that means is that we will have to do the same number of programs through Labor Day with fewer folks to cover them, especially tough is the last couple of weeks of this month. Once Labor day has passed we do fewer programs so that the "heat" is off of us. Secondly, the type of visitors we get to the park changes during this month. A lot of folks have waited to cram in their vacation and are hot, tired and impatient. Many are overly demanding and downright rude. This is a time when rangers are becoming a bit "burned out" as well, so we have to be careful to not be come too "short" with them.


Once we hit September things change here. The type of visitors to the park are quite different. The kids are back in school, except for a few that are "home-schooled." Most folks are older who come later in the season. In addition, they seem more relaxed and interested as well as knowledgable.


The fall colors are the real bonus as we hit September and we even get a bit of snow from time to time, not as much as when I got here in May, but some. The nights become crisper, which I like very much. But, for now, we are still dealing with the heat. The fire danger has gone up to "Very High," and there have been fires in Yellowstone, one near Cody and one not far from Red Lodge, MT. All are not too far from here so we are watching carefully.

Movie Review:

It has been a poor summer for films with a couple of noted exceptions. Will Ferrell keeps cranking out really bad and sophmorphic films. I did get out to view Kevin Costner's new film, "Swing Vote." I can not say that it was a great film, but was somewhat entertaining. The young girl who plays his daughter is the best actor and real "star" in the film. It has some potential but suffered from poor editing which caused it to drag in the middle. There were some good messages about our voting and election system but they never really took a stand either way. Dennis Hopper was poorly cast and Kelsey Grammar did a passable job as the incumbent President. If you do not have anything else to do and your choice is between this and "Step Brothers," go see "Swing Vote," or better still, save your money.