At Home in Wyoming

The Park County Library

  
There are a lot of people that read this blog that used to live in Cody...so they check it out to see pictures of their old hometown.  I thought that they might like to see the new Park County Library building (which is really the old Marathon Building).  I admit that I was not too happy when they changed buildings, for selfish reasons...the old library was not far from my house, and I used to like to walk there in the evenings when they were open.  But now that the new library is open, I have become a big fan...so here goes the $2.00 tour...

 
This is a cozy little reading spot at the entrance.  There is a rack of newspapers near the fireplace, and with the sun streaming in through the windows it becomes the perfect spot to read the paper.

 

This is the Biblio Bistro...really good food at reasonable prices, or a quiet place to have coffee with a friend.

 

This is the outside patio...which in the summer is a nice place to sit because it borders the old Marathon Building pond, and you can watch the ducks.

 

Save a dollar or two by reading all the latest magazines at the library.  To the left is the Media Center, where you can check out books on tape, DVD's and videos.  

Now there was lots more.  A Children's Library, a Teen Room, lots of places for meetings, and a Used Book Store.  Not to mention rows of computers, desks and tables...but I was afraid to use the flash on my camera anymore for fear of getting run out of the place.  Librarians frown on flashes, I'm sure!

So if you live in Cody and you haven't been, check out the new library.  And if you have moved far from home...well, the new library is just one more reason to come back! DLB
 
 
  

 

 

Snow, Cold...And Chocolate Coffee With Mint!

 
My house looked so forlorn after all of the Christmas decorations were packed away, so I decided to make a snowflake tree to sit on the top of the piano.

Winter came back a day or so ago, and with it came a few inches of snow.  Not that I mind snow, but I was really enjoying the milder temperatures.  Then a few minutes ago my husband came upstairs and asked if I would like to go for a drive in the country...he even bribed me one of those chocolate coffees with mint in it from Rocky Mountain Mudd...and suddenly I don't mind it so much that winter came back!  Isn't it funny how sometimes the smallest things can change your whole frame of mind? 

Have a nice weekend!    DLB

 

 

 

The Old Cody Theatre

 
On Main Street in Cody sits the old Cody Theatre...looking the way that movie theatres used to look, with the red velvet portieres and the old fashioned popcorn machine.  For a while, I remember that they  even sold old fashioned penny candy in the lobby.  I especially liked it because it is just a few blocks from my house, so my husband and I were able to walk there on summer evenings to catch a show.

So it was with real dismay that I read in the paper that it was closing.  People were opting for the newer multiplex theatre out on the Powell highway with cushioned rocking chair type seats and surround sound (I can't blame them, I like those cushioned seats myself).  But I wondered what would happen to the old Cody Theatre.  I hoped it would not be boarded up and abandoned like so many other small town Main Street theatres.

Luckily, the old theatre found a new use!  From mid May each year until the third week in September, it is home to Dan Miller's Cowboy Music Review...a 'fast paced, family friendly show featuring songs of the American West, cowboy poetry and comedy' every night but Sunday.  They put on quite a show, so it you wind up in Cody this summer take it from me, it is worth every dollar!

In addition, the Cody Wild West Show sponsors the Cody Concert Series in the winter.  As you can see on the marquee in the picture, Billy Dean will perform this month (remember the song about missing Billy the Kid?), and I heard a rumor that the Kentucky Head Hunters are coming next.  Past performers were Lacy J Dalton, TG Sheppard, Mel Tillis (I am still kicking myself for not getting tickets to that concert), Suzy Bogguss, Gary Morris, Waddie Mitchell and BJ Thomas (who I believed performed at the Wynona Thompson Auditorium for a Christmas Concert).  Let me tell you, for a small town in the dead of winter, these concerts are big doings!

But what I like most of all is that an old building has found a new use, and won't be torn down or abandoned.  Behind those velvet portieres are lots of happy memories...and while memories are stored in your mind, the visual reminder of them stirs up a cozy sort of nostalgic feeling in a world that is zipping by, and changing too darn fast for its own good!    DLB

 

 

A Sigh Of Relief Called January

 
Pahaska on Christmas Day, 2009.  This is Buffalo Bill's hunting lodge built around 1904, located near the East Gate to Yellowstone Park, some 50 miles or so from Cody.

Did you ever notice how quiet it is when you are outdoors during a snowstorm?  Even smack in the middle of town, all the noise seems muffled somehow, as the world fills up with snow.  That muffled sound is the way that I feel about the month of January.  After all of the hustle and bustle from the concerts, the shopping, the gift wrapping, the church services, the twinkle lights, the cooking, the parties and all the festivities...well, I think that January comes just in time. 

The saying is that all of nature abhors a vacuum, and at no time is that more true than the month of January.  Once the tree is down and the wreaths are pulled off of the windows and packed away for Decembers to come, I start to look around and think, 'what's next'?  Maybe that is where New Year's resolutions and making goals kick in...something new to occupy yourself with, to fill in the vacuum of space and peace and quiet.

But this year I am going to try to just let the month of January unfold on its own, without me organizing it to death.  I am going to try to do less instead of more.  Instead of de-cluttering and reorganizing my house like all the magazines are telling me to do, I am going to take walks, read and yes...take a nap now and then.  The daily things that I need to do I will do of course, cooking and cleaning and feeding the dogs.  But other than that, I am not going to mess with the space that the departing December sucked up.   I intend to think more, and do less. Yep, the month of January came just in time. 

 But you know what?  I am going to miss those twinkle lights! DLB

 

A Christmas Day Drive

Every year that we can, we take a Christmas drive up the North Fork toward Pahaska.  This year we saw no elk, but we did see a lot of big horn sheep, deer and four buffalo bulls that meandered across the road.  I didn't get a real clear picture (impatient husband) but this is what I did get...

 
I wish that they would have lifted their heads, but they were serious about eating.  As cold as it has been, I can't blame them.    DLB

 

The Weather Outside Was Frightful...

Snow resting on my front gate holiday decoration this morning...

Cody had two snowstorms today...so now we have three inches of snow, guaranteeing a white Christmas.  The roads were scary, but tonight the snow is pretty drifting across the Christmas lights outside my upstairs windows...   DLB 

 

 

All Aboard!

 
All Aboard!  If you have visited Cody in the summer, you are used to seeing the Trolley cruising around town, showing points of interest to all the tourists.  But it is winter now, the tourists have gone home...so the locals get to use the Trolley for the Christmas Lights Tour.  Hop on aboard, and you can see how your neighbors decorated their houses for Christmas this year!

What I like about the trolley at Christmas (besides the hot chocolate and the blankets to wrap up in if you get a chill) is the music.  Christmas carols are played, and everybody sings along.  If you are lucky enough to get a tour with a lot of kids (as we were tonight) you get to hear a rousing chorus of "Rudolph" and "Frosty the Snowman", and of course the classic "Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer"...all guaranteed to put you in a holiday mood!

If you live in Cody and are thinking about taking the Trolley Christmas Tour, call for reservations because the seats fill up fast.  Dress warm, and try to pick a night that the weather channel says is not going to be too cold (I took a trolley ride once in subzero temperatures, the windows froze up so you couldn't see and I darn near froze).  That aside, the tour is really worth the $9.00 for the 45 minute tour.  Some homeowners really outdid themselves this year (I shudder to think of their electric bill) and for the first time the Trolley is able to go down Gail Avenue, because they found a place to turn the Trolley around before reaching the end of the dead end street.

So bundle up and hop on board...and get ready to sing to sing about that red nosed reindeer!    DLB

 

Waiting

 
This dog could teach my husband a thing or two about patiently waiting while your loved one is finishing up the Christmas shopping.  I spotted this dog outside of Rocky Mountain Sports, waiting...and waiting...   DLB

Heart Mountain

When we first moved to Cody from southeastern Wyoming some 25 years ago, my husband said the someone had pointed out to him that the outline of Heart Mountain resembled the face of an Indian Chief with a wart on his chin.  Can you see the profile?  If not, try this...

Can you identify the profile now? 

I can see Heart Mountain from the upstairs windows of my house when I am making the bed or scouring the toilet.  Whether it is covered with snow, green from the spring rains or brown with drought it is always reassuring to see, and wherever I may roam, when I see that dignified profile come into view from the highway...I always know I am home!   DLB

 

 

 

Lovely Things

This picture was taken yesterday in front of my house.  When I snapped the picture, I didn't notice the deer standing a block away...can you spy him?

Amid all the hustle and bustle of this happy season, I am reminded not to get too carried away by this quote (or is it a poem?) by Edna St. Vincent Millay...

"And all the loveliest things there be Come simply, or so it seems to me."

Isn't that the truth?  You can plan, you can prepare, you can shop...but the things that you always remember and never forget are the simple things, like someone sticking those silly reindeer antlers on their head, or the grandchild that liked the wrapping paper and bows better than what came inside the box, or that it snowed on Christmas Eve.  The things that memories are made of do usually come simply...and are simply priceless.  DLB