Writings

Category: Nebraska Page 3 of 5

In the company of women

Each year, the members of Nebraska Press Women gather in the spring for a convention to announce the winners of their communications contest and to provide continuing education in areas members would like to learn. This year, as things have been extremely rough for me, personally and professionally, I debated skipping the event.

When Friday morning came, my husband, Paul, asked me if I still wanted to go. “Yes and no,” I said. I wanted to attend, but am so wiped out from the ever-increasing assignments at work that four days hiding in my house instead looked promising. However, a promise is a promise. I gathered my things and began my journey to Broken Bow, the site of this years convention.

Living with the memories

The memories are flames that lick the edges of my life, always anxious to burn me once again. They are always there and always exhausting. I want to cry. I’m angry. I’m tired. Some days, nothing makes them go away. A touch, a smell, anything that triggers the memories can ruin my day.

Attempted murder

It was day nine or ten living on the basement couch. Hours had been spent staring at the wall, the ceiling, the floor. I knew every flaw in everything in the room. I saw the cracks in the ceiling. I saw the holes in the wall. I traced the outline of missing parts of floor tile with my eyes. I didn’t care about any of it at all.

Keep flying. There’s no good pizza here.

Paul’s mushroom pizza. There is no way I would eat anything with those toppings. Paul said it was tasty and looked like a forest on top of his pizza.

The Flyover Brewing Company opened a little more than a month ago and people in town have been raving about how good their beer is. They also claim the pizza is delicious and everyone should eat there.

A couple of friends visited the first week they were open and raved about the beer. They wanted to try the chicken wings, but the business had run out of them. I frowned at that comment. How do you run out of chicken wings when wings and pizza is all your business sells. Still, I figured I’d give them a try. This pizza was supposed to be so tasty that even I, the great pizza snob, would like it.

Dust, dirt, life, and peacefulness are only a short drive away

Carter Canyon WMA.

I crossed the old wooden bridge over the canal on County Road 17 and continued on. The dirt road makes an almost ninety degree turn just up ahead before winding back to the left, then right, ending in a small, open area. A sign lets you know you all the people and organizations who have made this area possible. The Cedar Canyon Wildlife Management Area parking area is uneven and rocky. It’s just a dead end, but only for a vehicle.

Keeping an open mind

A bullet casing flies through the air as Kris Paronto takes target pracitce at Bluffs Shooters in western Nebraska.

As I traveled through the back roads of Scotts Bluff County and into the southern edge of Sioux County, I looked all around me. A red-tailed hawk sat on the wooden cross beam of a telephone line watching me as I approached. It kept a keen eye on my car until I stopped. Before I had a chance to take my camera out of its bag, the bird flew away. Knowing I didn’t have the zoom lens to track it and take its picture, I sat for a few moments watching it sail into the distance.

I continued my journey a little farther north to the Bluffs Shooters range for an active shooter training course I had been assigned to cover day one of a two-day event. As I pulled in just after 9 a.m., two men greeted me and told me I could park my car anywhere. They were happy someone from the media had come out to see what they were doing. I was less than ecstatic to be there.

I was supposed to be on a historical tour

A butterfly soars above the ground along the path to the Belmont Tunnel.

Each year, the Sioux County Historical Society Museum in Harrison, Nebraska hosts a historical tour around a portion of the county. This year’s trip took us around the eastern part of the county with highlights about the early-day settlers of Sioux County, family plots, schools, the Agate to Andrews Mail Route, and stops in Marsland and Belmont.

This is why we’re here

Youth enjoy the day at the Panhandle Equality Pride event at Frank Park in Scottsbluff.

Paul and I always attend the Panhandle Equality picnic. Now in its fourth year, the event continues to grow. This year, there were fantastic musical performances, some from acts who traveled from Lincoln and Omaha to be a part of making a difference in western Nebraska.

I don’t know everyone at the event, but there are always the familiar faces. They are working to make life better for the next generation so that, one day, the LGBTQ community won’t have to work so hard just to be seen as an equal.

Don’t believe everything you read

Travis Hiner’s guest editorial in the Star-Herald fails in so many ways, I was tempted to not even write this, but I honestly feel that, if you are going to publicly state your opinion, then it should be able to bear scrutiny. This editorial does not.

The best chicken in the world

I went to the Scotts Bluff County Fair and wrote stories for the Star-Herald about rabbits and poultry. I also met the best chicken in the world.

This is Mayda Leggott. She owns me, the best damn chicken in the world. Mrs. Brooke Heine helps the 4-H kids out because they need both their hands free to keep us chickens from running away. Shush now. I need to listen and make sure Mayda tells the judge everything she’s supposed to.

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