Welcome!

I’m ready for my close-up Mr. Lund

I thought perhaps we could all use a shot of Brandy on this somber day.(September 11^th) Brandy, in this case, is our granddog: a 9 year old Shih Tzu who comes under our care for a couple weeks each year and makes me go through these annual yearnings for a dog of our own. I express these desires to my wife, who also loves Brandy’s visits, but who correctly points out the impracticality of pet ownership when we’re gone so much; the unfairness of it all to the poor animal and how we can’t be asking friends and family to be doggysitting every time we get a chance to host a two week tour somewhere or decide to spend January in Arizona or want to take off with Denny and Joanie for a long weekend road trip.

Still, there’s nothing quite like the feeling of when Brandy jumps up on the bed and snuggles in your armpit overnight or lets you pet her head through an entire football game on TV.

Of course Linda didn’t find anything too romantic yesterday about taking a long walk with Brandy who seemed to have been saving up a week’s worth of #2’s for this particular outing; steamy little projectiles that used to be considered fine fertilizer for lawns but now anger homeowners who regard them as extremely offensive effluvia that turn lawn mowers into manure spreaders. She had to delicately finagle the plastic bag she was legally obliged to carry along in such a way as to scoop up the excrement without coming in contact with her sensitive skin.

She said, upon her return to the house, “It was okay at first, but Brandy felt the need to stop, squat and lay a log in somebody’s yard for three straight blocks.”

Then, last night, Brandy curled up on Linda’s side of the bed and..well, I may have another shot at making my case. We’ll see.  I might have to call Tom Gunlicks, my dog whisperer Facebook friend, for some advice and boarding rates.

As most of you have heard, Keloland News made this past week what I think was a brilliant move; hiring Kevin Woster to fill the vacancy in our Rapid City news bureau.

Kevin Woster
Keloland News

I won’t go into detail about how Kevin became available for employment after long stretches with both the Sioux Falls Argus leader and the Rapid City Journal. It’s all on the web. The point is, we got him which means Keloland News has on its payroll one of the most seasoned journalists in the state with expertise in government at all levels, the great outdoors, sports, music, feature reporting..on and on. Plus Kevin will bring a whole new dimension to our already top rated website with his nose for news, his long list of sources, and the respect he has from his years of experience and preparation.

I know in this business one might think we all know each other but, aside from being Facebook friends, Kevin and I are basically only acquainted through mutual admiration.

I have been a big fan of all three Woster Brothers since first meeting Jim the elder back in 1972. I loved the way he felt so at ease doing the livestock markets on TV and radio entertaining even those of us who didn’t give a rip about the sale price on a load of black baldy cattle from Puckwana.  Jim and I have been good pals for nearly 40 years now. There’s not a better man on the planet. Well, maybe his brother Terry Woster could qualify. I didn’t know Terry as well, but have let him know on several occasions that he, along with another former Argus Leader alum, Kim Ode, have been a great influence on my career and inspired me to be a better writer. Of course, all the Woster boys are so self effacing, they’ll just say “ah shucks” to a compliment and then go back to writing something brilliant.

I really hadn’t read that much of Kevin’s stuff until I started blogging myself and then quickly realized that he had drunk from the same well on that Lyman County farm near Reliance.

Oh, yeah, Kevin has been a prolific political blogger with the Journal’s Mt. Blogmore and I understand he plans to continue blogging on Keloland.com which means I better make like Brandy and get my poop in a group in order to keep up.

Welcome again, Kevin.