​There’s a school of thought that says snow covers the ground, hiding what’s underneath. On the contrary, snow is like a magnifying glass, a window on wildlife that we almost always miss in the ‘uncovered’ months.

Some things you never get tired of. Some things are just as cool the last time as they were the first time. Coming home from an evening meeting I startled ten to twelve elk on our driveway. They trotted out of the way. Some were on the edge of my headlights, others were large specters moving off in the dark.

​If you’ve been following this blog or my Facebook posts you know we moved from New York to Montana. I don’t regret a minute, but there are a few things missing here.

​I get bored easy. They told me I would miss work, haa. I haven’t been bored yet. Retirement is not only about the things you don’t have to do anymore (ie commute in traffic, go to stupid meetings, smile at your boss), it’s about doing cool things you want to do as opposed to all things you had to do. One of the things I like to do now is Habitat-for-Humanity. It’s like watching/helping someone’s dream take shape.

​The most difficult search and rescue calls seem to come at the most inconvenient times. It was after 8 PM when the call came in that an 80-year old woman with dementia had left her home and was missing. It was getting dark and time was ticking away.

The need became apparent when my wife Kat convinced me that a garage should be used for parking cars and not for man-projects. Our first Montana winter here confirmed she was correct. At first, I thought I might have bitten off more than I could chew. But then, how do you know how much you can chew until you take a bite?

​Wandering on old, over grown trails and logging roads it’s easy to imagine that, even if you weren’t the first to trod this trail, you just may be the first in many years. That the things you’re seeing might not have been seen by anyone else.  Sometimes, you get a surprise.

The Vietnam War ended in April 1975, I graduated from High School in June of 1975. What if I had been born just a little earlier, or if the war had lasted just a little longer? Today I ate lunch with a group of guys who didn’t have to wonder, they were called and they served.

I can’t help but sigh when people ask, “What kind of dog is that?” If I feel like being flippant, I answer, “A big, black dog.”

I have taken many first aid classes over the years, everything from 4-hour CPR to the Coast Guard 80-hour Medical Person-In-Charge. I was even a Coast Guard/Red Cross approved instructor. What else could I learn?