Back after a long delay .... some of you have probably been running that infamous line from the movie, "Dances With Wolves", thru your minds over and over again....

"Now why don't he write?"

- (in reference to, for those who may have missed it, the bleached skeleton of a victim of native american vengence and scalping, laying in the grass of a sunny afternoon)

No, I'm not dead...or even mortally wounded...

In case you were wondering, I've been REALLY BUSY with college again.

(better have been! geez....*9* months since your last post here!)

Being a middle-aged old fart, with a wife and two of my kids -ALL of us- in college at the same time is nerve wracking, to say the least. Annie and I are entering our fourth full semester, and both of us took summer classes as well.

I'll be getting my Broadcasting (Electronic Media Production) Associates of Applied Science Degree on May 13th, 2005, and will be breathing a BIG sigh of relief when I take that walk across the stage.

I'll be the first in my family to have earned a college degree on my dad's side of the family. Dad (1936-2000) came within one semester of getting a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M but dropped out in the late 1950s when we kids started being born. He tried going back to get those last few classes, but never did finish the degree, even though he worked nearly 40 years as an electrical engineer at Texas Instruments.

I'll have worked my royal buttocks off in getting this first degree, and will be back next fall after this May graduation to continue my work on my SECOND degree...this one an Associates of Applied Science Degree in Web Design, a degree taking a bit longer as CWC only has one Web Design instructor, who also doubles as the college's webmaster.

Annie will have earned two associates degrees during this same time frame, including English and Social Science, and daughter Laurie will have earned both Theater and English Degrees by then.

Next year, our youngest son Kenny, (visit his website at http://www.kennyfleetwood.com ) will be coming to college after he graduates from Riverton High School, to work on degrees in music.

He already has done tremendous work on his own, getting his first DEMO CD done last fall, and writing more than 40 songs, with lyrics and music, as well as playing several concerts at local venues... including producing a multi-band concert night at the Riverton Fairgrounds to raise money for the Asian Tsunami Relief fund of the Red Cross, sponsored by the Riverton Library, Coca Cola Bottling Company of Riverton, the Ledge Coffee House, and the Armory.

He was invited to sing at the Wyoming Mens Choir event in Gillette on Jan. 16th of this year, with 170 men, making the largest men's choir ever in the state. He also sang the national anthem at the High School's basketball playoffs last month as well, and is a member of the Riverton H.S. Jazz Band, Concert Choir, AND Jazz Choir. He's also played parts in two college theater productions, and is practicing for an upcoming role in the next production here on campus.

He has his own recording studio setup in his bedroom, with hi definition microphones, multichannel recording hardware, his own PC with multitrack editing capability, and his collection of acoustic and electric guitars, midi keyboard, and amps (we've helped a little bit with hardware needs for him).

He spent most of the fall contacting record companies nationwide with a letter campaign seeking permission to forward his DEMO CD to them, and got contacts back from Brand New and Victory Records, and has found an advocate in a friend of mine, who spent 3 decades in the music world (country music), who still has contacts all along the east coast. Maybe Ken will hit it big sooner than he thinks...he sure has the talent.

Anyway, enough about the family, the degrees, and parents...

School for me has been exciting, enlightening, and EXHAUSTING.

Up to now, I've been working three part time jobs (tutoring, doing an overnite DJ radion show on 100,000 watt KTRZ-FM, and working master control at Wyoming Public TV three nites a week for the graveyard shift) to make ends meet, while taking between 16 to 20 hours of classes a semester. The homework load has been incredible, the labs for web and media ungodly in requirements, and the completion of the past semesters VERY much looked forward to.

Just what have I accomplished here at Central Wyoming College, since walking out of McDonalds in Worland on June 1st, 2003, to seek my destiny, after taking the final straw from a tyrant of an owner/operator, who made threats to my livelihood and family's future for not working 100 hour weeks anymore?

Well, the summer of 2003 was spent at Worland Cleaners, where I made $100 more a week as a Plant Manager, than I did as a General Manager at McDs.

I decided mid-July to go back to school, if the funding and student loans could be worked out. They were, and the last week of August, 2003, the family and I moved from our little old, drafty rent house in Worland, to a two bedroom dorm on the CWC campus. My wife Annie joined me in going back to school full time, and Rob and Laurie took classes as well.

I've done a lot of good, made a lot of friends, and done EVERYTHING I didn't do at college the first time around (1978-1986 at Richland Community College in North Dallas).

I've sitting on a 3.89 grade average, after getting my first 2 B's last semester (I *was* taking 20 hours of courses, and working those 3 jobs, mind you!), and have been on the Presidents Honor List three times, and the Deans List once.

What have I accomplished with my school work?

4 new student oriented websites, for the entire student body of just over 2000, here at Central Wyoming College.

A series of college student recruiting videos for the college, to help make future students aware of some of CWC's many programs.

A full 20 hours of music shows producted, directed, and edited for the college radio station (think space and ambient music).

Several full length video productions of campus events, including the September 2004 convocation with Gerry Spence (2 hours), the 2004 Theater Department medeviel "Madrigal Feaste" (2 hours), and the January 2005 Wyoming Men's Choir in Gillette, Wyoming (1.5 hours, 170 men, 6 songs, two cameras, one operator....me).

One new fully realized website for the SurvivalRing Online project - http://www.myfalloutshelter.com , done for my Dreamweaver/Fireworks class project.

Two visits to Cheyenne for Wyoming Public TV to televise State Government events, including last July's special session, and this years opening sessions and State of the State Address by the Governor. I got to meet Governor Dave Freudenthal twice (see a pic of him and I shaking hands in his office with the Wyoming State Seal behind us on my SurvivalRing homepage at http://www.survivalring.org ), as well as the speakers of the house and senate, and my local state representatives, while roaming the floors of the house and senate running cables and checking connections, and then running the audio board of our satellite truck during live digital broadcasts.

I have made the National Deans List, the American Scholars Award, been initiated into Phi Theta Kappa National Honor Society, and was one of only two people from our campus to be nominated by the CWC Student Senate for the Wyoming Community College Council Commission's Student Leader award (7 campus's statewide, so I'm one of 14 nominated, and we leave Monday for Cheyenne for a special get together on this), and I have voted as a Central Wyoming College Student Senator for Spring 2005 by the student body. Not bad for an old guy, huh?

I'm also president of the CWC Web Development and Tutor Clubs, President of the Alpha Chi chapter of the Phi Theta Kappa, and participate heavily with CWC Student Activity committee each week. And, in my *spare* time, I'm the campus geek, fixing other student's computers, or saving them from virus infections. It's nice to feel wanted.

Lot's of stuff sure has been going on, ya say? Yep...you could say that.

After we finish our coursework here in Central Wyoming, we are making plans to head back south to warmer climates, as the cold here has put Annies bad hip through major stress. We're looking at Jacksonville State University in Alabama as a possible next stop, where I'd like to earn my Bachelors Degree in Emergency Management, with a minor in Public Safety Telecommunications.

This program is one of only a dozen or so listed in FEMA's Higher Education Program website as offering 4 year degrees in Emergency Management, and I think this is where I need to be. We'll know for sure in a year or so.

There....I think that ALL the above should cover the "nine months" of missing bloggingness on this site...I'll try to be more timely in the future.

There's much more to come, and many more things to accomplish. SurvivalRing is about to go places even *I* never expected.

Thanks to ALL OF YOU for hanging in there thru the thick and thin, and I hope that you'll keep coming back for more.

Rich
Sunday Morning....SuperBowl 2004