2017 started out with a question mark. The Great Orange Fuhrer was just elected as our president due to a major backlash against our country's first black president and a bunch of white guys feeling emasculated because the times they were a-changing. But between the politics and regular work that I do, I was actually able to get things accomplished this year and hope to continue all the good work into the new year.
The first big thing was attending our local Women's March after Inauguration Day at the Kansas State Capitol. It was great seeing hundreds of people stand up against a president and administration that doesn't have the average Americans' best interest at heart. Mostly, it was great seeing inspirational people and hearing inspirational speeches aimed at getting people involved and, when it comes right down to it, just being a decent human being. Politics have always been pretty important in my household since my first date with my wife was at Yello Sub while watching the Super Tuesday election results back in February of 2008. I also started getting more into local events, my first one was a celebration in the City of Topeka paying off the bonds to rebuild the Topeka Boulevard Bridge early. After a short speech from the mayor, a small group of people, me included, walked from the old Post Office in North Topeka across the Boulevard Bridge to the south bank of the Kansas River and back again. It was an odd thing to celebrate but I was glad I did it. February also ended with getting to see Hasan Minaj at Liberty Hall and Senator Bernie Sanders at Topeka High School.
For my birthday, I went on a tour of an area of the Flint Hills that I don't normally get to see. We went to see places in Marion, Cottonwood Falls, Strong City, Florence, and Cedar Point which gave me a better appreciation for other places in Kansas and made me want to learn even more about the state that I call home. Shortly after my birthday, I learned that I was going to be working at the Territorial Capital Museum in Lecompton over the summer as an interpreter.
While at Lecompton, I wrote a few articles for their website, got more acclaim for my research on the Douglas County Poor Farm and even gave a presentation on it. I was also on the radio talking about it and other things and hired to do some research on Lawrence history for Lawrence Magazine which came out earlier this month. As a parting gesture, I wrote a special article for the Lecompton Historical Society newsletter, The Bald Eagle, about Henry Miles Moore. Also during this time, I began working on bringing back my website and delving more into history and research.
What I hope to accomplish for 2018 is to do more research and work to get those published somewhere other than my website. I'm also working on keeping a tight schedule in relation to the Story Series and Losers Are Made, Not Born so there is no lag between issues and finishing my second book by the end of the year. But I'm also working on a collection of short stories and am going to try to get a couple of the Story Series published into book form for easier reading. I also want to finish my comprehensive research on the Miller family. I also want to use my Instagram more for cemetery pictures and other history related and also get into other types of media such as video and am currently scripting a couple of video ideas.
There's a lot I want to do over the next year from writing to research to conservation to exploring and I want to be able to share what I do. I will continue trying to post what I can online and, as always, you can catch me and whatever I write posted on Facebook (which I promise to use more in 2018), Twitter, Instagram, this very site, and Patreon where you can pledge money to me if you like what I do and would like help me do even more. I would like thank regular readers, newcomers, casual observers, basically anyone who has spent at least sometime looking over what I write. It's nice to have an audience to indulge me in my silly little works but also to entertain them. I am entering my tenth year running Tauy Creek and I'm hoping to make it the best year I've ever had. None of it I could do without you, the readers.
I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and a great 2018. As always, please tell your friends about this website and I remain...
~Brian
