Looking back on 2009

Matt Unrau

Wow, another year is almost in the books. Not just a year, but a decade is over. It’s been a busy year for me. I got my first job in the big world of journalism after college. I started as a reporter and now I’m the editor.

I think it’s important to wrap up the past before you look to the future and I have had many great moments that I can say goodbye to with the closing of the year.

First off, I would have to say that I’m a sports guy. I love sports, any and all kinds. More than anything else, I want to play sports, watch sports or talk about sports. So it was kind of a shock to enter my first day on the job ready to report on anything and everything, only to get the assignment of a quilt show.

Now don’t get me wrong, quilting is a great hobby. I still just have to laugh when I think of myself reporting on something so drastically different from my personality. A lot of my good friends laughed about it as well.

It was several months later that I remembered another great story that I got to witness. I drove my car to the top of Pat’s Knob by Plains and talked to Austin Urion about the joys of being a lookout on the lonely peak. Although it was a great time bouncing and jostling my Buick LeSabre to the top of the mountain ,what I’ll remember the most is the beautiful lonliness you can encounter on the vista handpicked by the Forest Service for its widesweeping views.

If I could convince you of one resolution this new year it would be for you to get yourself on top of a mountain someday or every day if you can manage it.

It was later in the year that I finally had the chance to report on my true interest, sports. And it was a great year to follow and report on the Savage Horsemen football team. After a long enough time, even though you’re at the game for a job, you still become a fan of the team and the players on it, and covering a high school team where the players live and die with every game is something truly special that is lost as players mature and the sport becomes a job.

As for the team from Plains-Hot Springs seeing the exhilaration of them beating Eureka in a miracle comeback and their despair after losing to Loyola is something I’ll remember for quite awhile.

Other than that I’ve tasted sweet melons from Dixon, lived through Noxon’s 100-year anniversary, hiked the mountains by Thompson Falls with a wolf expert, toured a Harvest Festival in Hot Springs and flown in airplanes over Plains.

Yep, it was a very good year.

Now it’s time to look forward to 2010 and make those sometimes ridiculous and mostly futile New Years resolutions. As a sidenote, what is everyone calling the next year, “ten” or “o ten” or even the longest version of “twenty ten.” I’ll guess everyone will figure that out in the next couple months. I just hope I don’t miss the memo on that one.

As for my New Year’s resolution the first one has to be playing the guitar more often. How about at least once a day, err, better make that once a week. Also I’d like to get more into kayaking. I’ve tried it a couple times in my life, the last time being with Crazy Woman Kayaks in Thompson Falls and I feel like there is a huge upside to the activity. And my last resolution will have to be…you know what, I think I’ll just play it by ear. That’s what I usually end up doing anyway.

Looking forward to seeing all of you next year,

Matt