Hello from Mukilteo and hey it’s great to be back home where it’s warm. My buddy Paul from Aberdeen asked me to take a road trip to Helena Montana and I just returned to the warmest place I’ve ever known. My apartment on a St. Patrick’s green golf course.

Bruce “The Snow Blower” Hilliard here and not since my winters at WSU have I witnessed cold like Montana cold…four below…bitter fricken fracken cold and in March! I packed lightly and don’t actually own skiing or North Pole exploration gear. 

Instead I resorted to layers. Lots of layers. I borrowed shoes about five sizes larger than mine from Paul’s brother-in-law and local artist Scott. I also wore Scott’s down coat, again, way large…cuz I'm a little guy. I looked like Ralphie’s little brother in the Christmas Story movie.

There are still plenty of Trump signs and I think even Donald would complain that it was too cold to vote. The warmth of the people more than made up for it. The topic of Russia attacking Ukraine came up a few times. 

I co-wrote a song called Snow Angel with a beautiful friend Victoria who currently lives in Germany. She is originally from Russia and is super sweet. She also sings, plays flute and piano on this. If you’re listening Victoria Lye, here’s to your health, here's to snow angels everywhere. Imagine being alone in a log cabin in the mountains of Montana on this one.

I was invited to a community potluck gathering at the local Helena fire department. There were about 30 plus refrigerator resilient residents there. We had probably 30 yumfull dishes too. But, I came with no dish, just a song. It was worthy of this song, Sweetest Thing I’ve Ever Known.

I played mostly covers. It was a great audience. The kids danced like children of the night and clearly copied some of my spider monkey dance moves. A very Montana looking rancher introduced himself as Bruce Anfinson. He owns and operates a ranch slash restaurant slash horse drawn sleigh and wagon rides slash music venue. Bruce, like most good Bruces, is a musician, singer/songwriter and sings the songs of the land.

I hope to have him on the show soon.