My Relationship With Snow Has Not Changed......Reposting!

This is reposted from Living On Liquid circa...Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Dear Snow...

Dear Snow,

It seems you and I have a bit of a love/hate relationship.

I love you when you are new and you make everything look clean.

I love you when you fall straight down.

I love you when you are powdery.

I love ALOT of you under my snowboard or skis.

I love sliding through, over and under you on my snowmobile.

I love the way you make the night more bright.

I love the way you make my kids laugh.

I love the crunchy sound you make under a pair of boots.

I love the way my dogs jump through you.

I love the way Grandpa's horses look when they run through you.

I love the way you give my kids a reason to go outside in the cold.

I love how you go hand in hand with Christmas.

Now the part where I give you some constructive criticism...

I hate you when you fall sideways...I know it is more of the wind's fault...but it takes two to "tango/blizzard".

I hate you when you fall on the seat of my car even after I have brushed you off my door jambs.

I hate you when you find the holes where my gloves and coat don't exactly seal up.

I hate you when you get all packed up after the plow goes by my house.

I hate you when you are slushy and hard to run through my snow blower.

I hate you when you leave behind that muddy mess sometimes known as late-March.

I hate you in April.

AND...I hate you in November for that matter...December 1...you are welcome anytime, but before that and I cuss you.

I hate you when you can't decide who you want to be, ice or flake...pick one, I prefer you flaky.

Last but not least...I hate you when you come over too often, like the last few days, when I put more miles on my snow blower than my snowmobile. I think your work/play ratio should be 80% play 20% work...lately it has been the opposite.

Take these statements with love, and know that I really like your season of the year, just in moderation.

Love,

Tom

Veteran's Day Explained.

On Monday night Brecken found out that all of his buddies that go to Huron Public Schools got "Veteran's Day" off, and the snow on the ground was begging to be tore up by the snowmobile...he was bummed to find out that he had school on Tuesday, and this was his comment from the backseat.

"I really wish we got Veterinarian's Day off from school at James Valley."

Steph and I looked at each other, and busted out laughing.  Then Steph took the time to explain Veteran's Day to the kids and that the day is for honoring soldiers like Grandpa Roger for their service in the military.

Then I did some checking and Veterinarian's Day is really a thing...and in 2015 it is celebrated on April 25th...which is a Saturday.   SOOOOOOO Brecken will get his wish and on Saturday, April 25th we will celebrate "World Veterinarian's Day" by not going to school.

Maybe we could send him with Dr. Porter or Dr. Rink for the day?

New T-Shirt Coming Soon...With Smallish WINGS!!!???

Part of being a business owner is that you have to wear a lot of different hats or you will end up paying way too much money to farm out your everyday business work.  If a computer doesn't work, I fix it...if the taxes need to be paid, Steph does the necessary book work, if we need to update our marketing info, we both sit down and fight about design, content, ect.  (and Steph usually has the final say, and it is correct.)

My favorite part of the side hustle parts of this job is the marketing.  Social media, blog writing, public engagement and logo control.  Most people know that the LakeHaus brand is the one with the WINGS. 

When I made the original logo I had no idea just how brilliant the WINGS would be in developing a brand that people would recognize.  Honestly, I have even seen another recent start up photographer in South Dakota implement WINGS into their logo.  (I was a bit ticked and flattered at the same time, as I knew that they followed our work for quite a while and it wasn't a coincidence in branding.)

We have had many people tell us they love our marketing photos with the big WINGS on the images.  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and this Blog help us keep our advertising costs very low and the WINGS and our amazing images set us apart from the rest of the pack.

That all being said, I designed a new t-shirt that will roll out in 2015....and the WINGS are kind of gone...Well, they aren't very prominent.  Steph made sure that I made an amendment to the final product to include the WINGS, but the new design is a nod to our family's love of music, and my musical roots.

One day while working on a new t-shirt design a song came up on shuffle that changed the design completely...the song was "King of Rock" by Run DMC.  My mind's eye instantly remembered the cover of the tape with that song on in back in 1980-something.  It was simple, white letters and 2 red rectangles.  This is my nod to the music that shaped my life, and hopefully will give LakeHaus Productions a bit more street cred!  HAHA.

Here is the design....coming soon to a t-shirt near you.

Red Bull Rampage

I used to do a bit of mountain biking when we lived in Sioux Falls...some buddies and I had a couple of local spots, and we would make a run out to the Black Hills every now and then.  I love watching guys on bikes pick apart things that look impossible and then back flip over the gap.  Amazing run.



Living With Bob.

Been a while, but I am back...sorry to my 4 faithful readers.

In retirement my dad kept one responsibility from his career in the banking industry...he writes an article for a locally-produced Chamber of Commerce magazine called Prairie Tracks.  His articles are quite popular in the region and while he was on his 17 day, 250 mile covered wagon journey he asked me to write his article for the month...here it is.

Living With Bob.

By: Tom Glanzer

(Tom Glanzer is guest columnist for his father Bob Glanzer who is currently driving a team of horses and a chuck wagon originally built in the 1880’s from Yankton, S.D. to Pierre, S.D. as a part of the 125^th Statehood Anniversary Wagon Train.)

I guess if you read my dad’s article in this publication enough you have read a few stories about me and my wife and kids, so I won’t bore you with who I am…I am Bob’s only son. (I have a sister, but she never caused a single parenting problem for my folks, so you won’t read any stories about her here.)

I believe the original agreement for Bob’s articles in Prairie Tracks was that he was to generate ag-based business stories.  He may have written a couple of those before he retired from American Bank & Trust, but shortly after that the article’s storyline morphed into the typical Midwest memory-type fodder that ends up being read by the great Jim Thompson or picked-off by DeSmet Farm Mutual.  Since I am the child that received my dad’s creative writing skills, he told me that I was writing his article this month while he “plays cowboy” on the wagon train.

Friday the 5^th of September, my son Brecken and I rode with dad on the wagon train from Tabor, to Scotland, S.D., and it was one more of those “things I have done that not many others have done.”  When you are Bob Glanzer’s kid you get multiple opportunities to do things that most other people in the world haven’t done.  

You see my dad lives life a little more full than most of us who prefer to be comfortable in our existence, and he taught Sally and me to push ourselves to live life to the fullest.  If there was an opportunity to try something new…you did it…and I still do.

As Brecken and I drove back to Huron after riding in a chuck wagon all day, we enjoyed the seat heaters in the Expedition and after a day like that you have to listen to country music.  Then the song came on…back in 2004, Tim McGraw had a country song called, “Live Like You Were Dying”.  A typical story-type country song about a guy diagnosed with a disease that would soon end his life, and when he found out he only had a short time to live…the hook of the song says this…

I went skydiving,

I went rocky mountain climbing,

I went 2.7 seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu

And I loved deeper

And I spoke sweeter

And I gave forgiveness I’d been denyin’

And he said, “Someday I hope you get the chance, to live like you were dying.”

Well, with one of my earthly possessions sitting in the seat next to me I got a bit reflective about that song and I realized that I didn’t need to worry about trying to fit in all those things in before I die.  If God decides to give me a short time to live…I have already done all of the things in the song, and so much more…just living with Bob.

I have jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, I learned to rock climb at 12 years old in the Sierra Mountains of California, and back when I was riding bulls…I went 2.7 seconds on a number of bulls with really cool names. 

Dad has taught me to “live like you were dying” since I was like 5 years old….because of Bob I raced sprint cars, BMX bikes and know exactly how to power slide a rear wheel drive car on gravel or snow.  I have roped calves, rode bulls and broke horses to ride under the Alaskan sky. 

I have paddled a canoe down a pretty good stretch of the James River, rock climbed in 5 different states, played the drums for the late Kyle Evans, and also the guy who wrote Garth Brooks’ “Friends In Low Places”.  I love to surf, I live to wakeboard, I have been in a sail boat, and I was a passenger in a boat that sunk in the middle of a freak summer storm. 

My wife and I started a successful photography business 6 years ago with little more than $3,000.  When I worked in TV I interviewed and worked with some amazing and interesting people, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Kirby Puckett, Mr. Hockey - Gordie Howe, 1980 Olympic Hockey Coach Herb Brooks, former Gov. Bill Janklow, Randy Moss, Tom Kelly, Charles Barkley, and the list goes on.

Living with Bob basically prepared me for life…professionally, personally and spiritually.  So I guess the challenge, or the moral of my story is, don’t wait until you get that news from a doctor to “live like you were dying”.  Do it when you have your health, when your kids are young or when your parents are still alive.  You will never have enough money, enough time or the perfect day for it, you just have to do it.  If you wait for things like that you will be in the nursing home saying, “I wish I would have…”.

Finally and most importantly don’t forget the most important lines in that chorus, “I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter”.  Above all…those two things are the most important things I ever learned while “Living With Bob”.

LakeHaus Productions Offers "Life Moment" Video Product.

"Photos last a lifetime and pictures are worth a 1,000 words, right?"   I guarantee a newspaper photographer was the first one to ever say that phrase!  (You can probably google it!)

Well, I'm going out on a limb and saying video lasts forever and is worth 10,000 words.  That is why LakeHaus is a dual product studio.  Along with our amazing photography we also offer our video production services.

The video below is a sample of our work, this one is an engagement video, but that is not the only "life event" to make a video like this!  Get your family together, we will follow you to the golf course, grilling in the backyard, riding horses, fishing, snowmobiling, or just doing what your family does...then we put it all together with the perfect song and you have a video snap shot of your family BEING YOUR FAMILY!

You can send the link out as a Christmas Card, burn copies to send to family and friends....or in 10 years if we are still using Facebook you can post it as your Throw Back Thursday post!  #TBT

We shoot on HD professional production cameras, and have all the "toys" to make you and your family superstars!

Prices start at $500 and the videos take about 3 to 4 hours to shoot, so book your shoot today, surprise you parents with a super cool present from LakeHaus Productions.

Jenna R. & Tom G. Engagement Video www.lakehausproductions.com from LakeHaus Productions on Vimeo.

Class of 2015 Get Ready For Your Close-ups!

Move Your Body....DANCE...

We were asked to host a photo booth at the local high school's after prom party.  I wanted to do something different...so we made it a video, and slowed it down or sped it up...this is what happened.

Imagine in 20 years from now these kids watching this video at their reunion.


Huron High School Post Prom SLO MO from LakeHaus Productions on Vimeo.

Title Games.

I think everyone in Huron thought we would have 2 teams in the championship games of the AA and B State Boy's Basketball Tournaments...in fact, I kind of thought it was a given that both trophies were coming back to the 352.  BUT that is why you play the games.

The Tigers got knocked off in the first round by the #8 seeded SF Lincoln Patriots...undoubtedly the hottest team in South Dakota right now...as Lincoln will play for the title tonight.  The Vikings did make it to the title tilt tonight, and had a few struggles here and there to make it through their first 2 rounds.  They deserve a shot at the trophy again this year after a ill-timed bout of food poisoning kind of took some of their MOJO last year.

This community is super proud of both of our teams and what they have accomplished this season....if they bring home the 1st place trophy or not, we are behind you.

Fans if you are with Orange Nation, Yellow and Black Nation or Red Nation (Huron All Stars) be proud of the year the teams had, and the life lessons our players learned.

Players hold on to these moments...they will be some of your fondest memories, and the brothers you have in the locker room will be your friends...basically...for life.

Long Live Sports.