Communications Director's blog

MasterLube's president Craig Godfrey pointed me to this site, StoryCorps, earlier this week. These recording are very similar to MasterLube's video for our friend Fred Cleveland. It's folks talking about their lives and telling their stories. Which is pretty neat! The art of someone telling a story, whether real or fiction, is so often overlooked in today's society of new technology. StoryCorps tries to preserve this artform through their site. Be sure and take a look.

Being born and raised in North Eastern Montana, I imagine I'm more facinated by this video than some others. But nonetheless - here is a really interesting video that explains how horizontal drilling works.
Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Being someone who works in the oil industry, I’m ashamed to say I didn’t know about these new developments in oil until recently. It wasn’t until a coworker was chatting about this new General Motor’s oil standard called “dexos” that my ears perked up. Car companies just don’t make their own oil standards – well, until now that is. So I began to investigate the matter a little further and found some very important information that I’d like to share with you blog readers.

This weekend, while freezing my tail off cheering for the Griz in Missoula, I received a text message from my mom saying her car was, well, less than enthusiastic about starting in the sub-zero temperatures. I use the phrase “less than enthusiastic” because, as most of us Montanan’s have experienced, there’s that funny sound your car can make while starting up in these freezing temperatures. Even though it starts, it just “feels” like it doesn’t want to. It’s the automotive equivalent of me getting out of bed in the morning – which generally goes something like “No!

I’m not a fan of winter. I know that’s not very “Montanan” to say. But frankly, it can be quite cold and dark and the roads aren’t very fun to drive on sometimes. I should be used to it, considering I grew up in the frigid winters of Northeastern Montana. But I’m not. Winter is good for one thing – skiing. And to be perfectly honest with you, I might just give that up if it meant having an extra month to hit 9 holes after work.
Course there are some aspects about winter that I’m just certain others share in my distaste. Winter driving, without a doubt, is one of them.

About a month ago, the president of MasterLube, Craig Godfrey, introduced something new into the waiting room of each MasterLube location. A small wooden box with a simple label on the front, "Human Moments." Next to the box was a thin pad of paper with a simple request printed on the top of each sheet - "Please share a Human Moment with us. What's a Human Moment - just ask!" The staff was instructed that if someone asked what a "human moment" was, that they were to reply that its simply any interaction, good or bad, between people.

This morning I took a drive to Lake Elmo Park in Billings Heights. Among the destruction from the storm and tornado that ravaged through on Sunday and the trepidation of its aftermath, it seemed I needed a quiet dose of nature (while nature was being quiet).

Every year I have the lucky job of being able to work with the youth who design and paint the murals on each MasterLube location. And each year I run into at least one student who really strikes me as really being able to release their potential upon the world in an effective way.

This past Saturday rang in a new season. It was the first day the seniors from each area high school started their murals on the side of each MasterLube building. While driving down Grand Ave Saturday - ironically on my way to buy paint - I passed Senior High artist Garrick Sather and his friends getting started on their mural. There was a little spilled paint, a small mud puddle and a whole lot of laughter! We can't wait to see the finished product every year and this year is no exception. You can find pictures as the art progresses on a special facebook event page.

Well it’s been somewhere around 3 weeks and I've finally been able to wash windows without running blue window washer fluid down the side of a customer's shiny, clean car. Ciara, a cashier extraordinaire at our King Ave location, was kind enough to share the secret technique with me. Thanks Ciara!