September Triva

Monday night I went down to The Landing Bar for trivia night. I surprised Darrel and Mona when I showed up. Al was there and Marv came later. Jeff and Donna are in Las Vegas.

The SOL team had won several trivia contests the previous few weeks and we used most of the drink tickets this evening. Even I partook in a couple drinks. (Mike's Hard Lemonade)

Everyone from our team was contributing answers in both contests. In the second contest we got 17 questions correct and we were tied for first place with another team but lost the tie breaker when we guessed that a goose can fly 100 ft per second. The other team got the answer exactly right as they said geese travel 88 ft per second.

In the first contest we only got 14 questions correct. It looked as though we would do good but then blew many of the last 5 questions.

For the quarters questions it seemed as if only two people on different teams won. I know one guy won four times. A table with some drunk guys wanted to guess but they would shout out their answer out of turn or before Darrel would get to them with the quarters bucket. Ed, the host, was getting ticked off and let them know it. Eventually he mentioned to them if they didn't act better he would say they had the wrong answer even if they guessed correct. That group didn't stay around for the second contest. That was good and bad as they made many wrong guesses and probably added five bucks to the bucket.

After trivia was over the bar had karaoke. Some good singers and some mediocre singers. But they had a steady stream of singers even if the crowd was smaller as a number of people left after trivia was over. The pool tables were busy all night.

Darrel did pretty good with his car racing this summer. He came in second place for the season. He plans to turn pro next year.

Today I had to hang my clothes on the clothesline to air them out to get rid of much of the cigarette smoke from the bar. Jogging home from the bar I am either showing my age, my out-of-condition shape, or the effects of the smoke - or all three - as I had to slow down to a walk a couple times to catch my breath.

Wall insulation and progress

I rode my brother's bicycle over to visit my friend Rod this afternoon. He was finishing up adding insulation to his house's walls. He had drilled holes into each stud cavity - many holes - and then blew in cellulose insulation into the walls. Or to paraphrase Rod, 'He was blowing money into his house' as he expects - rightly so - to save lots on energy costs this winter. Prior to his work Rod's house walls barely had any insulation in its walls.

Because the house walls has a fire wall dividing the upper and lower parts of the wall, Rod had to drill two holes in each stud cavity - above and below the fire wall.

My mom's house also had wall insulation blown in this year. There is a program to help low income senior citizens insulate their house. While I had insulated her attic several years ago, their assessment resulted in them adding insulation around the doors and elsewhere and then blowing insulation into the house walls.

After visiting Rod I rode bicycle home via 16th street. The city is building an extension to 16th street between 21st Ave and 30th Ave. This is out past the large water tower for north hill where there used to be only a dirt road. Whoever sited the water tower many, many years ago set the tower right in the middle of where the road would go. The new road has to curve around the water tower.

I have memories of riding my bicycle as a kid to the water tower on the dirt road. That was many decades ago and progress happens - even here. Especially now with all the oil drilling in central to western North Dakota in the Bakken Formation. There are many more jobs than people to fill them or places to live here. A few days ago I saw a TV ad advertising for workers to work on drilling rigs.

I was talking a few days ago with a guy who explained to me how the oil drilling rigs can drill horizontal holes these days. It is amazing how drilling technology, married with computers, can drill oil wells theses days. I guess they are finding so much oil the problem is getting the oil out from the fields to the refineries out of state. Apparently one farmer's first check for his mineral rights and the first month's oil production from his very productive well was $700,000. Coming soon on TV: The Norwegian Hillbillies.

Lutefisk! Lefse! Yah, you betcha!

First day back

On my first day back in North Dakota I slept until 10 am. I was tired.

When I was gone mom's full death certificate arrived. Reading it over I found the medical examiner, Robert Durkin, had wrote for the "pregnant?" line that mom was not pregnant, but that she had been pregnant 43 days to 1 year before. What?! Mom was 73 years old and not pregnant. The medical examiner was not listed in the phone book but apparently works for Trinity Hospital. I called the hospital and they transferred me to his office. The receptionist said they would send an amended certificate with the correction to the State. I should hope so.

To ensure mom's home and car insurance remains valid I saw her insurance agent to give notice of mom's death and that I was personal representative. This is to ensure her insurance policies remain valid until the properties are transferred under probate.

Then my brother and I visited two of the three local gravestone and monument companies. While I hadn't expected to make a decision then on a gravestone, I found the choices were more than I expected.

• size
• color
  
• concrete border or not?
• include middle name?
  
• image etched, and if so which image?
• stonewashed border?
  

I expected the granite markers to be expensive and they are. It appears the cost will be well over a thousand dollars.

I do want to have a vase holder to hold flowers. I think I want the holder to be part of the gravestone and not separate even though this is more expensive.

With no children, and one chance to get the gravestone right, I want to get it right now as I currently don't have family to fix the gravestone many years from now if it needs repair or fixing. So a concrete border around the granite marker is out as concrete does not last. I plan on going out to the cemetery with a measuring tape to look at other gravestones to get a better idea of size and styles.

I also visited Bob and Donna briefly as they were outside in the nice weather. Bob had been in the hospital over the past weekend as he couldn't wake up because of a seizure. Bob, even in his weakened and confused state, remembered I was going on a cruise to Alaska and wanted to know about my trip.

Courthouse follies

The judge has approved my request to open probate on mom's estate and named me personal representative. And I didn't even need a lawyer to have this done.

I stopped by the County clerk's office to get several certified copies of my Letter of Administration. The clerk charged me $10 for the first copy, $5 for each additional copy. Pretty expensive if you ask me. Upon my appointment you'd think I would get the first copy free as notice that I was approved. Instead the clerk sent me a non-certified copy as notice of my appointment. Anything by Ward County to make money and rip people off I guess.

I remember reading a few years ago about a woman working in the courthouse who insisted on having metal detectors at the courthouse. Apparently Ward County gave in to her fear as now you can only enter the courthouse through one door and must go through a metal detector. The detector is so sensitive that my brother's metal snaps on his shirt set the detector off and then he must have an employee run a wand over his body to confirm the metal snaps are triggering the detector. For a county with an extremely low level of violence, and none I know of at the courthouse, this detector is an expensive option as the County employs two people to man the detector in addition to the cost of the detector. The employees must get bored as I seldom see more than a few people in the courthouse when I have been there. But you know, for fearful people you can't be too safe, especially when someone else is paying for it.

I found the County's security procedures listed online and found the following interesting;

All persons entering the Ward County Courthouse with the exception of Law Enforcement, Ward County employees, and State Court employees housed within the Ward County Courthouse are subject to screening procedures.

If they are truly concerned about safety they would screen everyone. How often do you hear about a worker holding a grudge against another worker and taking a violent act against them?

I also note that the screeners do not follow the correct procedure when the alarm sounds after my brother steps through the detector. The correct procedure is have the person walk through the detector a second time when the alarm sounds before wanding the person. The screeners have never done that.

Back in North Dakota

Well... here I am back in North Dakota. Just as I was beginning to get used to being back in Montana - I left.

I had packed my clothes and stuff yesterday by mid afternoon. Crazy to be packed so early! Usually I am packing well after midnight. I wasn't sure what to do since my packing was done. Never fear, I can finding ways to stay up late packing.

• After confirming Jan would drive me to the train station and chatting with Jan and Bob, I gathered my gopher traps. Three more caught for a total of 108 this year.
• I picked the rest of my ears of corn and zucchini from my garden. The zucchini I planted didn't grow; the zucchini I didn't plant grew; I barely watered them; I have much more zucchini than I knew what to do with.
• I got a ladder and picked the rest of my apples. I filled over three five gallon pails with apples. Lots of apple pies in my future.
• I watched the TV show, "Dancing with the Stars".
• I made sure all my dishes were washed and clean. Unlike when I had to come to ND for mom and then returned to a sink of dirty dishes.
  

I decided to bring the corn, some apples and zucchini to ND with me. Therefore... I was up past midnight packing my luggage.

I woke up before the alarm went off and after only four hours sleep. I was out of it when getting ready. Lack of sleep masked any unease at my leaving for ND.

The train was only five minutes late. I got the same annoying train attendant I had when traveling from Whitefish to Seattle. He also remembered me. This time he was clearer in his instruction on when to board the train. I waited at the right hand car while he opened the left hand car. Once he returned to the right hand car I learned he wanted me to get on the left hand car. *sigh* By the time I got on that car everyone boarding had boarded. Lots of people boarded at Whitefish. The only pair of seats open were seats reserved for couples.

I looked at boarding passes and selected a seat next to one for Essex. Nearby was a Glacier Park pass and an open seat. I asked the guy if his pass was for East or West Glacier and he said East. Essex is before East Glacier. When I attempted to take the open seat next to Essex an old man came and claimed that was his seat. Okay...

So I sat next to the guy going to East Glacier. Which turned out good as I spent the entire time traveling to East Glacier chatting with him. He and two other guys were planning on doing a 7 day backpacking trip in Glacier traveling from East to West Glacier. They had no idea of what trails to go on. Or anything else about the Park. They had a week off from a job clearing trails in the Cascade Mountains in Washington and decided to go on a backpacking trip.

Oh! To be in your early 20s again and live for hiking and camping! To go and do things without a clue.

I gave them suggestions on trails. I think more information that he could remember. I also rambled on about side topics like hiking in Europe and my travels in Communist Russia in the 1980s.

After he left the train at East Glacier I had a pair of seats to myself the rest of my journey. The train seemed to lose more people than gain at each stop until we got to Williston where lots of people boarded the train.

I chatted a while in the observation car with an old couple from Pennsylvania. We talked about our respective states, Minnesota, Washington state, camping and kayaking, and energy sources of wind, solar, coals, etc.

Then I slept for a while before reading old newspapers.

The trip breezed by and before I knew it I was in Minot. Taking the train is such an easier journey than driving.

The train was on time and my brother picked me up at the station. Wasn't I just here? It seems so, but also seems so long ago.

Here today, gone tomorrow

It was a wet Sunday. We needed the rain even though I wish it would have waited until I left for North Dakota.

Sunday Jackie invited me again this year to go with her to the Octoberfest celebration at the senior center in Whitefish. It seemed the closer I got to Whitefish the harder it rained.

What a difference from last Friday and Saturday where the temperature was in the 70s and 80s F. It certainly feels like Fall now when the temperatures are in the 40s and 50s F for high temps.

The rain slowed my trap checking down but I did trap four more pocket gophers. I also caught a mouse in the gopher trap under the hay shed wall. That may explain why recently the trap has been triggered without me catching anything. That is the second mouse I caught this year in one of the leg hold gopher traps. For the mice, they are completed caught when the trap is triggered.

One of my hiking groups wanted to go on a hike but Monday was the only day I had available. Because of Sunday's rain and the forecast of more rain Monday, the hiking plan was canceled. I'll have to wait until I get back next month.

Monday turned out to be relatively dry although overcast. On Saturday and on Monday I fenced three fruit trees. All three had a couple strands of wire as a fence around them but I wanted to add a real fence to them as cattle can - and do! - reach through the wire. Although the deer don't do the same, come winter when there is less feed for them I don't want the deer to get the idea they can reach through the fence.

While I only had to add a fence to two of the fruit trees, for the third fence I took the old one completely down and rebuilt it from the posts on up. Naturally the only time it rained Monday was during this time.

All my fruit trees now have some sort of fence protecting them from the deer. I do want to rebuilt three other fruit tree fences next year as they may not stand up to the abuse cattle put the fences through.

I also put a couple rolls of small fences over a couple of my serviceberry bushes. The bushes are near an apple tree and after eating the apples that have fallen the deer have been nibbling on the bushes. Darn deer!

I also walked the pasture. The weeds I sprayed last month are dead. For the thistle I hadn't got to spraying I chopped them down so they won't go to seed. I'll spray them next year after they regrow. With the rain last month I see new weeds coming up from roots elsewhere in the pasture. While I am making progress against the weeds, it seems at times like a never ending fight.

The river is low. The leaves are starting to turn so it looks nice along the river. Between the low water level and gravity I noticed a few parts of the bank on each side has now fallen down where the river had undercut the banks during high water.

Tomorrow I catch the train to North Dakota to work more on my mom's estate. Just when I started to get back into a rhythm here.

Limo rides

I forgot to mention that when Gary and I got lost walking around my uncle's place the night before our Alaskan cruise started we ended up walking 10.5 miles. If we hadn't gotten lost we would have only walked about 6 miles.

My Uncle Curt arranged to have Gary and I ride in a limo from his place to the cruise ship. The limo company upgraded our ride from a town car to a stretch limo. Hoo boy! Was that a long car! In order to talk with our driver, Paris, I had to scoot up to the front. I think the car could seat eight to ten people. I have photos but as I am using one of the library's computers currently I have no way to upload photos of the car.

After the cruise Paris picked me up in a town car limo. Gary went to visit his relatives. The town car was nice as I was able to chat with Paris during our 45 minute ride to Curt's house.

Coming off the cruise ship I had a bit of a mix-up. I was five minutes late because everyone's disembarkation from the cruise ship was running five to ten minutes late.

While Curt had tied large and pretty gold bows to my black and dark blue luggage bags to make my luggage stand out from all the others, the longshoreman had placed the bags in a way that I couldn't see the bows on my bags. I walked around and around the three rows where the "aqua" tagged luggage was lined up. On the third look-see I found one of my bags, then the other. I was starting to think my luggage wasn't there. We were suppose to have our luggage in the hall to be picked up by 10 pm, but that was the time I had returned to the ship. At 1 am when Gary and I went to bed our luggage was still in the hall. Our luggage was gone by 6:30 am when we awoke.

Paris had told me most likely someone else would be there to meet me. At the yellow canopy on the south side - my side - was a line of taxis and one black town car. I asked the driver, a middle eastern man with a thick accent, if he was the replacement driver for Paris and he said yes. He loaded my luggage into the car and I got in. As he started to pull out he asked if I was going to the airport.

No! I am going to Tacoma! I again asked if he was the driver for Paris and he said yes. I got out the card Paris gave me with his company name and the driver said this was not him. I got out and started to walk under the canopy when Paris came walking up. He had parked on the north side of the canopy.

When I told Paris what had happened he was not happy. The taxi and limo drivers operate under strict rules at the dock and that other limo driver violated them. Paris went over and talked with that driver and a dock official came over. As we drove off the other limo was gone.

There is no place like home

After all my traveling the past month it felt odd sleeping in my own bed. But I can sleep most anywhere and quickly got used to it and fell asleep to sleep long and hard.

The deer have been keeping my garden area grazed while I was away. They seem to be also eating all the apples that have fallen off the apple trees.

While my garden corn is not large due to my late planting, many of the ears of corn are edible and that was part of my supper last night. After being spoiled with meals by the cruise ship and my uncles and aunts, I am back to my normal diet.

I checked my pocket gopher traps and had caught two of them. That makes 101 pocket gophers trapped for the year. Woo hoo! Triple digits. One gopher was dead a long time and I brought the trap home to wash and clean to get rid of the smell. So far this is not working.

I also found one of my regular gopher traps had been triggered but no gopher. The trap had been set under the hay shed wall and was now outside it so I may have caught a gopher only to have him escape or get eaten. There was some grass in the trap so I suspect he was able to slip free of the trap with some effort.

We set a record high temperature yesterday when it reached 85 F. I am enjoying the weather as the forecast is for colder and wetter weather. We do need the moisture as it is brown and dry.

Last night I talked with Joyce and she said a teenager who hunts on their land saw a black bear on her property while the teenager was scouting in prep for hunting season. The bear stood up before leaving and scared the kid. The kid is tall and the bear was taller than him. A few days after that Joyce's daughter saw a mountain lion pass through her property. The daughter lives next to Joyce. Lots of wildlife out and about. Maybe my deer problem is not so bad after all.

Back in MT

With all my recent and future traveling I am going to have to come up with another title to my "back in Montana" posts.

I arrived home this morning. The train left Seattle on time and arrived in Whitefish 15 minutes early. That is a nice surprise.

My aunt Cathy made me several peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for my trip and gave me some yummy scones she had bought at the Puyallup Fair when we were there earlier that day. My uncle Larry and Aunt Diane drove me to the train station in Seattle. My uncle Curt waved goodbye, probably glad to be rid of me finally. While at his house I got lost, got bloody after falling on Mt. Rainer, exceeded curfew when I came home at 2:30 am, and etc.

There were more people on the train out of Seattle that I expected. By the time Gary go on board the train in Everett, Washington all the pairs of seats had at least one person in them so he had to sit by me. We caught up on what each had done since we left the cruise. Gary was busy with his relatives in hiking, sightseeing, and kayaking.

At Wenatchee, Washington, lots of people got off the train and a number of seat pairs opened up. Gary moved to the open seats so he and I each had a pair of seats to sleep in. He said he slept better on this train trip than the trip out to Seattle.

Since getting home I have unpacked and washed several loads of laundry. Surprisingly the blood washed out of my clothes. I also trimmed some tree branches for Bob and Jan and hauled a trailer and pickup load of tree branches and garden remains off to a low spot in my pasture for later tree stump burning.

While I have not burned wood in my stove since last winter, my closed up house had the smell of wood smoke. It will take me a day to get used to it and not notice it anymore.

A beautiful day today with sun, no winds, and warm temperatures. The cooler and cloudy weather I left behind in Tacoma is suppose to arrive tomorrow.

Library closing now. Talk with you later.

Back from Alaska

Guess I should let you know that I am back from Alaska. I am not back to Montana as I am still in Tacoma at my Uncle Curt and Aunt Cathy's house.

I had a great time on the cruise even though the temperature for much of the time was chilly in the low to upper 50s F and we had one day of rain. I think I'll go on another cruise someday.

Even though I ate too much I don't think I gained much weight as I walked alot. I took the stairs whenever possible and circled the ship many times. In the port calls in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway I hiked.

In a few hours I will catch the train back to Montana.

Lost in Washington

My uncle Curt met us at the train station. He took us to a seafood restaurant near Point Defiance in Tacoma where we each had an excellent bowl of Boston clam chowder soup. Curt and I also split an appetizer of raw clams.

In the evening after another great meal at one of Curt and Cathy's favorite restaurants, Gary and I decided to go for a short walk for exercise. The walk turned out to be much longer than planned. While we expected to walk a rectangle, and it was a rectangle route, Gary convinced me Curt lived on 152nd. I didn't remember his exact address but thought there was a 6 in it meaning 160-something.

It turns out that even though his address doesn't have a street name in it, he lives off a named street. The named street felt about the right distance in the rectangle shape, and the tall trees felt familiar, but after walking down the street a short distance Gary didn't think the street was the right street and claimed a fence he saw wasn't on Curt's street. He was 95% sure Curt lived on 152.

As the southern side of the rectangle had been 176nd street I doubted we had walked 2.4 miles, but as the named street didn't seem right, I was convinced to go further.

162 was a dead end street. Then we crossed another named street that didn't fit in with what we knew about streets. We went to 152. This was not right. After a half mile it curved right. There was no curve in Curt's street near where he lives. Gary convinced me to go further even though I felt this was leading us away from Curt's house.

Eventually I decided we had to turn around. I was certain now that Curt lived on the first named street we had quickly checked out. On the way back we stopped at a gas station to look up Curt's address and phone number in the phone book. It is not in the phone book. I tried calling another uncle and got no answer so I called my cousin Martin. He told me Curt lived off of the first named street we had checked out.

We walked back and found that Curt lived just beyond the fence that Gary didn't recognize. As we walked up Curt's driveway he was coming out to drive around to search for us. It was 10 pm and long after dark. We had been out wandering around for well over several hours. No harm was done other than we walked much more than planned. I didn't have my hiking shoes so I am wondering if I will get a blister on my left foot. I'll see later today. Not much walking planned Sunday as we catch the cruise ship. The drive to the ship will be an adventure as Curt arranged for a limousine to pick us up and take us to the ship in Seattle. I am not used to such luxury.

Train to Washington

So busy I haven't kept up on my blogging. I am in Tacoma, Washington now as I arrived here this morning. I took a train from Whitefish last night.

The train was over an hour late arriving in Whitefish. The train car attendant was in a bad mood. He told us waiting to get on to wait until the people from the train disembarked before we got on. I did so then got on the train. A half dozen of us were on the train when he yelled for us to get off the train. Huh? We did so. I asked why and he said not everyone was off the train.

But everyone who wanted to get off did so.

Off the train and wait until I say you can board!

As I got off I told Gary who was waiting outside, "This guy is different than the other train car attendants I've had."

The attendant was right behind me and sterned asked, "What did you say?!"

So I repeated my comment directly to him to which he replied, "I guess I am."

After a few minutes he then allowed people to board and asked for couples to board first. Once all the couple boarded he then allowed others to board and Gary and I did so.

A lot of people were on the train and many seats were filled with passengers. The attendant hadn't taken the city destination tags off from above the seats so we couldn't tell which seats were empty until I realized all the tags were still up. Gary and I each found a pair of empty seats. A few minutes later the attendant came and directed a few people to empty seats. He saw me and Gary, and since I had ticked him off, directed the person to the seat next to me.

A short time later a couple came and he had Gary move to a single seat and gave the pair of seats to the couple. Later when he came to write a tag for their destination he learned they were going to Portland and not Seattle. The train would be split in Spokane with different cars going to Portland and Seattle and the couple were in the wrong car. The woman was argumentative and did not believe the attendant they were in the wrong car and they got into an argument. After five minutes the couple finally agreed to move to the Portland car. Gary must have had his headphone on as he did not hear the disagreement and did not move to reclaim his seat. Another woman moved to claim the two seats and stretched out to sleep in them. When the attendant returned he was upset she was in the seats but relented to let her sleep in them until someone would board the train who needed one of the seats.

The next morning the attendant apologized for yelling at me the night before. His excuse was that he had worked 20 hours straight and was experiencing a mood swing. Uh, huh. He also said he wasn't clear in his instructions the night before as I explained I followed what he had said, and that was the same as what other attendants wanted in the past.

Even though the train was an hour late leaving Whitefish we were a half hour early to Seattle. I don't know how we made up that much time overnight.

Spooky email

An odd thing happened to me. A relative sent me the following email yesterday:

GUARDIAN ANGEL

Forward this message the same day you received it.
It may sound ridiculous, but it is right on time. We believe that something is about to happen. Angels exist, only sometimes they haven't got wings and we call them friends; you are one of them.
Something wonderful is about to happen to you and your friends.
Tomorrow at 6:32 pm somebody will address you and tell you something you have been waiting to hear.
Please send it to at least 7 of your friends

The odd thing is that precisely at 6:32 pm Gary called me back after I left a message on his answering machine around 5 pm asking about our train trip. This is spooky! Very spooky!

Busy to the end

It is 1:30 am here in Minot and I need to get to bed. I have 11 plus hours of driving tomorrow.

Today, I:

• opened mom's probate and filed papers for me to be her personal representative for her estate.

The Probate clerk at the Ward County courthouse was not helpful. All she wanted to do was give me the booklet the state of North Dakota published to help people through probate. I had a few other simple questions and she said she couldn't answer any because she cannot give legal advice. My questions were not of a legal nature but of procedure and forms. Eventually I got out of her that I had to file three forms including one that the Court issues naming a person an estate's personal representative. It makes no sense for the applicant to file that form as it is one that the Court issues, but that is the way they do it.

I pointed out to the Clerk that the booklet she gave me is old and out of date and she claimed it is current. I noted that one of the monetary values in the booklet was $15,000 while the state of North Dakota's web site with the booklet and forms has the amount as $50,000. I pointed out to her that the publish date listed in the booklet was 2003. She seemed annoyed by my pointing this out.

When I finished all three forms I got a different clerk who was slightly more helpful. While she also told me she could not give legal advice she at least seemed willing to listen to me to see if my question was procedural or legal in nature. All I wanted was for her to look the form over to see if I missed a field that I, and not the Court, was to fill in. She kind of did so, but told me that she could not tell me if I filled the blanks in correctly.

These Clerks are useless. The state of North Dakota should just automate these forms for submission. At least that way their software could flag fields that are required to be filled in by the applicant and prevent the applicant from filling in fields that the Court fills in.

Now to wait to see if I filled in the fields correctly and am approved.


• tried to get my train ticket to Seattle

I had gotten the ticket only to Seattle and not Tacoma when I bought it. It would be easier on my uncle to get me in Tacoma. I found the train agent could not alter my ticket and I had to call the 1-800 Amtrak number to do so.

I called and altering the ticket would not work as they would have to cancel the ticket and issue me a new one. The problem is I had gotten the ticket on sale, and the sale is over. I can't get the ticket I got.

I decided to keep my reservation the same. By the time I returned to the train station it was closed. I could see the ticket agent sitting inside the building and knocked on the door's window. She said the station was closed and she would not issue me the ticket. I plan to go there in the morning before I leave town.


• baked a batch of pumpkin muffins for my brother to eat after I leave


• made supper for me and my brother


• wrote out thank you notes for people for mom's funeral


• briefly visited with a neighbor


• packed

Memories, rain, and delay

I'm tired. Stuff to do and stuff to go through. It is dull but also draining to go through legal and other documents when they are mileposts or interests in a loved one's life as they bring up memories and emotions.

On top of that I found a stack of my old Bicycling magazines from when I first got interested in bicycling 30 years ago. I didn't realize I still had them here. I am tossing half of the magazines out. I am keeping the very first few years of the magazines as I can't bring to toss them all out at this time. I still remember the cover photos from the first couple years of the magazine.


Rain. It rained today. Sunday we tied a record high temperature of 96 F. Last night a cold front came through and the temperature today only reached 56 F. Mom's neighborhood is slowly turning over from longtime older couples and widows to younger couples and families. Several of the younger families planned a neighborhood block party for this afternoon for neighbors to meet and get to know one another. Due to the cold and rain it was canceled.


I am still in North Dakota. I had planned on returning to Montana today but late Friday afternoon I learned I could get info and forms for mom's probate from the Clerk of Court and do some of it myself. After all, during my father's probate I found many probate forms were simple forms anyone could do and not need a $170/hour lawyer to fill out.

I arrived at the courthouse at 4:45 pm Friday and found it had closed at 4:30 pm. So I will wait till Tuesday morning. Today I found some probate info and forms online for the state of North Dakota and it seems as if I can fill out a form and start the probate process without a lawyer.

That means I won't drive back to Montana until Wednesday. This then will give me Thursday and part of Friday to discover what I forgot to do there in my rush to get to Minot before mom died, and to prepare for my cruise before I catch the train to Washington State Friday night.

So much to do, so little time. It will be nice when life gets back to normal.