Bicycle Eclectic

A gorgeous day today! A light breezy at 5 mph under a sunny sky with a temperature of 67 F. The only clouds are white puffy clouds hanging around the mountain tops.

The mountains are mostly capped in white. June 1 of last year Gary, Joyce, and I hiked to the top of Mt. Aneneas. There was only a few spots of snow seen from the Valley then with lots of snow when we hiked up there. Not this year! I see lots and lots of snow on those mountains. It still could be a great hike under a sunny sky and warm temperatures, but one would definitely would have to wear footwear for walking on snow.

With the nice weather here the women are dressing for summer. Less clothes. Shorts, etc. Nice. On my ride uptown I saw a young woman in shorts and halter top riding a cruiser bicycle and going the other direction. She caught me eye. I guess the right woman will pique my interest even when I am immersed in getting back into a routine here and don't really have the interest in the opposite sex until I get settled again.

Friday I rode my bicycle uptown and visited the Hockaday Museum. Friday and Saturday the museum is having Community Days when people can visit the museum for free.

One of the exhibitions is "Bicycle Eclectic". This exhibition is a series of black and white photos along with a description of people bicycling long distances who had stopped in at the Adventure Cycling organization's headquarters in Missoula, Montana. (At the risk of showing my age, I remember when this organization was called Bikecentential.) The photos were taken starting in 1982 to the present.

The photos were of one or more people and a bicycle they were riding loaded with their touring gear. They are neat photos and show a variety of people, reasons for their bicycle trip, and their story.

If you following the Hockaday Museum link and see the photo for Bicycle Eclectic, this guy pictured, and holding a push lawn mower, brought it with him and earned money cutting lawns as he rode across America.

One man from Missoula, Montana had ridden from Anchorage, Alaska to somewhere in Montana almost annually for the past twenty years. The few years he didn't ride from Alaska, he rode a long distance ride elsewhere. 57,000 miles ridden during this time. His "photo" was a series of a half dozen photos of him taken over the past twenty years.

The museum also had a wooden life size model of a mountain bicycle equipped with wooden knobby tires. That was neat.

I also checked out the other exhibitions. A few were related to Montana, Indians, and Glacier Park, and others were abstract art and I didn't catch the connection to Montana. I wasn't too impressed with the other exhibitions. Then again, a non-bicyclist may not be all that impressed with the Bicycle Eclectic exhibition.

Now, after seeing this exhibit did I get the itch to go on another long distance bicycle ride? No. Being here in Kalispell satisfies me and I don't have the urge to wander. Besides I have the outlet of hiking.

Getting back into a routine

After many months away now is the hard part - trying to get back into a routine. Everything seems different and unfamiliar at the same time. Because I was gone over the winter not as much changed around town as could have. Or at least at what I've seen.

The vibe and people are what I remembered. On the go. None of the laid back Scandinavian attitude found in North Dakota. The people here look different and act different. Fortunately I can handle either attitude, though right now I prefer the forward leaning do-something attitude found here.

I found my well and water pipes were fine. No frozen pipes. I had left a light bulb on in my well shed and a heater as backup. The light bulb was burnt out when I arrived. The heater worked.

My mailbox was crooked as the snowplow was unable to knock it off my new post over winter. On my to-do list is to reattach it correctly.

I've unpacked much of my luggage. I'm still struggling to get into a routine.

I stopped by the County election office, and after speaking with Karen (another North Dakota transplant as she was originally born in Grand Forks, ND), I found she had filled all the election judge positions for the primary election. Darn! I was looking forward being an election judge again this year. I learned that the chief election judge with whom I worked last time, Carmen, got married and moved to the Hamilton area in SW Montana. Many of the women remembered me and told me to check back for the general election is November as they will try to find me a position.

I spoke with Dan this morning. He is still putting a herd together as one of his sources fell through. He may not get a full herd together so I may end of cutting the hayfield this year. I'll see what happens.

This morning I walked part of the pasture and checked the boundary fences and river. The fences look good. The river is muddy and high and moving right along. It doesn't appear that any trees blew down over winter. But then they seldom do. It is during summer rain/wind storms that they can get blown over.

While uptown yesterday it rained. I waited until it quit and rode my bicycle back home last evening on wet roads. Three miles from home it began to rain. Hard. I was soaked by the time I got home. After supper I fell asleep early listening to my favorite radio station.

This morning I got up early. 8 am! Can you imagine me getting up that early if I didn't have to?

I am at the library again today and thunder has started to rumble. Outside the open library window the street now sounds wet . Another wet ride home I guess. *sigh*

Train back to Montana

I had to be at the train station for luggage check-in by 10:30 am. Even though we were getting all green lights, my brother and I were cutting it close. Then we discovered the road to the station was blocked off. The train station is being remodeled from the boring 1970s style box building to a station with bricks and a sloping roof of an old style station. Because of the construction work the road was closed.

*argh!*

The detour was way around to the east and through downtown Minot.

Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!

I got to the station at 10:25 am. *whew*

I found when I got to the train station that my train reservation/ticket was wrong. It was from Whitefish to Minot, not Minot to Whitefish. The arrival and departure times are close each way so I hadn't noticed. The only thing I could think of was that Amtrak's web site reset to my profile's default itinerary sometime during my search for available dates.

Oh! Great! I need to get home today.

The ticket agent checked and said there were no seats left. WHAT?! Then she corrected herself. Because the time now was after the scheduled departure time her computer had checked availability for the next day.

*whew*

Checking this day showed one seat left. I bought it even though when a person buys a ticket from an agent and not through the 1-800 number or web site you can't use your discounts on the purchase price. No matter, what I wanted was a ticket.

Then it was time to wait for the train. It arrived after 11 pm - more than 2 and 1/2 hours late. Apparently the train had been delayed around Detroit Lakes, Minnesota in the middle of the night because a car was on the tracks. People weren't sure if it was a suicide attempt or someone drunk out of their mind. A wrecker had to be called to move the car.

Because of the number of people on, and boarding the train at Minot, I made sure I was one of the first to get on my train car. I was able to find two seats open and got a window seat. While there were plenty of passengers, the car was only about 3/4 full. I was able to have the two seats my entire journey.

I checked three large suitcases. There is a 50 lb limit and they check the suitcase's weight if they feel heavy. My suitcases weighed: 47, 47, and 35 lbs. The agent weighed the two 47 lb suitcases as she didn't believe me when I said they weighed that much. They did.

In addition I had another suitcase plus a half dozen bags and boxes. These I brought on with me as there is always plenty of room around one's seat and in the downstairs luggage bin.

*whew* Made it.

As the train left Minot I could see the areas that had burnt in the grass fires a month ago. The ground was a nice green. The areas not burnt had more brown than green as the green grass is not very tall. It was this way across North Dakota and much of Montana. It got greener the closer we got to the mountains. When I got home I was surprised at how green and tall the grass was in my yard. I shouldn't have been surprised considering it is this way every year at this time.

The tulips on the north side of my house are in bloom and very pretty. On the south side they are not and actually seem stunted and smaller. The south side always blooms first so this is a surprise. I wonder if the deer ate them and they are now re-growing. The tulips I transplanted to the west side of my house are a mixture of stunted and trying to bloom. I found I didn't find all the tulips bulbs last Fall when I moved bulbs from the holding area outside my tulip garden south of the house. I have a dozen or so plants coming up.

My train trip was enjoyable, though non-descript. I think this was partly due to me being tired and partly because I have done this trip quite a few times. I mainly slept and read and didn't spend much time sightseeing out the window. One noteworthy time was when the train passed the Sweetgrass Hills. I sat on the north side of the train and had view of them. The other time was when we were in the mountains. Even though the train was late it was still light when we entered the mountains, though dark once we got to West Glacier on the other side. The Middle Fork of the Flathead River is running high and brown in the mountains, even on high and closer to the Pass.

There is still lots of snow on the mountains and they are very pretty. The setting sun added a muted orange color in the sky around some of the mountains. The best views shift back and forth between the north and south side of the train. I didn't go to the observation car as, while beautiful, I have seen the views many times before.

The passengers were of a different breed than usual, else I was too tired to really socialize. I did speak with a guy across the aisle from me. He was getting off the train at East Glacier, then going the next day to the Many Glacier Hotel where he will be working for the summer. Last summer he worked at the Lake MacDonald gift store. This past winter he worked at a resort in Hawaii. This is what he does for a living. The jobs don't pay much so he does it partly for the experience. After working this Summer at Many Glacier he has no idea what he will do next.

He was a nice enough guy, but there was something odd about him. He was balding and looked to be in his 40s, but he had a naivety about him. My gaydar was going off, and although he mentioned he used to have a girlfriend for 4 years, I wonder about him.

Oh well, he should have a good summer at the Park.

At times during the journey the train was as much as 2 hours 40 minutes late. Eventually the train began to make up time and I arrived in Whitefish a little under 2 hours late. They could have made up time on the whistle stops but the train allowed smokers a couple minutes to smoke outside and that delayed us.

The smokers would rush outside and stand and smoke their cigarette furiously. While one of my friends thinks seeing a woman smoke is sexy, not me. Quite the opposite. Even the young women with good looking bodies who smoked looked old and haggard to me when I looked at their faces.

Bob and Jan were waiting at the Whitefish train station for me. To my surprise Jackie was there also in case Bob and Jan couldn't make it. Jackie brought me a bag of food to help me until I get situated.

Around the luggage cart one young woman waiting for her husband/boyfriend/or brother didn't manage her daughter well. Once the cart arrived it was a mad rush of people pulling their bags down off the cart. This is not a place for a 3 or 4 year child. Fortunately the little girl did not get clipped by a suitcase or stepped on before her mother finally pulled her away from the cart. I did give the mother a look though, and not a pleasant one.

I got home at 11:30 pm. The house had a smell of a combination of being stuffy with a wood smoke smell. An interesting combination and neither smell was dominant which made for an interesting smell and not a terribly obnoxious one. I did open the windows briefly today in an attempt to air the house out.

I was tired as I had slept only three hours the previous night and a few hours on the train and fell into bed without unpacking my suitcases. My bed felt odd. It was no longer familiar after all these months. Still, I quickly fell asleep and slept long and hard.

Catching the train

I am waiting for Amtrak. If the train was on time I would be on it and going to Montana right now. The train was suppose to arrive at 8:34 am. The latest estimate is for it to arrive at 11 am - 2 1/2 hours late. *argh!*

The good news is that I wasn't ready to catch the train if it was on time. I didn't start packing my luggage until 11 pm last night. I didn't go to bed until after 4 am. I planned on getting up at 6:40 am but didn't. The alarm clock only had a low hum. It was almost 6:55 pm when I faintly heard my mother's voice calling me. I was in the middle of an active dream so I was surprised I woke up.

Then I have been dragging on less than 3 hours sleep as I packed a lunch this morning.

So I am happy the train is late, but not too happy that it is this late as that means it will be late into Whitefish. The train can make up time across Montana but not 2 and 1/2 hours.

Trivia night: last night

Last night was my last night of trivia before I return to Montana. I was happy the Landing Bar decided to have a trivia night on Memorial Day as I wanted one more time at trivia before returning to Montana. I wasn't sure how many people would attend, and saw less cars in the parking lot than usual before I entered the bar, but the place was almost full.

Our team had plenty of members: Darell, Mona, Al, Marvin, Jeff, Donna, and Carla - Jeff and Donna's daughter. Yes, that is where I got the idea Donna was called Carla. The others realized I didn't know Donna's name and got a kick out of me referring to her as Jeff's wife in my blog. It appears they misled me into thinking Carla was Donna's name. Tonight we all had a big laugh when they introduced Carla and they explained they knew I didn't know Donna's name for what seemed to be forever, and knew I had thought Donna was Carla for a few weeks.

Carla was visiting her parents and hometown for the weekend and her parents encouraged her to attend trivia with them. Mona and the group said that when I wrote up about Carla on this blog I should write something sexy about her; i.e. say that she works as a stripper in her spare time. The next the group did was make jokes about pole dancing with Carla joining in on the joke. Well, none of that is true. Carla is attractive and intelligent and looks like her mom. Carla won one of the quarter questions and took a Miller Lite t-shirt as her prize. In the regular contests I can't fault her for saying Venus was the planet with a blue sunset as I thought the same.

After the trivia contests were over I also learned Carla is getting her Masters in psychology and also has "spidey sense" as she shared an amusing spider-in-the-bathroom story with the group. Carla works for a company that creates job application personality questionnaires which I found to be fascinating as I have taken a number of personality tests and have an interest in this subject.

But... Carla and I got into a debate as, having taken a number of the tests, I wondered how accurate or foolproof they are. I found our discussion interesting, as a number of my close friends would nod their heads and expect of me, but Carla's and my debate came within about 5 minutes of first talking with her. I've found in the past that discussions like this too soon can annoy people as they can take it personally when what I am interested in is an intelligent discussion on some idea or concept where I can learn something.

Carla will be an excellent employee for her company as she adamantly defended the tests as I challenged, probed, and tried to learn more.

She also mentioned that IBM has implemented conflict resolution training since 2002. This was after I left IBM so I checked with some of my longtime colleagues at IBM and they never heard of it. I've found online a mention of a class IBM offers on this subject. I also see (via google) that conflict resolution seems to be a popular topics for companies.

Al came this night with Ed. Al is feeling better now, which is good as he provided answers for some of the questions.

With so many people I had to get another table to make three tables for people to sit around.

Ed may use my questions in the upcoming weeks since I will be back in Montana. I'll be curious if he does and how they went over. Perhaps he will tell Rod, and Rod will email me.

I was the bucket boy again this night. Some questions were answered correctly by the first person who guessed, and other questions gave me a workout as I had to walk around and around the room. The barmaid reminded me that I was missing the people sitting at the bar who wanted to guess. One woman at the bar was so drunk I initially didn't know if she was wanting to guess. She was. I got to her other times for guesses before she made a fuss.

One time I was so caught up in trying to figure out an answer to the written contest that I missed when Ed called out a quarters question. I had to jump up with the bucket real fast. Then later Ed missed when it was time for another quarters question and I had to remind him.

Our team didn't do all that great: 12 correct and then 14 correct. The 14 correct wasn't too bad as the winning team had 16 correct, but nonetheless it would have been nice to win again before I left for Montana.

Something was in the air as Mona and I were thinking alike. When Darrel was talking about something several times Mona made the exact same comment as I was about to make. Spooky? Or great minds thinking alike?

Mona is pushing for me to have a big bonfire when I get back to Montana, invite lots of people and have a big party. I think she believes that if I have big parties and invite lots of people I will get laid and have sex, as her telling me a few weeks ago that I need sex hasn't seemed to work in getting me laid.

Earlier when I was talking to Ed and Al about canoeing with Rod a week ago Mona teased me about "cannodling". "What, you were cannoodling? Who were you cannodling with?" Umm... no.

I noticed in the pool table area a man in a cowboy hat and the woman he was with. She seemed to put more energy into making out with him than in playing pool. There was no doubt he was 'getting lucky' later that night. "Get a hotel room!"

I had four drinks. The first two I got for being bucket boy, Darrel bought me one since it was my last night here, and later the bar owner sent a round of free drinks for our table. More than I usually drink but still I did better than the rest (Darrel, Mona, Jeff, Donna, and Carla) who stayed late. Some were feeling very good, loose, and funny. I wonder how some are feeling today. Some had to get up early today. And Carla... very early as she planned to get up at 3:30 am as she had a very early flight out of Minot.

Darrel, Mona, and I stayed till the bar's closing. The longest I've stayed. I'll miss trivia nights when I return to Montana. These are a good group of people - especially as I now know all their names.

Photo 1: Al and Ed
Photo 2: The group. (Note, the two guys behind us not facing the camera are from a different team)
Photo 3: Darrel. I had to include this photo as he closed his eyes in the group photo.

Lastly, a photo of Carla. I think she is ready to punch me during our discussion of job personality aptitude testing.


And with that... good night. I'm off to catch a train in so many hours.

Sitting close in a pickup

The other day I saw a sight I don't see much anymore: a woman sitting right next to man driving a pickup. I mean right next to him. There was room for at least three more people in that pickup's cab.

When I was younger that was a common sight. Now I do a double take as I rarely see it happening anymore. Today two people sit at opposite sides of the cab with room for about three people between them. Why is that? A few reasons I can think of are:

• I think it is mainly due to seat belts. That is what is keeping lovers apart. One has to sit on each side of the pickup cab to use a seatbelt. Yes, there usually is a seatbelt in the middle, but using it still doesn't allow a woman to sit right next to her man.

• Perhaps it may not be cool for a woman to sit so close to her man. Everyone wants their space and independence now a days.

• many cars do not have 'bench' seats anymore in the front seat. Pickups may be the last vehicles to have a single seat. Couple are out of practice in sitting close together when driving.

• People don't go to drive-in movies anymore where there is a reason to sit next to one another.
  

• Economic independence. When I was younger and this behavior more common, many young women didn't have a vehicle and depended on their boyfriend to drive. Now with most women owning and driving their own vehicles, there is less of sitting close. A man will not sit right next to his girlfriend as she drives. A man just doesn't do that. With feminism and women taking on more behaviors of men, the women today take their cue from men and then sit like them when the man drives - on the other side of the cab.
  

Well, for the couples I see sitting so close together... good for them!

Rain and window frame

It has been raining off and on all day. A dark dreary wet day, but one that is needed. It had gotten so dry the past few weeks we started to have grass fires around Minot again. The County put a burn ban back in place a few days ago.

My swollen face continued to get better. I am peeling like mad though now.

I took one of mom's basement window frames in to a glass shop yesterday to get new glass. Somehow both panes of the window glass broke in this window and my brother had covered the frame in plastic. Not a good thing in North Dakota over the winter time to have plastic on the window.

Now that it is warmer, and before I return to Montana, I had new glass put in the window frame. The cost came to almost $36 for the two simple panes of glass. Nothing is cheap these days. I'm currently waiting for the putty to dry before standing the window up and putting it back in place.

While waiting for the window to be fixed I went next door to a thrift store run to raise money for the Boys Ranch. Surprisingly I found a few pants in my size. Now I can retire those patched up jeans I use when working on the ranch as these newer pants are in much better condition than my old pants. I also found several pairs of shorts good for hiking with plenty of pockets.

Flowering trees

Here are photos of a group of flowering trees from down the street. It is nice to see the trees bud out.

Squirrel

Yup. This is what was in mom's front yard the other morning. I don't want to sound like I don't like animals - I do - but squirrels are on my 'do not like' list along with gophers and deer. Squirrels are nothing but rats with bushy tails. And they are such pests when you want to have a bird feeder.

I had trimmed some tree branches the other night and I believe this squirrel is munching on some of the buds from the branches.

Less swollen

After spending time with ice last night my swollen face is better today. This morning when I woke up, my face was more swollen under my eyes than above my eyes. My vision was limited from below.

Over the day the swelling seems to be receding slightly. My forehead is starting to itch; I am starting to peel; and my lips are now getting blisters.

Swollen eyes

A first for me. Yesterday afternoon my forehead started to swell up.  Today my eyes are partially to mostly swollen shut.

It started yesterday afternoon when the area above my right eye started to swell and drop and I could notice it in my field of vision. Later I could see a similar thing above my left eye.

That is where it stood when I went to bed. This morning I had trouble opening my eyes due to the swelling. I looked like a bad mug shot.

I expected that once I got up and moved around things would get better. I put a cold washrag across my forehead. It helped slightly.

As the day went on my face got even more swollen.  I called the convenient care clinic at Trinity Hospital.  They recommended I put a cold pack on my forehead and take benadryl in case this was an allergic reaction.

At the drug store I asked my mother's pharmacist about benadryl and he felt benadryl wouldn't help me. Because of the way I looked he strongly felt I should see a doctor.

*argh*

My brother drove me across town to the walk in clinic. With my swollen eyes I was in no condition to drive.

Because of my insurance's high deductible I decided to immediately pay for the clinic visit from my HSA account and avoid insurance paperwork. Many places - happy to avoid insurance paperwork and get paid right away - give you a 5% or so discount. Not Trinity Hospital. No discount when you pay right away.

For $124 the doctor told me that the swelling was a result of the sunburn from my canoe trip on Sunday. It took two days to swell up? I've had much worse sunburns in the past with no swelling. He could not explain why this time and not other times. He did say this was the worse case of fluid build up from a sunburn that he ever saw.

Gee.. thanks.

Most of the time while canoeing I hadn't worn a hat. Later when I did wear a hat a branch snagged my hat and tossed it in the river. After that the hat was too wet to wear.

The doctor told me that around the eyes is the part of the face that can swell up as fluid can pool here. Gravity pulled the fluid from the top of my head and forehead where it was sunburned down to around my eyes.

One eye is almost swollen shut and the other is half shut. It looks like someone beat up me. I look bad. The doctor said it will take a week or two for the swelling to go away.  Fortunately  it didn't take that long as I started to see improvement the next day.

Great. Just great. 

In the meantime ice is my friend.

Yes, my left eye is open.

Trivia night: Zip to Zap

Another middle of the pack performance this night with 12 and 13 answers correct out of 20 questions. The best we did was a tie for third place. Darrel, Mona, Marvin and I were there; Dave, Jeff, and Donna were not as they had other engagements. And Jeff's wife's name is Donna, not Carla. How is that I can remember movie stars' names but have trouble remembering real live people's names?

Ed started on time - or even earlier - as I arrived at 7 pm and he was on the third question already. While the bar clock is set fast, people still joked Ed must have a hot date later as he was zipping through the questions quickly this night. All the games were done before 8:30 pm. Ed claimed he was moving along faster because there were less people there this night. Huh? Yes, the crowd was smaller but that shouldn't make a difference Ed.

I handled the quarters bucket again and got a couple of free drinks for doing so. Darrel won a couple of the quarter questions and he chose a t-shirt and large water bottle as prizes. Both prizes fell under the "now what do I do with these?" categories.

After the contests were over I gave Ed a half dozen collections of trivia questions to use as contests and for quarters questions. I will be leaving for Montana in a little over a week and I wanted to give something back. Also I wanted to introduce more current questions than questions from the 1940s and 50s.

Ed stopped and socialized with our group for a while after the contests were over. Later Jeff and Donna came. We quizzed them on questions we had missed and they knew a few answers. But not enough to win. With Jeff's and Donna's help would would have gotten second place each time.

We traveled down memory lane and us older members of the group informed Darrel and Mona (the young pups) about the "Zip to Zap" concert festival. This concert was held in the tiny town of Zap, North Dakota May 9-11, 1969 - before Woodstock was held later the same year. Jeff was on his way to attend the concert when he learned from the news it was canceled. Canceled? It had gotten out of hand and the North Dakota National Guard was called out by the governor to put down a riot. This made the lead story on the CBS Evening news that night. This was the only time the Guard ever put a riot down in North Dakota. No wonder a few of us old timers kinda remember this festival, as most people have or want to forget it ever happened. Wikipedia has a good writeup of the "Zip to Zap" festival if you want to know more.

After trivia was over the bar cleared out of most people. Later a group of four women and one guy came and sat at another table. I wasn't facing them and they were kind of loud. Later they were louder still and laughing and carrying on and when I turned to look the table was a dozen or so women and the one guy. I don't know... there was something different about that guy. I was thinking he was either gay or was a male stripper. Or maybe both. One guy and all these rowdy women? The women were all ages so it either may have been a bachelorette party (that would explain the guy... but, on a Monday?) or one of the girls 21st birthday.

Yoga and belly dancing

Late the other night when flipping though TV channels before bed I came across a show on the FitTV channel showing a number of Namaste yoga moves. There were three women demonstrating several moves over and over. As they went through the moves the location shifted from indoors to a park to near the ocean to a forest. It was quite interesting to see the location changes. I must admit I noticed the locations more in a peripheral manner as the three women in their tight tops and shorts were quite appealing to watch. And these women were flexible! Wow. They were quite, um, ...interesting... to watch as they went through their 'cat' and 'dog' and 'reverse dog' and whatever moves. Hmmm... maybe I should take up yoga?

Why this came to mind now was my brother was just flipping through TV channels and came to the FitTV channel and the show had three belly dancers dancing. Apparently this a regular belly dance instructional program but when I saw the show it was near the end and the dancers were just dancing around the stage. Oh man!

Ever since I saw Barbara Eden in "I Dream of Jeanie" on TV when I was a kid I've had a weakness for belly dancers. I like the costume, look, jingle-jangle, and the movement of belly dancers. I still remember the Afghan restaurant in Minneapolis I visited in 1989 where they had an attractive belly dancer performing while people ate their meals. She was good and for one dance balanced a large sword on her head as she moved.

The Renaissance Festival held annually near Minneapolis, MN usually has belly dancers performing on one of the stages. One year a vendor was selling belly dancing outfits. I bought one for the woman I attended the festival with. She had taken a belly dance class or two years earlier and claimed not to remember any moves. No matter, she looked great, moved great, and I was in heaven watching her.

A woman who can carry off wearing a belly dancer outfit and can belly dance is a woman. And if a guy is not attracted and interested in watching that, then, well, he is not a guy with an appreciation for the fairer sex.

Confidence, cattle, rivers, and judging

What is it about a suddenly very warm Summer day? For me, it gives me extra energy, raises my testosterone level, puts a spring in my step, and fills me with so much confidence that it oozes out of my body. I mean, I am a confident person, but in an indirect way. I am not a direct person. Friday afternoon as I ran errands on a very warm sunny windy day, I stood taller, walked purposefully, and spoke directly. While not a common way of expressing myself, it still felt natural and good. There was no thinking and debating, just doing. Look out world, I can do anything and I'm doing it now. 'Come here woman. Kiss me.'

Too bad I can't bottle that feeling and always have it.

Also Friday afternoon Dan called me from Montana. He said he had gotten this felling that I am never coming back and he couldn't shake it. Dan's wife told Dan to call me. In his defense, I have been gone for a very long time. Dan pastures cattle on my place and plans to do so again this year. I have a train ticket and return date and I let him know that.

We talked cattle and cattle prices, hay prices, weather, and what not. Last month Dan sold my northern neighbor two heifers to raise for beef. They had wanted only one heifer but Dan warned them that cattle are social animals and one on its own does not do well. Dan said the neighbor burnt his pasture off last month before getting the cattle.

On the local TV news Friday night there was a segment about cattle. Watching the cattle I miss having them.

It is warm here as the temperature was 80 F Friday. Dan said it was near 80 F there. The forecast is for the temperature to be near 90 F today in Kalispell. The river is 540 CFS and steadily rising. A week ago it was 300 CFS. With all the snow left to melt the government is forecasting flooding of low areas in the Flathead Valley and NW Montana. My river is suppose to crest, but not flood, in a little over a week and just before I return home.

I also heard from the election department in Flathead County. I served as an election judge in 2006 and the officials wanted me as a judge again this year. In fact they wanted me to be the chief election for the precinct I worked in 2006. Apparently only half my 2006 team is returning this year. A problem is this year's training session was this past Wednesday and naturally I was unable to attend. I turned down the chief election judge position, but would like to be an election judge again this year. Especially as it should be exciting since Montana's Democratic primary is being held June 3. I guess I'll see what happens once I return to Montana.

Soup and juneberry pie

After making a batch of pumpkin muffins on Wednesday, Thursday I got to some more baking. I made a large pot of vegetable soup - just in time for warmer weather. Carrots, celery, onion, beets, cabbage, split peas, lentils, a few handfuls of noodles, turkey soup meat all went into my soup. The onions and beet were the last from from my garden.

If I must say so myself, my soup came out tasting good.

Then I made a juneberry pie. I love juneberries! I found 4 cups of my juneberries in mom's freezer from when Rod and I picked a bunch back in July 1997, and that was the right amount for my recipe. The berries survived well all this time, though they are not the freshest.

The pie turned out very good, better than I expected, even with the older berries. No wonder I just love juneberries when I have fresh berries.

The problem I had was the berries were very juicy, and although I didn't fill the pie dish to the top, the juice bubbled over when cooking. The glass pie plate stuck to the pizza pan I had underneath. This wasn't my first rodeo when it comes to pies bubbling over.

In the evening after the pie cooled I pried the plate from the pan and lifted the plate up to see how much dried and hardened juice I had to clean from the plate. As I was putting the plate back down I dropped it and the pie flipped over and the contents fell out onto the kitchen counter. Oh no!

I scooped up the berries and crust and put them back into the pie dish. My pie doesn't look great anymore, but it still tastes great.

Viewfinder

Going through stuff at my mother's place I came across the booklet for a view-master that I had as a kid. The view-master is long gone, having been sold at a garage sale many years ago.

I don't have many memories of the view-master as I didn't have a good wall to use as a projection screen; and I didn't have a lot of images to view. I remember more using the viewfinder that one holds up to one's eyes where one sees a 3-D image.

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Smock marriages

In the l8th century, widows sometimes remarried clad only in a smock, or sometimes wearing nothing at all. This custom was based on the notion that according to common law, a man who married a woman with few or no clothes would not be responsible for her debts or those of her first husband. The noted jurist Francis Wharton (1820-89) called this concept "a vulgar error."

These "smock marriages," which originated in England, were not uncommon in the New England colonies during the early 1700's. The custom varied according to the region, In some places, the marriage took place after the groom and his scantily clad bride had crossed a highway one or more times. In other areas, the bride, often naked, stood in a closet and put out one arm during the wedding ceremony. Sometimes the bride-groom lent wedding clothes to his bride-to-be, keeping her modest while he protected his money.

Mr. William C. Prime, in his delightful book, “Along New England Roads”, gives an account of such a marriage in Newfane, Vermont. In February, 1789, Major Moses Joy married widow Hannah Ward; the bride stood with no clothing on within a closet, and held out her hand to the major through a diamond-shaped hole in the door, and the ceremony was thus performed. She then appeared resplendent in brave wedding attire, which the gallant major had previously deposited in the closet for her assumption.

Mr. Prime tells also of a marriage in which the bride, entirely unclad, left her room by a window by night, and, standing on the top round of a high ladder, donned her wedding garments, and thus put off the obligations of the old life. In some cases the marriage was performed on the public highway.

In Hall’s “History of Eastern Vermont”, page 587, we read of a marriage in Westminster, Vermont, in which the widow Lovejoy, while nude and hidden in a chimney recess behind a curtain, wedded Asa Averill.

“Smock marriages” are recorded in York, Maine, in 1774, as shown on page 419 of “History of Wells and Kennebunkport”. It is said that in one case the pitying minister threw his coat over the shivering bride, one widow Mary Bradley, who in February, clad only in a shift, met the bridegroom on the highway, half way from her home to his.

Gee.. some great traditions have been lost over time.

Pain visit and branches

Mom had another visit to the Tri-life pain clinic this morning. The appointment this time was at 9 am instead of 8 am like last time. Mom still has plenty of pain, but the mornings usually are better and not as drawn out. So a 9 am appointment was doable without an extreme amount of effort.

The appointment went well. The doctor was very happy the Cymbalta med is working well for mom. Now the goal is to move mom off Percacet and onto Tramadol. Percacet is a narcotic, and in addition to being a hassle to fill at the pharmacy, it loses effectiveness the longer one uses it as the body becomes used to it.

Dr Paul Olson from the Tri-life Pain Clinic is very good and knowledgable and caring about pain medicines. His suggestions have helped mom. We really like him.

We were back home at 10 am. I trimmed some tree branches away from a few pine trees by the garage and a power line. The trees are tall and I had to use a pole saw and stand on ladders. I now have a pile of green ash branches and a pile of pine branches.

Last weekend's snow did wonders for the lawns. The grass is getting to be a nice rich green and the soil is soft.

The day is a mix. A few sprinkles of rain this morning, gloomy clouds, and now one can see shadows as it is not cloudy, but the sky isn't blue either. Not cold, not warm. A day better than Winter, but not as good as in Summer.

Trivia night: bucket boy

Last night was another night of trivia. I arrived before the contests started at 7 pm. Darrel already had the quarters bucket at our table. I handled the bucket this night so Darrel could participate in the guesses.

Our team this night was: Darrel, Mona, Dave, Marvin, Jeff's wife Carla, and I. I think Carla is her name. I knew it last night, but this morning I am not so sure. Jeff was still at work and he never arrived until the contests were over.

The bar crowd was not as large this evening. There were fewer teams, and most of the teams were larger than usual except for two powerhouse teams: the lawyer/judge team and the team with the guy from Hawaii. Their teams were at half strength and as a consequence did not do well this night.

I got a seat looking out over much of the bar and the pool tables at the far end. Hardly anyone was playing pool this night though there was an occasional attractive woman playing a game or two during the night.

Trivia night starts out with a quarters question, then goes into the first written answer contest. Even though Ed tells people this is the written round and not to shout out the answers, a drunk 20-something guy sitting at the bar yelled out "Crust" to the first question: "What is the earth's outer layer called?"

Everyone playing gave the drunk dirt looks, but being a drunk it didn't seem to register, even after Ed told him not to shout out the answers. The drunk then shouted "Jewels" to the second question which was not an answer or anything close to the correct answer being a whale's mouth. When challenged the drunk claimed he was calling the bartender's name. Nope. The bar owner came over and after letting the drunk finish his drink had him leave.

Out team did not do well in either contest this night. We finished with 12 and 13 correct in each contest. The 13 was good enough for 3rd place but the winning team had 18 right. Our team was struggling. Even Marvin who is our old cowboys and westerns and 1950s TV shows expert struggled.

For some reason Ed included math questions. "What is the decimal representation of 6/8?" Answer: .75 What kind of trivia question is this?

For the question, "What is the name for 1 followed by 100 zeros?" The team didn't believe my answer of googol and wanted to go with gazillion, bazillion, trillion, or some such imaginary number from childhood. Therefore we got this answer wrong.

Darrel was positive he knew the name of the mechanical shark used to film Jaws, but he couldn't remember it. He spent the contest agonizing over his inability to remember. I wasn't positive but "Bruce" came to mind as I had heard the answer some years ago. I mentioned it but Darrel sitting near me was so focused on remembering what he forgot that he didn't hear me, and other than Marvin sitting on my other side, no one else apparently had heard me as they ended up writing down "Joe" just to write down something.

The people writing the answers were at the other end of the table and couldn't hear me well and that was part of our problem. For the question, "Which acting team first appeared together in the movie, ''Woman of the Year'?", I knew it was Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. I told Dave that. Later I learned he had heard Spencer Tracy but not Katherine Hepburn and therefore wrote down Spencer and Tracy.

Oh well.

I found that handling the quarters bucket changed in how I remembered those answers. Because I would repeat each person's answer loudly so the audience could hear, when I sat down after the correct answer was given I found I forgot which was the correct answer as all the answers given were jumbled in my head.

I would stand in front of the room as Ed would ask the question. For most of the questions there was a pause with no one raising their hand as people pondered the answer. Usually the guesses started slow until people got on a train of thought and started to give variants of the previous guesses.

Sometimes people decided to be silly and try to top the previous silly answer. For the question, "What happened when a missile fell in Cuba?", when the answers of cold war, Cuban Missile Crisis, and similar answers were wrong, the answers turned to Castro shaving his beard, the Cubans siphoning the gas from the missile, and other silly answers. Often I would have people repeat their guess to me as they were long and I wanted to make sure I used their phrasing and not paraphrase it myself. Ironically the correct answer was silly. The missile killed a cow.

People usually were getting the quarters questions correct pretty fast and by the end of the night the bucket maybe only had about $10 in it.

For handling the bucket I got tokens for two free drinks which I used on Mike's Hard Cranberry Lemonade. Even after last week's BL Lime beer - which was ok, I still do not like the taste of beer.

After the contests were over Ed stopped by our table and we learned that Al, having had surgery on his prostate, was out of the hospital and back home, and that Rod had finished remodeling his shower.

While the trivia contests didn't seem like they had gone by fast, they were done by 8:30 pm. Many teams left right afterwards, else drifted out soon after. We hung around talking about this and that for almost a couple more hours before I left for the night. I learned about Darrel's current job landscaping and mowing using a huge Jacobson $46,000 mower. Mona graduated from college and is now looking for work. And various other topics.

Trivia night: lime

Last Monday I was running late again for another night of trivia. I had five minutes and three quarters of a mile. I'm getting out of shape as I had to slow down a couple times to a walk and rest a bit. Surprisingly I arrived just before the trivia contest began.

Our group was: Darrel, Mona, Jeff, his wife, Dave, Marvin, Rod, and I. Al wasn't there as he is back in the hospital. A large group this time. We slid two tables together but the group was so large we couldn't hear the other end of the table and didn't want to shout out our answers so that other teams could overhear. Lots of paper passing ensued.

We did our typical. Second or third place in the first contest, and tied for second in the second contest. Fifteen correct each time. If only we had a couple more questions correct. The crowd size was decent, though not as large as the previous week. The team sizes seemed larger this week. I didn't wear my glasses so I might have missed people at the far end of the room. Without my glasses I may also have missed any women giving me a look.

No one from our team won any of the quarters trivia questions. One team was hot as their table won at least four of the questions. Two of the quarters questions went on for a long time and lots of quarters were put in the bucket that Darrel carried.

"Clara Shumann was the principal piano teacher at the Hoch Conservatory in what city?"

Answer: Frankfort. I think the guesses named all the European cities before Frankfort was named. I had been in Frankfort so that should have come to mind as a guess, but I associated Frankfort with banking, business, and airports.

The last quarters question also added many quarters to the bucket before the correct answer was named.

"In 1728, what cosmetic device was invented?"

Answer: braces. The guesses ranged all over the body before the correct answer was given. All told, the bucket had the highest worth of any night I remember: over $47.

Rod had been washing a large comforter in a nearby laundromat, and between contests ran over to move it from the washer to dryer. He stayed for a while after the trivia contests were over. He, Darrel, Mona and I had an interesting discussion on astrology (Rod doesn't believe in it). Darrel and Mona enlightened Rod and I on Native American funeral traditions which include a three day mourning period and a remembrance ceremony and gift giving one year after the person's death.

Bud Light was promoting their lime flavor and throughout the night gave samples away to drink. I don't like the taste of beer but I tried a small sample anyway. The lime masks much of the beer taste and I found I could drink it.

Later Darrel bought a round of drinks and I had a bottle. Towards the end of the evening the promoter gave our table extra bottles as we had been favorable towards it. So I had another bottle.

I had two beers! What is the world coming to? That was my limit for the night as I no longer cared for the taste by the time I finished the second bottle.

In the end it was down to Darrel, Mona, Dave and I. We stayed until after 11 pm talking about demolition derbies in which Darrel and Mona - until she retired from crashing - competed. Mona had won several derbies.

We also talked about astrology as Mona and Darrel are Sagittarius and Scorpio respectively. Fire and Water signs. Signs that should not go together well according to astrology, though Darrel and Mona says it works well for them, and even better than when they had dated people who were compatible signs. They get some balance and each other helps with the other's weaknesses.

Darrel wants me to carry the quarters bucket next week as the bucket person doesn't get much of a chance to answer the question. It is not fair when people have their hands up. To carry the bucket I just need to be on time.

Towards the end of the night our Indian Princess of the group, Mona, a psychology major and most likely feeling the effects of her beers, quizzed me about the women in Kalispell and why didn't I have a girlfriend? Mona told me that as a guy I should want to get laid all the time. ("Isn't that what guys want?") She felt that I needed a woman. The bar was half empty by now but I'm sure many of those left heard Mona's opinion that I needed to get laid and have sex. "You need sex!!!", she said.

And where does the conversation go from there?

Pearls of Happiness

My friend Jeff sent me this cartoon in response to my musings on the pursuit of Happiness. I like it.



Here are a few more that I like from this cartoonist.




For more, here is a link to the cartoonist's web site: http://www.comics.com/comics/pearls/

Snow in May

Rod and I had planned on going canoeing and bird watching today. Guess that's not happening! It started to snow last night and here is the result this morning. Remember, today is May 10.

I shoveled the snow off the driveway and sidewalk even though I didn't have to do it. The sun and temperatures would quickly take care of it today. But I wanted the exercise.

Save of a wasted trip and What is life?

A gloomy rainy day. I know we really need the rain, but...

Mom had another doctor visit today only to discover - after we had got to the doctor's office - that my brother wrote down the date wrong. On the calender he wrote the date as May 9 when it was actually on June 9. Great. On a rainy day the last thing we needed or wanted to do was travel in the rain.

We did get to ride on one of the buses the Commission on Aging borrowed to continue their support of people who needed a ride as their broken buses from yesterday are still in the repair shop. It was a very nice bus with nice seats and carpeting and a much smoother ride. Too bad this isn't one of the Aging's regular buses. Even the bus driver is lamenting the day when he has to return this bus.

Mom had a blood drawn early this morning as we thought she had a doctor's appointment. At least the nurse came here to do the blood drawn as one must fast 12 hours and have the blood drawn early in the morning. Getting up early is difficult for mom due to the pain she has at that time of the morning.

Since the business where mom got her power chair was in the same building we stopped there. Kelly will look into getting a longer armrest for the non-joystick armrest. The current one is too short and mom is unable to use it to brace herself in getting up from and sitting back into the power chair.

What saved our trip from being a total waste was my request for the doctor to change mom's prescription from Crestor to Zocor or something else with a generic equivalent. At $101.72 for a 30 day supply, no wonder mom's med costs topped $1000 a month. The doctor wanted to wait until mom's appointment next month before deciding to switch her from Crestor and instead gave mom a 30 day supply from his supply of samples from the drug company.

The nurse called me after I got home to tell me she had the Crestor for mom. I drove back up there in my brother's pickup. The pickup idled so low today that the pickup would die. Unfortunately the pickup is a manual transmission and it would die when the ground was not level. Always there would be another vehicle close to me making it a coordination challenge to start the pickup without running into the vehicles around me.

After getting the Crestor, and on the way out of the building, one of my pet peeves reared it's ugly head: women who don't hold the door open for the person behind them. Many a time I had a door slam into me or others because the woman in front only thought about herself and not about who followed her. We need more women's lib and have their consciousnesses raised to have consideration for others. Men holding doors open for women are spoiling women as they don't seem to believe in equality and returning the favor.

I knew by the way the woman made sure she exited the elevator in front of me that she would be like many women and would only hold the door open long enough to slip through and would then let the door fall back into whomever was behind her. She did. But this building had a double set of doors. What she then did was step aside, and after I held the door open for the young woman holding a baby carrier and entering the building, the woman who had stepped aside quickly walked through the door blocking the woman with the baby carrier from entering. She wanted to make sure she got through the door while I held it open.

As I drove home on wet roads under low clouds and gloomy skies I turned on the radio and was cheered up. George Harrison's song, "What is Life?" came on the radio. (Here is a great youtube video of the song)

From the first fuzzy chords I recognized one of my favorite seldom heard songs. How can one not see promise of good things to come when hearing those chords, then galloping beat with tambourine and horns with George proclaiming his love. I cranked the radio up loud.

What I feel, I can't say
But my love is there for you anytime of day
But if it's not love that you need
Then I'll try my best to make everything succeed

Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side

What I know, I can do
If I give my love now to everyone like you
But if it's not love that you need
Then I'll try my best to make ev'rything succeed

Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side
Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side

What I feel, I can't say
But my love is there for you any time of day
But if it's not love that you need
Then I'll try my best to make everything succeed

Tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side
Oh tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side

What is my life without your love
Tell me, who am I without you, by my side

(fade:)
Oh tell me, what is my life without your love
Tell me who am I without you by my side

Who cannot feel good with a song and lyrics like this? The song got me thinking of women I have loved, including one who I chatted with last night. Women do make a man's life better, even if they can annoy, upset, and disappoint us.

With I like all the Beatles for various reasons, I believe I like George Harrison best of all. He seemed to be the everyman of the group. He seemed open and curious, friendly and caring, and searching for more out of life than mere personal possessions.

Other than that, my lack of food the past few days caught up to me as I feel tired and without energy today.