Out like a Lion

The first day of March was beautiful. Then the weather went downhill the very next day. Other than a couple nice days March has been a cold month.

Like the saying "in like a lamb, out like a lion" today, the last day of March, is going out cold and wet. Our normal high temperature is around 50 degrees and I think our high temperature today was 39 F.

Recently it finally stopped snowing after snowing much of the day. Thankfully none of the snow here stuck. Edwina emailed that at her end of the valley they got 7 inches of snow today and their yearly total is now 170 inches.

For Montana the national weather service is predicting a cooler than normal April, May, and June.



I want my global warming!

Nite owl

I took the BBC's test (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/crt/) to see my daily rhythm. It told me what I already know: I am a nite owl.

Facial recognition test

My friend Mark sent me this interesting test. I was very curious on how I would do as I don't think I am good at noticing and remembering faces. I did much better than I expected with an above average score of 95% and 91%.


Of the photos not in Parts A and B, I only got one photo wrong. I am surprised at how well I did.

Facial Recognition

This is a test to see how well you can remember.

There are two parts - A and B, and each part will have 12 photos of faces. You only have a short time, 4 seconds, to see each face before the program moves to the next face.

When Part A is finished, you are to wait 5 minutes before beginning Part B. When Part B is finished, wait 5 more minutes and then take the test.

The test will show 48 faces. Below each face you will have a choice of whether you have seen the face, either in Part A or in Part B, or not at all. At the end of the test your score will appear.

Good luck.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sleep/tmt/instructions_1.shtml

Enjoy the ride

Over on Kirsten's blog she shared the following song which I really liked.

The song has a nice slow dreamy feel and good lyrics.

With the moonlight to guide you
Feel the joy of being alive
The day that you stop running
Is the day that you arrive

Morcheeba - Enjoy The Ride

Dancing

Last Friday night I went dancing. Yes... you heard right... dancing! For those who know me well, know I do not know how to dance and therefore don't. I had a couple former girlfriends try to get-me-to / teach-me-to dance, but that went nowhere fast. I love watching others dance, love old Fred Astaire movies, and watch the TV show, Dancing with the Stars, regularly.

Last week my father's friend Jackie called and invited me to come to a dance being held as the Whitefish Senior Citizen's center. A couple had put together a dancing event there for all ages with live music and this was the second year they did so. Jackie said there was a woman who would teach me to dance and Jackie encouraged me to attend. Jackie remembered how well my dad danced.

Even though I woke up that morning stiff and sore from the previous day's tree trimming, my cross country skiing that day had loosened me up so I decided to attend. A bit reluctantly as I know I can't dance. But I had told Jackie that I would attend.

I arrived some time after they started. About two to three dozen people were there with kids and grand kids. I quickly found Jackie who had just finished a dance. After we greeted one another Jackie went to check on something and the next I knew a woman asked me to dance. I thought this was the woman Jackie had told me about so I couldn't say my normal "no thanks", though I did initially try to get out of it by telling her I can't dance.

"It's easy. It's a waltz and just three steps. You can do it."

Three steps, eh? The next I knew she grabbed my hands and we started. I won't say "started to dance" as my brain (as usual!) got in the way of my feet and nothing worked well. You'd think three steps would be easy. Not for me! I couldn't get it. I felt totally uncoordinated. But this woman, Karen, was patient and encouraging and told me not to get frustrated - which I quickly was becoming.

Over and over I tried. Eventually I closed my eyes as no matter how much I looked at my feet they would not do the right thing. Then I decided this was useless and I couldn't do any worse so I shut my brain off and stopped thinking.

"Now you're starting to get it."

"Huh? Really?"

I had no clue how I was doing. It sure would be nice to know what I was doing right.

Then just as I was starting to get it the song ended.

I was looking around for Jackie when Karen asked me to join the group for the next dance.

"Ummm... Umm..."

"Come on. I know the steps and I will help you."

So... I joined the group. It was a contra dance whose name I don't know. I was overwhelmed with learning the steps much less remembering the dance's name.

If you click on the contra dance link above you can get the details on how the dancing is done so I won't go into all the details. But generally, this is what happened:

A leader, known as a caller, will teach each individual dance just before the music for that dance begins. During this introductory "walk-through" period, participants learn the dance by walking through the steps and formations, following the caller's instructions. The caller gives the instructions orally, and sometimes augments them with demonstrations of steps by experienced dancers in the group. The walk-through usually proceeds in the order of the moves as they will be done with the music; in some dances, the caller may vary the order of moves during the dance, a fact that is usually explained as part of the caller's instructions.

After the walk-through, the music begins and the dancers repeat that sequence some number of times before that dance ends, often 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the length of the contra lines. At the end of each dance, the dancers thank their partners.

Contra dancing seems to be easier than couple dancing. Since one is dancing with four people (a set) within the line the dancing sometimes is more moving around than 'dancing'. With four people I was more trying to be in the right spot and remember which spot to move to next. If you didn't know you can look at the others or take various clues from what they are doing.

This is not to say that it can't be complicated. A later contra dance had me and my partner (and many others) confused for over half the dance. The dance started out similar to an earlier dance but it was a combination of the caller not accurately and explicitly calling out the moves during the walk through, along with a few more complicated steps, that had a number of us confused. I was dancing with Fran at that time and we started out as an active couple and in our confusion we ended up waiting out a rotation twice as our attempt to re-enter a set and the line got us back out when we made a wrong move.

The line ranged from eight to well over a dozen couples. Some times it seemed as if over a third of the people were young kids. That made it a little tricky when you had to duck under the raised arms of the other couple in your set when you move on to join another couple to make a new set. Do the limbo anyone?

The music was a half dozen people playing live on fiddles, piano, guitar, accordion and whatever. The ages ranged from adults to kids. Jackie knew the woman playing piano. The band had a few false starts so I don't know how regularly they played as a band, but you know I was so concentrating on the steps I wasn't conscious of the music half the time.

The contra dance tradition in North America is to change partners for every dance, while in the United Kingdom typically people dance with the same partner the entire evening. One who attends an evening of contra dances in North America does not need to bring his or her own partner. In the short break between individual dances, women and men invite each other to dance.

I didn't know the above while I was at the dance. Initially I danced the first couple of dances with Karen as she was encouraging and supportive and attractive. Then during a contra dance she introduced her husband and granddaughter as we progressed to dancing another couple in a new set.

I thought... What?! Did I miss seeing a wedding ring? I don't think I saw one.... Whatever.

It was a shame as she was about my age and attractive and nice. She also skis (both downhill and cross country) and hikes and backpacks. She and her husband had been up on Big Mountain earlier that day downhill skiing.

Oh well. That's life.

After the dance I spoke with her husband. We talked briefly about his travels in Tibet in 2000 to visit Buddhist monasteries. I got the impression he may be Buddhist but never got the chance to ask him directly.

It turns out - to my surprise - I knew several other women at the dance. One woman I knew from when I served as an election judge as she worked as a judge in another precinct in the same building. I don't think she recognized me. I didn't recognize her until halfway through the dance.

The other woman I knew recognized me first. Fran hiked with Leah's group one time (Avalanche Lake) when I was with Leah's group. Once Fran spoke I recognized her New England accent. So I danced most of the rest of the dances with Fran.

I also danced a Serbian dance that the group did. In this dance everyone held hands and danced in a circle. So you really didn't have a partner. I spent most of my time watching the lead dancer teaching us the dance for clues on how to move. Dance a few steps to the right forward, turn quickly dance a few steps in reverse, the circle moves in and you stomp your feet, moves back out, moves in and you clap your hands once and shout "Miya! Miya! Miya!" then repeat the steps. Apparently it was one of the little girl's birthday that day and her name was Miya.

By the end of the evening I stopped thinking and loosened up and was having a good time. I still won't admit that what I was doing was actually dancing.

The last dance of the night was a waltz and Jackie then had the woman who was organizing the event show me how to dance. At first she tried to teach me how to dance while holding a young grandchild in one arm but I was having trouble with the "one, two, threes" so she handed the child to Jackie to hold while she concentrated on helping me. She had to take the lead in the beginning to show me how it was done. Once I started getting the hang of it (stop thinking!) I took over and led. Then she wanted me to vary the locations where I stepped - back, forward, sideways a bit. My brain was getting overloaded which probably helped my 'dancing'. She claimed I was dancing and doing well but again I didn't know what I was doing. Then the song was over.

The night went by quickly and the dancing was over before I knew it. I was just getting started.

Fran, Karen, and a few other women encouraged me to come attend their regular contra dance nights at the Salvation Army Church. But nobody was sure which day it was in April though they sure made an effort to find out for me.

Also there is a regular folk dance night at the Salvation Army Church. The next one was the next (Saturday) night but I already had plans to attend a lecture on a climb last year of K2.

It seems as if there is a shortage of men who dance so the women sure encourage guys to come and dance. They were all flattering me on how tall and handsome I was, and 'aren't I having fun?' and 'see, you can dance well'. It was all good for my ego. I did have fun and I play to attend more dances. Too bad this wasn't around when I lived in Minnesota. I had several girlfriends who loved to dance, and I didn't dance. Looking on the Internet, even now the closest contra dancing events to Rochester are up in the Twin Cities.

After the dancing was over Jackie and I went out to have a bite to eat at the Red Caboose downtown Whitefish. They had a wonderful coconut meringue pie. I love coconut!

I didn't get home until well after 11 pm. Skiing and dancing...it was a long day and I went right to bed. I suppose it is good I don't currently have a girlfriend as, well, with my good mood my busy day would have been somewhat longer.

Winter on Wednesday

Winter is back! I woke up to a few inches of snow covering everything this morning. Today the temperature has ranged from the low to mid 30s F. So it has been a battle between Winter and Spring. It snows. It melts some. It snows more. It melts more.

Another sign of Spring are the semi trucks and trailers carrying seed potatoes from the potato warehouse down the road. I saw my first semi leave yesterday afternoon and just now another one came to get another load of potatoes to take to Washington State.

Late this morning an odd machine came lumbering up from the field across the road. It had an orange cab on top of two Caterpillar crawler-type of tracks. Other than for moving around in difficult terrain it didn't look too useful. It went down the road until it came to my gate where one man came out of the machine to open the gate to let the other man drive through. They must be with Bonneville Power as they followed the transmission line. They didn't stop at the towers but drove on following the transmission line. I must say, if this is their annual check of the transmission line, their timing is good as it is before the frost comes out of the ground and the grass starts growing. It has been annoying when in other years they drove over my hayfield flattening it.

Late yesterday afternoon I saw six whitetail deer out in my pasture. They ranged in size from large to small. It appears they have weathered the winter well. Supposedly the deer population is down in Montana, and I was starting to think the same for my area due to a lack of tracks in the snow this winter, but now I am not so sure as I see more deer every day there is less snow.

And the automated tracking station on the river is back working now that the ice has melted. The river has started to rise this past week from the melting snow. http://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/uv?12366080

King of Kong

I watched a 2007 documentary movie last week that was pretty good. It is called King of Kong.

While the documentary is about a competition to set a record high score on the arcade game, Donkey Kong, the documentary is about much more. It is really about a newcomer trying to break into a clique, and about believing in yourself and persevering when people and the odds are against you, and especially when you have failed before.

I am not much of an arcade player and never had an interest in Donkey Kong so I had my doubts about the movie, but I really got into the movie and became invested in the competition between Steve and Billy. I also learned playing Donkey Kong is a lot harder than it looks.

A review I found:

"In the early 1980s, legendary Billy Mitchell set a record on the video arcade game, Donkey Kong, that stood for almost 25 years. This documentary follows the assault on the record by Steve Wiebe, an earnest teacher from Washington who took up the game while unemployed. The top scores are monitored by a cadre of players and fans associated with Walter Day, an Iowan who runs Twin Galaxies, a score keeper of electronic games.

If it weren't for the sincerity of it all - or maybe because of it - King of Kong could be conceived of as a mockumentary. But there's no joking with these guys, which sometimes makes it a lot of fun to watch the competition between Billy Mitchell, with his sycophants and idiosyncrasies of his self-spun empire/network, and Steve Weebie, with his average suburban housewife and kids going somewhat begrudgingly along for the ride. It's a saga though not just about them, but about the world of gaming, of the mind-set that pervades everyone from lawyers to 'Roy Awesome' to little old ladies competing at Qubert, and the nature of competition itself. Not since Rocky has one seen a tale of the underdog and the king played out in odds that should seem somewhat silly.

But what's so amazing is how we are plunged into this world. It's immediately recognizable to anyone who has played one of the "old-school" arcade games like Donkey Kong or Pacman/Mrs. Pacman or even Pong. We see how the players play the games not haphazardly by luck but with game plans and strategies.

As far as triumph-of-the-human-spirit stories go, King of Kong is hilarious entertainment, sometimes for all the strangest (the referee Walter Day's would-be musical career) and silliest reasons (what's so special about the Guinness book of records, Steve's daughter asks)."

As Roy Awesome says... "Don't get chumpatized!"

Deer

Sunday evening I seen three deer out in my pasture near the hayfield fence. They were in the area where I had been trimming dead tree branches this weekend. Even at that distance from the house they saw me when I was outside.

Over a half hour later I saw two of the deer walk down my driveway outside my house window. Dang! I don't want them to get accustomed to the house area so that when my garden is growing they come and eat it. I went outside and the third deer was still in the back yard and it ran back to the pasture. I went out around the house and the other two deer ran across the yard and out into the hayfield a short distance then stopped to look at me.

Shoo! Shoo! Go away!

Nothing. I walked to the fence and clapped thinking the sharp sound would drive them further away from the house. They ran a few steps and stopped again. I climbed over the fence and walked in their direction and they ran a little further and stopped. I gave up. Hopefully they get the idea not to come around the house again, but I doubt it.

So it looks like a few deer have survived the winter. Two medium size does and a small yearling.

Climbing and cutting

With this recent warm weather I spent the past few afternoons cutting tree branches out in the pasture. As a result I am very stiff and sore and tired and my hands have a few blisters and callouses. (Yes, I wore gloves). I'm out of practice with working outside.

Today I worked on the large tree in the middle pasture that I see from the house. Over winter one of our large snowfalls snapped off and broke some of the branches on this tree. These are not little branches as a number of the broken branches are the size of a small tree. Some branches broke off completely and other were hanging by part of the branch.

It bothered me this winter as when I looked out to the pasture I always did a double look as the fallen and hanging branches caught my eye as the view was out of the ordinary.

I spent quite a number of hours today cutting the branches and pulling other broken branches from the good branches that had caught them when they fell. Even with my pole saw I could reach less than half the broken branches. With so many branches, once I was able to hoist myself up into the tree, I was able to climb the tree cutting broken and dead branches as I went. I was even able to cut the branches that broke in 2008 and 2007 that would hang straight down but never fall.

This tree is a monster tree and I was probably three or more stories high. Even at that height I could not wrap my arms around the tree trunk.

After cutting the branches I had to pull down the ones supported by live branches. Then I stacked them high next to the tree. I will cut them down to a more manageable size later. Like I said earlier, some branches are the size of a small tree.

Yesterday when I was out in the pasture I heard lots and lots of sirens relatively close. Later in the news I learned that a motorcyclist was killed on the highway. Apparently he had been drinking and when driving on the highway he had driven at speeds up to 100 mph and was passing cars in the center turn lane between the lanes in the four lane highway. He apparently drove into the back of a car when he pulled back into the lane from the center lane. He wasn't wearing a helmet but that wouldn't have saved him as his motorcycle cart wheeled down the highway end over end and every which way after the impact.

And the day before, on another highway, a 16 year old girl drove her car into the other lane and crashed head on into another car killing a pregnant woman and her son. Alcohol, drugs, or speeding were not a factor in that crash. No cause determined yet for that crash. Oh, by the way, the Montana Legislature recently decided not to ban talking on a cell phone when driving.

The first sign of warm weather and people are going crazy.

Spring tulips

Spring is coming! The weather finally warmed up these past few days. For the first time since November 19, 2008 the temperature here got above 50 F. Woo hoo!

The snow is finally starting to melt and I can see areas of bare ground out in the hayfield.

And look here... within a few days of the snow melting, my tulips are starting to come up. It is been a matter of days between snow and the tulips. Kind of reminds me of seeing wildflowers coming up through the snow when hiking in the mountains. Summer here is short and there is no time to waste. So true.

Primer Timers talk

Thursday noon I spoke about my bicycle touring at a Prime Timers get together. The Primer Timers are a group of people who get together once a month for a meal and a talk. It is held at the church Joyce attends and is non-denominational. Peter, a retired pastor who I know from hiking, leads the meeting.

Peter got the idea of having a talk by me and another person after seeing the article about my bicycling. The other person invited to speak was Gene, who I hike with in the other hiking group I am a member of. Gene has done lots of bicycling touring since he retired some years ago. Among his many long distance tours, Gene has traveled cross-country in the U.S. and was part of a group that bicycled around much of the world.

Gene brought his bicycle fully loaded with much of his equipment to the meeting. He discussed his bicycle and what he carries and how he travels. I held onto his bicycle while he spoke first.

Gene prepared and had notes for an outline on what he wanted to discuss. Me? I winged it.

For a person who doesn't care for the limelight and public speaking, and has little to no experience doing so, I didn't prepare an outline or speech. I spent only a few minutes before the meeting thinking about what I would talk about and I decided I would talk of how I got into bicycling and then go from there about bicycle tours I did and talk about whatever came to mind. I've had lots of adventures so I have stuff to talk about - I just didn't know how rambling my talk would be or exactly what I would talk about.

It is my understanding that one prepares and practices before giving a speech in order to do it right. But I didn't want to rehearse anything. I want to keep my talk fresh. I also didn't want to spend time preparing. So... no experience, no preparation, but also no worries about doing so. Odd. Ok... maybe I was briefly concerned when at the meal prior to our talk I saw Gene's crib sheet of notes and looked around and saw the audience. Maybe I should have prepared? Nah. Besides it was too late now and I went back to eating.

I did suggest Gene go first. We had 15 to 20 minutes for our talk and I imagined the first speaker would get going and use most of the time. I was right. Gene must have talked for 15 to 20 minutes and then I talked for 10 or so minutes. Or it seemed that quick as my time speaking ended as I was just getting going.

The meal was very good. They had a delicious soup, corn bread and a pineapple upside down cake for desert. All home made. Joyce and her daughter Kendra were part of the cooking crew. So naturally the food was excellent. Joyce is a fantastic cook and makes everything homemade and from scratch. I mean everything. Just ask Joyce what she thinks of store bought whipped topping like Cool Whip and you'll get an earful. Even her whipped topping is home made. They had some food left and Joyce send some home with me.

Also at the meeting were a vocal choir from the Stillwater Christian School. They sang two songs. The first was a madrigal from the Italian Renaissance. The choir director said the first stanza of the song was about two young lovers and the last three stanzas were the guy singing about how unhappy he was that the girl broke up with him.

The second song was vocalizations. Something based on the music for an Argentine Tango.

Both songs were excellently done and a surprise. I was expecting religious hymns to be sung.

The choir was made up of 10 girls and 7 boys. No one in a uniform. They all dressed like they just came from class. They were nicely dressed and nothing outrageous as they are attending a Christian school. But you could get a hint of their personality from their clothing choices.

The other thing I noticed was teenagers are getting younger as I get older. Man, they looked young. Like kids.

Also announced at the meeting was that a church member had fallen on some ice a few nights ago and hit his head while he was out walking his dog. He died last night as the doctors couldn't operate to save him. Natasha Richardson dieing from a head injury from her skiing accident, this fellow, Bill getting seriously injured. Kind of scary.

Peter brought to show everyone a pair of yak-trax one can slip over their shoes to have traction on the ice. I know some people feel everyone should wear a helmet when bicycling. If so it would appear everyone should wear a helmet when there is snow or ice on the ground. I know more people with serious head injures this way than from bicycling.

More pruning and Bill

Wednesday I finished pruning the apple tree out in the pasture. I really only had to cut one large branch and then cut several other smaller branches with bad bark that looked dead. That will be it for this year on this tree. I don't want to overdo it and cut too much at one time. It will take a few years to lower the tree's height. I also had read that cutting too many of the upper branches is not good as the lower leaves, not used to the sun, get sunburned.

I had to stand on a step ladder and use an extendable pole saw to cut the large branch at the top. I did say the tree was very tall.

It was a nice day and I decided since I had the pole saw I would trim dead branches from some of the trees in the pasture. It does seem pointless. After all, these are 'wild' trees out in the pasture so what does it matter if they have dead branches? But I cut some branches anyway to 'tidy' up some of the trees' look. A number of trees grow together and since these pine trees are notorious for giving up on a branch near another branch and instead race to grow taller, getting rid of dead branches will help nearby trees to keep their live branches.

I found that a couple of pine trees have died. A couple nearby trees don't look as healthy as they should.

All told I spent hours out there cutting branches. No wonder I felt a bit tired when I got back tot he house.

With the warmer weather the animals are more active. The birds that live in the hole in the box elder tree trunk south of the house are back. Yesterday I noticed some birds under the gap where the house roof slightly overhangs the fiberglass roof over my door entry. I hope they don't get the idea that this would be a place to make a nest. The rodents also are active as a week or so ago I caught a shrew in my peanut butter laced mousetrap. This morning a mouse was caught in the trap.

Tuesday I stopped and visited with Bill and Marilyn at Brendan House. I didn't spend too much time with Bill as he got tired and fell asleep. Poor guy. His right half doesn't work, he 'eats' via a feeding tube, and he can't speak other than Martian. He was trying to do something as he couldn't talk to say what he needed. It was confusing to Marilyn and I. After a few minutes and a few tries I guessed what Bill wanted and he nodded yes. And here I don't think I am very good at charades.

I better get to bed. Thursday I am speaking about my bicycle riding and touring at a meeting.

Moon rise and moon set

Wednesday supposed to have been the full moon. Here are two photos of the moon Thursday night before I went to bed and then a photo taken Friday morning when I got up early to go cross country skiing.

Winter storm

It stormed overnight. The low temperature on my thermometer was -1 F. And the wind blew all night and only died down mid afternoon today.

The temperature inside my house was 45.6 F this morning when I woke up. Strangely it did not feel cold to me. *shrug* Last night when I had the wood stove going it was 69 F at the 10 pm news and weather forecast. That is how much heat the wind "blew" out of my house overnight. At least my well did not freeze.

The wind blew so hard I had a small amount of snow in my house where the wind blew snow through the lower corner of both the front door and screen door.

Snow drifts were all over. Because my fruit tree & garden fence acted as a wind break my driveway was drifted over. I had to shovel it all out before I could drive uptown. The wind did *help* me as it took part of the snow as I tossed it to the side of the driveway. It took me an hour to clear the driveway and I was cold by the time I finished. My fingers tingled as they warmed up when I came inside.

All this wind and drifting is unusual here and I felt like I was back in North Dakota or southern Minnesota.

I got my exercise today shoveling out everything.

By afternoon the wind died down and the sun came out. Even though the temperature only reached 14 F the sun is stronger and surprisingly it started to melt snow in protected areas.

When I was uptown I visited Bill. I only saw him for 10 minutes before a therapist came to take him to a therapy session. Bill was sitting in a wheelchair in front of a table and with a pillow under one arm. He was out in the common area. The only people around were a few other very old ladies in wheelchairs. A few Brendan House staff were flitting about. Still no seat belt on Bill. Apparently it is against Montana law to "restrain" a patient even if it is for their own safety. Poor Bill. He looked so sad. He sat alone in the common area with no one to talk to and nothing to see. He still speaks Martian.

Going full tilt and setbacks

I'm still here. Very tired though.

Saturday I skied 6 miles with Joyce, Karin and Greg. During one of my crashes my left shoe broke off the ski and I had to ski two miles down the mountain on one ski. That was harder than skiing up the mountain on two skis!

Then Sunday Patti showed up during the storm asking if I wanted to go skiing with her. Of course I couldn't say no. We skied a total of 14 miles and didn't get back until after dark - and that is even after the later sunset due to daylight savings time.

Saturday I went and seen Bill and Marilyn. I found out Bill had fallen out of his wheelchair again. Apparently early Saturday morning he fell out before Marilyn arrived. Bill has a red mark just above his right eyebrow the size of a half dollar. Carpet burn. He also has another bruise nearby. Marilyn told me Sunday night the x-ray showed a bump.

That is twice now that Brendan House let him fall out of his wheelchair. Marilyn said within the previous 24 hours Bill's roommate fell and a man in the next room fell. It seems as if staying at Brendan House is dangerous to a person's health. Then Sunday night Marilyn told me Bill's roommate suddenly died early Sunday morning.

Bill was semi-awake when I was there. When he answered me he spoke Martian. Not baby talk. I can make out some words of baby talk. I had no clue what Bill was saying. His voice was strong so my failure to understand was not due to not hearing the words.

These falls out of his wheelchair at Brendan House are not doing Bill any good.

I also found out Marilyn has the same shoe size as me and she lent me her pair of cross country ski shoes along with Bill's snowshoes. Since our weather is typical of January and not March (our high temperatures do not even reach our normal average low temperatures on these dates), it is good to be able to go outside and do stuff. Global warming doesn't exist as we are still in the middle of winter here. Tonight's forecast has a warning about dangerous wind chills and the wind recently starting roaring. More snow is in the forecast and maybe it will get above freezing by the weekend.

But I am tired. Last night I crashed right after eating supper. My wood stove was warm and as soon as I finished supper I was out like a light. I hadn't eaten since breakfast and skiing 14 miles burnt off most of my energy. Between skiing 20 miles the past two days, then shoveling several inches of snow off my long driveway today, I am dragging. Having my well freeze didn't help either as I had no water for part of today until I was able to thaw the water out. With all this activity and the prior warmer weather I forgot to plug in the light bulb to heat my well pump house. It was 28 degrees in there this morning.

Sawing in the snow

Today I decided to prune the apple tree down by the river. I didn't get to this task until the afternoon as I spent the morning running errands uptown and visiting Bill.

Or I tried to visit Bill. First I had to find out where he was. Brendan House moved him to another room. Every time I go see Bill he has been moved. Once I found his new room I found him to be sound asleep. I stopped by at 12:45 pm as I thought he would be done with lunch but not yet started with therapy. Instead he was asleep and Marilyn was not around.

From reports by friends Bill continues to improve. He did suffer one mishap when a Brendan House worker apparently neglected to strap Bill in his wheelchair and he fell out of it and landed on his head. Apparently Brendan House has not changed since the time my father was there.

Back home I decided to prune the apple tree in the pasture. With the recent warmer weather the snow has crusted over and for the most part I was able to walk on top of the snow. Every so often my foot would sink through the snow.

I have only trimmed the pasture apple tree once and that was a few years ago. So this tree is very tall and unruly. I can't reach the apples at the top and each season I have to rely on gravity to get those apples.

After working on the lower branches I was in the middle of using my long pole saw to cut a large branch at the top when the latest weather front arrived. An arctic front from Canada came into the Valley with strong winds and snow.

I finished cutting the branch and ran away when it fell. Then that was it for apple tree trimming. It was too cold and windy. Besides I need a ladder to reach another large branch on top.

On the way home I passed a large tree that had blown over a few years ago and which I have partially cut. The snow had let up and the wind seemed to be a bit less. I decided to trim a few of the tree's extra supporting branches.

I then decided to cut a little to mark where to use the chain saw to cut the tree later. Then I cut a little more. Then a little more. Then more. I decided this made a good workout and kept cutting even though the saw I was using was not ideal.

The snow and wind returned but I was too invested in cutting this tree and I mainly cut with my back to the wind. I was determined to saw through this tree.

By the time I cut through the tree the wind was howling and at times the snow was heavy.

But I did it.


Then through the storm I headed quickly back home. I lit a fire in my wood stove to warm my bones.

The wind is still howling tonight. The snow seems to have let up. Mainly the snow now is what had fallen earlier and is now being blown around. These cold temperatures are predicted to last into next week. This global warming is a myth. We've been nothing but cold this winter and usually below our average temperatures.

Pruning

Today I pruned my two apple trees in the fruit tree and garden area. Over the past few years I have been working at pruning the trees back after many years of neglect. Last year due to my mother's health I wasn't here when I could prune them. A few years ago when I started pruning the trees were so "out of shape" I couldn't prune all I wanted in one year as that would be cutting them back too much at one time.

It is getting late to be pruning but still is not too late. One year I pruned too late in the Spring and got no apples that season. Not good.

From the before and after photos you can see signs of pruning but you'll have to look for it. I am working on bringing the trees' height down and thinning branches to let the sun in all parts of the tree. My trees is certainly are not pruned back like some of my neighbor's trees which seem to be little more than a few main thick branches.

After I pruned my trees I went for a bicycle ride. During my ride I saw another neighbor a mile or so down the road out pruning their fruit trees.

The first tree produces yellow apples which are sweet and wonderful for eating. They are soft, bruise very easily and don't keep long. They do not make good pies. These apples ripen early in the season and they finish up by the time my other apple tree starts to ripen enough to be used in pies.

I don't know the variety. I have never seen them anywhere outside of my tree. I was told they are called "translucent" but I could not find this variety anywhere on the internet.

The closest I could find is the "silken" variety. I notice the 'silken' variety originally came from British Columbia which makes sense for an apple that does well here. The problem is that apparently this variety was created in the 1990s, far too late as my trees have been around since at least the 1970s.

The second tree produces pie apples as the apples are tart. I found that after a long time they will eventually sweeten enough that they could be eaten. I don't know the name of this apple. Again I have not seen them outside of my tree.

Chesterton quotes

Here are a few quotes from the author G. K. Chesterton that I like:

• "The past is not what it was." - A Short History of England
• Art, like morality, consists of drawing the line somewhere.
• The thing I hate about an argument is that it always interrupts a discussion.
• There is more simplicity in the man who eats caviar on impulse than in the man who eats grape-nuts on principle.
• Blasphemy depends on belief, and is fading with it. If anyone doubts this, let him sit down seriously and try to think blasphemous thoughts about Thor.
• A key has no logic to its shape. Its logic is: it turns the lock.
• The function of the imagination is not to make strange things settled, so much as to make settled things strange.
• Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.

Bicycle this and that

Friday's warmth and sun melted the snow from the roads enough that Saturday I decided to ride my bicycle uptown to get some ice cream and visit the library to return several DVDs and get another one.

The streets weren't entirely clear of snow as shady areas had snowy/icy stretches. I am not sure why (maybe due to traffic patterns?) but on one street with no shady sections the opposite lane was fairly clear while my lane had several long snowy/icy sections. Naturally the only cars that appeared were when I came to the snowy/icy sections.

I also discovered my rear bicycle tire had a slow leak. The tire was low when I left the library and my really beat up bicycle pump could only put so much air into the tire. I had to stop several times on the ride home to add air. But I made it - riding 6.5 miles is better than walking it.

If you remember my earlier mention about the article being written about my bicycling, it came out this week. It appeared in the HealthyMT magazine. They have a web site but my article didn't make it online.

The article was short but good. Or I suppose so. I find it really difficult to read about me so I am not the best judge of it.

Erin's article about me was in addition to her "Good for you, good for Earth" article. The following photo was one of several photos with the "Good for you, good for Earth", and also did not make it online. I am including the photo and not the article. I am anonymous on my blog and my name is all over the article. If you are interested I can email you a scanned copy of the article.


Even though the photographer took lots of photos of me with my bicycle and riding my bicycle I didn't make the cover. They went with a younger man who was wearing bicycling clothes and a cool helmet and sunglasses. And a nice looking bicycle and not the beat up one I ride.