Train trip

The beginning of November I caught the train in Minot and returned to Montana. It is so nice to see the mountains again (when it is not raining).

The train was almost 10 minutes early into Minot. It was a last minute rush as I thought I could check my luggage after 8 am. My brother and I had to rush to make the 8 am deadline. I missed breakfast.

Amtrak has finished their summer long remodeling of the Minot train station. Formerly it was a 1970s style crackerbox building with one story and a flat roof. The building now has a peaked roof and the exterior walls are covered in brick. The building looks a lot nicer now. I forgot to take a photo of the building.

Photo 1: Orange house across the tracks from the Minot train station
Photo 2: Tall building is downtown Minot as the train leaves the station

This is one of the slow times of the year and the train maybe was a third full. So it was easy to find two open seats and in a location where I had a full window view. Not that I needed the window as I spent most of my time either reading, talking, or sleeping. I spent very little time gazing out the window. I have seen the scenery so many times it has become routine. I barely glanced at the Sweetgrass Hills as we passed by.

I did spent a little time in the observation car when we first left Minot and watched the North Dakota prairie rush by. The grass was a brown color now and in the morning sun looked golden and nice.

Photos: Trestle Valley area west of Minot

Photo 1: looking NW
Photo 2: in the middle horizon you can barely make out a red water tower. About a mile from that is my mother's house
Photo 3: another photo looking back at Minot

As we left Minot the lounge car attendant came on the loudspeaker and sang several choruses of the old Cat Steven's song, "Morning Has Broken". She then announced the lounge car was open. I think the lounge car attendant was a frustrated singer as a few times during the day she sang parts of a few other songs when making her announcements.

When I was in the lounge car a young woman on a cell phone sat nearby. I could not help but overhear her conversation. She was upset that her friend was going to a funeral of a person they knew who had committed suicide by shooting himself. This woman felt he was a lousy person when alive and she was very annoyed her friend was going to attend the funeral.

Later I talked with the woman sitting in the seats across the aisle from my seats. Diane was traveling to Essex, MT after spending a few weeks visiting her father in Iowa. She lives in East Glacier and had left her car at Essex and not Browning as it was safer to do so. Since Amtrak is now on their winter schedule they do not stop in East Glacier.

Diane works as a seasonal ranger out of the Glacier Park Two Medicine area during the summer, then odd jobs in the area over the winter. She also hikes and cross country skis. She has hiked the Scenic trail which I want to do someday. We exchanged phone numbers and email ids for a potential hike if my hiking group makes it over to the east side this year. No, she is not a potential romantic interest for those who wonder.

It was dark and the moon was only a very small sliver in the western sky when the train arrived in Essex at 7:40 PM. Diane said it was a half mile on a gravel road from the train to Issac Walton Inn. While she wouldn't get lost in the dark one really wouldn't want to walk it at this time what with bears and mountain lions around. Fortunately a van had brought someone to catch the train and Diane was able to catch a ride with them to her car.

Another woman I met lived near Lake Chelan, Washington. Or I should say "above" the lake as she said once she returns home she would be away from stores and civilization for four months. While the locals there live off the grid, they do have generators for electricity and satellite internet and mail delivery so she said she would be able to order stuff from Amazon.com and get it. So she wasn't "completely" cut off from civilization. What did people do over winter before TV and the internet? Oh yeah... read books.

Just outside of Havre, MT, as the train stopped briefly to refuel, two border patrol men came on the train. They walked down the aisle asking each person if they were a U.S. citizen. Each person said "Yes" and the agents moved on to the next person. Later we wondered what the point was as each person said "Yes". If someone was not a citizen that person could lie and also say "Yes". But someone else said the agents have to ask each person so as not to discriminate. Still... wouldn't that be discriminating to ask for documents from the person they suspected as lying? How would they determine that person was lying?

At the Havre train station we had a 20 minute stop so many people got off the train to walk around the station. Outside the station there was a statue commemorating the U.S. and Canadian border patrol agents.

The train ran ahead of schedule all the way. Even what normally would be a short stop to only get people quickly off and on the train was longer as the train could not leave until its scheduled departure time. In Shelby, MT we sat there for over a half an hour. People were able to get off the train to walk around and have a smoke. I walked around and checked out the train station. Small. Old. Wooden.

The train station is shared between Amtrak and the BNSF railroad. A BNSF employee came out and lit a bar-b-que grill as I walked by. Guess what's for supper?

Shelby is a small dying Montana prairie town. Across the street north of the train station were several bars in a long lonely block. To the west was an overpass for a highway that went to Canada. In a half block area against the overpass along the tracks, next to where a telephone/satellite/transmission tower sat, the locals made the area into a small park with a bench and grass. It was kept up nice which is not common near train tracks.

The woman from Lake Chelan and I talked about what it would be like to live in a small isolated dying town like Shelby. It has its advantages but I imagine most all the young people can't wait to leave and go out to make their mark on the world.

Photos of Shelby

The sun had set by the time the train came in sight of the mountains so the view was them silhouetted against the sky and clouds. I couldn't tell how much snow was in the mountains. I stopped reading and settled back in my seat to relax for the rest of the journey.

Jackie met me at the Whitefish train station when the train arrived early. I spent the night in one of her apartments before she gave me a ride home the next morning when it was daylight.

The air was calm and fall like. The smell of wood smoke was strong the brief time I was outside that night. The next morning I could still smell the wood smoke in the air. Welcome to Fall in the Valley.

The wood smoke smell was strong when I entered my house. Stronger than I expected as I had thoroughly cleaned my wood stove and pipes and chimney this past Summer and had not used the wood stove since. I hadn't turned on my gas furnace for the year so the indoor house temperature was 50 F. The cool temperature may have highlighted the smoky smell.

Much of the smell faded once I lit the wood stove and warmed the house up. Still it took me several days before I no longer noticed the smoky smell. At least that is what I think as I doubt the smell disappeared just by my warming the house up. The same can be said of the outside as I no longer notice the smoky smell outside and I am sure it exists as the days usually are devoid of wind that would blow the smoke over the mountains and out of the Valley.

Lastly, here are a couple more train stations I took photos of.

Mountain lion and horses

My suspicion was correct. The horses killed a few weeks ago by the mountain lion were my neighbor's horses and not the horses a mile or so down the road. My neighbor's pasture borders my north pasture and that was where the horses were when they were killed. It is too bad as my neighbors got the miniature horses this past summer as Debbie always wanted to own some.

Because the Fish and Wildlife people were unable to track the mountain lion, the neighbor's left the dead horses and the mountain lion came back the next night. The Fish and Wildlife people and their hounds treed the lion and then they shot it. As my neighbor only has three trees in their pasture and those trees are right on my fence line where my trees are located, I wonder if they shot the lion in my pasture? I haven't talked with Jim or Debbie yet to get all the details. Rumors are that there may be a couple more mountain lions moving along the river corridor. I guess I should be careful when out after dark.

You can see how small the horses were. The heifer is not a full grown cow yet and I think only weighed about 700 lbs. The owners had slaughtered the heifer for beef in September and only the horses were left in the corral.

Fall and front yard

Home, sweet home. I have yet to mow the front yard this year as this is all the grass grew after the cattle ate it down this past June. I'm not going to mow the yard as I have a brand new lawn mower and have yet to put gas and oil in it. No sense doing so for one quick mowing job then storing the mower for winter. Beside the lawn looks rather nice with the colors don't you think?

Note there are mountains beyond the far trees. What with all the rainy cloudy weather this past week I've seldom seen them. When the clouds do lift I see snow much of the way down the mountains. The view is pretty... but that much snow indicates less areas I can hike unless I have a hankering to hike in snow.

Today the afternoon was rain free. The temperature was in the mid 40s F and the air was absolutely calm. It was one of those days where with the recent moisture and stillness sound carried far. Even though everything was wet and damp I spent a few hours sawing up branches and odds and ends of wood. I also split a few logs. All for firewood.

For now I spared several partial sections of former tree trunks as they have an artistic appeal to them. Their temporary stay of execution may become permanent if I can think of somewhere to put them.

Back in Montana

I am back in Montana. I got back last week in time to serve as an election judge for the presidential election on Tuesday. Lots of voters as Flathead County apparently had 77% participation.

I also went on a hike which felt great after so long away from "my" mountains. This being November, even though we hiked well below the mountain passes, we still ended up hiking in lots of snow. The views of the snow covered mountains and iced over lake were great.

Jan was out of state and Bob dislocated his artificial hip last Monday so I've been over to help him with the mail, newspaper and meals. I got Jan from the train station early this morning so she is now back to help him. Kelly has started hunting deer and yesterday while in his tree stand watched a few bucks right underneath him playfully spar after they crossed the river. The deer are currently in a pre-rut state.

A mountain lion killed two small horses or ponies in a corral down the road a few weeks ago. I am not sure if it was the horses a mile down the road or my neighbor's horses as I haven't had a chance to get out in my pasture to see if my neighbor's horses are still around. Fish and Game officials killed the mountain lion when it returned to the horse carcasses the next night as they were unable to track the lion earlier using hounds. Since Kelly has seen deer in my pasture I imagine no more mountain lions are around right now.

This past week has been wet and I am trying to get back into a routine. With all that is going on and the rain I haven't gotten out to set gopher traps.

I've gotten used to the smell of wood smoke and don't notice it much anymore. I noticed it immediately after getting off the train. The house smelled strongly of it even though I had cleaned the wood stove and chimney this past Summer and have not used the stove since. When I arrived the house was cold at 50 F and that may have enhanced the smoke smell as I don't notice the smokey smell now that I am using the wood stove to heat the house.

I'll try to write more later.

Ceiling paint I used

Here is info on the ceiling paint I used.

Painting work

I finished my planned work on my mother's house. In the dining room, living room, downstairs hallway, and upstairs hallway and landing I painted the ceiling. For the same rooms I mudded most of the walls, primed then painted them.

The ceiling took more paint than anticipated. While most paints cover about 400 sq feet, this ceiling paint covered from 125 to 250 sq ft. As a consequence I had to buy a third gallon of paint. It didn't help matters that the paint can once fell over as I moved the ladder. I lost a little paint and a lot of time as I had to clean the carpet. No, there was no tarp at that spot as I was doing touch up painting then.

The brand was Dutch Boy and was an acrylic paint that goes on lavender and dries to a bright white. Since I thought I was one gallon short I bought two gallons. Huh? I bought two gallons as I had been delayed in getting my extra paint. There is so much building and remodeling activity in town the Menards store had run out of ceiling paint a few days earlier when my brother first tried to buy the extra gallon of ceiling paint.

The ceiling looks better now. This afternoon, since I had some paint left, I painted the small ceiling above the stairs that go to the lower level.

I had lots of work to do on the walls. As I was doing other stuff for my mother's estate while working on the walls there was a delay in moving between each step - mud, prime, painting. Therefore I had to take off and put back the electrical and light switch covers, curtain rods, curtains, pictures, etc. between each step.

I used more primer on the walls than I expected (a little over two gallons) for my estimated square footage. Therefore I expected I would have to buy another gallon of interior wall paint. To my surprise I used less (only a little over one gallon) than expected.

When my brother and I finally got the extra ceiling paint and primer I decided to buy the interior wall paint at the same time even though I hadn't decided on a color yet. What color to get? I wanted a light bright color, but not plain white. Who knew there were so many variations of white? My head spun as I tried to decide.

Over and over I debated. I looked at the color samples in bright light and normal light. How would these colors look on the walls? Finally I decided on Turtle Dove as a color. Then I discovered that my paint choice - Dutch Boy Dimensions Satin finish - was not available in Turtle Dove. *argh*

It was crazy that day at Menards and especially in the paint department. People, people, people - shopping and buying. It was hard to get a salesperson for advice and help. I needed help in choosing the paint finish: flat, eggshell, semi-gloss, gloss, satin? Help in deciding what brand of paint and which version of that brand.

Then I found that I could get Lambswool White as a color in the Dimensions line. I went with it. By this time I had spent a few hours shopping and I was more than ready to leave.

Wet, the Lambswool color was more pink/orange/tan than I expected - but I liked it. Then it dried to a more white color. Still in certain light it can have a tingle of color to it.

I don't know. My work looks nice and neutral even if it is a little more bland/neutral than what I think I could have as a wall color and still look nice with the carpet and curtains.

But I am done and that is an accomplishment as I had doubts I could get my planned work done before I returned to Montana. My brother was not happy as he was irritated by the sound of me applying mud then scrapping it along with the dust from my sanding. Nor was he happy with the paint smell. I tried to paint on warmer days but even then we couldn't leave the windows open long or overnight as this is October in North Dakota.

Here is the dining room ceiling in various stages. The white smooth part I painted the night before. Now I was painting the rough ceiling.

Here is the dining room wall. Photo 1 shows the original wall and the white is the mud. Photo 2 shows the top part of paint with the lower white part the primer. The paint is not dry so that is why it doesn't look as white as it eventually became.

Last trivia night

Monday night was my last trivia night for this visit. I plan to return to Montana later next week and next Monday the bar has a night planned for the ladies: male strippers. Or is it dancers? Strippers? Dancers? I have a feeling it will be male strippers. At any rate trivia night won't be held that night.

Monday everyone on our team showed up and with so many people our team split in two. Darrel, Marv and Dave made up one team and Mona, Jeff, Donna, Al, Rod and I made up another team.

Our team did well but did not win. In the first contest the winning team had 14 answers correct and we had 13 correct to take second place. If only we had chosen the other answer for the question as to which country first crashed a satellite on the moon. I guessed U.S. and the answer was Russia. In the second contest we had 14 answers correct which gave us third place. The winning team had 17 answers correct. The lawyer/judges team was here this night and they did not win either contest.

We later found that if we had not split into two teams we would have won as Darrel, Marv and Dave had a number of answers correct for questions we got wrong, and vice versa.

Rod and Donna from our team won three of the quarters questions, though one question about when Coca-cola was first sold was right up Rod's alley as he used to work for Coca-cola. For one prize Carla took the Indian candy corn. For Rod's two wins he took the 'typical' candy corn and then an orange hunting hat as only hats were left. Because he has more hats than he needed/wanted he gave the hat to someone at the bar that Ed - the host - said was interested in having. That guy later bought Rod a drink.

Our team loudly and humorously expressed outrage at the "Indian" candy corn in support of Darrel and Mona as they are Native American. The "Indian" candy looked to have chocolate in addition to the typical three sugar colors, but we found the brown color to be "Brown No. 80" sugar, not chocolate. Fortunately Donna and Jeff had brought a bag of peanuts in shells so we didn't get hopped up on sugar by only eating candy corn.

After the trivia contests were over members of our group slowly drifted off until only Darrel, Mona and I remained. The guy from Hawaii, Curt, who was a member of another team joined us in conversation.

Karaoke was played after trivia was over. And played loud. Curt sang a number of songs in a number of styles from Hank Williams to the Monkees to George Strait. He said that prior to moving to North Dakota he didn't know any country songs. He does sing a good George Strait.

Our group got talking about country singers and for some reason Conway Twitty came to my mind. The next I knew Curt got up to sing karaoke to a Conway Twitty song.

One fellow sang Tone Loc's "Funky Cold Medina". He sounded just like Tone Loc and did an excellent job. Afterwards we talked with the singer and discovered his normal voice sounded just as raspy as his singing voice. There was no way he could not sign a Tone Loc song.

Another table had several drunk women and a drunk guy. They danced to some of the songs. They were the only people dancing - if you could call it dancing. Very drunk women are not attractive. Later another woman came over to borrow Curt's copy of the karaoke song list. She also had too much to drink. Was she giving me the eye as she was talking to Curt? As she tried to sing Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot" [insert Freudian analysis here ] Darrel, Mona and I called it a night and left. It was getting closer to midnight and she wasn't all that good of a singer.

Rights, cemetery, relatives, school

Last Wednesday my brother and I went for a visit around central North Dakota.

Our first stop was in Washburn to visit the county courthouse and change mineral rights from my mother to my brother and I. The stop took hours longer than I expected as I was able to also look through the county land and mineral records.

The county recorder has been on the job since the mid 1970s and is very knowledgeable and helpful. He explained how the information is kept and organized. I spent some time partially tracing a couple quarters of property. It took some time to do so as the history is spread throughout numerous books and it takes time to read the legal documents. I found that there are numerous ways to explain the transfer of property and mineral rights, each lawyer has a different style.

This county seems not to be the "hot" area for oil activity as the main action appears to be north and west of this county. Therefore the room only had three or four other people there researching properties while I was there.

My next stop was to visit relatives on my father's side: Rose and her daughter Ginger. They live on a farm next to the former farm of my dad's parents. Because my brother and I had taken far longer than expected at the courthouse, we arrived at Rose's farm an hour or two after my estimated arrival time.

Ginger took us to the nearby rural cemetery where her father, our great-grandparents, and my grandparents are buried. This was the first time I had been to this cemetery since my grandmother was buried there in the 1970s. Area wise the cemetery is a good size, but there seemed not to be that many people buried there. Still it seems to be a nice cemetery and even has some trees around it.

I found that there is open space next to my grandparents burial spots. A place to later bury my father's ashes.

Earlier this year Ginger adopted two young brothers from the Ukraine, Maxim and Dmitri, and this was my first opportunity to meet them. Being young boys they had energy to spare.

My brother and I had a nice visit with Rose and Ginger and after we left I found they had given my brother some tomatoes from their garden and a jar of homemade pickles Ginger's sister, Monica, had made. I had eaten several slices of those pickles at the supper Ginger had made and they were very delicious. Too bad I don't live near so I could learn from Monica how to make the pickles next time she makes them.

It was well past dark when my brother and I left. A couple deer crossed the county road in front of us. Otherwise not much traffic was on the roads and highway back to Minot. Two large wind generators are along highway 83. The long tri-blades turned steadily. Each tall tower has a red light and they flashed on and off alternately as a warning to any planes flying at night.

Cemetery and ancestors grave sites.
Family farm. The house is in the trees seen center left. The barn is the building seen in front of the trees. I believe the buildings were not used after my grandmother sold the farm.

The one room school my father attended. The small building in the middle is the outhouse. Imagine having to use the outhouse during a North Dakota winter! I believe the third building may have something to do with livestock as I think some kids rode horses to school.

Trivia win

We won one of the trivia contests Monday night. Our team was Darrel, Mona, Marv, Al and I. Jeff and Donna weren't there.

Last week we came close to winning as we were in the tie breaker for one of the contests, but we lost. We guessed 1990 as the year the Mickey Mouse TV show ended. The actual end date was March 1996.

Last night we won the second game outright. We had 18 answers correct and the next highest score was either 16 or 17 correct. Yes! The other teams applauded our win which felt nice. The winning prize was a $20 certificate for drinks which we will use next week. In our win the team really came together as everyone contributed correct answers the others did not know.

In the first contest of the night we came in second place with 17 answers correct. Another team had all 20 answers correct. This is only the second time a team has gotten all 20 questions correct.

The trivia questions this night did seem a little easier than usual. Also to make competition easier, the lawyers/judge team was not there. No matter, we would have won the second game even if they were there.

This week they had better prizes for the quarters questions. Darrel really wanted the Pabst Blue Ribbon beer t-shirt that said something about "not just for breakfast anymore". He liked the saying, and that the shirt was sized XXL. Darrel ran around with the quarters bucket and only would guess if no one had their hand raised. Earlier he told us he wanted us to make guesses and try to win the t-shirt. People made a number of wrong guesses before I told Mona I thought the answer to "Which President was the first to be photographed" was President James Polk (1845-49). She made the guess and we won the t-shirt for Darrel.

Cattle curiosity

Knowing cattle... this doesn't surprise me. (Besides, I am not that fond of Holsteins.)

By the way, I found this photo originally on the http://failblog.org/ web site.

Snow

While it tried to snow yesterday morning, this morning the snow stuck. It is not a lot of snow - unlike the almost 20 inches in Billings, MT and other eastern Montana places. But we have enough snow to make the grass white with some green. It is late afternoon and the snow is now partially melted. (It took long enough!) It is not quite mid October, and for some places the earliest snow on record. So much for global warming. It is cold, cloudy, damp and depressing here.

I am waiting for warmer weather before working on the walls further. I have all the mud, sanding and smoothing done. I have the priming and painting left and I wonder if I will able to complete it before I return to Montana. Between needing warmer weather and all the other stuff I have left to do I am running out of time.

To get rid of the dust from the sanding of the walls I vacuumed and cleaned all the dust on the house's main floor - dust both from the sanding and from since I cleaned this past Spring.

Before the cooler weather arrived my brother placed plastic on the outside over a number of the house windows.

Other stuff has been going on. Mundane stuff which I won't bore you with.

Tired

I'm tired. Physically and mentally.

Put it on, Sand it down

I've been busy working on the house walls. The weather - until today's rain - was sunny and warm and very summer like and now was the time to work on the house even though the ideal thing would have been to goof off and enjoy the days and gorgeous weather.

I spent a few days putting joint compound (mud) onto a number of walls in the living room, dining room and the hallway to downstairs. The texture on the walls necessitated a thicker application of mud. I went through well over two fifty pound boxes of mud. No wonder my arms were tired the next mornings.

Because of the thicker application of mud, and my lack of experience putting it on, I spent most of Saturday sanding the mudded walls smooth. Dust everywhere!! I wonder if I sanded over half the mud off? My brother and I had all the doors and windows open to provide ventilation. It was very windy outside and while the house had air, dust went all over. I sanded until almost dark and the screens were coated by the end of the day. I am happy the temperature stayed warm after dark as I did some vacuuming and cleaning.

I did not get all the walls sanded so today I decided to try something new. Since I had half a box of mud left I decided to apply a new thin coat over the unsanded wall. That appears to have worked out great as it looks to have made the wall smoother and the future sanding of them to be far less. I continued to place a very thin coat of mud on the sanded walls that seemed uneven or have some imperfections even after sanding.

The walls look better now. I am happy to get rid of the orangeish pink color and all the nail holes. (The walls were formerly covered by dark wood paneling as the look was 1970s prior to my mother buying the house.)

Also today I spent some time washing the dust from the kitchen and counters. More cleaning and vacuuming will be done tomorrow. I also was able to put up most of the curtains on the windows. It was a little odd to not have curtains for a few nights.

My brother was having a fit about my work. He wanted the work done but the scraping sound when putting the mud on, then the scratching sound of my sanding made him very irritable. He also was unhappy with the dust everywhere.

Before and after. (I know, not that exciting of a look.)

One of the issues once I get to painting is what about the closet door? It worked with the dark paneling, but now it is a bit much. I don't have any ideas on what to do about it. I haven't decided on the paint color other than something light: an off white or light 'something'. Maybe I can leave the door as is for now.

Your can kind of see the wall's texture prior to the mud.

Gravestone ideas

My brother and I are trying to figure out what to get as a gravestone for mom's grave. Last Friday we visited the two monument companies in town. This is harder than I imagined as there are lots and lots of choices.

• Have a flower vase?
• Have the vase as part of the gravestone or separate?
• Have the vase totally separate from the stone or in some concrete around/next to the gravestone?
• If vase is part of the stone, go with a hump at the top to include the vase, or place the vase elsewhere in the stone? Top, center, side?
  
• What color stone?
• How large of a stone?
• Concrete border around the stone, or a larger stone?
• Stone wash a border around the stone?
  
• What to put on the stone?
• Include middle name?
• Full birth and death dates, or just the years?
• Any other words?
  
• Add an image?

I am leaning towards:

• Flower vase as part of the stone
• Square stone; no hump
  
• No concrete
• No middle name
• Full dates
• Adding "Beloved Mother"
• Maybe adding an image of a cross or flowers
  

Saturday my brother and I visited mom's grave. My brother earlier had bought and placed two temporary plastic flowers and holders and placed them in the ground at each end of mom's grave. While the cemetery will only keep flowers that are in a vase, they hadn't removed my brother's flowers.

While at the cemetery we wandered around and looked at other gravestones. Concrete borders keep the grass away and from encroaching over the stone, and this seems to help the stone from getting "lost" as the sod rises around the stone over time, but old concrete deteriorates over time and looks bad.

I noticed a number of vases and flowers were tipped over. I stood a number of them up as I walked about. The vases turn slightly to lock in place and it seemed as if the workers hadn't turned the vases to lock them in after mowing the grass. A number of other vases had their locking mechanism broken or the mounting ring came loose from the stone.

Here are some examples of gravestone with "humps" and some without.

Concrete border and without a concrete border.


I am leaning to a stone in style similar to the last photo.

Mudding

I finally got to work on the house Wednesday. I've been working on changing utilities, etc into my brother's name, and researching and preparing some legal documents. I'm getting stuff done but I feel like I could be doing more each day. The weather is perfect, and with weather like this, one thinks they have forever. I even went for a 8 mile bicycle ride yesterday on my brother's bicycle. With weather like this I keep thinking about all the fence work I could have gotten done back at the ranch. Or hiking.

This afternoon I starting mudding more house walls. I finished the box of mud I had and got one wall covered. I won't say 'done' as I may have to put another thin layer on the wall once I sand and smooth the dried mud. I have several walls left to mud.

Before ..and.. After (the mud is still wet)

Guamanian feast

During my conversation with Darrel and Mona after trivia on Monday night we discussed funerals and they described Native American funeral traditions. They mentioned the meals and cooking as part of their experiences. This reminded me of the feast my Uncle Curt, Aunt Cathy, and I attended the day after I returned from my Alaskan cruise.

When Curt was a longshoreman he worked with a fellow originally from Guam. For Curt's retirement party this fellow's relative (Al?) barbecued and cooked the food at Curt's party and this group and Curt have been friends and poker player friends ever since.

One of their friends was having a birthday celebration and feast and they - mainly the women - were also celebrating one of the Catholic saints.

Curt had Mapquest directions to the house as he hadn't been there before. The directions got us all confused as they had us turn right onto a dead end street then do a u-turn back to the road and make another right turn. Instead of going on this side dead end road, all we had to do was go straight a few more blocks. But we found the house.

When we arrived all the women were sitting on folding chairs in the garage engaged in a ceremony for the saint. The men were in the back yard cooking the meat. We joined them. Once the women finished their ceremony they came and joined us and the feast began.

First we had a fantastic dessert. It was a coconut and tapioca pudding mixture wrapped in aluminum foil and baked. Man it was delicious! I had two and I wasn't alone in doing so.

The Guamanians take great pride in the quantity and quality of their food. There was lots of it. And here I just came off a seven day Alaskan cruise with all you can eat food. I was stuffed even before the feast began. Still the food was all delicious and I ate lots. They had pork ribs, several varieties each of chicken, beef, fish. Plus more stuff. I think they had six to eight pies. Rich pies. None of the pies were fruit pies. They were custard, coconut, chocolate, etc.

The Guamanians were great hosts and warm and inviting people. They kept pushing more food on us. Curt mentioned that my mother had passed away recently and the main host (Al?) asked if there was anything he could do to help me. And he was serious about it. I didn't have the feeling that his offer was polite conversation. I'm sure he would have tried to help any way I asked. This was from a guy I knew about an hour. I didn't need any help and I politely and carefully declined any offers of help.

As I said food was an important part of their life. The kids and early teenagers were of normal weight, but all the adults were very big. Al must weigh over 300 lbs and suffers from diabetes and other health problems from being overweight. He joked that he just takes another pill for controlling blood sugar when he overeats sugary food. He said he saw a nutritionist for his diabetes. The nutritionist tried to get him to eat fruit and bagels and other healthier foods. Al said that was boring tasteless food. The nutritionist asked him what his normal breakfast was and he said a dozen eggs and a slab of bacon.

"Oh my! Let me get back to you on a recommended diet."

When Al next talked to her the nutritionist tried to get him to only eat six eggs and a smaller slice of bacon. I don't think Al took her up on it.

It was a great time and I was able to squeeze in another slice of coconut ( I love coconut!) pie before we left which I think pleased our hosts. They plan another big feast in January for another birthday and wanted me to come. The food would be great, but I have no plans to be in Washington state in January.

September Triva

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wall insulation and progress

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lutefisk! Lefse! Yah, you betcha!

First day back

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Courthouse follies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back in North Dakota

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Then I slept for a while before reading old newspapers.

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

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

Here today, gone tomorrow

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Limo rides

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

There is no place like home

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Back in MT

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Library closing now. Talk with you later.

Back from Alaska

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

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

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

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

Lost in Washington

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Train to Washington

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

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

But everyone who wanted to get off did so.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spooky email

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

GUARDIAN ANGEL

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

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

Busy to the end

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

Today, I:

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

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

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

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

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

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


• tried to get my train ticket to Seattle

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

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

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


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


• made supper for me and my brother


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


• briefly visited with a neighbor


• packed

Memories, rain, and delay

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

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


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


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

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

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

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