Sometimes I think you never really know anyone...

I've posted the above picture before; it's my son's senior picture. His dog Spotters was his best friend. When my son went to college and I moved to Billings, we thought long and hard about her well-being. After much deliberation and heartache we agreed to let her stay with my ex-boyfriend, who we had stayed very close to. He lived and worked out at Cooney Reservoir and was able to take her with him to work nearly everyday. In the 8 years we had known him he had proven that he loved her as much as we did. He promised that we could see her anytime we wanted to.

At first, all went well...we got to see her several times a month. When he needed to travel for work; she stayed with us. After awhile, we had to call to arrange to see her. Finally the visits (even though we called frequently and begged to see her) stopped. His girlfriend "did not think it was healthy for him to see us". We were devastated, but still thought she was in the best place because he loved her so much and could give her a better quality of life.

I'll never forget the day my son called. He was crying so hard he could barely speak. He had gotten an email (yes a friggen' email--the girlfriend wouldn't "allow" him to call) from the ex, telling him that his beloved dog had died. We were heart broken. My son, who considered this man to be his dad, was hurt beyond belief. I doubt he will ever get over it. To make things even worse; the ex hadn't even been with Spotters when she died. She had been staying with the girlfriend.

Even when they wouldn't let us see her, we felt that we had done the right thing by letting Dave keep her. In the end, we were proven wrong. I guess you never really know anyone.

See you at the fair.....

It's county fair week and as always it is a busy time. For the most part, I put together our fair booth from 160 miles away, and amazingly enough it turned out alright! Much thanks to my intern Christine who did the leg work for me. Here are pictures of the booth itself...

The coloring contest was even more popular this year than last. We had nearly 300 entrants that ranged in age from 2 to 65.

I think this is a cute shot.

Night time at the fair.

Shoe Fetish?

'M' and 'W' can often be found lounging on our shoes. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but they sure seem to like them.....

And each other!

Aren't they beautiful?

Well you can see some blue in the sky today...

and that's a nice change of pace! As you can see, it has been rather smokey lately.

In other non-fire news, I had a wonderful time in Absarokee last week. Shasta took me to Itch-ke-pe Park in Columbus and we had a great time playing on the shore and in the water.

She really seemed to enjoy herself, in fact when it was time to head back, she seemed rather hesitant.

Once I coaxed her into the car though, life was good again.

I knew it was hot.....

And still more fire!

I think all of eastern Montana is ablaze. Here are more pictures. This fire is on Moon Creek, near Hathaway. These pictures were taken right after it started. Lightening from the rain storm (on the left) caused the fire. Too bad it didn't put it out.

Fire, fire!

Driving home from Absarokee today I encountered more fires. There must have been 6 or more between Billings and Forsyth. Here are some pictures I took.

Fire!

Driving to dad's yesterday was an interesting journey. When I was passing Huntley, my brother called and told me there was a fairly large fire burning in the hills outside of Columbus. As I came over the Yellowstone Bridge on I-90, I could see that the city was really hazy and figured it might be smoke from the fire. I was right. Not only could you smell it, you could taste it INSIDE Costco! It was too smokey to take pictures in Billings, so I finished my shopping and headed west on I-90 toward Columbus. I stopped (illegally I suppose) on the freeway and took a couple of pictures with my cell phone, but didn't want to take a chance and get the digital out of the trunk (there were lots of police on the road). When I got to the offramp in Columbus I pulled over (in a safe place) got the digital and took this picture.


The picture above was taken in downtown Columbus at around 6:30 pm July 10. It wasn't very smokey in town, but it was dark and forbidding and I was glad to get the pictures taken and head out of town. There are a lot of people living in the fire danger area so please send thoughts and prayers their direction. The Billings Gazette had some horrific pictures in their online edition if you haven't seen them already.


Once I got to the Columbus-Absarokee road, there was a whole lot of traffic, in addition to the road construction. I didn't stop to take any pictures because I felt it would be dangerous to do so. After I got to Absarokee I spent time doting on my dad and then we watched the movie "Murphy's Romance". It's an older movie, but a classic in my opinion. During the movie, we heard a huge clap of thunder and I looked outside. Much to my surprise there was a double rainbow on the horizon. I took a picture, and although it was pretty dark outside, I still think it is neat.