The River

A couple of weeks ago I decided that kid-cousin Sadie and I needed some time together. I'd been working a lot of extra hours and had not had the opportunity to spend weekends in Billings as I had been. Sadie was missing me and even more I think, missing our visits to Grampa at the nursing home.

I picked Sadie up Friday after school and after a long visit at the nursing home, we drove to Absarokee to spend the weekend with Uncle Mike. We were greeted at the door by Shasta and a little while later Mike's cat Floyd (originally named Pretty Boy by his original owner) and the newest member of the household, former neighbor Lois's cat, Cuddles, came out to visit.

We spent the evening relaxing, watching TV and visiting. Mike was happy to have us over and Sadie doted on all of the critters. I, for once, didn't even open my laptop to work!

Saturday, in addition to visiting Grampa at the nursing home, we went on a couple of very fun adventures.

Our first stop was Hawkin's Park. The park is one of Mike and Shasta's favorite places to romp and Sadie, as you can see from the pictures, really enjoyed it as well.



Soon after we arrived at the park, Sadie told Mike and I that she had never walked beside a frozen river before. My heart broke a bit thinking of all the opportunities she had missed in her life and I vowed then to make sure she and her siblings had more outdoor adventures in the future.


Shasta explored every inch of the park as usual.


Sadie got a huge kick out of walking on the thick ice at the edge of the river.

I think she really enjoyed being around "Uncle" Mike and I know he really loved showing her the river.


Sadie reminds me so much of Wolf when he was young. He never walked by a log in his life that he didn't want to stand on.

Mike has a great sense of humor. Sadie laughed so hard that later she told me her face hurt.

Sadie was amazed at how bright the ice was in the sunlight

and how bright blue the mountains appeared.

Uncle Mike spotted the giant hunk of ice in the free flowing part of the river, so of course I had to take a photo of it!


I love the way the old power plant looks surrounded by ice.

The second stop of the adventure was at "the secret place". The ice out there is especially thick.


In the setting sun, it had a kind of blue hue to it.

Shasta, of course, had a great time. She always does!

I call this one Sadie the irrigator. She found this headgate valve and had a blast trying to turn it. Uncle Mike kept teasing her that come the spring thaw the town of Absarokee would be under four feet of water from her efforts. She thought he was really funny!

And so it ended. The moon was beautiful and bright and so was the day.

Life is really beautiful, isn't it?

You've been mooned, again!

This week my work took me to Fairmont Hot Springs Resort for a "No Adverse Impacts" conference. The subject refers to mitigating impacts involved with land use and land use planning. It has been a very interesting workshop so far and the setting couldn't be more beautiful. I wish there was time to get out and take some photos, but the conference runs from very early morning to evening, so I've not had time.

I did manage to sneak in a soak in the hot tubs, which really weren't hot enough for me, and to take some photos of the eclipse of the moon.

Obviously, I need to work on my technique here, or else lay off the hard liquor.

Not a whole lot better, but it's an interesting shot anyway, don't you think?

I have no clue why the moon appears to have a tail here, but I imagine it was camera operator error.

Not quite there, but I'm getting better at it in this shot.

By George (or Canon) I think I've got it...at least as much as I ever will.

Now it's back to work for me! I have notes to finish transcribing and then I'm going to get some rest (if my co-worker, the beautiful and talented Bobbi, doesn't snore all night again). Our conference ends at 3:30 and then we have to drive the 4oo and some miles back to Forsyth.


Our annual conservation achievement banquet is Sunday and after that I have a plethora of meetings to plan and attend. I'm not sure when I'll get it done, but I plan to have a nervous breakdown sometime soon.

Ha! I'm so not...I am loving this and you all know it.

So hugs, be safe and I'll stop over and see you all soon. I promise!

Warmer times revisited...

If it's not obvious from the title of this post, I'm longing for spring. We've had a lot of snow and bitter cold this winter and it seems like I'm never warm anymore. My cousin says it's because I've lost most of my insulation, but I think it has more to do with age.

Whatever the reason, I'm disliking winter more this year than ever before. I'm not one to sit around moping, so I decided to sort through my spring, summer and fall pictures to remind me of what is ahead.

The pictures below are the ones that gave me the warmest fuzzzies.

I hope they brighten your spirit as well.
















Be safe and stay warm everyone, I love you all.

I've been such a busy little bee...

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know I've been a bad blogger. But sometimes real life gets in the way of blogging and as my mom used to say, I've been busier than a one legged woman in a butt kicking contest.

But I wanted to update you all and let you know I'm moved in, stuff is put away and my cat is happier than I can remember her being in years.

I've got hardwood floors, big honkin' windows, 3 bedrooms, a very cool, quaint kitchen and a living room you could bowl in.

I went from velvet unicorns on the wall, to my own stuff displayed everywhere. I had forgotten how much I love my artwork (such as it is). The paintings done by my mom's dear friend Ruth, the maps, the family photos, the artwork my dad brought back from France after WW II.

All of these things had been in storage and now they are mine to see every day.

Life really is good and I promise, I really do promise, to post some pictures of my new digs soon.

Really... I promise...

OK, I'll try...

And more importantly I will find the time to comment on your blogs.

I miss and love you all.

Big hugs, Laurie

Tech? support...

I spent most of the afternoon at home trying to get my wireless internet connection to, for lack of a better word, connect. Since I moved, I have had intermittent connection issues. I'd lose connectivity, then regain it. This happened numerous times a day and often at the most inopportune times; while uploading my work websites or worse yet, when talking to the ones I love on messenger.

Last night, after numerous attempts to upload a rather large website update, I called my internet provider's tech support for assistance. He had me restart the cable modem and wireless router, all things I had done numerous times on my own but was more than willing to try again just in case doing so under his tutelage would somehow correct whatever problem there was in my system. Unfortunately, it didn't and he scheduled a service call for today.

Harry, the very kind and knowledgeable service rep, was a bit late to arrive and while I was waiting, my cable TV quit working. I hoped that the TV would remain on the fritz until Harry arrived, so that he might have a better chance diagnosing the problem, but it did not and by the time he arrived I had both cable TV and cable internet.

As he walked through the door, he asked if I had lost service completely for a few minutes. I responded that I had lost cable TV for a little while, but still had internet. The look on his face was priceless. Apparently Harry had replaced the main line to my apartment, hoping that it would fix my connectivity problem. Since both cable TV and cable internet come from the same line, I should have lost both during the replacement.

We finally figured out that I had been "borrowing" internet from someone in the area and had never actually been connected to my own router. Aha, we thought, that should solve the problem. We hooked to the router through a hard line and went through all the steps necessary to set up a network, but no matter what we did, it still wouldn't connect to my own router.

Harry called his tech support person who told him it must be a router problem. He told me to contact my router's tech support, which I did through live chat. The first tech (yes this is a long story, so smoke 'em if you got 'em), had me go into dos, change some settings, stand on one foot and wave a magic wand. Finally, after about 2 hours and several dark moments, I was connected to my own router!

Yippee! I was home free.

Or not.

After about an hour I got the horrifying "blue screen of death". After watching my system crash and restarting the computer, I connected again.

As you can see, Emily was VERY concerned about my computer problems...

About 15 minutes later I was rewarded with another blue screen. I hooked up to a hardline again and contacted the router company. After at least an hour and so many changes to my system I had to copy and paste the instructions into a word document to keep track of them, my system was once again, connected to the proper router. I checked email, chatted with some friends and finally uploaded the large file to my website.

Now, about 3 hours later, I have still not had another b-l-u-e s-c-r-e-e-n o-f d-e-a-t-h (yes, I'm spelling it in hopes that the computer does NOT recognize what I'm saying and reward me with yet another) and it seems that it may actually be working.

Another strange thing that has happened since I moved in to my own place is that my TV has decided it needs to display close captioning. I have tried everything to remove it, to no avail.

I was chatting with some friends tonight on yahoo and they had several suggestions. They told me to go into the menu, which I did. I started clicking on things and ended up with the entire menu in Spanish.

Since I have no grasp of that language and frankly a very limited grasp of English, I was at a loss as to how to change it back to English. I kept fiddling with things as my cyber friends urged me on and I ended up with what I can only imagine was the Arabic language on my menu.

Since I couldn't figure out how to turn off close captioning in English, I was pretty sure I wasn't going to be able to change it in either Spanish or Arabic. I was about to give up when I noticed a button on the remote that said CC. I pushed it and viola, close captioning disappeared. Who'd have thunkit? CC stands for close captioning.

Hmmm, I never made the connection.

I think I'll join my kitty in bed now. I've had enough fun for the day...


Sigh...is it Friday yet?

Oh the joys of working from home...

I am blessed to have a fantastic job. I get to travel a lot and work from home when the need arises. Today was one of those days. I've been trying to catch a cold and since it is -17F outside right now, I opted to work from home during the later part of the day.

It's been a very pleasant and productive afternoon. I've stayed in touch with my co-workers via the phone and internet and I've gotten more done than I most likely would have at work where there are more distractions.

Not to say that I don't have distractions here, just not quite as many...

...but distracting none-the-less.

I am blessed in so many ways...

I am officially moved! After oh-so-very-many trips up and down the 30 stairs that lead to my new "loft" apartment, I am happily ensconced in my new digs. Although there have been some ups and downs (the up being nearly everything, the down being the night the new heating system failed and I went to bed in 4 sweatshirts, 3 pairs of sweats, thick fuzzy socks, rainbow slippers, cap and mittens.

When I woke up the next morning it was 42 degrees and the water bottle I keep next to my bed was starting to freeze). The contractor who is doing the renovations came by at 8 am and rigged a repair and had a new part overnight expressed in. He was surprised that I hadn't called him at 10 pm when the heater went out and apologized over and over again for my trouble. I just laughed and told him I was a tough Montana chick and it would take more than freezing room temperatures to upset me.

Since then he has gone even farther out of his way to accommodate me and even had one of his carpenters hang my new solar blinds for me. I have been truly blessed so often in my life and this is one of those times. I don't think I could have found a more 'fun' apartment or a better landlord or contractor.

I have also been blessed with wonderful friends. They've helped me move, driving 100's of miles, making dozens of trips up and down the steps and they've asked nothing at all in return.

I am also incredibly blessed with a fantastic family. My brother, my dad, the cousins and of course my fabulous son Wolf who drove from Denver to spend this weekend with me. He and I are in Billings with the cousins now and will drive to Forsyth tomorrow to Feng Shui the apartment and spend some quality time together.

How lucky can a gal get?

On top of spaghetti...

Dad came through the surgery. Other than some blood pressure and low oxygen levels, all went well. Because of the b.p., they decided to keep him in the hospital for a few days. His readings were ultra high and a few hours later, really low, so they are keeping a close watch on him.

He is also quite confused; more so than normal. Probably the hardest thing for Mike and I right now is that he thinks mom is still alive. I've been staying with him at the hospital and I don't have the heart to tell him she's gone; I just don't want him to have to go through that again.

He keeps trying to call her but it won't go through. It about broke my heart when he said he'd just have to wait for her to call him. I hope this phase of the disease doesn't last long. Sometimes I think it would be easier on him to be oblivious to the present, like a lot of the people in his nursing home ward are, but of course, that's not my call.

You will notice from the picture, however, that he still has his appetite and that has to be a good thing. The red stuff on his shirt and face is the spaghetti he had for lunch. Some of it even made it to his tummy, I promise.

Dad sleep pets the dog...

On the home front, I haven't managed to get everything into my new place yet. Bad weather, lots of meetings and late nights has put a crimp in my moving style. My hope is that I get everything in on Sunday with the help of a few men with strong backs and good legs. There are 30, count them 30, steps to my new apartment so moving furniture up them is not for the faint of heart. I, myself, have made about a bazillion trips up and down and my legs are as muscular as I can ever remember them. This move is going to be good for me in so many ways!

You may be asking yourself (if you've managed to hang on this long) why doesn't she move the rest in today? The reason is because my dad is having hernia surgery in Billings so I am here with him. It's not a very serious operation, but with dad's age and Parkinson's to consider, there is always a chance (though I prefer to believe it to be VERY slight) that there could be complications.

So as usual, I am sending out a request for your kind thoughts and prayers to be sent this direction. My dad is a wonderful, sweet, dear man and he is very much loved by all that know him and it gives us all comfort knowing you are holding him in your hearts.

Take good care, my dear friends. I'll talk to you soon.

The best son in the universe!!!

Yes, as if you didn't already know it, I have the best son in the universe. When he heard I was moving (according to him it was long overdue), he ordered these for me on Amazon.com. Isn't he the most thoughtful son?

And speaking of the move...

The apartment finally has heat! Yes folks, a brand spankin' new heating and air conditioning system is up and running. I had moved a lot of things in while freezing my tushy off, but now I can officially get the heck out of Dodge and into my own digs.

I had planned to move my chaise lounge, bed, dresser and numerous boxes today, but a howling wind and wet wet snowstorm settled in upon us so that may have to wait for tomorrow.

I'm leaving a lot of things with R. I'm mainly taking the things that have sentimental value and things we had two of. Not that I think R would accuse me of taking more than my fair share, but "someone else" most likely would, so I'm not taking any chances. I just want the drama to end.

I'll keep you all posted and post some pictures when I finally get everything moved in.

Hugs to all.

A new chapter...

I am moving! I found a loft-type apartment in Forsyth. The gigantic leaded-style windows overlook the historic district, such as it is, and it has three bedrooms. I would have gotten something much smaller and easier to heat and cool, but it's hard to find a place that will take my cat, especially on short notice.

As some of you know, I have lived with my friend R for many years. We have some interests in common and have had a lot of fun. He has been dating a mutual acquaintance for several months now and she has decided that she doesn't like me living there. She has told several of my friends that she was going to get me out of there one way or another and apparently, she means it. Her way of removing me has been to start causing problems. She's done some pretty scary things which are giving me cause to fear for my safety and more importantly the safety of my extended family, so the time has come to move.

I am sad for a few reasons, and these are in random order:

~R and I have been friends for a lot of years and it pains me to have our friendship end this way, but some people have no conscience and don't care what they do to get their way and she is one of them, so this is for the best.

~I will miss the 5 cats that I can't take with me. The cat I brought into the house with me thinks she is a dog and she hates cats with a passion (I think she's a cog or a dat to be honest). She was raised by my border collie and we have always had to keep her separate from the others. She stayed downstairs with R and the rest were upstairs with me. I can't even begin to imagine how empty the house will feel with only one cat to keep me entertained, but as I said, this is for the best and R has agreed for me to have visitation rights.

~I spend a lot of time with the neighbor's dog, Keeper. He is the sweetest cocker spaniel dog in the world and he loves me more than his owner (of course I bring him the best treats and take him in my car and walk him to the river, so it stands to reason that he would love me). I know that I can always go over and pick him up for walks and rides, but it's not quite the same as being there all the time.

But I am happy for several reasons as well (also in random order):

~I can invite my friends over whenever I want without wondering if it will bother my roommate.

~I can decorate the place any way that I like. Since the house was in his name, I didn't want to change the decor, it was, after all, "his" house. So I lived with the felt unicorn picture, the stained glass white tiger pane and the deer drawings. It will be nice to have some things of my own on display, although I gave most of my things away when I moved.

~I can't stand the drama that this woman has brought into my life. I'm a happy person who sees the glass half full. Recent events have left me doubting not only myself, but humanity and I do not like feeling that way. I just need to have my own space for awhile to get back to myself.

~I've always loved adventure and in Forsyth, this is about the most adventure one can have. So wish me luck, folks. And if you can recommend a good Feng Shui book, please do so. I'm gonna need all the help I can get decorating this behemoth.

The Switch...

There are some people in the world that seem to have an on/off switch for their emotions. Do you know anyone like that? One moment the switch is on and they care about you and the next, for no apparent reason, the switch is off and they want nothing to do with you. I know quite a few people like that and it never ceases to amaze me when the switch flips.

I guess this type of person isn't capable of deep emotion or true love or maybe they are just more evolved and have figured out a way to control their emotions in a way I never will and to be honest, never really want to.

I love deep, I love hard, I love forever. I still care deeply for the first man I ever loved. We were not destined to be and the love we shared wasn't a deep, "can't live without him" kind of love, but I loved him and he loved me. I never lost that love and I'm glad. I still have strong feelings for every man that I've had a relationship with and I suppose, me being me and all, I always will.

I think it's a good thing. I'm glad. It might be easier to have a flippable switch. It might take less out of a person and make the hardships in life easier to manage...but I'll take the pain and the sorrow and the joy and elation of loving deep.

I'll take the agony and the ecstasy of loving with abandon, with giving my whole heart, with throwing not only caution, but reason to the wind and loving with everything I've got. I truly believe that in the end, I will be richly rewarded.


By the way, I'm not talking about my current love life!

Pre-wash

Some of you know that my cousins and I have a house in Billings. The 4 kid-cousins, Eric, Marissa, Sadie Rose and Luke live there along with my cousins Kay and Sharon. I visit often.

The house is really nice. The neighborhood is a good one; it's mostly families and there is a park across the street with playground equipment and picnic tables.

The house has a lot of room for the kids, the rooms are of a good size and it is well lit and functional. The bathrooms are a nice size and the fixtures are all nearly new.

The appliances aren't top of the line, but we will upgrade them as needed in the future.

There is one appliance we feel very blessed to have. It's top of the line and has extra features that I believe make it better, by far, than other appliances of its type.

I hope we never have to replace it.


Please pardon the poor quality photo, I didn't have time to get the real camera and had to take this shot with my cell phone.

I hope you all have a fabulous New Year's Eve and that all your hopes and dreams come true in 2008.

I love you all.

Naughty or nice?

At the request of someone near and very, very dear to me, I am updating my blog. In honor of this person, the topic today is love.

There are many different kinds of love. All of them are portrayed here, photographically, in random order because I didn’t have the time to sort through.

There’s love of nature, love of a pet, or pets, there’s familial love, there's friend love and there’s the other kind of love; that of a man for a woman, or a man for a man or woman for a woman for that matter. It’s the kind of love that takes your breath away and makes you want to be a better person.

It’s the kind of love that comes only once in a lifetime, it makes you melt and when you are with that person, you are complete and whole for the first time in your life.

It makes you weak and strong at the same time and makes you wonder how you could be so lucky as to have them in your life.

Taken in Paradise Valley, MT.

Emmy, one of the cats that owns me.

Bobbi, my co-worker and dear friend.

My brother and his dog, may she rest in peace.

They "eye of the needle" one of my favorite oddities of nature.

Sadie Rose, after her knee surgery

My brother, Mike, playing Santa at the nursing home.

"I love you Santa"

My son and kid-cousin Eric ready for the concert.

Shasta, the Disasta, in her beloved pickup truck.

Our friend Danny at his birthday party at the nursing home.

The cake, lovingly made by a friend of mine.

Christmas, 2007, spent with the cousins. A good time was had by all!

Dale, gone from this plane of existence, but never ever forgotten.

The brat pack cats, trying to help me pack for yet another road trip.

Cousin Kay, who was "thrilled" to receive numerous pairs of thong panties for Christmas, because a girl needs sexy underwear...dammit!

Daddy.

Apparently someone thinks I've been naughty...can't imagine who!

Merry Christmas all and I hope you have a happy New Year!