Small Town Goings On

Summer is timidly making it's way into SW Montana, the highest temp we've had so far is around 75, at 8am it's currently 37f. My lilac out back is getting ready to bloom, the 15ft high bush has a distinct purple tinge among it's leaves.

My next door neighbor is selling her house, when I first moved into my place here her mother was still there, a wonderful woman, she couldn't remember then if she was 93 or 94, every day she went out for a stroll, walking stick under her arm, right down the middle of the street. We used to sit on our respective porches talking, she'd lived her whole life in the house, her father had built it around 1905, except for 10 years in the '30's when she and her husband moved to San Francisco and owned a bar, the fabled Gold Rush, during the depression era years. She passed on in 2007 while I was in Germany.

My buddy, the cook down the street (AKA Dr. Death, the chair of the chem department), is heading to Oregon this week to see his daughter graduate with honors from OSU, then help her move to Berkeley where she has a research spot in their graduate school.

Some headlines this week in our local paper:

Mauled hunter stable in Seattle hospital; Bear shot dead in SW Montana

A father and son were hunting black bear in Centennial Valley, south of here when a grizzly attacked the son, he's recovering in Seattle. 

 

Police blotter: Drunk wants to beat up bad influences, woman bilked of hot wings, duct tape

I ask you, when was the last time you saw the term 'bilked'? And what kind of low-life would bilk someone out their hot wings and especially duct tape, a item of daily necessity? 

 

And an old photo from the town's early days

 Life moves on apace here, albeit slower than most places. We're just careful when out in the woods, and guard our hot wings and duct tape.