Finally.......

We've had the mildest winter I've seen in my many years here in Butte. Until this morning it hadn't snowed in  a month, and most of that had shrunk to about 6".  Today it's trying to make it up a little bit. Another foot or two and we'll be up to average. Usually by now my fence is nearly buried.

Merry Christmas everyone.

a little later, looking west

Update on The Adorable One

Well, she's proven to be unpredictable, so I shouldn't be surprised by this latest twist in her interests. She seems to be really enjoying herself.

Butte in Winter

In almost the direct center there is a tall-ish white building at the base of the hill. My house is a millimeter or so beneath that. 

Mind-reading

Lunch today

Butte is a fine place to live in many respects, but good restaurants ain't one of them. Good cheeseburgers, 'bout it. But, while I'm in the Seattle area, I can find any ethnic food I want.  Today is a unprepossessing place in a small mall, King Noodle House. I had the seafood noodle soup, and it was amazing. I watched the cook(s) pulling the noodles in a few minutes was presented with this:

It had a more than sufficient amount of seafood, including some hidden mussels,  plump and not overcooked. And the price? 9 bucks. 

President for the states that voted for him

Any one notice the different responses that trump has made about the Alaska earthquake and the California Camp fire? Keep in mind the Alaska quake did infrastructure and property damage, but no one died. In California, near 100 are confirmed killed and many missing, and an entire town was burned to the ground.

trump's quote on the Alaska quake:
@PressSec
Follow Follow @PressSec

The President has been briefed on the earthquake near Anchorage, Alaska, and is monitoring damage reports. We are praying for the safety of all Alaskans!

On the California fire: (CNN)President Donald Trump's tweet blaming "gross mismanagement" for the devastating California wildfires is sparking a backlash from top firefighters' associations, politicians and celebrities.

In a series of tweets Saturday, Trump said the state's deadly wildfires are a result of poor forest management and threatened to cut federal aid.

Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that CA voted against him, and Alaska for him, could it?

Comments

The Adorable One gets a lift

My son Henry came up from Portland yesterday, We had to park a long way from the sushi place in a mall because it was black friday, and on the way back Henry offered Fiona a lift.

Here's a past photo of Henry, to give some context

Deserts of Afghanistan

Overindulgence Inc.

I'm now at the semi-comatose stage.

Memories of Toulon, France.

Again, food is my prominent memory.

And we end with a glass of Pilsner, fresh baguette, sardines and olives, with some local olive oil to dip the crusty bread. 

Old, grey and in the way

Time for the men of my gen to get the f*** out of the way,  The title of the post has been around for decades, but never so true as today.

A good day, despite the return of winter

In a nail biter, Senator Tester won by a narrow margin of 7,000 votes, over his GOP opponent. This is despite 4 visits from trump and his nepotistic family to the state to stump for the GOP candidate, and a cost to taxpayers of several million dollars. In these visits he insulted Tester, spread lies about him, and generally did what he does best: spread lies and fear mongering.  This time, to no avail.

Oh, winter is back, this time to stay.

Lookin' for sleep in all the wrong places.

Last week, a 900 pound plus grizzly decided to spend the winter in a heated garage near Valier, a town north of here a bit. The owner noticed the bear (how does one not notice a 900 pound bear napping near the truck) and called fish and game. They tried to 'haze' whatever that means, the bear into leaving. No deal, it just apparently pulled the pads he was sleeping on over his head. Finally they tranquilized it and transported it to Glacier Park.

Dinner

But, only if you like duck, brined overnight, smoked then baked. One of the best meals that I and the cook down the street have done.

Apologies for the background color, took the pic on the tacky tablecloth on the kitchen table. 

Suburbanite Grizzlies take up golf.

From the MT Standard

STEVENSVILLE — A young male grizzly bear was a captured and relocated from the Whitetail Golf Course north of Stevensville Saturday.

The golf course’s pro, Jason Lehtola, said the first indication that something was amiss at Whitetail came after they saw a broken flag stick on one of the greens. The next morning they found two more snapped off at their base.

“We thought it was probably a vandal at first,” Lehtola said. “And then we saw some tracks in a bunker and some scat piles. I couldn’t tell that it was a grizzly, though, at that point.”

The decision that something needed to be done about the flagpole snapper came last Wednesday when they found another flag stick broken on the seventh green — and this time, the bear had dug a large hole in the manicured grass.

A biologist would later say the bear was after worms.

yet another boring granddaughter pic

School dress up day to dress as a fictional character. The boy, the wizard of oz, is pretty much her minion in the neighborhood.

Glad I didn't know beforehand....

My 8 year old granddaughter, recently went swimming with the sharks, albeit inside a cage. This kid, who had small chances of surviving at birth, has parent's who'll toss her into shark-filled water. Oh well, she leads a charmed life.

The Adorable One:

Getting suited up

Just a reminder........

In flight snack

From the SF Chronicle

Atlanta beagle discovers roasted pig's head in plane luggage

And?? Who among us hasn't carried a roasted boar's head for a mid flight snack? 

Breakfast Errata

Breakfast this morning for L. and I: Swedish pancakes and local bacon:

Two days post-op, the sites where the tubes went into my arteries are healed, and very little bruising around the sites, meaning the doc who did it was good with his hands. That's my main criteria for choosing a surgeon.....I don't care if they have the personality of a troll, as long as they are good with their hands.

As to what they found, the previous stents that were in the left dominant system were clear, and no obvious blockage in the right or circumflex arteries. Good news, as I probably don't need to worry about keeling over from a sudden MI. The next step is a endoscopy, which I'm going to delay until after the Holidays. 

Thanks one and all for the concern and encouraging comments, it means a lot to me. 

I hope this finds all of you well. 

Am ok

Little hard to type with pressure bandages on both wrists, but am ok. Will post further in a day or so.Thanks for your concern, one and all.
Mike

In remembrance

Marty passed too soon.

The grandaughter, at the family plot in Laurel Hill this summer.

I think Charnel (often called Charnelton) was the first buried there. 

Update, two hours later

It continued, sticking to the roads now.

First snow

Only stuck on the roof, maybe a half inch, roads wet but not slick. 34f this morning when I got up. We may have another spell of warmer (think 60's) or maybe not. A few years ago we had a week of minus 20 the second week of October, froze the leaves on the tree out front and they didn't fall off until spring. 

This guy does a great Trump imitation

Near here

A nice view of a portion of the upper Paradise Valley, eventually leading south to Yellowstone.  Fall is here, I think we've seen the last of 70 degrees, and pretty soon last of 60's, then 50's, etc. A month from now I'll post pics of snow in they yard, to everyone's boredom. But it's nice now, here.

Watching the diet

With the cath scheduled a bit more than a week away, I thought I'd better be getting my coronary arteries in shape, as it were, having more HDL than LDL, in other words, a vegetarian salad. I thought about it for a bit  Soooooooo....tonight, the low cal, low fat, the preferred food for the CardioPulmonary Closed Society, I present the Pasta Chicken Alfredo:

Probably and extra 30 mg Atorvastin At bedtime tonight, eh? 

Autumn

Bit of fall clouds, the Highlands have a skiff of snow, the first pointed hill is Timber butte.

,

Up the hill a bit, still twilight. The Highlands in the background. The area this is taken from is called Walkerville, by their own description a "Famous Mining Town". 

It's full on Autumn here, 'termination dust' on the mountains, moves slowly or not so slowly down at snow makes it's claim on life here. The trees are all turning, the East Ridge, just east of town has large Aspen groves, all a brilliant yellow. Timber butte, in the first pic, has turning trees also. 

The high temp today was 55, but tomorrow, as of this moment, 'they' are saying it'll get up to 73 on Saturday, a genuine late summer day. Down to 31 that night, but that'd be quibbling to complain about that at this time of year. 

I have an appt early next month to do further 'procedures' on my heart's idioventricular tendencies, depending on what they are, I'll either be going further west to Seattle to have surgery, or back to Butte to watch the snow gradually fall. 

Cheers to all. 

What are lipids and LDL/HDL anyway......

So keeping in mind I have another procedure scheduled in a couple weeks (they said we want to do it Monday, I said how about the 5th of next month, arguing and table pounding ensued), etc. Anyway, with this in mind, and how I'm striving for better health in my mid 70's, here's what I had for dinner:

But, if you should be worrying about the healthy low/mid 70 year old, rest assured I had something healthy to accompany the wonderful steak. I present.......................

Need it be said??

What steak meal is complete without mashed 'taters, and a bit of the juice from the iron skillet the steak was in the oven with for 14mins at 415f turn at 7 mins.....

Yours in torment of Cardiologists (few of which I thought the cardiopulmonary system....),  

Mike

Fiona took a tour of the family burial ground of the family while they've been on vacation of the last week.  It's one the 'pioneer' graveyards in the state, and there are a lot of the old IWW tombstones the labor group put on their dead.

Since we've been in the area since '47, there tend to be a bunch of dead ones, and you have to put them someplace, right?  They also toured the town, visiting the park named for Fiona's GX5/6 (Kate, correct me here.)

I was going to include a couple of the post offices pamphlets with their pictures from the Post Office, but decided against. 

Dinner

Somewhere around noon, I decided I have a craving for meatloaf. Well, maybe 'craving' is overstated, but the word did occur to me. So I did the ingredients:

Burgeoning Food Critic?

It would seem the burger was not to her liking. Perhaps the presentation....