Friday, June 29, 2018

National champions: Oregon State Beavers shut out Arkansas to win College World Series title, 


I've  been a Oregon  (Ducks) fan since going  there  undergrad, and  playing basketball  for  a  year. Oregon  State for decades  were our main  rivals. In  recent years the  successful football  team has regressed  to  the mean (mediocrity). 

My goddaughter, Helen, was clearly destined for the academic  world  since  she was a  toddler.  She  could probably gone  to  any  undergrad she  wanted. Where  did  she pick?  OSU.  As an  aside,  she's  currently  finishing up her PhD at  Cal,  having  turned down a full ride  at  MIT. 

Anyway, I sent  her  a  message  this  morning  congratulating  OSU.  Man,  that  hurt.  


Tuesday, June 19, 2018

First Tourist at Waterpark

Butte has  been  economically  depressed since  the  mid  70's, when the  last  of the mining operation crawled  to  a  halt. For decades, the oft-expressed  hope was that "those good  mining  jobs  will come back".  Alas, with the  rapidly dropping price  of  the  minerals mined,  and cheaper  available in South  America,  they  never  did. The population  has been steadily decreasing, decade by  decade. In 1970 the population  was  around  43 K.  Currently,  in the city  limits, it's around 25K.

There was  and is  no  alternate  work  comparable to the  mining  jobs. The  largest employers are  the community hospital, a level 2 that has  to  ship  out  open chest  surgery. The  small  University  is  next, after  that  come  walmark and the soon to  close kmart. The  one mall has lost almost  all  it's  stories. It's  main  visitors are the  geezer walkers in  the morning. The business that  come  that are 'successful' are the  hotels near the  freeway. Restaurants come  and  go,  average life span less than  a year unless the owner  also  owns  the  building. The tourist  industry, which  sustains  many towns  in  Montana  tends  to  pass Butte  by.  The town is not attractive from  the freeway  going  by, the  mine is a raw,  immense scar  on the  earth, and  Bozeman is only 75 miles  away. 

The town  council has  made some  decisions to  help the city over the last decade that  have  the  same  underlying belief: If  you  build  it, they will come." 

The  airport  has recently  been re-built, an  attractive structure  around  the  same size  as the one next  to it, which  will be  torn down.  We have one airline, with two flights in and  out a day. They  have no interest  if  expanding their schedule, the  planes are frequently less  than  full.  After  they built the  new  structure they  asked the  other  airlines  if they  were  interested in flying to Butte.  The answer from  all was no.  There just isn't the business.  It's only an hour  to the Bozeman airport, where one can fly to several major cities, including  Chicago. Butte's  only flight  goes  to  Salt Lake City. 

Then  there are the  new  bike lanes  being put on the  existing  street, narrowing  the lanes from  two each way  on  the  few  busy  streets to  one.  I see maybe 5-10 bicyclists a  month. And  this is during  the  2  months of summer.

Now  we  have  the new  waterpark, opening  end of  this  month.  Constructed cost  was 8.7 million, it has a wandering 'river', slides, etc.......quite  attractive,  actually. And, it's not covered. It's outside. We  had a  goodly  snow  storm last  week, this morning it  was  41,  and scheduled  to  get up to  55  today.  Estimated  time  it will be open  is two to  three  months a  year. And most years we get our  first  snow in  Sept., last in  June.

We did  have a first  visitor to the Waterpark, even  though  it  hasn't  opened yet. 


Paper didn't  say if it paid the  entrance fee. 

Monday, June 18, 2018

Way too fast

The Adorable One,  who had a less  than  50% chance at birth,  turned  8 this  weekend.


Friday, June 15, 2018

More from Despicable Daines

I  got  an email asking if  I thought  it  should be  a crime  to  'desecrate'  the  flag.  My response:

"Talking about the sanctity of  a  piece of  cloth, symbol of a  nation  or  not, is laughable coming  from a country, congress and  president who  tears  children apart from their  families, then  cites  the Bible as justification.   How long before you and  the  other  GOP  minions  have to  stand  to  attention when your fuhrer speaks?"

Monday, June 11, 2018

A Reminder: It's Montana

Three days ago  it was 78,  warmer than usual.  This  morning,  31F.  A  few  minutes  ago  near here:



The  second  is  the  cam picture  looking up towards the  area  of  town  called  'Uptown',  where I  live.  

The face of courage

Her message  with the photo: "When good times are rare, we need to cherish them"


Saturday, June 9, 2018

The Principal, and the child who won't learn

Look  at his posture, the  arms  crossed  in  defense, the  embarassed/guilty  look,  and  Ms. Merkel, looking  disgusted  and unbelieving.  She  is an example  of how  the world  views  us now, through the lens  of  donald trump.


We have no one  to blame but  ourselves.   For  the  genuine trump supporters  that  have  stuck  with him  through  his litany  of some  genuine  crimes,  and total  lack  of  morality, there  is  nothing to say. Hopefully, you'll  have  to soon  crawl  back  under  your rocks  and mutter to each other.

To  those  who chose him  over  Clinton, or  didn't  vote because 'they  didn't  like  either of  them', to  both I say you are culpable in this, it  is your fault. It  shows a lack  of  judgement  on  your  part, and  a real  ignorance of  the  world.

To those  who've (big edit here which  clearly  went awry  again)  didn't  supported him,  you  need to redouble  your  efforts, and  elect  representatives  who  won't  support him,

Wednesday, June 6, 2018

Lilac time in MT

The whole town seems one  big  lilac bush, they are everywhere, and  will bloom  about a week  or  so.  You  can hardly escape the  fragrance.



From my backyard. 

Monday, June 4, 2018

The Cheeseburger

Though we had several good meals  at home, and  one outstanding Italian restaurant visited, one of the only pictures  I have is of a cheeseburger I went a  tad overboard with the additions...bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, avacado, etc.


There was groaning, and loosening of belts. It was great.