And the winner is.....

Butte business uptown have ice sculptors outside their doors around christmas. They last, depending on weather, local vandalism, general inebriation for a week to over a month. This year's winner:

Yoda came to Butte. 

Saturday evening

Hogwarts train

And here you thought the Harry Potter books and movies were fiction.....

After a smoke-free summer.......

First week of September, and our first nearby fire. About 10 miles from town, grew from 100 acres to 900 acres in a day. It's been unseasonably hot, upper 80's instead of the normal 70's at this time of year. Fortunately, it's supposed to rain tomorrow, that should help.

"Sittin' on the boat of the bay, wastin' time........"

Apologies to Otis, it's been 52 years he's been gone. Fiona, aka The Adorable One, on the ferry from SF to Tiburon.

And you thought I lived in the boonies....

Two earthquakes hit Manhattan, are felt in Butte

And yes, there is a Manhattan, Montana. 

How to cool down a 'hot' summer day

It was 78 when it started, dropped to 62 in a few minutes. Maybe a half inch of rain in 20 minutes. The street outside could have supported trout. Wonderful cooling effect, for folk who think anything above 70 is out of line. 

The Hoard Comes to Montana

They left Tuesday after being here 4 days. Having all your kids and a grandkid around, talking, laughing, was a complete and total joy.

This last includes me on one end, and my best buddy of 48 years, David, on the other. House is very quiet since they left. I would hear them faintly at night, out on the porch talking, every once in awhile I'd hear the word 'dad', but I'd ignore it. 

Huckleberry pie

Huckleberries from the Farmer's Market, the Hmong group have secret locations they find these; they don't grow domestically.

The Adorable One visits Montana

And what does she do?

A reminder from the distant past

 Once upon a time there lived in Sardinia a royalist named Joseph-Marie de Maistre.
.. After the French Revolution, he strongly advocated for a "social hierarchy" and "monarchy" as the best form of government.
.. In 1811, as ambassador to Russia, he opined that:

Toute nation a le gouvernement qu'elle mérite.

.. This quote is often mistakenly attributed to Abraham Lincoln or Alexis de Tocqueville. It has a couple of renditions in translation to English:
>> "Every country has the government it deserves" 
>>  "In a democracy people get the leaders they deserve." 

.. He was, of course, speaking sarcastically about the chaos that was erupting in Russia at that time.
.. The attitude expressed has, however presciently, become wonderfully predictive as our country moves through a contemporary nexus of political miasma.
.. Another observation from Joseph-Marie, comte de Maistre:

 Les fausses opinions ressemblent à la fausse monnaie qui est frappée d'abord par de grands coupables et dépensée ensuite par d'honnêtes gens qui perpétuent le crime sans savoir ce qu'ils font.

.. This is also significant for our times and is translated as: 
>> False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they are doing.

We have now the leader and his administration that we deserve. We, 59 million of us, voted him into office. 

A great day to be an american, if you're white and male

Apropo of our racist, woman-hating 'president' telling Congresswomen to 'go back to where they come from'....

The 2pm thunderstorm

The usual, loud claps, no visible (from my window) lightning, half inch of rain, drop of 20 degrees in minutes.  Just another afternoon at 6,000 ft in Montana.

tarn devium

E.g, erratic, or as in having no sequence.

I didn't want to leave my downer of a previous post up longer than necessary, so here's a selection of fairly random pictures from my archives.

Summer time residents, this is next to I90, in the middle of town.

The youngest, doing her rabble-rousing best. Note she's one of the few not wearing a mask.

The lilac bush in full bloom, a week ago.

Summer afternoon guests in Butte.  

That's it for the time being. All the kids and some of the grands are coming for a visit in a couple weeks. Sure that'll give some content for the blog. 

Stay well, all you out there in the ether....

Pride in Seattle

Yesterday my youngest, Emily, took her goddaughter to the Pride festivities in Seattle. Looks like a good time was had by all. Today the Oldest, Kate, will take The Adorable One, aka Fiona, to the Pride Parade in Downtown.

In a few weeks the lot of them, including my son Henry will be coming for a visit. 

More pics

Fiona, aka "The Adorable One", at the Pride Parade in Seattle

Gastronomical Signs of Spring/Early Summer

Sorry for the blurry picture, old phone and all. Morels, fresh. Wonderful in a variety of ways. It helps to know people who hunt for these. 

Also, how we bbq in Butte:

110 Years ago

When Butte's population was over 3 times what it is now, labor/management issues were not settled by negotiations often, the IWW was very active, the mine owners had hired Pinkerton goons to act as their personal police.

And today:

All I Could Want

The best Father's Day present I've ever had.

Lilacs, it's really June now.

Even though it was 31 yesterday morning, and will barely hit 60 today, Wednesday is supposed to be in the high 70's. We'll see. However,  the Lilacs of Butte have decided it's time. Pretty predictable, never happens before June. This one is half mile from my house, and faces south so it gets lots of sun.

Eh, it's still only June

Weather forecast for today and tonight:

Today

Cloudy early, then off and on rain showers for the afternoon. High 46F. Winds NW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%..

Tonight

Rain and snow showers this evening transitioning to snow showers overnight. Low 32F. Winds W at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precip 70%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.

Like I said, it's still early June. 

Fiona Redux

Just got this from her mom this morning, couldn't resist. 9 years old.

Fiona update

She continues to be a mischievous girl, AKA The adorable one.  A couple recent pics. Hard to believe she's 9, or nearly. She's recently started gaining weight, thank goodness. 5 pounds in the past two months. This is a huge deal for a kid with her medical history.

An award by her school.

A costume at school, not clear what it is, but she seems to be having fun.

Memorial Day

Bill Koho, one helluva baseball player. KIA March 1967. Forward observer, killed by a mine.
Lance Corporal
E CO, 2ND BN, 12TH MARINES, 3RD MARDIV
United States Marine Corps
14 May 1947 - 14 March 1967
Bend, OR
Panel 16E Line 079 

I went to HS with Bill, he had a couple pro teams invite him for a tryout. Instead, he joined the Marines. I was in DaNang when I heard of his death. 

Spring

I just got back to Butte Monday after 2 weeks in Seattle and environs. A long drive, I now break it up into two days, usually staying near or in Idaho.

It's quite a contrast, Seattle and  Butte at this time of year.  Seattle is in the beginning of Summer,  there was a day of 84f while I was there. The high yesterday in Butte was 40, with showers of rain mixed with snow.  The grass is green, no flowers are up yet, and only  some of the trees are starting to show leaves. My big lilac bush  out back is starting to show green leaves. The flower groups  will bloom mid-June.

Kids and Grands are fine, Fiona finally started putting on weight, in the last couple months she's gained 5 lbs, more than she's gained in two years. Will post pics of her later.

Hope this finds all of you well and prospering.

Happy May Day

Currently 17f, might hit 45 today.

Yellowstone Traffic Police

And trust me, you don't want to try to speed by them.

Just a reminder from Montana

No, it's not time to break out the sandals just yet.

Ice jams on the Big Hole River

Happens every year around this time. Ice starts forming in the river in mid to late October, thickens through March, then in April the under the ice finally generates enough pressure to start breaking up the sometimes foot-thick ice above. It starts moving slowly downstream, until it hits some sort of obstacle, maybe a sharp bend in the river, maybe a bridge.

The joy of science is gender-free

Spring, or what we tell the first winter people here....

Weather Alert

...WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 6 PM THIS EVENING TO
NOON MDT WEDNESDAY...

* WHAT...SNOW EXPECTED. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 2 TO 4 INCHES
EXPECTED IN THE LOWER ELEVATIONS BETWEEN GARRISON AND BUTTE. 4
TO 8 INCHES EXPECTED FOR MACDONALD PASS, HOMESTAKE PASS AND
ALONG HIGHWAY 1 BETWEEN PHILIPSBURG AND ANACONDA.

* WHERE...BUTTE, GEORGETOWN LAKE, HIGHWAY 12 GARRISON TO
ELLISTON, HOMESTAKE PASS, AND MACDONALD Pass. 

Somebody explain this to me

I realize I haven't kept up with popular trends, pop or otherwise, in many years. I can usually figure out, sort of, what something means.

Not this one. This morning, in the want ads section of the local online rag was the following:

Wood slabs for wedding

What am I missing here?

Ah, Spring

Or what passes for it at 6,000 ft in the northern Rockies:

The Dunning-Kruger Effect

A theory I've seen exemplified in the past year. 

An Example of the Dunning-Kruger Effect

Unlike yourself, I'm a great writer

Most people are required to write stuff for some reason or other. This is one area where the Dunning-Kruger Effect is prevalent. If you don't know you can't use an apostrophe to show a plural (e.g., two solution's) or you don't know that semicolons can't be used for introductions (e.g., I like the following; A, B and C), then these mistakes don't register as mistakes when you bash out your written correspondence. To the rest of the world, you look a bit of a dunce, but, as far as you're concerned, you're a great writer. Your incompetence has stopped you seeing your incompetence. The Dunning-Kruger Effect is the reverse side of the coin to this football chant: 

"You're shit, and you know you are." (Football chant) 

With the Dunning-Kruger Effect, they don't know they are. 

According to Dunning and Kruger, ignorance is behind a great deal of incompetence. They assert that incompetent people will:

• Overestimate their abilities.
• Fail to recognise genuine ability in others.
• Not recognise the extremity of their inadequacy.

Oh, if you didn't spot that the "Unlike Yourself" in the title of this example should be "Unlike You", you could be one of those unwittingly whacking loads of grammar errors into your work without realising it. Eeek! Solution? Use competent proofreaders

Another example:

n the field of psychology, the Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which people of low ability have illusory superiority and mistakenly assess their cognitive ability as greater than it is. The cognitive bias of illusory superiority comes from the inability of low-ability people to recognize their lack of ability. Without the self-awareness of metacognition, low-ability people cannot objectively evaluate their competence or incompetence

This ringing a bell with anyone

Breakfast in Saigon

I have a friend, the cook down the street for those that have followed me for some years, who's spending a couple months in Vietnam. He's sent emails showing mostly the food, very inexpensive food, that's he's having daily. This is breakfast, a block from his hotel in Saigon, price was around 2$ american.

The only drawback he says is the coke for breakfast..

As a contrast, here's what the street where this cafe looked like when I was there, 1968