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....