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Saturday, Nov. 16, 2024

6:17am EST

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PORCH PONDERINGS

by QueenNormaJean maybesnow?!

Rated: 13+ · Book · Biographical · #2198921

Norma's Wanderings around a small section of Montana

Well, hey there!
Welcome to Roundup, Montana! If it's a nice day, we'll sit a spell on my porch and talk awhile.

"All the resources we need are in the mind.” Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th President of the United States of America.

I am the Captain of my ship.
God is my co-pilot.
Often I sail stormy seas,
Am flung onto rocky shores.

What's on your mind today?

Signature for use by anyone nominated for a Quill Award in 2020

Signature for nominees of the 2019 Quill Awards

Show Recent Comments

10 Most Recent Blog Comments:

Kåre เลียม Enga

Nov 12, 2024 at 2:07am
In response to "Crazy Talk"

I'm too focused on my trip. Reservations and aisle seats on the plane. Buttttt... I did find my other pair of shoes.

1 Like

Cubby

Nov 11, 2024 at 10:51pm
In response to "Crazy Talk"

I've been trying to distract myself, too, by watching feel-good holiday movies on Netflix. It's all a bit scary!

2 Like

AnotherDreamer

Nov 10, 2024 at 2:46pm
In response to "So much Drama..."

I acknowledge the fact that you need to consider your health and sanity. Is there a backup plan for the people who you were servicing and who will no longer get service? Can some other local charity be notified and asked to step in temporarily? Will another organization replace the one that is left high and dry. I am just wondering about the clients. No judgement here.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Nov 10, 2024 at 2:14pm
In response to "So much Drama..."

Meals on Wheels is a great program. My neighbor is on it (they deliver up three flights of stairs). Yes, the food is fine... but she needs visitors... as do many on the program.

I only have 10 dazed days to avoid the drama at God's Waiting Room. I may do take out and greet friends as I come and go.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Nov 3, 2024 at 2:36pm
In response to "Update"

I don't celebrate Halloween. I don't do parties and the American version is silly imho. Samhain is different. I don't mind real witches and ghosts (hope to meet a ghost someday... but not too soon). If goblins existed I'd probably chat with them.

I did go to the Day of the Dead and the parade. Took photos and video. Honoring/remembering the dead is okay imho.

Odd how events "work" or don't. Call me crazy but... the churches have been there a looooong time. How could one NOT know. Same with you and Halloween... they don't know you by now?

I don't join groups because I can't deal with the drama.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 28, 2024 at 1:33pm
In response to "Ducks in a row"

Yep. The only cure to falling is not falling in the first place.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 19, 2024 at 4:14pm
In response to "Catching Up"

It helps to have the time and focus to do Octoprep or Nano. This year I have neither. No excuses and I shouldn't feel guilty. I did sign up for "13" but we'll see... so much depends...

...on the white rain on the black chickens...

We did have snow on the mountains. Today is gloomy.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 4, 2024 at 4:16pm
In response to "Equinox Storm"

Our Senior Center goes through cycles of drama. Right now the kitchen is fine. Today's meal was good.

Kåre เลียม Enga

Oct 4, 2024 at 4:13pm
In response to "Chico"

We have various hot springs in our area but busses don't go there.

Will you have fish for dinner or is it catch and release?

I decided to not do Octo-Prep. I have an idea and I started a folder to keep my chapters. That seems to work best for me. I have a basic timeline and theme. I'll just start in one place and go from there (literally, like in my IRL travels) to the next stop and the next lesson my character (me) has to learn. Since the conflict is "discovery" instead of an action-driven arch... I should be fine as long as they logically flow from one to another.

I'll have to return to Thailand and spend time in each location.

QueenNormaJean maybesnow?!

Sep 12, 2024 at 11:20pm
In response to "School Drama"

Fear is contagious. Fear spreads just like wildfire, one spark from a fearful person and the whole town is crazed.

Drama is preferred these days. Who can get the most views on their page, who can garner the most interesting story to present to the world. Truth is irrelevant it seems. Just the drama is important.

You do assume correctly that the school handled it better, in my opinion. They threw the flame resistant blanket over the problem and extinguished the fire. For now. Until the next crisis. Which will be when all these crazed parents withdraw their students and claim they are now 'homeschooling' them. I see this happening - people threatened to do this.

And don't get me started on the whole homeschooling trend. Some parents do a good job. Great. But others don't and kids suffer. There is no real policing in Montana for homeschoolers. Sad but true.

May 27, 2024 at 8:16pm

#1071783

The Berkeley Pit

This is a shot of the Berkeley Pit in Butte. It's quite large, a small, deep pond. Constant supervision is needed to keep birds from landing on the water. So there is a small hut where a person sits and uses multiple means to haze ducks, geese and other birds from the site.

Like • Comment

May 26, 2024 at 10:26pm

#1071732

Trip to Butte

I finally got to take a trip this past week. I went to Butte - 4 1/2 hour drive one way from Roundup. Hubby and I spent two days and one night. I was invited to participate in a tourism event.

So, Butte. A town that knew great wealth from copper mining. It was a small mining town, until copper was discovered.

From their advertising:
Our nickname is “Butte America,” but we also go by, "The Richest Hill on Earth.” Immigrants from Ireland, China, Lebanon, Austria, Greece, Italy, Mexico, and numerous other countries came to Butte to work in the mines, they came to Butte, America. It is said as many as 25 nationalities settled in that town. it is a rough and tumble town, bars, restaurants plus many churches. Even brothels.

But now people go to see the old neighborhoods, the abandoned mines, and the former open pit copper mine, the Berkeley Pit. The Pit is the largest Superfund site in the United States.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berkeley_Pit

The Dumas Brothel (formerly the Dumas Hotel) was a famous bordello in Butte, Montana in the United States. Located in the heart of uptown Butte, the brothel has been proclaimed America's longest-running house of prostitution, finally closing its doors in 1982. I walked inside this place and promptly went back to the trolley. Not impressive at all.

We went on a little tour to learn all these facts. Butte - quite a town.

I wanted to stay another night, but a winter storm warning sent us on our way. That night it snowed about 8 inches on the pass we had to travel over to get back to Roundup. Yes, snow. This is Montana after all.

3 Like • Comment • View 2 comments

May 18, 2024 at 12:35pm

#1071322

Surgery is Done!

The surgery on my hand is done. I'm now in the post-op phase. I currently have this huge bandage covering the entire hand. My thumb is covered, while four fingers are free. So far, so good.

Pain has been virtually non-existent. So curious - the surgeon injected the site with "exparel". This drug acts Iike novacaine - but will last perhaps five days. It was developed to lessen a patient's need for opioid pain relievers.

He did carpal tunnel surgery plus took out a bone in my thumb joint, inserted a screw and two pins. So without pain relief that all could be quite painful, to say the least.

A problem I have now is itching, annoying as crap. And there is no way you can scratch under this huge bandage, nor should I.

I'll post after the bandage comes off, and I get a look at my reconstructed digit.

Like • Comment • View 1 comment

May 9, 2024 at 12:28pm

#1070779

Rent a car

Finally someone got smart and rented us a car for a month. Hmm. No, not me. My husband finally did this.

"Do you need a car after your surgery? I may fly back to VA to get our car and then drive it back."

Let me tell you, I thought about for micro-second. "Yes, of course. I cannot drive the one we're borrowing. It's a manual transmission."

Why did there even need to be discussion on this, and why did it take a year to come to this conclusion?

The other night I got upset again. I have a seminar coming up. It's in Butte, MT. That's about 4 hours from here. I will be driving the rental car and staying overnight. It's all arranged. It's about a week after my surgery, so I think I'll be okay. But NO! Seems a friend of my husband told him I should not be doing that.

Now perhaps it's because I feel that I've been stuck in the house for a year. Not literally, we have gone to Billings for shopping. I did go to a SE Montana meeting in Billings. But that's it. No trips of any kind anywhere. No just going somewhere for the fun of it.

So my husband and I argued about semantics. "You were not stuck in the house. You went places."

"I feel like I've been stuck in my house. Don't discount my feelings."

"Your feelings are not valid."

Hmm. Still a little upset about someone discounting my feelings. I still feel like I've been trapped for a year. Car accident, hurt knee, knee surgery, and then a broken hand. And now surgery again. Mercy.

At the risk of whining more, I want to go far, far away. Perhaps to a desert island. Sun, sand, water. Or hike to a favorite spot near Yellowstone. Lots of trees, lake, wonderful mountains.

So instead I'll walk down to the Musselshell River, check it out. We've had rain for three days. Not as bad as the Bozeman area where people got stuck on the freeway, over a pass, for 2 days.

My life right now is pretty boring, and mercy sakes do I hate boring. So let me spice it up with that walk to the river, writing for the paper, ironing some antique aprons for the museum, making lunch, a meeting at 4 PM and then play practice at 6 PM.

That should keep me entertained for the day.

1 Like • Comment

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