What A Difference A Year Makes

We had a winter storm come through the other day. It’s a little early for snow, but not extremely so. There were numerous years growing up when I had to wear my snowmobile suit under my costume to go trick-or-treating.

This was my tree on 10-12-18. When I left for work in the morning it was full of leaves. When I came home in the afternoon it was like this.

Previous air shows

Since I put up photos of the air show a couple of weeks ago, I thought I would post some photos from some prior air shows I have seen, but didn’t necessarily pay to attend.

2019 Fargo Air Show

I finally got around to editing the photos I took on July 20th at the Fargo Air show. I went to see the Air Force Thunderbirds. I saw them twice as a child in Minot, before and after the training crash. They are entertaining, but I think I like the Blue Angels show better. I certainly took more photos at the last Blue Angels show. I think some of these turned out quite well, though.

Great Grandpa

For decades my grandparents had this photo of his dad on a cattle drive hanging up in the house. After my grandfather died, and my grandma moved, she kept it hanging on the wall in her apartment, and later her condo. When she moved to an assisted living facility last fall I inherited it. It’s now hanging on my downstairs hallway wall. I’m not sure which of the males on the horse is my great grandfather, though.

They would bring cattle up from Minnesota somewhere. From the hills in the background it looks like this photo was probably taken around the area south of Towner, ND. There’s a small imprint of the studio that shows it was from a photographer in Bottineau, ND. And he did have a farm up in the Turtle Mountains. So it’s possible those hills could be the Turtle Mountains along the Canadian border. But it just doesn’t look right to me to be that far north. It looks very much like the area between Towner and Harvey.

Did I just dream that?

In the on-line book club I’m in we are reading J.T. Ellison’s Tear Me Apart. It’s not what I normally read, but it’s moving along well and keeping my interest. It’s got a few flaws. The character that I identified with the most, Juliet, pissed me off when she not only decided to jeapardize her career, but also possibly have every case she’s ever worked on reopened and/or vacated because she wants to help her niece by disregarding all the rules (and the law) about professional conduct.

I generally hate it when a major new character suddenly appears half way through a book. But the Zack Armstrong character seems compelling and sympathetic. I’m interested in what he’s doing.

However, after catching up yesterday to where we are supposed to be in the book for this week, I got sick last night. I had some weird dreams involving the story and characters in the book. So today I need to go back and re-read what I read yesterday. Because I don’t remember what was in the book and what was just in the dream. Argh!

So far the book has been pretty good. I’m hoping it stays that way.

It’s been a week

Uff da! Oy Vey! It’s been one of those weeks. Not for me, but for a friend. I’ve just been busy and haven’t gotten stuff done. But one of my friends was in an ATV accident this weekend. On his birthday no less. He’s gonna live, but he’s pretty busted up. Bruised ribs, 70 stitches to the face and a broken shoulder (collar bone, shoulder blade and socket). It’s times like these that I’m reminded of one of the very first Conan comics (Savage Sword of Conan # 133: Winter of the Wolf) I bought back in high school.

It’s not how hard you can hit, but how hard you can get hit and keep going. He’s gonna keep going.

2018 Dance Recital

My daughter, Little Britches, has been in dance for a few years now with Dance Studio Elite. At the beginning of June, just after school let out. she had her end of year show where the entire troupe dances. This year everyone danced both nights, with just the soloists, duos and trios dancing one night or the other.

The Hip-Hop Competition Team started everything off with a bang. Lots of energy and good choreography made it quite enjoyable to watch. Miss J, best dancer in the company, absolutely killed every dance she was in.

It’s been awhile

I haven’t been active blogging for awhile, so I though I might catch up.

Movies:

Baywatch – I found this show pretty entertaining. It poked a lot of fun at itself and was quite funny. Plus, Alexandra Daddario and Kelly Rohrbach made for some nice eye candy running around in their swim suits. The plot was kinda meh, but the action was good and it was paced well.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets – was soooo bad I couldn’t even finish the first half hour even with Cara Delevingne half nude. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a movie with a plot so unformed. Hell, I’ve seen pornos with a better plot.

Courageous – Was a wonderful film about faith and honor. It was also really funny. The scene where Adam is interrogating Javier about why he is there is gold.

 

Books:

For Steam and Country – was a cute little steam punk aimed at a juvenile audience. It flowed well, but could have used a little more back story woven into it. Not sure if it was set on Earth or some other planet.

Darkship Renegades – was one of the better stories I’ve read lately. The second in the series it wasn’t quite as hard hitting as Darkship Thieves, but still quite engrossing.

Clueless/helpless

Oh the joys of being clueless. Someone on FaceBook was lamenting the fact that the grocery stores weren’t open today and was wondering where they could get food for she and her offspring. My comment, while probably not as sensitive as it could have been, was that there were several convenience stores open and that they wouldn’t starve to death from the grocery stores being closed for a day, and that if she was looking for more than necessities she planned poorly. For that I was referred to as “Scrooge”. When I pointed out that Scrooge was the one that wanted everyone to be working as if Christmas were any other normal day of the year her retort was that she could call me other things worse than Scrooge.

 

Really? I’m so broken scared of what she might refer to me as! /sarc

 

I was referred to as extreme right wing, Nazi, misogynist, racist, sexist and fascist a couple of years ago simply because I thought entertainment should be…entertaining. I’m guessing this little one’s name calling wouldn’t get worse than that.

 

But seriously, how long have these people been living in North Dakota? We frequently get blizzards up here where nothing is open except emergency services and the workers trapped at the gas stations. And it’s not as if Christmas hasn’t been on the calendar for awhile now. Plus, we just had a major holiday last month where everything shut down. If you’re old enough to have a kid, you’re old enough to plan ahead. You’re not helpless.