Day Trips from Billings I

I think it might be a little safer and probably quicker to use the highways rather than the rivers. Some suggestions for July when a couple of our grandson's arrive for their Montana adventure.


This place is only about 90 minutes east of Billings. Something nicely done for a change by our federal government. I mean the battlefield memorial now being run by the National Parks, not the foolhardy Custer and his brave followers.

Another great place not far from Billings. Kind of a mini-Grand Canyon according to this picture.

Of course, we will keep Yellowstone National Park and Virginia City in reserve and maybe a little fishing too. Then there is Cody and Red Lodge. I wonder if a month or two is long enough.

What Does This Mean?

The Bible in Less than a Minute

Found on Ironic Catholic who attributed this to Crazy Christian Clips

Shrink-Wrapped Sanity

"Remember, when it comes to Health Care:

Universal, High Quality, Affordable: Choose two of the three.

Anyone who tells you we can have all three is either a liar or a fool."

I've been looking at a few blogs lately. Would you believe that some of the most helpful come from our friends of the psychiatric persuasion? The above quote is borrowed from ShrinkWrapped. Recommended, not just because I like word play.

The caduceus is on the left, and the rod of Asclepius on the right. Wiki has some interesting notes on these.

Is There Such A Thing As Gender Among Pots?

From the back garden of one of our off-spring.

Sorry I Can't Resist Word Play: Bad Buoy

There are a surprising number of ordinary people who are paying attention to the AGW (anthropogenic global warming) crowd.

I forget, are we allowed to use that tired metaphor if we are beyond a certain age? Bad buoy indeed. Here is the blog I found this useful bit of information on, appropriately enough called Cheat-Seeking Missiles.

I attended a memorial service for a beautiful kind gentlewoman this afternoon. A Bach prelude for organ was very nice. How could his contemporaries not have recognized his genius? There were some nice eulogies offered especially by daughters who sounded and looked like our friend Lucia G. The pastor borrowed a phrase from a friend: "What do we do when the night comes at noon?"

Why should we put down alliterations? They are like thirds and sixths in our music.

First Crop in Ramada Natural Park

This is one of those unusual years where the grass is growing taller than usual. Just like those years in the 19th century that persuaded our ancestors to settle in this area probably.

I was reminded of "helping" my grandfather gather in the hay on his farm in Wisconsin back in the 1940s. I rode the mower and lifted the blade as we went around corners. Not all the critters could get out of the way quickly enough. Because he knew this saddened me he sometimes would humor me by allowing me to move some birds' nests so they wouldn't be harmed by the mowing.

One time I asked him why he fed some draft horses that he only used once or twice a year during a winter storm to get the milk to where it needed to go. He realized that his gruff way had been pierced, saying simply that the horses had worked hard for him in the past and deserved to be cared for in their dotage.

Melons from Mexico

Not actually certain where these melons come from. They are the seedless kind and surprisingly juicy and good tasting. Where else? CostCo, of course.

Indoor Football in Billings

This was not the final score, as I think Alaska scored another touchdown. This was my first Outlaw game. They play at what used to be called Metra Park. Four fifteen minute quarters with the clock just running except for penalties. There were lots of those. Many of them were for obscure procedural calls that the usual awful PA system obscured even further. Oh yes, I almost forgot the moronic announcer.

The Outlaws looked like they had played this game before, both offense and defense. Alaska needed a little work on most aspects of the game.

It was fun, combining some elements of ordinary football, some hockey with numerous checks into the sidewalls, and some pro wrestling with dopey posturing at either end for whatever reason. These guys are mainly very fast as you might expect from an eight vs. eight man game with two backs in motion on offensive plays. When I say in motion, I mean they start before the ball is snapped, which might account for the blurriness of the two guys in white on the right. They can catch passes or block or whatever.

The fans, all four thousand of them, were a little more aggressive than the average crowd at what used to be called Cobb Field here in Billings.

From Eric Arthur Blair's "1984"

Perhaps better known as George Orwell: this quote is from his popular novel 1984.

"The keyword here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this."

The Wiki article on Orwell is good reading. I knew that he had died fairly young in 1950 but I didn't know that the cause of death was tuberculosis.

I couldn't resist adding these quotes, mainly for my own edification:

Rules for writers

"In "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell provides six rules for writers:^[44]

• Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
• Never use a long word where a short one will do.
• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
• Never use the passive voice where you can use the active.
• Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
• Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous."
• 
  
• —from Wikipedia on George Orwell