Poppy In Sun - Missoula, Montana

Imagine today's sunshine-loving poppy swaying in a little breeze, humming this snappy silly 1960's surfer song by The Sunrays. 

(You can also hear this ditty at our house - or in our car, or out of doors...- on most any random day the Montana sun breaks through, courtesy of The Best Husband Ever...."Sun, sun, sun, sun...I-aye liiiive... for the suuun...")

Endless Blue Sky - Pattee Canyon Trail, Missoula, Montana

These endless blue-sky summer days present so much opportunity - for The Best Husband Ever to get the house painted! (hee)

 

Be Ready When Opportunity Knocks - Missoula, Montana

The Best Husband Ever noticed this undaunted little ant on the bike trail - and promptly launched into a running commentary which he certainly thought to be amusing. 
(TBHE - not the ant.) 
Suffice it to say, topic range included plank-in-your-eye-Bible-verse corollaries and first-person (er....first-ant?) smart remarks. 
We shall not quote verbatim.

Fast forward to yesterday evening's perfect weather for ice cream. Walking out the door (literally!), I called our friend, Carrie, to say, "Hey, we can pick you up in 5 minutes to go for ice cream - our treat!"  My announcement that we were at her back door cut off her explanation of why she looked like s**t - and off we went to Sweet Peaks!

Long story short, amidst the sublime throes of Strawberry Fields (single scoop on a cake cone), she noted how glad she was that she joined our impromptu outing even though she looked like s**t, and quipped, "I was not prepared, but I'm ready."

Aaaand after my immediate comment of "That line makes me almost wish I was on Twitter!",  thence commenced a slightly prolonged and semi-deep conversation around isn't-that-really-just-a-great-rule-to-live-by. 

And I thought again of the little ant, seizing the unexpected and relatively ginormous pine needle find, and proceeding willy-nilly down the bike path to wherever he thought it was needed.

We can't all be Boy Scouts, be we can be ready to say yes to the unexpected - especially when there's ice cream.

No Place LIke Home - Missoula, Montana

We passed this lovely view midst a meandering Sunday evening bike ride to see what was at the west end of South Avenue. (In case you wonder, it's NOT the one lane bridge envisioned in my brain - THAT is at the west end of North Avenue, and now I can keep this tidbit straight in my brain.) 
Despite the scores of meadow-mountain-sky photos in my snapshot history, I was drawn yet again to the contrasting blue and gold, the tenacious weathered post, the wind visible in varied cloud shapes. The Best Husband Ever stopped and waited - without complaint! - yet again as I snap-snap-snapped away at minutely adjusted angles. (However, his goodwill stopped short of sympathy when my front bike tyre shifted and shimmied to deliver a smack of bike frame against my right knee. But then, there was no blood, so I should be glad he at least didn't guffaw as a sister might in similar circumstance - once she knew you were okay.) 
Truth be told, I almost didn't stop, on grounds that I'd taken and posted enough photos of similar views. 
But then I rebelled at such sad pseudo-logic, instead choosing to unapologetically partake of and mark the beauty of that very moment, which is unique from any other composition of the same elements before and since. 
And so it should be with our days that we describe as, "Not much..." when asked what we've been up to lately. What if we rather say the truth of, "Oh, I've been glorying in the small beauties of weed puffs and random yard art along my lunchtime walking route!" Perhaps we'd spark a small revolution in defense of the daily intricate beauties of home, even if just in the heart of that one person.
As much as I love to travel and engage with new friends and surroundings, I love to be at home, and am always a bit torn at the crossroads of these two yens. So, reading the following quote was akin to the distilling of tension when ending chords of a song resolve. 
I hope you are likewise provoked to relish the beauty in today's ordinary, wherever you are located.

“Why do you go away? 
So that you can come back. 
So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. 
And the people there see you differently, too. 
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”
  - Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

Perpetual Peeve - Missoula, Montana

If you are going to eat the last delicious bit of scrumptiousness that some kind, baking soul brought to share then, for crying out loud, clean up like you would at home! 

Oh, wait - maybe that's the problem - you have people for that at your house?
(Did that drip a wee bit too much sarcasm?)

Apparently, I'm not alone in this peevishness, as "Messy Common Areas" tops the list in this workplace peeve article. 

The optimist view, however, is that this repeated work scenario keeps me mindful of how thankful I am to have The Best Husband Ever aka Bit Of A Neat Freak. 

(Note: I love my work, and my co-workers are wonderful people, bar none. 
Thus, I can only deduce that there must be a rogue - & messy! - alien among us. 
But that could be attributed to a repeat viewing of Men In Black last night.)

Seriously Spring - Missoula, Montana

A fabulous evening for ice cream at Sweet Peaks! 
(Griz Tracks flavour for me - click here to make your mouth water. Their website indicates ice cream ships every Wednesday to anywhere in the lower 48 United States...just sayin'....)

Next up: a calorie off-setting stroll downtown along the Clark Fork River.

And after that, we finally had supper - legendary Mo Club burgers. 
The Best Husband Ever observed that they are cooking on the same grill as decades ago when his dad ate there as a young man, and the long-time seasoning of the grill contributes to the special taste of their burgers.

A veritable best-of-Missoula evening!

Lavender-ish Canopy - Missoula, Montana

Mid-walk through our neighborhood, I stopped and looked straight up into a magically-lighted canopy. All along the block, this one particular type of tree displayed leaves shaded red on the topside and gold on the underside. As the sun filtered through the gently shifting layers, it cast a glow almost lavender. 

The Best Husband Ever gets a gold star for patience, since I stopped multiple times to gaze upward. Times like these, it works well that I'm a speedwalker and he's a stroller - he continues on, and I just catch up!

(Note to self: It behooves one to keep one's mouth shut when under-tree ambling to prevent the inadvertent sampling of electric blue noseeums, and to avoid the subsequent and very inelegant expectoration upon a public thoroughfare. Ick and double-ick.)

Post-Op Gig 1 - Missoula, Montana

Not bad for exactly a week after shoulder surgery! (3 incisions plus laparoscopic tools.) Even musicians in Montana are a tougher breed.

On Monday morning, The Best Husband Ever had his first physical therapy appointment. He informed Physical Therapist #1, "I have gigs on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, that were all booked way before this surgery. And I have band practices Wednesday and Saturday. People are counting on me." 

PT#1 said, "You frighten me a little."

On Wednesday morning, Physical Therapist #2 had no comment.

I have to say, TBHE brings whole new meaning to the phrase, "Rock on!"

Tonight is Post-Op Gig 2 - if you're in town, stop by the Sunrise Saloon for a do-si-do and say hello!

Spring Cleaning Project - 1968 Yamaha YJ60 - Missoula, Montana

This week's vintage chrome photos are courtesy of the combined enthusiasms of The Best Husband Ever, Big Brother #3, and Neighbor Dan. 

Spring cleaning has propelled Neighbor Dan into a fervent offloading of excess possessions, including a 1968 Yamaha Y2J that had belonged to his dad but sat unused long enough to sink into the dirt a fair bit. It needed a new home and a little TLC - and it is one of the grooviest little motorcycles ever to roll off a production line. 

Although admiring, The Best Husband Ever begs off - he has already employed tools and elbow grease and chrome polish and old toothbrushes and endless hours in refurbishing a 1970s vintagey motorcycle - also redeemed from unification with a patch of dirt in Neighbor Dan's side yard.

Enter Big Brother #3, lured by talk of motorcycles and the afternoon sunshine glinting off a (potentially) shiny object. He is charmed by the wee, stylish motorcycle, and succumbs to a strain of spring fever different from that affecting Neighbor  Dan. If BB3 buys motorcycle needing TLC from ND, will TBHE work his obsessive cleaning magic? A deal is struck and grown men grin the optimistic, goofy grins only a motorcycle project can elicit. (Or maybe in your neighborgood it's snowmobiles, model trains, elusive golf scores, motorboats, ham radio, fishing gear, or ______?) 

The camaraderie was a beautiful sight to see - maybe a similar scenario prompted King David to point out, '"Behold , how good and pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity...". Once the bike was finally cleaned up and running well enough, the lads certainly had a good and pleasant time buzzing up and down the (paved) back alley, while Neighbor Dan smiled from the garage door of his simplified life. And I was delighted at new, shiny photo prospects. 
Can anyone say 'win-win situation'?

Special Chrome - Victor, Montana

The Best Husband Ever spent literal hours over Labour Day weekend shining up the chrome wheels - outer AND inner surfaces - on a spiffy used car we just bought.  Good thing for his obsessive self that our rig doesn't sport the abundance of chrome featured on this classic Buick Eight Special, or he'd still be polishing away. From a practical standpoint, sometimes it's okay that they don't make 'em like they used to.

We espied this Buick beauty yesterday on an open haul trailer spanning several parking lot spaces  at Cowboy Troy's in Victor, Montana. Regretfully, I do not have details or a story on this car - our usually chatty group was very hungry and didn't even think of talking with the car's owner until half a pizza had disappeared - and also the car. (Obviously, it was really good pizza.)

So, if you have any insight on what year Buick Special sported these particularly delightful hooded cherry-on-top* headlights, please enlighten us in a comment below - and then you can update the Wikipedia entry.

(*Sorry, in this angled view you can just see the chrome housing of  little round red topper light on the far headlight.)

Seed Shine - Missoula, Montana

It's official: my hiking season is closed until the first summer heat wave.

Why, you ask? Particularly since nature daily beckons with all her springly wiles, "Come closer!"??

Well, The Best Husband Ever - who does not traipse about in nature - found a tick on his person.

If that doesn't give you the heebie-jeebies, you've a stronger constitution than I, my friend. Or you've never had this brand of sneaky little creature tickle your neck a couple of days after you were last in their terrain. (Shudder!) And you haven't seen the giant tick at the Ravalli County Museum's historical display of Rocky Mountain Tick Fever research.

On the bright side, I suppose this qualifies as is a sure sign of spring.  Which I will happily enjoy from the safe distance of concreted city streets, and a few select treeless, grassless hilltop trails. After I vacuum the house (and husband) one more time.