A Three-Ring Circus

This past week for me has been a bit stressful.  Hopefully the worst is over.  Through it all, I know that God has been watching over me.

Wed., Feb. 9 Jean and I moved the old furniture out of the living room that we were going to throw away.  That Thursday afternoon our new furniture arrived.  Those of you who have been keeping up with me on Facebook have seen my photos, but I'll post them again:

The old ugly furniture we threw in the dump

The new chair and cat tree in our living room

The new couch and cat tree in our living room

I had to go to Livingston for my chiropractic appointment after the furniture arrived.  I also needed to exchange a damaged shower surround at Lowe's in Bozeman and pick up three orders.  I was going to sell some old CDs and a DVD, and finally get dinner before I went home.

Even though I knew it wasn't a bright idea considering the manual tasks before me, I wore good clothes to town and later discovered that even that was to my benefit.  But I'm getting ahead of myself!

Getting to Livingston with the damaged shower surround was ok, but it wasn't great, and it was even worse trying to get it to Bozeman.  The cardboard box around it got shredded in the wind.  No harm done though, since the surround was already damaged.

At Lowe's they were easily able to help me with all of my errands and they shrink-wrapped the new shower surround box.  I tied that box down on top of the Blazer as tightly as I could.  Getting to Hastings afterward wasn't too difficult with my load.  Dinner at Applebee's was a breeze and I made some new friends.

Going back to Livingston that night wasn't too bad even with the wind.  My biggest problem was that the alternator had gone out, but I hadn't realized it yet.  I was just thinking that I was having a hard time seeing the road in my headlights (which were getting dimmer by the minute).  About halfway to Livingston a truck tailed me the rest of the way to Livingston.  It wasn't a sheriff or highway patrolman, so I wondered what was going on.  He was probably tailing me because he realized that there was a problem with the electrical system in my car.  When I was almost at Livingston, my speedometer wasn't working properly and  I saw that my battery meter was all the way at the bottom.  I barely made it to my Dad's house and stopped the car to look under the hood when the car simply died.  I'm glad God looks out for me!

Dad loaned me one of his cars that night and I stayed at a Super 8 that evening.  While I was in my room that night I couldn't help but think about buying a new car under the circumstances.  I've already gone through a lot of repair on this car recently--especially with the four-wheel drive.  For the rest of the night Dad put a battery charger on my car battery since it was a bit cold and we didn't really want the battery to freeze while it was drained.

Friday, February 11, I met Dad, Bonnie, and Wilma at McDonalds.  Honestly, I hate McDonalds with a passion but I put up with it.  After breakfast we took the charger off the battery and found that the car worked just fine.  I took the car to Billion and they had the alternator fixed by early afternoon.  I spent the rest of the day just hanging out in Livingston because Jean, Dad, Bonnie, and I had a dinner date with Grandma and Betty at Evergreen for their Valentine's Day Dinner.

The dinner went really well and we all had a good time.  They served chicken cordon bleu, which really wasn't Dad's favorite thing since he completely hates cheese.  But he put up with it.  Grandma and Betty are looking alright.  Grandma can't sit up without other people helping.  I haven't put up any pictures of Grandma since her stroke, and I know that these pictures aren't the most flattering, but considering Betty's and Grandma's conditions, they're good.  Grandma kept mentioning that she liked my shirt--the one that I put on the day before wondering why I was putting on a nice shirt when I was only going to Lowe's.  Betty stole Dad's piece of cake right off the plate.  Most of Betty's and Grandma's food now has to be pureed, and it was good to see Betty actually hack that thing down!

Grandma at Evergreen during the Valentine's Day Dinner

Betty at Evergreen during the Valentine's Day Dinner

That night I went back home from Livingston with the shower surround tied on top of the car.  I had to face 70 mph winds, plus a headwind.  Some of the shrink wrap came off but other than that, everything else was ok.  It didn't get damaged and I got home safely.  I felt pretty good about it because when Tim tried to bring the first one home, he had better conditions and it broke getting to the house because of the wind.

Someone preached that sometimes people feel like God wants them to swim through shark-infested waters and disagreed stating that God leads us beside still waters (Ps. 23:2).  I guess he forgot about the part where God prepares a table before our enemies, wind included (Ps. 23:5)!  Sometimes God lets us go through tough stuff for the bragging rights afterward.

Sat., Feb. 12 things really heated up.  When I left for work that night I saw a whole bunch of red and blue flashing lights near my house.  Apparently a couple teenagers from Livingston had hit a bison on the road.  It's not that hard to do because they're so hard to see at night.  According to the Livingston Enterprise, they were going the speed limit (65 mph) to Gardiner.  They swerved to miss one bison and then hit another.  Although their car wasn't totaled, they couldn't drive it after the accident.  Fortunately both guys are alright.

When I got to work that night, a guest complained about a stray dog outside.  I saw that it belonged to one of the neighbors and tried to round it up, but it was being bad (I think dogs are reflections of their owners).  While I was out there, three men were coming to the hotel.  The one in the middle was really, really drunk and the other two were trying to get him to the hotel and into his room.  The guy fell in the parking lot, and I guess he must have gotten angry that he lost control, because he started yelling and cursing and even hitting the guys trying to help him.  He ended up hitting one of the trucks in the parking lot with his fist, so I called the sheriff, who was dealing with the teenagers and the bison mess at the time.  Between paramedics, and sheriff deputies, and everything that happened, the drunk guy got safely to his room, but he may have consequences to pay later--we'll see what happens.  Montana law is odd about misdemeanors.  I'm glad that one of the guys helping the wasted guy was sober and helped out as much as he did.  I'm not sure what's going to happen for the man who owned the truck that was damaged.  Insurance should pay, but will justice be served?

Then the wind picked up.  Gardiner usually doesn't see very many wind storms, but that night it got really crazy.  I estimate based on all that happened that the wind was probably around 85 mph.  Livingston got it worse--their instruments read a gust near 110 mph before their machinery broke.  That night before I went to bed, I had to capture flying carpets.  The wind picked up the door rugs and threw them around.  I was assaulted by a garbage can lid.  It just came off of the garbage can and flew at me.  I just decided to move all the rugs and garbage can lids inside the two buildings.  We lost a few shingles on the hotel, but Roger, our wonderful maintenance man, diligently worked on fixing the damage.  I'd say it took three or four days to fix the roof.

On Tuesday February 15, Grandma was in the newspaper because she was Evergreen's Valentine's Day Queen.  We're all really happy for her, despite the fact that the newspaper didn't spell her name correctly!

Livingston Enterprise, Feb. 15, 2011. Vol. 99, No. 101, page 3.

Skiing and Other Adventures with Kevin

Kevin was able to come home from Afghanistan January 17-February 1.  It's been seven months since we saw him last.  So far he's been in Afghanistan for about six months, so he's about halfway finished with this part of his Army duties.  We've all been really glad to have Kevin home for even a little while.

Dad and Bonnie picked him up from the airport on Monday, January 17.  Originally I was going to also be there when he arrived, but then his flight schedule changed so that he didn't have to wait for several hours in an airport.  Since he arrived in the late afternoon, I couldn't get the time off work.

Kevin spent his first week in Montana at Dad's and Bonnie's house.  I didn't get to see him until Wednesday, January 19.

I went to Livingston and picked up Kevin that Wednesday.  We did a few errands together and then went to Bozeman where we met Jean at Applebee's.  We ate and talked.  It was really apparent that Kevin hadn't seen any real girls in months because his eyes popped out of his head every time he saw a female!  Kevin's always been flirtatious, but it was obvious that he had been deprived of the fairer sex for far too long!  It reminded me of the Droopy cartoon The Shooting of Dan McGoo:

I guess someone could argue, "But there are girls in the military!"  It's definitely not the same thing.  As much as Hollywood likes to portray that girls can be tough and sexy, they usually end up being one or the other.  The girls in the Army, apparently from what I'm told, are not the same kind of girls that guys generally want to pick up.  That's not saying that they're gay or straight because there are both, it's just that the military changes how they act and appear.

The other funny thing was that Kevin was a bit irritable when he got back.  It wasn't really directed at anyone in particular, so I'm sure that it was related to working in Afghanistan.  Actually I thought that his being irritable being his only really negative symptom was a good thing.  So many soldiers come back home from the war changed men.  Afghanistan is the hell hole of the Earth and it's a wonder that Kevin has remained as calm and perceiving as he is.

After lunch, Jean headed to Gardiner while it was still light.  We've had a lot of animals on the road between Livingston and Gardiner, and she didn't want to plow through them at night.  If you've watched some of the news in the area, we've been having a lot of bison outside of Yellowstone Park.  They're really difficult to see when driving; plus we've had a mega herd of elk in the area too.

Kevin and I saw The Green Hornet at Gallatin Valley Cinema.  Having already watched some of the TV series and knowing a little of its history, I thought it was a great updated version.  It's really good for anyone who wants to have a few good laughs and doesn't want to think about anything serious.

Afterward we had a snack at Perkins, and then got a hotel at the Bozeman Inn.

Thursday, January 20 we had coffee at The Leaf and Bean on 19th Ave.  (I'm sorry to hear that Leaf and Bean has now closed their location there.  I've always enjoyed a good cup o' Joe over there.)

After surfing the Internet and talking we went back to Livingston for my chiropractic appointment.  I've started having chiropractic treatments since my neck has been bothering me in a minor way lately.  Although a bit more expensive than the last time I took them, I still find it a good investment.  The funny thing is that it is still less expensive more me to pay for these treatments out of pocket than to purchase medical insurance, but that's another story.

We had lunch at Arby's in Livingston, and then I went back to Gardiner.  I wanted to spend some time with Jean that night and it was already getting late in the afternoon.  In all, Kevin and I basically just ate and talked for a couple days.  It was good for us just to unwind and hang out.

Kevin decided to come to Gardiner to stay with Jean and I Monday, January 24.  Work hasn't been very busy lately, so he came to work to visit me first.  Since it had recently snowed and he would have probably gotten the car stuck at our house, he left the car in Gardiner and I took him in my Blazer to the house that night.  We played Halo until about 3:00 a.m.  This sort of schedule is pretty normal for me, but I was really getting tired so we retired to our rooms.

Tuesday, January 25 Kevin spent the day with Jean at the house while I worked.  That night we watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

Wednesday, January 26 I went to Livingston for another chiropractic treatment and then came back to Gardiner.  We had a simple lunch together, and then Kevin and I went to Chico Hot Springs for the evening.  It's always great to go there in the winter when it's cold outside and the water is so warm.  When we got back to the house in Gardiner, I made a feast for us all: New York strip steaks, baked potatoes, green beans, candied yams, and we had a Merlot to drink.  While I made dinner, Jean and Kevin watched a slide show of my Bahamas vacation.  With dinner we watched The Money Pit and then went to bed.

We had a really busy day Thursday, January 27.  Kevin, Jean, and I met Zana, Tim, and Kassie at Lowe's in Bozeman about 9:30 a.m.  Just so you know, my sleep schedule usually has me wake up somewhere around noon, so in order to get to Bozeman by 9:00 a.m., I had to leave my house by 7:30.  Yuck!

We're going to do some remodeling in Grandma's house now that Betty's house has finally sold.  Since the house was partially owned by Grandma, she retained some of the money from the sale.  Our house desperately needs some new work, and this looks like the best opportunity.  The first project is to work on our not-so-functional house bathroom.  We also have a garage bathroom.  Anyway, we spent the morning making decisions on spending a lot of $$$.  After we got out of Lowe's, Kevin lit his cigarette on our credit card.  Actually we spent so much money that Kevin's cigarette lit spontaneously.

We all ate lunch at Famous Dave's and then went home since Jean was burned out from all the morning's activities.  I had to go to Livingston for yet another chiropractic appointment, and then I went back to Gardiner.  Kevin and Jean went to Gardiner together.  That night, we watched Killers and that pretty much ended the night.  We didn't really have dinner since we were so stuffed--instead we snacked a bit.

Friday, January 28 Kevin and I went skiing and snowboarding at Bridger Bowl just north of Bozeman; Kevin wanted to snowboard and I wanted to ski.  I hadn't skied for 20 years and I don't know how long it had been for Kevin, so we got lessons and a half-day lift pass for the lower mountain.  I only biffed it once the entire day.  Kevin on the other hand... ha ha.  He did really well during his lesson, but I think he needed more practice time because he pretty much fell all the way down the mountain!  By the time he got to me, I had to dig him out of a giant snowball.  He only went up the mountain twice because he was having a hard time with it.  Part of the problem was with his knees hurting.

Regardless, we both had a great time and a fun experience.  I've never been the winter enthusiast that other people around me are, but I don't think I'd mind skiing occasionally in the future.  Kevin also really liked snowboarding and thought that he would like to do it on a regular basis if he were to move to Bozeman in the future.

We had dinner at Perkin's that evening and then went to finally see Tron: Legacy.  I had been wondering if it was going to as good as everyone said.

I had to be at work that night, and we barely made it in time from Bozeman to Gardiner.

The next day Kevin and I were just plain tired from all the activity we had done for the past few days, and we just took it easy.  We played video games and watched The Proposal.  I made some cheesy chicken chowder and for dinner we had soup and salad with the movie.  That evening Kevin went back to Livingston.

Today Kevin headed back for Afghanistan.  We'll hopefully see him later this year.  It's been great having him around and we'll all miss him while he's away.

Busy Day in Livingston and Bozeman

Jean and I went to Livingston and Bozeman Wednesday, January 5.  We had several projects in mind.

Since my four-wheel drive has been undependable lately, I had better snow tires put on my car.  The other tires were supposed to be all-season tires, but their treads aren't very deep and I've almost gotten in trouble a few times.  I'm sure that when I did a couple donuts on the highway a couple months ago, the tires were part of the problem.  As well, when I have been in a little trouble, I've probably worn down those treads a bit.  No one can yet diagnose my four-wheel drive problem because I can never get anyone to look at my car when the problem occurs!  Hopefully we'll be able to get the problem diagnosed sooner rather than later.

I went to a chiropractor also.  It's been a couple years since I was last seen.  My neck's been bothering me a little bit, and hopefully we'll be able to get a course of action going.  Nothing serious--just annoying.

Jean and I ate lunch at the Homemade Kitchen.  They have some yummy meals there.  I've never been disappointed with anything I ate there.  I like how everything is so fresh tasting.  Their recipes are pretty darn good!

We attended a care conference for Betty at Evergreen.  They all agree that Betty continues to steadily decline in health.  Her falling has significantly diminished.  She needs to stay in a wheelchair when she wants to move around.  They have given her a wheelchair that is low to the ground so that she can scoot around with her feet because she is so short.  Over the past year she has lost about 1/10 of her body weight.  They were mostly concerned with occasional vomiting.  For two days she vomited once in the morning.  Hospice was able to administer some medicine to deal with the nausea and that seems to have relieved the problem.  She doesn't appear to be coming down with a cold or flu bug.  I don't know how long Betty will last, but she's continuing to hang on.  Occasionally she'll say one or two words.

For the rest of the afternoon Jean and I went to Bozeman and window shopped and looked for things we liked for home improvement.  We did buy a couple of pieces of furniture for our living room though.  The price was right!  It's time that those old pieces of furniture go away. :-)

That evening I was hungry for a burger.  I hadn't had a decent burger in long time, so we ate at Fuddrucker's.  Though a bit expensive, they do give a burger to order!

We went home completely wiped out.  Thu. Jan. 6 we didn't do a darn thing.  Unfortunately that night Jean became sick and was badly off.  She seemed to be doing alright Friday morning though.

This week we've had a lot of animals in the area.  The weather has driven the bison into the Gardiner area.  I've actually had to be careful of driving at night because there have been bison in the road!  Bison look like a shadow in your headlights.  They don't look at your car like elk or deer, and I hope I never hit one of those!  I've had bison in my yard.  They left their calling cards behind.  I could tell that a herd of elk had been in my yard too from the way that the yard was grazed.  Also a bit unusual is that we have had a whitetail doe and fawn in our yard.  This area typically only has mule deer, so when I see a whitetail, it's a bit odd.

The Varmint

As many of you have seen on Facebook, I've had a furry visitor at my house yesterday and today.

Yesterday I let my cat outside and left the garage door to the outside open so that she could go in and out as she pleased.  I hadn't heard from her in about half an hour, so I decided to look in the garage to see if she was there.  I saw her on top of her cat tree and noticed out of the corner of my eye that something was moving.  I saw a raccoon had invited itself inside the garage!  It climbed under the garage counter and decided it was going to stay there.

The raccoon gets underneath the garage counter.

I tried to use a shovel to push it out.  I still had the garage door open so it had a way to escape.  It didn't hiss at me until the shovel started messing with it.  I was pretty sure it was sick at that point because it didn't want to move and should have been more aggressive than it was for the circumstances.  It just moved into a corner harder for me to reach.

The raccoon wants to stay in this garage!  He won't leave!

Butterscotch was still watching from her cat tree. She didn't want to have anything to do with the raccoon, so she went back in the house and kept away from the wild animal.

Out here, 911 sends phone calls to the comm center just inside Yellowstone Park.  Not much happens there anyway and I considered this to be an immediate situation, so I called them.  (I probably would have gotten in trouble if I did that anywhere else in the United States!)  They forwarded me to Fish and Game, which couldn't come until later that evening, and then they had to postpone it until today.  I had to leave the raccoon in the garage while I was at work for the evening.

At work, I read a Facebook user's message to me which inspired me to make my own catch pole when I got the chance.

When I got home around 11:30 pm, the raccoon was still in the garage, but now it was behind the wood stove.  I got a plastic pipe we normally might use for our underground sprinkler system and fed a rope through it so there was a loop on one end, and two ends on the other that I could pull.  Using a long stick and this make-shift catch pole, I managed to get the raccoon's head in the loop.  I tightened it and nabbed the little guy!  I put it in a cat carrier for the night.  I shouldn't have been able to do that; it was sick and I don't think it was up to a lot of activity.

The raccoon stays in a corner behind our wood stove, wanting to be left alone.

I captured the raccoon!

I also realized that the animal didn't eat any of the cat food in the garage or the bird seed that was stored while I was at work.  It drank a little water from the cat dish, and that was it.  Usually raccoons make big messes when they're in a building.

The next morning I talked with Fish and Game.  They told me that since no saliva had gotten in contact with me or my pets that I could release the raccoon since they didn't want to do any tests on it.  I took the raccoon in the cat carrier to the river on the edge of the property and tried to get it out.  It wanted to stay in though!  After disassembling the device, I finally forced the raccoon to leave.

Honestly I doubt I did the raccoon any favors by releasing it.  The animal was sick and may not survive.  On the other hand, I'd rather have it outside the garage than in!  I think I'll be careful in making sure I leave the garage door shut so I don't have any more unwelcome visitors.

One of my guests at the hotel suggested I contact our local newspaper about this interesting story.  Soit made the Enterprise today too.  It isn't available online, so I'll type the text of the article and include the picture they showed.

North of Gardiner

Ingenuity gets raccoon out of garage

By Enterprise Staff

A man who lives north of Gardiner succeeded Monday night in capturing a lethargic raccoon he found in his garage.

Wayne Dore discovered the furry invader Monday afternoon after he had left the garage door open.  He called 911, judging the situation to be an "immediate problem."  Dore notified a dispatcher at the 911 call center that the raccoon appeared to be sick, behaving in a docile manner uncharacteristic of a raccoon.

Dore fashioned an implement to catch the raccoon Monday night.  He said he followed the recommendation of a Facebook user, who advised him to feed a piece of rope through a long plastic pole to form a loop at the end of the pole.  He held two ends of the rope at his end of the pole and brought a loop at the other end over the raccoon's head.  He then put the animal in a pet carrier.

"I shouldn't have been able to do that," he said of the rope capture.  "I think because the animal was sick I could do it."

The animal ate nothing in the garage and drank only a little water from a dish, Dore said.

Dispatchers at the 911 call center directed him to Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks.  Dore said and FWP official advised him the Park County Health Department normally handles situations such as his.

Because he had not been in contact with any of the animal's saliva, Dore was cleared to release the animal.

"I'm just going to let it go at the river near my house," he wrote in an e-mail Tuesday.

Photo by Wayne Dore.  Pictured is the raccoon in Wayne Dore's garage, Monday.  Dore, who lives north of Gardiner, caught the animal Monday night and released it Tuesday.

Hustle and Bustle for the Holidays

December is always a busy month for everyone--me included.  After Betty's house sold, we still had things to do.

Jean and I went to a care conference for Grandma on Wednesday, December 22.  Afterward we visited with her and talked a bit.  It's kind of funny how she remembers things.  Her memory for things in the past is pretty good, and she remembers all of her family.  There are just some things that she can't wrap her mind around still.  She believes that her husband Lyford is still alive, though he died about 10 years ago.  She doesn't really know where she is.  Her surroundings don't remind her of anything terribly familiar.

Betty's doing alright too.  We saw her for awhile.  She grimaced at me when I wrote her name on a stuffed animal we got her for Christmas.  In a nursing home it's a good idea to put the resident's name on everything.  Hospice is still taking care of her, and there hasn't been any significant change I can see lately.

That evening Jean and I ate dinner at Applebee's, and then we went to the mall to do a little shopping for Christmas.  We had pie and ice cream at Perkins and then watched Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader at the movie theater.  I like to hang out with my aunt.  I never really considered that I'd be living in the same house with her and we'd be spending as much time as we do.

That night on the way home from Bozeman, we saw a mega-herd of elk between the Yellowstone River bridge and Yankee Jim Canyon.  I turned off the car and rolled down the window, and we could hear the calves whistling to their mamas.  Occasionally we could hear the cows whistling back, but they weren't as vocal.  It was very pleasant to see and hear.  The bright moon and the snow on the ground allowed us to see how big the herd was.

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve because Jean had to work on Christmas Day (she works on all holidays).  We spent it at Chris' house in Livingston.  We had dinner--steaks, potatoes, vegetables, rolls, the works.  Afterward, we exchanged gifts in a secret Santa exchange.  That was lots of fun.

Christmas Day I spent by myself at home.  I had a good but modest Christmas--mostly movies, and some software.  I spent the day reading and watching TV.

Work was incredibly busy between Christmas and New Year's.  I'm sure that the holiday breaks that schools give was the main reason for the burst in activity.

New Year's Eve I had to work through midnight, and Jean had to be at work in Bozeman the next day, so I spent it by myself.  New Year's Day I decided it was a good time to clean the garage, and that's what I did.