While the power was out...

Last night, a short yet severe storm slapped Missoula across the face.  The sky had been ominous all day, but finally around 6:30 in the evening the winds picked up and rain started coming in sideways by the bucketful.  Melissa and I had just returned from the store and were chopping up all manner of vegetables for a stir-fry dinner, when 'C-Rack,' a lighting bolt slammed home and everything powered down.  The electric stove didn't want anything to do with cooking vegetables for the next hour and half (I was starving), so we decided to get into a bottle of knapweed honey wine we had been given for a wedding present.  We did so on the kitchen floor, sitting around discussing the fires and the move while our cats cruised around wondering what we were doing down on the floor.

These things I was reaffirmed of while the power was out last night:

- I don't like knapweed honey wine, not even a little bit.

- We are as excited as we are nervous about moving to Helena.

- I love my wife.

Cats

Here I am trying to sit on the computer chair and get some morning news in me, with my fat cat taking up 95% of the chair so as I have to sit barely on the edge.

Looking down at her she's giving me a look like, "Fuck you for taking up that little bit of chair."

Ghost in the Machine

I awoke at 1:30 am last night to an odd noise coming from my kitchen.  It wasn't very loud, so I was a little confused and surprised as to why exactly it woke me up.  Stumbling into the dark without my glasses on, I nakedly walked out of my bedroom to investigate.  The microwave was glowing.  The time was up on the display, 1:32, but yet it was on and running.  The stop button would do nothing, it just kept whirring and spinning.  I opened the door, and yet it still remained on!  Fearing radiation from an open and running microwave, I unplugged it.  Silence.

I have yet to plug it back in, perhaps it is time to get a new unit...

Why is it that...

...with great brilliance, there can also be such a great darkness?

Fun with powertools

Yesterday I learned an invaluable life lesson.

You cannot cut a mattress in half with a reciprocating saw.

Abundancy

I overheard a drunk hippy yesterday evening while I was at work.  He was telling another drunk hippy (they both smelled like the bed of a farm truck) about how he was gonna make some easy money.

"I'm really going to get this winter melon thing going this year," said Hippy 1.

"Oh yea?" said Hippy 2.

"Yea, all I need is a little heat maybe and a little light and then I'm going to have watermelons and cantaloupes coming up all winter long maaaan," droned Hippy 1 while chewing a mouthful of pizza.

At this point I thought to myself, 'a little heat and a little light', those aren't very abundant in the winter time.

Hippy 1 then said, "They'd easily sell for like 6 or 8 bucks at the farmer's market maaaan, I'd be cleanin' up!"

Then I thought, 'farmer's market', that's not very abundant in the winter time.

Superficial

Time to bust out the reciprocating saw, plaster, and paint.  It is moving time.

This will be the last move of our 'college years.'  One more time to fill nail holes with toothpaste and superglue trim back to the wall.  Superficial cleaning done right will net you your full deposit back, and then start crumbling back into the same sad condition your apartment was when you moved in.

Very much on top

Our trip to Helena this weekend wasn't as fruitful as Melissa and I had hoped for, but we are still holding onto the possibilities of our new life after we move.  Eyes forward and determined, we'll stop at nothing to make it work.  With little over a month to go until the U-Haul is loaded up, I still feel very much on top of everything.

Time Lapse

I've decided to take a stab at time lapse photography.  I also had a left over keg from my wedding.
This is the two combined.

Emergency protocols

Sometimes I crack myself up.

We got home last night to a home without power.  An intense thunderstorm with high winds whipped through Missoula as the sun dipped down behind the mountains around 8pm.  Our windows were left open during the entire event so our houseplants all received a hardy thrashing.  Potting soil and leaves littered the living room carpet.  The cats looked wide-eyed and terrified in the dark.  As I awoke this morning, I smiled at the decision my drunk self made last night to place my 2-meter hamm radio next to the bed.  Way to go Randy, good emergency protocols.  I had not bothered to dial it into the local repeater tower, or any of the local emergency channels.  I did have it tuned into the deserted 146.420 frequency that my friend Chad and I use as our private com.  Best to be in touch with your friends when shit goes down apparently.

Now I sip my coffee as go through my quiet apartment remedying all the flashing 12:00's.

9-1-1

I just got out of the Red Cross first-aid training course.

Allow me to sum up what the less than enthusiastic instructor taught us:

Call 9-1-1

I think I can do better.

Randy

A wise man by the name of Randy once told me, "I've never met another Randy I didn't like".  Those words have become a constant truth in my life.

Elk Meadows

Yesterday, I realized I was doing something right in life when I was taken to a beautiful place called Elk Meadows.  It is located just over the Idaho border, and I was accompanied there by my bartender and best friend for a day of shooting clay pigeons.  We also drained the afternoon sun by shooting all varieties of rifles and handguns at paper targets.

Remember folks, always tip your bartender well, it will get back to you.

Issue

I've always taken issue with the saying, "Snails and turtles take their home with them wherever they go," of course alluding to the shells on their backs.

The shells aren't their homes, they are more like helmets or backpacks.

The pond, aquarium, etc. where they live is their home.

No snail could ever move a fish tank, I can barely do it.

Dusk

A little more sifting through my wedding photos and I found this one.  Something about the light of dusk and the off-centering of the sign really does it for me.