Photo record

Found some photos on the camera that I had forgotten about. Let's catch up!

Greenough park in Missoula. Two decent bucks just strolling down the road! Fun!


My happy sister at Christmas (sorry Kell if you're offended...I LIKE this photo)

Tired Lucca on Christmas day.

Matty and Lucca got along...but wore out quick!

Sarah and Lucca in the powder!

For some reason I've always liked taking photos of snowshoe trails.

Trying out the new tripod (thanks folks). Pines at sunset.

One of my favorite subjects (bummer it's out of focus) but GREAT water!...only been in once so far this year. ;)

Tate in her new e-collar. Crappy photo, but I wanted to showcase her ear. It began in October (likely a food allergy) and she kept opening it up by scratching. SO, the first attempt with a collar such as this led me to realize I'm a softy and I took it off. After her making it worse and worse...I bought her one that's her very own and she's now two days into it. She doesn't eat, drink, or poo as much as before...but I'm standing strong. I figure any rationale critter will eventually figure out a nuisance like this out and make do. Heck, she stopped walking around backwards...that's a step in the "right" direction. Po' kitty!

Winter doldrums

Yea, it happens every year. It's a plague of mine and I do all sorts of things to mitigate it / alleviate it / prevent it. But nothing I do really seems to work! I have a gym membership (and I actually use it), I have a seasons pass to Silver Mtn. (I have used that ONCE so far), I have a good place to go snowshoeing (no parking but I'm used to it), I am part of a trap shooting league (which starts TOMORROW), and of course...I have work (which is extremely busy.)

Beginning back in the days of December when we were receiving 12 plus inches of snow PER DAY it was exciting and new. Made every day an unfortunate adventure with shoveling out the truck, making it to work, getting released from work due to the snow, etc. But now it is raining on a daily basis. The snowpack is diminishing like you wouldn't believe. We went from five+ feet on the ground to two or less in most places down here near the lake. Then it freezes, making roads treacherous, then thaws...making drivers retarded (obviously.) It grates on a person's nerves if nothing else.

Unexpected as it is, I WANT more snow to cover up the "ugly" snow that surrounds our town right now. I want a steady weather pattern of winter weather = winter. Spring weather = spring. I HATE the spring / natural thaw that happens in January (Thanks Dad for keeping a VERY accurate weather table). There is realistically nothing worse then rain-on-snow. It's depressing.

SO. I am waiting patiently for winter to once again take it's grip on North Idaho and plunge us back into a world of skiing, ice-fishing, snowshoeing, and so on.

But for now, I feel "stuck" in a certain sense. I take the same roads, I don't go to as many places as I want to, I make do with what I have at home for food...just to alleviate any kind of driving or travelling I have to do in order to do those other things. Just today I had to drop off some movies some three miles from the house. No big deal. But two lane roads right now are 1.5 lanes....and people seem to think that they aren't. So they try to drive beside you...and the road closes in. Then they inch toward you. Ah hell, at that point you realize they don't get it, so you let them in front of you (if you are being nice that day.) Then they drive on a wet road like it's a skating rink..10 mph in a 35 mph area...in THOSE conditions? Can make a guy go crazy.

Flooding, roofs caving in, ice...it all makes for a pretty tough situation.

But, I was JUST told to think about all the things that I'm grateful for. In the economic decline, I learned that I "lost" about $1000 in a mutual fund..but right now I'm gaining shares like nothing else! (The plus is in the long term...which this fund is meant to do.) This is good. I am my parent's child and have enough food reserves to make it unnecessary to go out in ANY weather to get anything. I can survive on what is in my cupboards to make a variety of tasty meals. (Not to mention the hundreds of pounds of moose meat filling my extra freezer...I'm good for quite a while.) I have a warm house, no illness other than a filleted finger that is healing quite well actually! (I thought about posting photos about that, but figured it wasn't something everyone wanted to see. Chopping taters with a razor-sharp knife is...pardon the pun...dicey.) I don't have to dig the truck out every day. I don't have to shovel every day. I don't have to worry about the roof falling in. I have a good job that provides income and won't be downsized.

And on top of this all, I have a great girlfriend who supports me through all of this. Patient as a saint, listens, and most importantly....puts up with me.

LYSK