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Addendum/update
After the concert I was 1,921 steps short so I grabbed my coat and a flashlight and walked a block north then two block east and made a rectangle back where I started. I now have walked 10,448 steps. I startled a few rabbits and birds roosting in the trees but luckily I did not startle any deer into leaping in front of me. Of course they are so tame they probably would have just stared at me. Well I am going to go to bed now and hope I can sleep so I can get up early and go back to Yellowstone National Park. The high tomorrow there is 65 degrees, perfect for as nice long walk.
Yvonne
Congrats on your weight loss and your 2 year anniversary of your surgery. You have done well.
My journalism journey Part 8
During my years in Montana, I went to many interesting places. Some involved stories to cover, some were just "exploring" on my own or with my friend Roxane, who came out to Montana to visit, or we'd meet somewhere out West and vacation together.
One of the first trips was to a National Guard camp to see our local National Guard unit in action. The idea was to spend the whole day with the Guard unit, eating with them, riding around with them in tanks or Jeeps or Armored Personnel Carriers (APC) and even spending the night. But I was the first woman to be on one of these camp trips, and the Guard didn't know what to do with me overnight. Obviously (to them) I couldn't stay with the unit. Heavens, one woman couldn't be alone with all these men! (I was 5-5, 250-plus pounds ... I certainly didn't consider myself attractive ... I found my fat was armor enough to repel any guy.)
So I was put up in a hotel. And considering it was 90-plus degrees in Boise, Idaho, I was probably fortunate. It was a great place to stay; I enjoyed myself there. I just didn't get the entire National Guard experience.
But the rest of the weekend was a real eye-opener. I was flown to Boise, and then taken by helicopter to the Guard site, then by Jeep to the camp. As we were going there, the driver noticed something slithering across the road. So he got out, shot the snake, and we continued on. We'd see more of those along the way.
At the camp, I was directed to the Anaconda guys while lunch was prepared. We had spaghetti with meat sauce. I interviewed Anaconda Guardsmen while we waited. One of the Anaconda guys was cooking, so I talked to him a little bit too.
After lunch, I was assigned to ride along in an APC with some of the Anaconda guys. It was a hot and bumpy ride but I got to get the feel of what the guys went through on training. Later, I got to go in a tank and if I remember, I had my photo taken in the tank (I don't know if I still have it).
As we were waiting for the helicopter to take us back, the Guard public relations person suddenly took out her gun and shot at the ground. "Rattlesnake," she said. "It's dead now."
I had dinner with the PR woman and some of the newspaper folk who weren't staying overnight, then was taken to my hotel room for the night. That was the end of the tour. Back on the airplane to Butte, then home to Anaconda.
There were trips with the Anaconda Sportsmen's Club, too. They often transplanted various wildlife species, with the help of the Montana Department of Fish and Wildlife, from one range to another. The first such exercise was moving bighorn sheep from Lost Creek State Park to a range that didn't have a bighorn population.
The Sportsmen chased the bighorn down the mountain, herding them into a chute. There, the men put bandanas around the sheep's heads to calm them so they couldn't see what was happening. Wildlife biologists sedated the sheep, and eventually herded them onto a truck. It was fascinating. I couldn't imagine a bandana would calm a big animal like that. That was the closest I got to the bighorn sheep. I also saw similar operations with elk.
My friend Roxane, who was my roommate in college and after college, went on a few trips with me, too. I had taken an archaeology class at Western Montana College. It was supposed to be a Saturday class, but the professor only had us meet a couple Saturdays in class and then a couple of times in the field. We were allowed to pick up actual artifacts in the field because these were sites that already had been excavated.
The last class was a weekend trip, and it happened to be a weekend when Roxane was visiting me. We went to Livingston, and along the way stopped at several spots. The professor said Roxane could come with the class. The group stayed overnight at Chico Hot Springs, an old resort built over a hot springs, with a top-rated restaurant. It also happened to be my birthday weekend.
Along the way, we stopped at several archaeological sites, where the professor explained what was found there and how things were found, and what was the significance of the site. We stopped for lunch at a picnic spot. Most of the members of the group were school teachers from Butte and they were a lot of fun. The big movie at the time was "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." So they decided to make eyeball soup. They had tomato soup and plastic eyeballs and served it up for our archaeology professor. He had a good laugh on that one.
Later, at the hotel, we had a great dinner at the restaurant, and the professor offered to give a choice of grading: We could have a test back in the classroom, or we could answer one question over after-dinner drinks and dessert. Well, of course, we all took the second choice.
On the way back, we made a stop at a buffalo jump site. Roxane and several of the teachers decided to walk to the top of the site. One of the other teachers and I stayed back. The other teacher had binoculars and was watching them up on the mountain. "Hey, they just dropped their pants and mooned us," she said. Sure enough, they did.
There are many others, and I'm sure I will remember more.
Hello everyone
Its late afternoon but I'm here. I didn't get to sleep until 3:30 a.m. so I slept late. After we ate breakfast and I made the bed, washed the dishes, and picked up the few things laying around we drove to the old Yellowstone Hwy. Right outside the city limits you can drive onto the old Hwy for a short distance. At that point you get out and walk about 1.75 miles to within a few hundred feet from the Buffalo Bill Dam. The road winds along the Shoshone River and it is beautiful. So far today I have walked 7,021 steps. In an hour we are going to the concert in the park. I hope to get in 10,000 steps by bedtime.
Breakfast - scrambled egg with a little cheese
Lunch - half a meatball sub
dinner - beans with a little rice.
snack - nothing yet. If I have a snack it will be carrots or grapes.
Yvonne,
Happy Surgiversary! You look great and are doing great.
I have a couple of green tomatoes left over from the green tomato relish that I made so maybe I will fry those suckers up; I love them.
Enjoy the musical festival.
Today marks my 2 year surgiversary. I've come a long way.
Today is our 2nd day of the music festival that we're attending. There were some good acts yesterday. Hope today is good but I don't know any of the singers until I hear their music. I'm not good with names of groups. That was like yesterday until I heard them sing certain songs, I'm like I know them.
B, eggs, ham and shredded cheese
L cottage cheese and watermelon
D chicken breast and fried green tomatoes
I'll probably have a snack later but I don't know what yet.
Everyone have a good day.
So...what's up?
I have spent the morning reading.
B: egg, toast
Snack: cheese
Lunch: Tomato sandwich
Dinner: soup...
snack: watermelon
My journalism journey, Part 7
More in Montana
I've spent a lot of time in Montana because I had a lot of fond memories there. There were many interesting people and places there. Even though I had to leave my family and friends, I made new connections, new family and friends. I've always said I have made sisters and brothers from other mothers and fathers.
And I covered many interesting stories. One of the saddest stories involved Tim "Sox" Sullivan. He was a police officer for the Anaconda-Deer Lodge County police department, but was also involved with the local Little League. And because of both of those, I got to know him well.
Sullivan was a big burly guy, with a big shock of white hair. I can't remember ever seeing him with a serious look on his face. Wally said he wasn't really the best police officer but he was a really good person. I guess that says a lot.
I also decided one year to take a trip to Seattle to see the White Sox play the Seattle Mariners. Sullivan's wife was taking a nursing course at the University of Washington, so he asked if he could come along, and he'd split expenses with me. We had hoped to make it over there in one day, but we left late the first day and wound up staying overnight in some cheap motel (separate rooms, of course). Along the way, we talked a lot and got to know each other well.
As we were leaving Missoula, there is a big downhill. I forget to take my foot off the gas and I was going much faster than 55 mph (although most drivers in Montana at that time went faster than 55). Suddenly, I saw the police lights in my rear view mirrors and pulled over. Sullivan was chuckling. The highway patrol officer said I was going 65. "Oh, really, Officer? I'm sorry. I wasn't aware." I was shaking, I was so upset. Sullivan flashed his badge and asked if he could get up and stretch his legs while the ticket was being processed.
I thought I was really going to get hit. He hands me the ticket and says it's a $5 "waste of natural resources" fine. I could pay him there. Well, why not? I gave him the $5 and we went on our way. Sullivan laughed for some time after that. He said he was going to tell everyone in the police department I got caught speeding.
We got to Seattle and I dropped him off where his wife was staying and I checked into my motel and figured out where the ballpark was. He was going to go back with his wife, so that was the end of our trip together.
Several years later, there was an extremely busy week at work. On Wednesday, I went up with a bunch of people from Anaconda to the state capitol in Helena. They were lobbying to get the iconic smokestack named a state landmark. I was starting to get a cold at the time, and by the time the day was over, it was full blown.
Friday, I was really miserable, but we had a paper to put out, so I went through everything I needed to do to finish out the paper, then went home, took some cold medicines and went to bed early. Sometime about 10 p.m. or so, my editor Wally called and said there was a big fire in town, just a couple blocks from me. I was pretty sleepy and drugged from the medicines. I said, "Really?" and went back to bed.
Wally was pretty miffed at me the next day that I didn't go out and shoot the fire, but I was sick and not coherent when he called. So he asked me to shoot the aftermath of the fire on Saturday. It took out some fairly old buildings on Main Street.
Sunday night, I had just taken a bath and washed my hair. It was in February, I believe, and cold. Wally called again sometime around 9 p.m. and said there was chatter on the scanner about a domestic situation with a hostage situation and a police shooting. He told me to go find out where it was. He figured since I lived in town, and he was on the outskirts of town, it was easier for me to get out there.
But there wasn't an address given. I called the police and they wouldn't divulge the address. So what's a reporter to do? Well, I dried my hair, got dressed and went to the courthouse. I sat there for awhile and waited for a police car to leave, then followed it to the scene.
Wally was already there; they were bringing a body bag out. "It's Sox," he said.
Apparently, a man had gone after his estranged wife, locked his kids in another room downstairs, was raping his wife when Sox came down the stairs. So he shot and killed Sox, finished raping his wife, killed her, killed himself and left the kids alone. Sox, in a way, saved those kids.
The Anaconda-Deer Lodge police department didn't deal with a lot of officer deaths. To lose a beloved guy like Sox was a blow. The funeral was held in the high school gym. It was packed. He had coached many youngsters in Little League baseball. Everyone had been touched by him in some way.
A few years later, his youngest son, Patrick, was involved in a horrible car accident. The car was on fire and he barely escape alive. He had serious burns. The family had another terrible tragedy to deal with.
I think of stories like this many years later and try to remember all the details. I can't remember everything, but what I do remember are the faces of the people, the sadness, and the way the community responded to the event and pulled together for the Sullivan family. I often wondered what happened to them many years later.
Hi All...
I'm going to card class, then to Tracy to return an item to Michaels. Nothing much tonight. Hope all is well.
Breakfast: protein drink
Lunch: cheese, pretzel, cranberries
Dinner: thinking about potatoe soup like Jeannie. I have some veggies from the garden so I might throw those in.
Snacks: nuts, cheese, cranberries, beef jerky
Julia
I met my granddaughter's teacher last night. Turns out, her husband is a good friend of my son. While I was in the valley, my daughter loaded me up with apples from an old wild apple tree on our farm. The damn tree ha**** and missed with producing much fruit but apparently, this year, the damn thing went nuts. I already had a bag of granny smith's that I was going to have to do something with but then I come home with four large sacks of apples. I made a ton of sugar free applesauce last night and this morning, I'm making apple butter. If I have apples left, I'll dehydrate them.
Breakfast today was an egg and piece of toast with a little butter.
I have cucumbers ready for snacking.
Lunch probably beans
Dinner I am making potato soup.
Ladies, talk away.
