Visit to Billings

John Dollar, my son, put new strings on my mom’s guitar while we were visiting in Billings a couple of weeks ago.

Back in 2001, John and I visited Billings in late fall. During that visit, he picked up Mom’s guitar partly because there was nothing else to do but mostly because he can’t keep his hands off of musical instruments.

It was the start of something big – John is a great guitar player and singer. It was cool to see how far he’s come in such (for me) a short time.

Here’s another photo of the trip:

Spring has arrived – just – to Montana. I think in Wisconsin we’re about three weeks behind.

Since we got home, almost a week ago, I’ve had trouble getting my head back in the game. I am more distractable than a puppy or a fruit fly. Pre-spring fever or simple ADD? Hmmmm…

Where in the World is Laura McFarlane?

Laura McFarlane is my intrepid step-daughter. She’s a world traveler who has visited everywhere in Europe, several countries in Africa, Australia, New Zealand and Japan (those are just the places I can remember; there are probably more.)

She started her world travels in middle school with a trip to France and Austria with her dad. Later, she visited South Africa with a group of high school students. In college, she lived in London for six months. After college, Laura worked on fair trade and other issues for Oxfam for several years, so her work kept her going.

Last March, she traveled with us to London. The photo above is from a side trip we took to the city of Bath (which is called Bath because there’s a bath, a really old one from Roman times). It was an excellent trip and Laura was an excellent guide.

This year, from March until June, Laura is traveling by herself in South America. Currently, she’s in Medellin sharpening her Spanish. She’ll also visit Brazil and Argentina.

And! She is blogging here. So tune in to her travel diary. She’s a great photographer and a truly adventurous person.

Skippy Saves the Day. Again.

After Dave goes to work and after she is done pouting about that, Skippy assumes her morning position at the top of the stairs.

She rests in the above position until she hears the mail truck coming south on our street. When she hears that, she pushes off from the wall and races downstairs to bark at the mailman.

I esimate she has pushed off from the wall with her front paws more than 3,000 times. That explains the marks on the wall and the hole in the plaster.

When she is finished, she congratulates herself because she has prevented the mailman – once again, thank God! -  from pillaging 227. She has successfully prevented a perimeter breach five times a week for twelve years. At her age, it’s a pretty good game.

My favorite part is the floppy lip: