Front Porch Musings | The Road Home

Posts from the ‘Front Porch Musings’ category

Cherries!!! … and good bye July!

Flathead Cherries are IN season!

Some years ago, I purchased 20 pounds. It was not a completely happy time with the pitting, etc.

Twenty pounds of cherries is a lot of cherries and I guess if I had to travel far to get them and/or the $$ savings was GREAT, I ~~would~~ … might do it.

I’ve been buying about 2 pounds at a time.

Two pounds is a very manageable quantity and by the time I’m done pitting, I am happy to be done but it is a quick chore.

There are cherry stands along the road on my way into Bigfork.

It is fun to stop and chat and get some cherries.

And today, it is the last day of July … AND tomorrow is August 1 which is day one of my birthday month. Hoo-Rah!

It is still hot and except for a 24-36 hour period … Tue afternoon until Thu morning cool off (back door cold front per NOAA), 90’sF are still the forecast. But it will be August and not July.

Onward!

A good day

It is 7:31 p.m. as I start this post.

I have not had my supper.

I have 1.5 hours of work yet to do.

But, dear Lord, it has been a Good Day!!

This morning, I had to go to the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to renew my driver’s license. Despite receiving a card that alerted me to my expiring license AND an unexpected bonus of now the DMV does renewals by appointment … AND making an appointment months ago … I had faint hope of things going well because … the DMV.

In nearly 40 years of having to deal with the DMV, I have had maybe one time where things went lickety-split. Typically it has been a show up, get a number, wait-wait-wait, deal with a crotchety-crabby person and FINALLY come away with whatever.

But, today … I arrived for my 8:00 a.m. appointment at 7:45. There was shade parking for the Jeep and Mr. Bear. I entered a new building to see a small crowd. Oy-vey! It is a 30 mile drive and I needed the facilities and WOW – they were beautiful. The new building was not fancy but it was light and clean and pleasant. I returned to the area by the inner door to the DMV … more folks. I asked: “Does everyone have an 8:00 a.m. appointment ???”. No, but 3 of us did.

At 8:03 a.m. the DMV doors opened to a reception person!!! Prior DMV involved entering a waiting room with a counter beyond and the aforesaid crochety-crabby persons behind the counter did NOT even make eye contact with any new arrivals. A number thing was just inside the door. Various signage referred to various documents to be filled out. Gah. But this morning, the reception person quickly asked “purpose, appointment?” and gave appropriate paperwork and direction. I was ticked off the appointment list, handed my form and about 3 minutes later was the first to be called for processing. Hoo-rah!

And then!!!

And then, I proceeded to an actual chair in front of a desk and was dealt with very professionally and efficiently – so efficiently that I was back in the Jeep and headed for home at 8:15 a.m. with my temporary renewal license … permanent license to be mailed to me tout suite!

Good Grief.

Smallish town Montana, acting like the big leagues.

I was thrilled.

It set me up for the whole day.

All the rest of the day as I worked and took care of Bear, Auggie and me … I kept thinking that what I thought would be a gruesome start to the day turned out to be so pleasant.

A good day!

The Instagram thing

https://instagram.com/p/BVVYmXmhr3q/

So, that is my FAVORITE Instagram photo to date! I took it with my laptop webcam. I had Instagram open and Auggie was snuggling with me and he looked directly at the screen/camera … I HOPED – so I clicked and caught us. There is a lot of “noise” but I kind of liked that and thought it made the photo look a bit like a painting plus it disguised some 60-something wrinkles…

Whatever – I love it!

What I do not love is Facebook. I think it is the absolute worst user interface and horrible terminology. I guess “poke” has been removed. Still. Yuck.

Off the soapbox mostly.

Instagram is owned by Facebook … I think. I had an Instagram account for a bit and finding out the connection to Facebook, I deleted my Instagram.

Gah … but I have an iPhone and an iPad and they play so nicely with Instagram. And my favorite blogs do Instagram. AND, I have watched the BBC series “Shetland” and become enamored of the Shetland Islands and there are some phenomenal Shetland Island photographers!

And so I caved once more because it allows me to do quick “posts”. A blog post can take from 30-60-90 minutes. Instagram … well it can be Instant!

The photos in the Instagram feed display a bit of whatever I include in the caption. If you click on a photo, you will go to the Instagram interface and see the entire caption. If you view on a compatible device and the multiple image icon is displayed, you can view the several images by swiping left. AND, if I figure out the video thing, and the video icon is displayed, you can view the video – YEA!…hopefully.

If you LOVE my Instagram feed, the best way to see everything is to sign up for an Instagram account and then “Follow” me. You do not have to post if you don’t want to, but an account allows you to follow me and anyone else you might want to as well as seeing full captions, comments/commenting, watching video and seeing multiple images. And if I ever get to doing the “Live” and/or “Stories” you could see those also :) … think Auggie and Bear in the woods…

I still find it incredible that many people follow hundreds and are followed by hundreds/thousands/millions! It is not the followed by but the following that is astounding to me. How can a person be interested AND have the time to follow hundreds…

A mystery.

I digress.

My primary point was to explain the Instagram feed and options to view my Instagram.

Happy Wednesday!

To everything there is a season: the chairs

Once upon a time …

This chair came into my life … serendipitously.

I loved this chair and because Karl and then Bear, liked to be on Beardog Point … near the chair, I started sitting in this chair more than on the front porch.

Time passed.

The chair developed a crack in its upper back. Although it did not fail, I was concerned about imminent failure and because these chairs are only available for purchase in the summer months, I preemptively purchased a replacement.

And then there were two.

And then.

Then the chairs started to speak.

Say what you will, the chairs spoke … fairly often. I think they were old souls as they were a bit cranky mostly … what you might call curmudgeonly.

And so, more time passed.

And this last Winter … cracks in the backs and base of both chairs and both became unsafe for sitting on.

For some time, I ignored the situation and either sat gingerly or used only their arms for my coffee cup … after all, one burns more calories standing and certainly the more burning of calories the better !!!

But this Spring as the weather turned pleasant and Bear and Auggie were out by the chairs AND I wanted to be out there with them…

I kind of sort of looked at the new chairs, in new colors.

But what to do about THE Chairs. I decided to put them in the woods, in a spot near where we returned from our walks … a kind of chair retirement spot.

YES!

Now I felt ready to purchase new chairs for sitting on and I did.

The color is called “Merlot” and it fits with the colors of the woods.

I went to the original chairs and found to my surprise that they were just plastic chairs. Their soul was gone – they had passed. I know that some new folks reading this have just averted their eyes and tiptoed away to find another blog. It is ok. But I know what I know and what I perceive and the chairs magic had left so I had no difficulty disposing of the earthly remains.

The new chairs – the merlot chairs.