Summer Musings

Summer has been glorious in Montana. We have not spent a whole summer here since we moved here, so we have enjoyed spending our days filled with many visitors and lots of fun outdoor activities.

We had Rich’s sister, Tammie, here from Florida for a few days. Then we had my brother and his family here from Houston for a week. We did a quick turn around and had some Air Force friends of Rich’s and their four kids here from Nebraska for several days. A few days after they left, we had two former coworkers of Joe’s from the Olathe Fire Department in Kansas and their wives here for a few days. That was very special for us. It was great to be able to talk about Joe freely and openly with people who knew and loved him. We then had two couples from our Air Force days from 20+ years ago who came to visit – we had a great time and it was like we were able to just pick up where we left off over 20 years ago without having to chase after little kids. We did some kayaking and hiking and touring of the Hungry Horse Dam. Then Tim came to visit. It was great to show him around the area during the warm summer months. He is usually here during skiing season, so it was great to show him around Glacier National Park and take him kayaking through the valley. He and Lily don’t often get to see other for more than a couple of days around Christmas at most, so they got to spend 5 days together, which was awesome. They are both now back in their respective states. School has started up for Lily for her junior year at Kansas City Art Institute, and Tim’s school year with the athletes has gotten underway at Campbell University. We also had the pleasure of having Michelle’s brother and sister-in-law over for dinner while they were visiting Glacier National Park. It was great to spend some time with them. They were very special to our Joe, and he was so happy to call them family. I think we single handedly got multiple people hooked on huckleberry ice cream or shakes.

We have enjoyed spending time at home this summer. Lots of time on the water…in the park…on the front porch and in the backyard. There are two flocks of about 2-3 dozen wild turkeys that meander through our yard and several deer families who stop to wait out the heat of the day in the shade of our trees. There were only 2 fawns this year and they are twins. I jokingly call them Thing 1 and Thing 2. They are almost inseparable and seem to get into mischief together. There have been three young bucks roaming the neighborhood together the last few weeks so there may be more fawns next year. Thing 1 and Thing 2 are just about to lose their spots. They are adorable but their mom just looks tired of chasing them around in the heat. LOL.

On top of this, we have been very busy at the fire department. Our call load has increased quite a bit this year for unknown reasons. There have been a lot of motor vehicle accidents this tourist season. Hopefully we’ll have a bit of a respite this fall before the snow flies and we have accidents for totally different reasons. We have 3 firefighters going to EMT school this fall and I am hoping in January, they will be licensed in the state and available to take some of the call load.

As for my health, I started taking a longer acting form of medication I have been taking in shot for about 4.5 years. I have never had an issue. I got injections every 4 weeks. Now it was lengthened to every 12 weeks. This was a huge boon for me. I would only have to be seen 4 times a year! The freedom! I got the shot for the first time on July 31st and in 48 hours had a rash on my forearms. 48 hours after that, hives on my legs. No itching, no pain…no other symptoms. Hoping that we can keep doing this. If this is the only reaction…I can handle it no problem. My throat starts closing up, that is another matter. So we shall see.

Now that I have caught you up with our summer…here’s some photos to go along with it. I almost forgot! We found a sunflower field! A few photos of sunflowers in the Flathead Valley as well.