Norma's Wanderings around a small section of Montana |
Things are tough, Spring is still knocking around, the museum is trying to attract visitors. I need to get back to writing I find. My grandson is still missing from the Marines. No word still, going on three weeks this coming Saturday. Continue to pray for him. I won't write more about this now because I will descend into a pity party. So I need a distraction. I planted potatoes in the garden yesterday under a threatening sky. Ominous black clouds and loud thunder. So I hurried, threw them in the holes I had dug, scurried into the house to await a storm. Drat, it went north. But the first of the garden is in. You usually don't plant around here until Mother's Day which is soon upon us. Andre's Banana Bar has a fun challenge running now. I think I'll take part. Always fun to chase that monkey about. |
I've not been writing a lot lately. The urge to write is gone, I don't feel any spark. There's a crisis with my grandson right now. I won't share a lot, but just know this. It's hard when you cannot help. Please pray that God ends this problem, for good or for bad. We need to know what happened. |
Finally, I made my presentation to the Dino Trail members. I can mark that off my list now. God gave me the words to say, I am sure of that. But of course, they had questions. Do we own the specimens that are now in the dinosaur building? Do you have an agreement with the person now digging up specimens in your area? How long will he be doing this? Do you ...? Will you ...? Have you ...? Why don't you...? Well, I think most everyone on this site knows I am not a paleontologist. I don't have a degree in science. I can maybe tell you a few of the prehistoric eras. I know a few dinosaurs. So now I am hobnobbing with scientists and paleo people that have doctoral degrees in this field. There is a steep learning curve ahead, I fear. Here are two museums on the Dino Trail that are going to help us: https://museumoftherockies.org https://cartercountymuseum.org Carter County Museum is in the town of Ekalaka, population 444. Museum of the Rockies in the town of Bozeman, population 118,00 + Two more different areas you cannot find in Montana. But my friend Sabre Moore and her fiance Nathan Carroll live in Ekalaka, both went to school in Bozeman, Montana State. And both have their doctorate degrees. And now I have 4 new friends at the Museum of the Rockies that want to help our museum, also with doctorates. But you know what? I do so love a challenge. And this is a big one! Fun times ahead! |
It was museum cleaning day today. We got a lot done. In the midst of it, a report from a Billings TV station stopped in to look at the new dinosaur exhibit space. She needed two on the spot speakers. Well, me and another lady were the only two left as everyone else scattered since they were in work clothes and hats and looked disheveled. At least I had put on some eye makeup this morning. So I'm again in the news. LOL. Serena and I chattered away for about 5 minutes - off-the-cuff , no rehearsing. We pray we didn't sound like two demented old ladies prattling on and on about Roundup and the museum. I'll let you know what happens. Never a dull moment! First a billboard, now the news station! |
Today we woke to 4 inches of wet, sloppy snow. And a heavy snowstorm in action. Lucky for me I had nowhere to go but a a meeting down the street. April showers, indeed. A good old-fashioned snow shower of epic proportions. We got as much snow this morning as we got all winter. Crazy. |
I just posted my last entry to the Banana Bar Blog. So back to the porch. The weather is typical Montana spring stuff - 75° one day, snow the next. But we do see a bit of green around. And my lilac bushes are budding out. Hurrah! I'm starting a new journey - braces! Yep - who knew that at this age I'd get braces on my teeth. A long time coming, let me tell you. But they were necessary for crowding, trouble keeping my teeth clean and my jaw dislocating. So last week I got my Invisalign braces put on. You cannot tell they are on, and it's quite an amazing process. Every 2 weeks I change to a new set of clear plastic braces, top and bottom, that will, over the course of 18 months, rearrange my bite. The braces are very thin, I have to wear them all the time, except to eat. At least 22 hours a day. So far so good. No pain. They fit well. You don't even know they are on, and no one can tell I am wearing them. Amazing!! We're finally getting our remodeling project back on track. I pray in a few weeks it will be completely finished. That will be such a blessing when it's done. Enjoy spring wherever you are. Ours is coming, it's slow, but it'll be here in a few weeks. |
The Banana Bar is open once again. I'll be blogging over at
for a few weeks. Come visit me there! You never know what antics Andre has up his sleeve. |
Again, we are threatened by the National Weather Service with another winter storm warning. Really? Come on. But this time they upped the ante and threw in the term 'Spring Blizzard' to put a righteous scare into everyone. Whatever. I'm truly getting a case of spring fever, as is everyone else. Not too much going on. Just working on little projects. I"m trying to whittle down my book inventory. So far I've sent off one box to Powell's Books in Oregon. They'll take used books and give you store credit. Pretty sweet deal. You have to enter ISBN #s to see if they will accept what you have. But then you even get a UPS shipping label, so shipping is prepaid. Works for me. I'm also working on a presentation for our museum about its inclusion on the Montana Dinosaur Trail. I think I'm almost to the point where I can call it finished. A few more tweaks and I'm good with it. So, not much to report from the porch. It's too cold to sit there anyway. Come back in a few weeks. It'll probably switch over to summer. It seems to do that. |
Is it warm where you are? Ha! We're under another winter storm warning here. Yep, that's right. Snow predicted again. Good grief. I so want to have some warm Spring weather. I've been cleaning out my clothes lately. It seems I have 5 winter coats. 1 heavy down coat for -30° to 0°, 1 for 0° to 30°, 1 for 30° to 40°, 1 for 40° and a small down coat for 30° to 50°. I have 3 pairs of lined heavy winter pants. I have wool socks that I wear summer and winter. I have at least 7 wool sweaters. Long underwear shirts and pants and pants for church. I have at least 4 down vests. So many hats and mittens and gloves. I have boots for -30° and deep snow. I have boots for light snow and 0° weather and above. Egads. Then I have clothes for two months. Summer. Literally two months. Then it's back into the shoulder seasons. Almost fall for a week, fall for a few weeks, then almost winter. Winter for 5 months, then almost spring, then almost summer. I think I need a break. So a little friend came over this afternoon. She used to live across the street, and often came to visit. She loves to play dress-up, make believe. Today she had a 'tea shop' in my upstairs. Reagan has a very vivid imagination. We had a fun hour pretending. It's refreshing to see someone in 5th grade still able to be a child, not a mini-adult. My dinosaur project is coming along. The other partner in the project got to see it today and gave his thumbs up, so I guess I'm headed in the right direction. A representative from the Montana Dinosaur Trail is coming to meet us in Roundup on Saturday. Unless it snows a foot. Yep, like I said. Winter storm watch. |
I joined the Book Brothel group in March and have exceeded my goal of 1,000 pages by finishing my book today. 'Praying for Sleep' by Jeffrey Deaver is the latest book I read. Good grief. I don't think I'd recommend this to anyone. This author does have numerous awards for mystery writing, and has written gobs of books. I have to say I had to finish this but it was an ugly story. When the blurb on the front cover by Stephen King states it is 'scary', well, beware. Not much new here. I've been gathering books in my home to sell. Clearing the deck, so to speak. So many books just lying about. And we did get some much-needed cleaning done today. Dining room windows were cleaned, curtains washed and rehung. Finally after a year. The remodeling project is still not done, but I'm trudging on with cleaning now. I mean, come on. A year? It's still snowing here, and cold. We pray Spring will come soon. Perhaps in May. I ordered some garden seeds. Maybe June. |