Looking Out The Window

I am lucky that everyone in my family whom I personally know and have served in the military has returned to their family from their service. I have a brother who served in the Navy, a father who served in both the Air Force and Army, a father-in-law who was a Marine and a Grandfather who was Amy. There are also numerous Uncles and Great Uncles who also served in the US military. Each and…

I am so ding dong excited. I have finally found Jimmy! I have written about him over the years and had small successes followed by major brickwalls. It has been years in the making, but I now know what happened to Jimmy and where he is buried. I will begin with a recap.  I only had a few elements about this branch of my family when I started this adventure of finding James M. Duncan Jr. aka…

I got the info on Jimmie Duncan that I had hoped would break down my brick wall. No such luck. Not my guy. It is like he vanished. This is all made harder by the 1979 Archives fire where most of the military records were lost. Life was on hold again, but years have passed. There is another story to tell.

I am old enough to remember when spell check came into being and how revolutionary it seemed at the time. Now we have Grammarly sweeping into our lives making suggestions about everything we type on our computers and phones. It seems pretty amazing that AI is that smart, but what if it isn’t that smart? It got me thinking about the lowest common denominator of grammar. Is that how we want to…

What If There Were a Few Fairy Godfathers?

When I say fairy godmother, I immediately conjure up the image of Glinda, the good witch from the “Wizard of Oz.” I don’t know why. Maybe it is because she is the only good witch I have ever seen besides the cartoon character friend of Casper, Wendy. Glinda looks mystical and like she should have lots of powers with that sparkling crown and big magical wand. Which she apparently does have, but…

Using Mental Illness As An Excuse

After what happened in Uvalde, I was listening to a Senate committee hearing about possible changes in gun management in this country. I was angered by many things I heard but one I repeatedly heard was we need more mental health care. If they had had mental health care this would not have happened. What I heard in my mind over and over is that people who have mental health issues are one step…

Same Stars, Different Sky

One of the hardest things about leaving Montana was knowing that it was likely I would never see another night sky like the one just outside my front door. Although I never could identify anything other than the big and little dipper I would spend hours watching the night sky. Just last night RangerSir came in and said “I just looked up and saw Orion in the sky.” He was so pleased and I think a…

A Day of Gratitude and Thanks

Today I am taking a moment to publicly express my gratitude and thanks. So often I get caught up in life that I don’t appreciate what I am given. I am thankful for my family. Though my family is not geographically fit, technology allows us to continue to stay close. I am probably closer to my brothers as an adult than we were as children, which is unusual for many. This summer I was able to…

Life Continues to March Forward

Life just doesn’t move forward at a steady pace or in the way that you wish or plan for it to do so. I had imagined that by now I would be writing about being in my new home and unpacking. Finding things I missed. Rediscovering things I had forgotten about and a few things that I would wonder why I moved it. None of that is true. We have closed and moved into our new home, but are still living…

Why Aren’t We Searching for A Connection?

A card I recently made I suspect the trolls will come out looking for me but oh well here goes. If we don’t speak up people assume that silence means we agree with them. Here goes… I know this may appear to be Pollyanna or simple-minded but why in all this craziness are we constantly looking to be a life of us vs them? Don’t we have more in common than what separates us? Even if we have…

In my last post I talked about arting. A person left a comment asking me about arting. This inspired me to talk about arting. Arting is being creative. Any type of creative activity is arting. There were lots of reasons for this tag I use and I am going to share with you my thought process. I hope you will give me a few minutes to share my thoughts on arting. When I was a child I went to a…

Odd Things That Give You a Happy Moment

Last week I really hit a wall. I am sure in some way this transient lifestyle caught up with me. I did what I call “went to ground.” I just stopped. I just become even more of a introvert and only did things that make me smile. Most of them alone. No apologies for my choices of activities. No embarrassment about what I chose do. I lived each moment in the here and now. So for those of you…

Celebrating What You Can Control

I have been gone a couple of weeks perking on a couple things I can NOT control. Even went to far as to draft a post on this line of thought. I wanted to share it, but feared internet trolls would make an example of me because my opinion was contrary to theirs. Well today that stops. I am going to write about things I can control and things in my life that may be helpful, bring a smile to your…

My Pressure Cooker is in Storage

I have always loved using my pressure cooker. Unfortunately my pressure cooker is in storage back in Montana. Living here in the apartment I decided this was a perfect time to give the famous Instant Pot/Multi Cooker a six month test drive. My first pressure cooker I got in the 70’s when I signed the lease on my first solo apartment. It was a Presto with the wobbling weight. My second and the…

Missing Montana Night Skies

I have never been able to take great nighttime photos. I sure wish I could have and done so, when we lived in Montana. Because the night skies of Montana are now gone and I really miss them. As we approach the Perseid meteor shower it makes me think about Montana night skies. When living in Montana, each year we would mark our calendar of all the known meteor showers that we might see and mark…

When we lived in Montana we were living what is a high cold desert. We lived at 5,600 feet above sea level, we had less than 10 inches of moisture a year and sitting out in the open the wind was merciless in all seasons. Frost was possible anytime, and you were never surprised to wake up to snow. For a girl coming from the Midwest the inability to grow a garden that did not get frosted off at…

Month One Is Over

We have now been in our apartment for just over a month. It has been a month of lots of realizations. A few surprise moments. Mostly good times and a few not so fun times. For a couple who spent the last 19 years living on acreage in rural SW Montana living in the apartment has gone much better than I had imagined it would. Confirmation: We are ready to downsize and need much less space than we…