Whenever President Bush or Secretary Rumsfeld or Secretary Rice went to Iraq, it had to be a surprise. With the greatest military force in the world, and the most sophisticated personal security force in the world, our muckety-mucks couldn't go to our latest imperial outpost in the clear because it was too dangerous. I may be wrong about Rice and Rumsfeld, but I'm almost positive every trip George Bush made to Iraq was cloaked in secrecy and was announced by the media as "a surprise visit".
Today President Obama thedwse shdue snxn... sorry. I still get a bit teary when I say or type "President Obama." He and Michelle did a surprise visit of their own today, to an elementary school. Two big questions: 1) While the president was reading to the children, was Joe Biden in an undisclosed location instructing NORAD to continue its terrorism drill scenarios, and 2) How cool is that President Obama's first "Surprise Visit" was to a school in Washington D.C.
Was it all a crass photo op? Maybe, but I doubt it. Based on the campaign, and Obama's ability to construct coherent sentences on his own and express his views in controlled and uncontrolled situations, I gotta think he can make his own mind up.
On a slightly related note, Tom Daschle screwed up, he screwed up big, and if he's done something illegal, he should be tried and maybe go to jail. The administration was right to not stand behind him, and he was right to withdraw his name. But just think, had this been the Bush administration, Daschle's conversative doppleganger would be defended vociferously and, were the crime sufficiently horrible, probably end up with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
A while ago I said (by the way, this is Bob, not Monique) this blog wouldn't be political. So, I slipped a bit, k? We had freezing fog last night, it's weirdly still out there, and the deer and turkeys are hanging around together like they did last winter. I love this place!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Birdhouses and
Yesterday afternoon we met some friends at Red's in Kalispell for an early dinner and drinks. I'm not a real social creature, and I'm definitely not a "let's get drinks" guy. And I'm horrible at talking (shouting) over loud music or a blaring TV. But I had fun yesterday with Monique, Martha, Chris, and Karen.
Today as Monique took the ornaments off the outdoor Christmas trees, I built a birdhouse from a cedar fence plank. I was slow -- I meant deliberate -- and the house turned out great. We'll put it on the cottonwood by the river, and hopefully a bird couple will like it.
The wild turkeys are hanging out with the deer again, which is fun to see. The raccoons are also active again -- lost another suet block to the handy little twerps. I don't want to deny them food, but if just left to the chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers, a block of suet would probably last a month. One raccoon can take the whole block with him/her in one night. And it's hung on a branch that isn't exactly accessible. I take down the bird seed feeder nightly, but it's not practical to take the suet out of the aspen every day.
We don't have quite this much snow anymore, but winter's not over, and this was a great sunny day.
Today as Monique took the ornaments off the outdoor Christmas trees, I built a birdhouse from a cedar fence plank. I was slow -- I meant deliberate -- and the house turned out great. We'll put it on the cottonwood by the river, and hopefully a bird couple will like it.
The wild turkeys are hanging out with the deer again, which is fun to see. The raccoons are also active again -- lost another suet block to the handy little twerps. I don't want to deny them food, but if just left to the chickadees, nuthatches, and woodpeckers, a block of suet would probably last a month. One raccoon can take the whole block with him/her in one night. And it's hung on a branch that isn't exactly accessible. I take down the bird seed feeder nightly, but it's not practical to take the suet out of the aspen every day.
We don't have quite this much snow anymore, but winter's not over, and this was a great sunny day.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
A New Day
Well, duh. "Groundhog Day" was cute, but apart from that story, every day is a new day. New opportunities, new risks, new challenges, new surprises.
Yesterday was a biggie with President Obama's inauguration. Our 44th president, and the fifth to whom I've paid attention. Carter was my cusp -- I wasn't very political in the late '70's -- but starting with Reagan I have been, and yesterday was important to me for a couple reasons.
First, President Bush's approval rating yesterday was around 23%. Obama has a honeymoon because Bush has, in the parlance of our British friends, "assed it up" so very thoroughly.
It's difficult to think of the tremendous energy and time and money and apologies and court battles that lay ahead to mitigate or undo some of what Congress and the Bush/Cheney administration "achieved." I hope Obama, Congress, and most importantly, we the people, have the tenacity and long-range thinking to stick with it.
Second, Obama has stayed above the fray and seems like a good, normal guy.
ALERT! ALERT! Bush is the regular guy! Bush is the rancher who just wants to wear his cowboy hat and cut brush.
REALITY! REALITY! Yeah, not so much. The Crawford Ranch was purchased and the house built during the 2000 presidential campaign. It was, in nearly every way, a prop. A set-piece. He didn't live there before he became president, and he's not going back to it. 'Course, he is an ex-president, so if he wants to do some chainsawin' in the backyard of his new exclusive Dallas neighborhood, I don't expect too many folks will complain.
Obama seems like a good, normal, smart guy. When he's attacked, he keeps it civil and focuses on policy. Bush had a nasty team running his campaigns, and McCain hired most of them for his. As Clinton slid into the dregs with her campaign, Obama never really bit. So we really have Bush, and Cheney, and most especially Mr. Rove, to thank for the margin of victory and the sentiment that massive change was needed from the past eight years.
I didn't vote for Obama because he's black, or because he's a Democrat. Obama had the only sensible, radical campaign of change. How amazingly cool that George Bush and Dick Cheney brought our country to a place where the color of the candidate's skin was so far removed from so many voters' minds?
It's a ramble -- sorry. The new administration has an enormous set of challenges ahead, and I wish them (and us) lots of energy and enthusiasm. Many people (and a whole cable network) are attacking because he's not their guy, and that's fine. The issues to be faced and the damage to be undone are too big to be bothered by the small stuff.
Bush and his handlers were consistent in their arrogance and inflexibility; Obama has promised to listen to anyone with good ideas for the country, and has asked for help from all sides. Devolve into partisan politics as usual, Mr. New President Guy, and, well, 23% approval ratings will seem like the good old days.
Yesterday was a biggie with President Obama's inauguration. Our 44th president, and the fifth to whom I've paid attention. Carter was my cusp -- I wasn't very political in the late '70's -- but starting with Reagan I have been, and yesterday was important to me for a couple reasons.
First, President Bush's approval rating yesterday was around 23%. Obama has a honeymoon because Bush has, in the parlance of our British friends, "assed it up" so very thoroughly.
It's difficult to think of the tremendous energy and time and money and apologies and court battles that lay ahead to mitigate or undo some of what Congress and the Bush/Cheney administration "achieved." I hope Obama, Congress, and most importantly, we the people, have the tenacity and long-range thinking to stick with it.
Second, Obama has stayed above the fray and seems like a good, normal guy.
ALERT! ALERT! Bush is the regular guy! Bush is the rancher who just wants to wear his cowboy hat and cut brush.
REALITY! REALITY! Yeah, not so much. The Crawford Ranch was purchased and the house built during the 2000 presidential campaign. It was, in nearly every way, a prop. A set-piece. He didn't live there before he became president, and he's not going back to it. 'Course, he is an ex-president, so if he wants to do some chainsawin' in the backyard of his new exclusive Dallas neighborhood, I don't expect too many folks will complain.
Obama seems like a good, normal, smart guy. When he's attacked, he keeps it civil and focuses on policy. Bush had a nasty team running his campaigns, and McCain hired most of them for his. As Clinton slid into the dregs with her campaign, Obama never really bit. So we really have Bush, and Cheney, and most especially Mr. Rove, to thank for the margin of victory and the sentiment that massive change was needed from the past eight years.
I didn't vote for Obama because he's black, or because he's a Democrat. Obama had the only sensible, radical campaign of change. How amazingly cool that George Bush and Dick Cheney brought our country to a place where the color of the candidate's skin was so far removed from so many voters' minds?
It's a ramble -- sorry. The new administration has an enormous set of challenges ahead, and I wish them (and us) lots of energy and enthusiasm. Many people (and a whole cable network) are attacking because he's not their guy, and that's fine. The issues to be faced and the damage to be undone are too big to be bothered by the small stuff.
Bush and his handlers were consistent in their arrogance and inflexibility; Obama has promised to listen to anyone with good ideas for the country, and has asked for help from all sides. Devolve into partisan politics as usual, Mr. New President Guy, and, well, 23% approval ratings will seem like the good old days.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
I Should Count to Ten...
...before writing this. One, two, three, four, screw it.
Of the many, many reasons we love living in rural Montana, an ironic sense of the quaint ranks high. For example, we have high-speed DSL access and it's less expensive than we paid for regular DSL in Seattle, but there isn't a whole lot of local info to access.
We want to attend a Christmas Eve service. Not in the online version of the Daily Interlake newspaper (oh, bastion of reasonable editorial!), not in the Flathead Beacon, not in the Bigfork Eagle is there a calendar listing service times. So, okay, I went to the website of the church we visited last year.
Here's their monthly calendar.
Surprisingly, frustratingly, agnostic-inducingly empty, doncha think?
And they're not alone in having nothing scheduled for Christmas Eve or Christmas. I don't care if they're not up to snuff with flash and animated GIF's and weekly messages from pastor/priest and staff; some content would be helpful. As much as I loved Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean," I don't think a church should take the Isla de Muerta approach, where a service can only be found by those who already know when it is.
Yes, yes, I'll call around tomorrow and find out whose service is when....
In other news, it's gorgeous here, I'm having tremendous fun reading the "What Global Warming?" articles on the web, and feeling quite meteorologically lucky, compared with Spokane, Seattle, the Midwest, the East, etc.
This photo shows two of our five outside trees with lights. There's been no wind here, so the very powdery snow is still in the branches.
I hope to post again tomorrow and Christmas, but if I don't, peace and joy, Merry Christmas, safe travel, and blessings to you and yours. --Bob
Of the many, many reasons we love living in rural Montana, an ironic sense of the quaint ranks high. For example, we have high-speed DSL access and it's less expensive than we paid for regular DSL in Seattle, but there isn't a whole lot of local info to access.
We want to attend a Christmas Eve service. Not in the online version of the Daily Interlake newspaper (oh, bastion of reasonable editorial!), not in the Flathead Beacon, not in the Bigfork Eagle is there a calendar listing service times. So, okay, I went to the website of the church we visited last year.
Here's their monthly calendar.
Surprisingly, frustratingly, agnostic-inducingly empty, doncha think?
And they're not alone in having nothing scheduled for Christmas Eve or Christmas. I don't care if they're not up to snuff with flash and animated GIF's and weekly messages from pastor/priest and staff; some content would be helpful. As much as I loved Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean," I don't think a church should take the Isla de Muerta approach, where a service can only be found by those who already know when it is.
Yes, yes, I'll call around tomorrow and find out whose service is when....
In other news, it's gorgeous here, I'm having tremendous fun reading the "What Global Warming?" articles on the web, and feeling quite meteorologically lucky, compared with Spokane, Seattle, the Midwest, the East, etc.
This photo shows two of our five outside trees with lights. There's been no wind here, so the very powdery snow is still in the branches.
I hope to post again tomorrow and Christmas, but if I don't, peace and joy, Merry Christmas, safe travel, and blessings to you and yours. --Bob
Sunday, December 21, 2008
A Winter Wonderland
Monique and I are back from Helena and a visit with my cousin Lynn and her family, and Hall with a visit to Monique's parents. A busy, fun weekend.
Along the way we stopped twice for eats, and in the spirit of Christmas, I'll be generous with the first review.
1. Safeway Deli, Polson. Oh my dear good god this was bad. You know the taste when you nibble a piece of synthetic leather utterly devoid of moisture? Warm it up and you got their fried chicken.
2. No Sweat Cafe, Helena. A Hippie hangout, with anti-social tendencies like a no cell phone rule, fair-trade coffee, and other weird stuff. Great food, the service is, shall we say, "casual", and lingering is encouraged. Buncha non fast-food hippies....
3. Muralt's Cafe, I-90 and Exit 96, Missoula. Outstanding. Good food, excellent fries (and I'm not a big fries guy), and friendly service.
Okay, enough with the silliness. Visiting the Bubbs was a blast, and seeing their spastic black lab Scout made it that much more fun. Very much in the "It's a Small World" vein, as we were just about to leave, the couple that occasionally helps clean Lynn & Shawn's house came over, and voila, it was Monique's music director from Flathead High. My dad and his Two Degrees of Separation theory would've loved it.
Hall was wonderful, and the food there is always good :). Not really having gotten into Montana college football too much (either for the Griz or the 'Cats), I was still interested in watching the National Championship game between Montana and Richmond. We all watched, and just like all those actors who don't win the award, "it's an honor just to be nominated." Well, the Griz should be proud they made it to the championship game... literally. Finding the stadium and getting their uniforms on was the high point of the evening. Richmond quickly, decisively, and inarguably destroyed them. It was over way before halftime, and Montana had no idea what was going on.
Unlike Seattle and Spokane, we've gotten moderate snow this weekend. On the left is a shot of steam coming off Flathead Lake, and on the right, our backyard with 7" of snow perched everywhere.
Along the way we stopped twice for eats, and in the spirit of Christmas, I'll be generous with the first review.
1. Safeway Deli, Polson. Oh my dear good god this was bad. You know the taste when you nibble a piece of synthetic leather utterly devoid of moisture? Warm it up and you got their fried chicken.
2. No Sweat Cafe, Helena. A Hippie hangout, with anti-social tendencies like a no cell phone rule, fair-trade coffee, and other weird stuff. Great food, the service is, shall we say, "casual", and lingering is encouraged. Buncha non fast-food hippies....
3. Muralt's Cafe, I-90 and Exit 96, Missoula. Outstanding. Good food, excellent fries (and I'm not a big fries guy), and friendly service.
Okay, enough with the silliness. Visiting the Bubbs was a blast, and seeing their spastic black lab Scout made it that much more fun. Very much in the "It's a Small World" vein, as we were just about to leave, the couple that occasionally helps clean Lynn & Shawn's house came over, and voila, it was Monique's music director from Flathead High. My dad and his Two Degrees of Separation theory would've loved it.
Hall was wonderful, and the food there is always good :). Not really having gotten into Montana college football too much (either for the Griz or the 'Cats), I was still interested in watching the National Championship game between Montana and Richmond. We all watched, and just like all those actors who don't win the award, "it's an honor just to be nominated." Well, the Griz should be proud they made it to the championship game... literally. Finding the stadium and getting their uniforms on was the high point of the evening. Richmond quickly, decisively, and inarguably destroyed them. It was over way before halftime, and Montana had no idea what was going on.
Unlike Seattle and Spokane, we've gotten moderate snow this weekend. On the left is a shot of steam coming off Flathead Lake, and on the right, our backyard with 7" of snow perched everywhere.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
A Season of Plenty
Thanksgiving was, as is usual for the Blazek clan, plentiful. Carla had a dozen people for dinner, and everything was delicious. It was a good trip, and Spokane provided lots of snow!Monique and I hadn't intended to do much Black Friday shopping, but maybe because we didn't feel pressure to be there right when stores opened, that's why we were out as long as we were. Yes it was nuts, but so am I, so it's a wash.
The lovely family pictured is enjoying a deer block from our local ranch supply store. After putting a couple treats right in front of the house, we decided to move them into the trees so the deer can feel more protected. They have nothing to fear from us (unless they go for buried bulbs and whatnot), but it's a bit disconcerting at night hearing animals pawing and chewing just outside the bedroom window. And since raccoons found and destroyed one of our bird feeders, it's just better to be a little more conscious of our outdoor food supplies.
Decorations are going up, the wood stove is running nearly every day, and this weekend we'll go tree hunting. I'm very nearly done shopping, so it's just down to cards and/or the Christmas/Epiphany/President's Day letter.
Given how little I've blogged about stuff this year, it should be a doozy.
Here's to warmth, love, security, deep sighs of contentment, and the settling in for winter. Peace!
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