Real Horror Beyond Halloween

The real horror in the world transcends any frivolity attached to Halloween. Human famine in Africa and elsewhere claims far more lives than war.


Selling human bones, including skulls, for use in religious ritual, has plagued humanity for hundreds of years. Skulls are used as drinking vessels; and thigh bones as musical instruments.

The human race continues to destroy itself as well as the planet it inhabits, destroying other forms of animal and plant life as well. The planet Earth, and all its live forms: DOOMED.

Puppy Chowdown Time. It's Plastic!

What am I going to do? This pup just chews anything plastic, wood, rubber, vinyl or DIRT!

She also managed to "dig" and 'chew" a big hole in unfinished dry wall in the garage kennel area. She dug it down to the stud. I noticed she was coughing and hacking when I returned home. Yes, gypsum chalk is difficult to swallow. Yesterday I bought a METAL water dish. I can nail it down to a board so she can't tip it over or play with it. Or eat it.

She is only 31 pounds and 18 months old and I am really happy that she won't get any bigger. She is normally a picture of innocence; but does not like to be left at home alone.
Sometimes I think there must be more than one of her whizzing around the house and yard, but she is just a whirlwind of a girl and we are fortunate to have her. Just have to stop leaving her home alone.

Autumn Harvest Festivals in Montana

Football season is here and the Farmers' Markets are closing down, but there are Harvest Festivals to attend.

Sometimes called Octoberfest, or OktoberFest, these events bring local folks together with visitors from all over to enjoy the fruits of the late autumn harvests, particularly apples, pumpkins and other squash, plus the pies, the rhubarb, the wonderful baked goods that our Moms still make!

Find a harvest festival near you and enjoy this special time of year.

Montana Festival of the Book Oct 22-24, 2009

The Montana Festival of the Book will bring together the region’s finest writers to celebrate reading and writing in one of the Inland Northwest’s biggest cultural events.

For the 10th consecutive year, Missoula's Festival of the Book will showcase Montana literary lifestyles over two days and three nights of events.

Here is a link to the 2009 Complete Schedule of Events (pdf).

Approximately 100 authors are on the schedule, with most of the readings and workshops at no cost. This event is sponsored by Humanities Montana, and is one of the most successful book festivals in the United States.

There will be a special tribute to recently-deceased Missoula author James Crumley at 3:00 pm Oct 22, entitled “The Last Good Kiss: An Appreciation of James Crumley,” moderated
by Michael Koepf, with Dennis Lehane, George Pelecanos, Laura Lippman and James Grady, at the the Wilma Theatre.

Crumley passed away in September 2008. Here is a link to an article that appeared on this blog at that time: Farewell to James Crumley-storyteller



Of particular note will be "An Evening with writer-humorist David Sedaris" on Friday evening at 7 pm in the Wilma Theatre. This is a ticketed event.

In the PINK Zone

Saturday's Breast Cancer Awareness event at the University of Montana Grizzly game was a big success, as this Missoulian article attests. We were all in the Pink, with cheerleaders hoisting pink pom-poms and the team mascot, Monte, sporting a white shirt with pink number "00."

It was really nice to see all the pink on display during the Sunday Night Football on NBC, with the Chicago Bears and Atlanta Falcons players and coaches wearing pink gloves, wristbands, ribbons, etc.; even the Officials participated in the Pink.

So many of our friends and relatives have been affected with breast cancer in the past five years or so, it just seems like it is getting worse instead of better.

We have a long way to go in defeating breast cancer, but awareness and monetary contributions are the first steps.

Officially, the Pink Zone is the Women's Basketball Coaches Association (WBCA) annual breast cancer awareness campaign, which you can check out at the Pink Zone links.

Fight Breast Cancer This Weekend and Every Weekend

According to the American Cancer Association, breast cancer ranks #1 in estimated new cases of all cancers diagnosed in America. This equates to 1 in 8 women being diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime. Each weekend when the University of Montana Grizzly Stadium fills up (25,500), that equates to over 3,000 people affected with this disease. With your help we can raise awareness and funding for this very important cause.
Wear Pink to the game!

University of Montana Football Grizzlies

The University of Montana Grizzlies, with a 5-0 record this season, are ranked #3 nationally, as they host the Eagles from Eastern Washington University on Saturday, October 17.

Montana is 2-0 in the Big Sky Conference and is the only undefeated team in the league. Eastern Washington, 4-2 overall, is coming off a loss at home to Weber State last Saturday. EWU is ranked #21 nationally.

We could be in for a really good competitive game. The Eagles have enjoyed as much success at Montana as anyone in the Big Sky. They would like nothing more than to be the spoiler in the Grizzlies' drive to the League Title.

Game time at Washington Grizzly Stadium is 1:05 PM, Mountain Time.

UPDATE on Water Well Pump Failure

The PUMP service guy discovered an electrical short at the pump connection (125 feet down) at bottom of well. He assured me that this was FAR more preferable than having electrical problems between the well and the control unit in the basement! That would involve trenching and cutting through concrete, etc!

As it was, the TIME INVOLVED in raising the pump to the surface and replacing a portion of bad feed wire, then lowering it again, is about the same as replacing the pump; HOWEVER, the cost was much less. Three hours at $60/hour plus $7.50 in materials, so only $187.50!

Since I had been fearful of a $900 expense, $187.50 seemed like good news. Best of all, we have water for flushing, laundry, showers, and dishes, all of which had been delayed.

By the way, we did have a few gallons of bottled water....so when I had *HAD* to flush a toilet, I poured 22 of the 24 little bottles of water into the toilet tank. That gives me some idea of how much water we flush down the toilet every DAY!

Water Well Pump Failure means NO WATER

Unpleasant surprise this morning when there was NO WATER pressure. Flushed the toilet and NO REFILL! Crap.

Found a blown fuse in the electrical service pump shut off box. Drove 8 miles to ACE Hardware and bought a box of four for $14.99. Replaced fuse, turned on power and BAM! Fuse blows again!

Called PUMP Service man who replaced our pump a few years ago. He says perhaps the capacitor in the control unit is bad. Drive 13 miles to his shop, pick up replacement control unit to test theory. Replaced control unit, replaced fuse (again), turned on power and BAM! Fuse blows again!

Call PUMP Service man again. He will come out tomorrow and check for ground faults and shorts, I think they are nearly the same thing. If he has to replace the well pump...125 feet down...that will cost $900. He doesn't take credit cards.

I will let you know what happens. P.S. Called wife at work...please bring home a few gallons of water, dear. Oh, and we might have to spend $900 tomorrow. Bye.

Red Wave Middle School Band withdrawn from homecoming parade

NOTE: UM Grizzlies beat Cal-Poly 35-23 in victorious Homecoming week. Montana is now 5-0 during 2009 season.

I think it's appropriate that the Missoula County Schools Fine Arts Director, John Combs, took the unusual step of withdrawing all three county high school bands and the middle school band, the Red Wave, from this year's University of Montana Homecoming Parade.

Parade time temperatures are forecast to be in the teens, at best, and the hazards to the kids outweigh the arguments I'm certain that many of the kids will express. Frozen toes, frozen fingers, frozen instruments....we don't need to add to so many other problems that cold weather brings by deliberately placing our children at risk.

Kudos to Mr. Combs for stepping up and taking responsibility and "making the call."

Missoula Red Wave Marching Band

This is Homecoming weekend at the University of Montana in Missoula, and the homecoming parade is an event that involves hundreds of Missoulians. We look forward to this day when we can come out and see the football team, the cheerleaders, the marching bands....even the grandkids marching in the Red Wave! This is a photo from the 2008 Homecoming parade, when the weather was pretty good, beautiful in fact.
Colder temperatures this weekend will put a damper on this year's Parade. Friday overnight low is predicted to be 8 degrees!

Can you imagine all the youngsters in the Red Wave band lined up Saturday morning waiting to begin the parade? How COLD they will be! Better dress for hunting season, kids, and watch out for freezing your lips to the horns. Wear gloves too. Who cares if you hit all the notes?

The HIGH temperature for Saturday is forecast at 34 degrees. That should make for an unpleasant welcome for the visiting football team from Cal Poly. They won't have enough time to adjust to the weather and their California metabolisms will overload on protein and they will be sluggish and sleepy and pooped out by the Second Quarter, hopefully. Go GRIZ!

Doug Photo from the Footlocker 1981

Sometimes, just for the heck of it, we remember what we looked like 28 years ago. What a baby face I was as a new Chief Petty Officer, U.S. Navy, assigned to the Aircraft Carrier, USS RANGER CV-61.

Motor Home Malaise

I thought I was doing all the preventative stuff I needed to do for the 18-year-old Class "A" motor home we bought last year.

I took care to have an oil change, tuneup, new spark plug wires, air and fuel filters, hose and belt checks, lubes, etc., you know all the routine stuff.

But motor homes present a different situation from, say, a pickup truck or van. It is a house on wheels, and there are SO many "systems" that we feel like we are driving on thin ice, so to speak, every time we take it out.

The biggest and most expensive repair this summer was the automatic transmission. The second gear "band" snapped. $860.

The next problem that "just wouldn't go away" was the Onan Generator. Again, keeping in mind that it is original equipment from 1991, the darn thing kept "surging" and would not run steady enough to provide "stable" current to run the air conditioner (or the microwave). The generator had not been "exercised" enough to keep it clean, and old gasoline breaks down and will create a hard "varnish" that prevents proper operation. (The salesman had pitched the Generator's low number of operating hours as a "positive" when in fact, it was a negative. Exercising an Onan Generator only 88 hours in 17 years is a recipe for carburetor failure.) The Onan GenTech told me to run the generator every month for an hour or so during the months we don't use it, and, run it with an electrical "load" on it. $368.

Oh, and a week after the carb was replaced the generator wouldn't start. It was flooded out due to the choke being too rich a mix. At least that adjustment was free.

The refrigerator would not operate in LP gas mode, although it worked fine on electrical modes. A visit to the dealership and a quick clean out repair to the "sooted up combustion chamber" and it works now. $89. (This charge included an LP gas "system" check, so that could have been a safety issue.)

I keep discovering new idiosyncrasies about this motor home that are NOT in any of the manuals. Operating a motor home seems to be a system of "trial and error," or "learning by doing."

Like mice. They will crawl up the tires and into the motor area...somehow finding their way into the cabinets. Icky.

Things will leak. Little snappy things will pop off or break. We have to worry about LP gas system, furnace, oven, range top, microwave, sewer, water pump, hot water heater, refrigerator, direct current from batteries, an electrical AC/DC "inverter" or "converter" thing that makes noise and we can't find it. Oh, and by the way, the plumbing system needs to be "winterized" so the weather up here in Montana doesn't destroy it.

I also bought a big "COVER" for last winter, but it didn't make it through to spring without several little rips, right on the edge of the roof, so DUCT Tape came in handy. I don't know what we will do this year, perhaps buy just a top cover, but that is over $300 too.