He must have been the Marlboro man

You know the guy I mean. Wearing a cowboy hat, and riding the open range, on his trusty steed. With a Marlboro tucked firmly between his lips. Except this guy was a postman, and instead of a trusty steed he was driving a mail delivery truck. Oh, and there was no cowboy hat, or open range. There was a cigarette tucked, okay well more like dangling from his lips.

On my way to work, I saw a drama unfold that was worthy of I don't know, some kind of home video show. I had stopped behind the postman, on a busy side street, because I wanted to get a phone number off of a sign. He was putting mail in street side mailboxes. He got out of his truck and walked up to a residence, that was clearly empty. When he got back in his truck, he backed up to remove mail from one of the boxes.

Here is where I still can't believe what I saw. Here's the drama. As he was taking the mail out of the box, he was still inside his truck. The truck started to roll forward. He's still attached to the street side mailboxes. After being dragged for a short distance, he gets pulled out of the truck, falls, knocks over the mailboxes, sees his truck still rolling forward, gets up, and runs after the truck, which had stopped because it hit a sign post.

I jumped out of my truck and asked him if he was okay. He got back in his truck, without saying a word. He tried to back up to get away from the sign, but the tires spun on ice. After he got unstuck, he drove down to a gas station parking lot a short distance away. I thought he would come back, and I would help him upright the mailboxes. Next thing I look, and he is driving away around a corner!

With the cigarette still dangling from his lips!

Songs that run through my head

There are places I remember all my life
Though some have changed
Some forever, not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
Of lovers and friends I still can recall
Some are dead and some are living
In my life I loved them all

As I was sitting here, pondering what to write, this song popped into my head. I don't know if I am un-American, but I never was much of a Beatles fan. So, why this song came to me, I just don't have any idea. I like the song tho.

Some mornings I wake up with "Don't Worry, Be Happy", playing in my brain. I know why that plays. As I've said before, I believe in things that go bump in the night, guardian angels and such. In recent months, I have been going through things that, well lets just say I was getting ready to measure my truck windows for curtains. I believe my guardian angels remind me of the Don't Worry, Be Happy song, so I know things will be okay.

Today at work, Devo's "Whip It" was going through my head. I was even doing a techno dance, you know kind of Devo-ish. I know in past posts I have mentioned the muzak at work. Yep, it still moves me, still gets my head to bobbin' and my booty to shakin'. I am starting to care less and less who is around at the moment I am moved. I don't blush as much anymore. Sometimes, when I know no one can hear me, I sing out loud.

I think a lot. I mean, non-stop, cramp my brain a lot. So, when my thoughts are keeping me awake at night, in my head I sing "Row Row Your Boat". At times I can even get the left side of my brain starting it earlier than the right side, the way it is supposed to be sung. I'm not sure why that song works, but it does. I recently found alternative lyrics to the song:

Propel, Propel, Propel your craft
Placidly down the liquid solution
Ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically, ecstatically,
Existence is but an illusion.

I think I'll stick with the old lyrics, because the new ones would keep me awake trying to remember them!

For more years than I can remember the Judd song "Why Not Me", has often played in my head. I've often asked myself that question when a relationship didn't work. Why not me? I've never gotten, or come up with an answer. Okay, sing it with me, row row row.....

Seeing stars!

I have heard from people at work that a lot of celebrities have homes (big homes) in the Flathead Lake area of Montana. Why just the other day my boss saw Wayne Newton, and his entourage at a restaurant in Big Fork. How cool is that? And one of the women at work said she was speechless when she saw Jack Hanna (yep, the zoo guy). I've heard so many names of celebrities my co-workers have seen, that I can't remember who they were.

In the past, I've seen a celebrity or two. I once saw Arte Johnson in the airport in Detroit. I came across his autograph while I was looking for the gorilla picture. I got the Statler Brothers' autographs when I saw them at the Milwaukee County Fair one year.

At work, besides seeing the odd (and I do mean odd) guy wearing his hair like Elvis, I was coming up celebrity sight-less. I am happy to report I have had my own celebrity sighting. Yep, one day at work I swore I saw Troy Evans. I pointed him out to people, and they said that it was Troy Evans. Pretty exciting stuff!

Who is Troy Evans? Is that what I hear you asking? Well, he is none other than Sgt. Pepper from China Beach! He also plays Frank Martin on ER, and has had numerous other parts according to his info on IMDB. I wondered what he would be doing in Kalispell, MT. Well, it turns out he is from Kalispell. Wow, is right.

Myself, I prefer to look at other stars. The kinds found in constellations. The ones found in the night sky. I used to know the names of more stars when I was younger. Like the big and little dippers. My dad used to point them out to us when we were kids. Now that I live in "Big Sky" country, away from the light pollution of the city, I see many amazing stars for sure.

I ain't never been a princess...

...So, I cannot grow up to be a queen.

It's true, I can't remember a time in my life when I was called a princess. I guess when you are the youngest of three girls, the older ones get to be princesses. I was, and still am, a punkin.

I've been thinking about a time my grandmother on my mom's side and I went to California together. It was just before I went into college. Grandma and I were pretty close. It was back in the day when you wrote letters, and we exchanged quite a few. Anyway, Grandma and I went to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins in San Jose. They had moved out there nine, or so, years earlier.

My favorite memory from that trip was when my uncle took Grandma and me to San Francisco. We walked around the city some. Down by the wharf. Then we came across a gorilla playing the saxophone. How cool was that!! So cool that I had my picture taken with him!

Wow, I'm back. I just took a short trip down memory lane. I went to look through some boxes of photographs for the gorilla picture. I didn't find that picture (it must be with some of my stuff in Wisconsin), but oh the pictures of loved ones now gone that I did find. Sigh!

Ahhhhh, I was on a roll

What an awesome day I had! A beautiful, sun shiny day in western Montana is not to be wasted indoors. So, I put some blueberries, a banana and water in a bag and headed off to Glacier NP. Oh, the joy and peace in my heart I feel when I turn on to Going To The Sun Road, most heavy, happy sigh.

It was the first time I had been to Glacier in the winter. And, although I didn't get into the heart of the park (closer to Logan Pass), I still wanted to cry at the beauty. There were only two places open, Apgar Village and the Lake McDonald area. Since I made my first snow angel the other night, I knew Glacier would be a good place to make more. I was on a roll. I made snow angels in both places. A way of leaving my mark, without leaving a lasting impression.

If you have never had a chance to visit Glacier NP in person, I recommend you check out their web cams at www.nps.gov/glac/photosmultimedia/webcams.htm. It isn't by any stretch of the imagination the next best thing to being there, but the cams do capture some of the beauty that is my favorite place on earth.

Tonight I am smiling. My heart is smiling. And, life is good.

Last chance before Spring

Last night when I got home from work, I decided to make a snow angel. I had been kind of bummed that I hadn't had a chance to make one this year. In an earlier post, I said I would need a lot of snow, a cloud of snow, to make my snow angel on. Well, as winter passed I realized that just weren't gonna happen.

In my humble opinion I made one of my best snow angels in a long time. (I didn't even have as much trouble getting up, as I thought I would.)

I know some would say that at my age, I have no business getting down on the ground, playing like a child! To those naysayers, I say hoooey! I spend enough hours in a day, week, month, year, lifetime, being a grown-up, doing grown-up things, making grown-up decisions. So, the few moments I lay in the snow, and move my arms and legs in a rhythmic motion, with the spirit of a child, the better for me. Everyone should try it, it'll make you giggle. (By the way, I am ageless, at least in my own mind.)