blurrrrry

When I first moved to Montana, and then started my bakery job, I used to see people and think, 'Hey that person looks like so-and-so in Wisconsin.' It would happen time and again.

There was one time a woman walked up to the counter, and I thought it was my mom. I had tears in my eyes when I took her order. Another time, I did a double take because there was a man that on first glance I thought was my dad, to the point of walking the same way. Of course neither of these people were my mom and dad, because Mom and Dad are in Wisconsin.

I've noticed lately, that the faces have become blurry. Now when I see someone, I wonder if they look like someone from back in Wisconsin, or if I remember their face from here in Montana. The old faces I knew seem to have become less familiar than the new faces I am becoming familiar with now.

The Birds

Who doesn't remember the Hitchcock thriller "The Birds"? Where the rich socialite, Melanie, is attacked by birds in a small California coastal town while delivering a pair of love birds as a practical joke?

Well, I had my own "birds" encounter today. No, not in a small California coastal town. I was in my little corner of Montana. Oh, and there were no lovebirds either. And, I'm glad to say there was no blood shed. There I was walking along a paved trail, admiring the mountains, when I saw a snake. I stopped to take a picture of the snake, when it slithered into the tall grass along the trail. A dark brown bird landed on the branch of a bush nearby. I told the bird he had scared the snake away, and continued walking.

I turned around, because I had decided to walk a different way to get back home. Only to find the initial bird, had been joined by a second bird. Along the trail there is a barbed wire fence. As I walked, the birds played leap frog over each other to get to the next fence post I would be walking by. Here is where it all got kind of creepy and Hitchcockian. The birds started to squawk. I looked straight above my head, to find a third bird hovering over me. I walked faster, the bird hovered faster. I stopped, the bird stopped. So, there I was a bird hovering over me, and two birds playing leap frog on the fence post, ahhhhhh! Who me panic? I was worried about the hovering bird diving at my head, and getting tangled in my nest of blond hair!

I tried to tell the birds I wasn't there to get their babies. I told them they had to worry more about the snake than me. I tried to reason with them. Woe, wait, listen to me, I tried to reason with three birds. Okay, so maybe, I was having more of a "Smile, you're on Candid Camera" moment! It wasn't until I crossed the road that I turned to look for the hidden camera.

I guess that's just not manly

I have been doing my own research study of late, about whether sprinkles on donuts are manly, or not.

As I said in a previous post, I work in a bakery. Most days, our donut fryer will sprink-le-tize some of the donuts as she makes them. Then when a customer asks for a certain type of donut, if there is one with sprinkles, I'll ask if they want with sprinkles, or without. We sell lots of donuts to rough and rugged cowboy types (this is Montana after all), not so rough and rugged types, women and children.

I estimate, based on the data I have compiled, that not one of the rough and rugged cowboy types has bought a donut with sprinkles on it. As a matter of fact, I get a very emphatic no! each time I ask. There have even been a couple occasions where I have stepped back away from the donut case, for fear of being punched in the nose!

Not the same with the not so rough and rugged types, some of them say yes to sprinkles on their donuts. As do some women, and children. As a matter of fact, my research shows the number one consumer of the sprink-le-tized donut are children. I'm not sure why. Maybe, it's because they don't worry about how they look while they enjoy those little bits of colored goodness on their donuts!

What does this mean? What do I conclude from my informal research on the donut eating habits of the rough and rugged cowboy types? Donuts with sprinkles on them, it seems, are just not manly after all.