The Myth & The Majesty

So I've bragged plenty about the fabulous changes in my life in the last few months. I mean, I have a job that's just ... not very job-like. I live in my own little part of paradise. The food's great.   But there are the little perks, too. The things that may have occurred to me before I signed on but weren't necessarily part of the decision itself -- things like health insurance and nearby trails and weather that I happen to love even when it's totally screwing with me.   Enter ... this thing.   This pedometer is a bonus unto itself, as I get straight-up cash from my health insurance company just by wearing it. But what is far more intriguing to me has been what it has revealed. Prior to this, my jobs have required a lot of desk time. Not surprising; engineers use computers. Computers require desks. That's pretty much just the way it goes, unless you've got a laptop in the back of a pickup somewhere (I'm talking to you, inspector-type

Sorry. Saw that joke being cracked all over Facebook. I couldn't resist. This is what I saw yesterday, back when the snow was melting the second it hit the ground and I just wasn't taking it seriously.   Aaaaaand this was this morning.     I took that while standing in an 18 inch drift.   And this came from the Facebook page of the local Fox affiliate.   But being that this is the Hills ... here's the forecast for the rest of the week. Yeah. It's gonna get soupy. Oh well. Guess that's the price to pay to live in paradise. Oh -- and here are some deer.  

Holy buckets, it's been a Week, hasn't it? After Boston -- and West, Texas -- and while I'm at it, all the excitement over North Korea -- it's hard to know where to begin. It's heartbreaking. And exhausting. And depending on how you're trying to stay up to date, absolutely maddening. It's this last part I want to address today, because quite frankly, I don't think I can say anything comforting, reassuring, or sympathetic enough to be worth putting on paper/screen. Boston, West -- my heart goes out to you. I can't imagine the fear and pain, but I'll continue to hope and pray that it will be eased. Now, as for the maddening aspects ... Well. * Dear National News Media: What exactly are you trying to accomplish?! Given the events of the last three weeks, I had to stop watching television. It's not that I don't want to know what's going on -- I just discovered that I didn't want to hear it from you. In fact, I turned

This is Clarence. A few weeks ago, Clarence appeared in camp, hungry for both food and attention. Apparently one of the sadly large number of pets that get dumped in the area, Clarence seemed happy to find people. Not long after that, the Bossman suggested Clarence should maybe be relocated. And then I had my first real encounter with him. Followed directly by my buying a bag of cat food and putting an official claim on him. It may have something to do with Clarence's uncanny resemblance to Edgar, who was staying with me at the time. (In fact, the first time I saw Clarence, I thought Edgar had gotten out.) It may also have been the fact that he seemed friendly enough and had, after all, found us. Anyway, since then Clarence has taken to wandering camp. Most mornings he follows me around, no more than a few feet behind or in front of me as I check buildings or grab coffee from the kitchen. He's proving his usefulness, too -- I've been given a couple of gifts o

This past weekend -- while in Sioux Falls -- my mother asked if I felt like visiting Verizon. I'd mentioned it in passing a couple weeks ago but hadn't really thought about it again, and now was my chance. You see, for the first time in about a decade, my phone had survived to an actual upgrade. I'm on the family plan (hard to feel sheepish when it saves me hundreds) and somehow, no other family member had needed a new phone in the meantime. As for the phone itself surviving -- well. I had one of these. Photo pulled from Google Images. Mine is much more scratched up.   That is a Casio Brigade. The kind of phone made for construction workers and twenty-something women who break phones. Water resistant, shock resistant, and all-around tough.   Which is handy, since I liked to drop it in things just to scare people. Or throw it down a sidewalk. (Yep. Did that more than once.)   It does, of course, have its limitations. The speaker is in a weird spot, so ma

  From the KEVN Facebook page.  As you may have heard (or personally experienced), South Dakota just got snow. A lot of snow. And some ice. And some more snow. And a whole bunch more ice. But we'll talk about the snow, some of the heaviest of which was right here in the Hills. However, this story is about more than the weather. This story starts three months ago, when the Bossman realized I had never been to our other two camps and the M-Man hadn't been to one of them. Also, we hadn't all met the current directors of said camps (who are both new in the last year and a half). It seemed a road trip was in order. February wasn't a great fit, and March was too action-packed. So ... April, we decided. Heck, the weather would even be more predictable then. .... Yeah. I, being someone who doesn't always think her hairbrained schemes through from beginning to end, made plans with Shorty to make a madcap drive to Sioux Falls and the 'rents thi