• Creatures,  Hobbies,  Ramblings

    Not a Sound

    Montana’s spring is basically winter-lite. It was still snowing went we went out yesterday, though luckily the storm dissipated before reaching our location. Thankfully, the weather app tells me it should be getting a little warmer now. That means we can finally start properly heading out to explore the world without big wool jackets and survival packs. As I just mentioned, yesterday we packed our bikes, the dogs, forty-seven bottles of water, a few Bobo’s Oat Bars, and headed to some mountains not far from where we live – which is what anyone through the entire western side of Montana can say about mountains, really. Levee, our cattledogshepherdmix, is overly-nourished.…

  • Health & Fitness,  Hobbies,  Ramblings

    Blood, Sweat, Tears Make the Pain Taste Sweeter

    I started learning to ride a bicycle in second grade. My first bike looked very similar to this one. I’m not absolutely sure it had rainbow stripes, but I wouldn’t be surprised. My stepdad would hold on to the chrome seat handle and steady me as I went along the bumpy hill of the yard at my grandparent’s farmhouse. Then he’d let go, and I’d travel twenty to thirty magnificent feet before falling over. This kept happening. It was discouraging. I couldn’t balance for anything. I believe they put some training wheels on, and I was able to cruise down the gravel driveway a little easier. Then one day, as…

  • Creatures,  Hobbies,  Ramblings

    I Know You Want to Know But

    Our new aquarium light arrived. It brightens everything up, as it’s supposed to do, you know, being a light. I’m sure the plants love it. However, I do not. It’s pretty. The top is aluminum, and the legs are clear acrylic. The aluminum gets toasty, so it’s best used somewhere that air can circulate around it freely. Don’t shove it into a hutch cubby or something. Or do. I’m not your mother. The light itself sits at a set height of approximately four inches and reflects strongly off the top of the water as multi-colored, making it difficult to view into the top of the aquarium at all, and it…

  • Creatures,  Hobbies,  Ramblings

    A Fresh Chance to Start Right

    Okie doles, as my phone likes to auto-correct. There is now another tank in the house. The ten gallon I may or may not have mentioned ordering is now set up on a relatively unstable shelf in our living room. I am not talented when it comes to aquascaping. Perhaps if I had rooms of rocks and sticks available to choose from, I could do something more elaborate. As it is, we have to choose from what’s on the shelf at our tiny aquarium shop and try to visualize the look without the tank to use for sizing things properly. I do believe if I owned a shop, I’d have…

  • Health & Fitness,  Ramblings

    This Surely Isn’t Any Mystery

    I don’t use Facebook very often. I have a few family members as friends and a few groups I’m a part of, but mostly I don’t care about other people’s breakfasts or how they feel about hot-button issues. There is a song, Carnivore, by Starset, that says, “No one needs to hear your words,” and that line runs through my head 96% of the time I’m browsing social media. Recently I’ve found myself getting incredibly frustrated with people in the aforementioned groups. While perhaps well-meaning, the responses to requests are never in line with what’s been asked. One group I was a part of was for healthy eating. I don’t…