Good Morning All!
A Glory Hallelujah is given for my sister-in-law Mary’s good health! She got good news from her doctor the other day. That’s an answer to many prayers, for sure! While I have many outstanding relatives/family members, Mary would have to rate the MVP Award for my extended family. She has a heart of gold and gives selflessly to others. Here’s to you, Mary!
Happy Birthday wishes go to my brother (and only sibling), Matt, who celebrates his special day on May 6th. He’s a man of many talents, not the least of which are outstanding special education teacher in the Seattle WA area for close to 30 years (I’ve lost track of the exact number); an advocate for the less fortunate (he headed up the effort at Olympia High School in the 1970s to raise funds & awareness for the drought & hunger crisis in sub-Sahara Africa); a lover of dogs (especially his beloved dogs Ember & Cheyenne); his love of camping, hiking & the outdoors in general (he’s a good camp cook too!); a loving father to his daughters Nerys & Lacy and a loving husband to Val and putting up with all of my idiosyncrasies (sp?) growing up with me….you were one patient fellow, that’s for sure! Here’s to you, Matt! Have fun on your special day of celebration!
Speaking of outstanding human beings, here’s to one of my sports heroes, John Havlichek of Boston Celtics fame, who died this past week. Who can ever forget his exciting hook shots, terrific rebounding and leading the unforgettable Celtic fast breaks. In my mind, Havlichek was a great example of what dedication and hard work can accomplish in any field of endeavor. He might have been the first “Mr. Hustle” in the world of sports…at least in my book. Here’s to you, John Havlichek, and thanks for the many great basketball games in which you played over the years. I’ll always be kind of partial to the Boston Celtics because of you.
Well, I returned from The Tana House yesterday afternoon after another great stay there. It gets harder and harder to leave there after each visit. I traveled the Camas Road by car day before yesterday and it was certainly different landscape than when I traveled it by cross-country skis about 6 weeks ago. Spring sure has a way of taking a deep, snow-covered road and transforming it into a bare roadway in such a short amount of time. The Lewis Range of mountains that runs through Glacier Park south to north were the most magnificent I have seen, with lots of fresh snow covering them in mid-Spring. I heard that this is the coldest beginning to a year in 27 years in the Flathead/Glacier area. The average daily temperature for the period January 1st-April 30th was 27.9 degrees…Needless to say, I had to build a fire at The Tana House each morning to take the chill off. On my way up the North Fork Road the other day I was treated to a large elk herd sighting in a meadow with the snow-capped Lewis Range in the distance…spectacular is putting it mildly! I did make it up to my favorite bakery in the world (The Polebridge Mercantile Bakery) and found a Sticky Bun for Judy and a Huckleberry Shortbread Bar for me. Ummmm….good! I even made it as far as the road to Bowman Lake (my happiest of places), but it was closed (due to open soon I hope!). On my way back I moved a fallen tree from the North Fork Road, so I did my bit for needed infrastructure improvements (when will Congress do the same???…ha…ha…ha).
Speaking of wild animals, our Tana House camera picked up the strangest of sounds (three screechy sounds in a row over a minute or so) the other night, around 2:20 a.m….(I must have been sound asleep, because I didn’t hear anything unusual). Judy thought it might have been a fox and, sure enough, she was right. We checked out what a fox sounds like in the wild when it calls out and it matched what we heard on the camera…how about that! The fox must have been out hunting right in front of The Tana House! And speaking of strange happenings, I awoke this past Monday morning at the crack of dawn to see a bat flying through The Tana House…how about that??? Now, that’s not something I expected to see! Well, I tried to shoe it out with a broom, to no avail. Bats are fast flyers and are pretty elusive. I didn’t have anything, like a fishing net, with which to capture it. I was able to corral it in the laundry room and shut the door. I then called a pest control company, but had to wait awhile for them to come (evidently they were chasing down other strange critters that same day). Well, when Roy from Intermountain Pest Control arrived, we opened the door to the laundry room thinking we would capture the bat immediately but, lo and behold, it was nowhere to be found! Roy said that bats can get out of tight spots better than most every other creature (like a mouse). We think it went into the utility room and then found a way out of the house through a vent or open space…we’ll never really know for sure. I learned a lot about bat behavior from Roy. He told me that bats have the same bone structure as humans and they have a great sense of feel and smell…their sensory capabilities are off the charts…probably due to the fact that they are “as blind as a bat”! I’m glad the little bat found its way out of the house, as it has been a great insect control specialist outside of our place. Judy said she saw the bat flying around night before last, so I think it is back on “bat patrol”. If the bat ever gets in The Tana House again, we’ll be prepared for it, as I now have a set of gloves and a fishing net at the ready. Encountering a bat is a small thing to deal with for living in paradise!
Speaking of The Tana House, I was reading Will Durant’s epic book entitled “Caesar and Christ” yesterday and came upon this passage by the famous Roman citizen Pliny describing his country home outside of Rome that pretty well sums up my feelings for The Tana House:
“Tell me now, have I not just cause to bestow my time and affection upon this agreeable retreat?”
Well, I mentioned that John Havlichek is one of my heroes. Another of my heroes is Mister Rogers (Fred Rogers). Here’s a quote of his from the recently released book by him entitled “Let’s Make The Most Of This Beautiful Day”:
“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers—so many caring people in the world.”
Here’s to you, Fred Rogers…reminding us that “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day in the neighborhood…won’t you be my neighbor?”
Speaking of books, here’s the book tip for the day:
Check out “Chasing Lewis & Clark Across America: A 21st Century Aviation Adventure” by Ron Lowery & Mary Walker (2004). It traces the route taken by The Lewis & Clark Expedition in 1804-1806 by airplane. The photos are spectacular and gives you a feel for the terrain that Lewis & Clark and their team took across uncharted lands. Oh America…how magnificent you are!
Here are some thoughts for the day:
“My greatest strength is common sense. I’m really a standard brand—like Campbell’s tomato soup or Baker’s chocolate.”
—Katharine Hepburn, multi-Oscar winning actress
“If you’re going to stick around in this business, you have to have the ability to reinvent yourself, whether consciously or unconsciously.”
—Dennis Quaid, actor of the movie “Frequency” fame
“I could never hold a job for more than three months, which works out well because that’s how long a movie shoots.”
—Dennis Quaid
“We are mirrors whose brightness is wholly derived from the sun that shines upon us.”
—C.S. Lewis, “The Four Loves”, as quoted in “C.S. Lewis’ Little Book of Wisdom: Meditations on Faith, Life, Love, and Literature” (2018)
Here’s to a great Friday and good luck to all you Bloomsday runners out there!
Press on,
Papa ‘a (Dad, Uncle Mark, etc.)