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The leaning tree of Great Falls

Every year, the city of Great Falls accepts a tree donation for Christmas. This year really wasn’t any different than any of the rest, accept that the tree that was donated this year came with an angle.

According to City Commissioner Rick Tryon’s facebook page, this is how it all played out:

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You can contact Rick HERE.

Though people might have complained about the rather crooked or leaning tree, I think most of us are taking it in stride.

Those who might worry about others around the state laughing at us over this need to understand that people around the state have always laughed at us for some reason or the other. We here have always done others around the state a good turn by laughing at them too.

I mean, C’Mon — who here in town hasn’t had a good chuckle over the antics of Bozeman or Missoula? So we, with our leaning tree and all, really don’t have it as bad as some would want us to imagine.

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At the end of the day though, this whole leaning or crooked tree episode really just boils down to ones own perspective. Is the glass half full or half empty?

Are you miserable or are you happy? Most of us here are pretty happy, so when we take a snapshot of our crooked tree, it all comes out straight.

It all just depends on which angle or position you take on these matters.

I like the tree — It’s full and green and full of lights.

It’s a Christmas tree.

Meanwhile — Society struggles to mitigate the effects of a virus

Our son started his freshman year at high school this year. The fall of the 2021 school year hasn’t been any different, so far, as any other year previous, our son comes home with some sort of virus from school that everyone in the home, at some point, catches. We all know the drill … send the kid off to school in the fall … kid brings home viral goodies.

I caught the annual cold that somehow just comes around at the beginning of every school year just like clock work. We go through the head congestion, coughing, and stuffiness for 3 or 4 days, and then we recover until next time — It’s become more of a ritual that we go through every September than anything else.

Regardless of what we might try to do in the home every September in our efforts to mitigate this pesky cold virus, we inevitably always end up catching it.

I’ve never really ever had an opinion on any virus on any given day other than the fact that they are what they are, and their eventual way into our personal worlds are a fact of life. Regardless of what you might try and do, you will catch one eventually.

Over the past months, there’s been some fairly hefty concern over the coronavirus. Public health officials sort of freaking out over a new strain of SARS that may, or could, very possibly, end the world as we know it, going forward.

With all of what we might have learned collectively as a society over the years about virus’ in general, you’d think that public health would be handling the outbreaks with a bit more tact and focus. Of course, I understand that it’s more difficult to handle anything well at all when you’ve got the federal government micro-managing anything health related in our society.

You can’t effectively mitigate anything health related when you’ve got an extremely large, unenlightened, and tone deaf political machine using the human condition as an excuse to further the cause of it’s failing/failed government policy.

If one were to understand how a virus might actually work out in the real world, we might find the questions and answers below to be either terrifying, or extremely entertaining.

At the grocery store:

Q: Why is there plastic on the payment keypad?
A: To protect people from Covid.
Q: But isn’t everyone touching the plastic keypad the same way they would the regular keypad?
A: I don’t know, I just work here.

Q: Why don’t you pack the grocery bags anymore?
A: Because of Covid 19 to reduce the spread of catching or spreading the virus.
Q: But a shelf packer took it out of a box and put on the shelf, a few customers might of picked it up and put it back deciding they don’t want it, I put it in my cart then on the conveyor belt, you pick it up to scan it. But putting it in a bag after you scan is risky??
A: I don’t know, I just work here.

At the drive-thru:

Server: (holds a tray out the window with a bag of food for logical friend to grab)
Q: Why is my bag of food on a tray?
A: So I don’t touch your food because of Covid.
Q: Didn’t the cook touch my food? Didn’t the person wrapping my food touch it and then touch it again when placing it in my bag? Didn’t you touch the bag and put it on the tray? Didn’t you touch the tray?
A: I don’t know, I just work here.

In society:

Society: If you cough or sneeze do it in your elbow or sleeve,
Also society: Don’t shake hands or hug anyone or you will spread the virus. To greet people do an elbow tap instead.

Q: Elbow tap? Isn’t that where you tell people to sneeze or cough? Into their elbow? Now you want people to tap each other with that elbow?
Wouldn’t it be safer to sneeze into your elbow and then shake hands like we did before Covid?

At the restaurant:

Hostess: Okay, I can seat you at this table right here (4 feet away), but I will need you to wear a mask to the table.
Q: What happens when I get to the table?
A: You can take off the mask.
Q: Then it is safe over there?
A: Yes.
Q: Are those fans blowing above the table? Is that the air-conditioning I feel? Is the air circulating in here?
A: I don’t know, I just work here.

Society:

You are not allowed to stand and drink at the pub — you have to sit down.
But at the shopping center you are not allowed to sit down, all the chairs are roped off.

The ridiculousness of these so-called virus mitigation protocols are leaving anyone who can still think critically asking more questions than anyone else might have the answers to. I mean, anyone that knows anything at all about a virus will more often than not find themselves asking, who thinks this stuff up?

Given how involved the political machine might be in the things of health, life might be somewhat difficult for logical people right now.
Most of us were raised with the ability to process and execute logic. Government intervention into our healthcare concerns have seemingly turned common sense on it’s head. Interjecting the nonsensical into the equations of health have somehow caused the case of covid to turn into something that it was never meant to be.

Part of the reason why a lot of this stuff doesn’t make sense to anyone who can rub two brain cells together, is because the government has sweetened the so-called “concern-for-your-health” pot with money. The government’s only tool for it’s faux concern is money. Not too unlike how government rules education with money (and we all know how that’s working out), it rules this so-called health concern with money as well: i.e. — “We’ll pay top dollar for any verified positive covid case”. As a matter of speaking, over the past 18 months, the quest for the almighty dollar from the government wiped the flu totally off the map. The flu, of course, is still here … always has been. It’s just that money was seemingly just so much more important than spending any time on something that doesn’t pay.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has come out with what would appear to be some fairly non-biased studies with regard to this whole covid thing. The studies themselves actually elude to many of the things we, as a collective society, have already known for literally … years.
A virus is what it is, and given the conditions of the environment, a virus will do what all virus’ have done for thousands of years … the virus will infect people … mutate … then move on to the next bunch of people.

Am I concerned about covid? Of course I am. But as with any other virus in this world, I’m not going to let it rule the day in my life. I’ll follow the studies, learn about what real science has to teach, and then move on to learn more at a later date.

If you happen to be the sort that might believe everything the government tells you, then knock yourself out — I’m not going to call you stupid or laugh at you for wearing your mask outdoors when you’re by yourself with no one else around. I’m not going to insist that you put your mask on because you might kill somebody when you’re in the grocery store. You can only know what you think you know, and you can only do for you according to your own set of beliefs.

I haven’t had (that I’m aware of) this coronavirus (knock on wood), and neither has any of my family members (that they are aware of) — (knock on wood again). Just because I haven’t had it, doesn’t mean that I won’t catch it at some point in the future. You never know how it all might work itself out.

Going forward, I’ll do what I’ve always done — I’ll continue to keep science, politics, and health separated from each other — Keeping these things separate is probably the only way anyone can see what’s actually going on in the world when it comes to mitigating the effects of this virus.

Thanks for the read.

Happy Trails.

sourcedMIT researchers have developed a publicly available model based on physics and data from past spreading events.

A guideline to limit indoor airborne transmission of COVID-19

A Guideline to Limit Indoor Airborne Transmission of COVID-19 (PDF)

Dataset SO1 (SLSX)

Harlowton, Montana (a short history)

Richard A. Harlow organized the Montana Railroad on May 26, 1895 to run originally from Lombard on the Missouri River where it connected with the Northern Pacific running approximately 56 miles to Leadboro in the Castle Mountains which was in the throes of a silver boom.

The Depression of 1893 caused the demise of profitable mining in the Castle area and Richard Harlow came up “a day late and a dollar short” when he entered into transportation of ores from the Castles.

The Montana Railroad in its early years rarely if ever made a profit so when Mr. Harlow decided in 1899 to extend his rails into the Musselshell Valley and eventually to Lewistown, he had to use much persuasion or “jawboning” to achieve financing. Hence, the moniker “The Jawbone” came to be associated with the Montana Railroad.

Tracks reached Merino in June of 1900. A new town was formed here and rail yards were constructed which were renamed Harlow after the Montana Railroad’s builder but the United States Post Office required the name be changed as it appeared to close to “Harlem” a town and railway station on the Great Northern Railway in northern Montana. So, to comply, the name was amended to Harlowton, which is what it is today.

In its final configuration, the Montana Railroad operated over 157 miles of tracks which was incorporated into the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railway system in 1908.

Winter has arrived at Red Lodge Mountain

Upon after being unusually warm and dry this year, it appears that winter is finally here in Montana.

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For those that ski, this is some pretty exciting news. The ski slopes have been somewhat lacking of late and have caused a bit of concern for our mountain resort owners.
Whitefish currently only has a settled base of only 16 inches, whereas Showdown isn’t reporting a base. Showdown is expected to open on Dec. 10.
Red Lodge Mountain is reporting only 12 inches at the base, but the weather has produced another 8 inches just today.

The current weather forecast for Red Lodge Mountain looks to be cold and somewhat snowy throughout the week.

Went for a stroll last night

Last night we attended the 38th annual Christmas Stroll here in town on Central.

Seemed to not be as vibrant as some of the other past strolls were though. Sure, there were lots of people milling about, but it didn’t seem as well lit and as festive as we had become somewhat used to.

I remember Santa and his reindeer camped out in the D.A. Davidson parking lot complete with all of the straw bails and lights with the children all lined up expecting to meet him. The ski jump, the street bands and dancing.

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Just a few years ago we had stopped in at the now closed JJ’s for hot chocolate, and hanging out outside of the In Cahoots for Tea, which, incidentally, was closed as well.
The Army Surplus store was always seemingly a big hit too, but it’s closed down. The downtown antique mall is also closed down.

The only place that was selling hot chocolate was Tracy’s. Tracy’s had a wait time of 45 minutes, and it took another 35 minutes to get our food. We nearly could have spent the entire stroll period at Tracy’s. Can’t blame Tracy’s though, because if there had been more places opened that served actual food, Tracy’s wouldn’t have been so busy.

We didn’t stop in at Dragonfly Dry Goods because we don’t actually live in …. Seattle.
The Yellow Submarine truck was parked at the intersection outside of Tracy’s playing, of all things, Beatles music — No Christmas music … just Beatles. It wasn’t even lit up — It just sat parked in the dark, playing the Beatles

A band played on the lower level of the Times Square, and it seemed there were more small vendors on the street level. The elevators there always seem to be quite a draw with the younger folks.

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The only real exciting part was the annual polar plunge. The rest were just maybe 4, maybe 5 food vendors. The Parade of Lights was much more crowded and well attended this year it seems – um … and more stores were open.

We didn’t need tattoos and we didn’t have the desire to rent board games or enroll in online college, so we settled on Tracy’s for food, and Feather Your Nest for gifts.
Could have probably spent more money if there had been stores open on Central that were more in touch with the community. We might have actually spent quite a bit more if going to the Bar was our thing, but we don’t feel the need for alcohol when we’re out being social. We just pretty much like to poke around and shop our interests as they might relate to our being functional and practical.

We did pick up a few things at Feather Your Nest however, Dustin got a really cool set of fold-up binoculars. He seems to have an eye for things that might be dated and old. We joke around sometimes about him growing up to own an antique store but never selling anything because it’s all a part of his collection.

I’m not quite sure why the Stroll was a bit off this year. It could be that the folks that used to put it on retired and a bunch of new folks came in to take their place. Could also be that downtown vendors just moved out or quit. It could be any number of reasons I suppose. I was mostly just disappointed that it didn’t have all of the panache that the Parade of Lights or the 4th of July Parade had.