Summer of our Discontent

     With all the horrible news on TV, the Web and what goes for newspapers here in Bozeangeles. Its sometimes important to consider what counts in the life of a two year old. A missing blanky, a dirty dolly and and  a dropped Ice Cream cone.

Turn off the smart phone, Fox news and Glenn Beck and spend time with your family.

going to yellowstone

I'm sure most of you Americans have made the pilgamige to Yellowstone in your life, and despite my dislike of the crowds, it is worth the trip. I just wish we could figure out a way to get people from here to there in the park with out clogging up the roads. A Monorail or blimp service would be my choice.
here are a few pics from the  Goat family's trip. In no particular order

Mother Goat ordered we take a picture of this sign at the Gardiner mt.  entrance to the Park, then spent the next 50 miles wondering about the forms of molestation possible with wild animals . She did grow up in Idaho and lives in Montana if thats any excuse. Little Goat just wanted me to slow down

it is a very wet year  so wild life is fairly easy to see. here's a deer up close and Elk in the back ground. Please don't Molest them

My big fear is we are loving Yellowstone to death , every one in cars going at 10 miles a mile from one scenic over look t another. Is this what our founding fathers envisioned. Must of been 20 cars stacked up behind us and who  knows how many RV's ahead of us.

for all the horrors of modern life we have inflicted on Nature  Yellowstone still amazes us

Visit before its gone

hidden places

Okay today I write about another elitist place for food or drinks , but as long as you can get over the cost the back garden of Plonks is a great place for an afternoon escape from the heat and noise of Main st. Bozeangeles set in the alley out back it is given a bit of a Europe trash atmosphere by the looming edifice that is the parking garage.

  The plants seem to be suffering this year. Lack of care or bad aura. No vomit in the alley seems to help as well.

  I hope the world  gets better this week, don't you ?

starky's where the cool people eat

 I'm sometimes put off by the lunch time crowd at starky's , the suits are there and the designer sun glasses too, not that the blue collars are not welcome too and the college crowd if they can afford the bill . It just seems to me that they would prefer the glitterati over the buggy and beer crowd . having said that it is a Nice place to sit outside and have a sandwich and a beer. the dinners are quite nice ( $$$) and its in a quite part of downtown, just across from the hangover cafe.

  So maybe I'm more of  an ale house kind of guy but little goat can't handle the noise and they don't do lunch. Whats up with that ?

crazy days and the walking Dead

So it was a busy weekend in the Bozeangeles Metroplex. The Country fair was in full swing, rodeo , Ferris wheel, pig wrestling and a Country Western Band. The city also held its Annual Crazy days sale down town. The retail stores haul out the stock that has lingered in their back rooms for the year and offers them at a supposed discount .

Its certainly a nice way to get people in from the suburbs and the country fair to spend a little  free money  that they might not normally. There was a bit of a crowd at the sandwich shops as well.

  I imagine if they had allowed beer vendors and open containers the crowds would have been larger and harder to contain. As it was there was still a little room for Little Goat to pick up speed in her Chariot.
   Saturday night for the second year in a row a few deeply disturbed individuals held  A Zombie Walk. Downtown's part of an effort to get a larger crowd at the Reggae /Dub concert at  the Emerson. 

As Mother Goat does not approve of Zombies ( I think they remind her of her Mormon upringing ) we did not attend the festivities that continued after dark. I imagine the consumption of brains and booze continued well  into the night. All in all it was  a nice summer weekend in Bozeangeles.

The next Depression or is it already Here ?

While Washington  ignores the general populations needs  to settle their political vendettas, the general population suffers . Can they really  not see the potential results on their intransigence ?

Here in Bozeangeles , more and more retail spaces go empty, even low income jobs are impossible to find . We've solved the illegal worker problem here because there are no jobs for them. Yet our city continues to raise taxes on the homeowners.

  How many make work jobs does it take to keep the country going ?
 

  I think that if we get some clarity on the national  budget we might   actually get the economy back on track.But the GOP and the Dems are afraid to to commit to any path and  the TEA Party whats to destroy the country to save their image of utiopia.

Hold onto your seat belts its going to be a bumpy year

the road to ennis

Today little Goat and I drove down through the canyon along the Madison river to Ennis, hoping for a little  break from the hustle and  rush of Bozeangeles proper and maybe a little fishing

unfortunately it was too windy and too hot to  cast a fly .Lake Ennis was beautiful though and  drops its water into the Madison, which on a hot day like today serves as  a inner tubers paradise. A lot of people leave their cars at a drop off point just below the dam on the lake. spend a couple hours floating down the river and then hitch a ride back up to the place they left  their car.

 Having been in that situation before, I always make an attempt to give a fellow traveler a ride if I am going their way.

Just plain Hot

The summer doldrums are upon us, Its just plain hot. The Goat family tried to escape the 96 degree weather at the Museum of the Rockies, that was fine for an hour or two but the trade off is every other family with two or thee screaming kids and no air conditioning had the same damn idea.  The river was full of float tubes , college kids with coolers of beers, families stretched out on floating lawn chairs and inflatable beds, generally the people showing too much skin  were the people who should not be showing  too much skin

the Movie theater parking lot was full and its hard to take a two year old to a movie  these days .We lingered over a couple of cold drafts at a restaurant bar ( air conditioned) while little goat made a hole in a plate of calamari. The crowd spent as much time watching the weather channel as the base ball  games  ( Pittsburgh  Pirates on top ? )  and cheered every time the weather guru's predicted severe thunder storms. Whats wrong with a micro burst and golf ball sized hail when it brings rain and cooler temps.

  But now we are home and its still hot and there are no signs of the promised weather event. its just plain hot . We are all getting ready to fight over little Goat's kiddie pail.

Its better than watching the blowhards in washington

Bozeangeles in the heat

Walking along bozenageles streets
Seeing people rushing
Each with their own itinerary
heads held down,
egnoring the view,
talking to the blue tooth fairies
whispering in their ears
Cracked city sidewalk
Aged city structure
urban plannig gone off track
getting there  but not from here
Never seems to be a minute to spare
As cars stream along clogging
  the Arteries of streets,
 the blood flow of the city
We came here to get away, but the
beast that is the city
pulls us back
into the whirlwind
.

Alien abductions

So quite recently there has been a spate of Alien Abductions in the Bozenageles area . It usually happens in relation to storms blowing through the valley . Has anybody considered what the ultimate goal of these abductions is ? Is it limited to the region or is it nation wide ?

Who is abducting these Aliens and what are they doing with them ?

All That Glitters ( You Like Dogs don't you ? )

Mother Goat is a writing demon these days heres another installment of the soap opera All that Glitters

  Rochelle had met Bernie at a wine tasting party.  Well, actually it was Bernie's roommate Scott who she initially spoke with.  Scott was wearing a bright yellow Tommy Hilfiger rugby shirt and had just returned from the bathroom.  Because she was seated, she noticed the bright yellow shirt tail protruding from his zipper area.  Fortunately, she'd had enough to drink, so she walked by him and casually said, "You may want to put the horse back into the barn."
Scott, the handsome pharmacist, said, "What?"
Rochelle turned around and politely tried it again, "Your compact is open, and your lipstick is hanging out.  I thought you should know."
Scott's blue eyes narrowed and a snarl curled around his lips, "What are you talking about?"
Bernie looked at his roommate, and slapped Scott's shoulder, "Dude!  She's trying to tell you your fly is open."
Scott turned away from Rochelle with reddened cheeks.  "I'm sorry.  If it were me, I'd want to know.  I didn't mean to embarrass you.  I wasn't looking at your crotch, but the flash of bright yellow is what caught my attention."
"I'm Bernie! This is Scott.  It's not often my pretty boy roommate gets smacked down by women.  I, on the other hand, think it's awesome." 
    Bernie was cute.  Certainly not the chiseled good looks of Scott, but definitely nice looking.  Rochelle shook Bernie's hand while Scott continued to sulk.  Bernie went to the bar and picked up some refills of wine.  Scott was on his own.  Bernie had noticed Rochelle early in the evening, but she had a forcefield of friends around her.  He was waiting for the opportunity to approach her, when the opportunity knocked on his door.
     The party was starting to wind down, so they found a table and chairs easily.  Bernie poured some water in some glasses for them.  "Rochelle, are you from Bozeangeles originally?" 
"No.  I transferred here eight years ago.  I work in the retail rat race, more specifically, retail management.  How about you?"
"Marketing.  I'm a recent transplant here.  It's a tough town to meet people.  It's either college students or old people.  Where do you meet people our age, give or take five years?"  Rochelle sympathized.  She remembered that all alone feeling all to well. No one would've known anything was wrong unless she hadn't shown up for work for a few days.  It had been an unsettling feeling.  She was happy the socializing with sales staff ban had been lifted at work for managers. She had regular girls' night every other Friday. 
    "Bernie, it is a tough town to crack.  If you love the outdoors, Bozeangeles is a great place.  There are several hiking, rock climbing, biking, and fly fishing clubs.  If you consider yourself a "foodie" there are cooking classes offered through Bridger Kitchens.  If you're looking for hole in the wall pubs, we have those here as well.  At least you have one friend here, I moved here with two dogs, Jax and Maizey. . . neither hold a intellectual conversation."
    Bernie and Rochelle chatted and told jokes until the vacuum roared to life.  It was Marcella's subtle east coast way of saying, "We're done.  Time for you to leave now."  Bernie and Rochelle exchanged phone numbers and tentatively made plans for Friday night.
    When Bernie called to confirm three nights later, they agreed he'd pick her up at her home and go to John Bozeangeles' Bistro for dinner.  Rochelle had never eaten there but had recently read a nice review of the restaurant, and made the suggestion.  Maizey and Jax growled and played in the background.  The telephone call was interjected with barking and "Damn it!  Stop that Jax!  Maizey, bad dog!"
    Friday arrived and Bernie arrived a few minutes ahead of schedule.  As he walked up the driveway, he did a quick breath check by coughing into his hand and smelling.  Nice and minty.  His truck was in the shop, so his parents had loaned them their vintage Monte Carlo.  All he needed to do was remove the backseat and replace it with a hot tub.  The potential for an ultimate party wagon was certainly there.  He rang the doorbell and heard dogs barking.  Rochelle answered the door.  She looked lovely in her black skirt and boots and vixen red cowel neck top.  Maizey and Jax barked excitedly.  "Hi Bernie, come on in."  Let me just put the dogs in the bathroom."  Bernie patted the dogs on their heads.  Jax sniffed at Bernie's shoes.  Maziey trotted after Rochelle and went into the bathroom. 
    When Rochelle returned, to her horror, she saw Jax wrapped around Bernie's leg, humping it.  "Jax!  Bad dog!"  She grabbed a fly swatter and smacked Jax on the backside.  He yelped, growled at Rochelle, then continued sharing his love.  Bernie tried to shake his leg free from the more than amorous dog.  "Okay Jax, that's enough.  Down buddy."  The terrier poodle mix wasn't moving.  Finally, Rochelle picked Jax up under her arm, and put him in the bathroom.  "Bernie, I am so sorry.  He's neutered, but still thinks things work.  He usually only does it to the Mormon missionaries that stop by on occasion.  I let him go to town, because they leave quickly."
    Fortunately, Bernie had a good sense of humor.  "Well, I've never had that happen on a first date.  Now that the awkwardness is done, shall we go have dinner?"  He extended his arm to Rochelle.  She turned off the light, grabbed her purse and locked the door.  "You know Rochelle, I am a pastor's son.  Maybe Jax has a thing for religion."
    "Bernie, I am so sorry and embarrassed."
    "It's okay.  I wish I could say it happens all the time, but it doesn't."  They both laughed.  Bernie opened the car door for Rochelle, as she stepped down into the gutter, her boot heel got caught in the sewer grate, and she did a less than graceful fall, splitting her skirt in the process.  "Really???  Really???  Why me??? Why?  Who did I piss off in the previous life?" 

Stormy Weather

  The winds are blowing and the lightning is dancing on the Peaks.  It is a glorious summer evening in Bozeangles . Enjoy , forgive and forget .

story tellers

  I found a nice story on story telling on Cnn today. The link is at the end of this ramble.  Here in America its hard to find a good story. NPr comes through every once in a while ,but in our technology laden sound bite world short attention spans allow for only 120 character communications.

  get someone over 60 to tell you a real story and try tlling some to your kids it will do you both some good


http://www.cnn.com/2011/LIVING/07/13/moth.storytelling/index.html?hpt=li_c1

Bird with two right wings

  The Talking heads are back to driving nails into our economic coffin. Politics  on both extremes playing games with our  future. Come on Bozeangeles stand up and kick some fat cats ass.

		Bird With Two Right Wings And now our government a bird with two right wings flies on from zone to zone while we go on having our little fun & games at each election as if it really mattered who the pilot is of Air Force One (They're interchangeable, stupid!) While this bird with two right wings flies right on with its corporate flight crew And this year its the Great Movie Cowboy in the cockpit And next year its the great Bush pilot And now its the Chameleon Kid and he keeps changing the logo on his captains cap and now its a donkey and now an elephant and now some kind of donkephant And now we recognize two of the crew who took out a contract on America and one is a certain gringo wretch who's busy monkeywrenching crucial parts of the engine and its life-support systems and they got a big fat hose to siphon off the fuel to privatized tanks And all the while we just sit there in the passenger seats without parachutes listening to all the news that's fit to air over the one-way PA system about how the contract on America is really good for us etcetera As all the while the plane lumbers on into its postmodern manifest destiny Lawrence Ferlinghetti

sucking the Monkey

  Back to the Monkey mind thing... been chasing my demons and falling off cliffs both in waking and sleeping. Is  This occurring to anyone else out there or  is it just me ?

Monkey Mind
a mind that jumps from thought to thought like a monkey jumps from tree to tree. The monkey mind is not content with existing in the present moment, but rather engages in the thoughts that pass through.


"Sucking the Monkey"　
If someone , suggests that you go and "suck the money", he or she may be only be suggesting that you go for a drink. In the Royal Navy, "sucking the monkey" was the surreptitious drinking of the purser’s rum through a straw forced through a small hole in the rum cask. Originally, sucking the monkey referred to drinking rum from a coconut through a straw.
Some have suggested that the three dots on the coconut resembled a monkey’s face. On other hand, the adjective "monkey" was used by sailors to describe almost anything small. A "monkey jacket" was a small jacket and a "monkey block" was a small block. A "monkey pump" was the quill or straw with which the sailor "sucked the money", be it a coconut or the purser’s cask. Which came first, the cocnut or the straw? It probably doesn’t matter.

All That Glitters ( Vampires SUX ) the Aftermath

  So Mother Goat is on a roll , despite ( Or because of ) of a visit to the ER last night she hammered out an other bit of her Soap Opera this morning. Can't wait for a taste of whats next.


All That Glitters (Aftermath of Hangover Cafe)

"Well that explains a lot Kelly." Jace the ruggedly handsome bartender and owner at Colonel Black's topped off Kelly's martini. Kelly ran her fingers through her red hair and rested her head in her hand, defeated. It had been a month now, and Janice's behavior had become increasingly odd. Kelly's best friend and former college roommate, one who loved to be up at sunrise and went strong until sunset, suddenly was becoming a nocturnal soul.
Jace interrupted Kelly's thoughts, "Calamari is here." He slid Kelly the plate of food and asked, "Cocktail sauce?" Kelly picked up the fried squid and tasted it. "Nah, just some Heinz 57, please Jace." Jace reached below the bar and returned with the bottle. As he set it down, he opened his mouth, hesitated, then closed it again. He was concerned about Kelly. He'd noticed the changes in Janice as well, drenching her food in catsup, a sudden revulsion to garlic and daylight and a strange fixation of people's bandages. Janice also was a devout Catholic, weekly confessions and Sunday Mass attendee, she was never without her crucifix necklace. Jace had noticed she'd stopped wearing her necklace about three weeks ago. It had been her grandmother's, and was one of her most prized possessions.
Kelly gnawed on a piece of calamari in deep thought. She couldn't believe that she'd had to bail Janice out of jail. Janice wasn't an aggressive person in nature, quite the opposite actually. Janice and Kelly had attended Montucky State University. Both graduated with Cum Laud honors from the registered nursing program and had landed great jobs in the field they loved. It bewildered Janice to think that Kelly had punched that woman in the face just to make her bleed, but even more disturbing, ran her fingers through the blood and licked them one by one. Granted the woman made some rude remarks; however, the old Janice would've returned the banter with equally snarky remarks. Kelly didn't understand the new Janice. She knew it was time to study up on vampires and turned to her friend Jace who owned the rumored Vampire's Den.
Jace had made a deal with the head vampire, Louie. As long as they left Jace alone, he'd let them do whatever they wanted in his bar. It was a chicken shit thing to do, but he didn't want to live the strange existence of a vampire. He'd worked hard on building his business, and it was paying off. The vampires tipped him generously and he was able to recently remodel the place with their generous donations. Money was money. . .didn't matter if it came from the emotionally dead, or the undead in this case. Jace told the vampires who was off limits and they vampires left the potentials victim alone. They knew Kelly was a friend, and didn't bother her.
"Jace, is there any way to cure vampirism?" Jace knew there was, but it would involve killing Louie, and who knew what storm that could unleash in his business and life. "Kelly, I'm sure there is. I'll ask. I think if she hasn't actually killed someone, she may have a chance."
Kelly sighed. "I'd appreciate it if you did it sooner than later."
"Will do. Let me walk you out."
"She's on probation at work too."
"What? For what?"
"Well not for theft of narcotics, but for stealing drain tubes they use for mastectomies, the ones with the little bulbs on the end. I think she may be providing them to store blood for the others."
"Oh man. I'll talk to Louie tonight when he comes in. You working the night shift?"
"Yeah, call me on my cell. I'm not sure what floor I'll be on tonight."
Jace kissed Kelly on the cheek and opened her car door for her. He was beginning to care for her more than he thought.

Monkey Mind

There is a Zen term   Monkey Mind, It fits  my  mental  state this last week and it suits the state of the American Political and Social situation these days

Mind monkey or Monkey mind, from Chinese xinyuan and Sino-Japanese shin'en 心猿 [lit. "heart-/mind-monkey"], is a Buddhist term meaning "unsettled; restless; capricious; whimsical; fanciful; inconstant; confused; indecisive; uncontrollable". In addition to Buddhist writings, including Chan or Zen, Consciousness-only, Pure Land, and Shingon, this "mind-monkey" psychological metaphor was adopted in Daoism, Neo-Confucianism, poetry, drama, and literature. "Mind-monkey" occurs in two reversible four-character idioms with yima or iba 意馬 [lit. "thought-/will-horse"], most frequently used in Chinese xinyuanyima 心猿意馬 and Japanese ibashin'en 意馬心猿

fear and loathing ( Hunter S. Thompson )

Hemmingway
Brautigan
Abbey
Spalding Gray
Hunter S Thompson

  their quotes could be anybody any time, I'm thinking of Glen Beck with this one from and Loathing


Raoul Duke: There he goes. One of God's own prototypes. A high-powered mutant of some kind never even considered for mass production. Too weird to live, and too rare to die.
Share this quote

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post 4th of July thoughts

  Missed 3 days of writing and feel like the kid putting of a term paper till the night before its due. Had in laws and friends here for the  holidays. As a result my mind is fuzzy from drink, sun and  heavy food but found something to bring up for your thoughts and comments .

 in between the grilling and drinking I caught some of the usual glad handing and politicking by our current and possible futurecandidates for office. As you probably expect it was strong on criticism of the current stat of affairs but short on solutions.

  I am not a fan of the Bozeangeles newspaper or the Tea party in general but yesterday a local Tea Party official made some good points and the Comical actually published it.  see the link below. The big point of it is that the Tea Party should not be the tool  of either the Republicans or Democrats it needs to be vocal and separate
http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/politics/article_1856c526-a5cd-11e0-bdb2-001cc4c002e0.html

The Post American World

  Okay I'm going off track again ( get Used to it ). I would like to urge all my loyal readers, there must be a couple of you , to either listen to this 45 minute interview on NPR

http://www.npr.org/2011/06/30/137522219/what-does-a-post-american-world-look-like

  or go out and buy the book . I've read the older version of it and it really brings up some good ideas.  America may not be the same country it was 10 years ago and it won't be the same country ten years from now. The world isn't the same and won't be the same either. We have great challenges and great opportunities going forward.