The Fourth

Today’s a big day for America, and we celebrated by watching the annual Bigfork parade. There’s a fun small-town feel to it, where you generally know at least half a dozen people in the parade, and as you wander the streets you meet another dozen people you know in the crowd. Kyra and Pepper wore their cool cowboy hats (I’ll have to get one someday) and we were decked out in our red, white, and blue.

Afterward we went out on the lake and headed to what we call the Picnic Islands, which are a few tiny islands in Flathead Lake where we can beach our jet skis. We enjoyed a little picnic and watched the boats cruising up and down the lake.

As we were getting ready to load the jet skis onto our trailer at the dock, a man came up to me and asked if he could rent them for a little while. He was visiting from out of state as part of a family reunion, and several of his young nieces and nephews had never been on a jet ski. We agreed to let them take turns for a while, and they had a great time zooming around Yellow Bay. Our payment? Some slices of watermelon from their picnic dinner. It was fun to see their excitement and brighten their day.

We went home and ate burgers, potato salad, and deviled eggs: a proper Independence Day meal. Then we hopped online and played board games with Alex, who was home alone since the rest of his family had gone south for the week.

It was an all-around great time, and I’m always grateful for this amazing country. Happy Fourth!

Coming along

Our cherries are coming along nicely.

Although it doesn’t look like we’re going to have nearly the bumper crop we did last year, we’ll doubtless have about 95 trees’ worth of cherries we can’t possibly use (we have 96 trees in all). As always, in a few weeks we’ll invite friends to come over and take some of these delicious lapins off our hands.

Major league fun

Every summer our friends Kim and Kelly rent a suite at the local baseball stadium (Glacier Field) and invite a bunch of friends to a Range Riders game. The Range Riders are in the Pioneer League, which isn’t quite the minor league for the Major League, but I guess players can still get called up to “The Show”. So the level of play is quite good.

Tonight was the night, and the three of us had a grand time hanging out in the suite and wandering the ballpark while the home team played a strong game and soundly defeated the visitors 9-4.

The ballpark is really nice, and the weather was just perfect for a game. There was even a firework show afterward. What a night.

Chocolate-covered things

Almost fifteen years ago, we bought a huge block of candy chocolate and had a grand time making all sorts of chocolate-covered things. I was in the mood for something similar, so I ordered some candy discs and today we covered a bunch of things with them.

We had caramels, raisins, nuts, Rice Krispies, marshmallows… Kyra decided to dip a few pineapple chunks, and Pepper threw some coconut into the mix. I’d forgotten how good homemade chocolate can be!

Just after the solstice

Kyra’s been visiting with us, and tonight we all sat out in the courtyard chatting and enjoying the cool summer evening. This is the view over Pepper’s shoulder at almost 10:30:

The sun had finally set, but it was still twilight well past 11:00. Love it.

Just before the solstice

It’s not truly the solstice, but I was on my way home from a big barbecue I helped organize, and decided to stop at the lake overlook and snap a selfie. It was just after 9pm, and of course the sun was still above the horizon.

I was looking through this blog and found some previous solstice posts from 2021, 2022, and 2023. And every year I marvel at how awesome it is to have such long, beautiful days…

A little walking-around money

Kyra will be moving to New Zealand in a few months, so she’s been working on some of the logistics: housing, transportation, phone service, and so on. It’s a big undertaking but she’s being thoughtful and methodical about it, and I’m sure it’ll go smoothly.

I win (and lose) quarters every week in my Mahjongg games, and I noticed at some point I’d picked up a New Zealand fifty-cent piece that’s exactly the same size as an American quarter. (As it happens, New Zealand dollars are worth roughly half what U.S. dollars are, so the value is about the same too.) I gave it to Kyra so she has a little “native” currency as she gets ready…

Retiring in style

Our friend Kricket retired yesterday. She’s been a teacher for many years, and although she loves a lot of things about it, and has a special spot in her heart for her eighth-grade homeroom students, she felt it was time to move into a new phase of life. So naturally we threw her a (small) party.

We blew up balloons, made a banner, and even bought party hats we could wear at a “jaunty angle”. We made some homemade pizza and enjoyed a movie. And after all this partying (and relaxing) I’m excited to see what she decides to do next…

Itzan, evolved

A little over two years ago I started working on a card game called Itzan, based on Mayan culture. I tested it against myself, and then with Zack’s help, and it just wasn’t very compelling. After our trip to Belize in February, I’ve been thinking about the Mayans again, and I decided to resurrect the game and re-think how it works.

The result isn’t a card game any more.

Of course this is only a prototype, and it has a long road ahead. But I’m working up a rulebook and figuring out how everything works. Will the second attempt at this game bear fruit? Time will tell…

Another one

I still love the sunsets here. Today it’s been raining a bit, and the sun slipped below the storm clouds in the northwest and treated us to quite a show.