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Today we picked up our fun new ride.

It’s important for me to emphasize that it’s our car, not my car. For the twenty-five years of our marriage, Pepper has always ended up driving the “practical” vehicle. She had the Eagle that we crammed everyone into, and the Odyssey for carting kids around on trips, and then the CR-V so we can haul our jet skis to the lake. At the same time, I drove my sporty little two-door Saturn, then my sporty little two-door Civic. So I had the “fun” cars (even though she hates driving stick).

Fast forward to Montana, where we’ve discovered that our driveway is nightmarish in the winter and simply doesn’t suit a front-wheel-drive vehicle. Since we plan to sell the Civic to Zaque when he returns from his mission, we started looking around for a new car. At the top of the list is all-wheel drive. I’d love to just get another Civic, but they don’t come with AWD. Nor do the Accords. The only Hondas with that feature are the CR-V and Pilot… well, we already have a CR-V, and the Pilot is a big lumbering tank. So I looked at Toyotas, another great line of cars, but I didn’t want a Rav (too big), and the Camry and Avalon aren’t really exciting.

With our imminent installation of solar panels, and a state with one of the lowest costs for electricity in the country, I started thinking about a Tesla. Of course they have a reputation for being pretty swanky and expensive, but the Model 3 is a little more affordable. With no Tesla dealerships anywhere in Big Sky Country, we had to test drive one in Utah. We liked it. A lot. So we ordered one. But with chip shortages and supply-chain problems and Tesla doing things differently than, well, everyone else, we wouldn’t be able to take delivery until September. Sigh.

But yesterday, on a whim, I called a sales guy at the Spokane Tesla dealership and asked if they happened to have a car with the same specs as what I’d ordered. They did! I asked if I could pick it up… immediately? Sure thing. So we hopped in the CR-V and drove four hours out to Spokane, spent literally five minutes signing two pieces of paper, and drove four hours back home in our slick blue electric car.

Remember: it’s not my car. It’s our car.

One thing that’s fun about living in a forest is there are wildflowers everywhere. They surround us, scattered through the forest… and there are also many “intentional” flowers planted in various places around the house. The previous owner really enjoyed flowers, and actually had a gardener who took care of the beds. (We’ve let them “go native” a bit, so it doesn’t look as nice as it did back then.)

Because it was such a pretty day, I decided to wander the property a bit and photograph the variety of flowers. Here are some samples.

Okay, the one above is probably a weed. But it’s still pretty! And I spotted a spider sunning himself:

While not technically flowers, I like the tufts of tall grass we have along our driveway. Flathead Lake is in the (fuzzy) background:

Finally, another non-flower but what I thought was an interesting photo. We have pinecones scattered everywhere in the grass… they’re a menace to the mower, which chews them up with a satisfying crunch and then spews bits everywhere.

On a whim, we bought a bag of wildflower seeds at Lowe’s the other day, and we keep telling ourselves we’re going to scatter them along the driveway and see what comes up…

I was cleaning up some files today and stumbled across an ancient gem: bonus bucks. These were little Monopoly-based bills that I’d printed, which we’d give to the kids when they did something good.

It could be as simple as being nice to their siblings, or helping with the dishes, or doing their homework without being asked. They could then spend their bonus bucks on “prizes” which ranged from staying up 15 minutes extra to having dinner out as a family. It was actually a pretty good system, and I remember the kids really enjoying it. It promoted good behavior, taught them about saving, and was a good mix of serious and silly. Good times.

It continues to be fun to see the wildlife that roams around our property. After our recent bear sighting (still a little too close for comfort) we’ve seen bears wandering into the courtyard several more times. One of them batted around an Amazon package sitting by our door, and then peeked into our bedroom window!

Well, we finally caught some elk on video:

Here’s the full clip of mommy and her little fawn:

A few days later, a moose was poking around the back yard!

We have multiple clips of this guy as he went around the house. We watched from inside. He’s definitely not full-grown; I figure he’s a couple of years old at best. Adult moose are considerably larger, although this guy was plenty large anyway.

I’m not sure what other animals we can expect to see. Most people tell us there aren’t any moose in this forest, but clearly there are…

Today I learned about Signalman Jack, a chacma baboon who was employed by the Cape Town Railway Service in South Africa. He was the assistant of James “Jumper” Wide, who was a switch operator until he jumped between two moving railway cars (hence the nickname) and lost both his legs. James taught his baboon Jack how to operate the switches, and everything was going great until a railway passenger reported to the company that a baboon was switching the tracks. After a brief (and I’m sure hilarious) investigation, it was determined that Jack did, in fact, know what he was doing. He was then officially employed by the railway and paid 20 cents a day, plus a half-bottle of beer each week.

In nine years of working for the railroad, Jack didn’t make a single mistake.

The other day, Kyra and I were talking about how amazing tardigrades are. I thought of an earlier conversation where we’d discussed how sports teams only have certain animals as mascots… large predators, vicious rodents, birds of prey, and so on. I commented how hilarious it would be if a team’s mascot was a tardigrade.

This afternoon, I put together a t-shirt just for that.

When people ask me what retirement is like, this is probably a good answer.

Bill and Ted had it right. The world needs a little more of this…

Our drive back from Aspen to Montana involved some crazy roads through northwest Colorado into the wasteland of Wyoming. At one point, we were driving miles and miles on gravel, wondering if this was the right way.

Notice the complete lack of… anything. This dusty gravel road stretched to the horizon, in the midst of sagebrush and a few lonely cattle. No houses, no gas stations, not even other cars. It was kind of eerie, but also kind of cool.

When we finally reached pavement again, there were thousands– maybe millions?– of little dark specks all over the highway.

This went on for mile after mile. I thought they were perhaps leaves or something that had blown from the surrounding plains, but we could see them moving on the road. We stopped in the middle of the highway (hey, there weren’t any other cars) to take a look.

Grasshoppers. By the thousands. Many were squished from the occasional car, and the others were kind of feebly crawling around (not hopping, strangely enough). I don’t know if it was a migration of some sort, or if a plague is descending on southwest Wyoming…

I brought Chronium on our trip and gave it a first couple of playtests with family and friends. Here I’m explaining the cards to the crowd:

Someone had the bright idea that we should look like those cheesy board game boxes from the 80’s. Well, except for Aaron in the middle, who doesn’t seem as enthusiastic as the rest of the gang.

The consensus from two groups was… it isn’t completely awful. I got some good feedback, and the work continues.

Hiking through the forests around Aspen was magical. There were so many aspen trees it was amazing. I couldn’t help taking a bunch of shots of the gorgeous white trunks.

In the fall, these hillsides are breathtaking with their mix of dark green pine and brilliant gold aspen.

I miss you, Colorado.