Rainbows Galore

Montana is the place for rainbows.  I have seen some of the most beautiful full rainbows here and I get one about once a week.  Here are a few pictures of the rainbows I have seen.  They go clear cross the sky and even double rainbows.  :)

Afternoon Walk

Here are some pictures from my walk yesterday afternoon.  It was so relaxing and I only saw 2 cars while on my walk.  I love feeling like I am in the middle of nowhere.

The picture above with the 'V' on the mountain is Virginia City.  I guess all the towns in the area put their initial on the mountain.

Busy Weekend

We had quite the busy weekend at work.  Lots of people, lots of photos and some very interesting people.  I was a bit horrified by a few people.

I had one family with an adopted oriental child who was probably around 8 years old.  One of the adults who came in and said he wanted to dress the boy as a chinese laundryman.  Then he took the kid aside and told him he could be a Mexican Indian cowboy.  The boy's face just broke my heart so I interrupted and took the kid aside and dressed him as the outlaw he wanted to be.

There was a family with 2 small children and they both had some sort of disability.  The boy, who was 6 was most likely Autistic or a combination of things.  I was quite horrified to learned the parents had absolutely no coping skills for this child and expected him to dress up and take pictures.  The dad got upset because of course the poor boy started to throw a tantrum when the photographer tried to put on a scarf.  I was appalled to hear the dad grabbed the kid by the face and got angry with him.  To keep myself from getting into the parents faces and telling them off I took the kid aside and tried to find a way to get him dressed and calm him down.  I kept asking the parents what the boy liked and they had no idea.  How could you not know your child if he speaks or not??  I was horrified.  They did get their picture done with a little bit of modifications.  Then as they were leaving the grandmother tried to put the little girl who was maybe 2 into the stroller by grabbing her and shoving her in and then repeatedly telling her to shut up as she cried.  This little girl had some sort of issues and I was just appalled.  It is so hard for me not to push the parents aside and do it for them in a less traumatic way.  :(

This last family stuck in my mind the whole night.  I have worked with children with disabilities for years and hate seeing the children in a situation where it is almost impossible for them to be successful.  The only solution I could come up with that would be low cost and hopefully help a little bit would be to put together a PECS (Picture Exchange Communications System) schedule of what will happen while they are there.  Just a simple.  Play Dress Up, Take Picture, All Done type of thing.  And then maybe a few different ones of what the photographer would expect... smile, angry face and things like that.  Hopefully, that will give the people a bit more than just a bunch of words that mean nothing.  Now where to find these PECS... or maybe create something like it myself.

On another subject we had lots of rain storms this weekend.  They just pass thru but it was downpours and small hail every time.  I have never seen it hail every time it rains... quite crazy.  Then on Monday we had quite severe lightning.  It did strike a house in town but I guess it didn't cause too much damage.  One evening there was a rainbow all the way across the sky very faintly.  There was a little portion that nice and bright.

Happy 4th of July

Growing up I loved the 4th.  You could start to buy fireworks on or right before my birthday.  My parents never let us get them before the 4th but you could hear them all around town.

The town I grew up in is the 4th of July city in Nebraska and there were things to do from sun up thru the night.  Everyone in town is out and about so I would see friends, family and other acquaintances I hadn't seen all summer around the town square.

I have yet to be anywhere else with things to do all day.  Maybe a BBQ in the evening and some fireworks but it isn't the same.  

The last place I lived all the towns around had fireworks on different days.  Quite odd and when I lived in Florida I never saw fireworks either because I'm not a huge fan of masses of people. 

This year I am working and will go to a BBQ and watch some fireworks.  Should be an on day.

I decided to walk to work to avoid parking issues and the crazy tourist on the road.  It was quit a nice little over a mile walk.  I of course forgot my camera but took a picture with my iPod. One day I will remember to bring my camera.

Just another day

I woke up super blah today.  Not sure why but some days are just like that.  I am full of thoughts.  Thoughts about some creative things I would like to start, thoughts about people I know, thoughts about time... The past, present and future.  Too many things.  

Randall, my cat, was hiding from me this morning which always upsets me.  I of course, always think the worst like he ran away or is stuck somewhere.  I searched everywhere.. under the bed and couch, in the cubbards and he was no where to be found.  i will have to have a talk with him when i find him.

Glad I am going to go to work to get my mind to stop for a bit.  Got some more movies from the library for tonight and I brought along my kindle to work in case there is free time I can read a bit more of the book I am reading.  Blah days aren't always so bad... Sometimes they are just an escape from the present.  Hopefully I can at least make it a half way decent blah day.

Birthday Weekend

I had quite a nice birthday.  I was kept busy by the Brothel Days in town, work and a lantern tour.

I heard a speaker about brothels and it was quite interesting.  I didn't know much about brothels except what I saw in the movies.  I had no idea the buildings would be door, window, door, window so the ladies could solicit in the windows.  She talked about brothels in a good portion of this area of Montana starting with Butte.  She said they would charge by the minute and they had found a 5 minute timer in one of the buildings they tore down.  They also found in a building they tore down a dungeon of sorts where they had rooms for the women underground in horrible conditions... but of course each room had a sink no matter if it was horrible conditions or the most fancy of brothels.  Quite interesting.

Then in the afternoon they had bed races.  It was a bit of a bust.  Only 3 teams so there were only 2 races and none of them were dressed like a brothel girl on the bed... which was the point.

The people I work for made me a Sachetorte cake which was very yummy and I am still munching on.
It is a cake they first tried in Austria.  It is made with chocolate, sugar, applesauce, eggs, flour with a raspberry preserve in between the layers and topped with chocolate melted in espresso.

Then at the end of the day we had a couple of beers.

On the way home I decided I would treat myself to a pizza for dinner from the local pizza place and it was YUMMY!!

I went for a nice walk when I got home and met up with one of my neighbors.  It was a beautiful evening since it had rained in the afternoon.

Then that night I went for a lantern tour in Nevada City at the museum.  I met a few people while waiting and they gave me a birthday beer.  They were really nice and it was a lot of fun hanging out with them for a bit. 

The lantern tour itself was ok.  It started around 10pm since that is when it finally got dark enough.  I was hoping we got to hold a lantern but we didn't.  :(   They said it was a historically accurate reenactment of this day in history but it went downhill for me after one of the actors used the term "oh, it is an upgrade."  So frustrating when people think it is only about the acting and nothing about the way you speak.  Owells.  I was also kind of lost.  I guess you have to know something about Montana history and being a Nebraska girl I know nothing.  So I got a little lost history wise but the main story was some guy broke into a ladies house with kids, shot some other guy.  They guy who did the shooting was hung and the guy who gave him the weapon got 50 lashes.  I guess the guy who was shot actually lived.  It was all about vigilantes.  Below are some pictures.

All in all it was a great day.  I stayed busy and had a good time. :)