Markymoose in Big Sky: A Long Weekend...

10/3/10 11:00 pm

Deep breaths. Lots of them. Great weekend that seems to be ending badly. Blogging is interesting as your daily events become important and unimportant all depending on what is happening now, as opposed to what happened a couple of days ago which one hasn’t had time to write about.

So what I’m trying to say is I am now going to write about what is happening now. In fact Jackie just called me to fill me in. While I was watching the Giants Bears football game with my Dad and Micah at our friends John and Laura’s house Jackie was talking to our neighbors Margy and Jim at their house and was in the middle of an intense conversation when our dog Buddy got hit by a car outside their house. There were a million little things that could have gone differently, that would have prevented this accident, but instead there were a million little things that came together to make it happen and there is no turning back the clock to make it not happen. It appears that he has a dislocated hip, a dislocated femur and lots of fractures and what will hopefully be a long recovery ahead of him.

I don’t really feel like writing about all this, but I also know that sleep is not coming very easily to me tonight. Jackie is in Bozeman as she had to rush him to the emergency vet who sedated him and did all the diagnostic x-rays. He’s definitely out of it, and we shall see how he does thru the night. Jackie called me on her way to Bozeman to let me know what happened. I was sitting watching the football game. Stan never heard me tell my friends about it so he still doesn’t know. I am really not telling this story very well, probably because I’m torn up inside. I’m sorry for Buddy and I’m sorry for Jackie who feels horrible. And I’m upset because I know how upset she is, but she’s in Bozeman staying at friends because she needs to be with Buddy first thing in the morning. So we’re apart. I know the kids are upset about it, but I think they’re asleep, at least Howie seems to be asleep. Bottom line it’s very upsetting.

It’s been a long week – we held most of our employee evaluation meetings this week, plus I’m working on all this refinancing so my head has been spinning. Dad has asked me to do a few things for him, he wants me to change his prescriptions so they get mailed to him, he wants a new cell phone, and he wants a Montana Identification card. He actually told someone at dinner last night that he used to live in New York.

We took Friday off from work to go on this awesome hike with our good friends, Dan, Denise and Leslie. It was our annual Dan’s birthday hike and it was as epic as last years. No animals this year, but beautiful spectacular, pristine, expansive, autumnal landscapes. A long and tiring hike – about 9 miles roundtrip, about 7 hours of being in the middle of nowhere, a thousand feet of elevation gain, great views with great friends. It is always such a healthy, mind-clearing event to walk in nature. There were lots of signs of bull elk scraping trees with their antlers, and grizzly tracks, and claw scratches on the trees. Dan wished that we could have camped out there for one night. And I thought, wow that would be a little scary, bugling elk rutting, grizzlies looking for food, I would definitely be a little nervous out there at night.

It was a very challenging hike. We summitted somewhere on Red Mountain, then bushwhacked down through some dry rocky ravines causing a few small rock slides, but thankfully no human slides. It was a little hard on the knees and at times I felt like I was skiing down terrain that was a bit difficult, but it was beautiful, and I stopped to breathe, sat on some big rocks or took pictures of wild flowers or what I thought might be a cave of some sort…

So Friday was a great day of hiking. We got back around 5:30, I drove over and picked up my Dad from his place and brought him home for dinner. A couple I know walked by who were “walking” their dog. Their dog was riding in a carriage/cage and I described it to Dad as he wasn’t able to see it when they walked by. He then told me this story. A bus pulls up in front of this house and a man comes out and goes to the bus and picks up his child and carries his child back to the house. His neighbor sees this and says to the man, I’m sorry your son can’t walk. “Oh, he can walk,” the man says, “but Thanks God he doesn’t have to.”

Later in the evening Dad told me this dream he had the night before:

He was at an ophthalmologist convention and he got on line and he was given an ophthalmologist. The doctor looked at him and said there is no reason why you can’t see. We’re going to fix you up right now, give you an implant and you will see 75% better.

After dinner I showed him all the pictures from the hike on the computer in a slideshow. I think he could make out some of the pictures so Stan got to go on the hike kind of sort of.

Saturday, Jackie and I held more meetings at work. It was another spectacular day weather wise and we sat outside on our patio for all our meetings. At around 4 pm we made our mad dash to get home in time to head to Dan and Denise’s house for Dan’s birthday party. We shopped, Jackie ran home to prepare some food, I went to Stan’s to pick him up so he would come with us. And then we were off to the big birthday lobster fest! It was another fun night of conversation and great food, Micah rolled sushi, Denise boiled up live lobsters, the kids put on a short birthday show for Dan, it was another very fun late evening.

Today, Sunday was soccer in Bozeman for Howie. Andrew met us at the soccer fields and we all watched Howie’s games. After the games we had lunch together and then Micah and I spent over an hour getting new cell phones, which turned out to be a long and tedious experience. But in the end Micah and I walked away with new cell phones.

Then it was the drive back home. After emptying out the car Micah and I went and picked up Grandpa Stan and headed over to John and Laura’s…

THE HIKE....

Just past the Bacon Rind Trail head

in the meadow

Dan has a tasty wolf shitskabob...

on our way up...

How did this happen?

one of many spectacular views

I forget what this is called, but if I remember right, a giant wind smacks down on one spot and devastates the trees like a golf ball landing on grass....