Leaving Gardiner, Montana

Evening Folks,

My time is almost up here in Montana. I have three more days of work and am out of here on Wednesday. I am headed down to Utah for a couple of plays at the Utah Shakespeare Festival  in Cedar City. It will be 21 years of the Bard in that venue. I did miss a couple of years in there somewhere but replaced summer attendance with their Fall offerings when those began. The first years were with daughter Natasha on our summer road trips.


These three months of my absence from AZ have been a good experience for the most part. However, I am ready to go home. I have met some nice people that in all probability I'll never see again. Besides, none of them I would call "friends," just acquaintances. Even though the job was fine I will not return (even if I were asked, which might be doubtful). First of all, they are going to make them paying jobs that go from May to October. I am not interested in long seasons any more. Secondly, and most importantly, they have no single housing so you will have two housemates. Having one this time has been less than desirable. I am done with "shared housing," to old for that.


I haven't "gone off" in my curmudgeonly mode in a while but I think it is time again. Like Rosanna Rosanna Dana I am going to start off with "what's all this stuff about . . .?" In this case, having dealt with the public, and had some of what I call "word inflation" running rampant around me all summer, I wish to take folks to task about the word "awesome." It is supposed to mean something that is extraordinary, not everyday and mundane. But that is what it has become. If everything is "awesome," then it is only average and not fabulous. A pure and simple case of "inflation," the word no longer means what it was intended to mean . . .


Then there are the common expressions in current usage. One of which is, "It is what it is." If I hear this major "cop-out" phrase again I may "freak-out." I wish that I could believe that people were intellectual enough to think they were existentialists. That is expressing the main tenet of that philosophy, "existence precedes essence," but I know that is not the case. They are just Parrots mouthing the words.
Of course nothing "is what it is." Every bit of experience is how we perceive it and that is not precisely the same for all. Unless of course you need another crutch to justify your life.


Lastly, on this tirade, I will mention the shorter phrase, "no problem," another catch all. When I worked as a ranger at an information counter with some younger rangers they would often respond to a park visitor's Thank You with a whinny no problem. My response to them was that they were being discourteous and rude. The response to "thank you" is "you are welcome." Of course it is "no problem," it is your job you wankers. If indeed something is no problem and it is the appropriate rejoinder then I say I do not have a problem.


That is probably enough of that for now. On to the movies . . .
Since last I communicated in this space I have viewed a few films. The plethora of comic book inspired super hero movies has continued across my summer. Two that I have seen lately were pretty good, even though not my favorite genre. The Amazing Spiderman was a lot better than I thought it would be, and in fact, and in my opinion is slightly better than the one's of just a few years ago. My most recent "flick" of this nature was The Dark Knight Rises, the end of the triology directed by Christopher Nolan. Even though I found it entertaining, I do not think it as good as the two previous. It was overly long, could have used some editing and the script could have been tightened up so as not to be the "hodge podge" it was. Having said that I did enjoy it. In both films the acting was very good.




Moonrise Kingdom was  a quirky little film with Bill Murray, Francis McDormand, Edward Norton, Bruce Willis and some kids that were the real stars of the film. It takes place in the 60's on an island off of New England somewhere and focuses on an outcaste "boy scout like character" and the girl he runs away with. All the adults, scout masters included become involved in the hunt. It was a nice, and strange film. I liked it a lot.


Well, that's about it forever from beautiful downtown Gardiner, Montana.


Adios . . . see you in AZ

4th of July . . . Gardiner, Montana

Good Morning Folks,


Happy Independence Day all! This day was important to our fore-fathers, and ultimately to us, for what it represents as an achievement other countries have attempted and failed. But, the holiday itself always leaves me a bit ambivalent, as do many we celebrate, especially the summer ones. All this BBQing, over indulgence in drink, fireworks, and such, really do not, nor have they ever, held much excitement for me. As a matter of fact for most of the last few years I have worked on the 4th. When a ranger I liked working because it meant double pay. From Memorial Day to Labor Day when you are working with Park visitors everyday is pretty much the same.


Today in beautiful downtown Gardiner, with the almost full-moon setting at the dawn of this holiday there will be no fireworks this evening. The fire danger has become extreme with temps in the 90s and hot winds blowing everyday for the last few weeks. Funny thing is that here in Montana and in Wyoming I have noticed they are big on fireworks. The booths selling them were up and running in earnest a week and a half ago, but with the ban on setting them off I am not sure how things will work. No one has shut them down so I expect there will be a lot of illicit activity regarding them this evening.


I am beginning to miss being in Flagstaff. Am glad that unlike working for the Park Service, where I was gone for almost 5 months, that this volunteer job has only taken me away for three. Having visited Bozeman several times on my days off I have determined that I could live there, and if I did, I might not miss Arizona as much. I think it is just that where my "stuff" is located is what pretty much defines "home"for me. It is not like I have that many friends in Flag (of course the same is not true for Prescott). Financially, and emotionally I could not move to Montana. I am pretty much stuck with my condo since housing values went down. Plus, the amount it would cost to move, even with my meager belongings, would be too much. On the emotional side, I could not move that far away from my family in southern California. As it is I have missed too much of my grandsons growing up.


As for movies: Yesterday I was in Bozeman again and saw People Like Us, featuring Elizabeth Banks, Chris Pine and Michelle Phifer (sp). It was a very good relationships film where the performances by the actors were excellent. Elizabeth Banks is a very underrated  actor. This movie is not recommended to "summer action movie males" (A.D.D. guys). They will find it slow and boring. Previously I went to see Seeking a Friend for the End of the World, with Steve Carrell and Kiera Knightly. Another "relationship" film posing the question, what would you do if you knew the world was coming to an end in just 3 weeks? It was an interesting and thoughtful film but not a great one, just pretty good. Prometheus was an overly long, and need of editing "fair" prequel to the Alien series of movies. Noomi Rapace took the place of Sigourney Weaver (before her character was born) as the female heroine and did an adequate job. However, she was much better in the Swedish version of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy.



I am looking forward to the brief visit of my niece Kimberley and her family, husband Dennis, and great niece and nephew, Melissa and Kyle on their way through here on Sunday. They will have "bagged" three more, new for them, National Parks in the Pacific Northwest on this trip. I am just sorry that I have to work that day and will not be able to spend much time with them. They, next to my friend Marc, have been my most faithful visitors during my past 12 years, or so, working summers up this way. They will be staying at my favorite lodge cabins in Yellowstone, Roosevelt.  I hope they like it as much as I do.


That's about it for this go round. I have withdrawn from Facebook so this will be one of my only methods by which folks can follow my "exploits" from this point on . . . well, there is e-mail and the phone. In a future blog I will discuss this "Facebook" thing.


Cheers, and have a safe holiday!