2025, August 18-24

It can cool down any time now. Seriously. Another week has gone by. Mike had new employee orientation, and the College of Education and University Kickoffs in anticipation of Autumn Semester (UM has Autumn, Spring, and Summer Semesters. Winter is a forbidden word here 🤣). 

He had some fire and rain early in the week. He can't take credit for the below picture, but late Tuesday afternoon was fun.  

On a walk later in the week, he caught sight of a fire a few miles to the west.

In Springville, we didn't hear much else about the fire from last Sunday. 

Ferg decided to jump into Hallie's lap, and here is the evidence. 

Several activities in Missoula finished off the week. On Thursday evening, at Caras Park on the north side of the Clark Fork River they had Missoula Downtown Tonight, complete with music and food trucks. 

Mike caught a glimpse of some people kayaking on the artificial rapid to the south. 

Earlier in the day, the College of Education had its Fall Gathering with Ron Clark, whose story was made into a movie about 20 years ago and who heads the Ron Clark Academy in Georgia, as the keynote speaker. Interesting cat. Mike's always up for learning from people with out-of-the-box ideas.

On Friday, Mike had the Fall Welcome and New Faculty Orientation. So much to learn about UM! He's excited to be here.

All these meetings meant lots of SWAG, including stickers, pennants, and other items from the university, college, and department. Maroon is our new favorite color. Go Simi Pioneers, er, UM Grizzlies! 

   Fergus even has cozied up to Kai of late. 

Landon has a new guitar for one of his classes. We hope he enjoys it and finds his inner rock star! 

Mike figured out where to put some more of his B-Side Labels from Japan. 

On Saturday, he put in some 20,000 steps window shopping at all the different downtown activities and events. Here is A Carousel for Missoula, comprised of 38 hand-carved ponies and a huge pipe organ. 

Here's the county courthouse, made famous as the double for the Montana Capitol in the Yellowstone TV series. 

Local landmark XXXX at the top of Higgins Street. 

While the street vendors and performers drew his interest, The Import Market grabbed his attention. 

Friday and Saturday showcased the River City Roots Festival, which included all sorts of eclectic musical acts. 

Murals abound in town. 

As do fish and other water critters in the Clark Fork River.

After tooling around downtown, Mike ran an errand at the Southgate Mall and found some more interesting surprises he'd missed last week, including this Asian blind box-themed store, Miniso. 

His on-campus dining plan gave him two free meals this week, so he went to the Lodge on Saturday and Sunday and indulged. Here's your UM view of the day. 

While Mike was trekking around Missoula, Hallie, the kids, and Jocie went to the Utah Renaissance Faire down in Mona. 

Weather in Mona got quite windy leading into a storm Sunday morning. 

The kids really got into character. Eliza even got a plaited braid and a henna tattoo. She said she was melting from the heat. 

She enjoyed watching the melee fighting. Hallie wanted to see the jousting but didn't get to. 

The Springville pack is looking after a kitten owned by Heidi, Kai's groomer. In Woodland Hills, they saw this herd of deer. 

As part of the new school year, UM freshmen (and other?) paint the bear paws that dot the sidewalks on canvas with inspiring words. Mike loves this idea and found many such tracks on his walks around campus. 

He ended Saturday with a bike ride along the river and a smoke-hued sunset. 

Joice has been chosen! 

Here Hallie found Fergus Sunday morning. He's not too sure about the new kitten. 

Here's the kitten. She's cute. 

Without air conditioning, Mike's house can get a bit stifling. Fortunately, he has keys to the College of Education building, where he can watch streaming video on the big screen while prepping for Monday's class. 

He also wandered over to the library, where he was pleased to find a favorite book, Terry Pratchett's Nation, among the stacks. He also found this unusual sculpture. 

He startled this wee faun while walking on campus. Mom's gotta be somewhere nearby. 

2025, August 11-17

Our first full week apart has passed, and we have managed. 

Eliza ended up missing her first day of school in order to spend it at HMHI. Hallie picked Eliza up Monday afternoon, but we still don't know about next steps. As of writing this Sunday evening, none of the residential treatment facilities that HMHI contacted on our behalf have contacted us. 

So Eliza started school at American Leadership Academy on Tuesday. Woo hoo! As of Thursday (the last day of their four-day school week), she's not convinced that she likes it. Apparently "BOYS ARE MORONS." Time will tell.  

While at HMHI, Eliza made these clay ducks. 

Mike's kitchen gets noticeably hotter than the rest of the house (which probably means it will get a lot colder come winter, but we've played this game before on McClelland Street in Salt Lake). Hoping to abate some of the heat, he rigged up a curtain for the one window missing one before he left for work. 

He spent some the week rearranging his office and the rest prepping for next semester. Lots remains to be done, but it's a start. He'll keep this framed print of The Spirit of Education by N.C. Wyeth.  

A couple of fish-eye views of the office, chock full of books, with a south view that faces the LAB School courtyard. 

Meanwhile at home, Kai has discovered he has space to spread out on the big bed. 

After picking Eliza up, Hallie took E over to a couple of shops in the 9th & 9th District.

They also drove by The Sacred Whale (all hail!), AKA Out of the Blue, in the roundabout on 900 S and 1100 E. 

They got this cute little Mofusand-style kitty thingy, but they haven't decided where to put it. Somewhere in the car it will live, probably peering over the infotainment system. 

Jocie came by and got Landon ready for his first day of school. 

We appreciate supportive friends and family and would love recommendations for behavioral psychiatrists. 

Mike had a lot of unstructured time in the week after finishing grading finals for PACE. Here are a few non-fish eye views of the office. He'll keep many of the trove of books that are there for now and slowly migrate the rest over to a new library the department will make in the reception office. 

Pretty soon this yard will be full of little tykes. 

Eliza ran into a friend from BUH while shopping with Mom at Target. 

Wednesday meant Landon''s first day of school as a senior. We still need to get a picture of the two kids holding their sign. Mike is not there to insist that it happen, and the kids are happy to ignore the tradition. 

Hallie got love from friends at Starbucks . . .  

. . . and not-so-little Brooklyn. 

Mike's PACE students have finished their coursework and are ready for a well-deserved break! Sofia was kind enough to send photos of the class and school parties they had on Wednesday and Thursday. All the best to you on your future ESL journeys!

Mike has quickly covered his new laptop with stickers. One has to prioritize some things. 

Eliza worked at Leslie's under dramatic evening skies. It was too hot to work earlier in the afternoon, so she was out there past sunset. 

"Mom! Stop taking my picture!" "It's part of your work portfolio!" (Don't look too close at her response.)

Hallie had her encounters with the local residents while she waited for E. 

She took in the picturesque views. 

Meanwhile, in Missoula Mike had is own natural encounter. He came home to a big pile of sawn logs and part of the mountain ash tree gone (apparently it's got a lot of rot). The local deer had been feasting on the rowan berries. 

He spooked them as he rode in, but they came back rather quickly. 

He got treated to a wildlife documentary from his kitchen window. At one point, he counted six individuals. 

Hallie inaugurated her new Nespresso machine. 

Ferg has decided to make nice with Hallie, who is the one feeding him now. 

Kai's just happy to be here. 

On Friday evening after leaving the office quite late, Mike rode over to Albertson's to do some shopping. He carried home his groceries rather awkwardly in his pack and on his handlebars. While it's nice to know he can do it, it's not something he wants to do very often. 

Friday night had Hallie and the kids picking up Jocie from performing at the football game. The four of us and Kai went to Rockwell for ice cream. Even though Kai didn’t have on a leash, he did a good job staying with us. The ice cream was yummy as always. 

A very camera shy Mike has decided that he will endure the camera for a few seconds each Saturday morning to make short videos to say hi to Hallie and the kids. It's more than a phone call but far less than being there. Smile, dude! 

Look! He used the new vacuum. Gotta keep the place neat and tidy. That's his Saturday morning thing. 

As he is still locked out of the office on the weekend, he's made the Missoula Public Library his friend. It has wide open vistas of Missoula from the top floor. The library had an end-of-summer event at Kiwanis Park down by the river, but he felt awkward crashing it alone as a middle-aged dude. Honestly, there are a lot of "interesting" looking people he's seen in town, and while he fits in, it may not be a look he wants to cultivate.

 

He also walked around downtown Missoula, taking in the Visitor Center on Main Street and learning about local history. Wherever we have lived, he has found that taking a deep dive into what the locals love makes him feel at home a lot more quickly than anything else. This sloth was a pic for E. 

He's learning about the local flora. If he wanted, he could have shared some of the rowan berries the deer ate (and that his landlady removed on Friday), after preparing them beforehand so he didn't get a stomachache. Several neighbors have wildflowers and other plants, such as sunflowers and lavender. The oaks are producing acorns. These snowberries are pretty but poisonous. 

Staruday afternoon got windy, but the wind kept changing direction. Mike went down to the Oval to fly his kite but couldn't get it to stay aloft. Maybe another day soon. 

He came home to find the local six-point buck with the two-pointer and some other does. That's seven individuals in the herd. 

In the evening, he walked back north of the river and to Albertson's before going back home only to see that a whole street fair had popped up where there was none only a few hours before. Apparently it was tied to a Billy Strings concert at the Adams Center. Maybe all the weird-looking people he'd been seeing slowly congregating near his house were tied to that, not that tie dye and skunk weed are necessarily associated with him per se. Then again. . . . 

Springville/Spanish Fork got some rain, thunder, and lightning -- not enough of the first, and maybe too much of the others. Hallie doesn't like the noises the wind makes when she opens the front door to let the cool air in at night. It puts Kai on edge too.

Saturday, Hallie and Eliza got the car washed. Still a lot of bug guts from Leslie’s. They then picked Amanda and went to an Open House at the Locket Lofts. Above a pizza restaurant in Springville there are several women-owned businesses. Hallie and Eliza got tinsel in their hair. All three got new books at the cute indie bookstore The Pumpkin Cottage. Hallie and Amanda went back for mini facials, and it was perfect! Afterwards, Hallie and Amanda went to Costco for some prescriptions and then to Costa Vida for dinner. The girls watched Casual Geographic while they ate. Keeping Eliza entertained or occupied is important. Soon it was time to take Amanda home so she could love on her cute dog Frankie. 

Sunday meant more walking about town for Mike. He forgot that the library didn't open until noon, so after walking there he then walked to a bus stop and took one down to the Southgate Mall. It's a mall, all right. It's nice that it's fairly close and that it does have some interesting shops. The Scheels appears to be the big draw. This 6' 7" representation of the UM mascot Monte at the entrance from inside the mall is made of some 70,000 LEGO bricks and took six months to build.  

Mike returned to the library a little later for the free WiFi, the A/C and the views.  

Hallie got the kids to start laundry duties so that everyone could be ready for their upcoming school week. Hallie let them know that she has been staying up too late and that she needs to find a routine. She has watched a lot of TV and is still trying to process what has happened and what should be happening. One day it will click into place. 

Just when we thought the day had ended, Mike went to the Missoula Symphony Orchestra's Concert in the Park down at Caras Park (can you say your town has a symphony orchestra?). They played selections from Strauss, modern musicals, and the Beatles. Fun stuff!

Between Springville and Provo, a fire broke out in one of the canyons, burning several hundred acres by nightfall. Here are some views Hallie got of it not long after it started.