Smiley

I sure get some cute customers on my bus somedays. With the daycare crowd there’s too many kids to focus on names, just faces. So, here’s a face for you, name unknown…

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Categorized as The Bus

East 6000 N

I picked up Stateline Lady today and it’s nice to have snow on the ground. I’ve had various customers here in east Tetonia over the years, and it’s always a beautiful and refreshing place to be, on a fine day.

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Categorized as The Bus

Stephs Stuff

Here’s some photos I grabbed off of Steph’s camera last night, with a cute shot of the Anika, Steph’s latest quilt project, and the new quilt project. Click the picture…

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Categorized as Family

Code Watcher

Steph just took off to watch Anika’s dance thing at the High School, and Piper and I are hunkered down at my desk writing code. She doesn’t compose it obviously, but she does inspire it. I recall more than one moment of code yeah! occurring with Piper on my lap…

I could be watching young girls dancing right now, but this is a small town and the dancers are for the most part the same ones acting out loudly on my bus during the afternoon drive to Driggs, so I’ll pass. My entire extended family is there and Steph has a camera so maybe some shots will make the blog.

In case you’re wondering about my desk, well, it used to belong to my buddy Greg who was the art teacher at Riley’s old high school. It has a lot of history, and character…

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Categorized as Family

Puffed Quilt

Steph finished the Puffed Quilt project tonight and is pretty happy about it. She seems to think it’s the best thing she’s ever done, but I always thought that the Girrafe thing was pretty cool and the Tavros & Gamzee was amazing and the Little Dragon outfit was spot on and well, the work goes on…

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Categorized as Steph

Morning Light

I took this shot this morning as I left for work. My xmas decoration was looking good and bright, and so was the garage. We’ve been clearing it out since the end of summer and it’s nice to have some walking around space between the two vehicles.

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Categorized as House

John Deere

Here’s Steph’s John Deere puffy quilt project in it’s current state:

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Categorized as Steph

Xmas Light

After many years of boycotting the christmas house decoration thing, I decided to put a light up! We went to ACE today and I tried to buy one single christmas light on a string. Hell no, the closest thing they had was a 25 light string of red lights, so I bought it. After fiddling around with the concept, and blowing out one test with sparks, I ended up splicing an old extension cord to one light out of the string.

I like it, and it makes a statement! Steph asked me what that statement was and I stuttered for a moment, and finally blurted out “bah humbug! This is my way of saying screw you to the houses in my neighborhood that flip their gaudy christmas lights on as soon as thanksgiving dinner starts to decompose in their gut!

So, here’s to a new tradition, one I know that travelers down Ski Hill Road will look in our direction, see that lone red light, get it, and smile…

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Categorized as House

Last Puff

Steph just told me she’s down to the last puff. Thank god because I don’t know where we would eat dinner otherwise… These puffs are for a quilt she’s making for the new grand-daughter to be, Cora (her sons).

I had a Community School kid named Cora a few years back. She was something else, possessed by the devil I always thought, but over the course of a school year, I ended up sort of liking her…

Anyway, the quilt should be nice!

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Categorized as House

Pipers Cartoon

Piper was sitting on my lap this morning watching Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood on my flat screen to the left of my desk. This is her favorite spot lately, she loves the connection with me while I work and the warmth of my robe heated nicely by the space heater.

It’s interesting how she makes a connection to a cartoon projected on a screen two feet from her eyes that obviously isn’t real, yet is visually intriguing to her. As the show ended this morning the Tiger character embraced the screen and did a loving faceplant to the audience. Piper rolled her head up, making eye contact with me, and I swear her expression said did you see that?

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Categorized as Piper

Rescued!

When I got home this evening Piper scampered toward the deck door wanting to go out. I obliged her, knowing she wouldn’t stay out long in this frigid cold. She walked to the edge of the deck, I turned my back for a few minutes, and suddenly she was gone.

My first thought was that something spooked her and she went in her hole which is the opening to the deck nearest the house and has always been her safe spot over the years. She didn’t come out so Steph launched a walk-around search of the yard, to no avail. Now we were getting worried as nightfall and subzero temps were closing in.

I went back to her hole and rattled a treat bag around and sure enough she stuck her nose out. The only problem was, she was trapped down there, she couldn’t squeeze out over the icy rocks. Steph suggested we try to remove the screws to one of the boards to remove it but I had no patience for that.

I ran to my truck and pulled out my emergency bag. I grabbed the large pry bar and the big hammer and made mincemeat of the board directly above the hole. A few minutes later she crawled out and is now safe and warm.

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Categorized as Piper

Cold Day

When I watched the news this morning they were showing Driggs as the coldest town in SE Idaho, around -9°. When I saw the temperature map I realized that at that moment we were the coldest place in the country. The map below is later in the morning and shows the dark blue blob further north, so the title belongs to someone else now…

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Categorized as The Valley