Category: N.O.S.
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Montana Senate Bill 143
The Montana state legislature is a peculiar, somewhat anachronistic critter. Meeting for 90 days every other year, our state still has true citizen legislators. This often means they lack what might be called expertise in certain subjects, but it also means that they are generally very accessible and open to public feedback. Montana being Montana,…
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On managing
Our town is wonderful for many reasons, not least of which is it being just east of the Continental Divide and right amongst the westernmost tendrils of the prairie. Proper contiguous mountains, with mountain snowpack, is right beyond the horizon, while our valley winter is often clear, brisk, and low snow. Sun has been more…
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Much thanks
In spite of, or because of, it all, there are many objects for thank today. I want to thank all of you. With few exceptions writing has been tough this year. With a head crowded enough that bare basics are generally daunting enough, and big, unpleasant, hard to grasp things doing that clogging, putting thoughts…
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A bad year
This was the closest I came to writing a 2018 in review post. I didn’t avoid it because I wasn’t happy with the year, nor because I struggled from within the fog of the moment to sum it all up, but because I was worried about the year which was to come. These fears were…
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The grand IPA shootout
The familiarity of Safeway is comforting, insofar as finding oranges and beer and granola bars in the same place sands down differences east west and south. But difference cannot be completely hidden; produce in Montana is generally expensive and often poor, and last week when I wandered through the store in Spearfish, SD fogged by…
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Shit that works; lifestyle addition
The Wayback Machine doesn’t travel back to when I can first recall the concept of “lifestyle” in outdoor clothing and gear. It was a North Face catalogue, late 80s or early 90s, talking about a woman from Alaska or the Yukon or Wyoming or some similarly very far from Ohio place, who had fallen out…
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The grand Helena brewery tour
Montana brewery laws take some getting used to. The Kafka-ishiousness does not approach Utah levels, and the peculiarity has quite inadvertently given birth to an institution which adds a lot to a quiet, family-centric, even staid city like Helena. Before recent beer and pretzel adventures are further discussed, some juridical background is in order. In…
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Pushing the next button
On a few occasions last year I mentioned that, over the past decade, my happiness had generally correlated with the volume of activity, which had in turn tended to spawn more frequent and especially longer writings here. More interest has almost always meant more words. Thankfully, this is has ceased to be the case, as…
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New old places
On the face it seemed like we struck out coming and going. When we flew out of Helena it was clear as only a bitterly cold night can be, and the clear view of lights snaking south and east through Townsend and White Sulphur Springs to peter out halfway to North Dakota left me thinking…
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The year I grew up
It’s an inherently vain exercise, but if I had to pick a favorite moment of 2017 it would be late on the second day of my bike/packrafting trip along the Dirty Devil River. All the boat dragging, cold, and ambiguity had worn my mind to a jagged, dull edge. I made camp near the apex…
Bedrock & Paradox 
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