One nice thing about having to smoke outside, now that the skies have cleared, is that I am spending time with the stars. (Even better it’s a full moon. (It has been so long since I have seen her! I hope she isn’t too mad at me for ignoring her all these years.))
We went to the China Inn for dinner. (Yum!)
10-7-98
(10pm) Another beautiful nite! (This morning was great too. (Just before sunrise, Orion, the moon and Venus were there to greet me. (Wonderful!)))
The DOW was down 1 today after another yo-yo day.
Dad drove me around, after our morning stroll, so I could check out the new expo center and the downtown. (Downtown hasn’t changed much. (A couple new buildings, some façade work, and they have started to let people park in the middle of Kansas Ave.) (He says they have been trying to get it going again, but mostly the commercial and professional development has moved west of town along with the new residential. (Dad says it’s a combination of escaping city taxes and the school district. (Like Missoula, a lot of the urban area is outside the city limits.)-(From what he and his wife say it sounds like here it’s more to escape the school district than the taxes.))))
Crestview School, where I spent most of grade school years, is now a private school. (Another way around the school district problem. (I wish people would stop running away and face the problems! (Tis the same with a lot of the folks who move to Montana to escape the problems back home.) (When will people realize that by running away evil wins? (It can be subdued only by standing against it!))))
Actually, it sounds like evil has a pretty solid grip on the city. (My dad’s truck has been broken into several times and he figured mine would be.) (They are getting a lot of random shootings.)
We stopped in and visited with my Cousin Roy for awhile. (He has a nice new house on several acres up north of town. (He always did like that side of town. (Kind of fits with the shady deals he has always been partial to, I guess.))) (His knees are shot, he is fighting some kind of fungus that is eating his legs, and he is still way over weight. (If he doesn’t change his lifestyle soon, he hasn’t got many years left.)) (He says one of his sons has been having problems with cocaine. (He can’t even return to Kansas because of all his bad debts and walking away from a minimum-security jail. (Sad!))) (Hopefully Roy will get out of the wheelchair soon and be able to enjoy his new house.)
Dad is worried about my sister. (Neither she or her husband have a job that provides health insurance or a pension, and times could get lean for them later on.) (It sounds like Bill has had some health problems. (I promised him I would make sure she was taken care of.))
10-8-98
(6am) Orion and the moon were there to greet me again this morning. (Nice way to start the day!)