Montana
I had the wonderful opportunity to spend the past week in Montana visiting the state for my first time. We stayed with family around the Condon area and spent a lot of time in the outdoors. We had a great time enjoying the quality family time.
Prior to my visit, I really had no knowledge of the state other than some generalities. I have come to really appreciate its vastness and its natural beauty that is still untouched in many ways by our progressive society.
Some of Montana statistics include:
**Third largest state by land mass
**Person’s per square mile of only 6.2
**Total population of only 944,632 persons
**Home ownership rate of 69.1 %
**Median household income of $35,574
Where we stayed was nearly an hour’s drive from any city with any major grocery stores, shopping, restaurants etc.
The walk to the mailbox was a little over 1.5 miles and we never walked anywhere away from the vicinity of the house without our bear spray. This is a special OC (capsaicin pepper spray) sold in most stores that is reportedly more effective than guns to prevent bear attacks.
We did a lot of hiking, fishing, 4 wheeling and horseback riding up into the mountains and the trip was extremely refreshing.
There was no cell phone service and a land line was our only phone connection which was used very little. It is relaxing and refreshing to eliminate the cell phone, shopping, and conveniences we seem to expect.
posted by Anonymous at 5:56 AM
12 Comments:
Montana is amazing. Two summers ago, my family spent a week working at Pinehaven Christian Children's Ranch near St. Ignatius. A week of hard physical labor involving oodles of firewood and hay, all under the Montana sky, was infinitely more relaxing and rewarding than lying on a beach for a week.
And the computer and the cell phone were supposed to simplify our lives?
Did you find any of those 95 million year old dinosaur fossils that have been turning up in Montana?
I don't believe that HB would dig for 95 million year fossils. I believe his limit is somewhere around 6,000 years.
Glad you had a nice reprieve.
Speaking of a "lack" of cell phones and email, I've recently begun to try a self-imposed ban on cell phones (and PDA email access) during certain family and non-professional events, trying instead to leave it in the car whenever I can, or to put it away at night and only check at the end of the evening. The urge to reply to business email, and the constant voicemail from colleagues really wears on those around me. I never realized that the "crackberries" are so addicting.
While I do enjoy the ability to do additional work while here and there (outside the office), they're really quite a distraction and make it hard to "turn off" the professional side of life.
It's been a little unnerving not having instant access to emails & whatnot, but it seems to be very pleasing to those around me not to have the interruptions. After some getting used to, I agree its nice not to have the distraction. It does take a fair bit of getting used to, however.
Having come to realize that the world will not end if I am "unreachable" for a couple of hours here and there, it has been a rather nice lifestyle change.
HB,
Very nice. Glad that you had a good time. My wife and I are going to Colorado in August. This helped wet my appetite.
Lawguy,
My cell phone goes to the "off" position when I get home and "on" when I leave for work. If someone needs me that bad, they can call me at home. Which, for some reason, co-workers are much less inclined to do. It seems that calling your "home" is taboo but a cell phone(etc)is okay for any reason.
Montana is fine, but I want to hear HB's take on the new creationism museum in Kentucky. The one that has created all the controversy by claiming that the universe was created only about 6,000 years ago and that men and dinosaurs lived together (after all, Man was created within the first six days). Oh, and all the animals on different continents got there by swimming or floating on debris left over after the great flood that made Noah so famous. And, of course, fossilization occurred as a result of "special" conditions that have never happened again or can be understood by mere men of science. I know I must have left something out so HB can fill in the gaps.
HB,
Nice Snapshot to open the posting! However makes my recent posting regarding a weekend in Brown County Indiana seem a little, well, lacking...
Glad you could experience some of what our country has to offer!
What's with the antagonism, 3:56? Do you really have nothing better to do? If you want to know about the museum, you're welcome to go visit any time. If you still have questions about evolution v/s creationism, you can go to the library. It is not HB's responsibility to respond to your mocking. You are wasting your time and his.
Have you studied the natural/life sciences very thoroughly? I’m amazed by the audacity it must require to look at the intricacies of our fearful and wonderful design and respond with, “Yes, clearly this was an accident.”
In its effort to discount creationism, modern science continuously defeats its own purpose and disproves its own claims. “You cannot make something from nothing...oh wait, yes you can. We found the missing link...oh wait, no we didn’t.”
"Experts" change their minds all the time about the age of the earth and their explanations for billionzillion or tens of years of blah blah. Example: See http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/3211_megafloo.html for a good old fashioned, scientific, “Wow, we were really wrong about that.”
“These mountainous rock formations took several million years to become what they are now...oh wait, no they didn't. Maybe it was just a few days.”
Think outside the box. Here are a couple of good starting points: (1)The Big Bang Theory was initially proposed by the church. What do you think it might sound like for The Almighty speak something into existence? Perhaps there might be loud noises and a lil bit o fire involved. Just a guess. Idunno, I wasn’t there. (2)God created man from earth. What did Darwin say? Something about mud and an amoeba. Idunno, I’m sure I wasn’t listening.
I don’t know how He did it. I don’t know how long it took Him. But I am not so small-minded to think that we will ever truly understand, or that were ever intended to. Six “days” may = years, centuries, millennia etc. So what if Genesis doesn’t tell the specifics. Do you explain to your pets where their dinner comes from? They probably wouldn’t understand. I doubt the author of Genesis knew what a nucleus was. He didn’t need to. The fact that we know now should offer itself as evidence that we are indeed the intentional creation of a perfect and loving God. The rest is just semantics.
What could we possibly have to gain by attempting to master Divine logic? Nada. It improves the quality of our lives exactly 0%. What do we have to lose? Depends on whom you ask. Energy is neither created nor destroyed. It only changes forms...
$
If you're going to mock, stick to a relevant topic?
HB, have you read Jared Diamond's book, "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed"?
I ask only because the first section covers his thesis with relation to problems in Montana.
Wow, I'm glad you had a good trip HB. People can't even accept that it was a good vacation, and want to take the opportunity to pick a fight. Revel in the peace it gave you. I'm sure you're back to the grindstone, soon enough.
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