I guess I'm a Friday poster now

Hello followers of the drivel (yes Karl, the drivel. Thank you for thinking its more than that by the way).

Let me try to get you all caught up on things here in the Gallatin Valley.  Last Sunday I left for Williston, ND.  Spent the night in Miles City.  Every creek (we prounounce that word "crick" for the record) was out of it's banks. Every little stream that flowed water was swelled.  Bismark, ND is flooding as we speak. So is the town of Roundup, MT. My heart breaks for those people.  I've driven through Roundup more times than I can count. The Musselshell is a soft slow moving river, much like the Milk River.  To see this small town get hit this hard, is honestly breaking my heart.  Joplin, MO has me down as well.  I've often wondered why tornadoes have never hit towns of any sigficant size and when they have, have been so brief in reality compared to what Joplin suffered.  Still over 1200 people missing.  So sad.  Montana has never in my lifetime had the flooding we are enduring now.  It brings things into perspective.  We here in Montana have watched many, many times as other places have been hit with this disaster but have been fortunate to not have to feel the pain.  We do now.


Montana is a vast state. The fourth biggest in the union.  Yet we are very unpopulated.  A guy told me a long time ago "Montana is just a big city with really long streets."  Anytime you meet someone new, you always ask them where they are from because chances are you have a mutual friend.  When you are from Malta, that increases ten fold.  That's not bragging. It's reality.  Just tonight I met a man from Dillon.  I know a couple of people from there and dropped their names.  He knew neither.  He then asked me if I knew Frank Wiederick, who is from Malta. The only guy he knows from Malta.  I do know Frank.  That point aside, we Montanans always ask and friendships are born.  I grew up in such a great town. So lucky.  It's why I call it the Center of the Universe. COTU for short.

When things are happening to towns like Roundup and Forsyth and Lewistown, you feel the pain because chances are you know someone from one of those towns and their relatives are bearing the brunt.

In other news and on a happier note.  The new job is still great.  My boss was in town last week.  He asked me how I was doing.  I replied "Patrick, I'm having a fucking blast. This is more fun than stepping on baby ducks." (Take it easy, it's just a saying and kind of funny).  He obvioulsy hadn't heard it before because he just shook his head and walked away.

Honestly though kids, I am having a blast. I like being busy.  I love the chase of the sale and the challenge that goes with it.  I have an office mate who has only been doing this since last July and have been tutoring him and he hangs on my every word.  That's not to say I know everything (I really do but for the sake of this post lets pretend otherwise).  My point is that it is so refreshing to have someone who doesn't know a lot about this business appreciate my help and not think what I have to say doesn't have value.  This kid is a true diamond in the rough. I've listened to his sales pitch and for no more experience than he has, it is incredible.  He studies his product and doesn't shine anyone on to get the deal.  Pure honesty.  It is just how I try to be so getting him to get the deal for more money (because you're only shorting yourself) has been easy and he's making more now. 

I have my 30th class reunion this summer.  Yes, that means I'm 48.  I'm sure plenty of you are surprised I'm that old from the amount of immature posts that appear but it is the truth.  I'm looking very forward to it.  I made up my mind at our 10 year that whatever happened in high school happened and I don't give a shit anymore.  If you slighted me back then so what.  Very few did and one of those is now one of my best friends.  Total stuck up in HS, I ran into her at a bar in Malta a few years after graduation.  We started talking and she admitting to being a bitch.  I told her that was then and this is now (thank you SE Hinton).  We haven't lost touch since. 

I loved my dad and miss him every day.  Those of us who have lost parents know the feeling.  There is one thing I do hold against him.  When I graduated from Malta High School in 1981, I remember my dad telling me that the first eighteen years of life took a long time, the rest of your life will fly by.  The reason I'm mad is because he wasn't totally honest.  It doesn't "fly by".  It goes by faster than we can all imagine.  I remember walking out of our last test with my buddy Jim Craig like it was YESTERDAY.  I can still tell you the path we took.  Way, way faster than "flying by". I suppose dad  did try to do it justice and knew that whatever he said, I wasn't going to listen to him anyway.  Hard to believe that in November he will have been gone 17 years.  What even makes me madder is that he won the last game of cribbage we ever played.  Pure and utter bullshit.  He pulled it out at the end and two months later he died. 

I suppose it was God's will but you have to understand that when dad and I played crib, it was no holds barred.  An absolute card bloodfest.  I loved crushing him and he did the same.  I always say, "I'm the greatest crib player alive, but that's because my dad is dead."  Keep the board warm dad.  I'm ready to play you again, just not tomorrow.

Heading to Bililngs tomorrow for some R&R. 

Miss you all and hope life is giving all of you the blessings you all deserve.

Chip

PS Diane Lane is still hot.  I just said that so I can put her in the label.  If anyone knows a DL look alike who isn't psycotic, have her email me.  Wait.  That's pretty weird. Never mind.  I did hit happy hour.  Crown Black, which is so good you could pour it cereal. I didn't proof read so all typos are on me.