leifw

...and that Gmail's spam filtering is from above. Since June 26, I've received 666 spams, none of which Gmail incorrectly classified as spam, to my knowledge. Gosh, I love Gmail.

She found a big soft spot in my heart I didn't know was there.

Two hundred years ago yesterday, the first white guy walked into the valley I live in. Two hundred years ago today, William Clark and his company followed old buffalo roads out of my valley, over the Bozeman pass, and into the Yellowstone valley at the direction of the invaluable Sacagawea.

Upon arriving near present day, Livingston, Montana, Clark remarked on

• "those Snowey Mountains to the N W"
• "a high rugid mountain covered with Snow"
• "mountains to the S. S. E on the East side of the river is rocky rugid and on them are great quantities of Snow"
• "a high rugid Mtn. on which is Snow bearing North 15 or 20 miles"

I'm guessing the snowy, high points he mentions are the Crazy Mountains, Livingston Peak, the Absaroka Mountains, and some point in the Bridgers. It's been at least a month seen there's been a significant amount of snow on the peaks around here, as has been the case in recent years past. I feel like that leaves two reasonable conclusions:

1. 1806 was an unusually cold and snowy year.
2. 2003-2006 have been notably warmer and/or drier than 1806.

My guess is for the latter.

If you're interested in seeing Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth, but it's not showing in your area or you're too cheap to shell out big bucks to go to a documentary, the Conversations Network is running a podcast of Gore giving the spiel on which the movie is based.

Your caboose is looking really good!

My third-hand account of a pastor's compliment to one of the female members of the church. Yes, she had been restoring a railroad car.

Sunday's Writer's Almanac mentioned that the common wedding vow, "I take thee...from this day forward...till death do us part," was written by Thomas Cranmar, officiant of Henry VII's divorce.