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Sunrise Patty Melt at Perkin's

Many people around these parts stop in at various restaurants around town after church on Sunday, usually relatively fast food places. I count Perkin’s and IHOP among these. We go to both fairly often, especially the former because they change their menus every few months it seems. One of those new things on the Perkin’s menu is (more…)

Tea Party on Grand Ave

By the way, I must recommend as highly as I can Arby’s Jamocha shakes. I’m pretty sure this delicious beverage played a major part in healing my abdominal incision after a diverticular perforation back in February. That and my nurses, Carol and Kellie, and of course my surgeon, Dr McKenzie. And a little of Capt Morgan too now that I think about it. They have all agreed to give me a discount after this advertising.

Sierra Club wackos chat with Tea Party Protesters

I asked the guy in the blue shirt above what the occasion was. He said that some of them were (more…)

Is that a Rolls-Royce at the pawn shop?

I happened to be heading west on Grand Ave this afternoon, doing some errands, when I drove by First National Pawn. I saw this car parked in front of the pawn shop out of the corner of my eye, so naturally I had to turn around to see if my eyes had played a trick on me. I have not seen any Rolls-Royces in Billings in thirty years.

It sure looks like one

But sure enough, there it was, right in front of me, parked on the sidewalk of course, so that lesser breeds of car wouldn’t come close enough to cast a shadow on this beauty. I went in to the pawn shop because I was curious to know if someone driving a Rolls needed to pawn something, or whether the Rolls (more…)

Billings Farmers Market starts this Saturday at 8:30am in their usual downtown location.

SummerFair also starts this Saturday at 9am at Veterans Park. Please note the new location. It looks like you should go to the Farmers Market in the morning because it is over by noon, and then to Veterans Park for Summerfair in the afternoon.

And then you have a choice: Rimrock Opera Summer Festival with two one-act operas in English starts Saturday evening at 7:30pm at the Babcock Theatre and Sunday afternoon, 3pm, at Shiloh United Methodist Church. This looks like a lot of fun: The Telephone by Gian Carlo Menotti, remember him from Amahl and the Night Visitor? And then Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti.

Wow, this is going to be a busy day. Look for pictures later.

Laurel v. Blue Jays at PIrtz Field

I managed to see at least a couple of innings of two American Legion games on Saturday afternoon. The Blue Jays—the younger A level team for the AA Royals—were playing the Laurel Dodgers at Pirtz Field, just beyond Rimrock Mall. See the picture to the left.

I probably should say that Laurel was thrashing the Blue Jays unmercifully. It was 16-1 when I left in the 5th inning. The boys from Laurel look strong and may well repeat their State A Championship from last year.

Scarlets Get it Going in the 4th Inning

The Scarlets looked like they were in trouble until they broke out in a rash of runs in the bottom of the 4th inning thanks to wildness on the part of the Great Falls pitcher. He hit a few batters and a few more walked and then some bats came alive to the tune of 8 runs. Joe Barta looked good on the mound. The hitters need a little more practice, especially to replace some of those big hitters from last year.

According to the Gazette the Scarlets managed to sweep the Chargers fairly easily in both the afternoon and early evening games. Another 8 run outburst in the 2nd game put that one away as easily as the early game.

The Scarlets and Royals will be pretty busy (more…)

About 1/3 of the crowd. Opening of Softie's is a sure sign of Spring here in Billings, MT. That and the kids starting to play baseball outside.

Softie’s on the corner of 24th and Broadwater usually opens sometime in March. As usual, they are very busy, so much so you’d think they would open another place to take care of the crowds. (more…)

Steeple & Tree St Patrick's Co-Cathedral Downtown Billings, MT

This is the steeple of St Patrick’s Co-Cathedral here in Billings, Montana. A short lesson in terminology might be helpful.

From Wikipedia—Ordinary Time is a split season of the Christian (especially the Catholic) liturgical calendar. The Sundays after Christmas and Epiphany, the last 6 January, are Sundays in Ordinary Time. The others follow Pentecost. They do not fall under the “strong seasons” of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter.

The English name is intended to translate the Latin term Tempus per annum (literally “time through the year”).

How do we get “Ordinary Time” from “time through the year”? (more…)

Medical Cartoon

I was getting worried when I hadn’t heard for what seemed like months from my favorite cardiac-turned-plastic surgeon, Billings’ own Dr Alan Muskett. I know I’ve blogged about him in the past but I couldn’t find the entries, though I did find in back pages of the Gazette a number of other good articles by Dr Muskett. Chalk it up to advancing age, mine, not his.

By the way, one of the many ways you can measure your own decline is to re-read a few of your past attempts at sensible blogging, which I did while searching for blogs about the good Dr Muskett. Well OK, I enjoyed a few of them, mostly those I had borrowed from others. I think I actually improved the blogosphere a little by deleting some. I should have (more…)