Living in The Banana Belt

What a difference a week makes. The weather here has been so nice. We have had temps in the 50's, all the snow and ice is melted, however things are pretty muddy. Not all the ice has melted, but most. Now the forecast is calling for snow and cold. Not the sub zero stuff, but the single digits and teens. Fortunately spring is just around the corner and this stuff won't last long.

Friday we both took an hour off from work so that we could make it to Billings for a tae kwon do color belt test. We had 5 of our students testing. The test started at 5:30 and in order to get decent parking we had to leave early. The test was at the school in the Heights so we figured that traffic wouldn't be too bad. Funny how our great ideas seem to back fire on us.

The Metra was having a show over the weekend, so traffic was pretty heavy going in and out of the Metra, which slowed us down quite a bit. We did make it and I did find a decent parking space. Right next to the school is a casino and the owner of the casino has a fit when the martial arts people park in his lot. He has a nice paved lot in front of the casino and then a field in the back. Our people would park in the field, but apparently the owner had a fit and started towing cars off his lot. There were notes all over the school about not parking in his lots. A while back we did park in the field but the casino owner was out there and told us that we had to move. There was a tow truck towing vehicles and I did recognize the one vehicle being hooked up belonging to a family in tae kwon do. We moved our car, got inside the school and made the BIG announcement that if people parked back there, they better hurry and move their cars as there is a tow truck hooking up to vehicles right now. About 6 people ran out, unfortunately the tow truck did make off with a couple cars and it cost those people $140.

I always send out a letter to our students and their parents to make sure they don't park in the casino's lots and I even draw out maps on where they can park. Anyway, our students did quite well and they all got promoted.

Sunday was a very nice day, Hardin was 52 degrees. We went to Billings to attend a HOG chapter meeting. We left early to do a bit of shopping. Gary wanted to buy a snow blower, he is tired of shoveling snow. It's not fun since Robert and Jason moved away. He was having a hard time finding one. I kept telling him that he may have to wait until next year as those things are seasonal and most store are probably sold out. We went to the Ace Hardware store and he didn't find his blower but he did buy an electric shovel. Since we really don't have alot of sidewalk or driveway to shovel out he figured this electric shovel will work. It is supposed to throw the snow 20 feet. He bought it so that it would not snow again. But the forecast looks like he may get a chance to use his new toy after all.

We did make it to the meeting and it was 64 degrees in Billings. About half the people attending the meeting rode their motorcycles, but I reminded Gary that we still had about 6 inches of snow in our yard and the streets in Hardin were still icy, so he couldn' ride. He is counting down the days and he is hoping that in March he will be able to ride.

At the meeting they were passing out a sheet of paper for members to sign. I couldn't sign the paper because I am not a member because I don't have my membership number. Anyway Gary signed the paper, I was sort of reading over his shoulder. This sheet of paper was a volunteer sign up sheet but it didn't say what you were going to volunteer for. The state HOG rally will be in Billings this year and our chapter is hosting it. That was what this sheet was for, we will help out but I reminded Gary that when he gets the phone call to remind them that we do live out of town so we will work a registration booth. Not all the details are out on the rally so we will be going to meetings to get updates and such.

I had Monday off and so did Jennifer but we didn't go to Billings, we just stayed home and relaxed. Watched mindless movies and such.

On Tuesday I watched the swearing in of our new President. I just had to laugh because on the news link I had to wait in line to get the video feed and there was a short delay so it would play and then pause for a bit. Anyway I was still able to see the swearing in and glad that I could watch it in the warmth of my office and I could see. I couldn't image standing outside and in those temps for as long as all those people did. I had a good seat,a great view and was warm.