Morning Guy Blog

For Early Risers Who Wish That It Could Be Morning All Day

For Early Risers Who Wish It Could Be Morning All Day

Just some clear water and colorful rocks …

By

I guess the novelty of winter is wearing off a bit and thoughts are turning towards spring.

Here is a short clip of some clear Rocky Mountain water and colorful glacier scoured rocks:

So, this is kind of bizarre: I have always enjoyed maps and now with the advent of Google Earth, I have come to enjoy examining places of interest from above — usually when I am dreaming of visiting the place or am planning some hike, etc. I was looking over Google’s satellite imagery of Flathead Lake when I stumbled upon a boat with two yellow elongated objects protruding perpendicularly off of its stern. I realized that I was looking at Marlene and I underway — from nearly 500 miles above!

Yeah, I’ve seen satellite images of my house and my car parked outside of my house, but I have never seen myself in motion via satellite. Wild stuff.

We live in interesting times.

Marlene the Explorer in her yellow earthbound kayak.

+1 !!!

By

After waiting out the longest cold spell that I can remember in our past 15 years as Montanans, the forecast today is for +1!

+1 Celsius!

This would be cause for celebration if this temperature forecast wasn’t accompanied by a Winter Weather Advisory of freezing rain and sleet. But hey, it’s a move in the right direction.

Baby steps.

After all, its only January 18 and it will take lots and lots of baby steps to get back up to a Goldilocks climate.

When I was young I never even looked at the temperature forecast. I think that was true of most northern latitude kids. Temperature was simply a non-factor. As kids, you just do what you are going to do. If your fingers start to freeze, you go inside and warm up for a few minutes than go back out into it. It is only when I got older and had kids of my own that I began to factor in temperature.

I either got wiser or softer. Probably both.

Here’s a short funny video about winter weather forecasting from Environment Canada. Marlene and I could have easily played these parts. Yes, we have grown soft. This video hits a little too close to home.

Pulitzer-Smulitzer

By

My modest literary contribution, Searching for Alpha Centauri: A Boyhood Memoir, made a nice comeback this month. It became an Amazon Best Seller by climbing to #2 in its category—just behind Timothy Egan’s latest book. Yeah, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning Timothy Egan.

That’s what I’m talking about!

Okay, that might not impress you. I mean its second place after all. As Dale Earnhardt once so callously stated, “second place is just the first place loser.”

Ouch!

So maybe it’s not a coup, but my book did come in three spots ahead of Weird Al Yankovic’s biography.

Weird Al #5.

Me #2.

How often does that happen? How often can that happen?

Weird.

I don’t like to brag, but such victories for unknown authors are rare and all too fleeting. So please forgive me this moment of crowing …

before I sink back into the depths of literary obscurity.

Winter Bullseye

By

With all of our recent snowfall, I got to thinking of “the bullseye.”

Who wouldn’t?

“Everyone’s do’n the bullseye!”

Here is an oldy, but goody watercolor painting demonstration of a “warm” winter scene—utilizing the bullseye technique. It is an excerpt from Learning to Paint Winter’s Light.

If you are interested, you can find the entire course here: spetz.teachable.com