Another sign of spring

For the first time this year, Revlon's "Really Rosy" polish is out of the bottle and onto my toenails. If it doesn't snow, I may wear open-toe shoes to work tomorrow.

This picture makes my foot look cadavorous. Yikes.

Biked with a baby

At only 4 months old, Desi is already a true Jackson Hole girl, hitting the bike path with me for an after-work ride on a sunny spring day.

It was Desi's mom and chauffeur, Johanna, who did the heavy work, namely keeping her wheels going with this side-cart contraption attached to her bike and a brisk wind hitting head-on.

I'm thinking of buying Desi a beret, a long scarf and aviator sunglasses to wear whenever she rides in this side cart.

Bought a road bike

The economy is in the toilet, my job prospects are bleak, the totals in my stock-and-bond portfolio give me the willies. So what to do? What else, but go out and buy a road bike.

Here it is, a brand new Jamis (a company I'd not heard of until I walked into Fitzgerald's Bicycles this morning) Satellite leaning against my nine-year-old Ford Focus wagon, a vehicle whose age and model prove, I believe, that I'm not really materialistic, even though some material things do indeed give me great pleasure (like my Kindle).

But I do love the bike. I took it for an inaugural spin this afternoon in Grand Teton National Park. The mountains were so beautiful, the snowy sage flats so clean and bright, the sky so blue and my bike so speedy. ... For therapeutic value alone this bike was worth it. I feel like a million bucks right now.

A new thing? I've had a handful of bikes: a three-speed as a kid, a 10-speed as a teenager, a hybrid in my 20s and 30s, a mountain bike in my 40s (which I still use for transportation in spring/summer/fall). But I don't believe I've ever bought a road bike.

Sign of spring

“There are always flowers for those who want to see them.” -- Henri Matisse

Despite a couple of days of snow, this brave little crocus popped its head up on April 17.

Carl Jung

Being part of the Great Books Discussion Group here in Jackson Hole forces - or should I say, encourages - me to read things I'd otherwise avoid. Often the selections are a pleasant surprise.

This week I struggled with an excerpt from Carl Jung's "The Stages of Life" until I came across some great quotes about middle and old age.

"... We wholly overlook the essential fact that the achievements which society rewards are won at the cost of a diminution of personality. Many - far too many - aspects of life which should also have been experienced lie in the lumberoom among dusty memories. Sometimes, even, they are glowing coals under gray ashes.

... Thoroughly unprepared we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false presupposition that our truths and ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the program of life's morning - for what was great in the morning will be little at evening, and what in the morning is true will at evening have become a lie."

Interviewed a famous author

Photo by Tara Murphy

"Eighty percent of success is just showing up," Woody Allen once said.

And to that I'll add, opportunities sometimes arise just because you're around when somebody else isn't.

The arts reporter where I work went on vacation during a week when an interview with author Alexander McCall Smith was offered to our newspaper. Smith will be speaking here in Jackson Hole on April 23, so I got to interview him (by phone to Edinburgh, Scotland, where he lives) and write a story previewing his appearance.

I've read quite a few of the books in his No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency and Isabel Dalhousie series, so I felt pretty comfortable talking to him. He's smart (obviously), nice and well-spoken. And prolific. He has two books at a time going and fortunately for him is one of those people who can write on planes and trains.

One thing he said that particularly struck me was that when he writes, he doesn't have a picture in his mind of how Precious Ramotswe, Isabel Dalhousie or any of his other characters look. Even now that Jill Scott is playing Ramotswe in HBO's No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series, he still doesn't "see" the character.

This was one assignment that didn't feel like work. And it's nice to know people can achieve fame and fortune without turning into jerks.

Tasted single-malt whisky

Once, 20 years ago, I drank some blended Scotch one evening when (1) I had consumed other types of alcoholic beverages and (2) I was on one of the worst dates of my life. Halfway through the evening, my date said, "You have flaws. I like that." At the end of the evening, when I was (mercifully) home alone, I got very sick. Was it the Scotch? Was it the other liquor? Was it the man? Or a combination of all three. Who knows, but I've steered clear of Scotch since.

Then, on April 4, 2009, I lifted the self-imposed moratorium on Scotch by attending a whisky-tasting at Spring Creek Ranch in Jackson, Wyo., with the Wyoming Highlanders, a Scottish-American organization. The four single-blends pictured above on the bar of Spring Creek's restaurant, The Granary, with the Tetons behind, initiated me into the world of high-end Scotch.

I enjoyed the first two, found it hard to get through the next two, but ended up (1) not sick and (2) with a new beverage in my repertoire. I can't say single-blend whisky will ever be my first choice, but now I have another new thing: If someone asks if I like single-malts, I can truthfully, sort of, say yes. It seems so sophisticated.

Been called a "commie"

It started so innocently. One of the Wall Street Journal's blogs had a short article about the good impression Michelle Obama made on Queen Elizabeth. The article mentioned that the two made physical contact of a friendly sort. (This was before AP reported that the queen touched Mrs. Obama first.) In the comments section, someone I'll call "S" referred to the Obamas as hicks and said it wouldn't be long before "you Obamites begin to feel really, really, stupid."

I posted a reply that I think Michelle Obama is highly educated, beautiful, charming, etc., and I'm proud to see her represent our country.

Here's the comment I got back, the one that refers to me (and others who think like me) as Commies.

"Oh, yes, Michelle is just the best-est Marxist you could find anywhere, educated off the American Tax dollar, mindset of entitlement, not “proud” of her country till halfway thru adulthood, oh, yes, she’s just FABULOUS!!! Both of them make great book ends to hold up your issues of Mein Kampf. Better brush up on your goose-stepping…..If you think that’s “charming and beautiful”, then, obviously you’re in the same catagory…you must have drank the kool aid along with all the rest of the other good little Commies."

Umm, wasn't Mein Kampf a book and not a magazine published in "issues?" And wasn't Mein Kampf written by Hitler, a fascist, which isn't the same thing as a communist?

But what's truly scary is the hatred and rage on top of the stupidity. Makes me think of the film footage of those crowds at Nuremberg.