Coming home from physical therapy today as I neared the turnoff for our road I noticed puddles in the rumble strips on the highway. The gravel road was wet but not muddy. Our driveway was a different story–you could see where water had rushed down the driveway and there were muddy spots. The Cowboy was quite excited when I arrived–we received about a half inch of rain and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees!!! A gift during this time of unbearable heat, dryness and fires.
I graduated from physical therapy today. And I was sad. The physical therapist I had was an amazing young woman. When after five visits and my hip felt absolutely no better she said, “OK, let’s scrap everything we are doing and start over.” She listened to me and we went a different path which turned out to be the right path. Unlike the physical therapy clinic I visited late in 2020, I loved this clinic from the person who answered the phone and scheduled right down to the physical therapist. Alison has a doctorate of physical therapy and she also had a bubbly, outgoing personality. We discovered that our granddaughter taught Alison’s son in fourth grade this past year. So, I am so glad to be feeling better but I’m also sad. For once in my life I looked forward to physical therapy!
The Cowboy has been doing some metal work for our friends/neighbors. He’s been working in the mornings, retreating to the cooler house in the afternoons. His talent amazes me!
Tuesday I drove to Livingston to have lunch with Sarah. It’s so hard to pick a restaurant these days. So many of the eateries are short of help and are reducing hours to cope. Montana seems to have an over abundance of tourists this summer and the small town of Livingston and its businesses are stressed. Can’t find a parking place, can’t make a left turn into the constant stream of traffic and the interstate is almost as bad as I-10 in Arizona between our home and Tucson–where we are the tourists!😎 Our first restaurant choice (the one with the lemon ricotta gelato) was closed so we went to the Thai restaurant and had a fabulous meal–outstanding meal! But no lemon gelato!☹️
The hummingbirds are eating us out of house and home. I filled the feeder twice today! I don’t know whether they are hungry or thirsty!
We are grateful for the weather break today, so grateful!
Restoration Cowboy Style 
Go to Lowe’s and get one of the free standing air conditioner that you cami eat from room to room. We have one in our bedroom and if our house a/c goes out just roll it to kitchen. Aunt Betty
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Are they noisy? The mini splits are super quiet for an air conditioner.
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From those lovely crisp photos one can almost smell the fresh air that follows rain. I’m envious. We in the North Okanagan of BC Canada haven’t had a drop of rain in three months…and the heat, dust and smoke (from the numerous fires) are almost unbearable.
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I know what you mean about being overwhelmed by tourists. Central Coast of California is jammed good and tight. Folks are around every nook and cranny and in every open space. Tonight I even had someone knock on our door to ask if we wanted to sell our trailer. Second time this has happened. There just aren’t spaces to rent and hotels are full. And there are no little trailers to buy.
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I was trying to be polite in the post but it’s beyond ridiculous! You can’t fill your car with gas because a tourist has parked and gone into the convenience store before pumping their gas and they don’t come out for 15 minutes–it happened to me when I had the trailer attached to the truck. Hotel room prices in Bozeman, MT are over $500 per night–who pays that??? As you said, there are no RVs to buy, no houses to buy–people have gone nuts about Montana!
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I feel for you Barb, we too are in your shoes. That little 1/2″ didn’t do anything more than give us a brief respite from the heat and dryness. We are so dry I keep saying we are going to spontaneously combust.
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We are 1 hour south of Jackson Hole. We’ve run the AC more so far this summer than we ever had for a whole summer. Traffic on US89 is the worst we’ve seen in 7 years. The creek behind our house went dry on 7/6. Only other time we’ve seen it dry was 3-4 years ago, and that was in early September. Smoke season is likely to be horrible this year. May have to go back to Texas early.
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Isn’t it awful!! Montana isn’t supposed to be this way! Traffic is horrific, people are rude. Our smoke season is here and it’s horrible all ready!!
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I’m so glad you got some rain! But I know you need a whole lot more. It’s truly frightening seeing what is happening in the west with the drought, heat, and wildfires. On a happier note, I’m very glad to hear that your physical therapy was so helpful and that you had a therapist you really liked.
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It is frightening Laurel and sad!
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It’s funny that when we visited Montana in 2013 we saw a bumper sticker that read “ Montana is full, go home”. I’m sure it’s much worse now! We had the same experience getting gas in Camp Verde, AZ last year…we waited and waited and waited to pump gas while a large family went in to have lunch! We were in the MH pulling the jeep. I just don’t understand folks these days. Oh well, glad you had rain. I figure every drop counts these days!
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In my opinion, folks have lost their manners and think of no one but themselves. And you are right, Montana is much worse now. We wouldn’t dream of going to YNP–lines to get in have been backed up from the entrance gate all the way through West Yellowstone and out the other side. Every drop helps and we are glad to see AZ getting good rain!
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Such a beautiful cool cloudy storm! I noticed in the comments that you didn’t pull any punches! Good for you. This one hit home….my pet peeve! “You can’t fill your car with gas because a tourist has parked and gone into the convenience store before pumping their gas and they don’t come out for 15 minutes”.
Hopefully things will simmer down a bit. And I hate to say it, but I do check the license plates of those folks being obnoxious in gas stations. It seems that one state in particular is especially guilty. Is it the huge population, or the sense of entitlement and the thought that they are the only ones in the world. I have never understood rude people, and I was born in said un named state!
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You made both of us chuckle! It’s my pet peeve too, the guy who left his truck parked at the gas pumps for over 15 minutes while I waited might think twice about doing it again–let’s just say! 🙂
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Glad to hear your PT was successful. It is hard to leave a good therapist. It’s comforting to go and have someone observing and encouraging. Good to hear you got some much needed rain. What a sweet temp drop!! We had the monsoon downpour then another couple hours of very light showers, but we only dropped six degrees to 92…big whoop!
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Yes, I miss her telling me my position was wrong–now I have to figure it out on my own. We’ve been getting some awesome rains in Pearce.
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