Saturday, July 02, 2005

If the sun refused to shine, I don't mind. I don't mind. If the mountains fell in the sea, let it be. It ain't me.

I did yoga yesterday for the first time in almost two years. During my hiatus from yoga, my wife has practically become a yogi, able to contort herself into all kinds of crazy positions, whilst I remain about as flexible as an oak tree. It felt good, though. If India will let me take photographs of her in yoga poses and post them here, I think you all will get a good laugh from a photo essay contrasting my yoga skillz with India's.

Yet another "Self Portrait of a Jackass:"


I ran this morning (again), and I was dive-bombed by the hawk (again). There were three red-wing blackbirds harassing the hawk while she harassed me. The run was long (almost an hour) and hard, because for the last ten minutes, I did sprint intervals.

While I was running, India went to a yoga class. She is auditioning the different yoga places in the area to find one at which she feels comfortable. When she returned, we went out to a late breakfast at a place called the Cateye Cafe downtown. Man, was it good. (Again. I feel like a broken record telling you all about the great meals we are having, but there are a lot of very good restaurants in this town.) When some of you come visit, we will definitely go to the Cateye Cafe for breakfast. I had Huevos Rancheros and added enough hot sauce to make me break a sweat. It isn't a good meal unless you break a sweat, for one reason or another.

After breakfast, we put the dogs in the car and headed over to the Madison River, about 20 miles southwest of Bozeman. It was a bit of a nostalgia trip for me, because three years ago, India's cousin, J-Ho, a/k/a UJ, and I took a two week road trip to Montana and we camped along the banks of the Madison. It was another beautiful day, and we found a secluded spot not far from J-Ho's and my campsite. We chilled by the river with the dogs, read books and napped in the tall grass. Fortunately, we were equipped with dog beds, blankets and little chairs.

Here are the boys, being good:



There is India- she was wearing a bikini, and I was rightfully prohibited from taking up-close photos... *cough*EBay*cough*


There were a ton of people floating down the river, having a good time.
The Madison:



It was another sunny day, especially near the Madison. The Madison is a dam-controlled river that J-Ho and I actually rafted down a few years back. It is located in a more arid, U-shaped valley than the Gallatin (which is more V-shaped), and there were little flowering cacti growing there.


Buffalo Jump State Park is near the place we hung out today. The Indians used to drive the buffalo off a cliff, then go to the bottom and collect that carcasses, and I am sure they used every scrap to make clothes and fragrant stews. Fragrant? How do I know it was fragrant?

Hmmm... Let me see... Many dead buffalo + sunshine + tanning hides and wearing them - any kind of refrigeration = fragrance.

Tonight, we dine with the Bells on Main St. I had better take a shower. I smell like I went running, ate a breakfast that made me sweat, was tricked by wily Indians into running off a cliff, left to fester in the sun, then hung in strips to cure for fragrant stew.