“Hey, did you ever moon the sun?” I asked Ming.
“No,” he said, and we laughed.
“I think that would be ironic,” I said.
We were at Big Medicine hot springs in Montana, just the two of us. I thought it might be crowded because it was right after fourth of July holiday; I figured people were traveling around, looking for fun. But we had the place to ourselves.
I was standing in the pool of water, with my back to the sun, and I’d pulled my shorts down slightly to expose more of my back to the loving sun rays. That’s why it occurred to me, to moon the sun. I was halfway there!
But the place has rules–you have to wear clothes. So I was trying to respect the custom.
no glass
There were some cool signs–I love the person who made the signs.
My favorite sign said
LEAVE YOUR DOGS IN YOUR CAR
OR JUST LEAVE.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.
Explanations for why not to steal something are charming.
Wasps built their nest in the eye socket of this skull. Pretty amazing, huh.
card catalog
A different day we were at a river resort’s gift shop to buy ice. We saw this card catalog repurposed to sell fishing lures.
I was overwhelmed with delight and took this picture to show you. Still fond of card catalogs, all these years later.
river
This sunset was so beautiful–the vast, powerful dark river, moving with its own speed, ominous and full of life. And the dusky sky with pink lines of clouds. Wow, my phone camera couldn’t do much, but it tried.
note
This is a note I left in the guest book of the permaculture farm we stayed on in Montana, owned by a brilliant Indigenous woman who my heart smiles for.
The place was so pristine, and the bed was so comfortable. There were no bugs inside but a few of these beautiful black assassin bugs. So that’s what I drew.