Daily Life

16 Apr 26!

Monday, April 20, 2026

Coming back from Belgrade fir Avis had a bit of dramatic weather…

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Landscapes, On the Road, PAD 2026, Photography, Weather, Work | | Comments (0)

I drove a fairly new (2025?) Ford Expedition to Belgrade for Avis. Instead of all of those buttons on the steering wheel for cruise, heat, lane controls, radio, and so on, it had two touch pads, basically unlabeled.

When you touch them the choice of controls comes up on the screen above the steering wheel. However, your choice doesn’t stay in place and when you try to touch the activate button in the middle of the touch pad the indicator on the screen floats off to some other choice. Please note there is a map app running on carplay in the middle, and another map app from Ford running on the screen behind the steering wheel.

Just getting into a car to drive isn’t easy anymore…

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Historic, Humor, On the Road, PAD 2026, Work | | Comments (0)

14 Apr 26!

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Here is the usual run to Belgrade for Avis. This was a group driving down in one vehicle and driving a bunch of cars back. Some times it is the reverse. Sometimes we drive a bunch down and bring a bunch back.

This day started out a bit foggy.

Then it got sunny.

The it got foggy again.

Most of our trips are to Belgrade (near Bozeman, Montana, where the airport is) or Helena. Occasionally to Missoula. These are better trips than when we went to Idaho Falls a lot (long-+300 miles each way) or Calgary (as long but BORING, with a border crossing to boot!).

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Landscapes, On the Road, PAD 2026, Photography, Sunrises, Weather, Work | | Comments (0)

13 Apr 26!

Tuesday, April 14, 2026

Grandson Lugnut and I started on the GoldWing timing belt replacements. I thought we could do it without draining the radiator. That was incorrect. At this point we have removed two front fairing sections, and three fairing pieces from each side. This is still less than if I was changing the air filter. The biggest downside to a GoldWing is maintenance is a royal pain in the rear. Everything is buried under multiple sections. Authorities in the field have loudly lamented that it has only gotten worse on the two generations after mine…Origami, thy name is Honda.

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Historic, Life at Home, Motorcycles, PAD 2026, Photography | | Comments (0)

12 Apr 26!

Saturday, April 11, 2026

Two more images of the water at the “Car Wash! Car Wash!”:

And one of the “Car Wash! Car Wash!” trying to get through the glass to polish my follicle challenged noggin’!

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Humor, Inspiration, Life at Home, Macro/Closeup, PAD 2026, Photography, Subaru Forester | | Comments (0)

11 Apr 26!

Saturday, April 11, 2026

Three images of the water at the “Car Wash! Car Wash!”

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Humor, Inspiration, Life at Home, Macro/Closeup, PAD 2026, Photography, Subaru Forester | | Comments (0)

10 Apr 26!

Saturday, April 11, 2026

At the “Car Wash! Car Wash!” *

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

*A musical reference…all of us “mature” fogies always hear the first “Car Wash” accompanied by a musical second “Car Wash!”

Filed in Humor, Inspiration, Life at Home, Music, PAD 2026, Photography, Subaru Forester, Video | | Comments (0)

09 Apr 26!

Saturday, April 11, 2026

A quick trip with Avis to Belgrade to pick up some cars. Not the brand-spankin’-new-Broncos-with-the-bags-on-the-seats. Maybe next week!

Some smoke on the way back:

It was a farmer burning his field. Note the fuzziness of the photo. I “zoomed in digitally” on my camera. All you do when you “zoom” is enlarge the center of the photo. If you take a regular photo, you will get the exact same amount of detail or fuzziness when you crop it to this level, but you will also get a lot more photo to crop from, leaving lots of options.

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Inspiration, Landscapes, On the Road, PAD 2026, Photography, Technical Stuff, Weather, Work | | Comments (0)

08 Apr 25!

Saturday, April 11, 2026

What I am currently saving up for, after I get my GoldWing running again. New belts will do it, I hope!

A 2021 Indian Springfield with about 11,700 miles or so. At SS Cycle Brokers in Ogden. Their photo!

~Curtis in /\/\onTana! {!-{>

Filed in Inspiration, Life at Home, Motorcycles, On the Road, PAD 2026 | | Comments (0)

07 Apr 26!

Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Another Avis trip to Belgrade for Avis: A military train of big trucks. There may have been a few Humvees too, but I didn’’t see any tanks or such.

Between Cascade and Ulm the Dust hit…all the cars went from 80MPH to about 30MPH. It was a spooky 20-30 seconds, then out of the Dust! The wind stayed, however…