Random Thoughts

I’ve got a lot of random thoughts going on around in my head this morning, so bear with me.

Number One ~ I feel kind of funny. No, not the ha, ha kind of funny but the weird and eerie kind of funny. I was reading the morning paper when I ran across an article titled “Man’s death attributed to stress disorder”. It was about a Wisconsin man, a former Marine sergeant, who took his own life in Yellowstone National Park. The man’s father said his son had been suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder following his discharge from the military in 2007. Peter Kastner went missing in late May. A rental car he had been driving was discovered abandoned along a trail in Yellowstone. His family just got word of his death this past July 14. His body was found by researchers working on Garnet Hill, a summit north of Tower Junction. Peter Kastner had a wife and was 25 years old.

To begin with, what gives me the creeps is that I recently posted an article “Yellowstone – Beautiful but Deadly”. It was all about the natural hazards of Yellowstone. I explain how people get hurt or die in the park by accident or reckless behavior. Secondly, I’ve also written about suicides in national parks. You can read all about it by clicking here. Thirdly, I’ve got kids…some a good bit older and some a good bit younger. I just don’t like to hear about somebody’s kid dying.

Number Two ~ Another article I read this morning was about two hikers getting hit by falling rocks. Two males, one 13 and one 19, were injured on the Highline Trail in Glacier National Park when rocks fell from a cliff about 100 feet above the trail. I know this trail pretty well. On the first leg of the trail you walk along the side of a rocky cliff. There’s a cable that’s been run through a hose and anchored into the mountain if you need to hold on. We used it last summer when a storm blew up and the wind got pretty gusty. It’s a spectacular hike with lots of wildlife. Falling rocks is not a problem to my knowledge. What makes this noteworthy this morning is my family’s experience of seeing a boy throwing a rock over the side of the Grand Canyon. Since then, we’ve preached not to do that…someone may be down below on a trail and get conked on the head.

Number Three ~ Thinking about change again. Construction crews have been in my neighborhood for weeks. They’ve been digging up the historical corners of Kalispell’s 100 year old side walks. It’s kind of difficult to see the beauty in this at this point. I suppose it’s stimulus money funding the project; just sad to see the old concrete markings torn up.  Read my article “Change ~ Embrace It”.

Number Four ~ Blog, blog, blog. My husband asked me if I had seen the status my cousin had posted on her Facebook wall. Her status was about blog stats. Apparently Newsweek reported that there are now a whopping 141 million blogs, up from only 12,000 blogs that were on the internet in 2000. Wondering what impression a casual passerby would get of this blog?  Would they think it’s only about hiking and national parks?  Would they only read the top post?  Questions, questions…now I need some answers.

I’d better get moving now.  Here’s a pic of our old sidewalk.

Sidewalk stamped 1910. Sad to see this little piece of history fade away.

Til next time,