In It

So, what have we been here, two weeks?
Maybe it's three...
It's been a blur.

Still tourists, for sure.
A "local" badge is hard earned in these parts.
It may be a while before I earn that mantle.
But as mentioned before, there doesn't seem to be much hostility towards the new guy in these parts.
In person, at least...


The unpacking keeps us busy, still.
It's kept us out of the kitchen, too.
Which is OK, a good excuse to get out and about.

I'll call it a town here, 'cause it seems pretty small
Smallest city I have lived in since the hometown kind of small.
Don't quite need to use the GPS sized town, for me at least.


We have gotten to a few of the breweries here.
There are a lot of them.
Ventured to some restaurants.

This song has been heard at more than half of the places we have hit up.

Maybe there is some sort of town playlist, that gets passed around?


Strangely, there is a homogeneous vibe to many spots we have been to, beyond that song.

Every brewpub I have been to has some sort of beat salad, a pastrami sandwich and signature (similar) burger on the menu.
I guess that is fine...
Kale, I can't think of one restaurant I have been to that doesn't have kale all over the menu.
I've probably had more kale in the past few weeks than I had last year.


On another subject, my vehicle and dogs are entirely undersized, as compared to local expectations.
Maybe not expectations, perhaps standards...

Ideally, I think a lifted, crew cab, heavy duty diesel truck would be the rig.
Color options seem to be either white or back, with any accessories blacked out.
Flatbed option not required, but does score extra points...

There doesn't seem to be a preferred dog breed, but the bigger the better.
Obviously, husky or mountain dog breeds demonstrate ones commitment to the local cause...


And one behavior note, observed only in our immediate neighborhood...
There is still a fair amount of construction around our place, residential, new homes getting built.
Those job sites get porta-johns, honey buckets or whatever your local vernacular calls them.
They are just scattered around job sites and street corners.

Now in my experience, those plastic shit pits are to be avoided at all costs.
Nobody wants anything to do with anything in those things...
But here, they seem to function as public pit stops.
Mail men, random folks passing by, driving through.
More than three times I have spotted somebody stopping for a bio break and getting on their way.
Like it's no big deal to stop and dump in a random box on the side of the road.
Which is weird...


Also, a blue Patagonia puffer jacket seems to be required.


Anyway, let's not dwell on all of that.

It's the (not so) Wild West.
Freedom and big skies.
Actual tumbleweeds on windy days.
Ice cold rivers and snow capped mountains.


So, yeah.

Here we are...