14APRIL2011, afternoon - Last year my felt cowboy hat became the property of another person. So Thursday I went out to the Ft. Harrison Thrift Store for a replacement. I now own a straw cowboy hat ... imagine a North Dakota wheat farmer look. That's a look that should serve me well all the way to Omaha, probably even to Kansas City. Upon leaving KC I might be wise to switch over to the plastic cowboy hat ... think Jerry Reed - the truck driver - look ... start with a white plastic woven hat, bend the front down across my forehead and add lots of grime oozing through the band. I have several weeks to be sure I want that look. Upon my return from Ft. Harrison I sawed the A-Frame tree - downed Tuesday - into pickup bed lengths, carted it back home and tossed it over the fence into the vacant lot across the street. By fall it will be well cured and ready for the wood stove. So that is one more check list item checked off. While looking for a replacement drill I went into a pawn shop on the corner of Montana, Helena and Lyndale. There I noticed a tall 30ish man who looked like Dean Martin ... not the entertainer, but a Helena resident that I had not seen since he was much shorter - during the 1980s. Not only was it indeed Dean, his brother Scott Thiel was behind the counter. Scott was much wider and not easy to recognise until he smiled. Some things never change - great smile. It was fun catching up on twenty plus years of their personal history. Ummmmm-m-m-m-m no-o-o-o, they did not recognise me ... surely I've not changed ... surely!!