I felt I needed to get out of the house with my bad attitude before I said anything more I regretted. I was out driving around for about 10 minutes or so when my daughter texted me. She had some things to pick up at the hardware store and asked if I wanted to meet her there. I met up with her in the store and we got what she needed. Outside in the parking lot we started talking about where I was at. I explained that I did not want to be in the house with my bad attitude. I wanted to get out and work through it by myself rather than punishing everyone else. My daughter’s response, something she learned from my son-in-law, was an observation that hit me like a sledge hammer.

“Dad, that’s not why we’re here.”

We are not here to only accept and be around each other when we are in the perfect mood with the perfect attitude. We are here to help each other make this journey of life better, more enjoyable and in some moments just more bearable. My daughter did not want to push me away while I was in an awful, inhospitable mood. She wanted to help me work through it and get to a better place.

Growing up I was always told to shape up and lose the attitude. That got reinforced in the military. The lesson that I took away from that was if you have a bad attitude, if you’re having a bad day, if you’re grumpy and struggling to sort it out, go off by yourself and work it out on your own. What my daughter taught me in that moment was that that is bullshit. We express our love by helping each other through our worst moments.

Thank you, princess. I love you, too. And thank you, Mike.

Ben was with the United States’ State Department as a medical officer stationed in the Tokyo Embassy. Tokyo Baptist Church was one of the most prominent Christian churches in Tokyo with a pretty large international congregation. Ben and I became friends. The nature of Ben’s career meant that he had little interest in developing language skills with each posting. He was in Japan now but it was reasonable to expect that he would be in a number of other countries over the course of his career. I on the other hand thought that I would be living the rest of my life in Japan and as such was intent on learning Japanese language and culture to a native or near native level as quickly as possible (today I call these people 90 day wonders).

Ben and I went on various adventures together. Ben had a car. Now, even in 1987 Tokyo was not car friendly by any stretch. Streets were narrow and crowded, parking was nearly, if not entirely nonexistent and one could get from any point A to almost any point B faster by train. However, Ben’s car was special. By virtue of his position in the State Dept., Ben’s car had blue license plates, diplomatic plates. This meant that the motor vehicle laws did not apply to this car. Ben could park wherever he wanted. Including the middle of the street. That alone made travel by car a lot more beneficial.

On one particular adventure, Ben and I had been out wandering through Tokyo. We had stopped into a small shokudou to eat dinner. We had both finished what we ordered but were still a bit hungry. We thought we would be adventurous. We asked the owner what the special was that night. Neither of us understood the reply but we thought what the heck and ordered it. When it was brought out, we both looked at it not at all sure what it was. So we both took a bite. The flavor and texture was unusual (which is not to say disgusting) and at that point it dawned on me what the proprietor had said. Pork Guts!

During my time in Japan I met the woman I was to spend the rest of my life with. Circumstances in life dictated that I return to the States. I was not leaving without this woman who had become the love of my life. Because she was a Japanese citizen we needed to get married before returning to the US. I had no idea how that worked or what it would entail. So, I called Ben. Ben connected me with the appropriate department and we began the process which culminated in a wedding at Tokyo Baptist Church. The only possible candidate I could even consider for best man was Ben Nantz.

Ben thought it appropriate to have some sort of bachelor outing. It was just the two of us and I do not remember everything we did but I remember that we had dinner at a Tony Roma’s restaurant, probably the one in Minato. Ben asked how I was feeling about the upcoming wedding, was I excited, nervous? I told him that I was concerned about whether I was marrying the right woman. I think Ben might have laughed, not quite at me but… His response was in essense, she will be the right woman because you have decided that she is the right woman. Many times over the 35 years I have chuckled as I thought about what he said.

I left Japan to return to the States about a week after the wedding. Ben and I did not exchange information that would allow us to stay in contact. I probably had his phone number but I was caught up in the circumstances that called me home and the complications of establishing married life in the US with a Japanese bride.

Time past, life happened, a child was born but I never forgot Ben. When tools became available on the newly minted world wide web for finding people I searched for Ben. I found an address and phone number but when I called the number it was out of service. Each time I found a new utility for looking people up I would search for Ben and always came up short. In December I tried a search engine I had not tried before. I paid the charge to get the “enhanced report”. The report had a several phone numbers, more than I was willing to try. It also had several email addresses. I tried sending email to each one. All of them bounced. I noticed that it appeared that Ben had settled on a standard username. GMail was not in the list of services. I decided to try what appeared to be the chosen default username at gnail dot com. It did not bounce. Several days later I got a reply.

35 years after the last time we spoke, today Ben Nantz and I said hello again. We talked for an hour and forty five minutes. Not nearly enough time to hear all the stories of 35 years of life but we managed to cover the highlights. And, having reestablished the connection, we can pick up the friendship where we left off, so long ago.

I do not know a lot about how Larry grew up. Based on what Larry told me it was an abusive household. At one point he was chasing a vehicle driven by his father as his father tossed Larry’s belongings out the window. Larry lied about his age to join the Army in the early 1970s, to escape his home life. Larry did not talk much about his tour in Vietnam. He told me that he was a door gunner on a huey.

I believe it was some time in 1980 that Larry found details about his mother, our mother. It was no easy task for my mother to tell me that I had a brother. She asked if I would be willing to meet him. I grew up an only child. I did not really wish for siblings but if I was to have a sibling I had always thought it would be cool to have an older brother. I said I was interested in meeting this person.

It was arranged that we would meet in a mall (because it was the 80’s). It was a safe, public place. It was made clear to me that if I changed my mind at any point I could just walk away. I do not think Larry really thought I was going to show up. I did. We met and talked for a while. I do not remember what we talked about. I am sure that part of the discussion was about the fact that my mother had another son but I never really cared about that.

I visited Larry fairly often after that. I worked nights at the Bank of America data processing center in downtown Los Angeles. I would drive out to Larry’s house around 1630 when he was off work. I would have dinner with him and his family before driving into LA for work. We talked a lot but I do not remember what the conversations were about. We were brothers figuring out how to be brothers.

The paths of our lives and the complications that occur in life led to separation. I went to live in Japan for a time, Larry went through a series of trials with his family and we did not see each other for a number of years. Our mother passed away in 1988. Larry came to the funeral. I was glad to see him but for whatever reason we did not restart the relationship.

A lot of years went by until one day I got a phone call.

“Hey man, it’s your brother, Larry.”

I was shocked and glad to hear from him. Larry was not born to an easy life and seldom seemed to catch a break. He had been through a nasty and vicious divorce. His relationship with his own children was rocky at best, mean and vindictive most of the time. In the course of all this he had convinced himself that I was not interested in hearing from him.

Fortunately, a kind, tough, wonderful woman had come into Larry’s life. She heard stories about a brother and tried to convince Larry to get in touch. Probably through the wonders of the internet she found me and my phone number. She convinced Larry to call me, I think it was in 2015. We talked on the phone several times after that first call. Unfortunately before I could get down to see him, Larry suffered a massive stroke. We went down to see him but he was in an induced coma while the medical team worked to resolve the issues that were the result. We met the wonderful woman in his life and tried to be supportive.

Larry survived the stroke. In the following months I tried to get down to see Larry as often as I could. I took my son down to meet him. Larry was a motorhead, he worked as a dealer mechanic for Mazda for a number of years. Larry, my son and I talked about working on some cars together some day when Larry was back on his feet. I was building Six-Shooter at the time and thought it would be cool for all of us to work on it together. Sadly, that never happened.

We moved to Montana making it a lot harder to get down to see Larry. We lost contact again, that was largely or entirely my fault. I should have called and made more of an effort to get down to see him.

Larry Frame suffered another stroke. At some point he contracted COVID and also developed pneumonia. On 19 January 2022 at 0530, my brother Larry Frame died.

Until Valhalla.

I know your life
On earth was troubled
And only you could know the pain
You weren’t afraid to face the devil
You were no stranger to the rain

Go rest high on that mountain
Son your work on earth is done
Go to heaven a-shoutin’
Love for the Father and the Son

Fast forward to January 2021. After driving a Montana Affordable 4X4 (highly recommend these guys) vehicle for two years it was time to get back in a Jeep. When the Jeep Gladiator came out it was a bit of a disappointment to me. I was hoping that Jeep would take a cue from Ford, Chevy and even Dodge (a brother in the FCA family) and style the new Gladiator (JT) after the old Gladiator (SJ). The new JT looks more reminiscent of the Jeep Scrambler (CJ-8) than the old Gladiator (SJ). So, I poo-pooed the new Jeep for a while.

Initially I started looking at the Chevy Colorado, mostly because I thought it would be less expensive. Turned out, there was not a lot of difference between the Chevy in the configuration I wanted and the Jeep Wrangler. Because I carry a lot of equipment for my business, the Wrangler was not really big enough. Moreover, I was already looking at a truck so I went straight to the Gladiator. I might should have taken a closer look at the Wrangler but I did not.

In January I purchased a 2021 Jeep Gladiator brand new, 8 miles on the odometer when I took possession. The Willy trim level gave me a fair amount of the off-road components that I wanted without the extra cost of the Rubicon. Even so, I have a lot of after-market components that I will be adding.

The majority of the parts have already been ordered. The first to get installed was the Bartact Seat Covers. The second component to get installed was the speaker upgrades; AlpineSPV-65-JLT and infinity Reference REF-3032cfx. Those were mostly quick and simple. The Alpine speakers involved cutting out the plastic that held the factory speakers so, that was a one way upgrade. No going back. There is a lot more coming.

One of the first vehicles I bought was a black 1984 Jeep CJ-7 (wish I still had it). It was black and one of the coolest vehicles I have owned. The Jeep Gladiator Willy’s black in color is coming full circle. It is fun to drive but it has a lot of luxury for a Jeep (heated seats, heated steering wheel, SiriusXM, etc.). More adventures to follow which I will be writing about here.

SGT Regina Reali KIA 23 Dec 2006
SGT Cheyenne C. Willey KIA 23 Dec 2006

Memorial Day – Remember the Fallen
Veterans Day is in November.

Based on traffic in town a good portions of business are still in operation. Walking through town most of the retail venues are either closed or open but only handling cash (or credit) and carry transactions. Murdocks, ACE, Safeway and Rocky Mountain Supply are all open with normal business hours, I believe Safeway has senior hours but I do not know when they are. Montana Youth Challenge sent cadets home at the end of March.

For livestock operations not much has changed. It is calving season so everyone was already pretty busy. Once the bars close there is really no reason to go to town. Several livestock producers brag about how many days it has been since they have been in town. At least one ranch is actively restricting access to anyone but essential ranch personnel. None of which is all that unique. Ranchers and cowboys tend to be independent and prefer isolation. Livestock Auction Barn still holds weekly sales but no longer offers lunch prior to the sale.

Here at home things are not terribly different. Machiko was off work for a week because someone had been around someone who had been around someone who might have been exposed. No one developed flu symptoms and Machiko is back at work at a feed lot operation where there is no contact with the public and not even very much contact with each other. She takes Clorox Disinfectant wipes and a cloth mask to work.

For the week that Machiko was home I spent the days binge watching Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Season 1 through 6 are available on Amazon Prime. I am up to about halfway through season 4. I discovered that there is a new show coming that stars Christopher Meloni, reprising his role as Elliott Stabler. I am fairly excited about this. I stopped watching SVU when Stabler left. Without Stabler, the show just wasn’t the same.

With regard to COVID-19 and the nation’s reaction to it, I think it is going to be interesting to see the aftermath. Quarantine orders have brought the economy to a halt. For the moment unemployment is at a record high and rising while the stock market is at a record low and falling. The difference this time is that it is induced and the cause will have a fairly sudden and abrupt end. At which point pent up demand will take over, theoretically driving the economy back to where it was before the COVID-19 lock downs and possibly higher (yes, I am fairly optimistic). There are already discussions on Twitter and Facebook about parties to celebrate the end of a national quarantine. The travel and hospitality industries will surely capitalize on the celebratory fervor seeking to stretch it out as long as possible. That is not to say that there will not be some losers. Clarke’s Charcoal Broiler in Mountain View, CA has closed. One of my favorite places in NorCal. I am sure there are more businesses, especially in the hospitality/restaurant industry that have not been able to adjust. Hopefully, probably, those owners and staff will find new opportunity on the other side of COVID-19.

Lastly, while I do not think that we really had any alternative but to treat (react to) this pandemic the way we have, I think the aftermath will be interesting. Seasnonal flu infected 39 to 55 million Americans this flu season, with 400 to 730 thousand hospital visits and 24 to 63 thousand deaths (source: CDC). As of this writing, there are 374,329 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and thus far 12,064 deaths (source: CDC). Due to inadequate testing it is certain that the number of infections is higher, probably significantly higher. While there are some questions about the accuracy of the death count it is probably a lot more accurate. So, what if it is determined that we have shut down the nation’s economy for something that kills half as many as the seasonal flu kills every year?

Smittie

On the evening before the new boiler was suppose to be lit off on heat restored, we were eating dinner when we heard a loud explosion. What the hell? We went into the dining room (eat were eating in the kitchen) to find one of the radiators had exploded. Radiator heating systems work by circulating hot water (typically about 180°) through the radiators which then radiate heat into the room. When the boiler does not work, that water is no longer heated. Some of you already see the problem here.

I did not grow up in Montana. I assume that people who do grow up in Montana know Montana things. So, when the boiler went out, I asked the Montana people, “do we need to put some space heaters on these radiators while we wait for the new boiler?” “No, they’ll be fine.” With no heat in the house the temperature in the house dropped below 32°. The water that remained in the radiators froze. The one radiator exploded, with a fairly large piece flying across the dining room. As my wife started cleaning up the water flowing out of the broken radiator and freezing in the floor, I went and checked the other radiators in the house. Every radiator on the first floor was cracked and leaking water. We did not notice this because the water leaking out froze and was nearly invisible as ice.

The following day the crew arrived to light off the boiler. As they headed down to the basement I caught them and said they probably ought to come look. The leader of this little crew called the boss.

“…you probably need to come over here. We have a problem.”

The property manager supplied us with a bunch of space heaters and the house has a pellet stove that keeps the kitchen warm. For the rest of February and in fact the winter we lived in about 500 square feet of the 3000 square foot house we were renting. We were given the option of breaking the lease but no one wants to hunt for housing and move in the middle of winter in Montana. So, we got a pretty good deal on the rent for the remaining winter months and stay in the house.

The property owner really did not want to pay the cost of replacing the radiators along with the boiler. As a result, there was a lot of deliberation about how to fix the heating system. The cast iron radiators are some what expensive and the shipping is very expensive. After several months of consideration it was decided to replace the large cast iron radiators that broke with relatively small base board style radiators. The base board radiator put out an order of magnitude less BTUs than the cast radiators.

The heating system was finally brought back on line in July 2019. Definitely one of our more interesting Montana experiences.

A little before 11:00 am the driver called us and said they would arrive by 2:00 pm. Again, we confirmed with the driver that they would pack and load our house completely. At 3:30 pm we called First Priority and explained that we had not yet seen anyone. At approximately 5:00 pm two drivers and three workers arrived at our address.

The individual who seemed to be the leader of the crew offered excuses and apologies for being late. We again explained that we were expecting them to pack all of the household goods and load them in the van. We had repeatedly verified this with the First Priority representative. Each time, the representative assured us that was what would happen. The crew that arrived, after looking at all of the rooms to be packed said that it would take about six hours. It was now 5:30 pm.

One of the crew members asked to see our contract. He called his dispatcher (not First Priority) and after some discussion the crew said that they would not load and move our household goods for the price contracted with First Priority. They said that hauling to Montana is very expensive and they would not do the job for less that $10,000, apart from what we had already paid in deposit to First Priority. We said we have a contract with First Priority to move our goods to Montana for an agreed upon price. The leader of the crew reiterated that his company would not do that.

We left to take care of other business. We were gone about an hour. When we returned the truck and crew were gone. At 6:55 pm, a dispatcher from the trucking company in California that was contracted by First Priority called me. She said that her crew was nearby and waiting to start loading. I told her that my understanding was that her crew was not willing to abide by the arrangement that I had with First Priority. She tried to explain that hauling to Montana was very expensive. I explained that I did not have a contract with her company, I had a contract with First Priority. I expected that contract to be upheld. The dispatcher again stated that her company would not do the move for less than $10,000. I said I was not interested in that and thanked her for her time.

I called First Priority at 7:10 pm and spoke Tru. I told them that I believed they have violated their contract. There was no one at my address prepared to pick up our household goods and deliver them to the agreed upon destination for the agreed upon price. As such, I expected a refund. Tru took a detailed description of the events and promised to have someone call me. We have had several such promises from First Priority. Usually, we get no return calls. At 9:28 on Saturday morning I again called First Priority customer service and spoke with Jen. I again explained that First Priority had failed to provide the agreed upon resources to pack, load and transport my household goods for the agreed upon price. Given my experience on Friday, I no longer trusted First Priority and had already begun moving forward with alternative plans to facilitate the move. Given that First Priority failed to meet their obligation according to the contract I expect my deposit to be returned.

My deposit was never returned. I have filed complaints with the Florida Better Business Bureau, the Florida Consumer Relations dept. and the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration. If anyone files a class action suit against these crooks, I am all in.

When I was young I wanted to be a cowboy. They told me there were no cowboys left in the world; I believed them. I was 37 years old when I discovered that they had lied to me. Saddest day of my life. I love cowboy culture. I find any way I can to spend as much time as I can on ranches. Anybody’s ranch, I don’t care. Especially if there are cattle to tend and horses to tend them on. My perfect job would be riding for a brand, tending cattle in the morning, managing technology in the afternoon but anything that moves me closer to livestock and ranches is the right direction. In the end, I like farms better than cities and ranches better than farms.

At the end of May I left my job at Clover. Using money from Roku stock I will be moving to Montana to start a technology consulting firm that will help ranchers and livestock growers use and manage technology in their operations. This is the culmination of about eight years of dreaming and planning. For the past three years I have been attending the Montana Stockgrowers Association meetings. Learning from the ranchers that I have met and developed friendships with, I have developed some concepts that focus on what they want and need for their operations.

There will be new challenges but I will finally be living and working among the ranchers and cowboys.