Today’s joke;

One beautiful Sunday morning in May, Msgr. Flannigan woke up and looked outside.  It was such a beautiful day that the Monsignor really wanted to go golfing, but he was supposed to say the 10 am Mass.

After just a little thought, and with a somewhat guilty conscience, Msgr. Flannigan called on the associate pastor.  When the associate pastor arrived, Msgr. Flannigan tried his best to look stricken and in between sniffles asked if the associate pastor would mind saying Mass because he was feeling under the weather.  The associate pastor was more than happy to oblige, and as soon as he had left, Msgr. Flannigan went to his car, checking to make sure no one was watching, and drove to the golf course.

It was a gorgeous day, the course was green and empty, and the Monsignor was doing well.

Up in Heaven, Saint Peter was irritated, and was making no bones about it.  “Heavenly Father,” he said, “are you going to allow one of your men to get away with this?”  God just smiled.

Msgr.  Flannigan was having a ball.  At the ninth hole, a par five, he teed off with a perfect swing, and watched in delight as the ball landed on the green.  He then watched in amazement as the ball bounced right to the hole and landed in the cup.  A hole in one on a par five!

As Msgr. Flannigan marveled at his good luck, St. Peter exploded.  “Heavenly Father!” he said in exasperation, “you let him tell a lie, shirk his duty to your faithful, and now he gets a hole in one?  You seem to be rewarding him for his sinfulness!”

God smiled indulgently at St. Peter.  “My son,” God said, “who’s he gonna tell…?”

If the kind citizens don’t pay attention, summer will be gone before they know it. It seems to be going by rather fast.

Elm Springs got almost no rain this week, which helped the kind citizens begin putting up hay, which task will be really fun this year.

Marvin and Carolyn Anders attended the Matched Bronc Ride in Philip on Friday.

Baxter and Dunbar Anders and their roping horses visited Vernie and Carolyn Schnose near Hot Springs Sunday.

Clyde and Chase Arneson and Chrissy Continue Reading

I went down to HQ for coffee this morning, to find that our good friend David and his brother, whose name I have already forgotten, were Sunday morning coffee visitors.

David is an absolute blast to be around. In another life he would have been a salesman. He knows everybody in five states, his mind is quicker than lightning, and he always has a story. Why he chose to be a custom fencer, I may never know.

In 2006, David’s daughter married a man from Mongolia. The wedding was actually in Ulan Batar, Mongolia, so David got to have a little summer vacation that year. This morning, Mom thought to ask about David’s daughter and her Mongolian man. It turns out they are now living in Rapid City, SD, and they have a son, who is named Tsaaganbar.

David was very quick to point out that ‘Tsaaganbar’ translates to ‘white tiger’ in English, so we were free to call the boy Tiger as he does. At that point David’s brother entered the conversation, as it turned to how difficult it was to spell ‘Tsaaganbar.’ (I have no way of knowing if I’m spelling it right either.) David himself admitted that he had trouble with it, particularly “where to put those double A’s.”

David leaned back in his chair. “I tell ya,” he said, “life ain’t easy for a boy named Tsaaganbar…”

I live a rather strange life.

In an effort to become a better guitar player myself, during the school year, I give guitar lessons to a few children in the area.  I don’t consider myself qualified to give guitar lessons, but I can show a kid how to play a three-chord progression as well as anybody.

But I had never given guitar lessons in the summer until now Continue Reading

So far my website has offered readers two things; somewhat humorous observations on country life and glimpses of my ongoing struggle with technology. Technology has been the closest thing I have ever had to a wife; fun to have around, but very hard to deal with.

I have decided to make my daily struggle with technology transparent, more or less because I have to. For example in yesterday’s post, I’m guessing you all noticed the picture, which hopefully will be a regular feature here on HH. My brilliant manager walked Mr. Moron through the process of resizing a photograph to the desired specifications. That was all fine and dandy as long as I had him on the phone, but when I tried to do it solo, I ran smack into my own incompetency as a human being.

So you’ll have to bear with me Continue Reading