The Roundup -

It’s that time of year again when the winter doldrums strike. Those incredibly dark three weeks on either side of the winter solstice are enough to drive anyone mad. The three weeks in December prior to the solstice pass relatively smoothly with...

Occasionally a few childhood memories remind me that the good old days weren’t necessarily all that good. Dentistry comes to mind here, and how a visit to the dentist has greatly changed for the better over the course of the last fifty years. As a...

Every year, my sister and I plan a get-away together. We choose a destination, set a date for our adventure, and off we go. When we lived a mile apart, our sister trips took us in any direction we wanted. Now that we live nine hours apart, we...

The thought of approaching winter leaves me cold – no pun intended. Labor Day, in my opinion, denotes the most depressing holiday of the year because of the many events it signifies have come to an end. Hot languid days have come and gone for...

I used to believe that old dogs could certainly learn new tricks. After all, age and experience have to count for something. In the case of canines, dogs learn the fine art of manipulating their humans as the dogs age. They can learn at any age what...

We have absentee neighbors. They live just down the road from us during the summer months, but they have obligations in Nevada so they live in that state for the winter season. Sometimes they need to order items for their Montana home while they are...

It seems that anymore, someone somewhere has set a day aside for anything and everything imaginable. Just in the first several days of January and February alone, we have such oddities as Bloody Mary Day, Science Fiction Day, Fruitcake Day, Tater...

I sat at my desk a few weeks ago looking out my window watching the snow fall. My mood turned as sour as curdled milk as those fluffy white flakes kept slowly but steadily falling out of the sky. If the calendar said November, I’d smile as the...

We do have a few moose here in the Virginia City area. We don’t have herds of these largest members of the deer family, like we do elk or deer, but these majestic creatures do roam the countryside. My friends in Alder see them frequently...

Cornucopia Road lies just outside Virginia City. This rutted gravel road begins at the pond on the west side of Virginia City, and snakes its way uphill, making numerous sharp curves and turns on its way to the top of the mountain. I would guess a...

With the return of January, every publication in creation tackles the subject of New Year’s resolutions and making improvements of all sorts in one’s life. When the new year dawns bright and fresh, writers, figuring this is a good way to fill...

We humans like instant gratification and quick results. Most of us wait impatiently in line, become enraged when we need to queue up to take our turn, and chew viciously at our fingernails waiting for someone else who does not value punctuality and...

I decided that this year my husband and I would celebrate an old-fashioned Christmas. Then it hit me that this year I will see my 69th Christmas season. I don’t feel that old, I can’t remember all my previous sixty plus holiday seasons, but I...

My generation grew up writing thank you notes. Whenever we received a gift from anyone, we sat down and wrote a brief note expressing our appreciation for the item in question. Sometimes it proved difficult to thank someone for a totally...

Tender footed me has never experienced major weather upheavals. Hurricanes, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, forest fires, and other natural disasters or weather phenomena all belong in the realm of ‘they happen to someone else, far far away from...

I love the sun. I understand completely why the ancients worshipped this blazing disc. Giver of life, casting brightness to light our path, increasing one’s sense of well-being; John Denver hit the nail on the head. Sunshine on my shoulders DOES...

I noticed a most stunning pair of shoes this past weekend. These shoes gleamed in the sunlight, the silver soles merged into a metallic red that glistened and flashed as the wearer of these magnificently fashionable footwear moved along the street....

We learned in school about the hardships those who settled the west endured: no running water, leaky, drafty shacks made from sod or tar paper, working from dawn to dusk to clear the land and get the crops in, sickness, cold, shortage of food; the li...

While rushing around town the other day, hurrying as usual as I dislike shopping and want to finish up as quickly as possible, I bumped into an acquaintance I haven’t seen for several years. When she said ‘hello’ to me, I looked at her in...