Living in Billings

I've been so focused on my house and getting acclimated to my job (not to mention adjusting to not-knowing-anyone from a place where I knew, work, shared meals, and drank with several close neighbors, even neighbors who lived all the way at the other end of town, a good half mile), I haven't really thought/blogged about Billings itself. I was even accused the other day of not liking it here. Ha. Couldn't be more false. So far, I have found Billings to be the best of the worlds I have lived in so far. Sunny, warm but not hot, thunderstorms (but not too* often), cicadas without humidity, mountains, rivers, antique shops, good restaurants, and rabbits in my yard. Well, one anyway. Or only one at a time.

I've named him Peter Cottontail. I assume it is a he, or there might be many more in the yard?


He sits in one spot most of the day, usually sleeping/dosing (eyes open most of the time), near my hedge. Joggers run within 4 feet of him, and he will sit real still while they pass. Sometimes he wakes up and eats some grass. In the evening, he might become so awake as to go to a different spot near my spruce tree. But mostly by the hedge in front of the dining room windows. There is even getting to be a little dead spot from all his sitting.

He is very much like the rabbit that hung out in my yard in Indiana.

This afternoon, a thunderstorm rolled in*. It didn't so much roll in and land right above my house from outer space. The thunderous booms came right as the lightning brightened the mid-afternoon sky. Then there was a sound, and through the windows, I saw the bunny run to the hedge faster than I knew he could move. Hail started to fall... not little, pea-sized, California hail, but startling, neat-looking, nickel-sized hail. I know it is nothing compared to the grapefruits that ruined many roofs here in June, but it was a sight to see.


I know there will come a time when I have to dig my way down my own driveway, maybe even out of my own door, there will be such snow, but for now, I still think nature is awesome.