Doug Mahugh

Photos of Tom

It's still hard to believe my friend Tom is gone. Just a month ago, I had texted him some thoughts on things we could do on his planned visit to Butte – he was scheduled to arrive this Saturday – and his last words to me were a text about

Pounding those keys

I've been told many times that I type unusually loudly. I'm not sure how much of that is because I started writing back in the 1970s on manual typewriters, and how much is due to years of playing pianos and keyboards with stiff action. (My Fender

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back home - 4/5/1999

Email sent from my home in Mount Prospect, Illinois on April 5, 1999, three days after we returned from our trip: Friends: We're both back safely in the U.S., getting back into the grind of work and enjoying the clean food, hot showers, and honest people. I

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Delhi - 3/29/1999

Our final email from Hotel Kanishka in Delhi, India on March 29, 1999: We've been in Delhi for a few days, so I'll send this update today and then probably one more when we head for home this Friday. Time sure flies when you're

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Delhi - 3/26/1999

Email sent from Park Hotel in Delhi, India on March 26, 1999: Friday morning, we went to the rock garden in Chandigarh. To understand the role of this rock garden, you have to know how Chandigarh came to be ... In 1947, India became independent from British rule, and there was

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Chandigarh - 3/25/1999

Email sent from Hotel Mount View in Chandigarh, India on March 25, 1999: Before leaving Dharamsala yesterday afternoon, we went back to the Chocolate Log for a final carrot cake and we met a woman from Michigan who has spent several weeks in Dharamsala attending classes at the Dalai Lama&

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Dharamsala - 3/23/1999

Email sent from Dharamsala, India on March 23, 1999: We've taken some long walks around the area outside McLeod Ganj (the ridge above Dharamsala where we're staying), and it's been a nice break. The weather is very cool, and once you get a hundred

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Dharamsala - 3/22/1999

Email sent from Dharamsala, India on March 22, 1999: Our final day in Amritsar was pretty non-eventful -- we did a little souvenir shopping, went to a park and talked to some local people (all Sikhs, of course), and then went back to the Golden Temple for a final time.

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Amritsar - 3/21/1999

A fax sent from our hotel in Amritsar, India on March 21, 1999: E-mail has proven difficult to find here in Amritsar, so here's an update via fax ... Our last day in Agra (Thursday), we had a very traditional Indian breakfast at the jewelry shop where we met

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Agra - 3/17/1999

Email sent from Agra, India on March 17, 1999: Here's the latest since the update I sent from Agra yesterday morning. After this, it will be at least a couple of days until we can check e-mail, maybe longer (we don't know what to expect in

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Agra - 3/15/1999

Email sent from Agra, India on March 15, 1999: I'm typing this from a PC in the back of a spice shop in Agra, where the owner has a PPP connection to an internet node in Agra. I just spent 30 minutes typing a message in Yahoo and

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Varanasi - 3/14/1999

Our first communication from India, a fax sent from Varanasi on March 14, 1999: Shortly after we last sent e-mail from Katmandu, I discovered that half my traveler's checks - the ones I had stashed in my backpack - were missing. Mom and I then realized that we

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Kathmandu - 3/10/1999

Email sent from Kathmandu Guest House on March 10, 1999, after returning from a 3-day excursion to Royal Chitwan National Park: Monday morning we went to Pashupatinath, the large Hindu temple in Kathmandu, on the way to the airport. We paid a young guy to be our guide, and he

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Kathmandu Butcher Shop

This post is an experience in Kathmandu that I wrote up from my notes and sent to Mom in the summer of 1999, as a memento of our trip. The night air in the butcher shop was thick and dirty, like the coagulating blood smeared red and brown across the

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Kathmandu - 3/7/1999

Email sent from Kathmandu Guest House on March 7, 1999: This is probably the last e-mail for a few days, since we'll be at Royal Chitwan National Park on Monday through Wednesday. From what I know of that place, we won't be able to send e-mail

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Kathmandu - 3/5/1999

Our first email from Nepal, sent from Kathmandu Guest House on March 5, 1999: We're in Kathmandu, checked in to Kathmandu Guest House. Mom is asleep, and I've been enjoying 22-oz Kingfisher beers at the bar for merely 90 rupees ($1.40) apiece. And I finally

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Siem Reap - 3/4/1999

Our first email of the trip, sent from Lotus Communications in Siem Reap, Cambodia on March 4, 1999: Today we're walking around the markets in Siem Reap, Cambodia. We told our guide David (who has been absolutely wonderful) that we wanted to spend a few hours just walking

travel

Traveling with Mom

“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” – Dr. Seuss In the spring of 1999, Mom and I took a 5-week trip to Cambodia, Nepal, and India. This post and the others linked below cover that trip in more detail than I'

Cocaine, caffeine, and carbs

After a year of knee surgery recoveries, I feel like that's pretty much under control now and I've shifted my focus to working on losing some weight for summer hiking season. I decided to put my goal in writing here to add to my motivation, and

Timelines of Blood Meridian

"The man who believes that the secrets of this world are forever hidden lives in mystery and fear. Superstition will drag him down. The rain will erode the deeds of his life. But that man who sets himself the task of singling out the thread of order from the

Sunrise at Big Butte

Today was a milestone on my recovery from infection cleanout surgery: I hiked up Big Butte, for the first time since last summer. I took it slowly (especially on the way down), and all went well. This is Day 128 since the infection cleanout surgery, and for comparison, after total

2025 photos and videos

It's that time of year when I often do a blog post looking back on the year in photos. In recent years, that usually that meant travel photos or photos of hiking with the dogs in Southwest Montana, but this year has been different because of my two

knee

My knee in 2025

Last week I started putting together a "the year in photos" blog post as I usually do in late December, and as I looked back over my photos it was clear that my replaced right knee had dominated the year. I took fewer photos in 2025 than I

social media

New website

I'm generally an upbeat guy, but my last post (F*ck Facebook) was definitely an angry rant. After getting that off my chest, I spent a bunch of time (and a small amount of money) setting up a new website where I can post photos of our dogs

F*ck Facebook

Happy Monday morning! Ever since I retired, Mondays aren't much different from any other day for me, but today I awoke to an experience reminiscent of starting the work week with an annoying email – the first thing I saw online this morning was Facebook notifying me that my