Th early Years Part II Late 1996 to 2004

 

Tuesday November 26, 1996

We came in for Thanksgiving. We brought in a new chair for kids that folds into a bed. On the way in his mom's sled broke. We got to the Earth station around 3 pm. Bob Rosenberg was there and said he had seen bear tracks in the trail. Everything went smoothly. We could still see where I broke through the ice at Whisky Slough a couple of weeks earlier. We ate too much soup. No bears,

Wednesday, November 27, 1996

About +10 F at wakeup. We could see the mountain for part of the day. It started snowing in the evening. I went out and got the rest of our stuff. Did a big 3-D puzzle. Justin won at Trivial Pursuit. Built a big Lego house and got ourselves orcanized.

Thursday November 28, 1996

Snowed lightly all day. temp +20˚F. Rollie, Mary, Melissa and Megan Ostermick came out for Thanksgiving. The two girls (in their teens) skijored all the way in. Then with Justin they played all afternoon including making a big trail down our sledding hill. The adults talked all afternoon while we prepared dinner and drank cranberry slush with a little vodka mixed in it. Went out around 9 p.m. to. get the Ostermicks home and I didn't get back until 11. The trail was good and fast. I noticed what looked like several moose bed indentations in the snow near the trail up to the cabin

Friday November 29, 1996

Snowed lightly in the morning, 10-20˚, The mountain came out for a little while. Temp turned colder in the evening.

Justin had a long nap. Then he and his mother did a lot of playing in the snow, sledding and even made a sled jump. I tried to make a trail up to the lake but didn't get the whole way. I fixed the other snowmachine. Ridlings are in across the trail. They said they saw a big bull moose in   the swamp area. I won at trivia.

Saturday November 30, 1996

5˚ at wakeup.

Justin took his snowboard in deep snow to the lake. He even passed me on the snowmachine where I was stuck on the way. Then he and I went over to the Ridling's where he played with the kids while John told me about that moose. It was a big bull ran and right at them. they took off and it followed them for a minute or two.

In the afternoon all the kids came over to our place and everybody took to our sled hill. After that almost worn out, most of the kids went back to their cabin, all but Josh who stayed to play with Justin indoors for a while. We all worked on a puzzle. Outside the clouds faded a little but the mountain never came out. Snow started toward evening. Justin' mom skied for a while until she learned about that moose. I made Justin's desk ready to take back to Valdez. He drove the machine almost all the way home. About 10˚ in the evening. We go out tomorrow.

Saturday December 21, 1996

Clear and 18˚ Mountain was out all day. I was already there; Justin and his mother came over from Valdez today. They arrived at the trailhead around 2:30 p.m. Had been using her snowmachine because mine was in the shop having quit from the dunking it got in Whiskey Slough about a month earlier. I moved to the four-wheeler (OK as long as the trail remained clear and hard packed). Justin rode with his mom. The cabin was. warm and everything was in its place. I had brought most of our supplies when I came out earlier. Reasonably calm for a first day, but tired we all went to bed early.

Sunday December 22, 1996

Clear and 10 to 20˚ Mountain was out all day. Got the Christmas tree, best one yet. Set it up in the northwest corner. Justin won the Garfield game. We took it easy all day;

Monday December 23, 1996.

The day before the day before Christmas

Clear and sunny for one of the shortest days of the year, 10-20˚ Mountain was out. We woke up early enough to see a spectacular moonset over the mountain.

I cut a dead spruce down for firewood but the chainsaw wasn't working very well and I had to stop before bucking it up into stove lengths. Justin and his mom made a fort in the branches. Then then they went for a walk around Squirrel Hill. Later she went across the big hill, coming down the big slope behind the house.

Tuesday December 24, 1996. Christmas Eve

10˚ at wakeup and a bright full moon moving through a few clouds, and we saw another spectacular moonset.  

The pile of presents under the tree looked bigger. Justin and I went out the trail all the way to Talkeetna for some ice cream. He ate two fudgesicles. We saw four moose including a big bull still sporting antlers. I wondered if it was the one that chased John Ridling at Thanksgiving and we kept our distance. When we returned, the pile of presents looked bigger. Justn and his mother went sledding for a while and worked on their fort in the fallen tree at the bottom of the hill. They uncovered a pile of moose nuggets. (In winter moose nibble on twigs for sustenance and as a result leave droppings consisting mostly of digested wood in the form of nuggets.) When they came back the pile of presents looked even bigger. I read Justin some of "The Hobbit" and he fell asleep. So did his mom. When they woke up they said the presents pile looked bigger. Outside we heard Boone's trail howl as he chased squirrels.

Later we had dinner and let Justin open one present. He was worried Santa wouldn't find us out here in the woods. I told him I would take care of that and I went about lighting up a runway for Santa. I had planned for this. I took a box of votive candles and a bunch of brown sandwich bags and headed down the trail. At intervals, I spread open a bag, put a candle in it, and lighted it. When I finished we had a lighted landing strip all the way out to the main trail. That satisfied Justin and he stood for several minutes looking out the picture window at the curving line of lights on the trail.

Temperature 0˚ at 7:30 pm.

Wednesday December 25, 1996. Christmas Day

10˚ to 20 ˚ and. clear with mountains all day. Justin rose very early but we held him back, only allowed opening his stocking. We ate a quick breakfast and then tackled the pile of presents. Three moose were hanging around at the bottom of the hill most of the morning. I called them "Christmoose." At one point Boone chased a moose but he gave up quickly fighting deep snow that the moose got through much easier than he did. Mom and dad were kind of grumpy all day for lack of sleep.

Thursday December 26, 1996.

10-20˚ Clear and the mountains were out. 

Morning light

 We went over to the creek for water. Justin took a walk over the new bridge. Later Johnny came over to play. We played 13 Dead End Drive. Dull day.

Friday December 27, 1996.

Clear and warmer, above 20˚ Me moping all day for some reason. Justin and his mother went sledding for a while.  I asked Sue when she called John if she would ask if he would bring me back a bar and chain for my chainsaw. We visited with the Ridlings for a while and came home late. I read Justin a little more of "The Hobbit."

Saturday December 28, 1996.

Clear, 5˚ at wakeup. Mountains out with some thin clouds overhead.

 The whole thing

Beat smoking and inflation at the same time

 How's this for frugality in an age of inflation? I have been chewing nicotine gum since I quit smoking in 2004 — probably 5 to 10 pieces a day. That sometimes led to three boxes a month at $31.99 a pop. (Expensive but cheaper than cigarettes) There came a day when every store that sold the kind I wanted ran out of stock. I tried to gut my way through by cutting back on what I had left and in the process reached the point where I only had one a day. Now, get this: I found out I could go a whole day on one piece and have been doing that ever since with a few exceptions and get this I kept track and the last time I bought a box was June 1. Two and a half months on what I used to use up to three per month. Oddly the price is still the same, $31.99 for 110 pieces. However I noticed a year or so ago the maker had reduced the size of the pieces somewhat. (Inflation by deflation? ) I'm still ahead.

Oh the joys of writing

Here's another one of those "memories" conversations

Shared with Your friends

Ah the joys of the writer's life. I just received a royalty check for $1.44. One dollar and forty-four cents. Partaaaayyyy!

Gail Somerville

How will you ever decide what to spend it on? Hahaha

Shelley Gill

I have six books with one publisher. Have yet to get a check. Twenty five books and I work as a naturalist and do school visits. Shoulda been anything else.

Tim Jones

We don't do it for the money, that's for sure.

Shelley Gill

I used to write a book a year. Now I'm trying for three a year.

Tim Jones

I have been working on the current one for more than five years. If it ever gets finished and sells the hourly wage might be in the negatives

Michele Vincent

That'll buy a can of beer from the local 7-11

Sharon Wright

Buy stamps for your next submissions!

Tim Jones

It's all done on line these days.

Suzy Peakall

Don't know whether to cry or laugh at this one!

Kitty Delorey Fleischman

Sounds much like the magazine world.

Helen Hegener

I gave up on the traditionals a decade ago, never looked back, never been sorry. I'm not getting rich, but it's keeping me happy.

Tom Walker

Whooooo-hoooooo.

Tim Jones

Ha ha you got one too.

Tom Walker

Tim Jones no, I didnt. Nada

Tim Jones

You should have, it was our book. I'm not sure which is worse, getting a royalty check for $1.44 or not getting a royalty check for $1.44.

(In a more recent time I received $500 from Cruising World for an article they never printed) 

Somebody had to say something

Political comment for the day:There's a candidate for governor of Alaska named Treg Taylor. You may have seen his ads claiming he will stop those nasty Outside liberals coming here to fight for the woke agenda and protect Alaska from the antifa coming North. He prides himself on being an Alaskan having been born here. It is like he's pointing a finger at me as one of those liberal outsiders. Well here's the deal: you pride yourself in being a born Alaskan but I, an incomer with a long history as a liberal, have lived here longer than you have. Too, I came here by choice rather than dropped in a simple natural process. My experience as a child whose formative years were lived elsewhere let's call it development and education and I arrived a full-grown adult by choice. That gives me about another 20 years jump start as opposed to your birth and childhood isolated here.The point is I and a whole lot of people like me have just as much of a solid claim to being Alaskan as you. And you in claiming support for the current president are the one inviting damaging and dangerous and mostly outdated ideals north. The truth is, we are all Alaskans but, FYI, it's not 2024 anymore. 

UPDATE: He came in fifth in ranked choice voting, then was disqualified for financing violations. His wife tried to take his place, but she faced the same charges,

 

More politics 

I'm not scared of dyin'

I'm not sure what to say about this without sounding maudlin, but when my current anthem, BeeGees' "Stayin' Alive" has run its course, this is the next song on the playlist.

 

 

Written by Laura Nyro

"And When I Die" - In Remembrance of David Clayton-Thomas

One of the most memorable performances of David Clayton-Thomas's remarkable career was "And When I Die," the powerful 1969 hit by Blood, Sweat & Tears. Ironically, a song with such a sobering title became one of the most life-affirming recordings of the era.

Written by Laura Nyro, the song found its perfect interpreter in Clayton-Thomas. His rich, soulful voice brought warmth, strength, and conviction to lyrics that remind us to embrace life rather than fear its end. Released in 1969, the recording became a No. 2 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 and remains one of Blood, Sweat & Tears' defining classics.

With its soaring brass arrangements, infectious rhythm, and David's unforgettable vocal performance, "And When I Die" showcased everything that made Blood, Sweat & Tears unique. More than five decades later, it continues to resonate with listeners for its honesty, hope, and timeless message.

Now, just one day after David Clayton-Thomas's passing, the words of this classic take on an even deeper meaning. His voice may have fallen silent, but the music he gave us will continue to inspire generations to come.

Rest in peace, David Clayton-Thomas. Thank you for the songs, the passion, and the unforgettable performances. Your legacy will live on every time the horns begin to play and your unmistakable voice fills the room.

Memorials