I saw the light

Northern lights on the way home last night. Dim but they were there and ever so great to see. Apparently this year we are toward the end of an 11-year cycle of low solar activity and there have been very few lights this winter. It made me think of the East Pole and raised a desire to go so I am off on an expotition tomorrow. Weather is perfect, my favorite time of year. Cold nights and warmer days with plenty of snow to get around. On the west-facing deck it gets to 70 degrees in the afternoon sun. You can sit out there in a T shirt at least until the sun goes behind the big tree and it drops to 25 again. A nice place to have an afternoon cocktail. Unfortunately I was watching the northern lights when I should have been watching the road and I just missed a couple of moose. A minute sooner and it would have been tight but they were already stepping off the road when I came up on them. That got the adrenaline flowing a bit. The rest of the way home I got to feeling like I have been away from Alaska for a while and need to get back.

Horseshoes and hand grenades

As in almost. They almost got me last night. Driving home on that narrow road in the narrowest part with barely room between steep mountainside and the river, and me tired and half mesmerized by the road, a moose came sliding down the mountain out of the upper darkness into my headlight beams with what appeared to be all intentions of running out into the road, Years ago I had been looking at a small herd of caribou near the road and a truck driver went past laying on his horn. The caribou jumped away from the road and I realized the driver did this as precaution. I filed that away as maybe a better reaction than brakes if i were to encounter a moose in the road and it has worked for me every time but, um, well, twice. Well, when this moose came careening down the steep slope I hit the brakes and horn at the same time and he turned, running along next to the car in the ditch. Mind you, the distance between us was only about 10 feet but it was enough and I got past him. That is the second time I have seen a moose in this stretch of road in the past three days, a place where I hadn't ever seen one before. At any rate, it was close enough to get the adrenaline flowing and though that created the urge to get home a lot faster, caution prevailed and I went considerably slower the rest of the way.

Species: The interaction

This was kind of cool. To fill the feeder in the picture I have to take it down, remove the top and pour seed into it. As I was reaching to hang the newly filled feeder back up, a chickadee actually flew under my arm and up onto the feeder, landing just inches from my face. He poked in the seed then probably realized something was different and turned and gave me a good long look. I remained as still as i could and he went back to the seed, took one and then a second, looked at me and then flew away again.

Guess who's coming to dinner

A little excitement around the bird feeders today. At the rate the birds are going through seed, not sure i can afford to feed a moose. Just opened my fourth 25 lb bag of black sunflower seeds this winter (and that doesn't count i don't know how many bags of the expensive chips and hearts). Wonder how many bags it takes to feed a moose. Of course if it hung around long enough there might be a payback. A funny only-in-Alaska story. Years ago a friend of mine was building a house. By the time winter came, all he had were the four concrete block walls surrounding the basement dug in the ground. Somehow a young moose got down in there and couldn't get out. My friend tried everything to get the moose out of there. Even, with a wary eye on the moose, built a ramp so it might walk out but nothing worked. In frustration he called the Department of Fish & Game, but they refused to do anything about it. Well, that seemed like a mandate. So, my friend bought some expensive feed, if i recall, it was oats and corn, but i could be wrong about that. After feeding it for about a month, well, you can guess what happened next. That was about the tenderest, most delicious moose ever put on a plate. And, though it sounds expensive to feed it, still cheaper than a charter flight to somewhere you might shoot one on a hunt. Kind of an interesting place to live where you can enjoy a beautiful animal walking through the yard, but in the same train think supper and without any guilt about it.

One time on the tour boat, a fellow from the nearby Native village went along. He hung out with me and we talked through most of the trip. When we started pushing through the brash ice in the water near the glacier, he was looking at the seals up on the burgs as much as the tourists were. One difference: Where they were oohing and aahing over the cute animals, he kept whispering "lunch.' I kept trying to shush him and he knew i was nervous about it and just kept it up, but never loud enough for anyone to hear, thankfully. One thing though, I had this trick where if i whistled a tune out the wheelhouse door, the seals would be curious and tended to stay up on the ice longer as we approached. I didn't whistle that day. While sympathetic to the need to hunt and the food source, i couldn't see teaching the hunter a new trick and making it easier for him. i doubt he would have known the right tune anyway. I had a running argument with another skipper who swore Mozart was the best music to whistle to keep the seals up on the icebergs. I found Eric Clapton's "Layla" worked best for me. Those long wailing notes seemed to mesmerize the seals

Some days I guess you just need to ramble, but how did I get from a moose around the bird feeders to whistling Clapton to seals near a glacier?

Super bowl sleaze

Sitting here watching the super bowl pregame shows. You know going in there are going to be a lot of commercials. I mean, the game is famous for the innovative advertising it generates and some people admit to watching only to see those. But, NBC has taken sleazy, sneaky advertising to a new level. Just about every other segment in their pregame involves Today show weatherman (someone who has nothing to do with football) interviewing NBC entertainers from NBC shows and some company produced movies. All it is is publicity for upcoming NBC programming and has nothing to do with the Super Bowl whatsoever, except that Roker manages to ask each NBC actor some football question. Does anybody really care who Will Ferrell thinks will win the super bowl?
It has always been my understanding broadcasters are only allowed so many minutes of advertising per hour. These promotion segments should be charged against advertising minutes. It got so offensive I finally turned it off. A rerun of Desperate Housewives is better than this.