Fish are jumpin’ and the fireweed’s high

Back to nature. Maybe it was the long, hot summer, but the drive for firewood has been at a low ebb this year. A year ago there was new snow on the mountain in early July. This year by the third week in August, no snow yet. I do have more than a winter's worth in the yard so that could have lessened the drive as well. But, it is coming, there is an August nip in the night air. A couple of swans showed up on the pond a week ago, but they are probably the nesting pair that hangs out in the sloughs and muskeg ponds farther back off the road, not resting on the migration. (Right. Still no one.) The water remains covered with many more bronzing lily pads than in the past few years. A few leaves have yellowed but nothing like full-blown autumn. Fireweed has gone to seed and people say it is the tallest they have ever seen.

There is a new solitary man. I have not seen the original in more than a year. That is probably more due to a change in my schedule than anything that might have happened to him. I just don’t drive through his part of the country at the times I used to see him in years past. This year a fellow, (at least I think he is a man) has taken up residence along the narrow road to the house. He lives in a decrepit old brindle brown van with a stovepipe. Most often there is smoke coming from the pipe. He first showed up in a narrow pullout near the river bridge but later moved to a more open space not far from the salmon fishing area. The highway people had gone along and cut back brush from the road and he found an open, level place to park. For a while he had a tent up but that disappeared. He has what looks like an old bicycle mounted on the front of the van and I have seen it off a time or two. I have only seen him once or twice, once sitting in the driver’s seat watching traffic, but masked so much by the windshield his features were indiscernible. Yesterday he was walking toward the van with an armload of what was probably firewood but he wore a headnet against insects so again his face was masked.

There are differences among solitary men and a glaring one between these two. Where the first fellow lived in the woods out of sight of other people, this one lives right out in the open, visible to anyone who drives the road. Some want to be seen, for whatever purpose and others prefer their privacy. It is as if one wants to be found and one doesn’t and we can only guess at the reasons for either. In my own solitude, though I have been quite comfortable, I think I fall among those who want to be found. I can understand putting on the front of self sufficiency, solitude and privacy, yet maintaining that little spark of a thought that someone out there you really want to, will find you. Grace or Fiona would be good. It is, of course, false hope nurtured by ongoing fantasy and the moments you realize that can be pretty depressing. But, a new day most often brings a new hope and you go on with your life secure with yourself and content with existence, though aware of that question and finding ways at least in your imagination of answering it. And doesn't the sight of those symbolic swans fuel that flight of fantasy?

Finally beat a video game

This may take a while to explain. I promised sometime ago that explaining a Honda would come. Well, thanks for waiting, here it is. About a year or so ago when the price of gasoline went above a four dollars a gallon, I got this idea. You see, I have this 80-mile commute five days a week and that gets pretty expensive at $4.35 a gallon even in my Vue that got up to 27 mpg. So, I thought i need a good commuter car but i also need something tough for banging around Alaska, towing trailers and handling heavy snow. There are no compromise vehicles for this sort of thing, although the Vue handled the trailer just fine, even with three snowmachines on it and all our gear. So, why not buy two. Get a good high-mileage car for the commute and a used pickup or Jeep or something for the fun stuff. Shortly after that a Toyota dealer here came up with a deal where you could lease a pickup and a high mileage car for about $550 a month, so i wasn't that far off base. It kind of confirmed for me i was on the right track. But I sat on that idea for about a year and then one day I had some time in Anchorage and was passing the Honda dealer. Honda had risen in my estimation after a conversation with a friend. We wondered, given that we loved our Honda four-wheelers (mine is 15 years old and going strong), their generators, snowblowers, pumps -- everything they make is strong and reliable and lasts, even though it is often a little more expensive. And my friend chimed in with just about all the cars at Indianapolis are Honda powered. So, why don't we ever think of their cars? All that came to mind was a '72 rusted out Civic. Well, with these parallel thoughts festering in my mind, like i said, there was the free time and a Honda dealer right there. I wandered in just to look and before I left I had bought a 2010 Honda Insight hybrid and a 98 Jeep Wrangler. Ever try to drive two cars home from a dealer? It can happen.

Now, the technology on this hybrid is amazing. And there are so many gauges and readouts to look at I almost drove off the road a couple of times. I still haven't figured out the radio although i did get it play a Zip drive from the USB port. While you are driving it tells you your immediate mileage and your average over the course of your trip. It does a lot of other things too, but i have been boring people with too much information lately so I will forego that part. However included in all those readouts is a video game. As you drive, the car scores the efficiency of your driving. It measures things like speeding up too fast, slowing down too fast, steady driving, use of the air conditioning, all kinds of things that affect your efficiency. The digital speedometer is backlighted -- green if you are doing well, blue-green if you are stretching it and bright blue if you are very inefficient like when you speed up to pass. In the readout you are scored by the number of plants and leaves and flowers you accumulate. In the first level there are five plants each with two leaves. In the second the plants can score four leaves and in the third it is four leaves and a flower. When you finish each level, the display shows a kind of medallion trophy. Tonight when i got home and looked at my score --- I HAD BEATEN THE FINAL THIRD LEVEL. The medallion in the picture is my trophy and the other picture is the score displayed ... all the bottom bars filled and all four leaves and a flower on each plant. This is a milestone. At the tender age of 67 I have finally beaten a video game. And, in the process, I have passed gas stations 497 times as i rack up 50 mpg or more every day on my commute. PLUS: The Jeep is sooooooo much fun. Yet to be seen is how this little car handles winter cold and snow.

Warning: Alaska may be hazardous to your health

There is an article in this morning's paper about the brother of a Minnesota doctor who fell on Mount Marathon and died this summer. The brother thinks there should have been a warning sign showing the safe way to go down. There are 33 comments on the story and while several writers expressed sympathies for the brother and family, not one agreed with the idea of a warning sign. A little history: this mountain which is in Seward is the site of a race every July 4 in which hundreds of people run up and down that mountain without a death in all the years it has been run (OK, so, one other person in the last 25 years).

So, my first impression was, right, put a sign everywhere there is significant danger in Alaska. There isn't enough stimulus money in the whole country to accomplish that, let alone thinking what the countryside would look like. The commenters on the story had some good suggestions: Put signs up but only in the Seattle, Anchorage and Fairbanks airports reading something like: "Warning! Alaska can be dangerous. Proceed at your own risk" Many warned that when you head out into the woods here, there are dangers and the person should know what they are and how to deal with them. One guy suggested a sign that read something like the safest way down is follow your tracks from the way up, duh.

 All of it reminded me of the time the homeowners association that kind of handles the area around the East Pole (yes officially it is a subdivision) had a meeting and one woman wanted telephones put on trees at intervals along the trail so someone in trouble could call for help. Unfortunately some of the people even took her seriously. Fortunately there are no phones on trees along the trail. However we got cell phone coverage since then so now everyone can call for help when their fourwheelers get flat tires. Hey, lady, the whole idea is to be as self-sufficient as possible. Take care of yourself. And that is the way Outsiders and insiders for that matter need to be. You go into Alaska at your own risk. You are expected to be prepared and savvy enough (we call it skookum) to know the dangers and do all you can to minimize them. And then you have to be prepared to handle what comes. And no more families whining about warnings. We have very little sympathy for that.

Addendum: I had a grand idea. Why not bundle all the doo dahs up in bubble wrap as soon as they enter Alaska. I bet they would even float, not to mention bounce off anything they happened to fall onto. With all that bad-tasting plastic a bear might even spit them out.

Warning signs

Statesman

I have been trying to imagine myself today, in someone else’s shoes. Can you imagine this? You are captured in North Korea with its reputation for being one of the most controlled totalitarian countries in the world. You go through the fear, anticipation and utter hopelessness of being sentenced to a criminal work camp for 12 years -- 12 years. While you are in a holding area eating rice with rocks in it once a day, suddenly you are dragged away... driven somewhere you have no idea where and no idea what is going on. You are pushed into a room and standing there is former President Bill Clinton. I doubt there is a word worthy of what those two women must have felt. Elated comes to mind but doesn’t quite do it. Euphoric? Maybe some doubt. Is this really him, or is this some nasty North Korean trick. But mostly, you would just know it is over. Instead of looking at 12 years in a labor camp you probably wouldn’t survive, you are going to go home with one of the most famous men in the world. The emotions must have been overwhelming.

And what an accomplishment for him. The man has followed Jimmy Carter along a trail to a status seldom bestowed on anyone anymore -- that of statesman. It first blossomed in the aftermath of the tsunami that devastated the islands of southeast Asia. Sent by then President W. with W.’s father, the two led the American effort there and then went on to lead a worldwide fundraising campaign for impoverished people everywhere. There is some substance to the idea Clinton even was part of the persuasion that led Bill Gates and Warren Buffett to dedicate a huge part of their fortunes to philanthropy. (The Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks lists the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as its largest contributor,)

But back to Clinton, not only did he pull this off, he did it at no cost to the U.S. government. One of his biggest campaign contributors volunteered his own airplane and paid for the fuel for the flight to North Korea and back. (They refueled in Anchorage on the way over. --- we always love our Alaska angles).

I am not often or easily impressed, but I am impressed today. What an accomplishment. What an example to look up to. And just think how those two women felt when they walked into that room.

And, oh yeah, Justin got his truck.