Alaska ingenuity

To begin with, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in Alaska is huge -- 25,260 Square miles. That's bigger than a few states. It stretches from Anchorage in the South, almost to Glenallen in the north, west almost to Mount McKinley and east almost to Prince William Sound. A few more than 90,000 souls live in that expanse of sub-Arctic Alaska.

Downflow and vibration from the helicopter help clear wires.

Most of those people demand the usual amenities of polite society.  Most, because there is considerable wilderness in that acreage and there are still a few solid folks who live out there, including myself at one time in my life, where in one way or another they provide for themselves.

For the rest, people want running water, and indoor plumbing and things like electricity and telephone. Try to picture how much wire it takes to bring electricity and telephone service to an area that big.  The responsibility of providing that electricity belongs to a cooperative utility called the Matanuska Electric Association.

Then try to picture all those above-ground wires coated in a sometimes six-inch thick layer of heavy, wet snow frozen to them. That's what happened when a heavy overnight snow froze to the wires earlier this week. Power went out everywhere. Trees unable to hold the snow load fell and took down wires with them.  In other places just the weight of snow on the wires took them down.  Here and there across the wide winter wonderland power went out, not general outages as might be caused by a transformer, but isolated ones, caused by a line going to a subdivision, or along a single road, or one neighborhood.  It could have been compared to a fire, not a huge wildfire over thousands of acres but hundreds of little fires of as few as a couple of acres scattered here and there across 25,000 square miles.

Crews would repair one outage and be told there were seven new ones, all of those repairs made in sub-zero temperatures and often deep snow.

MEA kept members informed with a consistent flow of updates on the utility’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Here's a typical Facebook post:

Matanuska Electric Association December 22 via mobile

Eagle River, the Butte, Peters Creek, Big Lake, Long Lake, Willow, and Talkeetna are experiencing small outages at this time. Approximately 300 people total are currently affected.

Crews are out there working to get the lights back on as soon as possible.

If you're without power, please report it at...

To give you an idea of the expanse, it's more than 100 miles from Eagle River, an Anchorage suburb, to Talkeetna.

The crews were faced with two phases of the job, No. 1 of course was to repair the damage and restore the flow of electricity. No. 2 was to clear snow off the lines that hadn't broken yet. Nothing says how they were doing it at the beginning of the job, but it became obvious from the start that simply shaking thousands of miles of wire to knock the snow off wasn't going to work.

But, Alaskans are nothing if not creative and resourceful. Here's a Facebook post explaining the plan:

Matanuska Electric Association December 23 via mobile

Update:

The Willow/Hatcher Pass' lines still have a large portion of ice/snow on them and are proving very time consuming to shake off.

We are planning to shut down that line (affecting about 240 members, with 100 of these folks still without power at this time) from 11:30 a.m. until about 3:30 p.m.

We will be bringing in a helicopter to fly low over the lines and hopefully shake some of the snow and ice off, in hopes of getting everyone back on as soon as possible.

We will keep you updated as we learn more. Thank you for your patience.

The utility hired a helicopter which flew low along the wires, the downward air flow and vibration effectively knocking off the snow.

Post by Matanuska Electric Association.

Matanuska Electric Association Our helicopter plan knocked off the snow and ice from the lines in the Willow/Hatcher Pass area and although it didn't 100% resolve the issue, it's allowed us to isolate the trouble areas and we have contract clearing crews out there now. Hang tight Willow and Hatchers pass. You're all next!

December 23 at 3:47pm · Like · 1

Helicopter time is pretty expensive, but so is sending crews along every foot of line to knock the snow off, plus the helo saves a lot of time as well.

Overall, within about 24 hours the utility had everyone's power restored and for the most part had lines cleared to prevent any future outages. It was a huge undertaking when you think about it and MEA met the challenge and kept up their end of the deal to provide power to residents across that wide area of responsibility and applied some good old-fashioned Alaska resourcefulness in the process.

Someone over there also deserves a lot of credit for keeping people updated on Facebook and Twitter. In the past as far as notification and the possibility and timing of repairs, we were left pretty much in the dark.

MEA Twitter feed.

Tasteless Christmas 2013 : ding dongs, wrecking balls and a tequila salut

Ding dongs.

This year there appeared to be fewer distasteful uses of Christmas and traditional Christmas carols in advertising than usual. For one, finally Pampers did not sell any diapers to the tune of "Silent Night." That's a step in the right direction itself.

And while I didn't notice as many offensive items as usual some of the ones I did spot rank right up there with the all-time greats.

Take that picture across the top, it's pulled from a K-Mart commercial for boxer shorts.  This link takes you to the full commercial. I didn't want anyone to have to watch it if you don't want to. 

The premise is, as men in formal coats and ties and K-Mart boxers shake their pelvises they are ringing a bell-like performance of "Jingle Bells," produced from inside their shorts, a reference that isn't too difficult to figure out. What crap. That ranks right up there with Pampers and assures that I will buy nothing from K-Mart in the future, not that I ever did anyway.

Miley Cyrus, add this beauty to your tree

And speaking of twerking, the next on this year's list isn't from an advertisement. As a matter of fact it was a post on Facebook which seemed to be poking fun at the whole idea. Still I bet somewhere in this country there's someone who cut out that image and put Miley Cyrus on a tree swinging from a wrecking ball to add to the decorations. For those unfamiliar with it, she did this virtually nude in the video for her new hit "Wrecking Ball." It was ugly on TV and it's doubly ugly on a Christmas tree.

Only a couple more. To set the record straight it's not so bad using the party songs of Christmas to sell stuff. "Silver Bells" doesn't matter and it's been written here before that I could care less who "Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus." But taking a deeply religious song and selling your crap with it, is about as distasteful as it gets. Imagine if somebody did that with a Muslim religious song.

OK, now the last two: Target used "Do You Hear What I Hear," in its commercials on TV which is bad enough but the next one is worse.

Just so loved hearing "What Child Is This? to sell Patron tequila. How do those two relate in any stretch of contrivance? What advertising genius thought a traditional Christian song would tempt anybody to try Mexican liquor, especially when it looks like an attempt to position it as a high-end brand. A friend of mine in advertising told me in that business you can expect to be fired at least once in your career. Hope this fellow got his and the people who approved it and for that matter the folks at Patron who, in their attempt to portray their tequila as the choice of the privileged, tried to sell it with the lowest imaginable class.

So, that's it for the year, except for one thing. There's the idiotic Fox News war on Christmas, a manufactured issue with no significance whatsoever except to spread the Fox message of fear and ignorance to the world. If someone wishes you well what does it matter how it fits into a specific context?

Also there seemed to be a lack of humor that would serve to stop that nonsense. I posted this on Facebook, "The thing that bothers me about this war on Christmas is that it starts earlier every year." I thought that was funny, but you couldn’t tell by the people who commented.  

Lighten up folks and have yourself a merry little Christmas.

The Bill of Rights: selective interpretation

There's no prejudice here about the redneck/hillbilly culture.  As a matter of fact I kind of envy the people who live that way. In a sense the Alaska Bush life isn't much different.

I can picture myself mudding in a big truck; actually I do it though not on purpose on a four-wheeler sometimes. Though a crime, the moonshine era is a sort of romantic one in US history.  It certainly isn't an expensive way to live, except maybe for the truck and you look at some of the sites about the culture, people seem to be happy in most of the pictures, though besides mud, the activity might involve serious amounts of beer.

photo from Boycott Duck Dynasty

All in all the backwoods country life appeals in many ways. The one part of it I wrestle with is the politics. At least in the stereotype, it involves Obama-hating, Bible thumping, racism intolerance, ignorance, reliving the Civil War with hopes for a different outcome, gun baiting, and voting straight-line republican ticket even though it is Republican policies that keep us all poor.

Also like many bullies, the minute something or somebody opposes these people, they try to hide behind god or the constitution or some other established authority. On one hand intrusion of government is evil and needs to be stopped, on the other if challenged, government is the defense. So it goes.

The latest culture clash is over a television show called "Duck Dynasty," a show that showcases a family of supposed backwoods people who make their living manufacturing duck calls, and now in reality television.

Recently the arguably most popular member of the family in an interview put out some gay-bashing and racist comments. Action was quick: the network took him off the show at least for the time being. The reaction was even stronger with people from all walks of life defending the character and hauling out the First Amendment right to free speech to support their case.

And that is where the frustration of ignorance applies itself.

No one at all is challenging his right to say anything he wants. We can all do that, say what we want when we want.

What these defenders don't seem to realize is that freedom of speech doesn't extend to the consequences from something you say freely. If you stand up in a bar and call the guy next to you stupid, expect to be punched.  Free speech -- consequences.

So if you speak loudly as a homophobe or racist, in modern society you should expect some consequence. In this case the consequence was losing his job. Others have suffered far worse consequences for speaking their minds, their precious Jesus, for one.

The whole uproar over this incident is historically inconsequential. We, including me as we can see, waste an awful lot of thought time on such incidents. At least this one has a constitutional lesson involved.

The lesson is simple: Say anything you want, but before you do, consider the consequences.

"Preacher man's talkin' on the TV,

he's puttin' down the rock and roll,

wants me to make a donation,

'cause he's worried about my soul.

Well, Jesus walked on the water,

and I know that it's true,

but sometimes I think that preacher man

would like to do a little walkin' too.

Now I ain't askin' nobody for nothin'

if I can't get it on my own.

If you don't like the way I'm livin'

just leave this long-haired country boy alone."

-- "Long-haired Country Boy," Charlie Daniels Band

A very Walter Christmas

I've never been one for cute pet pictures at Christmas, but because I have this rather photogenic hound I thought I would get a picture of the two of us in front of our tree.  This is what I came up with:

Note the addition of the leash.

MERRY @#%&##@ CHRISTMAS

A dangerous undertaking, defining Alaska state pride

Protecting the privacy of the home, is "consonant with the character of life in Alaska. Our territory and now state has traditionally been the home of people who prize their individuality and who have chosen to settle or to continue living here in order to achieve a measure of control over their own lifestyles which is now virtually unattainable in many of our sister states." – opinion written by Chief Justice Jay Rabinowitz in the 1975 Alaska Supreme Court decision to allow residents to possess a small amount of marijuana for personal use.

A question of Alaska pride came up the other day. To begin with there was a post on Facebook from Weather.com about the snowiest places in America. It's been noted on this blog before, and here is the proof:  Valdez, Alaska, is the snowiest city in the United States, beating second place by more than 90 inches a year.

I shared it on my own Facebook page and that led to several comments one of which came from another former resident who said she missed the people but not the snow. I suggested she would probably admit to a sort of perverse pride in having lived there and she admitted she did, but still preferred where she lives now which involves a lot less snow shoveling.

It's official: Alaska and Montana have the most state pride.

Later in the day I was chatting with another person from snow country and the subject turned to my recent surgery. I mentioned that I had a nice new scar on the side of my neck. She said it would probably shrink to almost nothing and my response was, "darn, we Alaskans are proud of our scars."

Affordable health care by any other name is still Obamacare

A couple of years ago I used Obamacare in a headline. The editor of the paper rejected that saying the term was derogatory. I didn't think so or at least I didn't want it to be; that certainly wasn't how I meant it, but at the time I had to admit he was probably right and it wasn't worth fighting over.

Here we are a few years later and the term is used by friends and foes alike. Pretty much the term for affordable health care is Obamacare.

Now, here's the irony. The term began as derogatory by the tea baggers and Republicans who vowed to stop anything Obama stood for. But these days Obamacare is the general word for it, used by proponents and opponents alike. As the initial difficulties are ironed out, more and more people gain health insurance and enjoy the benefits of the Affordable Care Act, it will most likely go into history and forever be known favorably as Obamacare, an eternal slap in the faces of these people who blindly oppose it and who likely will not be remembered at all.

Anthems and carols

"The Little Drummer Boy" like you've never heard it before.

Some songs just shouldn't be messed with. The “Star-Spangled Banner" comes to mind immediately. Every time one of these hip-hop bee-bop rapper types opens a football game with it, I cringe. The little curlicues and flutters they are compelled to add at the ends of phrases do nothing to enhance the presentation, just satisfy the singer's ego that he or she can make this song better. They can't. And they shouldn't try. It should be sung the regular way every time. That song belongs to all of us. Every single citizen of the United States has a stake in that song and these pretenders should just leave it alone. That 12-year-old girl who sings it at the beginning of Miami Heat games could show them how.

Covers of some songs are all right.  Most of them aren't as good as the originals and are hardly worth a second listen and some you have to approach as if they were completely different songs from the originals to find any appreciation for them at all. Only once in a while does someone really nail a cover.

Another whole group of songs that individuals should leave alone is the religious songs of Christmas. 

They can do anything they want to what I like to call the party songs of Christmas. I don't really care how anybody sings "I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus." But the traditional and even the new religious carols should be sung they way they were intended, and not how some rock and roller thinks they should sound as a dance number or something.There many attempts and many failures, but every once in a while a new rendition of a carol comes along and knocks me over. The video at the top of this is one of those.

It's by a group called Pentatonix which looks to be a mixed ethnic group of four men and a woman and they appear to be singing on a hill outside Los Angeles. They add their own a cappella touch to the performance but they don't take away from the original in doing it. The woman's voice is so clear and at the end so powerful. It sent that warm shiver through me that a song hitting home emotionally  can do and I bought that one and and two others.  They do a credible version of "O Holy Night," too.

It is December 2, now, so to my mind it is all right to do Christmas songs.  This was the one that opened that door for me when I heard it earlier today.

I remember years ago talking with a woman friend about Christmas and how I am not really a believer but there is one part I love. She knew exactly what I was talking about and responded, "Yeah, we have the best music."

So true.

Julia Dale sings "The Star-Spangled Banner."

Thanksgiving

Having lived alone much of my adult life, it really doesn't bother me much to be alone on a day like Thanksgiving, although it did hit me this week that I can't remember the last time I shared Thanksgiving dinner on the actual day with another human being. 

For one thing, I think it makes me thankful for some of the more basic aspects in life.  For instance I am thankful at least one store in Alaska carries small turkeys.  Think I am kidding? Try to find one weighing less than 10 pounds.  This store had several and I found one that was 7.75 pounds. That will leave just enough leftovers but not so much I will get tired of them.

I am thankful for the winter birds at the feeders who consistently entertain me (and to a certain extent, I hope, blog readers) through the long Alaska winter. Case in point, the rescue of the Pine grosbeak a couple of days ago.  I posted these pictures just to show the true colors after the poor quality of the one that went up with the rescue story.

After the poor color quality in the photo the other day, here
is a male and female on the feeder enjoying Thanksgiving.

I am thankful for this little puppy sleeping next to me, at least when he's not chewing on my blankets or my hands. He is rapidly becoming the companion I had hoped he would be. And I am thankful for this roof over our heads.

In a broader sense I am thankful for the few friends and family members I stay in touch with, people whom I see infrequently but enjoy when we are together or even just chatting on line. In particular this year, I have been chatting regularly with someone who shares a broad interest in music and we enjoy each other's through posting youtube videos while chatting.

And speaking of internet things I am thankful for those who read this blog. I came across a graph the other day that shows readership, at least page hits, has gone from almost nothing when I started in 2008 gaining gradually to more than 3,000 a month these days. That is enough to encourage me to write more often and better.

Today I am thankful I can plan my dinner around football games rather than argue with someone about which interrupts which.

I am thankful, too, for the nurse practitioner who discovered the blockage in my cartoid artery or I might not be here at all.

Out there too, we still have a pretty good country to live in despite the screaming politics of the day.

So, reflecting, watching football and birds,  and contemplating the snowy scene out the window backed by a high mountain, I am most thankful that there is an Alaska where I have been able to find my place in the general scheme of things.

And then too, there is single malt scotch, hot women, cold turkey sandwiches, heavy guitar riffs, two pretty neat kids, and the blessing of a shining sun.

Tonight I look forward to seeing Lady Gaga and the Muppets thanksgiving special.  That should provide the a topping to the day to be thankful about also.

Peace everyone, and may your lives be as filled with at least as many things to be thankful for as mine is.

I gave her the bird, literally

What a day.  Convalescing and housebound, with just me and Walter and the birds, lazy day in front of the television with not much going on, just chillin'.

Then the bird hit the window, a big one making a loud thud.  I went to look and saw a female pine grosbeak down in the snow, knocked silly. This happens once in a while and they usually sit there for a minute or two, gather their wits and fly off.  Not so with this one and so I worried and finally went  out, gathered it up and brought it into the house.  I found a way to confine it  and let it warm up but wasn't sure what to do beyond that.

In the picture the bird looks red, like a male, but in real life she was
more of an orange color, definitely female.

I messaged a bird-knowledgeable friend but she wasn't online, so I put a post on an Alaska birding bulletin board called akbirding@yahoogroups to see if anyone knew what could be done.  I joined that group last winter during the invasion of the redpolls. What I was told was that about all I could do is what I was already doing, keep it warm, let it wake up and when it was lively let it go. What is amazing is the number of responses that came back to me.  A dozen people at least responded, all of whom had pretty much the same advice which was what I was already doing.

When I saw the bird standing with her head up I tried to put her outside.  I picked her out of the cooler and she perched on my finger and stayed there. I gently guided her to the top of the wood pile hoping she would fly off, but when she did she just fluttered to the ground.  Not good.  I tried to catch her but she flopped along in the snow into the woods then stopped and I realized I was just stressing her with the chase, and, too, trying to discourage a very curious Walter. 

A few minutes later I went back out and collected her and brought her back inside where she now sits in a cooler with a screen over the top.  I am not optimistic now and I don't want to let her go after dark for the neighbors' cats to have a meal. 

Then as I was trying to figure out what to do next, I received a message from Chris Maack at the Bird Treatment & Learning Center in Anchorage.  I had already received a note about taking the bird there, but the one out where I live isn't accepting injured birds and the TLC is 50 miles away in Anchorage. It doesn't help that part of my convalescence prevents me from driving a car because jerking my neck around could cause serious problems.

Then someone came up with a solution. Someone who volunteers at the center lives near here and can stop on her way home to pick up the bird.  She hoped to be here around 10 after she and her daughter who was returning from college took in a movie first.

Meanwhile about the time the arrangements were being made I had to face a crisis of personal identity. Just coming on TV at the moment, Lady Gaga was due on the Ellen show and the Monday Night Football game was about to start. Not saying which one I chose, but as a hint, the game goes on for two and a half more hours while there was only half an hour of Gaga with Ellen. And, San Francisco won, so, do the math.

Meanwhile the night went on and a little later I  heard from the woman volunteer from TLC and said she was leaving Anchorage and would pick the bird up on her way home about 10 p.m. or so.

The conclusion: As of 10:30 p.m. the woman had stopped by and I gave her the bird which is now on her way to TLC.  By the time she left, the bird was pretty scrappy, squawking and flapping around, so she might make it. Anyway, my work here is done, except to hang the warnings in the windows for them so it doesn't happen again.

Pine grosbeak

Another November 22 rolls around

Fifty years ago today. Given that anniversary, there are a lot of reminders just about everywhere you look. The date brings a confusion of memories involving first love, assassination, roses and the Beatles. It's been written about before, about walking up that sidewalk with an armful of flowers only to sit in sadness watching the events unfolding after the death of John Kennedy. 

Today another memory besides the opening of the second Hunger Games movie :Catching Fire," is added as I will spend much of it under anesthesia or coming out of it and hoping for some good drugs to bring home.  Truthfully looking forward to what those drugs will allow into my mind and wondering if I can deal with whatever comes up.  And when it is over I will have a nice little scar added to my Alaska collection. After all, in the words of Jimmy, don't we do it for the stories we can tell?

Previously on November 22.

Confirmation about those news reports by committee

There's a line in a Paul Simon song, 'I get all the news I need from the weather report." It has reached the point now where that is the only straight news reporting around, except maybe when the idiots stand outside in storms telling everyone else to seek shelter.  At least they don't do it by committee.

News reporting on the 24-hour stations has become increasingly irritating in the past few months.  It's about those committees. The talking head gives the basic story and then a small panel, usually three, of people who know nothing about the subject or have any connection or credibility whatsoever with the given story give their opinions about what is going on.  They often shout and rudely talk over each other in order to say things like "I am not familiar with this particular case but here is what I think in general."  Each one tries to outdo the other in being more profound, or more outrageous or just more clever,  In the end they say nothing and add nothing to the story and their shouted inanities overwhelm the thinking audience.  That's when I change the channel and it happens often.  Some days that's all that's on and it is frustrating not to get any news, just shouting pseudo experts.  I used to laugh at reporters interviewing reporters but the collection of participants in these forums is even worse.  It is the trend apparently.

CASE IN POINT: Wednesday morning 11/20, news head and two others discussing shopping on the Friday after Thanksgiving.  (I will never win this one but I can still refuse to call it black friday.) Does it really take a panel discussion to report that Friday comes after Thursday and it is an over-hyped shopping day?  For the sake of discussion I would submit this intrnet meme: defined as the day when people fight each other to buy unneeded things the day after they gave thanks for what they already have.

I am often alone in my criticisms and I can live with that, but tonight, on this particular subject I received some confirmation.  I am not the only one.  When I can, I usually watch a rerun of  the previous night's The Daily Show at 6:30 p.m. during dinner.  It's better than answering telemarketers' calls. So, tonight they did it: Jon Stewart and a panel of his cronies shouting each other down with one outrageous comment after another about the subject or off the subject or about anything that came to mind.  It was hilarious, it pilloried those CNN and HLN and MSNBC committees at their best. I laughed.  No wonder young people say they get their news from Stewart and Stephen Colbert.  Some days their hilarity is the only sanity in the news business and I have to admit sorting through their humor I often learn things about a subject I hadn't heard or read about in the supposed responsible news media.

Overall it is a shame to watch news reporting degenerate into showmanship with no substance. It makes me want to find some recordings of Walter Cronkite and send them to the networks in hopes somebody will realize how far they have removed themselves from real news.

At about 22 cents apiece, hurricane ties are a bargain

Add one per rafter, perhaps save a roof.

It always pains me when I see photos of damage from hurricanes and tornados, especially houses with their roofs gone.

Having built a couple of 5-star energy-rated homes in a major earthquake zone, I have some experience with codes and building tough houses.

I realize not much can be done when a house is flattened or probably not with the 190 mph winds recorded in Typhoon Halyan or the horde of tornados that tore through the Midwest Nov. 17.

22 cents

However, in a lot of cases one of these on each rafter could have saved the roof. It amazed me when I saw new construction in a hurricane zone like Florida of all places and these hurricane ties were not used. They cost about 22 cents apiece for crying out loud and only take a minute or so to attach one.  That's pretty cheap compared with repairing a roof and fixing or replacing whatever else is damaged when a flying roof leaves a house uncovered.

Hurricane ties were just one of the code requirements for building in a high-wind, earthquake-prone, heavy snow area like the one where I lived and built.  I am sure some of the requirements would make an outside contractor cringe.

To begin with, for loans banks require a high energy rating: the second one had to be at least 5-star. In this area we had to build for 90 mph winds, 120-pound-per-square-foot snow load and to withstand a substantial earthquake (I don't recall if there was a specific magnitude involved.)  I do know the Good Friday Alaska earthquake in 1964 was the strongest earthquake ever recorded in North America and the epicenter was just 50 miles west of where I was building.

Along with the hurricane ties, I had to put heavy steel rods through the gable end walls connecting foundation to roof. Wall base plates were bolted to the foundation, and other ties similar to the ones shown held various other sections of the house together. I know these precautions can add to the eventual cost, but they seem cheap relative to replacing a whole roof or even more.

Last night, talkin' 'bout last night

Moonlight twinkling off frost-encrusted twigs as it passes through the tangle of leafless forest branches illuminates the way as a thin layer of crisp, cold snow covering frozen leaves crunches underfoot.

Oh no, I missed our anniversary

It was a big one too. I came across an internet meme today that kind of hit home and as I was thinking about it, I realized i had missed a pretty big anniversary date in my life.

October 15 marked forty years living in Alaska. But it will never be enough.  Like August Birch-Alder says, "a real Alaskan is someone who has lived here a year longer than you have."  So until you are the last one standing, you aren't one.  I can deal with it.  I've put in my time and I've had my adventures and to some that is an accomplishment. I like the idea of living in a place where endurance counts, someplace the vast majority of people don't want to, in this case often dissuaded by the climate.  (Shhh. Our little secret.) Whenever I have to describe something about Alaska to a new person, I try to make it sound as harsh as possible, so while they will appreciate the place, they wouldn't want to live here. So many Alaskans moved here from someplace else and over the years I have discovered  a good number of them wished the gates had closed once they were inside, me included.  Unrealistic, of course. So, endurance counts and 40 years is a milestone. It only takes 30 to qualify for an obituary in Alaska Magazine.

Now about that meme. No matter how good the news, something will always come along to put you in your place.  Turns out my birthday, which is within a few days of the Alaska anniversary, has been designated International Day of Failure. First one who says that explains a lot is off my list. To the good, science is based on failure and learning from a failure allows you to move on to bigger and better failures. So it goes.

Are Fred Meyer and Kroger ripping us off or is this just misleading

This is the entire ad from the mailed flyer. Does it say house brands?

One of the advantages of growing older is you qualify for some good discounts at various stores. Movies around here are just about half price, ATT has a phone plan senior discount and so does just about everyone else. The problem is, once in while you run into what I would call nothing short of a scam.

Look at the picture I grabbed from a flyer I received in the mail.  What does it say to you?  I took it to mean if I shopped on those specific Tuesdays my entire purchase would qualify for a 10 percent discount. Can you see anything on there that says anything different? I am not the only one. I noticed Tuesday the majority of customers at the store, at least when I went, were elderly.  I figured it was because of the discount.

This is a grab from the web site. Note the pic of the Nike 

shoe, the Nikon camera, the coffee maker and the auto care parts. 
Those aren't house brands, but according to the ad they are also
included in the discounts. 

As my income has slowly dwindled to a little more than subsistence, I plan for such events and went without a few things waiting for Tuesday Nov. 5 when I planned to do at least a week's worth of food shopping.

Imagine the surprise when I checked out and the discount did not show up. I asked the checker about it and she very casually said, "oh that only applies to store brands, Kroger and Fred Meyer."

Now, anyone who eats knows store brands usually are not the same quality as the name brands, so I seldom buy those even though the name brands usually cost a little more.  So, I did not have one item that according to the checker qualified for that 10 per cent senior discount every Tuesday.

Now, look at that ad: Does anything on that ad say anything about store brands?  No.

There is that line at the bottom that if you can't see it reads, "See store or fredmeyer.com/senior for complete details and a few exclusions." A few exclusions.

The posting from the web site is at left.  If you read past the huge type telling you how Fred Meyer is discounting for seniors, there's a list in very small type of the specific brands covered by the discount offer.  As a habit I don't buy a single one of those brands.

A few exclusions indeed:  Every damned thing in the store that isn't a house brand.

How many of us even notice small print in ads, let alone follow a link to a web site? How many people would just see the flyer and head over there on a Tuesday to shop?  I bet more of us than those who actually caught the line at the bottom or followed the link.

So, there I was with a $113.34 tab on my groceries for the week and after the discount it was,

wait for it,

$113.34.

I felt totally taken advantage of and what can you do but pay it or walk away and start over at another store after shopping at this one for the past eight years.

I have liked this store but there are alternatives and at least one of them offers a senior discount on everything, not just the house brand, so I am going over there to check on it before I ever go back to Fred Meyer.

AN UPDATE 7/1/14: Fred Meyer continues to bait the elderly

The myth of the senior discount

COMMENTS:

The following comments came to me through other media.  I know each of these people personally but chose not to use their names to protect their privacy:

That's pretty crappy! A Walmart just went up RIGHT NEXT DOOR to the Fred's in Muldoon. I would think they would want to be sincere in trying to build customer loyalty, but it doesn't sound like it.  -- Anchorage

Not just Alaska! Fred Meyers in Idaho is the same. The Kroger/Fred Meyer "loyalty" program sucks. -- Boise

I don't think any large corporation has any loyalty to anyone or anything except their bottom line and their boards of directors do not equate their profits to the minions that buy their products. You can count on your hands the number of corporations that control our world. -- California

Good show! I ran into this one about a year ago. I didn't recall that Fred Meyer brand even qualified -- just Kroger. I "saved" something like 50 cents on a big order. I also bought AA battery pack a couple weeks ago, clearly marked "Buy one, get one free," but when I got home and checked the tape, I'd paid for both of them. Went back a few days later and the "Buy one" sign was gone. I was better off when I ignored their coupons, I think, because the big print giveth and the fine print taketh away" too often. Fred Meyer coupons are full of gotchas and some of them aren't programmed into the cash registers so even if you buy them it doesn't work automatically. Sometimes it's fine print I can't read without my glasses and sometimes the clerk puts it in manually and sometimes I don't see the problem until I get home and then I feel ripped off. I'm often unimpressed but since Safeway took over Carr's that isn't wondrous either and I refuse to darken the doors of Walmart or Sam's Club and I can't deal with the Costco quantities, so there isn't much alternative,  -- Anchorage

It all makes me kind of wonder who Parker Allen in the following comment works for.  Pretty interesting that a person who qualifies for the senior discount has kids who often prefer the house brand.

All right, Republicans, now it's personal

There's a central landfill for this borough, but because the borough is so large, there are some transfer stations here and there. You take your trash to one of those satellite stations and put it in huge containers that are trucked to the main one for disposal.

One such transfer station is only about a mile from here and that's where I haul my trash when it fills all the cans.  In addition to the containers on the property a large open field was made available for people to haul brush and trees and stuff cleared from lots. I've taken a couple of trailer loads to that spot.

It's about that stump

First pull it in the direction it wants to go.

A short update: So with the ruined old blade sharpened, I was able to cut through three roots and halfway through a fourth.  That done I attached the Jeep to the stubborn stump and gave it another yank. No deal, again the only thing that moved was the gravel under the tires. Pulled so hard the Jeep made a lot of blue smoke, and I caught the distinct odor I used to associate with a burning clutch.  Wonder what causes that with an automatic transmission.

Then pull it in the direction I want to go.

As I was trying to figure out Plan C, I  leaned against the stump and it moved and suddenly the light came on.  Pull it in the direction it wants to go. Duh! So I maneuvered the Jeep up into the woods and attached the tow strap and woo hoo, picked up the strain and the stump came almost free. Archimedes would have been proud. It's all about choosing a place to stand. Probably would have been smart to pull the trailer out of there first, but no harm done.

Found the lock that broke, note

 the shackle is missing, ripped 

right out.

With it loosened like that, I was able to disconnect, move the Jeep into the new position and then reconnect to pull it in the direction I wanted to go and now it is all but out. If I had kept pulling in that direction, longer, deeper roots might have ripped out or damaged the new wiring we put in last year for the well.  I'm really not interested in doing that again any time soon.   But, the stump is now in a good place where I can cut it apart and be done with it.

Time now to give the saw a good cleaning, install the shiny new chain and get about cutting firewood.
The original problem.

Travels with Walter

Just for fun and to keep active with the SPOT locater, we took it along on one of our more extended walks today.

The gold straight lines are what the SPOT sent. The darker curvy line is
where we actually walked.

The picture is from the signals sent to the satellite and then to our web page.  I thought it would send more locations than it did.  Believe me walking with a dog, especially a scent hound, there are no straight lines anywhere. But the unit draws lines from location to location so this is what we got.

To explain:  Location 1: Not at home, but next to a gravel pit we pass. We continued on south to where
that road curves sharply to the west. We went east, jogged through those trees then turned west until we ended up in that gray parking lot that just shows south of the road. From there we crossed the road and went north on the one that leads to spot 2.  From spot 2 we angled across the end of the runway until we reached that trail that goes just about straight north near the east end of the runway. How many people walking their dogs have to watch for aircraft landing or taking off?  The first little trail that goes off to the east (right) off that trail led us to position 3. That connects with our road and we walked down it to the driveway and to the house (Position 4).

Guide: North is up, south is down, east is right and west is left.

Of course there were lots of jogs off into the pucker brush here and there especially when Walter was off the leash between spots 1 and 2, but south of that road.

If anyone is interested here is a link to the page where our tracked adventures show up.

About the SPOT locater.