Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Ferries stopped? How about a floating supermarket?

All tied up. But …
My stint as editorial editor of my college newspaper offered up a number of lessons, chief among them was the idea that if you are going to criticize something, you ought to have some sort of solution in mind. From that day forward I always tried to offer a solution, some of them were pretty far-fetched but what the heck ideas have to start somewhere.
Last year Alaska's trumpish governor decided the state ferry system could withstand a substantial budget cut. Though the legislature forced some money back into the state budget the system had to cut back considerably. Eventually a few mechanical breakdowns forced further service cuts until as of this writing, not one
ferry is operating. Alaskans, particularly in Southeastern depend on the ferries as they are the only reliable link with the rest of the world. They take ferries to visit a hospital, to shop, for school sports events and other travel opportunities, and for
vital supplies like food and diapers. Now several towns that depend on the ferries are running out of those supplies. Visiting basketball teams have been stranded; anyone who took a vehicle when he left home has no way to get it back to his town, store shelves are empty.
More budget cuts have been proposed for this year and there are still those mechanical breakdowns to be fixed. This is a vital service for a number of Alaskans and the governor doesn't seem to care.
Well I have a solution. Suppose the large Alaska marketers
develop floating supermarkets. They could stock them like regular stores. What I see is two ships: One starting in Ketchikan and heading north and the other one starting in Juneau and moving south (after a side trip to Haines and Skagway). Each one way trip could be timed for a week which would mean every town on the schedule would see a market twice a week. It's possible the vessels could even set up doctors' offices and other services, even a pharmacy to offer prescriptions. It might prove profitable enough to keep operating after the ferry system fires up again no matter what form it takes when it comes back on schedule. The vessels could resupply at Juneau and Ketchikan which have other supply connections.
I'm talking to you @safeway and you, @fredmeyer.
Even better, with all the expansion 3 Bears has been growing, an Alaska company, this might be perfect for them and for the people they would serve as they are something of a warehouse sort of retail store. Given the warehouse concept, maybe a visit once every two weeks would work. Obviously there is a lot more involved. But why not start thinking about it?
And instead of writing your congressman, write to Safeway and Fred Meyer and 3 Bears.
Safeway customer contact

Saturday, February 15, 2020

Book report: One of Alaska's top photographers tells his story

Wild Shots
A Photographer's Life in Alaska
By Tom Walker
Mountaineers Press

Anyone who's ever seen a photo of a wild animal and thought, "oh, that’s cute," or "that's a little scary" or maybe just "lucky shot" and then turned the page or scrolled past it, ought to take the time to read Tom Walker's book Wild Shots.
In it Tom takes us through his life from the days as a teen in what amounts to wilderness in Southern California to the wilds of Alaska, spending days and weeks searching for that one shot, that defining moment in an animal's life that leads to understanding. From reading his descriptions of his camps, his long treks through all measure of terrain and all kinds of weather, you come to understand you have to be in the right place at the right time in order to have the luck that offers the opportunity to make the photo.
From battling hordes of mosquitos to weathering temperatures well below zero, Tom persisted in his pursuit of that perfect photo often finding disappointment when the animal turned the wrong way at the last moment or another came along and chased it away, or worse, caught it and ate it.
In the book Tom shares his incredible body of knowledge about wildlife habits, habitat, seasonal movement, reproduction and all kinds of behavior. In the process he presents credible arguments on the necessity for preserving wild animals and their wild habitat.
But the heart of the book is in learning how this one man, learns as much as he can about the animals he photographs, studies them, studies their history, their lives, there positions in the food chain, whether they be killer whales at the top of the the ocean chain or brown bears at the top on land, or the voles and lemmings near the bottom among land animals. With that knowledge he goes wherever they live whether it be high in the Brooks Range in far northern Alaska, a windswept island in the Bering Sea, a salmon-choked stream in southern Alaska or the ocean passages of Southeastern. He knows the seasons, when caribou migrate in vast herds, and with most of the animals he photographs he knows when the young are born, what their foods are and what prey they seek or what preys on them. Despite all that, sometimes it all leads to disappointment and he shares that with the reader as well. Not every expedition yields the photograph he sought. Still much of that knowledge, preparation and physical effort , patience and perseverance often lead to the moment that offers the "cute," "scary," or "lucky" shot often skipped past in a magazine or on a web site. Tom's photos deserve more respect than that. Given his approach to his work it's no wonder he is one of the top photographers in Alaska. As proof, the book is illustrated liberally with a number of the author's own marvelous wildlife photographs.
Toward the ending he reveals his favorite animal to photograph and given the variety he describes in the book, the revelation is surprising, but his reasoning for it is perfectly understandable. And the explanation reveals a personal philosophy of appreciation for animals that's evolved over his 50 years of photographing Alaska and its wild critters.

Saturday, February 8, 2020

East Pole Journal February 8, 2020: If a tree falls in the woods …



Take a look at these two pictures. They show essentially the same scene, Denali from the cabin window. Do you notice something in the photo on the left is missing from the one on the right? If you guessed the oddly shaped tree, give yourself a nickel. The treetop which I call the seahorse tree because it looks like one of those little critters is missing.

Where oh where did that big seahorse tree go? I have thought at times I would try to find it and then ask the owners if I could cut it down for them so I could have a clear view of the mountain. It's in just about every photo I've made of the mountain over the years and had reached the nuisance point. I bet the owners would have jumped at the chance for someone to take that tree out if they could have seen into the future.
You see, I found it. Generally over the winter I check on a cabin across the main trail from mine, just to make sure it's all right, no broken windows, animal invasions, no strange changes. This year there was one. That tree. There it was leaning against my friends' cabin, about a third of it on the roof. It must have been blown down in one of the few wind storms we have here, perhaps weakened by an infestation of spruce beetles.
Seahorse tree is no more than firewood now, as soon as somebody moves it.
The owner I am closest with lives Outside now and I try to send her a picture of it every winter. It looks like someone else was in there and attempted to remove the tree. There's some kind of a safety line strung from it to another tree nearby and some of the branches up on the roof have been removed. It's a sensitive task for sure.
So, the end result? I can now have a treeless photo of the mountain, but, since I realized it, Denali has been hidden by clouds that have been dumping a lot of snow over the entire countryside between here and there. And, NO, Sue, I did NOT cut it down. LOL

And, speaking of snow

I think it's enough already when you clear your deck and you have to throw the snow uphill.

Sue responds: Sue Whittom Tim Jones: you are so funny but I think if you had figured out years ago that I owned the “seahorse” ðŸŒ², it would have become firewood in your stove long ago😋 teehee



The East Pole Journal

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

East Pole Journal February 5, 2020: Life on a hillside

 The view downhill. Lower left is the pile of wood waitng to
be split. The snowmachine is about where it got stuck and
the remaining wood is down the hill to the right.






I
have some pretty good trails around the cabin by this time in winter and that makes walking easier.

Still it's a hillside, steep enough that if you lean even a little the wrong way, especially if you are carrying something heavy, you are likely to tip over, or find yourself skiing down the hill or, worse, running, or falling face first into the snow. A day seldom gets by where I don't shout epithets at the cursed hill even though most days with the trail good and some traction from boots getting around is fairly simple. This week, we've had maybe 4 inches of snow over the past couple of days and that makes all those easy walking spots slippery (worse in the steeper parts where you really need traction to move uphill or slow yourself going down) and just that little bit of snow obliterates the border between hard-packed snow of the trail and the almost-waist-deep snow one step off it. Given that background here's how my day went. Mind you snow fell the whole time this was going on.

Accomplished:
Gathered enough snow to produce water to wash dishes with.
Two sled loads of firewood in the round brought up to the splitting yard in the large sled. (3x7)
Two smaller sled loads (2+ x5) split and placed in the woodpile under the house for next year.
One smaller sled load split and put on the deck to burn.
One smaller sled load of seasoned birch and spruce brought from under the house to the deck for the next couple days.
Difficulties overcome
Slipped and fell at least five times.
Slipped and skidded but eventually maintained balance too many times to count.
Stepped off the trail into deep snow three times at least (several uncountable while attending to the next item).
Got snowmachine stuck when it, too slid off the trail into deep snow and had to use a comealong to get it out.
Repaired the trail filling the hole the snowmachine made sliding off it. About half an hour of shoveling and stomping.
Soaked three pairs of gloves and one pair of mittens.
Duration: about four hours.
Early on when I first started living here more or less full time, people used to ask me what I did all day. I didn't really have an easy answer. I would say live, explaining that everything you do in the normal course of living in a house, takes longer in the woods. You don't just turn on the hot water faucet to wash the dishes (imagine one of those electric dishwashers), you have to draw water somewhere. I have found I can keep up melting snow. But when I was married and my wife came out, I ended up having to buy five-gallon containers and go a couple of miles to a creek that runs through the winter and fill four of those containers every three days or so to keep up with her usage. Then of course you have to heat it somehow and finally you can wash your dishes. Now, for heat. Those two sled loads I put under the house today toward next year, given they are spruce (which burns faster than my favored birch) they might last four days if I am conservative with it. No thermostat to turn up when it gets cold. Now multiply that by every single thing you do in a regular house and you get the idea. What do I do all day? Live.
Birds update
I've been seeing a few more redpolls these days but only a couple at a time. Not the big hordes of the past. And there's this. The chickadees have all but emptied the second 40-pound bag of sunflower seeds this winter so I have to go out tomorrow and head for the store.
But then there's the view of Denali.
The East Pole Journal

A COMMENT FROM FACEBOOKBetty Sederquist Ha ha, you should be all settled into the Pioneers’ Home, all cozy. It would leave more time for writing. You could reminisce with others about the difficulties of hauling water. But I know that will never happen.

Saturday, February 1, 2020

East Pole Journal Feb. 2, '20 Signs of Spring

Does this mean six more weeks of winter?
     I'm not one of those people who spends all winter complaining and anxious for spring. In fact,

only six more weeks of winter is not enough and I am hoping for eight. Still I don't want to be one of those people who takes a holier-than-thou attitude just because I thrive in winter and others thrive in warmer seasons.  This is me; that is you, and that is just fine.
The sun lights up the angry bluebird in the window.
     I do enjoy the changes in season, though. A year-long winter would be too much as would a year-long summer. So as the year progresses I like noticing the little signs of the change. My next seasonal indicator is spring's first kiss. That usually happens in February where one sunny day you are driving south and sunlight is coming through the car window and you feel the warmth on your cheek for the first time in that year. Some years it touches me outdoors working as well. It hasn't happened here yet, but today some other signs of the coming spring became very obvious. I hope you have seen some too.
And of course there's a ton of firewood to gather — literally, a ton…at least.

Best headlines ever

Naked pair fed LSD gummy worm to dog

Owners of a Noah's Ark replica file a lawsuit over rain damage

In Southcentral Alaska earthquake, damage originated in the ground, engineers say

A headline that could only be written in Alaska: At state cross country, Glacier Bears and Grizzlies sweep, Lynx repeat, Wolverines make history — and a black bear crosses the trail

Man kills self before shooting wife and daughter

Alabama governor candidate caught in lesbian sperm donation scandal

Sister hits moose on way to visit sister who hit moose.

Man caught driving stolen car filled with radioactive uranium, rattlesnake, whiskey

Man loses his testicles after attempting to smoke weed through a SCUBA tank

Church Mutual Insurance won't cover Church's flood damage because it's 'an act of God'

Homicide victims rarely talk to police

Meerkat Expert Attacked Monkey Handler Over Love Affair with Llama Keeper

GOP congressman opposes gun control because gay marriage leads to bestiality

Owner of killer bear chokes to death on sex toy

Support for legalizing pot hits all-time high

Give me all your money or my penguin will explode

How zombie worms have sex in whale bones

Crocodile steals zoo worker's lawn mower

Woman shot by oven while trying to cook waffles

Nude beach blowjob jet ski fight leads to wife's death

Woman stabs husband with squirrel for not buying beer Christmas Eve

GOPer files complaint against Democrat for telling the truth about Big Lie social posts

Man shot dead on Syracuse Street for 2nd time in 2 days

Alaska woman punches bear in face, saves dog

Johnny Rotten suffers flea bite on his penis after rescuing squirrel

Memorable quotations

The best way to know you are having an adventure is when you wish you were home talking about it." — a mechanic on the Alaska State Ferry System. Or as in my own case planning how I will be writing it on this blog.

"You can't promote principled anti-corruption without pissing off corrupt people." — George Kent

"If only the British had held on to the airports, the whole thing might have gone differently for us." — Mick Jagger

"You can do anything as long as you don't scare the horses." — a mother's favorite saying recalled by a friend

A poem is an egg with a horse inside” — anonymous fourth grader

“My children will likely turn my picture to the wall but what the hell, you only get old once." — Joe May

“Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” — Ernest Hemingway

When I write, I feel like an armless, legless man with a crayon in his mouth. Kurt Vonnegut

“If you wrote something for which someone sent you a cheque, if you cashed the cheque and it didn't bounce, and if you then paid the light bill with the money, I consider you talented.”Stephen King

The thing about ignorance is, you don't have to remain ignorant. — me again"

"It was like the aftermath of an orgasm with the wrong partner." – David Lagercrants “The Girl in the Spider’s Web.”

Why worry about dying, you aren't going to live to regret it.

Never debate with someone who gets ink by the barrel" — George Hayes, former Alaska Attorney General who died recently

My dear Mr. Frost: two roads never diverge in a yellow wood. Three roads meet there. — @Shakespeare on Twitter

Normal is how somebody else thinks you should act.

"The mark of a great shiphandler is never getting into situations that require great shiphandling," Adm. Ernest King, USN

Me: Does the restaurant have cute waitresses?

My friend Gail: All waitresses are cute when you're hungry.

I'm not a writer, but sometimes I push around words to see what happens. – Scott Berry

I realized today how many of my stories start out "years ago." What's next? Once upon a time?"

“The rivers of Alaska are strewn with the bones of men who made but one mistake” - Fred McGarry, a Nushagak Trapper

Many people hear voices when no one is there. Some of them are called mad and are shut up in rooms where they stared at walls all day. Others are called writers and they do pretty much the same thing. – Meg Chittenden

A non-writing writer is a monster courting insanity. – Franz Kafka

We are all immortal until the one day we are not. – me again

If the muse is late, start without her – Peter S. Beagle

Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain Actually you could do the same thing with the word "really" as in "really cold."

If you are looking for an experience that will temper your vanity, this is it. There's no one to impress when you're alone on the trap line. – Michael Carey quoting his father's journal

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing. – Benjamin Franklin

It’s nervous work. The state you need to write in is the state that others are paying large sums of money to get rid of. – Shirley Hazzard

So far as I can remember, there is not one word in the Gospels in praise of intelligence -- Bertrand Russell

You know that I always just wanted to have a small ship to take stuff from a place that had a lot of that stuff to a place that did not have a lot of that stuff and so prosper.—Jackie Faber, “The Wake of the Lorelei Lee”

If you attack the arguer instead of the argument, you lose both

If an insurance company won’t pay for damages caused by an “act of God,” shouldn’t it then have to prove the existence of God? – I said that

I used to think getting old was about vanity—but actually it’s about losing people you love. Getting wrinkles is trivial. – Eugene O’Neill

German General to Swiss General: “You have only 500,000 men in your army; what would you do if I invaded with 1 million men?”

Swiss General: “Well, I suppose every one of my soldiers would need to fire twice.”

Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.—Gloria Steinem

Exceed your bandwidth—sign on the wall of the maintenance shop at the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center

One thing I do know, if you keep at it, you usually wind up getting something done.—Patricia Monaghan

Do you want to know what kind of person makes the best reporter? I’ll tell you. A borderline sociopath. Someone smart, inquisitive, stubborn, disorganized, chaotic, and in a perpetual state of simmering rage at the failings of the world.—Brett Arends

It is a very simple mind that only knows how to spell a word one way.—Andrew Jackson

3:30 is too late or too early to do anything—Rene Descartes

Everything is okay when it’s 50-below as long as everything is okay. – an Alaskan in Tom Walker’s “The Seventymile Kid”

You can have your own opinion but you can’t have your own science.—commenter arguing on a story about polar bears and global warming

He looks at three ex wives as a good start—TV police drama

Talkeetna: A friendly little drinking town with a climbing problem.—a handmade bumper sticker

“You’re either into the wall or into the show”—Marco Andretti on giving it all to qualify last at the 2011 Indy 500

Makeup is not for the faint of heart—the makeup guerrilla

“I’m going to relax in a very adult manner.”—Danica Patrick after sweating it out and qualifying half an hour before Andretti

“Asking Congress to come back is like asking a mugger to come back because he forgot your wallet.”—a roundtable participant on Fox of all places

As Republicans go further back in the conception process to define when life actually begins, I am beginning to think the eventual definition will be life begins in the beer I was drinking when I met her.—me again

Hunting is a “critical element for the long-term conservation of wood bison.”—a state department of Fish and Game official explaining why the state would not go along with a federal plan to reintroduce wood bison in Alaska because the agreement did not specifically allow hunting

Each day do something that won’t compute – anon

I can’t belive I still have to protest this shit – a sign carriend by an elderly woman at an Occupy demonstration

Life should be a little nuts or else it’s just a bunch of Thursdays strung together—Kevin Costner as Beau Burroughs in “Rumor has it”

You’re just a wanker whipping up fear —Irish President Michael D. Higgins to a tea party radio announcer

Being president doesn’t change who you are; it reveals who you are—Michelle Obama

Sports malaprops

Commenting on an athlete with hearing impairment he said the player didn’t show any “uncomfortability.” “He's not doing things he can't do."

"… there's a fearlessment about him …"

"He's got to have the lead if he's going to win this race." "

"Kansas has always had the ability to score with the basketball."

"NFL to put computer chips in balls." Oh, that's gotta hurt.

"Now that you're in the finals you have to run the race that's going to get you on the podium."

"It's very important for both sides that they stay on their feet."

This is why you get to hate sportscasters. Kansas beats Texas for the first time since 1938. So the pundits open their segment with the question "let's talk about what went wrong." Wrong? Kansas WON a football game! That's what went RIGHT!

"I brought out the thermostat to show you how cold it is here." Points to a thermometer reading zero in Minneapolis.

"It's tough to win on the road when you turn the ball over." Oh, really? Like you can do all right if you turn the ball over playing at home?

Cliches so embedded in sportscasters' minds they can't help themselves: "Minnesota fell from the ranks of the undefeated today." What ranks? They were the only undefeated team left.

A good one: A 5'10" player went up and caught a pass off a defensive back over six feet tall. The quote? "He's got some hops."

Best homonym of the day so far: "It's all tied. Alabama 34, Kentucky 3." Oh, Tide.

"Steve Hooker commentates on his Olympic pole vault gold medal." When "comments" just won't do.

"He's certainly capable of the top ten, maybe even higher than that."

"Atlanta is capable of doing what they're doing."

"Biyombo, one of seven kids from the Republic of Congo." In the NBA? In America? In his whole country?

"You can't come out and be aggressive but you can't come out and be unaggressive."

"They're gonna be in every game they play!"

"First you have to get two strikes on the hitter before you get the strikeout."

"The game ended in the final seconds." You have to wonder when the others ended or are they still going on?

How is a team down by one touchdown before the half "totally demoralized?"

"If they score runs they will win."

"I think the matchup is what it is"

After a play a Houston defender was on his knees, his head on the ground and his hand underneath him appeared to clutch a very sensitive part of the male anatomy. He rolled onto his back and quickly removed his hand. (Remember the old Cosby routine "you cannot touch certain parts of your body?") Finally they helped the guy to the sideline and then the replay was shown. In it the guy clearly took a hard knee between his thighs. As this was being shown, one of the announcers says, "It looks like he hurt his shoulder." The other agrees and then they both talk about how serious a shoulder injury can be. Were we watching the same game?

"Somebody is going to be the quarterback or we're going to see a new quarterback."

"That was a playmaker making a play.”