Monday, September 13, 2021

A captain's first voyage

Captain Justin M. Jones (21 likes)
My son made his first trip as THE CAPTAIN, driving the 90-foot Glacier Spirit September 11, 2021.

Photos and comments from Carrie Ann Nash
So far one of the more eloquent and articulate narrations I have had the pleasure to hear
He did an amazing job They had a Chipibration after docking with champagne and pizza. He was embarrassed by the attention.

     Back in Fairbanks and I have time to relate some more impressions. I know that all the technical boat skills are super important, but being me, I sometimes focus on the narration. His was stellar. People listened. He had some jokes on the level of potato navigation*: When they first saw otters he explained how they grab a rock to use as a tool. Then. he told them that apparently some otters in this part of the Sound have not learned to do that yet. They haven't made it into the Stone Age...

     All the skippers point out a shape on one of edges of the Entrance Is. rocks that looks like a face. He gave a long explanation about a WWF-loving crew member who thinks it looks like Duane, "The ROCK" Johnson. At Bull's Head as a way of explaining that these sea lions are mostly failed, smaller males he said that these sea lions "have a lot of love to give", but unfortunately it didn't work out for them, because here they are. (or something like that.)

     And.. while working his way through an amazing amount of ice, determined to get to the face ( of Columbia Glacier). he said that if people were worried about the clunking and crashing noises of the ice, they shouldn't be because "this vessel has been built entirely out of styrofoam..."

Seen by Carrie Ann Nash at 11:49 AM

    I don't know what his long-term goal is, but all the captains were very proud of him. He exuded confidence and could probably take his skills lots of places in the future if he decides to.

It was great to see Ariel. That was a highlight for me!

Thank you, Carrie Ann


*Potato navigation was one of my jokes when I did this in the 80s. I would tell it on foggy days as we passed Potato Point. That's when it's so foggy you have to send a crew person up on the bow with a sack of potatoes. One is thrown every so often and if one doesn't splash, you turn away.


The captain, his sister Ariel, Carrie Nash (eldest 
daughter of Stan Stephens); Mary Helen 
Stephens, Carrie's mother.

Snapshots on the first day but one.

At the helm of a 151-foot
tall ship (2010) on the big ocean

In the beginning …
(24 Facebook likes )
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The Glacier Spirit;  (38 "likes" on Facebook)


  • HERE ARE SOME COMMENTS FROM A FACEBOOK 




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    Philip Munger
    So sweet. I hope he follows your sage advice better than I did almost exactly 40 years ago, Orca!
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      Tim Jones
      Thanks, Phil, not sure what that advice was, though. I read your news this week, hoping you are doing all right.
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  • Karen Lachance
    No way!! That is very cool Tim.
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  • Sharon Wright
    That's so fun to know! Like papa like son.
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  • Marian Nattrass
    That is wonderful and quite an accomplishment!
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  • Carole Trombetta Thoresen
    Wow, that’s awesome! Out of which Port?
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  • Mark Fuerstenau
    That's great! Following in the old man's footsteps!
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  • Jeanne Passin
    Fantastic! The Apple sure doesn’t fall far from the tree!
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Sailing with Chip   A tall ship on the big ocean
Sailing with Chip  A photo gallery
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Thursday, September 2, 2021

Hello old friend

 Sometime around thirty years ago I dropped off a large manila envelope at the post office. That envelope contained the last mailing of a manuscript after all the submissions, edits, comments, revisions, galley proofs and messages it took to make a bunch of my scribblings into something of a published work. As I walked the two or three blocks to my favorite watering hole to celebrate, I  began to realize the envelope also contained a fairly sizable collection of friends I had visited often over the previous dozen years or so. By the time I reached the bar and found a chair and lifted the first glass, the celebration had dissipated into an empty sensation of loss. It apparently was so noticeable the bartender who knew me and my story asked what was wrong.         Without thinking, I told her I had just lost a bunch of friends. She knew immediately what it was  and over the evening left me alone, replacing empty bottles with full ones and even guided others away from me. I could only think that in the morning when I woke up all those friends wouldn’t be there to play with for the first time in so many years. They could have been flesh and blood considering the depth of my sense of loss was so deep. Instead of celebrating just once,  one by one I recalled as many as I could and lifted a glass to each one
     So, fast forward those thirty years to this miserable summer which for the large part I have spent alone in a dark travel trailer parked in the yard of a Catholic church in Talkeetna, Alaska. As sit here I can see the world drive by on the street 50 feet away or hear the whistle, the rumble and the roar of the trains that pass nearby every so often day and night. I read, I write, I water flowers, not totally unpleasant but I can only think of a few happy moments all summer, those being the Saturdays when I spend an hour on Facetime reading books to my grandson. Oh yeah also in those first blurry moments as I come out of anesthesia in the, now, four surgical procedures I’ve endured so far.  Other than that the depression deepened as the weeks passed. Now, in my world depression isn’t always a negative. I have found great moments of creative inspiration in my depressed states. This went beyond that into something of a downward spiral.
     That was until one day a week or so ago as I stared blankly at my computer screen, my gaze fell on a folder I hadn’t looked into for some time. With nothing better to do I opened it, opened a file and started reading. About halfway through the document I began to think this was pretty good, better than I’d remembered it being. And then it hit me. Hello Old Friend! This didn’t involve a crowd, just one person, someone I had been involved with online in reality and in writing for more than 15 years. I kept reading eventually now and then correcting some spelling which then evolved into rewriting a couple of poorly stated sentences. It didn’t end at that one visit either. I have revisited every day since, reaching a point of seriously reorganizing and rewriting major passages. Today without even thinking about it I spent the better part of eight hours at it. Since that first visit, to date I have organized 62 chapters, that’s 475 pages, 142,856 words. Hello old friend indeed.
     The whole thing is, it’s not the physical progress, it’s the reunion, the reconnection with a character (this one based in real life), whom I realize now I have missed as a part of my life for a long time. Each day now I look forward to joining her again and reliving our life together, even adding to it and, too, reliving some happy times while creating new ones.

More creative writing

Even More Creative writing

One Path to a life on the street

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Tuesday, August 17, 2021

When will we ever learn …?

  A week or so ago I made fun of the coincidence that Welsh settlers had named a village they established in the Tennessee Valley with a word that hinted at the name “Dollywood.” That passage dated in the 1170s appeared in the book “Children of the First Man” By James Alexander Thom. Today as I’m reading toward the end of the book I came across this passage written about a Mandan tribe’s village on the Missouri River just south of the Yellowstone in 1837:

This is the frontispiece of the book. It is a drawing of Four Bears done in 1832 by George Catlin. Their relationship is described in the book. (National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution)

“(Four Bears) remembered that Red Hair (George Rogers Clark ) had tried to prevent this. (Most of the village dead or dying). He had encouraged the chiefs of all the Peoples along the Muddy River to have a scratch on their skin which would keep them from getting this disease (smallpox)! Yes, Red hair had tried that and sent soldier doctors everywhere to make the scratches. …
“But most of the chiefs had not trusted the soldier doctors. They had warned their Peoples that the doctors were probably bringing death in little bottles to kill Peoples and get them out of the way. The chiefs had all learned not to trust the white men or anything they said and did.
“Four Bears himself had forgotten his trust of Red Hair and had not let his People go and get the scratches. Now, he thought, we will all die ….”
— ”Children of the First Man” was published in 1994.
As they say what goes around …
Here is an account of that incident from the official page of the State of North Dakota, it includes a day by day account written by Francis A. Chardon. In 1837 he was superintendent at Fort Clark just across the Missouri from this village.

Here is the first post from facebook:
I am reading a book called The Children if the first Man by James Alexander Thom. If you are not familiar with him he writes massive tomes of historical fiction. In this one so far a group from Wales journeys across the Atlantic in the 1170s seeking to establish a colony on the east coast of North America which their leader had visited on a previous voyage. A hurricane blows them off course into the Gulf of Mexico. Mind you he does not use modern place names, rather a cumbersome collection of what he imagines are Welsh grunts and sighs and I had to figure out where they were from his descriptions. They spent a year stuck in the Mobile Bay swamps as best I could figure. Then they followed a great river north looking for suitable ground. They went north until they reached hilly country and solid ground. But still wanting that east coast place they eventually turned off the river and headed to the east across a low ridge of mountains. At the peak of the ridge they look out across a large valley with another river running through it and a bluish cloud lingering near the far edges of it. Now, as I figured the first river was the Tennessee. When they turned east I figured them somewhere along the now northern Louisiana border. I wasn’t sure but I had a suspicion. They built a castle and a village in that valley. In their best Welsh Thom had them name it Dolwyddelan. Then I knew where they were. I literally laughed out loud. Try to say that word out loud and see if you get it. If not, think of whom you might have heard of who came from the mountains of Tennessee.
It turns out this was just a coincidence that the names of the t3wo places sounded similar. It was the name of the original castle in Wales. Sorry Dolly!
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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.”