Boo!

My costume? Old guy waiting for retirement!

Happy Halloween! I awoke this morning, and drove to work in the pouring rain. The snow will all be gone by this evening. Well, it'll keep the trick or treaters off the street. Are there trick or treaters any more? The last ones I saw were my niece and nephew about 6 or 7 years ago. Admittedly to get to my house, children have to walk down a long dark driveway through Trippingovermoose Ranch, (btw...cow and calf moose just off my back porch last night.) Also most of the families in my neighborhood are Orthodox Christians that don't celebrate Halloween. So maybe there are still children trick or treating. I buy candy every year, but I end up eating it myself. When my kids were young I tended to take them to friends and relatives, malls and school parties. We didn't do random trick or treating like I did as a child.

A 4 Hour and 45 Minute Commute

This afternoon a 18 wheeler jackknifed just past the Ft Richardson overpass, blocking the one and only road between Anchorage where I work and Wasilla where I live. No one was injured. We left work at 4 pm for what is usually a 1 hour commute. I got home at 8:45 pm. For those who know the area, we had an errand to run on Muldoon Road across from the Fred Meyers. After the errand we attempted to return to the Glenn Hwy via Muldoon. It took 2 and a half hours to move the 3/4 mile back to the Glenn. Then the 3 lanes of five miles an hour traffic crept along to Ft Ricahrdson. That stretch took 45 minutes. At Ft Richardson, right where the wrecked 18 wheeler lay in the ditch the traffic suddenly spead up to normal speed. It turns out the accident had been cleaned up 3 to 4 hours before. We were just experiencing the backlog, it took 6 hours for the traffic to return to normal. We really need another route to Wasilla, but thanks to the press and "The Bridge To Nowhere" the chance of the Knik Arm bridge being bult in my lifetime is nonexistent.

Talkeetna Mountains

Government Peak, taken from my front porch 20 minutes ago.

That Didn't Take Long.

Two inches of snow this morning...

Winter Project

I bought a used motorhome. Twenty five years ago, not fully understanding what the ravages of time would do to my joints and spine I snickered at the old fogies in their motor homes. "Why bother going camping if your if your bringing the house with you," I'd say as hiked into the backcountry and slept in a 2 pound tent with only a 1/4 inch thick piece of foam between me and the tree roots and rocks. Just another example of the ignorance of youth. I can and will sleep in tents, when neccessary, for instance in hunting camp. But when ever I can get the motorhome close enough I will sleep comfortably and snicker at the young kids and thier tiny tents.

The motorhome needs some repairs. It's 29 feet long and "Just" fits into my 36 foot long garage. At my son's suggestion last night I took "before" pictures of all the areas that I will be working on. In the coming weeks you can expect a series of before and after picture as I complete each repair. Won't that be fasinating. Unfortunately I didn't think of taking the pictures before I scraped off all of the skulls, pinup girls, and biker slogans off the windows. The previous owner had a "different" philosophy of aesthetics than I. My aesthetics are over the top U.S.A patriotic symbols. Yes, I realize that some people will find that as objectionable as I found all the skulls, barbed wire and moral anarchy slogans that I removed. Yes it does make me feel good to irritate people who find American Patriotism objectionable. Deal with it!

Ok, I lied about the dog photos...

"Danger, Will Robinson, Danger!"

My old camera, with its fixed lense and 1.2 megapixel chip got a severe scratch right in the center of the lense. Regrettably that meant I had to get a new camera. My new Canon Rebel XTi arrived the day before yesterday. I've spent the last two evenings with the camera and manual taking innumerable photos of the dogs and my living room, ( I shall spare you.) However this weekend I will not be in the office for all the daylight hours and hope to try to find interesting subjects out side of my living room. Photos coming, you've been warned!

Moose calf from this past June

Feeling Old

Today is my youngest child's 32nd birthday. Happy birthday, Son. The youngest of my nieces and nephews are in High School. One of my nephews is driving home to Alaska right now after finishing 4 years in the U.S. Coast Guard. Didn't his father and I just get out of the Army a few years ago? My older sister and I are both Grandparents. Except for the fact that every joint hurts nearly all the time, I take a stack of prescription medication every morning, there is an old guy with white hair and a long white beard staring back at me from the mirror when I brush my teeth, and I've been working the same job for over 20 years, I feel like I should only be 32. Time speeds up. The days feel like a couple hours. The months like weeks and the years like months. Summer just got here and now it's gone. Time is running down hill. The only advantage is the winters are shorter than when I was young, since a day on a snow machine cripples me up for a week.

It's coming!

My brother sent me this picture from our neighborhood, taken yesterday. His message was, "In case you forget when everything is dark and covered in snow next month." Summer and especially fall is why we live in Alaska.

First Post

October 1, 2007 ... seems like a good day to start a new blog. I've kinda let other blogs drop by the wayside in the past so I have low expectations for this one. Time will tell....