Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

  I haven't had too much to write about lately. I guess my life is more boring than usual or something. Part of the problem of getting older. Who wants to read about how many times I was up during the night to take a leak or what new pain cropped up while I was attempting to sleep? There isn't a lot to take pictures of around here, so I thought I'd look through some of the thousands of pictures from back when my life was a little more eventful. I came across this one from our trip down to the Grand Canyon. We had crossed a huge bridge that spanned the Colorado River and on the other side, a group of Navajo women were selling their wares- necklaces, bracelets, Christmas ornaments, arrows, and Lord knows what all else. It was interesting, and I ended up buying Jan an ornament. When we travel, we like to buy something that helps us to remember where we had been. Ornaments are nice, because we're sure we'll at least see them once a year. I asked one of the ladies if I c...

  I'd like to say a few words about pillows. I would venture to say that the vast majority of us use one every night. With that in mind, I would like to ask, do you like your pillow? Does it provide you with the comfort you expect, and can you get a good night's sleep with it?    The reason I'm asking is I haven't had a good pillow in years. Every night I have a battle with mine. Oh, it starts the night out pretty much OK. I use two pillows to prop up in bed for reading, but then remove the one and sleep on the primary pillow. Frankly, it's a little bit too fat and it elevates my head more than I like. Sometimes in the morning I awaken with a sore neck  or a headache. It still beats the Puffy pillow that came with my Puffy mattress. Puffy. What the hell kind of a name is Puffy for a mattress? Its not really puffy or fluffy-wuffy. Its kind of stiff and stuffy. Anyway, I'm writing about pillows, not mattresses.   In any event, I wake up several times during the ni...

  I'm not sure at what age we begin to make choices in our lives. I suppose it starts at an early age. You go to the barber shop, and if you sit still and don't fidget too much, the barber might give you a choice between a green sucker or a red one. I like the color green, so it wasn't too hard to choose. Somewhere around the age of eleven or twelve, I got a paper route. On Friday nights I would collect for the papers I'd delivered. Unfortunately for me, there was a drug store down the street from where I delivered. They had a soda fountain, as well as a pinball machine, and they carried the latest copies of comic books every month. I used to spend an uncommon amount of money at that drug store and when I got home several hours later, I'd lie through my teeth when mom asked how much money I collected. Needless to say, my dental hygiene suffered from the vast amounts of junk food I consumed. I'm a little surprised that I didn't end up with juvenile diabetes o...

     I was going to do this post back in May, but it got put aside when we had the car accident. Then, because I often have to do things when I'm thinking about them, I did a post about giving blood and receiving a box of delicious thin mint cookies. Not just any old thin mints, these were Girl Scout Thin Mints. I think they should sell them year round, but I guess they would loose their novelty if they did. In any event, I'm now getting around to writing about our oldest daughter, Jen's visit at the end of May. It was such a pleasant trip, and to add to our pleasure she brought us some halibut from Hoonah, part of which she bought, and part was given to her by some friends in Hoonah, Julie Jackson and Denise Grey. A huge shout out of thanks to the two of them for their extreme generosity. We've enjoyed several meals so far, and to say the least, it has been delightful, a real blessing to have. Jen likes to be on the go, so I went with Autumn and her to the Eklutna Tail...

  I dropped in on the Wasilla Blood Bank a few weeks ago to make a donation. I think I'm allowed to give blood about every eight weeks, maybe its six weeks, I can't recall. They gave me a card with my blood pressure, temperature and pulse, and a date when I can donate again. I think it's August 6th, but I'll have to check. Anyway, when I went in, behind the counter there were three stacks of girl scout cookies. What the heck? Are they trying to sell cookies at the blood bank? It seems like they'd have more luck if they tried across the street at the WalMart parking lot. I looked at what they have and was disappointed to see that of all the many cases of cookies, there were no thin mints. I mentioned it to the young gal, Kaylee, who is now managing the place, and she pointed across the room to four or five more stacks of delightful, however, most likely unhealthy treats. There was a stack of my beloved Thin Mints.  I merely needed to depart with a pint of my blood to...

  Well, as you can see, the current Bottsmobile is out of commission. Jan and I as well as our friends and guests Bob and Judy Clark were on our way to a memorial service for our fellow Game Creeker and friend Rocky Hughes yesterday in Wasilla when we had an unexpected situation happen.  When word got out that Rocky had passed away, Bob contacted me and asked if we could pick them up at the airport in Anchorage on Saturday morning and if they could possibly spend the night with us. We said yes to both requests. At one point Bob had mentioned that if it wasn't convenient they might be able to find other lodging or an alternate way to get from the airport to Wasilla. I would imagine he might wish he had opted for door number two. As it is, we had a delightful time renewing our friendship and talking about a multitude of subjects. We visited Autumn at her house before we came home and even dropped off at the Eklutna Tailrace to see the beautiful glacier water that flows there and...