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Showing posts from November, 2010

Meanwhile, Up at the Library...

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Whooee! It's raining buckets outside tonight; blowing sideways, cold, black as pitch. Just a typical late November night in Southeast Alaska. As one gal from the farm used to say, " It's raining like pouring pee out of a boot." Well, I've never poured pee out of a boot before- but if I had to,I can imagine that it would be quite a downpour . Obviously this isn't a picture of anyone pouring anything out of anything else. Because I'm using the library computer and I'm not overly comfortable with it, I'm digging into the archives of my picture file for something to write about. I don't want too much time to elapse without posting something to the blog. I decided to post these pictues of Brian Bitz. He was diving off the airplane float last year when I took these. I think he was looking for some crabs- the yellow bag is to hold his catch. He didn't get anything on this particular day, but he mentioned that he's picked up King Crabs on occa

Setbacks and Learning Experiences

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My mind is a mysterious thing to me. Judging by the looks I get from some people, it's a mystery to them too. Out of the blue, some thought will appear and I haven't got the foggiest idea where it came from. Sometimes it will be triggered by something totally unrelated to the subject at hand. For instance, the other day I was walking back from the post office and I noticed this apple tree in Ernie Jack's yard. The apples reminded me of ornaments on a Christmas tree, and I was going to do a blog on it, although I hate talking about Christmas before Thanksgiving has even arrived. Then I started thinking about a pear tree that my neighbors up the street had back in Marion. I distinctly remembering being just a little guy, maybe three or four. It was summer and I was young enough that I was willing to wear a sunsuit without objection. I was barefooted and walked up into their yard. Pears had fallen on the ground and the honeybees were crawling all over them. I was scared of bei

Days Gone By

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It snowed today for the first time this season. It didn't amount to anything, just a few flakes falling, not even enough to cover the ground, and then it was gone. I don't know why, but up the bay by Neka Mountain the ground is covered all the way to the beach. Maybe it was colder there than in town. Anyway, it probably won't be long now and we'll have to deal with the blasted stuff. Just in case, I climbed under the house and wrestled out a snow shovel. Since there wasn't any snow to take pictures of, and since I don't really want to think about winter yet, I thought I would display a few pictures from a little outing that I took with Jan and Jen and Kaylahni awhile back. We were going to go out to Freshwater Bay, but as Botts luck would have it, they were refurbishing the road, so we went to another spot. It was a beautiful day so we parked the car on the side of the road and ate a sandwich and sat in the sunshine and enjoyed each others company. It had the ad

Over The River...

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When I was in elementary school, many, many years ago, every year, about a week or so before Thanksgiving,we'd sing this song. I don't know what the name of it was but it went... Over the river and through the woods to Grandmother's house we go, the horse knows the way to carry the sleigh- something, something, something. I can't remember the rest of the lyrics. I don't know if they still sing it or not. I was young enough at the time that I hadn't experienced enough life or picked up enough baggage along the way to become self-conscious, so I would sing that song with gusto. I thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving, not so much for the food, although the pumpkin pie was always a treat and it was the only time we ever ate turkey. There was something about that day that I knew was special. I don't know if it was because we were out of school for a few extra days or because Mac usually had his shipment of Christmas trees arriving in boxcars about then or if maybe it

Pumpkin Boy

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Well, Halloween has come and gone. I'm kind of glad. I'm sure the dog is. He had to suffer through the embarrassment of wearing this ridiculous pumpkin costume for a while on Halloween night. When he saw it he ran under the table and had to be enticed with food to put it on. Unfortunately the Jack O' Lantern is just the beginning of sorrows. I think there is a Santa costume and something that looks like a clown one hanging in a closet upstairs. How humiliating. Dogs have feelings you know; although a piece of cheese can go a long way in helping to offset any loss of dignity. I don't know how anyone else fared, but here in Hoonah we had such a dreadful wet, cold, blowy evening that we hardly had any kids come by. Wouldn't you know it? I had gone to Walmart several weeks ago so I was all stocked up with stuff and ready for the big onlslaught. Of course it didn't happen. If I had forgotten to get anything for Halloween, there probably would have been a warm fron

It's Almost Here!

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It's November 2, and although it's election day, and that in itself is pretty scary given the condition of the country, I'm not referring to the political landscape; I'm speaking about the changes happening in the natural one. Winter is on the way and as much as I might like to deny it, I can't avoid it. As you can see the snow on Ears is much lower than it was just several days ago. Most of the plants in the garden have died or are in the process of dying, with the exception of the Rhododendron and the Dusty Miller. It poured buckets last night and most of today and when I took the dog out a little bit ago to do his thing I darn near froze. Of course he doesn't care about how I feel, he's too busy smelling pee and other gifts that the neighborhood dogs have left, to worry about me- the selfish little brat. Sometimes I feel like Rodney Dangerfield, I don't get no respect. Soon I'll be forced to go out and shovel little paths in the snow so the dog wo