Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

Years ago, when the L.Kane Store still sold groceries and fuel, there was a sign prominently displayed on the back wall of the office. You couldn't miss it if you entered. It said simply,  "Those requesting credit in this establishment will be pummeled repeatedly with punishing blows about the head and shoulders!"  I loved that sign. Unfortunately it was more humorous than factual because everyone and his brother would come in, give the manager a sob story and walk out with hundreds of dollars worth of goods or fuel which only occasionally was paid back. As you can imagine, the store eventually closed down; however, I'm not here to write about credit or Kane's or humorous signs,I'm here to write about this blasted snow. I've been shoveling massive quantities for days- so much so that I have almost nowhere else to pile it. The bottom picture shows the scene on my front porch. The snow that has slid off the roof is piled so high we almost don't have an...

I've been struggling for the past week,vacillating back and forth as to whether or not to do a blog post on this. When I finally made up my mind to do it, the picture wouldn't download this morning and I almost gave up the idea. I try to shy away from controversial subjects for the most part. I don't want to use this blog to discuss politics or religion, although I have strong feelings about both subjects. There are some things that must be addressed though, and even though I understand there isn't a large readership here, and I may offend some by what I write, I'm willing to take that chance in order to be a voice for the exploited and the innocent. I recently read  A Walk Across the Sun, by Corban Addison. I liked the cover and I was impressed by the fact that famous author, John Grisham,commented on the back.Over the course of twenty years he's had multiple authors request an endorsement,but he's always declined until the author of this book. He gave it ...

It's a beautiful day here in sunny Hoonah Alaska. The only problem is that it's in the single digits and not supposed to go much higher. I don't know how the sun can be out and have so little heat to offer. I've known a few folks like that- beautiful people with no warmth to their character. Perhaps it's just as well- if they were good looking and kind too they might be intolerable. Anyway, it's too cold to wander around outside today so I thought I would tap into the archives of my  picture files. The top two pictures show the Mickey V on anchor in Neka Bay this past year. Neka Bay is named after a local Tlingit man who used to shoot a small cannon every time the fleet came back in. I saw a picture of him in a book. He's a very distinguished looking fellow and the cannon looked like it could do some damage if he loaded it with a pound or two of shot. The Mickey V (5) is owned by a friend of mine, Marc Miller. I don't know what happened to Mickey's ...

This year, while the rest of the country has been given a reprieve from winter, Alaska has been getting it's butt kicked. We got slammed in November with huge amounts of snow, then the first half of December it rained copious amounts and melted most of it, but the day after Christmas it started snowing again and its been some form of precipitation ever since. We actually had a break today- kind of. It was snowing this morning but by lunch time it had cleared up, and while not exactly sunny, at least it wasn't snowing, so I decided to go get a few shots before the next storm. It's actually supposed to clear up and get cold- down below zero, which in Southeast is really chilly. When it gets sunny the wind usually blows, so no doubt there will be a rash of frozen pipes and other fun things going on.  I'm always amazed at the number of people who have lived here for years and still aren't prepared for the inevitable. We know that it's going to get really cold at le...

Before I get too far into this post, let me apologize to my friend Doug. I'm fairly certain he doesn't want to see anymore posts on Yanni, but this one is really necessary. Last week I was sitting in my chair, minding my own business, when my daughter Jen presented me with an envelope containing confirmation on a flight to St. Louis and two tickets to a Yanni concert that is going to be held there in April at the Fox theatre. I was pretty much flabbergasted. It was a complete surprise. A friend of mine, who knows that I love listening to Yanni and who has been deeply involved in the music business for years, donated his air miles so that Jan and I could make this trip. Then my family bought the tickets to the concert and paid for the hotel stay. It was an incredibly generous gesture on everyone's part and greatly appreciated. I've never been to St. Louis before, so I looked up a few things there. Of course there's the arch, and Anheiser Busch brewing company. I wond...

Happy New Year everyone. As you might suspect, writing is a serious business, and you can see here I take my business very seriously. Sometimes you have to be in the mood to write- once in awhile you need a prompt or some such thing. When I first saw this chicken hat for sale at the school carnival I knew I had to have it. I didn't even wait for the carnival to start, I bought it before anyone else beat me to it. Chicken hats are in high demand. If I had a mind to, I could probably sell it on e-bay for an awsome profit. Tom Terrific had a funnel for a hat.  I guess he couldn't afford a baseball cap or a beanie or whatever. When I was a young lad at school I was told to put on my thinking cap, though I had no idea what that was so I didn't bother to think much. When you're wearing a chicken hat though, there is probably no end to the wonderous thoughts that will fill your head, although most of those thoughts will probably involve some form of eggs or nesting boxes. The...