Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

I decided to take off a few hours early on Monday so Jan and I could take a drive out the road . After all, it was Mother's Day and we hadn't done anything else to celebrate and since she likes to go on drives, I thought, why not? First I stopped at the gas pump to make sure we weren't stranded miles from civilization. I see on the news that gas is dropping like a rock down south. Hmmmm... $5.052 a gallon here. It actually went up six cents from the last time I bought it. Lovely. Anyway, we went out to the Y in the road. If you turn right you can go out to Freshwater Bay or stop at the old Whitestone logging camp or go to Long Island. The only problem is the road will jar your teeth out, so we opted to go left. The road is graded and not so lumpy- at least until you get to the bear viewing area. The tour buses don't go beyond there. I guess the powers that be figure us tough Alaskans don't need no smooth road to drive on- that's for sissies and touris...

 I'm waiting on a roast to cook before I can go down to the boat today. When my mother-in-law was here she cleaned out the freezer for us, so we could actually find something. Between the freezer burned bags of salmon and some Ziplock containers of what appears to be mainly frost crystals, she found another deer roast that my son Brian left for us when he was here for a visit last winter. I'm so glad. I've been in the mood for one last pot of vegetable soup before the fishing season really kicks in. Once I'm on the boat it will be canned chili and TV dinners. If I'm really industrious I might remember to stick a potato in to bake in the morning. If it stays in the oven all day it might be cooked enough to eat about half of it by 9:00 PM. Obviously, my boat oven isn't very hot. I should probably wrap the spud in foil and set it on the engine to cook. It would probably be done by the time I had my second cup of coffee in the morning.   Jan and I were si...

I hope I don't bore everyone with another shot of the boat, but as you can clearly see, the last plank has been inserted, which is a major milestone, and I was certain the boys would want to see how much progress was being made. On Saturday I was at a bit of a standstill, uncertain what to do next, so even though I hadn't planned on sanding the bottom of the boat, I figured it wouldn't be a bad thing to do- just make sure the old paint wasn't hiding a loose seam or some such thing. I bought a respirator and donned my gloves, but I'll be blamed if I could find my consarned safety glasses. Well, being the impatient, ignorant buffoon that I can sometimes be, I jumped right to the project without the safety glasses. After about a half hour of laying on the ground with the random orbital sander spewing toxic paint dust everywhere, including my orbital sockets (eyes- I heard this word on a detective show the other night and thought it sounded cool) I finally broke ...

I was working on the boat several days ago when it was mentioned to me that the port-a- potties were located in a spot that might make one think twice before using them. I saw on the news today that casinos were making a comeback after the downturn in the economy. Perhaps these johns are located here for folks who like to gamble. "So what do you think Marge- will I be able to run in, take a leak and charge back out before a rock bounces off the roof?" "I don't know Harvey... I'll bet you ten bucks you get beaned on the way out."   I wonder if we are sending a mixed message to the tourists. On the way into town there's a huge concrete retaining wall that says Welcome To Hoonah, but then we have the potties, which are used almost exclusively by the tourists, located where rocks are periodically dislodged from the towering heights. If half the town were running around wearing t-shirts that said " Who mentioned you?" folks might get the im...

Periodically I find myself procrastinating over some task. We got back from our trip last Wednsday, but I'm just now getting around to unloading my suitcase. Well, I got started on it anyway. I needed some socks this morning and I didn't see any in my drawer, so I checked the suitcase and sure enough there were some in there; however, I had to wade through a mountain of t-shirts to get to them. I got to thinking about all the T's I have in my drawer and decided to check them out. Thunderation! I have T-shirts to burn! I could wear a different T-shirt every day for at least three weeks, maybe longer. I didn't bother to lay out any of the white ones- they're sort of boring. Kind of like going to Baskin-Robbins and ordering vanilla. The ones shown here are just the ones from my drawer, I have a plastic tub full of fishing clothes with probably another six or eight at least. A few months ago Jan bought me some black ones which I thought was nice, even though I didn...

We made it back yesterday- all in one piece and unscathed; refreshed, rejuvenated and ready to go back to work. All my fears of getting mugged or sleeping in bed bug infested hotel beds were  totally unfounded, I'm very happy to report. The trip didn't start off so well. I had an appointment with the dentist the day  before we were to leave and made arrangements to fly on Wings of Alaska. When we got to the airport the agent came to meet us and said the flight would be delayed for over an hour because of maintenance issues, so we had to scramble to get a flight on a different airlines for an additional $60.00 one way. Needless to say, the clouds of pessimism were circling around my head and gaining strength. To add to my distress, I realized that I had left my camera behind once we departed Hoonah. While it would seem like a total bummer, it wasn't so much. If I had lost it somewhere I would have been devastated. Going through airport security is such a hassle that no...