Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

 Ahhh, the holidays. If one were to watch the many TV shows around Christmas you would be led to believe that the holidays are all about fun family times with people sitting around the Christmas tree drinking egg-nog or singing and dancing out in snow covered streets in some idyllic setting like Whoville or some such place. If, however, you were to watch a TB show, you would find a reality that is possibly closer to your own. I wish there were such a thing as a Silent Night. My house has been a prototype for holiday madness. My daughter Autumn is visiting with her husband and since school is out and my oldest daughter Jen doesn't want to miss anything she's in and out of the house like there was a revolving door out back. God forbid that I should try to keep any heat in the house. It's in the single digits outside with an icy wind howling, but the door is open more than it's closed and then I get to hear the bitching about how cold it is in here. T...

  This fine gal is my friend Ladonna Dybdahl, or as I usually call her, Ladonna Momma. Fortunately she has a good sense of humor- either that or she is exceptionally patient with  me realizing that I'm just an overgrown kid myself and therefore not as responsible as most adults. As you can see by her attire, she really gets into the holiday season. Notice the ornament earrings. I've thought more than once about getting my ears pierced so I could adorn my head with some of the colorful accessories that so many ladies gravitate to. I've often thought that with just a few modifications most earrings would make wonderful fishing lures. As you can see by this picture, I caught Ladonna totally unawares- that's why she has this look of surprise and perhaps confusion and is possibly saying "What in the HECK are you doing Tom?" I have to admit that its not really fair to catch people by surprise, but otherwise you might end up with  no picture at all...

  Like so many other people across the globe I'm shocked and saddened by the events of these past few days, first in Oregon at the shopping mall and yesterday in Connecticut at an elementary school where twenty six people were murdered; twenty of whom were innocent children. Perhaps I have no right to comment on this incident. Lord knows I'm certain I don't have all the facts, but I do have an opinion based on what I've seen so far and so I will take this time to express it. I'm struggling to put to words my feelings. First I'm distraught and then I'm angry. I'm confused and trying to make sense of what has become an all too common  headline in American life.  I'd like to sit down with God face to face and ask why this has happened. I guess I'll have that chance some day, and it will make sense and I will see that, while it wasn't His will to have this happen, He will nonetheless take this incident and make something good come from it....

  We all have people in our lives who we know casually; maybe the neighbor down the street who works at the school or the gal at the coffee shop who always smiles when you come in. We might have a conversation in passing and while we might not consider them friends per se, we like them. We may not know them well enough to invite for dinner, and most likely we wouldn't engage them in a conversation about politics or family matters, but seeing them on a regular basis is kind of comforting. Whenever I go to Juneau I like to drop in to Donna's Restaurant for breakfast. Frequently I'm waited on by a gal who by now must be close to retirement.She's been there at least twenty years, and though I only travel to town a few times a year, I always look forward to seeing her. She keeps my coffee cup full and we engage in small talk and even though I'm not a regular she remembers me and smiles. Until recently I didn't know her name. I t...

  How often have you seen some new product on the shelf or an idea that someone has come up with and you think- that's pretty neat, I could have done that. In fact my friend Buffalo Bob sent me a book titled- Damn, why didn't I think of that? Well, as I was working on this post, I was thinking the same thing about this marine storage facility. Who would have thought that it would have been such a popular thing to utilize? Obviously, the owner, Gus Skaflestad did. That's why it's called Gus's instead of Tom's. Blast! Another golden opportunity has passed me by. Oh well.  The whole idea of storage facilities is kind of hard for me to fathom. It would seem that if you have so much stuff that you can't store it at your house, you may have too much. I like to watch the show Storage Wars on A&E.  That's the show where people bid on storage lockers that have gone to auction because the folks haven't paid the fee. It's amazing w...