Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

 Well, here I am... up at the library again. My new laptop is over at Bricks Electronics in Juneau getting a GPS program installed and my PC is still on the way down from Wasilla. My daughter says that she sent it several days ago. I hope she insured it, or I may never see my beloved computer again.  Anyway, I'm sitting here trying to use a library computer. The librarian says that the computer is Julian- my favorite, but the monitor says Amos. I don't like that idea very well. I'd rather have Julian mated up with the Bertha monitor, but when I tried using Bertha it wouldn't co-operate. Oh well. Like the saying goes, people in hell want ice water too.   The calendar says it's spring, but yesterday we had a few inches of snow falling in blizzard like conditions. I guess the birds don't know any better because they've been showing up just like it was spring.  I suppose that the desire to procreate outweighs the need f...

   Advertising is a big business in this country. No matter what you're trying to sell, from books to laxatives, a little advertising can go a long way in helping the bottom line. Unfortunately so much of what is advertised comes with a disclaimer of some sort. You see it a lot in those lawyers ads where they're trying to get you to sue some drug company or in the ads for selling gold or silver or any number of other things. The main message is huge and there at the bottom of the TV screen in print so fine that you have to sit on top of the television to even see it is the disclaimer. Then, unless you're a speed reader of uncommon ability they whisk the message off before you can read it. It seems to be the American way anymore. It didn't used to be this way. America used to lead the world in integrity. The words, Made In America were something that was sought after. It meant you were getting a quality product. Unfortunately, in many instances the bottom line has ...

    Last November I had the uncommon foresight to send down my gurdies for a complete overhaul. They had gotten so bad that I was unable to pull in the trolling lines without physically helping the wire wind on to the reels.  The forward gurdy is supposed to haul up a fifty pound cannon ball plus all the other gear and the after gurdy is used to pull in a thirty five pound cannonball as well as a float bag and all the gear.  According to the doctor I have a torn rotator cuff in my left shoulder, so man handling this gear on board isn't really an option. In any event, I sent these gurdies down to Oregon to D R Machine. The owner, Dennis Rush has a reputation for doing a good job working on troll gurdies. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised when I saw them. As you can see, they're like brand new- only better. I'm really pleased with the work he did. The boys have been wanting to see a picture of these since I got them back, so fella's...

                                 Those unfamiliar with this area might look at these three pictures and wonder what they could possibly have in common. Well for one, all three pictures were taken from the playground area down near the harbor, but more than that, all three scenes depict things that have seen better days. If I remember correctly, the boat is named the Miss Andrea. It used to belong to a couple young fellows whom I believe were carpenters. They got the fishing bug back in the late seventies or early eighties and used to troll in some of the same areas I did when I owned my fourteen foot Hi-Laker skiff. I don't believe they were much more successful than I was and eventually had sense enough to get out of the fishing business and do what they knew best, which I'm sure paid considerably more. As you can see, the boat has been parked for quite some time...

      Jen came for a visit the other night. Apparently she had picked up a cold when she went to Juneau last week. Nothing like being crammed into a confined space with hundreds of other folks to test the old immune system. I hadn't seen much of her recently so I kind of wanted to talk to her and show her what I was doing with the new book and get some input. I knew that she was sick, so before she arrived I grabbed out a large bottle of Cran-raspberry juice for her to take home. I guess it's full of vitamin C or some such thing. Then I got to thinking, maybe I should get a mask for her to wear so I  don't catch her cold. She thought that was funny, but she didn't wear it, maybe because it was a dust mask like you'd use when sanding sheet rock and not one like doctors and nurses wear. I guess if a doctor wanted to do a little construction around his house he'd have a ready store of surgical supplies on hand and wouldn't...

     Jan and I took the dog out for a walk yesterday. The weather was beautiful, much nicer than some Easter's we've experienced. While we were strolling along the sidewalk we noticed a gathering of bald eagles on the beach. It would have made a perfect picture, but of course I didn't have my camera with me. It never seems to fail. Either I forget to bring it or I bring it and right before I spot an award winning shot, the battery fails. Go figure. We finished our walk and I went home to grab the camera. The battery still had a little juice in it so I figured I'd be in luck. I don't know why I ever feel optimistic. There were six eagles gathered around a fish carcass on the beach when I showed up. It would have been a great picture, however, as soon as my fuzzy head appeared over the horizon, they all scattered like someone had passed gas at a debutante ball. I stood there for a few minutes looking out over the remains of the carcass hoping th...