Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

  Several days ago, Hoonah lost yet another one of it's residents. With all that's going on in the world, Ukraine, Obamacare, Flight 370, it didn't get the slightest bit of national attention, but here in Hoonah, the word spread like wildfire that Jack Brewer had passed away. We've had any number of folks die here, just like anywhere else, but when some people pass on, their passing leaves a void and a sadness that seems to impact the whole town. Jack was one of the good guys, and in an era when there seems to be less and less of them, his absence is noticeable. He worked at the school as a janitor, but not because he didn't have talent to spare. He was a world class welder and could do any number of hands on projects with a degree of skill that was greatly admired. He was one of those guys that every town needs and is glad to have. You don't think about them much until you have a project that needs done and then you're damn glad they're around. Jack...

  Jan had to work last Friday evening, so it was left up to me to come up with dinner for the two of us. As I've mentioned before, I'm a terrific cook. There may not be a whole range of things I'm good at, but I can certainly cook good when I have to cook. I was a little tired, so I looked in the fridge to see what my options were. Actually, they were somewhat limited. Hmmm... a Costco sized jar of dill pickles, a three pound can of Crisco, a bottle of all natural, raw, unfiltered organic apple cider vinegar- I didn't buy that stuff, a friend gave it to us to try- some wilted carrots, a few stalks of limp celery, assorted jars of condiments in various stages of fullness, a half head of lettuce with the end all brown and some bacon. On the counter I had a tomato and an onion. Wellll... looks like I have the raw ingredients for a BLT, one of my favorite sandwiches. I started preparing the other ingredients and finally put the bacon in the frying pan. ...

       I'm wearing all blue today- at least my shirt and jeans are blue. The other day I had green on, just because I happened to grab a green shirt out of the closet. I guess if I were to go out in public today I might be scrutinized for my apparel, perhaps even pinched for not  wearing a bit of green . After all, it is St. Patrick's Day and green is the color of the day, although I read that ol' St. Patrick's colors were originally blue. It was changed to green to celebrate Ireland's independence if I recall correctly. Either way, it doesn't much matter to me, although I love the color green and I truly enjoy Celtic music and Irish dancing. I've got several Michael Flattley videos that I really like and if I had a glass of green beer I'd probably imbibe, although it's not yet noon. This day is memorable for me not because of an Irish saint, but because today is the day my dad died seven years ago. I was thinking about it last night when I went ...

X-tra Tuff Boots and high heels Shelly Kaz     I figured I'd do a blog post now, while it's still daylight and I'm semi-able to think. If I wait until this evening I don't know what will result. I'm usually pretty tired by the end of the day. Of course if I screw this up and it comes out crappy, I won't have any excuse I guess. Although in my defense, I would like to mention that I'm kind of tired right now; kind of feeling a little wimpy actually. I should probably go take a nap. However, I guess I'll persevere. The other day my friend Shelly Yandell showed me a post card that her daughter had sent her and she wanted me to do a blog post on it. It's a pretty nice post card, but I usually don't do blogs from what other people suggest. For some reason she's under the impression that I can pull a post out of my ear or other parts of my anatomy on a whim. It doesn't work that w...