Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

Here in America, I don't believe there are many who haven't had the joy of waking up on Christmas morning and unwrapping gifts, some we eagerly wished for and others like a pair of socks from Grandma, weren't as welcome. Nonetheless, we were blessed. I read that one lady from Fan Story, the writer's website that I enjoy, received a pair of pink panties every year from her  grandmother. Hmmm... OK. Not something that I would care for, but nonetheless, a gift no doubt given from the heart and certainly practical. The point is, receiving a gift whether expected or not, is a nice thing to experience.  The folks at Samaritan's Purse, the evangelical outreach of Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, the evangelist, are having their annual shoe box Operation Christmas Child event going on right now. Its a way to bless children around the world with a few gifts and let them know that God loves them.  You can either use your own shoe boxes or request pre-printed shoe box...

  I don't mind admitting that I shop at Wal-Mart. I know that the place has gotten a kind of bad rap, and rightfully so. You never know what you're going to encounter when you go there.   In the picture above, you can see an elderly Wal-Mart employee with pink and green hair and a teddy bear on each shoulder. While this is an AI generated picture, there is actually a rather weird lady who works at the local Wal-Mart that I used as a model for the picture. I'm not sure what the thinking is behind this. I can more or less understand the pink and green hair. Perhaps she owned a boat once and wanted to let people know which side of her head was port and which was starboard, I don't know. The teddy bears are kind of a questionable look though. Unfortunately, there is also a middle aged male employee who apparently thought they looked really cool, so he wears them too; one on each shoulder. I hope the trend doesn't catch on. In all honesty, it looks kind of stupid. Those ...

The Little Susitna River coming down from the Hatcher Pass area Looking down on the Mat-Su Valley                                                       We're right up in the mountains Ben  on the mountaintop at sunset               Trying to catch one of the slippery little jerks that kept biting but not getting hooked                                                                Success at last!! Summit Lake in September My granddaughter Abby with her two Japanese friends. Not sure why they closed their eyes               Two foreign exchange students trying their hand at fishing.            ...

It's hard to believe, but for over fifty years Jan and I have known Bud and Helen Burnette and their family. These pictures won't mean much to those who don't know them, but for family members and friends who have known these people, they will give a small glimpse into their lives. We met Bud and Helen back when I was in the navy in Charleston. Bud had been a navy seal and spent time in Vietnam, and when we met up with them through the church, he was still in the navy working as an ET, an electronic technician. They were the guys that fixed all the radios, radars and other electronic devices on the ships, and they kept pretty busy. We moved to the farm in June of 1976. I'm not sure when they moved to Juneau, but they were living there by the time our third daughter Amber was born in 78. Amber was the first of five of our kids who were born in Juneau, at the Bartlett Memorial Hospital. Because Hoonah was forty miles away from the closest hospital, and there was no set de...

  After I took a shower today, I got a pair of jeans out of the closet. As I was putting them on, I realized that  jeans aren't the same as they used to be. For one thing, they're consarned expensive. I don't think they last as long as they used to either, but that's a story for another day.   I looked inside the waistband before I donned them and noticed that they were Extreme Motion jeans by Lee. What that basically means is that they've made them a little stretchy at the top, so that, I guess, if you eat too much, you don't get too uncomfortable and feel like you've got to unbutton your pants. Personally I've never done that, even after a Thanksgiving meal, but I believe some fellows do. I'm not sure how far they will expand. I suppose I really don't want to test the limits though.    I do enjoy having a little stretch to the waistband. I've lost a few pounds that I never should have found to begin with, but its good to know that if they c...

  I haven't had too much to write about lately. I guess my life is more boring than usual or something. Part of the problem of getting older. Who wants to read about how many times I was up during the night to take a leak or what new pain cropped up while I was attempting to sleep? There isn't a lot to take pictures of around here, so I thought I'd look through some of the thousands of pictures from back when my life was a little more eventful. I came across this one from our trip down to the Grand Canyon. We had crossed a huge bridge that spanned the Colorado River and on the other side, a group of Navajo women were selling their wares- necklaces, bracelets, Christmas ornaments, arrows, and Lord knows what all else. It was interesting, and I ended up buying Jan an ornament. When we travel, we like to buy something that helps us to remember where we had been. Ornaments are nice, because we're sure we'll at least see them once a year. I asked one of the ladies if I c...

  I'd like to say a few words about pillows. I would venture to say that the vast majority of us use one every night. With that in mind, I would like to ask, do you like your pillow? Does it provide you with the comfort you expect, and can you get a good night's sleep with it?    The reason I'm asking is I haven't had a good pillow in years. Every night I have a battle with mine. Oh, it starts the night out pretty much OK. I use two pillows to prop up in bed for reading, but then remove the one and sleep on the primary pillow. Frankly, it's a little bit too fat and it elevates my head more than I like. Sometimes in the morning I awaken with a sore neck  or a headache. It still beats the Puffy pillow that came with my Puffy mattress. Puffy. What the hell kind of a name is Puffy for a mattress? Its not really puffy or fluffy-wuffy. Its kind of stiff and stuffy. Anyway, I'm writing about pillows, not mattresses.   In any event, I wake up several times during the ni...

  I'm not sure at what age we begin to make choices in our lives. I suppose it starts at an early age. You go to the barber shop, and if you sit still and don't fidget too much, the barber might give you a choice between a green sucker or a red one. I like the color green, so it wasn't too hard to choose. Somewhere around the age of eleven or twelve, I got a paper route. On Friday nights I would collect for the papers I'd delivered. Unfortunately for me, there was a drug store down the street from where I delivered. They had a soda fountain, as well as a pinball machine, and they carried the latest copies of comic books every month. I used to spend an uncommon amount of money at that drug store and when I got home several hours later, I'd lie through my teeth when mom asked how much money I collected. Needless to say, my dental hygiene suffered from the vast amounts of junk food I consumed. I'm a little surprised that I didn't end up with juvenile diabetes o...

     I was going to do this post back in May, but it got put aside when we had the car accident. Then, because I often have to do things when I'm thinking about them, I did a post about giving blood and receiving a box of delicious thin mint cookies. Not just any old thin mints, these were Girl Scout Thin Mints. I think they should sell them year round, but I guess they would loose their novelty if they did. In any event, I'm now getting around to writing about our oldest daughter, Jen's visit at the end of May. It was such a pleasant trip, and to add to our pleasure she brought us some halibut from Hoonah, part of which she bought, and part was given to her by some friends in Hoonah, Julie Jackson and Denise Grey. A huge shout out of thanks to the two of them for their extreme generosity. We've enjoyed several meals so far, and to say the least, it has been delightful, a real blessing to have. Jen likes to be on the go, so I went with Autumn and her to the Eklutna Tail...

  I dropped in on the Wasilla Blood Bank a few weeks ago to make a donation. I think I'm allowed to give blood about every eight weeks, maybe its six weeks, I can't recall. They gave me a card with my blood pressure, temperature and pulse, and a date when I can donate again. I think it's August 6th, but I'll have to check. Anyway, when I went in, behind the counter there were three stacks of girl scout cookies. What the heck? Are they trying to sell cookies at the blood bank? It seems like they'd have more luck if they tried across the street at the WalMart parking lot. I looked at what they have and was disappointed to see that of all the many cases of cookies, there were no thin mints. I mentioned it to the young gal, Kaylee, who is now managing the place, and she pointed across the room to four or five more stacks of delightful, however, most likely unhealthy treats. There was a stack of my beloved Thin Mints.  I merely needed to depart with a pint of my blood to...

  Well, as you can see, the current Bottsmobile is out of commission. Jan and I as well as our friends and guests Bob and Judy Clark were on our way to a memorial service for our fellow Game Creeker and friend Rocky Hughes yesterday in Wasilla when we had an unexpected situation happen.  When word got out that Rocky had passed away, Bob contacted me and asked if we could pick them up at the airport in Anchorage on Saturday morning and if they could possibly spend the night with us. We said yes to both requests. At one point Bob had mentioned that if it wasn't convenient they might be able to find other lodging or an alternate way to get from the airport to Wasilla. I would imagine he might wish he had opted for door number two. As it is, we had a delightful time renewing our friendship and talking about a multitude of subjects. We visited Autumn at her house before we came home and even dropped off at the Eklutna Tailrace to see the beautiful glacier water that flows there and...

  When we lived in Hoonah, we knew just about everybody in town. Most folks came to the store where I worked at least once a week. Some folks came several times a week and some came in every day. I guess they wanted to plan dinner based on what we had on the shelves at the time. In any event, in a small town of 850 people, it was hard not to know everyone. My good friends across the street informed me the other night that the neighbor who we had known as Dwight, was in reality Glenn, with two n's. I was only repeating what Jan had told me a few years ago. She had gone and introduced herself to Dwight/Glenn and his wife Maxine. They are about our age, elderly, apparently childless, and pretty much keep to themselves, which is kind of hard to do when you live in a cul-de-sac of 9 homes. How in the world she managed to mangle his name is anyone's guess. Dwight doesn't sound anything like Glenn with two N's. His wife was talking to my friends and mentioned that it was spell...