Wilderness Blues- Ramblings from the Great Land

     I know this picture doesn't exactly look like the essence of tranquility, and I guess it's not. As you can see there is a little breeze blowing out of the Northwest I believe. However, the grey skies and rows of mist hovering over the mountains are a pleasant reprieve from the scalding hot weather we've been having. For what seemed like days on end we've had hot sunny weather. I know, I know, when it's cold and snowing and blowing, I'm complaining about that, so you would think that when the weather heated up and the sun came out I'd be tickled pink. It's more like sunburned red. If we could just experience a happy medium, you know, a few days of cloudy weather, maybe a day or so of refreshing rain and then two or three days of sunshine with temps up to about seventy degrees or so. When I 'm fishing I would prefer a high overcast sky or clouds with a misty rain so that I don't get drenched when I go out to the cockpit to pull a fish or t...

  I like sunny days, I really do. It makes you feel good to wake up in the morning and see the sun shining bright. The birds are all singing, the flowers are thriving and everyone is in a generally good mood. That's in the morning. By afternoon when the heat is really revving up and the wind is blowing the tops off the whitecaps I'm praying for a little cloud cover and a shower. Yesterday when I got in from fishing, fixed some supper and took care of some other chores, I decided to take the dog for a walk out to the cannery. It was hotter than blazes and we needed to get a break from the heat. This Celebrity ship was just leaving at 10:30. It was the second ship that day. I think it's pretty excessive to discharge all those tourists on this small town in one day. It's getting increasingly difficult to get around as now, not only do we have buses and touring vans from the cannery, but there is an influx of private vans and touring buses as well as...

For my birthday this year, I got a full blown case of shingles. How many folks can say that? It's not like I went to one of those exclusive catalogues and picked out an exotic gift like silk pillow cases or a diamond tie pin. No way.... anyone can get one of those. If  you want to have a really different gift that no one else would even think about, try a case of shingles, they're about as welcome as dog crap on a white carpet. Though the pictures aren't very good- a certain someone seems to have difficulty operating my camera, you kind of get the picture. To say that they hurt like crazy would be an understatement. As luck would have it, this isn't the first time I've experienced this lovely disease. I had them when I was twenty one. I was in the navy at the time and when I went to the infirmary on base I told the doctor that my back was itching and burning, so he had me lift my shirt. Then he says, " Well hey, this is odd. You usually don't see t...

  For a number of years Chris and Terri  Budke, the pastors at our church, have thrown a party in May. It's held out behind their house on the tidal flats. Last Sunday in lieu of church we all gathered for a baptism as well as a party. Actually the two go hand in hand very well. When Sunday morning came I was wondering how it was all going to pan out. The weather didn't look very co-operative. There were clouds and it looked like rain was in store, but as afternoon approached the clouds dissipated and the sun came out and it was a gorgeous day. The time for the party was set to coincide with the high tide to allow for the baptism. On low tide the flats are devoid of water. While the air was warm, I'm fairly certain the water was pretty doggone chilly to put it mildly. Nonetheless, four people wanted to proclaim their faith publicly and opted to be baptized on the flats. Tim and Shelly Yandell, Jenny Miller and Jeremy Johnson all to...

  Today is May 19, my daughter Jennifer's birthday. I won't bother telling you how old she is- those that know her well already know how old she is and for anyone else it doesn't really matter. In any event, it's mid- May. Even in Alaska the weather usually starts to warm up by now, but  not this year. The calendar says it's spring, but nature says its only kinda spring. So far most of the leaves are still being fairly reluctant to make a full appearance, sort of like when you're standing on the side of the swimming pool dipping your foot into the water to see how cold it really is. There are a few herring showing up and the birds are in full swing  doing whatever they do- hopefully eating bugs, but it's still pretty cold. Of course that doesn't keep the dandelions from sprouting. Just about every yard  is displaying a sea of yellow blossoms. It looks like Dandelionville around here - a gardeners nightmare. We've had several cru...

      If you follow this blog you'll notice that I haven't been posting quite as often as I'd like to. It's that time of year and I have to spend my time getting the boat ready. My most recent project  has been an aluminum mast that I bought three or four  years ago from my friend Barbie. She owns the F/V Talache, a nice double -ended troller that she purchased from my friend Buffalo Bob. Buff had the aluminum mast made to replace the wooden one that was originally on the boat. When I bought it I noticed that there were no cleats to tie the lines up and no ladder to access the mast light on top. I asked Buffalo about it when I spoke to him a few weeks ago. He said that he had just signed the papers for the boat over to Barbie and was in the process of putting her check in his billfold when the top three feet of the wooden mast broke off and fell onto the top house while they were talking on the float. He didn't ...

                    Doing a blog post should be a fairly simple thing, and no doubt for most people it is, but keep in mind that it's me we're talking about here, so nothing comes easy. I've tried unsuccessfully for the past hour to get these pictures to download in the proper order. As you can see, they aren't arranged in a way that would make sense. I wanted the last picture to line up at about the same spacing as the previous two, but noooooo... that's not about to happen. Then when I tried to type the text, it automatically started to underline everything and all the words were in blue. I have no idea why. It's become the normal now. I don't know why it does it and I don't know what I do to make it stop, but somehow it magically does. I wish I knew what I did to make it stop so that I could do it next time, but I'm an old guy and things concerning computers don't come easily to me. Oh well. C'est l...