Home Sweet Home

As promised, below is a view of the house I was staying in when I first arrived in Juneau. The tarp droop that is the middle of the roof is where we were catching water runoff to flush the toilets, and the stairs that are under the structure in the middle of the image were a fun obstacle, as the ground was thawing, and they had started to come unsecured from their footings.



This is where I'm at now. 408 Gold Street. My room is the one with the open window in the middle. I get glorious sunshine all day with its south exposure, and the cats like looking at all of the activity on the street. There is working plumbing, heat, and even room in the refrigerator.
This is the view up Gold street.
This is the view up 4th Street.

There is a 600 ft elevation gain with in four blocks, and a trail head to Perseverance Trail just farther up the road. The watershed for the city is just through that dip in the mountain, and it gives both great views and great exercise. I can walk to work, with it being just a mile and half straight south, but, we'll see how long the nice weather will hold out. Downtown Juneau gets on average 97 inches of rain a year, and we are due for a downpour. In fact, even as I type the sky is turning gray. Oh well. I had my coffee in the sunshine this morning.

And this nice man is Bruce. He is one of my house mates. He is a fishing boat captain who is waiting for the go ahead from his doctor to leave for the season. He thinks this year he'll fish for black cod and shrimp. The first night I was in the house, I had a good three hour talk with Bruce, and learned some interesting theories he has about government conspiracies. He seems to be a caring fellow who has lost his interest in living in the United States, but he won't be able to leave until his parole is up.

Another housemate of mine is Paul. Paul came from Arizona, via Michigan, and used to be an engineer for Honeywell. He had his pilot's license for sometime, but decided to make it his full time occupation after positions were becoming scarce in his company. He'll be working for a company call Wings, doing transports to the small towns in southeast Alaska. Paul helped me find this place to live one afternoon as were were sharing an outlet at the Silverbow Bakery. He needed help cropping photos to send to his sister, and I shared I was searching craigslist for a place to live. Maybe I'll snatch a photo of him when he gets back from a trip to Anchorage for the weekend.

There is another Paul that lives here, but he comes and goes at random. The only evidence he exists is the very real boy smell coming from his room, and the occasional dirty dish in the sink.

Soon to join the house will be three foreign exchange students from Bulgaria. I have no idea what they'll be doing here, but I'm sure I'll find out in due time.

I got invited to a halibut bake by my friend Carrie from my 2004 season, and I believe there is a movie to watch also. Things are looking up considerably.

Address!

Real quick today, more tomorrow.

I have an address now!

408 Gold Street
Juneau, AK. 99801

Tour Day!

It was my first tour day! Sunny and beautiful outside, I couldn't have asked for a better day in Juneau. I had a bus full of people from LA and Hawaii, full of questions and happy to laugh at my jokes. It makes getting back into the swing of things a easier with a group like that. I know there is a proverb somewhere about laughter and it uniting people - that what's it felt like. We went to the glacier and then to Glacier Gardens, which is where I remembered to pull out my camera. The girl in the photo with me is Joey. We were on the same tours today, so we got to know each other pretty well after chatting in the down time.
The Gardens are beautiful. Even with the plantings not being complete, and the upside down trees looking pretty bare, the landscape is breath taking. People that go on this tour take a golf cart ride 600 feet above sea level, through the Tongass National Forest, to come out at a look out. The view back towards Juneau is awesome. The ride gives people a close view of the natural flora, and there is an eagle's nest that is about as big as a VW Bug.
Inside the green house, they are still keeping the plants safe from the frosty nights. In a few weeks, this place will be cleared out and turned into sitting area and cafe. They will keep the hanging pots from the ceiling and soon the petunias will take over. They get huge!


Here is Joey's bus dropping off. If you want, you can imagine it's my bus, as mine looked exactly the same today. Just one tour today, and the next ship comes on Sunday.

I move into my apartment on Friday, which I am beyond excited about. I'll have an address, and I won't have to move again until September! I met some of my old friends from the 2004 season, exchanged phone numbers, and started to feel better about being here today. Such a difference having a job makes.

And in case you are wondering how K and B are. They are great. Thanks for asking.

Kiddies, not kitties

Kiddies! Kindergartners and second graders to be exact. Today and yesterday I've been driving around local school children on field trips. They were adorable! The kindergartners went to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) facility to learn about sea creatures. They came out talking about star fish, sea cucumbers, and lots of spiny creatures. They were so little in the bus seats, wiggling all about and happy to be in something new. "This is even bigger than my dad's truck!" I had to have a conversation with them about needing to keep their bottom pockets on the seats and using neighbor voices. They called me Miss A and a few gave me hugs when it was done. It totally made my day!

Today I took some second graders from the school on Douglas Island out the northern point of the island so they could hike in the trails and see all sorts of things at low tide. They brought back buckets of sea shells, and enough sand to instigate a through sweeping of the bus when I got back. I had the boys in the front seats help me keep an eye out for deer, and hearing them talk about all the cool stuff they were going to do/did kept making me laugh under my breath during the drive. Kids are so great!

Tomorrow I have my first tour. A group from the Norwegian Star who are going to the glacier and to the Glacier Gardens. And just like that the season starts.

It's not curling up with the NY Times, but I'm happy

Waffles. Hmm, waffles. Happy Sunday everybody! It is beautiful in Juneau - not a cloud in the sky. A crisp 43 degrees, and empty streets. I am done with work, and enjoying the blind date I set up between a waffle, and some peanut butter. They are having a lovely time in my tummy!

I had some early morning runs today: taking a soccer team to the airport at 4:30; taking the shore excursion sales managers to Temsco to get on helicopters, to enjoy this beautiful day from the air, and to also go snow shoeing. They were a fun group, and I'll get to see them all through out the summer as they come in on their prospective boats and hand me fistfuls of tickets, passengers, and dock times. Yay! The season is starting!

My uniform has been disbursed. It amazes me how a seemingly normal shirt transforms me into a bus driver - I used to have a body shape? Where did it go? Where is my waist? The plus side is it's grey, so the inevitable film of muck won't show after the first 15 minutes. And the jackets are red, which I give a big thumbs up. After I bulk up on under layers and warm socks (why are my feet always cold?!), I will have my defense against the rain, sleet, fog, and cold. I have yet to find the repellent for whiny passengers, but I'll keep looking.

Last night in my frozen Hades

I have a place to live! There is a roof, and running water, and heat! Funny how I used to think those were items you didn't have to ask about when renting a place. I won't make that mistake again.

But my new place. I move in next Friday. I was hoping to have a story about taking over the room of a sea captain, but I'll be in a different room than the one I originally thought. No forgotten pirate booty for me to haphazardly discover. Shucks. Instead, the landlord has to move some boxes out, put the furniture in, and I'm set.

In the mean time, one of my dispatchers, Bob, offered to let me and the kitties stay in his house. The boys will have a new kitty friend to make, but c'mon, have you been paying attention to what I've put them through already? One cat is no problem. I need to have the somewhat uncomfortable conversation with Ron about me leaving, but I don't think it will cause any ripples. Part of me doesn't think he'd notice if I left without telling him. For all he knows, maybe I got lost in the piles of miscellaneous crap.

Man. I'm so excited to stop hauling water from the leaky roof to flush the toilet! I've got to be honest - I was seriously concerned about K or B stepping on some jagged, rusty, object, and then have to lose a leg. That place is a beast! I took a picture, so there will be a before and after shot following the 20 minutes it will take me to move my junk from the car to my new room.

In the work world, today I moved more buses, moved some teenagers from the youth hostel to the skills building in the valley, and moved more buses. Nothing glamorous, but I'll get my fill of the circus when the boats show up next week.

In sadder news, I have finished Battlestar Galactica. I'll admit it - I was a skeptic about the show, but I take it all back. I take it back! If only there was more!

Cleared for launch

Passed all of the retraining. Watch out - I can parallel park a bus and back it through a slalom course. Bring on the tourists.