Day off

The weather has been unbelievably awesome here. I had two tours yesterday, both Juneau City Highlights. I drive around the downtown area, spend some time at the salmon hatchery, and then to the Mendenhall Glacier. It's a nice 3 hour tour. Not too long, not too short. It's safe to say I'm back in the saddle, with commentary coming easy again. I'm learning new things, most recently, about porcupines and the governor's mansion. Did you know that porcupines' skin produces an antibiotic? They hurt themselves so often with their quills (from doing things like falling out of trees) that they have developed this handy chemical secretion. I thought that was really cool.

I've been doing a great job of locking myself out room lately. Keeping the cats corralled, waking up super early, and being terrible at mornings means I've been seeing more of my landlord than I would wish to. I'm making some key copies today.

And because they are too cute to not share, here are Kodak and Baxter. I was painting on Tuesday, and Kodak decided to join in. He has a big blue splotch on his white cheek now. I'm getting it worked off a little at a time.

In most things at the moment, it's going pretty slow. Next week the cruise ships will be on their full schedule, so dispatch is trying to give 1st year drivers as much experience as possible while they still have time to work out the kinks. Good in the long term for everyone.

Rebekah!

Finally I got the quirks worked out with my camera. There was a goblin, or some other such creature keeping me from sharing Rebekah with you all. This is my friend that lives in Sitka, that came to Juneau last week. She's great!

I've gone and hurt myself. I was running my track around downtown and the docks on Thursday. Friday I walk to work, but started to feel pain in my left Achilles tendon. Saturday I had a hard time flexing it fully. Stairs were/are particularly painful. I had the day off so I stayed off it as much I could, did slight stretching, and massaged the area. Sunday was fine for the morning, but after work it was back to stabbing pain. There is no knob, or swelling. I'm wrapping it today, and the slight immobilization feels better. I am not going to the doctor. Yet.

However, why I went on that rant was to explain the picture below. Saturday when I was sitting around feeling like a gimp and watching episodes of Deadwood, I pieced together this, a quilt-to-be. I brought up a silly amount of fabric, with the hopes of getting to some project, and hurting myself offered the perfect opportunity. There will be more strips of fabric of varying widths on the outsides of the green and blue, and some appliqued swallows in there too.

I brought the fabric, but I didn't bring my shears, cutting board, or sewing machine. It was interesting slicing the chunks with the knife on my leatherman, and determining the size by folding the pieces in varying modes of "half." It was interesting hand sewing too. About half way through I got in the rythum and went in mostly straight lines :) It adds character, right?

When it's done, with edging and border, it should be about the size of a twin blanket. Probably lopsided, but in that general area.

Happy Mother's Day

I have been lucky to have amazing women in my life. Strong, bold, caring women that make those around them feel important and loved. Women that have changed my perspective on what mother, wife, and friend means. I wish you could all know them too.

The photos today are of my mom, Renee, Grandma, and my brothers and sister when we were much younger. My mom is a woman who knows how to persevere. She knows how to get things done. She was one of many children in the world that was also care taker for her siblings. In some ways, she's been a mom her whole life.
I grew up out in the country in Eastern Washington. Home schooled until I was 8, I was happy to be dirty, play outside, and not brush my hair. I would bring hurt animals I found in the woods inside the house, try and grow avocados with the huge pits my mom would leave in the window sill. We would haul wood, grow a garden, and make bread. We worked hard.
Mom was always out there with us. Running the log splitter, burning pine needles, shoveling snow off our huge uphill drive way. One of her kids would call with broken down car on the east side of Spokane and mom would go to the rescue. A friend needed a place to stay and the couch was always open.
Mom is mom to everyone. She has been a carrier of children for close to 20 years, driving a school bus in Medical Lake. She knows their names. Knows their friends. Knows when something isn't quite right, and what to do about it. She tells stories to her kindergartners. Pays attention when she takes a sports team to an away game. She is present and witness to thousands of people living and changing.
Happy Mother's Day mom. You are amazing.

New Lullaby

The first day of 6th grade, I was a crossing guard, and Rebekah Markley was a new student. I crossed her and her mother, and later I found out, her mother says, "I bet you are going to be friends with that girl."

We were in the same class and stayed friends through high school, being involved in the same classes and Young Life. Rebekah went off to college in Sitka, Alaska, and I stayed in Washington. We never really stayed in touch. However, via the magic of Facebook, we met in person yesterday, had dinner, and shared our stories.

We were both nervous about seeing each other after 8 years. She said for some reason she thought I wouldn't like her. How silly our insecurities are! We talked about our relationships with our families, how they have changed, and how we didn't ever see ourselves being these people. But we are happy. We have finally learned to be unapologetic for the people we have become.

We have a lot in common still. Our decisions both with youth leadership, Church, and then to leave both, were made for somewhat similar reasons. Now, in not wanting to go back to Spokane, not wanting to be part of the group of "what white people like," and trying to be open to more things we never saw ourselves being a part of, we are willing to have the conflicts that result from those decisions.

It was wonderful. We drank beer with each other, talked about how we met our perspective loves, and felt like we had really reconnected. So, I have a friend back in my life. If even just for that, I am glad I came to Juneau.

Today I came back from work to see three packages in my mailbox! Three! A letter from Kristy, a long awaited CD from Matt, and the much anticipated last episodes of Battlestar Galactica from Dan. It was so wonderful to see something as small as familiar handwriting. Such wonderful, happy handwriting.

A bit of town

I've had a bit of free time, now that I'm not preoccupied with housing drama, or creeper drama. I've been walking about the downtown area, trying to fill my time with something other than consuming coffee, and doting on my cats.

Juneau was originally a mining town. The majority of the land that has buildings on it was originally the bulk of the mine tailings that were dumped in the Gastineau Channel. The rest of downtown was built on extremely steep grades, some looked to be attached to the side of the mountain by little more than silly putty and a toothpick.

The hills are too steep in some of these area for roads to be built to access them, so instead, there is smattering of staircases all over. If you need groceries, you tackle the stairs. Moving in? Have fun carrying that sofa up 160 steps!


I like them all quite a bit. I could be happy on the side of a mountain, rain gear on the coat rack, cats by the fire, and a wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves. Granted I could be happy a lot of other places that would be considerably easier to conduct my daily business, but still, Juneau is adorable.
This is yet another view of my street. That giant slope is Mt. Roberts. It comes right out of the water and reaches up 3819 feet. There is a trail that starts just east of where I live.
In fitting manner, the trail head is a staircase.

We also had another driver training in which we became the passengers, and were driven around to all of our tour destinations to have the ins and outs of each stop brought to our attention. 6 hours of this business.

And this last picture is from today, from the seat of my bus. The Norwegian Star was in port today, and this scene are all of the shore excursion representatives, holding up signs trying to direct the thousands of people coming off the ship. It is always such a mess, but that is the nature of the beast.

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