Posts in the “alaska” category

Dateline: July 27, 2010, Wasilla, Alaska.

“It looks like she passed away around 4:30,” Al said, holding his neighbor’s just-deceased cat, and looking at the clock on the wall.

“No,” Neighbor #1 replies, wiping her eyes with her kleenex. “That clock doesn’t work. It’s almost 8:30.”

“Oh,” says Al, looking out the window of the second-floor apartment and seeing what appears to be afternoon light in the treetops. Funny how the Alaskan summer sun still throws the perception of time out of balance.

“Can you give us a ride to the hospital? My wife just cut her finger open,” yells unemployed car-less Neighbor #2, suddenly appearing at the open front door. His wife screams from somewhere down below. Neighbor #3, a former police deputy, instinctively gets up to help, but Neighbor #4 says, “I’ve got this one,” and hops off the couch and out the door behind #2. He looks comfortable in his shorts and t-shirt in the mid-40s temperature, as Al shivers.

As they run out the door, Neighbor #5, just home from her job at Carr’s, stands in the doorway, looks around, sees three neighbors and a dead cat in the apartment next to hers, and doesn’t seem to know what she should say or do ...

A Facebook post from March 22, 2010, when I was stranded in a small town in Canada named Dease Lake, British Columbia:

How neat, the “Court Circuit” comes to town tonight. Just like the Northern Exposure episode, the court people travel around and temporarily set up court in various towns. They are expected to be here from tonight until Thursday. My chance to meet many police officers! (RCMPs, I wonder?)

I just received notice that the Apple Store in Anchorage, Alaska has reopened. Might be time to move back, although I have no idea what “all the new Today” means. :)

I don’t remember the origin of this photo, but here are two moose fighting in Palmer, Alaska.

I lived in Palmer when I first started going through the thyroid issues, and because of those issues I’d go for walks at any time during the day, 24 hours a day. One late night or early morning I went for a walk and came across a moose, but fortunately I saw it early and it was a non issue. He or she went on their way, and I went the other way.

Back on July 20, 2010, I found this little chalet while walking in a small neighborhood in Wasilla, Alaska. I remember really liking the A-frame style, and also the 1-car, 1-snowmobile (snowmachine) garage. Although looking at it now, it appears there’s no simple way to pull straight in and out of the garage.

One of the tremendous views from the long bike and walking path in Palmer, Alaska. The Boulder, Colorado area is great, but there’s something about being in Alaska, where the population density is about 1/10th or 1/100th of what it is here that’s really wonderful.

Nagley's Grocery Store — the grocery store — in Talkeetna, Alaska.

A photo of my old RAV4 in Coldfoot, Alaska, on the Dalton Highway, on the way to Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, back in August, 2007.

The Arctic Caribou Inn, aka, the “Hilton” of Deadhorse (Prudhoe Bay), Alaska. I drove up there once upon a time in early August, 2007.

A curious wolf I came across one time in British Columbia, Canada.

The Welcome to Beautiful Downtown Talkeetna (Alaska) sign.

“John Muir, the famous naturalist, wrote in his journal that you should never go to Alaska as a young man because you’ll never be satisfied with any other place as long as you live. And there’s a lot of truth to that.”

~ Tom Bodett

(sorry, i don’t remember where i saw this quote)

Back in 2011 I was meditating in the mountains of Hatcher Pass, Alaska — a place where you generally don’t have to worry about bears, unless you’re picking berries down in the valley — and I heard some yelling. Then I got up, came around the side of where I was, and saw the paragliders at this YouTube video.

I never thought of myself as an orphan, but this image makes me think that maybe I was adopted by a squirrel when I lived in Talkeetna, Alaska.

(Sorry, I don’t know the original source of this image.)

This story on adn.com describes an archaeological dig in my adopted hometown of Talkeetna, Alaska.

A short blurb from the article: “For the past two weeks, a half dozen Talkeetna-area high school students with the Youth Conservation Corps led by archaeologists from the University of Alaska Museum of the North have methodically excavated what’s believed to be part of the old Nagley homestead next to the Walter Harper Ranger Station just off Talkeetna’s main drag. The Nagleys, merchants who owned the local trading post that still bears their name, lived in the area from the 1920s into the 1930s.”

I just learned that the mayor of my adopted home town of Talkeetna, Alaska is ... a cat.

The story is here on CNN. A short quote:

“For 15 years, Stubbs the cat has held the top office in Talkeetna, Alaska. And his approval ratings have never been higher. 'He doesn't raise our taxes -- we have no sales tax. He doesn't interfere with business. He's honest,' said Lauri Stec, manager of Nagley's General Store, which doubles as the mayor's office.”

When I lived in Talkeetna, Alaska in 2007, a young woman there kept calling me Ken. My name is Al, so I tried to correct her several times, but every time I saw her she called me Ken. She had blonde hair, so after a little while I started calling her Barbie.

One day we were with some other people who knew my real name, and they called me Al. At one point Barbie looked at me and said, “Who’s Al?”, to which I replied, “I am.”

“Who’s Ken?”, she asked.

“I have no idea,” I replied, starting to laugh so hard that I was crying.

She paused for a few moments while it all sank in. “So that’s why you keep calling me ‘Barbie’”, she said, laughing hard.

I just thought of this story because a song named “Amie” just came on. For a little while when I lived in Alaska in 2010 it seemed like every woman I met was named Amy, so this became a theme song. Here’s Amie, by the Pure Prairie League.

April 20, 2015: In sad news, the Motherlode Lodge burned down in Hatcher Pass, Alaska. I used to drive past it 5-10 times each summer, and I always thought that if I had enough money I would have liked to re-open it, and I even discussed that possibility with several people. A little story and video is here on adn.com.

Here are two moose that I came across one day in Alaska.

I drove up to Alaska twice, and if you happen to go at the right time of the year you can see a lot of bears in both Canada and Alaska, or at least you could before the roads were paved. Most of the bears just watch you drive by, but this one was not a happy camper.