Posts in the “alaska” category

Someone is always in the way

“Someone is always in the way.”

That was my predominant thought after living in Alaska, and then moving back to the Lower-48.

In Alaska you can go to a lot of places and find solitude, and when you go to the grocery store it isn’t crowded, but as soon as I came back to the Lower-48 I constantly found that someone was always in my way, standing in front of me, at the grocery store, at the post office, in the Rocky Mountain National Park, wherever.

December 31, 2010: Aimed for Seward, ended up in Anchorage

Way back on December 31, 2010 I lived in Wasilla, Alaska, and planned on driving down to Seward to spend a few days around New Year’s there. But a bad ice storm and the inability to find the right size tire chains derailed my plans, and I ended up in Anchorage instead. But because of that, I learned that they have a great fireworks show in Anchorage on New Year’s Eve.

As I mentioned in my second Facebook post on that day, there’s an Alaska saying that goes, “There’s old pilots, and there’s bold pilots, but there ain’t no old and bold pilots.”

Cat gets a free 2,500 mile ride to Alaska

So a cat in the state of Washington walks into a shipping container ..... then 2,500 miles and a week later, it shows up at a Home Depot in Kenai, Alaska. And thanks to social media, the owners were found and the cat got a free flight home.

The story is here at adn.com.

Sherry Simpson, mentor to a whole generation of Alaska writers

“Fainting does feel as if I’m practicing dying. Already I know how abruptly the world withdraws even as people call out your name, how darkness and confusion shutter your vision and bewildering images crowd your brainpan, how you cannot simply will yourself to return once you’ve entered that shadowy place.”

From this story about Sherry Simpson, “brilliant writer, beloved friend and mentor to a whole generation of Alaska writers, passed away unexpectedly earlier this month after a brief illness.”

If you’re going to have an obituary, “She changed my life” is a darned good one.

10 a.m. sunrise, Anchorage, Alaska

Here’s what the 10 a.m. sunrise looks like in Anchorage, Alaska on October 27th.

(While that picture is too dark to tell exactly where I was, I was at one of the two main hospitals in Anchorage that day for a medical procedure.)

Ye olde Talkeetna cabin

Every spring I think about moving back to Talkeetna, Alaska, and I just ran across this old photo of my car in front of the cabin I lived in.

Rental fourplex in Palmer, Alaska

I've lived in a lot of places in my life, some good, some bad. This is the rental unit I lived at in Palmer, Alaska, courtesy of Google Maps.

Generally this was a good place. My favorite part was that I could jump on my bicycle and go on a 20-mile bike ride without every having to be near a busy street.

Missionary Baptist church, Palmer, Alaska

When I lived in Palmer, Alaska I used to write my bicycle quite a bit, and I came across several different churches. This is a photo of the Missionary Baptist church in Palmer.

“Do you have any idea what you're going to say?”

If you ever watched the tv show Northern Exposure, you might find this funny. It’s from the episode where Chris faces an extradition trial, and Mike uses an “identity” defense (“This Chris Stevens is not the same Christ Stevens that left West Virginia ...”).

NX was the first show I can recall that got me interested in Alaska, and philosophy.