I was being led around the old ANMC to introduce me to the various departments. I didn’t have a clue about Indian Health Service or what it did or why. I didn’t exactly do a lot of research before taking the job in Barrow. You’d think this would have caused me to be more cautious in the future but I’ve pretty much spent my life leaping first and checking it out second. Hey… it’s a method!
Forty-three years ago today…
There are times in each year when we tend to stop and take inventory of our lives. For many people, this inventory happens on New Year’s Eve. But for me it happens on Oct. 1. That’s the day, 43 years ago today, that I first set foot in Alaska.
I don’t know what expectations I had when I arrived. I’m guessing I was too busy sobbing from homesickness to really articulate any, even to myself. Being a New Jersey-New York-Pennsylvania hybrid, I would assume I arrived with a rather jaded attitude towards this whole Last Frontier shtick being tossed at
Have you ever noticed?
Have you ever noticed how we seem to manage to work ourselves up into a complete fit of hysteria by the end of each summer and then Labor Day hits and it’s like someone stuck a pin in a balloon. Does anyone really care to cover Donald Trump anymore? Or has that bubble burst and we are now settling back into dull reality?
It’s gray and rainy and windy
My kind of autumn weather. There’s even some hope for snow before I leave for Cambodia. OMG! My heart is going pitter-pat with joy.
Blood Bank of Alaska stories
This is for all my Alaska friends and especially my Bush Alaska friends. I am trying to help the Blood Bank of Alaska collect stories from around Alaska of people whose lives have been helped/saved because of the Blood Bank. I know so many of us from the Bush know stories of emergencies where friends and loved ones had to be medivaced out and the blood from the Blood Bank was what made the difference for them. Please share any of these stories you may have. If you don’t want to put them on Facebook, you can send them to
Pope Frank
While he’s not going to get me back into church in the near or distant future, I do find that I don’t dislike Catholicism so much when he expresses what it means. Too bad all those old men at the Vatican can’t get over their fear of women enough to admit them to the clergy. Then we’d really have something to talk about!
Colbert
I never thought I’d get over losing David Letterman on late night TV. But Colbert is hitting it out of the park. I love that he is still bringing serious guests on for serious discussions and still highlighting authors. Go Stephen!
Traditional whaling
I read with interest the recent article about the whale taken in Kaktovik that was found to have an old projectile embedded in its body. But even as I read it I could feel my stomach tightening. Discussion of traditional whaling often gets caught up in the question of how anyone could kill these noble creatures.
Sure enough, last week’s Letters to the Editor contained a letter questioning how subsistence whaling can still be allowed and why those darn Natives don’t just hop into the modern world and leave that barbaric killing behind. I have to assume the letter writer
Cats are so cool
My two dogs charged out into the yard barking like their lives depended on it. I went running out to be sure they weren’t thinking of taking on a moose that might have wandered into the back yard only to find them hysterically screeching at a cat sitting on just the other side of the fence. The cat never moved and never flinched despite their best efforts to intimidate. In fact, the cat merely sat there un-moving, staring at them as though they were some lower class of being that had accidentally caught its eye.
Eventually the cat grew bored
I should be worried but I’m not
I managed to spend last Friday, Saturday and Sunday with my dogs and birds and did not talk or see anyone else. Never left the house. Never answered the phone. I know for some that would be three scary days. For me, it was heaven.
I think I might have a problem here and yet it makes me so happy.