I just got an invite from the Smithsonian to an affair at the Anchorage Museum with the note that is it business dress and all I can think is that they clearly have no idea that in Alaska, business dress means carharts and rubber boots.
Despite the hassle
Despite the hassle and inevitable questions about Sarah Palin, having summer visitors in Alaska has one really big advantage. It forces us to look with new eyes at the beauty and wilderness and adventure that surrounds us and participate in some of the activities that bring us closer to our land than we usually are during out routine 9 to 5 existence. I’m going to go canoeing and climb on a glacier and wander around a water fall and make a trek to Fairbanks (despite my strong feelings about their mosquitoes and heat!). I’m getting to discover yet another part
Another of the many joys of old age
Blondie was asleep on the couch. I mean, really asleep. I had gone out and come back and she’d never moved… not when the garage doors opened and shut, not when I opened and shut the door to the house, not when I’d gone into the downstairs bird room calling her name. I stood over the couch and looked at her, eyes rolled up in her head, chest not seemingly moving and my heart stood still. I called her name. No response. I bent lower and called again. Not a twitch to be seen. I leaned down into her face
Let’s adjust our summer to nature
There is a reason Alaska is called The Land of the Midnight Sun. It’s because that’s when you’re apt to actually see the sun in the summer. The rest of the time it’s foggy and cloudy. Everyone who has spent even just one year in Alaska will tell you that the prettiest time of the day starts in the evening when the sun finally comes through the clouds and by midnight, things outside are gorgeous.
So I say we stop fighting nature and just join hands with her. From now on, starting in May and going through until early September,
It would be different if Saudi men weren’t allowed to drive
Saudi women are not permitted to drive. If they need to go somewhere, they either have to be rich enough to keep a paid driver or have a male relative take them. I have a wonderful brother. He has two wonderful sisters. If he had had to drive us around for the past sixty years, I don’t think any of us would still be thinking the other was so wonderful. In fact, I’d be willing to bet he’d have joined the witness protection program by now.
Think of all the errands most of us run in any given day. Family
Summer in Anchorage
Summer in Anchorage means spending an inordinate amount of time staring into your closet trying to decide A. if you should wear your sandals with or without socks and B. if you should wear a sweatshirt over you capris and, if you do, should you still bring a jacket.
So what is it?
What is it about the Boston Pops on the Fourth of July? They play their singalong and I sit in my chair singing at the top of my lungs and tears are rolling down my cheeks. Is it the memory of those songs learned in grade school, taught by nuns with thick Italian accents, whose goal it was to make us worthy of the country our parents and grandparents had adopted? Was it the memory of those who gave their lives so this country could continue to exist? Was it Fess Parker in a coonskin cap or Little Joe Cartwright
Happy July 4th
May all our young men and women fighting in the mid-east and stationed all over the world protecting our freedom come home safely to their families.
And may Paul Revere never again warn the British that we knew they were coming… talk about a close call!
Can you hear them?
No, it’s not the sound of your summer visitors beating a path to your door… well, ok, some of it might be. But mostly its presidential candidates whose muffled roars become louder and louder with each passing day. Oh lord! Oh lord! When will the commercials start? When will the sound bites get so deafening we want to rip our ears off and put them away until after election day? When will a female Republican candidate actually have more brains than beauty?
A day at Bird TLC
Bird TLC is a wildbird rehab center in Anchorage. It’s almost always busy there because there are almost always birds who have been injured and need help. And now that it’s baby bird season… well, you can’t begin to imagine how many birds get orphaned this time of year. Goslings and ducks of all sorts try to cross the busy roads of Anchorage and inevitably some moms get hit, along with some of the babes. The remainder come to us to feed and care for until they can be released. We also get every kind and variety of other bird