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Why is it….

Why is it that the only time someone recognizes me in public as the person from the paper I’m either having a horrendous hair day or I’ve just stuffed a big bite of food into my mouth and am sruggling with my tongue to get the last crumb off my upper lip or I’m wearing my weekend pants and shirt?

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Columns 2006

Death in the Alaskan Bush

It doesn’t take long for anyone living in Alaska to figure out that you lose friends and relatives here at a much greater rate than in the lower 48.  Part of this is attributable to the sometimes dangerous work people engage in.  But that alone cannot explain the discrepancy.

For many of us who come here from elsewhere, the obvious difference in the life span of people we know from Iowa or California or New Jersey versus the people in Alaska is just too great to lay at the doorstep of any one profession or lifestyle.

Those of us who

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William Brown’s death

William was a 54 year old Inupiat man in the National Guard whose group had been called up. He was in Mississippi preparing for deployment to the Middle-east. He was killed in a motor vehicle accident before he left the country.

How desparate are we that we are sending 54 year olds to war?

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New bird on the block

Wilson, a blue headed conure, has come to live with me as a foster bird.  He joins Baby and Kenya in the downstairs foster home/lounge/TV room. I was never sure what to do with that room when I moved into this house and now the foster birds have defined it for me. It’s their room.  Wilson is still not sure about the whole arrangement. He was found in a tree in Anchorage and captured after heroic efforts and bitten fingers on the part of the rescuers.  No one ever even called animal control looking for him. How does that happen? 

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Earthquake in Anchorage

I got up the morning after our latest earthquake to find that the shaking had caused Mr. T’s butt and legs to fall off his pillow bed.  But being the champion that he is, it did not cause him to either wake up or try to use up any energy getting his whole body back on the bed.  I found him sound asleep, butt and legs on the floor, front paws somewhat clinging to the top of the pillow to keep the rest of his body in place.  It certainly didn’t look very comfortable.  Yet considering that the quake happened

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Aunt Judy withdrawal

My dog continues to go through Aunt Judy withdrawal. He comes out of my bedroom looking as dazed as ever but now it is dazed with a purpose. Where, he wondes, is the lady who made such a fuss over him and gave him treats all the time. And why, he wonders, was he left with the old bitch who insists he take his medicine and go to the vet.  He wants the fun lady back.

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Earthquake

I awoke a night ago to my bed shaking and my house rattling.  I knew it was an earthquake because that sort of thing stopped happening in my bed for any other reason about twenty years ago.

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Alaska antiques?

My sister asked about shopping for Alaskan antiques. I asked her what she thought all those things under blue tarps on people’s front lawns were? We SAVE our antiques, sure that there is a future in which we will need a twenty year old carburator from a car that is no longer made.

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Columns 2006

Touring Alaska

My sister travels at about 948 mph.  And that’s while she’s on vacation. I travel at about 4 mph on a good day. That we are able to travel together at all is a tribute to the strong bond we have.

She came back to Alaska again this year for some more exploration of the state bringing her friend Janet, which has helped in two ways. One, I had someone to pass the baton to when I collapsed from exhaustion trying to keep up with her and two, Janet is a shopper like Judy and they both did their best

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