February, Wrapped

 Say Again?

All my mail goes to a post office box.  I didn't make the 14 mile round trip to check my mail today because I was having ever so much fun playing in with my frozen septic system.  This evening, I received this message from Amazon stating that the US mail was unable to deliver my package:

Hello,  We're writing about the order you placed on February 22 2011.  USPS attempted to deliver your package but was unable to leave the package unattended. 

"Unattended?"  In a postal box?  Does that mean Postmaster Marcia is camping out at the post office tonight so my package is not "unattended?"

 Birds of a Different Feather

This is a female pine grosbeak at my bird feeder.  I also see black capped and boreal chickadees, nuthatches, pine siskins, magpies, Stellar jays, and occasionally redpolls.

Oh, and these guys:

Red squirrels...

Road Signs

See the lines of snow, those clean white lines off the snow berms stretching onto the asphalt?  I count seven of them in this photo.  

You don't have to drive in Alaska during the winter very long before you learn what caused them.

Moose.  Lots of moose.  Lots of very big moose.  Lots of very big, long legged, top-heavy moose that an ordinary car will scoop up and deposit in your lap if you hit one.

Juvenile  moose.

Moose are the largest of the deer family, with the Alaska moose the largest of all moose, weighing 1200 to 1600 lbs.

The Alaska moose is second only to the bison as the largest land animal in North America and Europe.  You do not want one in your lap.

Where were you when....

Have you ever wondered where you were  someone was when they passed out brains?  Or looks?  Or luck?  Or whatever. 

Know that feeling?

I have had a cup of Constant Comment tea almost every morning for as long as I can remember.  This is the first time I ever found one without a string and tab.

I have wondered all day where this tea bag was when they were passing out the strings and tabs...

C'mon.  You want to think about anything else when you're playing in with a septic system.

Neither snow nor rain nor....

“Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers….” Sound familiar? Something to do with the U.S. Postal Service, you think?

Uh-uh. The thing is, the USPS doesn’t have an official creed or motto. That partial quotation above is an inscription on a post office in New York City. And according to Wikipedia, it’s Herodotus’ Histories about the ancient Persian Empire’s courier service. So, I reckon it’s appropriate for a post office creed, and that’s what most folks think it is.

The rest of the unofficial creed is “…from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” So, let’s just forget about that little old word “swift” and I’ll tell you a story.

My neighbor Erin holds the USPS contract to deliver rural route mail in Moose Pass, Hope and Cooper Landing. Six days a week she drives a hundred and thirty miles, dropping off mail and packages. Occasionally, when she needs to take time off, she calls on me as her substitute driver, which is what I’m doing this week.

So far, nothing has “stayed” me from the completion of my appointed rounds, but, boy, have I been slowed down a bunch, which is why I thought we should leave out that problematic “swift.”

It’s bad enough that twice each day I have to pass through a seven mile stretch of highway that’s under rejuvenation. The contractor is replacing old culverts, rebuilding parts of the roadbed that have surrendered to Alaska’s harsh environment, re-ditching, and re-paving the whole seven miles (the paving part is a long way off). Right now, a 65mph highway has been reduced to things like this:

Groan.

Ground cloth laid as insulation.

Most of the work is being done from 8 p.m. to 9 a.m. to reduce the inconvenience to the traveling public. But, crews are still holding up traffic while the asphalt-eating machine grinds its way along the road during the daytime. Traffic is one lane only, follow the pilot car, do not pass go.

Waiting in line for the pilot car to show us the way.



The asphalt eater.

Right now, fishing fever is in high gear on the Kenai Peninsula and people are swarming to places like Seward and Soldotna and Homer, trying to latch onto as many king and red salmon, or halibut, as they can. Add tourists to that and the normal traffic on this only access to the Kenai Peninsula, and you have long lines of vehicles piling up at the flagger’s spot, waiting for the pilot car driven by my friend Sandy. Yesterday it took me half hour to travel a mile and a half, counting the time I sat in line.

Yes, those delays are enough to severely discombobulate my time schedule, but when you add things like this….

The old Hope school house, now a library.

Along Turnagain arm...

More Turnagain arm...

Trail Lake in Moose Pass...

And the blooming wildflowers….

Daisies...
Wild roses against cottonwood...

Trail rides in Cooper Landing...

Well, let’s just forget about “swift” and settle for “eventual completion of their appointed rounds….” ‘Cause like I said, that really isn’t the official creed of the post office, and besides, it doesn’t mention anything about blizzards and earthquakes and avalanches and moose standing in the road and highway construction, none of which stay us from the … completion of our appointed rounds.