My neighbors on either side told me I was wrong when I wrote that it was twenty-seven below zero. They each had thirty-five below that night. I'm just as glad I didn't know that then. This long cold spell broke Sunday and the thermometer starting rising. The newspaper continues to call it a cold snap, but how can it be a "snap" when the mercury shivered in the bottom of the glass tube for more than two weels. That isn't a "snap."
This evening, it's thirty-eight above and Chinook winds are splattering my windows with rain. Just ducky! I have to drive to Anchorage tomorrow and I know the highways will be covered with black ice, which happens when we have a sudden thaw after it's been cold for so long and the asphalt is still frozen. So, this quick warm-up and rain on that cold surface will accomplish much the same as a Zamboni does on a hockey rink. It's dangerous as all get out. Oh, well. It'll throw some more adventure into the hundred mile drive...
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
an evening with Pablo...
Ah, sorry, but not Pablo Casals. I mean Pablo the Parrot, and, no, he can't play the cello, but he can be a very entertaining companion nevertheless. Koa the giant dog went home to her family-returned-from-vacation yesterday, and Pablo is enjoying the freedom he is used to when it is just the two of us.
You're welcome to join us, but please sit still and don't speak. It's best if you don't let him know you're there. If you see red flecks start to show in those orange irises, and the pupils constrict to pinpoints, I suggest you leave--quickly!
Pablo sat on my leg this evening while I watched the news on TV. I fed him grapefruit juice from a spoon. Usually he likes to hold the spoon himself, but I insisted on spoon control, because that juice is sticky.
Then it was time to wipe his beak with a paper towel. He bites the paper to clean the inside of his beak. Paper towels are one of his favorite things to rend.
The winner's reward is a good head-scratching...
Time out for a little chin scratch...
Some more head scratching...
And then a quick nap, complete with cooing, giggling and quiet laughs...
Say "goodnight", Pablo....
You're welcome to join us, but please sit still and don't speak. It's best if you don't let him know you're there. If you see red flecks start to show in those orange irises, and the pupils constrict to pinpoints, I suggest you leave--quickly!
Pablo sat on my leg this evening while I watched the news on TV. I fed him grapefruit juice from a spoon. Usually he likes to hold the spoon himself, but I insisted on spoon control, because that juice is sticky.
Then it was time to wipe his beak with a paper towel. He bites the paper to clean the inside of his beak. Paper towels are one of his favorite things to rend.Beak all cleaned and ready, we had a little sparring match. This is another favorite pastime.
I let him win...
The winner's reward is a good head-scratching...
Time out for a little chin scratch...Some more head scratching...And then a quick nap, complete with cooing, giggling and quiet laughs...
Say "goodnight", Pablo....
I'm spending a lot of time with Pablo, because Saturday I'll be leaving him with a parrot-sitter for about six weeks. I'll be in Halibut Cove, house-lodge-and-cat-sitting for friends.
Monday, January 12, 2009
a quick tour of Seward, Alaska
I made an unnecessary trip to Seward this afternoon, which is 36 miles south of where I live in Moose Pass. I'm not going to tell you why I went to Seward, and was careful to be there at exactly 2 p.m. Suffice it to say that I have to be in the same spot at 2 p.m. TOMORROW.
Anyway, I decided to drive around and take a few pictures. The sun was already behind the ridge of mountains, and I haven't yet figured out how to adjust the exposure on this little digital camera, so all these pixs will seem dark. This first one is a shot of Resurrection Bay. Notice the spray blowing off the white caps. In the foreground, that dark brown log-looking thing is a sea otter.
If you click on these pictures, they will enlarge to full-screen, which can be a scary thing when you get to the one of the crows...
This is a coal ship in port, ready to take on a load of coal that comes from the Usibelli mine quite a ways north of Anchorage. It's transported to Seward in special rail cars, unloaded at a coal handling facility, then loaded on the ships for transport to Korea. A story in the newspaper recently said the city has shut down coal loading until weather conditions improve. It's been too cold for the glycol solution they spray on the coal to keep it damp and hold down the coal dust. When the wind blows, that dust will settle all over town.
The ramp thing is a conveyor system that brings the coal from a holding area and drops in into the ship's hold.
As soon as I parked to take a photo of the ship, Seward's ubiquitous crows came looking for a handout. I had a half dozen granola bars in the truck, and shared them all with the crows.
This is not a very good picture of Seward's main street.
One of the several murals on bldgs. around Seward.
This is one of Seward's older buildings.
This beauty is the carved wooden door of Yoly's Bistro.
Anyway, I decided to drive around and take a few pictures. The sun was already behind the ridge of mountains, and I haven't yet figured out how to adjust the exposure on this little digital camera, so all these pixs will seem dark. This first one is a shot of Resurrection Bay. Notice the spray blowing off the white caps. In the foreground, that dark brown log-looking thing is a sea otter.
If you click on these pictures, they will enlarge to full-screen, which can be a scary thing when you get to the one of the crows...
This is a coal ship in port, ready to take on a load of coal that comes from the Usibelli mine quite a ways north of Anchorage. It's transported to Seward in special rail cars, unloaded at a coal handling facility, then loaded on the ships for transport to Korea. A story in the newspaper recently said the city has shut down coal loading until weather conditions improve. It's been too cold for the glycol solution they spray on the coal to keep it damp and hold down the coal dust. When the wind blows, that dust will settle all over town.The ramp thing is a conveyor system that brings the coal from a holding area and drops in into the ship's hold.
As soon as I parked to take a photo of the ship, Seward's ubiquitous crows came looking for a handout. I had a half dozen granola bars in the truck, and shared them all with the crows.
This is not a very good picture of Seward's main street.
One of the several murals on bldgs. around Seward.
This is one of Seward's older buildings.
This beauty is the carved wooden door of Yoly's Bistro.
This is the Ballaine House, one of the historic homes in Seward. It is the centerpiece of a row of homes built on Millionaire's Row.
Seward also has its share of more eclectic residences. This one is a quonset hut. My first home in Alaska was a quonset hut, but that was in Anchorage in 1948.
And these, on the ridge above the Seward Lagoon, are mansions overlooking Resurrection Bay.
These are some waterfront condos. They have a name, but I can't remember what it is because I call them the Breakaway Condos. Right after they were completed, in the mid-80s, a fall storm over-loaded a creek running through this area. The creek jumped its banks and washed out the foundation of the condo unit that used to be at the far left of this row. Then the unit broke away from the rest.
This is the unit that detached from its siblings. It got moved down the road a ways and turned in a club house for the yacht club.
How's this for a waterfront hotel? It's the new Holiday Inn Express. That's ice there down below it, in a protected part of the small boat harbor.
Here's another view of the coal ship and the loading facility. That thing that looks like a pipe running on top of the breakwater is a covered conveyor.
That's it for this tour. As I said, I have to be back in Seward tomorrow at 2 p.m.....
Seward also has its share of more eclectic residences. This one is a quonset hut. My first home in Alaska was a quonset hut, but that was in Anchorage in 1948.
And these, on the ridge above the Seward Lagoon, are mansions overlooking Resurrection Bay.
These are some waterfront condos. They have a name, but I can't remember what it is because I call them the Breakaway Condos. Right after they were completed, in the mid-80s, a fall storm over-loaded a creek running through this area. The creek jumped its banks and washed out the foundation of the condo unit that used to be at the far left of this row. Then the unit broke away from the rest.
This is the unit that detached from its siblings. It got moved down the road a ways and turned in a club house for the yacht club.
How's this for a waterfront hotel? It's the new Holiday Inn Express. That's ice there down below it, in a protected part of the small boat harbor.
Here's another view of the coal ship and the loading facility. That thing that looks like a pipe running on top of the breakwater is a covered conveyor.
That's it for this tour. As I said, I have to be back in Seward tomorrow at 2 p.m.....
turn-about
The temperature rose twenty-five degrees in six hours today. Now, gentle Chinook winds are huffing and puffing at my loft windows. Tomorrow I would not be surprised if these winds brought snow, sleet, and/or rain. Nor do I expect them to remain gentle.
My neighbors on either side have advised me that my remote sensor thermometer might be located in a banana belt. The day mine read twenty-seven below, each of theirs read thirty-five below. After two weeks of cold, we are all ready for a break from it. With the warmer weather, however, we might lose the beatuy of the hoarfrost that has coated everything.
Saturday I was the substitute mailman, and delivered mail to Hope and Cooper Landing. The temps were still below zero--seventeen below at my house, and there was little traffic. While driving along the Kenai River in Cooper Landing, I noticed the hoarfrost was especially heavy along the river. Here are a few photos, taken from a moving vehicle. The road through the Landing is a narrow, twisting two-lane route with miniscule shoulders and few places to pull off. At least the speed limit through there is 35 mph, making my photographic efforts a wee bit less dangerous.
Back in Moose Pass, I spotted this young eagle hanging out around the garbage dumpsters. I don't know if it's a young bald eagle or a young golden eagle, but I think I'll lean towards the latter.
My neighbors on either side have advised me that my remote sensor thermometer might be located in a banana belt. The day mine read twenty-seven below, each of theirs read thirty-five below. After two weeks of cold, we are all ready for a break from it. With the warmer weather, however, we might lose the beatuy of the hoarfrost that has coated everything.
Saturday I was the substitute mailman, and delivered mail to Hope and Cooper Landing. The temps were still below zero--seventeen below at my house, and there was little traffic. While driving along the Kenai River in Cooper Landing, I noticed the hoarfrost was especially heavy along the river. Here are a few photos, taken from a moving vehicle. The road through the Landing is a narrow, twisting two-lane route with miniscule shoulders and few places to pull off. At least the speed limit through there is 35 mph, making my photographic efforts a wee bit less dangerous.
Back in Moose Pass, I spotted this young eagle hanging out around the garbage dumpsters. I don't know if it's a young bald eagle or a young golden eagle, but I think I'll lean towards the latter.
Friday, January 9, 2009
stayin' alive...
What have I been doing and why haven't I been posting here regularly? Well, several of us who took an online writing class from Ann Linquist have found her at her blog "Ann Linquist Writes." When we showed up, she began posting writing prompts for us to play with. We are now on prompt three, which she calls Goofing Around-3.
The prompt is called Ouija poetry. This is how it works:
Start typing randomly. Don't bother making any sense out of it, or trying to type words, etc. Random typing, meaningless jibberish. adding spaces and hard returns occasionally. Then, look at the mess you've made and see what comes of it. Pick out things that look like words, phrases, etc.
Then write poetry from that.
Join us. It's a lot of fun, and you will be astounded at what has come from a total mass of jibberish. Just don't read mine, okay?
http://annlinquist.wordpress.com/goofing-around-3/
The prompt is called Ouija poetry. This is how it works:
Start typing randomly. Don't bother making any sense out of it, or trying to type words, etc. Random typing, meaningless jibberish. adding spaces and hard returns occasionally. Then, look at the mess you've made and see what comes of it. Pick out things that look like words, phrases, etc.
Then write poetry from that.
Join us. It's a lot of fun, and you will be astounded at what has come from a total mass of jibberish. Just don't read mine, okay?
http://annlinquist.wordpress.com/goofing-around-3/
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
'nuff said?
I think my DSL service is frozen. It's been operating at the blinding speed of evolution the past few days, which makes posting anything a long, drawn-out process.
That's twenty-three point six below zero. Fahrenheit.
That white band at the top of the mountain is how close the sun gets to shining in the valley where I live. Around Valentine's day, it will hit my house for a few seconds, and then every day it stays a little longer.
In the meantime, the wood stove in the living room keeps me company....
That's twenty-three point six below zero. Fahrenheit.That white band at the top of the mountain is how close the sun gets to shining in the valley where I live. Around Valentine's day, it will hit my house for a few seconds, and then every day it stays a little longer.In the meantime, the wood stove in the living room keeps me company.......as does the Amish electric heater in the loft. I have no idea where my muse is. She's been AWOL since this cold spell began before Christmas. I suspect she's still curled up in bed, trying to stay warm.
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