The good, the bad and the ugly.

Fire sky sunset near the end of the deep freeze.

Gives a slight appearance of the Aurora.

Spectacular fire sky!

After a considerable length of time since the last post, and the debacle of the cold snap, I have decided that once again I can find some sanity and comfort in writing. Good news: It ain't cold anymore. Bad news: We may have to take up ice skating! Yes, after two weeks of bitter sub-zero temps, we had a warm up folks. I mean warm. The temps were in the mid to upper 30's by day and just at freezing by night for a week and accompanied by some rain. This turned everything into one big mess. Gravity, my nemesis, once again found me the fool. Everything was icy, looking like glass, and slicker than.... well, it was just plain slick! Maryann donned her traction devices, and since mine never surfaced after the move I decided it was a good time to buy another pair. We sanded the driveway, walkways, and just walked litely everywhere we went. About 2 nights into the ice age, I was out splitting kindling after dark at the edge of the deck. Fool. I was carefully making my way back to the door with the kindling in hand, and before I knew it the world turned sideways, I was horizontal, and could feel a breeze going past my head as I leveled out on the deck with a 'thud'. Now, you would think that with a house full of wife, kid and dogs that someone would come running. Dogs were oblivious, Maryann was toileting about wondering "what was that sound" and John was home, but the lights were obviously not on as he was on the computer, oblivious to my demise. In the end, they finally did come to my sore rescue, and I was alarmed as I staggered into the house that one of my shoes was missing. Yes, two feet...one shoe...? Apparently it had flown off somewhere across the deck during the flight... Hmmm. Mind you, this incident happened before the sand and salt, and somewhat prompted it's important role here at the compounds ice rink. That said, I am fine and thankfully staying on both feet these days!

We woke to a reasonable size earthquake Saturday. Mind you, it is not uncommon to have 100's of earthquakes through the week at any given time, but they are so small we nary feel them. And, I think in a sense that you get so used to the slightly bigger ones that you just get used to them and don't feel them much. But this was a 5.7 and centered around 100 miles southwest of us. We felt it!

Maryann and I made a date and took an overnight down at the bakery. After the gluttony of the 'Christmas' season, one would think that this kind of punishment would be unspeakable. But, nonetheless we needed a respite. Good news is I was good. Now, Maryann is always good....not so much me. But I was good! And in normal Greg and Maryann fashion, we made 2 days and 1 night feel like four, so it was worth it and we had alot of fun. We had quite an experience while we were there. Without getting into a lengthily or political story of it, we witnessed an unusual sight, as hundreds of Eagles flocked the spit (in Homer....remember, the "spit") for a memorial feeding. A long time resident of the spit, who through the years has felt it her duty to feed wild Eagles in the winter, thus making their dependence on humans for food and the lack of fear for humans apparent, had passed away a couple weeks ago. Friends held a memorial for her, and a "last supper" of sorts for the birds, now that she is gone and there is nobody to feed them. Now, despite any personal feelings of this generous and humane act of narrow mindedness...did I say that!?.... it was a once in a lifetime experience to be so close to so many of these magnificent and huge creatures. To have a Taradactle fly just a couple feet past your head (and literally feel the hair on you head fold as it goes by) and watch it swipe a dead fish off the ground or better yet catch it in mid flight, is to say the least, incredible. We did get some pics that we will share. Truthfully, there is a huge debate on this whole feeding issue, and if they stop feeding before summer, many of these now human reliant birds will suffer hunger. So there is a movement to keep on feeding them until spring, but alot of people are up in arms over the whole thing. Mind you, there has been nothing stopping them in the past years from doing what Eagles naturally do in the winter, this travesty has just upset the balance of nature and man a bit. Other than that we are great, life is good, our savior and his side kick has come to our rescue, and just may save the world from going to hell in a hand basket! Ok. Stay tuned for the on going adventures!