1/7/09....A very special day....

Felt unusually tired today. Couldn't wake up, just kept dosing off. Finally got out of bed at 7:30AM, checked the temperature, was - 35 below 0, sat in front of the fire trying to warm up, had an eggnog latte with Maryann and watched 'Desperate Housewives' from 8:00AM to 9:00AM. Went out to start the truck to give it it's half hour to warm up, figure "screw it" it is cold out, it is gonna be a late day. Truck is deader than a doornail....again, for day two in a row. Jump it with Maryann's truck, it starts, as I am going to shut off her truck I notice a puddle of antifreeze under her truck. "Oh sh^*!" I say, and get my cardboard crawler. Slide under her truck on 4" of ice with a mere layer of cardboard between me and it, check, see that her water pump is cracked. Yea, I say! Slide back out, go into the arctic entry of the garage where the heater is, to melt the ice off of my facial hair, warm my stiff legs and try to find feeling in my toes again. Set there for 5 minutes. My truck, still running, nowhere near warm. I go inside the house to sit in front of the fire. 15 minutes later I go back out, open my truck it is cold in the cab even though it has been warming for 40 minutes now and the heater is set on high. "Oh sh^*!" I say again. I feel the radiator, it is warm so I know that the thermostat in the engine has not froze. Decide to take it out to the road just to see if maybe it needs a little encouragement to get itself going. Spats, sputters, and spits all the way down the drive. Back it up to the garage again and park it. (Too numerous expletives to conscientiously mention at this point) I go back into the arctic entry (from here in we will refer to it as the 'warming hut') and try to find feeling in my body again, and melt the ice off of my facial hair once more. 5 minutes later I go back out to my truck. Now the heater is finally warming....thank God. Get in, shut the garage and take off down the driveway. "Oh sh^*! I say as it sputters and spits down the drive again. I back down the drive to the garage again. The garage door is open "what the..." I say. Turn off the truck, try to shut the garage door with the button on my visor and it wont shut. Check to make sure nothing is blocking the track, nothing is. Try again this time using the button on the inside....nothing. Fuming, I go back into the warming hut. 3 minutes, go back out to start the truck it wont start....again. Go inside the house. Flip out, rant, sit in front of the fire, warm up go back out. Get my voltage meter in the garage to check the battery to make sure it isn't dead. The meter is so cold it wont work. Put it back into the garage. Go to Maryann's truck who I know is home for the day and, hey, she cant drive it anyways because the water pump is cracked. Pull her battery....pull my battery, put her battery into my truck. Start the truck, truck starts. Back into the warming hut to let things warm up again. 5 minutes, I go back to put my battery in a milk crate with cardboard on the bottom so I can put it inside the truck, so it wont freeze in the back of the truck. Pull out of the drive, get out to the road....runs great. The computer needs a certain amount of voltage to run the trucks' systems.....obviously, it wasn't happening with my battery, is obviously happening with Maryann's battery....were cool. Go to the auto parts store in Kenai, have Mark test the battery. Mark says the battery is so dead it won't test, he needs to charge it for a while. He charges it, I leave to go about my day. Go to the hardware store in Soldotna to get materials that I need, they are out of what I need. I have to go all of the way back to Kenai to get the materials, and then back out to Soldotna again. Spend the next 2 hours working out in the cold at one of my 4-plexs, not sure what the temp is but judging by the thicket of ice on my face, it is bloody cold. I am weather proofing bad doors. Woman next door to the unit I am working at comes out says, "oh, hi sweetie...are the people who live...oh there you are..." She proceeds to tell dude who is renting the unit and is standing inside the door talking to me, while I am miserably cold working in front of her, that his dog is urinating around the parking space in front of her door. Can he please clean it up because the baby plays in it. "OH, sure, no problem he says". Thank you, she walks away and goes back inside her unit. I am thinking (somehow I am thinking because the synaptic activity in my brain is now down to a minimal operating level) "yeah, right lady. How in hell is he gonna clean up ice embedded dog urine, when the ice is so thick ya cant even split it with a hammer." "....and furthermore, what are you letting your 1 year old infant doing crawling around on the ice when there is actual snow right around the corner to play in....oh, and, doesn't your little dogie urinate on the same ice....I know he does cause I watched you let him do it just 4 days ago...., and what forensics expert do you have determining who's dog urine is who's?!" At this point it revels to me why it is that I will never live in a communal apartment like situation....ever.... unless they are a group of old hippies on alot of land, I just can't do it. I finish my work and drive to my next job. I left the truck running as I was working mind you, because it is so cold out that vehicles freeze and won't start if you don't plug them in or keep them running. So I am now warming as I drive along. On the way to the next job I stop to get heating oil in my two 5 gallon cans. I pull up to the oil shack, pull the cans, put them on the dock open the spouts and get back into the truck and wait for the filler guy. And wait. Now they are always quick to get out when people pull up to the oil shack. I am worried that it is so cold that maybe he refuses to come out and fill my cans! I go into the office. "Oh, he will be right there." They were obviously all huddled around the coffee maker and didn't see me. No big. "If this is the worse thing that happens to me today" I tell myself, "I will be lucky". Get my fuel, pay for it, and go to the next job. This one is indoors. I am elated....except when I have to run back out to my truck back and froth to get things. I keep the truck running the whole time. Finish the job, head back to the auto parts store in Kenai to get a prognosis. I walk in the door....Mark sees me and shakes his head back and forth. I pull off my babushka and bow my head. The battery is dead, and cannot be brought back. I buy a new battery, and load it into the passenger side of my truck, get into the drivers side, and proceed to start the truck. It won't start. "Oh sh^*!" I say. I go back into the store and ask Mark if he can check my wife's battery, which is in my truck, because "as unbelievably against all odds as it sounds, it may be dead", I tell him. He puts on his coat, grabs his tester and comes out. After breaking the ice off of my facial hair for the 23rd time today, I pop the hood. He hooks up his unit and begins a diagnostical test. His unit tells him my wife's battery is dead. "No way!" I tell him. "It cant be!" I say. He gently laughs and says this is what his unit is telling him. I ask him to double check his unit. He says that sometimes his unit can malfunction in this kind of cold. I tell him my unit does too....we laugh. He goes in. I pull my new battery out and go to my small toolbox in the back of my big toolbox in the back of my truck. I pull out the small toolbox. It has been breached and is partially open. Half of the tools are missing out of it. They are no less scattered about the bottom of the big toolbox, that the little toolbox was in, in the back of the truck. "Oh sh^*!" I say. I go back to the other side of the big toolbox and get a crescent wrench out of the tool tray and forgo the mess of tools in the bottom of the big toolbox in the back of the truck. I start to take the connectors off of the terminals of the battery. "Oh snap!" I say. One of the connectors is a butt hair loose so I tighten it. I go and try to start the truck. The truck starts. "Woo-hoo"! I say. Maryann's battery is not dead after all. I go in and tell Mark his unit is questionable, but I am running and gone. I leave. I call ahead to ask that the fire in the sauna can be started, because I have been out in sub zero temps all day, and I am cold to the bone, and just want to seek warmth. No problem. I get home. Have to carry all of the stuff around to the side garage door because I cant open the roll up garage door, because it is broken....it still doesn't work. I go in. I eat dinner. I get naked and run excitedly down to the sauna. I got concerned when I went to open the sauna door and found ice on the door knob. "Oh sh^*!" I say, as I open the door. There is no warmth. There is no fire. It went out! After re-clothing myself and 15 minutes with a blow torch, literally, I finally get the fire going. I walk into the sweat lodge portion of the sauna, and there is a rock hard frozen pan of water sitting there, with the bottom of the pan concaved. "Oh dear!" I say. I take it back into the house and begin this post. 45 minutes later I go down to the sauna. It is warm. I dump the ice in the pan on the rocks. Steam, bliss, I run back up to the house, ask Maryann if she is gonna join, she says quit positively "hell no", I get naked and run back down to the sauna. Fast forward.

I had a 2 hour sauna, am wiped out, warm to the bone again finally, and ready for bed. The end of a very special day! There is always tomorrow. Good night.

Cold snap....make ya snap!

Mama moose behind the sauna.













One of the babies....still not far from mama!

We are in the midst of a cold snap. We are at day 10 of "bitterly cold" sub zero temps. The days have barely creeped above -15 below 0 with the night time lows as low as -32....below 0! Mind you, most days the sun has been out and abundant in the short time it traverses the sky, but it is just too cold to want to do anything. The woodstove has been packed on the hour daily and through the night to maintain warmth, and we have given in to keeping the furnace on periodically through the day and night to keep the temp in the house steady. Mind you, with heating oil prices dropping, we are much more open this winter to using the furnace a little more. Which is a blessing because the poor folks who converted to or have natural gas got sticker shock as natural gas went up 22% last month! Ouch, baby! We finally caved on Saturday and had to get out. We dressed for an attempt at warmth and loaded up the dogs to go out for a 'sunshiney happy day' walk. Fools, we are I tell you. We went to Nikiski High and parked in the parking lot. We walked, as the dogs frolicked ahead of us, around the entire school....the dogs frolicked but only for the first 5 minutes. Now this little swary of utter bliss lasted all of about 9 minutes total for us, a brisk walk at -21 below 0. You know it's bad when you circle the school, and the dogs, totally stressed out by now, notice that the truck is now in front of us, not behind us where we left it, and make a bee-line for it when they hear that it is still running. We approached the truck with Kenai waiting obnoxiously to be let in! A dog wanting to forfeit a walk! Cherokee the big fur ball teddy bear head that he is was completely unaffected by the extreme cold. His wolf instinct and thickly coat allows him to endure the cold, and in fact most times he digs a hole in the snow and lays in it for a duration. Then Sunday morning we were all laying around the family room listlessly pulling our hair out, and Maryann noticed a moose outside the window. Then another....and another. Turns out mama got knocked up again and is showing. The 2 little cute babies....aren't all that little anymore! Kenai of course was beside herself running from window to window as they moved across the back of the house, telling us in distressed concern all of the time that we needed to let her out so she could make them go away. Or whatever it is that she intends in her feeble mind to do with them! As they eventually grazed off towards the back of the garage, another adult moose and a calve came up from below, and the 5 of them quietly wandered off into the thicket! Too cool. No snow since Christmas yet, but we are hopeing for some towards the weekend. Jonh is avidly seeking a more full time run of employment now that he is getting out of school at 11:30AM from here on out. Maryann is getting back to the grind with her home office now that the "Christmas" season is over. I included a bevy of pics from the moose-capades as well as my journeys about this morning. As beautiful and peaceful as it was out (I was the only one out), I endured a hurtful -32 below 0 to give you a peek at the world around me. No pity needed here....just enjoy them! Hope all is well and everyone is stressing out like me, for all of the foolish self-indulgence and gluttony that we cast upon ourselves the past 2 weeks. Oye! Be safe and stay warm!












Beach in Kenai overlooking the ocean...which is frozen!













Sunrise over the Tidal Flats.













The Kenai river....yes it is frozen with only a
glimmer of water in the foreground.













Mt Redoubt on the right with Mt Illiamna to the
left. This is not the beach we are overlooking...
it is the bay...frozen!













An Air Force E-3 AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft taking off from
the Kenai airport, just a couple hundred
yards above my head! The rumble warmed
my otherwise cold ass!!













The AWACS jet flying out over the frozen ocean.













A good day to live, overlooking the ocean
from a bluff.

Makes you think ...

First sunrise over the compound for 2009!

...when your driving down the highway at midnight out plowing and the road just gets up 50 feet in front of you and walks off. ? Yeah, I didn't think that kind of thing happens either, but it did. A snow covered moose standing in the middle of the snow covered highway makes for an awesome deception....until it walks off! Gives you a real false illusion. Next thing I was looking for pink elephants! We did have a white Christmas. It snowed all day long and made for a long night and following couple of days out plowing. Nice Christmas present though! Our Christmas was
great with lots of food, and memory making. And so here we are on New Years Eve....woo-hoo. Past 2 days have been at a high of -11F and the nights getting down to -28F. Cold out.....yes! You learn of things not to do when your dealing with this kind of cold. For those with 'cold sensitive' gums.....don't smile. Most especially while you are walking. When you step out of a warm room into the outside....don't take in a breath. Do the inhale thing before you walk outside. If you are standing outside and you figure on farting....move over 5 feet after expelling. Gas is heavy and in the extreme cold will just sit there hovering like a bad cloud. Although you can use that to your advantage to really mess with others around you!! In general be patient. Alot of things just stop working when it gets that cold. What I enjoy is when it gets into the minus 30's, to throw a cup of water in the air and watch it shatter on the ground as the water turns to ice in freefall. Some people will be out snow machining all night tonight to celebrate, some will be watching fireworks....some will be launching those fireworks to be watched. I know I speak for at least one other member of this tribe...Maryann....we will keep our happy asses warm and in front of the fire tonight, as it is already -20F and dropping and it is only 6:30PM. Maryann did an oil change and tune-up on the electric blanket, so she is all ready for another cold one. I find myself with little words this evening, so I leave you with one thought. How can you make the new year better for just one person, excluding yourself? One 'act' can change evrything! Happy New Year!

The darkest day...another year!

Once again we find ourselves at the darkest and shortest day of the year....winter solstice. And once again we find ourselves huddled mindlessly in the corner of the basement, aglow by a solitary candle.... Able to pull off for the 2nd year what many before us have vowed that they could never handle...what many look at as an insane form of grit or unbalance. Will we make it for the 3rd winter of this bitter cold obscurity...... ?




Looking out our front door. The sun's position this morning at 11:35AM! Notice how it is just barely skimming the edge of the horizon?!


On a much brighter of a note, or notes we find ourselves in celebration for a multitude of reasons. John is 18 years old this day of December 21st 2008. yes, bless his parents for they have survived his 18 year reign of dominance on our patience, nerves, and attention. We can now sit back knowing we have successfully raised him to be the wonderful man that he has become. Was it easy....seldom is parenting ever so. But the gratitude of watching him grow and the successes and challenges that he has conquered makes all of those moments that we contemplated pulling our hair out well worth it! What becomes of John now....for his 18th birthday we gave him $100.00 dollars and a one way plane ticket to a destination of his choice...see ya son! Actually I am going to pay him to stay home for a few years longer (snicker snicker). And as a pure example of this kids determination, when he returns to school after the "Christmas" break, he will be getting out of school at 11:30AM from now until he graduates. Why, because he only needs 22 credits to graduate, and as of now has 27 credits!! So he is going to skate the second half of his senior year, Kudos, young dude! Welcome to the real world! All joking aside, Happy Birthday! We are so proud of you John, and we love you, son!

Another of reasons for celebration would be the end of a long hard run for pops. As of Monday, my dad will be officially retired from the City Of Stockton. After years of "keeping em in line", and standing his watch to keep order and civility in the city, it will now be someone elses' problem! As a code enforcement officer, the man never held a lack of excitement in his days, and has done the best to his ability to keep the city streets abundant and rosy. Friends....he made many. Pissed....still others ended up! Jackasses, they were abundant, and ever present even amongst his ranks. But like a super trooper of sorts, he prevailed the daily grunt and grind and served his time well and with honor. What will become of his days now, less the excitement in the 'adventures of inspector Smiley'? Somehow, I tend to think the city has not seen the end of him. My father...sit still and relax....yeah, ok! But whatever his endeavours will become, we wish him the best and congratulations for all his persistence, hard work, and dedication through the years. They say life begins when you retire, so enjoy it dad, and find some comfort in your life now! We are proud of you!!

And so we find the end of our descent into darkness and mark the beginning of a new period of light. A time to let go of all that has held us back and bring in a period of renewed hope. We will find ourselves once again with healers, hippies and natives celebrating, singing, drumming and eating around the sacred bonfire of this days Winter Solstice, attending one of the many celebrations that will be happening around the peninsula. Hopefully a scoche warmer than last years festivities. Alaskans do take the Winter Solstice serious. So to everyone, let go of that which has burdened you and held your soul, and welcome in a new period of light. Refill your soul with the hope of a new year and the dawning of new light!

Friday night we went to Johns' High Schools hockey 'home' game. They have an ice rink here in Nikiski at the community center where they play their home games. This was our first, so it was a new and enlightening experience for Maryann and I. Enlightening because next time I am going to wear my insulated cover-alls! Mind you, we loved going to the hockey games at the Stockton Arena when we lived in Dorrington. We would travel the 2 hour drive in a caravan with a group of friends from Arnold and Dorrington, and always had a great time. It was cold...but it was an arena! I mean, we were in the warmth of a huge crowd in an arena, right! Short of pond hockey, this arena here in Nikiski is a 'rink' surrounded by a metal roof and 3 metal walls, open on one side. T.H.O.'s, man! For the most part it is standing room only, with the exception of a small set of metal bleachers. Metal bleachers, in a large walk in freezer....my butt thinks not! Anyways, it was fun. Maryann as usual was more entertaining than the game itself! Watching her enthusiasm and excitement as faces were pummeled into the Plexiglas, and bodies slung across the ice into the plywood walls. Lets not forget the Zamboni! Yes, my wife is just hilarious when she is around hockey! And this night was of no exception! Johns team won with an amazing comeback the 3rd quarter. And I obtained an official souvenir! Yes, we were standing on the glass directly behind the goalie, and I watched in amazement as the puck was struck from about half way out and flew through the air, almost in a suspended animation, wobbling towards the goalie....only it was about 12 feet above the goal. As it came into the net at the top of the Plexiglas, two thoughts went through my mind in slow motion yet an instant, like this; "....this is righteous, if I was 12 feet taller and my head the goal, it would be a hole in one, or slapshot....or whatever they call it in hockey lingo....thank God there is a net between me and the puck...." Looking up as it made contact with the net, the second thought; "...Oh crap, there is an open slot between the top of the Plexiglas and the bottom of the net....I think I am about to...." Yes, that was the extent of the two thoughts that went through my mind, the second thought being cut short as the damned puck hit the net, fell through the hole and clobbered me on my head. Thankfully, the net dampened the sheer force and torque of the puck. Unfortunately, once again, my head found itself an unwilling victim of a 'gravity' related event! But, I got a cool souvenir! It's an official puck and was autographed by John's friend Anthony, who is #77 on the team! When the scouts find him and he makes the NHL and becomes famous I can say I have his autograph!! So for now we wish everyone well, and to make sure and have a very 'Merry Christmas'. Stay safe, be sober, and enjoy every ones love, comfort and company this 'Christmas season'! Good night to all.....and to all a good night.

-Our love.

Pictures and a post.

I was out Friday morning at the crack of dawn (9:45 AM) and fortunately had the camera armed and ready. It was one of these mornings that I just needed to expand my thoughts and fine tune my hemispheres...and what better of a time or place to do so. I found myself blissfully wandering about, in a quest for early morning tranquility. This is what I found. I would have to say, thank you Barb for your beautiful comment, and this is for you....
The dawn alpenglow was beautiful on this day....as usual, pictures do no justice for the real experience. An ocular orgasm, of sort...
Overlooking Russian Mountain, the sunrise spills into the fog rising above the Kenai river. This was truly an awe inspiring moment for me and I could not think of a better way to have begun my day!

This would look like snow on the trees but was actually 'Hoare Frost', a result of temperatures below freezing with a high humidity in the air. This was just minutes after the initial sunrise and you can see the alpenglow forming on the trees. I believe it was 86% humidity and it was -2 below 0 when the sun came up.
The illusion of blue was very apparent this morning overlooking the bay shortly after the 10:15 AM sunrise.

About a month back while doing the annual shopping run at Costco in Anchorage, Maryann had a pretty wild idea....let's build a gingerbread house! Sounded cool...but would it fly? Turns out the thought of building a gingerbread house for Christmas was a hit for John and a few of his friends....and Maryann! They all got into it the other night. I was strictly an observing bystander and Kenai milled around the action waiting for crumbs to fall to the floor. Since there was really no 'love' involved in it for him, Cherokee found little interest in the event and resided to his under the dining room table lair. All in all it was a fun night, and a chance for grown-ups and young people to bond and have fun. It was, as Jordan would say, legit!
Future engineers of Alaska....hard at work planning, framing, frosting and building.
The elitist "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood" side....
The refurbished "Ghetto" (Mr. Roberts hood) side...
Jordan, Nina, Ian and John....and there award winning "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood/Ghetto" Gingerbread house.

Artificial sunlight...at last, controversy and hope.

Sundown from the road at 3:10PM

I am currently happy....happy I tell you! I think it could be my new 'Happy Light' that finally came in the mail. Or, it could be that eggnog latte I had a little bit ago from Starbuck's at Freds. Or both?! Yes, I find myself in a moment of utter bliss as I soak in the rays of my little fake sun, bouncing off the walls and hopped up from my latte high. Cool thing about my own little sun is that it's portable and can be moved anywhere for all occasions! I tried to expel some of my 'powered by latte' energy in sanding the walkway to the garage, and around the parking pad. It is that time of year again, where gravity is your nemesis and the Ice Capades have once again become a standard for life here. Our warm up the past week had found us back in the low to mid 30's and a chance for all the snow to melt just enough to glaze over. And to add to the fun, a lite layer of dry snow the other night to top the ice....so everywhere is just slick as all get go. Including our walkway to the garage! You know it is funny how my head is always a magnet to anything hanging low and my ass is utterly attracted to gravity pockets! I am the only one in this tribe that constantly finds myself in 'hang-time' and sliding on my butt. Oye! The dogs are too funny. They have permanent cramp-ons built into their paws, and nary will lose a wince when running across vast ice fields. We took a walk on the beach with them in Kenai the other day, only to find the dogs in a free for all romp on the icy beach as we were confined to limited areas that were ice free zones. They had fun! Speaking of beach I have found myself in thought lately.

Almost a year later, and many broken promises we in Nikiski still find ourselves without our beach. It was about this time last year that our public beach, which so many locals enjoyed daily was closed in the name of 'Homeland Security'. At least that is what we have been told. Personally I feel like that is a bunch of hokum. The more prominent rumor is that Peak, the company that owns the OSK dock which supplies the platforms out in the inlet (the "official" alegation is that Homeland Security is concerned about protecting the supply dock), closed off public access to the beach due to insurance purposes. Peak owns the access, through their yard, to the public beach and therefore shut it down about this time last year. Now we do have a few alternatives besides driving 15 minutes south to Kenai. We can drive 15 minutes north to Captain Cook beach. Or there is the new road that the Borough cut to a different stretch of beach (which is about a joke), on the taxpayers expense. Remember, the taxpayers lost the right to enjoy "their" public beach and now have to pay through taxes for access to a new beach... Or, if this isn't a poke to the 'Homeland Security' vindication, there is the stretch of beach that is still opened for public use behind the Conoco Phillips LNG plant. The beach that gives direct access to a number of Liquid Natural Gas holding tanks and complete exposure to the pipes that run out to the tanker loading docks off shore.....have I said too much! Opps. Apparently this security scenario isn't as important to Homeland....Arrgh! Just annoying. The closed beach was prime romping grounds not only for community but for local set netters who have been fishing those shores for generations. Funny thing is when the McGahan family who homesteaded that area sold that land to the OSK dock years ago, it was under the condition that right of way would be granted for public access to the beach that has belonged to the public since before statehood. Yeah.

On a happier note, Nikiski is the newly projected home for the a wind farm. That's right. They are going to put in about 10 wind turbines which will initially power the Tesoro refinery, and eventually may go on to add power to our grid down the line. Being right on the inlet, we do get some pretty heavy and consistent wind through here. The people of Soldotna are pissed. Apparently, since Soldtona is a little more inland and not as susceptible to wind as we are, they were not considered for such an experimental run. Whiners! This gig kind of ties in nicely to Palin's proposed plan to make Alaska an energy independent state. Makes sense. God knows we have gas! Despite the environmental controversy we do have a plentiful supply of tapped and untapped oil. As long as there exists nature we will have a good supply of wind, in many areas of the state.

We are adjusting to our second winter nicely. It is easier this winter to wake up and get going than it was last winter. Getting out of bed was a stinkin chore last year! Body just wanted to sleep what with all the darkness. That and having an idea of what to expect. I mean, last year was amazement and anticipation each new day. Kind of miss that feeling really, but I have to say it is a little easier going in this winter. Today the sunrise is at 10:05AM and sets at 3:54PM and if your not careful in planning your day, you do miss out literally on "the day". I have a small bizarre at the Aspen Hotel in Soldotna Saturday which I am looking forward to. Nothing as big as the Christmas In Kenai gig a couple weekends ago, but should be fun. Sad thing is that I ran really low on pottery inventory the last run. Still a good selection, just not as much as I would like... what am I saying!! This is a good thing from a sales point of view! Also, I am still tossing around whether I want to sit in a class for traffic school Sunday, or do the on-line course....decisions. Mike took the on-line course and is off the hook now. John opted for community service to wipe out the fine, but still has to do the traffic school thing.....bunch of scofflaws we are....oh the shame! For now, we strap down for the ensuing 'darkest day', excited that after that day passes we will find glory in gaining light, and the passing of another year. I put in a new link on our 'favorites'. The Boehme family lives "way out here" in Nikiski and is blogging their adventure in this new land, and God knows we love adventure! It is good writing and a humorous perspective on their story. Yvette, where have you been?? We keep checking and no posts... Hope everyone is well, and please do stay safe during this busy time of year. We miss family and our friends but still feel blessed to be where we are, as this is where we truly wanted to be. We are blessed and pray the same for all of you. Take care for now.

Rest!

Today has found me, finding sanity, and some of the recuperation needed from a long and busy week! The lord above took mercy on my tried body, and countermanded the 6" of snow the weather forecasters had called for after Thanksgiving. Sad, yes, as the chance to plow had me excited as all get go. Happy, indeed, as I really wanted to focus my attention to the weekends' bizarre! Mind you, Maryann was ready to take the reins at the space in the event I had to bail to tend plowing, but it was alot, or would have been alot of work for one person, and on that note I am grateful she was there to assist. It was busy, busy, busy!! As well I enjoy being there to be a part of it all. It is always amazing and gratifying to watch people around pottery. I have to confess, I have the same fetish as most when it comes to pottery. The chance to feel each piece, the smooth and shining lines, the colors... When you actually find that piece that litterally calls out to you... It is just a very fulfilling feeling for me regardless if people end up buying or not. But hey, it is always good for the potter when people buy, aint it! Mind you I have never done the Kenai gig before so I have nothing to compare it to, but despite some of the comments on how the economy affected sales for alot of vendors, I feel like I did exceptional on sales! It is a good thing as I now am about out of clay and need to finance a shipment. Down in Dorrington I was spoiled. I had Quyle Kilns just 25 minutes down the highway who not only were potters themselves, but clay manufators as well. So clay was abundant, cheap, and readily available for me. Now I made sure to haul around 500 lbs on the moving truck when we came up, good thing. But that is dwindling now and it is time to anti up. Shipping will be twice as much as the clay itself, bummer, but after extensive research on shipping options and other logistical intell, there is really no way around the cost. So I prepare to bit down, hold my breath and just go for it! If all goes as planned I will have a pallet of 1000 lbs of clay here at the compound the first week of 2009. Is it just me or did the year fly?? Just doesn't feel right to me that 2008 is almost over. We were invited to our Realtors house for Thanksgiving dinner again this year. It was a fun time and nice to be with the closest thing to family that we have here. Lori is actually a gourmet chefette as well as a Realtor, and man can that woman cook. She added a flare to all of the typical dishes one would expect at a Thanksgiving feast. For example, yams au gratin as opposed to the yam standard! Oh I could go on, but it would simply make me salivate all over the keyboard. And the hor d vours (spelling?) were simply to die for. Fondue baked in pumpkin spread over peta crackers to name one! Lordy the scraping from the inside of the pumpkin was almost as good as the fondue itself! In fact, I was speaking to one of my clients this morning and he was asking me what we did for Thaksgiving. When I told him we had gone to Loris for dinner, he lit up and grinning from ear to ear said we are part of the 'secret hand shake' club if we were able to go to her place for dinner! He highly sugested that if I could get adopted by them it would be in my best interest. And no wonder as to why! She tells us to make plates to take left overs, right. I took que and got my plate to start serving the take homes. Maryann and John are sitting there smug, like, no worries, dad has us covered.... Bullcrap dad does! Call me a selfish tyrant but when it comes to left overs at Lori's it is each person for themselves.....you want left-overs you best be on it, man!! They figured me out real quick. Needless to say we all had a good celebration, and a good weekend and now I am out of steam. We were really surprised this last post to have found a comment from a 'stranger'. Apparently, she had gone looking for info on the "Christmas In Kenai" celebration and found our blog! Unbenounced to me until now (I have a low tolerance for technology), if you google "christmas in kenai" our blog posts rank 2 and 3 out of about 4 for the search! Cool beans, eah!? Anyways it was interesting as this family jumped off and did what we did, sounds like a year after us and conincidentally enough live in Nikiski as well. Not sure if they would want us to put their site on our 'favorites', but if they would not object to it I may, as it was good reading and a story right up our alley! Who knows, two books may evolve out of Nikiski! lol The sunrises are to that point now that I live for, and so wish I could see each and every one daily. We had a bit of a warming trend last week as it narrowed into the 30's but the night before last we were reading -0 on the temp gauge, and last night was getting there before we checked in for the night. Funny, we let the dogs out and their time in the exposure is alot less at that temperature. It's all about whizzing out a few ice cubes and "we're done, let us in". And who could blame them at that! John passed his E.T.T course and is now official, so he is pretty stoked about that and we are so proud of him. That is it for this round. I am still waiting for my 'happy light' to arrive, and bask in what little sunlight we get. It's a bit of a challenge when it is so cold your nose hairs freeze upon breathing, but the things we will do! Hope everyone is safe, healthy and ready to boot out the old for the new. Our love to all!!