Fall not in love, therefore; it will stick to your face

OK, yeah, I underestimated just what a long, crappy set of flights that was gonna be getting here. Here, where the snow is piled high. Way high. So I left my house at 1000 on Sunday morning, and arrived at my hotel room at 0530 Monday morning. It was 0130 local time, but we'd been putting some time zones behind us, so I was speaking in BT (Body Time). I'll be here two days then I get to do it again going back.

I went on YouTube and looked up Britney's video If U Seek Amy. You know, had to see what the hoo-hah was all about. Kinda reminded me of high school drama, in that yes it is a cleverly vulgar play on words, and no, it wasn't that good of a song. In fact, without the controversy to propel, it's not much of anything.

My camera got turned on in my bag for I don't know how may hours as I was traveling. I think it entered some kind of auto-suspension state, but I'm not sure. I charged the battery right before I came and then left the charger home. So I'm gonna be pissed if I ran the battery out before I got here. What?? You can't see me getting pissed? Well, I'll tell you like I told my first wife, "I'm not bad...but bad people don't mess with me." My other favorite thing to tell her was, "If you hit me, and I find out about it, I'm going to kick your butt!"

Conceit is God's gift to little men. - Bruce Barton

OK, I had about half a charge on the camera which turned out to be sufficient. The mountians are beautiful and I have to catch my breath with each new view of them, especially when the sun is on them. But I learned that mountians are a lot like sunsets at sea. Each one in its own right is spectacular. Beyond comparison. However, once you develop the film you kinda go, " Hmmmm... basically I've got 40 pictures that all look the same." So I took a few pictures, and just burned the remainder into my brain. If I can get my external HDD cable to work with the camera, I'll add pics to this. If not, just wait a few days. (Note: I did try it a couple of minutes from now, and I am back to report that, of course, the cables from one company are not interchangeable with those of another. Photos must therefore wait.)

My first day out on my own I ran into a 76 year old Anchoraginian who wanted to show me around. That was cool, as all I had was a tourist map from the hotel desk and a GPS that didn't even have Alaska as an option. It was interesting. She showed me places and things I wouldn't have found on my own in 2 days, that's for sure. She was a character, too. The planes up in the sky were certianly doing something sinister, she confided, and the government ain't saying what. She has dreams of putting a rail under the water, linking an island with the mainland, and all kinds of other ideas. A big, expansive thinker with an outsized personality and a touch of paranoia. I enjoyed the day. If you google "lorna knaus northwest passage", you'll find that she really exists, however, the articles are dry whereas she was quite lively and witty.

I have loved it here. Definately a individualistic bent to the people. And I can't help myself, to see some of these folks you just have to wonder about who or what they did back wherever they came here from. They just have the aura of someone who wandered up here to disappear.

But, everyone I have spoken to has been so friendly and outgoing, you can't help but smile. I have thought to myself several times over the last couple of days, if it wasn't so cold, and didn't stay dark a month at a time, and it wasn't so hard to get things (cell phone reception included) that I would eventually want to kill myself, well heck, I could be happy living here. A part of me really believes that, but another part, a more reasonable part, reminds me that I am fat and squishy and any rugged individualism I may have once possessed is as long gone as my waistline. (I am now, if you are to believe a pair of Dockers over me, bigger around than I am tall. On that subject, I find myself surprisingly unapologetic.)

One thing that caught me by surprise was the extensive selection of rifles and handguns for sale. Not that guns for sale is all that unusual. But a selection of that size, heck of ANY size, in an Air Force PX was a first for me. I would have taken a picture for you, but since getting captured by a couple of carloads of navy cops while taking photos of the navy base in Japan so I could show my friends once I retired, well I don't pull my camera out on a base anymore.

Will post in a couple of days and include the pictures. Other than that, I suppose I am done here.

It's a soap opera heaven without all the clues, out
Ramblin' Ed