Holiday Weekend

I know it was three weekends ago, but I've been hiding inside doing repairs and pretending like it isn't summer. While most of you were out trying not to get sunburned or overdose on lemonade, I was drinking coffee. Welcome to a typical 4th of July in Alaska. I finally got down to Seward with my boat to my friend's cabin on the beach. While an overcast day will not keep me from much anymore (neither will rain) a strong steady wind will keep me from putting my boat in the ocean.

I did get my toes and my dogs wet by walking on the beach and riding my mountain bike to another beach. The clouds also lifted on our way out of town to try our luck in Homer. Wait, what's that in the water there?

Oh look, the local wildlife came out to say good bye. Too bad I'm taking his picture from the road instead of my boat. Homer wasn't any better, but for a different reason. I went to help my girlfriend with some renovation work on her cabin. Turns out it was opening weekend for her parent's cafe, so we ended up helping out there instead. While the weather was acceptable for boating, the dogs were not. I discovered that Percy really does not like fireworks. I didn't even think people would set them off since it's totally daylight and you can't seem them. Silly me. Last weekend we got out to Eklutna with boats and I really like my new paddle. It was super sunny and I actually needed sunscreen and not bug dope. Very strange. Unfortunately, pictures from last weekend were on my friend's camera which was stolen out of his truck Sunday night. I know, don't bring a camera if you come hang out with me.

Tour of the Twice Named Town

Last week I went on a business trip, my first with the new company. Originally my boss was to travel with me, but he had to cancel at the last minute so I got to go alone. The purpose of the trip was a day trip to a remote project site. This took three days due to flight schedules. Helicopter flight schedules. I love helicopters. There is never a bad view from a helicopter.

I finally asked one of the kind people entrusted with chauffering me between the airport and the hotel about the two names. He said the obvious, Deadhorse (or Deadpony as J-Bomb calls it) is the name of the town, and Prudhoe Bay is the oil field lease area name. It was so intuitive I felt silly. Even sillier for a momentary panic after boarding the plane in Anchorage with a destination of Deadhorse and hearing my bag had been goldstreaked to Prudhoe Bay.

Nothing like a town with an oil well on a main street to make me wonder if I'm in Texas or Alaska. What does it tell you about your life that a three day trip to a remote drilling pad on the North Slope is like a vacation for you? I got enough sleep, I had no chores or cleaning to do, I made liberal use of the on site gym, my food was prepared, my room made up, people appeared out of nowhere to transport me to where I needed to go, and I didn't spend more than $2 (on postcards). All from filling out the correct form for the big company's travel department. They even put me up in the 'nice, new hotel'. It's got nothing on the Ritz, but it was clean and safe and had a gym. It's only a year old and they are adding another 100 rooms on this summer because they are always at capacity. Saying 'it's a whole different world up there' doesn't even come close to cutting it. The icing on the cake? From the drilling pad I could see the ice pack on the Arctic Ocean. No polar bears though, so I have to find a way to need to go back.

A Flamingo a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

I finally downloaded pictures from the camera. It's been a long time. I noticed because most of them have snow in them. Wait, I guess that isn't really a defining feature of time for me anymore since I see snow almost every weekend now. Hmmm.... Maybe it was the Iditarod that clued me in.

A lot has happened since the end of the semester and a lot happened during the semester that I meant to write about, but the details of life kind of got away from me. So an update on major issues will have to hold you over for now.

-I have moved
-I have another new job
-I'm still in grad school and I'm taking classes this summer
-Tatonka has started his certification series for SAR
-I ride my bike to work almost every day
-My truck is making a funny noise that I am denying knowledge of because I think it's the water pump and I don't feel like replacing that again right now
-I got my house appraised in PDX
-My house is worth a tiny more than I owe on it
-Other than Tatonka mysteriously missing 1.5 teeth the pets appear to all be healthy, but we'll know more after finally getting them to the vet next week for their overdue annual exams
-Alaskan summers are not sunny
-If you buy your dogs 'disposable' toys to keep them busy while you finish painting and unpacking at your new place, they will still have them intact a week later. What am I going to do with the other two flamingos?
-I need a new computer at home

That is all for now. I have to go try on my flame retardant clothing for my trip to the north slope this week.