My recently installed Home Surveillance System has proven to be a worthwhile investment. This morning I thought I heard a noise of some thing, or someone, on the roof. It was early and still very chilly outside, so I didn’t bother to investigate. Later, after enjoying my morning coffee, I reviewed the system videos. We did indeed have a visitor, Santa! He must have been checking out the chimney. His early visit is certainly unusual considering all he has to do, understand he appeared before Congress seeking a Bailout.
My Father was in the US Navy and stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on December 7, 1941. I was a young boy of seven. Our small family; Mother, Father, and I lived in the Naval Housing, just a few blocks from the Harbor and Navy Base. Hickam Field, the Army Air Force Base was visible from my upstairs bedroom window. Even after all these years, my memory of that long ago Sunday morning is still quite vivid. The black smoke rising from the destruction of our ships and facilities is always most prevalent. The radio emitted a constant appeal, "All military personnel report to your duty stations". I can still see my father running down the road in his dungarees to answer the call. Dive-Bombers, with a curious red ball painted on the side, are still visible in many of the slides imprinted in my memory. My family was fortunate, my father suffered the loss of some friends and shipmates, but we were unharmed.
A friend, perhaps because he knew I was there, recently sent me an e-mail containing some pictures taken that day. I have used those pictures to create a slide show to commemorate "A date which will live in Infamy".
We have a lot to be thankful for. We arrived in Arizona without mishap. The Weather has been warm with lots of sunshine, and the nights cool. Most of our clean up work has been completed, making some progress in the "honey do" department; I’m ready to hit the Links.
The Golf Course is in really great shape this year, and is fully functional. The back nine was opened on Monday. We have a new groundkeeper this year and he seems to have a real knack on the greens, they are lush and fast. I serve as a Marshal on Friday afternoons, if you see me out there, I hope you will say hello.
Palm Creek does not offer a discounted price with LA Fitness this year, but if you signed with them last year, LA Fitness will honor your 2008 membership. The monthly rate is $30. They have a nice swimming pool, if you are a lap swimmer there is always a lane, or two, in the early mornings.
We have a table reserved for the Annual Palm Creek Thanksgiving Day Dinner. Looking forward to the traditional dinner. Maybe we will see you there, have a happy day!
Yesterday evening we enjoyed a beautiful dining experience at the Phoenix "Rustler'sRooste". Arizona’s Legendary Cowboy Steakhouse, "Rustler’s Rooste" serves the finest steaks, ribs, chicken and the freshest seafood. For an appetizer you might want to try the tasty rattlesnake, we did, and it was good. Stroll over the indoor waterfall and take the slide into the dining room, for the faint of heart, there is a staircase. Better go hungry! Dinner is served family style. "Rustler’s Rooste" also has live country western music 7 nights a week. Accompanying us were our long time good friends Johnnie and Wanda Johnson. Johnnie and Wanda are part time RV'ers, and are from Ava, Missouri.
We arrived in Casa Grande, Arizona, early on Tuesday morning, November 3rd. It was a relatively short and comfortable trip, but not without some interesting diversions. At the luggage carousel in Phoenix, we were the only passengers still standing when the plane’s cargo had been totally off loaded. Seems that our two bags were sent to Portland, we went to Seattle, and there they remained. Normally this would have been no "grande" problem, except Lesley’s case contained twenty pounds of frozen, moderately insulated, Halibut. The amount of insulation was calculated using a time factor of only 12 to 14 hours. When Alaska Airlines was informed of the possible and pending environmental problem, I am sure alarm bells could be heard in heated cargo holds from Phoenix to Portland. Our two wayward bags were hand delivered, by an uniformed official, at 11:30 AM, the same day. And, we received an award of 5000 Alaska Airline Miles for our trouble. The fish, still frozen, had not even worked up a sweat.
A short slideshow describing "Our Winter Home", here in Casa Grande, was posted on this Site September 26, 2009. Please have a look; I’m sure you will enjoy.
Can’t you see them prancing, Rudolph with his red nose, so bright; On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen, on Comet, on Cupid, on Donner and Blitzen. Snow at last, Snow at last! Fairbanks is now covered with a beautiful carpet of white snow. A snow cover that will surely last until our return in late April. I’m so convinced it will last awhile, I plan to disconnect the rain gutters today and store them away for the winter. And, I’ll leave the snow shovels in a conspicuous spot, so my neighbors can find them, Cuzz, Santa Claus is coming to Town….
P.S. Two hours after posting this, a pizza delivery person walked away with my snow shovel. Oh Well, won't need it in Arizona anyway. Smile!
Renowned Physicist Freeman J. Dyson might just be on to something when he speaks of the pluses associated with Global Warming. I see evidence of it right here in Fairbanks, Alaska. Fairbanks, my home for the last 56 years, is located just two degrees south of the Arctic Circle, or approximately 120 miles. It’s claimed that Santa Claus lives just 12 miles south of here, in North Pole, Alaska. Well, let me to tell you, if things don’t change, he’s going to have a very hard time getting around this year! We haven’t had any snow, and as I speak it’s +50 degrees Fahrenheit (+10 C) outside. The sun is shining and except for the absence of the leaves in the trees, it looks and feels like spring. For the last several years, It has been our custom to go south each winter, to the warmer climes. “Weatherwise”, if what is currently occurring in the “lower 48” will be considered the norm, maybe it would be better to stay at home!
If you are a hunter, and enjoy a good bear story, I found this article on the Internet the other day, and will share it with you. The gentleman who wrote this story is obviously a good hunter. He demonstrates not only a very cool response in an extremely dangerous situation, but also a remarkable understanding of the animal he hunts. I can only wonder how I would react under similar circumstances. Enjoy...
By Don Mulligan
ESPNOutdoors.com
I knew the bear was coming. I just didn't know when. He wasn't the biggest or most menacing grizzly I had seen in my eight consecutive falls of hunting Alaska, but he was certainly big enough to make my life miserable. And if this one acted like a dozen others I had encountered, he would eventually catch my scent and succumb to curiosity. My only hope was that our next inevitable meeting would end peacefully since I didn't have a bear tag in my pocket. Four hours earlier my partner and I hadn't a care in the world. A bush plane had just dropped our gear and us into a remote mountain river valley in Alaska's Brooks Range. Our plan was to kill a couple boomer caribou, catch a couple char, and eat freeze-dried meals to our heart's content. Bear encounters weren't part of our plans. On our first anticipatory stroll out of camp, we headed for the nearest 500-foot rise and climbed its barren, gentle slope. At the top it ended abruptly with a shear cliff. The river below was the same one our tent was guarding less than a mile away, and beyond the river sprawled a previously unseen willow flat more than a mile-wide. Our first scan revealed no caribou and the reason why. A large brown blob was working his way across the plain, rooting for anything edible. The interior grizzly was headed our direction, but didn't know he was being watched. We returned to camp undetected, but both knew the wind would eventually betray our campsite. Three hours later, I interrupted lunch with a frantic "bear, bear bear!" The bruin we watched a mile away had made his way around us and popped up over a small rise only 20 feet away. When he stood on his hinds to get a look at us, my hunting partner and I started scrambling. He grabbed his rifle and I grabbed my camera. As we yelled at the intruder, he dropped back to all fours and began circling us. When he got to the opposite side of the tent, I told my friend to hold fire and instead try to tag him with a rock. His perfect throw caught the bear square between the eyes, which immediately stopped his gradual movement in our direction. Then the bear did something I've never seen a bear do while less than 20 yards from a human. After inspecting the offending rock, he dropped to his belly and rolled over. He proceeded to roll around in front of us for all of five minutes.
Throughout most of his display he kept an eye on us, but a couple times he just stared into space. He seemed completely unimpressed with us, and clearly had no respect for modern ballistics. "If he takes another step our way, I'm really gonna shoot this time," my friend informed me, a little frustrated that I didn't let him shoot the first time. I agreed, but to our delight, the bear ended his display by sitting up on his behind for a second, then just walking straight away.
THE BEAR FACTS:
Had this bear, or any of the others I have had close encounters with in Alaska over the years, wanted to attack, we would have likely lost the battle. Grizzlies can reach speeds nearing 35 miles per hour in a split second and can cover 50 yards in less than three seconds. At only 20 yards, it would have been unlikely that we could have placed a killing shot on the bear before he reached us and attacked. Only a solid hit to the brain or spinal column would have stopped the bear in his tracks. Both are small, difficult targets, even on a standing bear. Though I never trusted the bear, I quickly decided he was not a threat. Had we run, it would have likely ended differently. After hearing about our bear encounter, Larry Van Daele, Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist for Kodiak Island commented. "If that was a young bear, you likely confused him when you tagged him with the rock," he said. "Perhaps for the first time, he met something that had a much longer reach than he could understand." In fact, I judged the bear to be maybe only seven-foot squared, and around 500 pounds. Not small, by any means, but not a monster, even for an interior grizzly. Van Daele went on to explain that grizzly bears have an intelligence level somewhere between a dog and a primate, and added that they certainly all have their own personality. "That bear might have been playing, but he also might have been deciding whether he should charge or not," he said. I believe this year's bear was just curious. Like so many other bears that have approached me in Alaska, this one detected a foreign smell in his valley and had to check it out. Happily for my partner and I, he was satisfied to just show us his behind and make a lazy retreat back to his willow patch., however, prompting the bruin to instinctually chase and attack. DON MULLIGAN
We will leave for our winter home in a few days. Our winter residence is in Casa Grande, Arizona, a great place to enjoy the warmer winter breezes. We are located at the Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort. Included is a Slide Show I entered in a Palm Creek Computer Club competition. I think it will give you a good idea of all there is to do. Sure going to be nice to leave the snow and ice behind!
You may purchase a video copy of "My Winter Home" for $10.00. Postage free in US.
Looks like you guys are trying to eradicate all evidence of your Beautiful Country. Don't do that, I hope to visit someday. I notice that some of you have been trying to add a comment. It seems difficult, even to me. Suggestion; use "anonymous" in comment profile.
This is what autumn looks like here in Fairbanks, the "Golden Heart City". I might have been a bit too early, but wanted to get these pictures before it snowed, or the leaves fell to the ground. We haven't had our first good hard freeze yet. The geese are leaving, was hoping to include them in one of the shots. No luck, listen carefully maybe you can hear them...
I began this Blog spot on July 17, 2009. In less than two months we have had a total of 437 hits or visitors. I have to admit, many of those hits were made by me, in effort to better understand the process of building this site. Regardless, it is encouraging to see this visual report which indicates where those visits originated (a mouse click on the map will give an even more detailed view). Thank you for visiting with us, I hope you will continue. It's been a lot of fun!
Sitka’s O’Connell Bridge, connects Baranof Island and Sitka, to Japonski Island. Dedicated in 1972, the 1225 foot long bridge is the first cable-stayed girder-span bridge built in the United States. The principal venue on Japonski Island is the "Sitka Rocky Guitierrez Airport". There is a single runway, 6,500 feet that juts off Japonski Island as a paved causeway of sorts. The airport features a single terminal with a jetway that serves the sole jet service provider, Alaska Airlines. Interestingly, safety hazards include boulders from the causeway washing onto the runway during storms, high winds because of its exposed location, and large flocks of birds that live very close to the airport. Also located on Japonski Island are the: University of Alaska Southeastern, Indian Health Service Hospital, Mt. Edgecumbe High School, the port facilities and air station for US Coast Guard, and last but not least a beautifully designed community of ocean front future home lots, ranging in price from $264K to $607K. We liked it so much, Lesley wants to buy, and probably will when she wins the Lottery.
The point I would like to make is recently a proposal was made and funds were awarded to build a similar bridge in Ketchikan, Alaska. The need and opportunity is almost identical. Both communities utilize a nearby island to locate their airport; both airports were assessable only by a ferry. Available Real Estate in Ketchikan, like Sitka, is sparse and prices are high. Hundreds and thousands of cruse ship passengers visit both communities weekly. A description of the areas beauty would be best phrased by a poet, but one thing I am sure of, it’s real. Access to the island would be a developers dream and a new generations promise. My point, I don’t want to ever again hear "a bridge to nowhere".
We are leaving tomorrow on our last trip of the season. Leaving early as we need to arrive in Haines, Alaska, for the 9:00 AM sailing of the M/V Malaspina to Juneau, on Wednesday. We will overnight in Juneau, and depart for Sitka the next morning early, again traveling on the Alaska Marine Highway. Haines, Juneau and Sitka are located on the southeastern peninsula of Alaska. To get to Haines, will will leave Alaska and travel a short distance through the Yukon Territory of Canada. Southeastern Alaska contains some of the most beautiful panoramas found within the Alaskan Palette. Sitka rates fifth in the large city category, with only ten thousand inhabitants. Juneau, our Capital, is in third place with approximately thirty thousand people (assuming the Legislature is in session). Haines has less than two thousand year around residents, but still high on the list. We will conclude our two week vacation with a stop in Valdez before continuing home. Have a boat rental arranged and hope to get a few gigantic "Silvers" for the freezer!!
We left Fairbanks on Friday morning, July 31st, heading south. The local forecast was for smoke and more smoke! Our first stop was in Denali National Park. The difference in air quality was all that we could hope for, Clear and Sunshine, it had rained the day before. Because I promised the possibility of providing a few pictures, take a look at that mountain. It was out in all its abundance. The picture above was taken at the Eielson Visitors Center, about 80 miles into the park. As for the Wildlife, I didn't go away with an empty camera, exactly!
The Tanana Valley State Fair opened on Friday. Here's Marge Meyer, of Fairbanks, with her 43.03 pound cabbage entry. Her secret, "I sing and dance to it, but the sun has to be shining, too." Brad Olson won the contest with a 56.42 pounder. Marge's husband, Roy is the record holder with a 66 pounder in 2006. They did a lot of "singing and dancing" that summer!
The free "Old Timers Luncheon" is on Wednesday. Now that's an event Lesley and I are always ready to share in. Even get to sing and dance!
With forest fires surrounding us, we have decided to leave town for a couple of days. One very large fire is burning south of town, 342,000 acres or approximately 5,324 square miles, is inundating Fairbanks with smoke and ash. It's raining in Anchorage, so will head in that direction. We haven't seen the big mountain, "Denali" or "Mt. McKinley" as you southerners call it, lately. Maybe we will have some wild life pictures to share when we return....
By Fairbanks standards, it was like New Year's Eve in Times Square. Thousands of people came to witness Governor Sara Palin pass the rein of power to her Lieutenant Governor, The Honorable (that's what the playbill called him) Sean Parnell. Before the ceremony, Governor Palin helped in cooking and serving a gigantic spread of hotdogs and hamburgers, for what has evolved into the Annual Governor's Day Picnic. It was a beautiful sunshine filled day, with temperatures in the eighties. Kudos to the cook, we had a great time.
At 4:oo PM, Thursday, July 23, the 1st Annual Chena River Golf Classicwas launched from Grayle Landing, here in Fairbanks. All you needed were; a riverboat, golf clubs, bunny boots, Snow machine helmet, a designated driver(in the event alcohol is involved), a sense of humor and a fierce Alaskan competitive spirit. We played nine holes, each hole requiring a river crossing. Of the 20 teams competing, the "Cast Iron Swingers",captained by Bill Murr, finished with a respectable score of plus 6. Not to shabby for a 3 par scramble. Am anxiously awaiting the local sports report to see how we did overall. We all had a great time, and looking forward to next year.
I've been busy developing this blog site, and haven't had the energy to do an interesting post. The Governor is coming to town. The Governors Day Picnic should provide an opportunity for some great "Pin Ups". Sorry, I understand she will be leaving her Snow Machine at home!
Please Support your President on Health Care! Write your Representatives in Congress to do the same, and quit sending me e-mails requesting me to do otherwise.
Can’t you see them prancing, Rudolph with his red nose, so bright; On Dasher, on Dancer, on Prancer and Vixen, on Comet, on Cupid, on Donner and Blitzen. Snow at last, Snow at last! Fairbanks is now covered with a beautiful carpet of white snow. A snow cover that will surely last until our return in late April. I’m so convinced it will last awhile, I plan to disconnect the rain gutters today and store them away for the winter. And, I’ll leave the snow shovels in a conspicuous spot, so my neighbors can find them, Cuzz, Santa Claus is coming to Town….
