The Business of Living

They say it's an ill wind that bloweth no man to good. I think our own Dr. Joel Fleischman will attest to that. For those of you who missed it, Maggie scored a one round decision over Dr. Fleischman last night. Right jab to the old honker. Pow! T.K.O.
What better sign that the coho winds are once again upon us…
My advice this year, don't fight them, embrace them.
Know your enemy.
~Chris in the Morning, Northern Exposure

Sammie's House.  I just thought this was a great shot.

The Wild Wild West
The Alaska State Troopers dropped in to visit us last weekend. Well not so much to visit as to confiscate several community members for a little remediation else where.  Reminded me of the day Gram and Grampa called very concerned during my first year when another Quin local had found his 15 minutes of fame as the star of the reality show Alaska State Troopers, which of course, Gram and Gramp had been tuned into.  I assured them I was not in danger as I feel quite safe here.  Everyone knows everyone and watches out for each other. As a matter of fact it was the other community members who called the troopers to come pick up those few in need of appropriate behavioral reminders. All is well out here in the wild, wild, west.

You and Me Going Fishing on the Ice

 John Teddy took Connie and I on an ice fishing extravaganza up river this weekend.  We loaded up on JT's four wheel and hit the snow go trail. All was going great until we appeared to be off-trailing all over the frozen river.  I admit I got a little nervous, wasn't this the river that was flowing with water only days before due to the high tides.  Haven't we had some relatively warm days.  Shouldn't we be a little cautious I wondered to myself as John free wheeled all over the drifts and potentially unsafe cracked ice...so when we suddenly sploshed and dropped into a small pocket of thawed ice I leaped off and scrambled to the bank.  John proceeded on while Connie tapped his shoulder to draw his attention to the missing cargo. 

Me laying on the ice trying to dig out the hole

"What are you doing? I didn't think I was driving that crazy!" John confusedly questioned me. "Oh, I didn't fall." I assured him of his sufficient driving skills, "I jumped."  "You jumped?  Why?  This ice is good.  It's very deep," now he was puzzled, "Jump off a perfectly good four wheel?" he shook his head.   "John," I tried to justify, " I was going to save you in case we went through."  "Humph," he shook his head again, "you will help me chip our ice hole and then you'll know." Okay and to the left you can see me trying to reach down into the 4 foot deep hole (still no water) to dig out the chips of ice John had hacked away.  I would later have to dive into that same hole after the stick fishing pole as a fishy fishy took off with it when I wasn't paying close enough attention.  Shocker right?  Yeah, yeah.  Soaking wet up to my elbow but I saved the stick.  Anyway I wasn't so nervous about the ice on our way out, but we also took the road by land just to humor me.

"Let's Go For Coffee!"

This is Connie and my new mantra.  We love the idea of being able to go to the store and have coffee. Even though we haven't done it yet. We will, oh, yes we will.

 Beach Wanderings

The latest trek to the Bering yielded these fine specimens of kodak momentry. The sea ice is melting into all kinds strange shelving unitish pieces.  We saw our very first sea gull of the summer/spring.  It must have been lost.  There were no other sea gulls but it was like seeing the dove with an olive branch.  We identified with Noah and the Arc.  Chris just informed me that sea gulls mean only four more snows.  Hum, I think we've already had 4 more since we saw the sea gull.  

The Hat Unveiled

Friday night Dennis and Marsha were gracious enough to let me crash their pleasant evening.  I finally finished the infamous lynx/beaver hat (malaggai in Yup'ik).  Dennis officially has the patience of a saint walking me through this stitch by painful stitch.  It is finished and being modeled by Jerilyn's daughter here.

It's all in the 'temple'

This just in...the ushers can tell if you are chewing gum from across the church by watching your temple.  Sneaky, sneaky.

Brrrr.  The weather has been cold here.  Cold, cold, cold.  It's light out til 10:30 and freezing all day.

   
Shout Out To:  Coastal Villages Regional Fund, the Native Village of Kwinhagak, Bethel Native Corporation, Alaska West Outfitters, and Bethel Regional High School for the very generous donations each of these entities gave us which has enabled several of our intensive students to attend the1st Annual Bethel Regional High School Special Olympics Invitational!!! This is the first time Special Olympics Unified School Program has been hosted in rural Alaska!!  What an incredible experience for our kiddos up here!  Thanks to Zach Kramer at BHRS heading up this whole show.  This is going to be amazing and we get to be part of it!  Our kids are so excited.  Again, Quyana to those who have helped us make this possible for our kids.  This is going to be wonderful for our student athletes attending all of whom have never had the opportunity to travel with a team, stay overnight, participate in sports, or go to a restaurant .  We had money to buy matching team warm ups (they all look so professional!) and are borrowing the school basketball uniforms.  There is a formal dance Saturday night so we pulled all the prom dresses out of storage. The girls picked out dresses and the boys got suits.  I can not wait to see the fun that happens this weekend!  I'll be filling you in!  Have a great weekend yourselves!

"The wind blows to the south and turns to the north;
round and round it goes, ever returning on its course."
Ecclesiastes 1:6