Dog Gone Right

Under the Boardwalk

Down by the Sea

Beautiful day in Prince William Sound. Took a hike around Dock Point with Roxy and rested on the lookout park bench. Did some serious thinking and soul searching. Decided I needed to take this opportunity of unenjoyment and go to the inpromptu Wheathole concert in Talkeetna Friday night! DANNY SCHMIDT!!! and other local Alaskan indie artists!! Then Saturday continue on up the Parks Hwy to Fairbanks and visit family and some good friends who are moving to California on Monday. Then back down the Richardson to Tonsina in time for my sister's 50th birthday! We are the same age for 6 days and its been a long time since we've spent our birthday week together. When we were kids we would dress up as twins. I'm still working out the details but I know I can make it happen. Take a little break before I look for work. I can check on fish on my way back, too. Mr. Fishtaxi won't be surprised when I lay my plans on him tonight.

I'm Free!!

There is a job opening for Custodian at Pdub now that I flew the coop. It all came to a head (literally) yesterday at 11:40am. Read on for the grizzly details and the poop scoop.

Last week I put in a work order to fix the toilet in the handicap stall of the womens bathroom. Everyday there was a present in there for me because it doesn't flush right. It takes 7, maybe more, flushes and who besides the custodian is going to flush the toilet that many times in a public bathroom.

When the maintenance guys wanted me to unplug the toilet, because they didn't fix the toilet,(which they thought they did and marked it off as done on the work sheet) and it plugged up yet again. This time with a tampon!?! the woosies freaked out and decided I had to do the dirty deed. Three maintenance guys, getting paid up to twice as much as me, and none of them can fix a toilet right so I have to do it? I said no way and they started crying "its your job!" When they broke down and did it and found out it was the wrong vacuum breaker for the flush valve that was causing the problem they were heros in their own mind.

I was happy it was fixed right and cleaned the bathroom and continued cleaning when the lead maintenance man came into the mens bathroom where I was working and said "its part of your job to unplug toilets, shovel snow and strip & wax the floors. We've been lenient and helping you with these tasks so..."

I couldn't hear any more crap. Turned my keys in, cleaned out my locker, grabbed my sandwich I brought for lunch out of the fridge and left. Never to look back.

The President did call me to see if I calmed down enough to come in for a meeting to get my job back. I thanked him and said it was time for me to move on. Asked if I could use him as a reference and he said certainly. I was going to be missed.

Not sure what I'm going to do now besides turn my house into a cannery and go get some fish!

Paris hairdo

Picture taken at the new Men's Vogue mag. In Paris.

This is the hairdo my hair is perfect for.

I do it all the time. ANd it doesn't give me a headache.

Whole Wheat Radio Logo Exhibition

Having fun with Photoshop this weekend (in between being a housefrau). My friends at Whole Wheat Radio [link on the sidebar] are always coming up with fun things to do while listening to the best internet radio station on the planet. If you haven't checked the link lately please do again. They changed over to a Wiki site and I like it a lot better. It seems more interactive and user friendly. Either that or I'm getting more computer savy.

The Whole Wheat Radio Logo Exhibition is open to anyone. I tried my hand at it with the two logos on the bottom. Then I took all the logos, so far, and put them on a 8 x 11.5 page. I saved it in psd format so when more logos are made I can add them, too.

RIP Rocky Fuller

Alaska's family circle of friends lost their favorite bartender, student and fishmonger on July 6th in Seattle. Rothel Hoyt Fuller II, died peacefully in his sleep, while attending the Fuller family reunion. His obiturary is in the Anchorage Daily News today.

I met Rocky in 1980, through my sister Niki, when he was bartending at Chilkoot Charlie's legendary Little Bar. Later on he commercial shrimped out of Valdez so I got to see him every summer. Rocky was one semester shy of receiving his BA in accounting from UAA. He was so happy when he passed Statistics that he said "he'd never say "Statistics" again."

One summer in Valdez somebody stole his duffle bag while he was in a phone booth talking to me. He got a cab ride out here then called the cops to report it stolen. We had a police scanner at the time. The dispatcher was on the phone to Rocky and the radio to the cops at the same time while Rocky was describing the contents of his duffle bag. Apparently the cop's were at the suspects camp and needed positive identification of his belongings. Rocky was telling the dispatcher the raunchy sayings displayed on his t-shirts and when we heard the dispatcher relay the sayings to the cops we cracked up and so did anybody that had their ears on. What Rocky really wanted in his bag were his specially made brand new shoes his was saving for when he got off the shrimp boat. When the police seized his belongings as evidence Rocky opted not to press charges as he needed his shoes back.

The last time I talked to Rocky he was willing to take a draw from his monthly disabilty check to help out a friend who needed deposit money to get into an apartment. He was that kind of guy and I was glad to have known him and proud to be one of his many Alaskan friends.

Gonna miss yah Rocky.

Fast Ferry

Its Friday night and I'm staying home. No plans of going camping this weekend. Going to fall back and regroup. Camping 3 weekends in a row sure was fun but fate will have its way and I won't reach my goal of camping every weekend the month of July. Its been a long month with that new carpet business at work and had I not got out of town every weekend this month so far my mind would have gone camping for good.

One Tough SUV

Last night, at the going away dinner, a co-worker asked if anybody had seen this duct-taped/cardboarded SUV around town. Nobody had at the time but we talked about the driving the haul road. It runs north of Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Ocean. A few years ago the state of Alaska took over the maintenance of the Dalton Hwy. The Dalton Hwy or Haul Road was built first for the construction of the TransAlaskaPipeline. Since the state took over, it opened to the public and many adventurous souls have taken the road since.

Then who pulls into Pdubs parking lot this afternoon but the guy driving the duct-taped/cardboarded SUV. He said he took it slow, had no flat tires and it was an adventure of a lifetime. Valdez to Prudhoe Bay and back SOLO. He also said he got lonely at times and kept on talking but I had to get back to work. Not until I snapped some pictures first.

Stained Glass for sale

Went to a good-bye dinner tonight after work for a new good friend I met working at the college. We all met at the FuKung, our local Chinese restaurant. After dinner we went over to the Club Bar for a couple of beers. The Club Bar is the office where everyone knows your name. I hadn't been in there for a while so it was like old home week. Barely made it out of there and home in time to blog before midnight. You know you are a blogger when you are high centered on a bar stool and take a picture pertaining to your blog.

The stained glass is by local artist Jim Thompson. The Fish sells for $200 and the Puffin a $125. My picture did not do them justice. You had to have been sitting there with me.

Mid-July Rainbow

It felt like mid-August today. Low fog and rain, typical for August, but July? Got down to 44 degrees last night. Heaters kicked on all over town. Then after a downpour late this afternoon the sun broke through. I thought theres got to be a rainbow. I walked around the building searching the sky and sure enough there was this low arch of a rainbow a couple blocks away.

Fun in the Sun

Chitina was sunny all weekend with just enough wind to blow away the bugs.

The mighty hunter/fishermen plinked a squirrel.

What to do with it? Cut off its head and boil the skull to keep on your nightstand!

Camp Chitina 2

Got back to town around 5pm today and immediately had to take a nap! It was so much fun! A friend came with me and other friends showed up and we played pretty hard. The only bummer was no FISH for me. The wheel had broke down and they just got it fixed and back in the water today. So it looks like another trip up next weekend just for a fish run. My sister is breaking down her camp and heading to work at a lodge for the next 2 weeks. Thats if she doesn't get this other job she really wants in Chitina.

Saturday night the boys caught a Dolly Varden that they cooked up for dinner. Us girls did a lot of hiking and fossil hunting. Roxy had a blast all week camping but she was happy to see me and come home. She napped right along with me. Now Mr. FishTaxi is cooking up shrimp for dinner. I'm going to jump in the shower and go to bed. Where did the weekend go?

All My Bags Are Packed

I'm ready to go...

Chitina Bound.

Be back Sunday.

~FishTaxi out

Teenie Tiny Shasta Daisies

When I spied these three wildflowers growing out of a crack in the cement they made my day!

Not a lot of excitement going on besides being the lone custodian of a building that is getting new carpet installed. Lots of excitement there. I handed out spraybottles of cleaner and disposable rags to all the office workers and told them to have at it. Most of them are rearranging their offices and having a good time. Nothing like new wall to wall carpet to shake things up a bit.

I plan on coming home Friday night from work, taking a shower, blog and take off to Chitina! My friend left the paddleboat at the White Mans house and I hear his grandkids are having a ball with it. Theres quite a few stocked lakes with trout around Chitina.

I miss Roxy but I know my dogs' having a good ol' time. She's a working breed and loves to have something to do outside. Can't wait to see her and my sister. And a few Copper River Reds won't hurt my eyes either!

Radishes Galore

As chilly and drizzly this summer has been the radishes are doing well. Today was actually a beautiful sunny day. My neighbors birthday and a good day to harvest her radishes and plant more. 55 days for this bounty!

Taking the old road

I usually only take the time to take the old Richardson Hwy during moosehunting season. Since I didn't have fish on board I took the time to meander the old road. After 30+years of hardly any use its a little overgrown. Creeks and rivers run through it now and only affordable with 4wd or motorcycle. I think about the old days traveling this road in a Model T truck full of tools, gold and fish. Tooting my horn around every corner looking forward to Thompson Pass. This is the new road with hi-fi reflectors to show you where the road goes. Pictures taken early evening July 9th.

White Mans Wood Pile

Old Indian saying, "You can tell how cold the winter is going to be by the size of the White Mans wood pile."

Camp Chitina

Total Blast! Didn't get any fish this trip but thats okay. I will next weekend.

My sister made her bed out of wood and bungee cords. Clever, eh? Her camp is so cool I left Roxy up there with her. Theres a griz hanging around on the mountain behind camp that if he does stop by Roxy will give enough fair warning to get the hell out of the bears right-a-way.

Can't wait to go back to Chitina. I'm going to spend the week working and getting my house ready to turn into a cannery. Take off Friday night and come back Saturday with a cooler full of 12 uniformic Copper River Reds.

Picnic Peak

Summer only happens once a year. Alaskans cram 6 months of summer into 3. Once I get my camping gear/galley together its easier to pack up and go.

Friday night at Lake Louise we cooked up shish kabobs with marinated venison I'd cut up and put in a ziplock bag with soy sauce and a spoon of chinese 5 spice before I left Valdez. Something about driving food for miles and miles makes it taste better. Worked so good I'm doing the same for Saturday night in Chitina.

Bringing empty coolers and a picnic basket.

I'll be back Sunday.

~FishTaxi out of town!

Big Bad Burbot

Burbot is known as freshwater lobster. White flesh that we steam whole with garlic, lemon and butter. This bad boys in the freezer to enjoy this winter while reminiscing about Lake Louise.

My sunburnt back is peeling and itching like crazy. Ever get goose pimples on a sunburn? Feels real good. Its taking me a couple days to get aclimated back to Valdez' chilly drizzle. Forcast for the weekend is more of the same. No matter. Sat morn I'm going to Chitina, on the west bank of the Copper River at its confluence of the Chitina River, to visit another sister and niece who are camping there for the summer. I'm bringing them good Valdez water, (all this rain and snow we get) watermelon and cantalope. Yup, barely unpacked from camping last weekend and packing it all up again. A friend is borrowing the paddleboat and going up with her son for a few days. I have to come back Sunday because at work on Monday they are getting new carpet installed and no time off until that major project is done.

Good chance I'll be canning Copper River Reds next week!

Captain Tanner

Snooze you lose was my mantra when I left rainy Valdez and drove over froggy Thompson Pass Friday night. I got my tent up with the view and woke up at THE LAKE.

Choice campsite. Enough room for everybody when they showed up. A few motorhomes pulled up Friday and I politely shooed them off to the State Park. I was on a mission.

Mr. FishTaxi hauled the paddleboat on the skiff trailer up early Sat morn. The boat launch was a short walk from our camp and from out on the water you could see our campsite and the end of Lake Louise road. We could also tie up our boats on the lake down from our campsite with a short trail up. Pretty handy!

The weather was perfect. The only mountains you could see were the Wrangels far off in the distance. Clouds just moved over and around Lake Louise with a few sprinkles that I wouldn't call rain being from Valdez. I am tanned after 5 days outside except for sleeping in my tent on Lake Louise.

The best time spent there was with my grand nephew. He's five years old and lives in Fairbanks so I don't see him much. We had so much fun on the paddleboat neither one of us even went on the skiff or the zodiac his dad friends brought. He was a little afraid at first but after he got his sea legs he was a pro. Full speed ahead Captain! Next year his legs will be longer and he can help Aunt Kathy paddle. Our plan is for the littlest boat to catch the biggest fish!