I'm sure this eagle pictured, is the same eagle, I watched mature this past winter. This tree presides over a dumpster and a lot of lower life birds hang around in the vicintity. Meaning G-U-elevens (seagulls) and the like. Until the fish come into port thats what the American Bald Eagle eats. All the dumpsters have lids. Small dogs are kept at bay. Fish carcasses are protruding and soon fresh fish will be running.
Happy Monday! Now that its over.
Took these pictures last night when Roxy and I went on our nightly walk down to the river. She pulls me on the leash (which I really like) on the road. Then at the river, right now snow edge, the leash comes off.
On the way to the bridge a couple teenagers in a zippy car with spoilers and lights were heading down our dead end road at a steady clip.
At the river, Roxy, is running and playing in the snow. (I'm getting a frisbee to see if she's like that.) I hear a vehicle coming across the bridge and its Valdez finest. They head down our dead end road also. After a bit I hook the leash back up to Roxy and head back up to the road. Sure enough, the black suburban that stops at the stop sign, returning from our dead end road, has THE DOG in the back seat, with the window rolled down. Its a black lab and when he sees Roxy he starts barking "hey baby! wanna ride?"
Course Roxy barks back "get a real job and I'll think about it."
The teenagers pulled out from behind a shed two minutes behind them.
ADN Stock Photo~
Its traditional for the gillnetters to kiss the first red king caught on the Copper River Flats (where the Copper River meets the Gulf of Alaska.)
May 15th is the commercial opener of the first, fresh and wild Copper River Reds & Kings. It will be a little while before the salmon make it upriver to the dipnetters & subsistance fish wheels.
Time to sharpen the knives and look for deals on cases of salmon cans (1/2 pound flats.) The price here at Eagle (non-union Safeway) is $34.99!!! I hope I can beat that gouging in Anchorage or the valley. Paying $35 for a case of empty cans hurts. I try and can 10-12 cases of reds every summer.
after a summer rain. Yukon sent this picture to me a long time ago and I'm glad I saved it. I needed some color in my life today. The snow is melting fast and its not raining. Just overcast but it sure is ugly around here this time of year. Pussywillows and alders are budding and thats about it besides snow, gravel and mud. Took Roxy for a walk today on the road to the Bridge to Nowhere and checked the trails out. Soon, we'll be able to walk straight to the beach from here.
Kudos goes to Grandma DoDo for Photoshopping this picture of her grandson, Jayce, future CEO. What a hip Grandma!
Its Friday night and I already got my new FREE replacement 17in Flat Screen . Can you believe that? Dell even paid the shipping for the new monitor and sending the defunct one back. We figure, since the IT guy at the college dealt with them from his college email address, Dell thought they were dealing with the college whom buy a lot of Dells. The only reason we can come up with Dell being so nice. Saved me a couple hundred bucks and I feel like a valued customer. Thank-you Dell.
Now, my dsl service is another story. It likes to go down at night when they think everybody is sleeping. I called the phone company this morning to complain and they asked me what my phone number was. I told them "look it up in the phone book. I'm going cable."
Happy weekend!
New enacted law in Alaska. The lawmen of this great state can pull you over just to check and see if you and your passengers are abiding by the decades old seatbelt law.
While there they will ask for an ADL and Geico insurance. And who knows what else.
http://www.alaskastar.com/index.shtml
Alaska Star-->Story Last modified at 11:46 a.m. on Monday, November 28, 2005
From A to Z - things to be thankful for
Alaska, Alaska Highway, alpenglow, armrests, attics, audio books, aurora borealis.
Bait casters, B.B. guns, beaver dams, bees, bears, Birchwood, bowls made of clay that kids make, bug spray.
Cabins, Car Talk, cat doors, change jars, chimneys, choices, christians (only the quiet, humble, lower-case-C type who do good rather than the loud, arrogant upper-case-C variety who tell others to do good), Chugiak, Chugiak High School Choir, civil disobedience, community councils, Converse All Stars, Constitution, Copper River, courtrooms, creaky floorboards, crooked creeks, crossing guards.
Dawn, delete buttons, democracy, Denali, depth perception, dew, dipnets, Dodge Darts, dogsleds, dragonflies, dreams, driftwood, dry clothes, duct tape.
Eagles, Eagle River, Eagle River Road, Eagle River Valley, Eagle River Wolves, Earth, eBay, Election Day, elementary school plays, elephants, empty in-boxes.
Farsightedness, fellowship, finding a feather, firefighters, fireweed, firewood, first love, first snow, fizz, flannel, flush toilets, folding chairs, footrests, forest floors, foresightedness, forgiving friends, freethinking, fresh fish, fresh fruit, Fridays, fuzz.
German shepherds, ginger ale, glaciers, glass, grass, grass roots campaigns, grocers.
Hand-me-downs, hardware stores, Heidi's spirit, horses, hot water, Huck Finn, huskies.
Intelligent debate, I don't know, iPods.
Jelly beans (only the little ones that come in those creative flavors, such as root beer), Jimmy Carter, junk drawers.
Karma (only good), kazoos, kickstands, killer whales, kites, knock-knock jokes (only when kids tell them.)
Lakes, lantern light, lasagna, laughter, leather, leftovers, lemonade stands, libraries, Lions Club Thanksgiving dinner, live-and-let-live, Little League coaches, little lies, loons, lunch boxes, lynx.
Magic shows, Mallo Cups, mapmakers, McMurtry novels, memories, meteor showers, moderation, moonlit mountains, moose, mushrooms, Mustangs, mutts.
Natural selection, nicknames, night tables, North Star, Novocain, now, nurses.
Oak dressers, Op-Ed pages, old friends, old growth forests, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," open meetings, opposable thumbs, owls, ozone layer.
Paperboys (and girls), parents of adopted children, PBS, peanut butter (only Jiff creamy), pebbles (except in my shoe), penguins, Peters Creek, Phil Hendrie Show, Photoshop, pianos, plaid, pockets (only big and deep ones), pocketknives, poets, polar ice cap, polar bears, pressure cookers, ptarmigan.
Q-Tips (Though I haven't used one for years, I'm grateful that they are still available in case I ever want one.)
Rain, rainbows, rain checks, ravens, reading lights, reflective tape, reindeer, rest areas, rolodexes, rotary phones, root beer, roundabouts, rubber bands.
Salmon streams, Schwinn Continentals, scorekeepers, Scout leaders, Scrabble, scratch paper, sea ice, second chances, seesaws, Senior Center, serenity, simple solutions, sky, slant six engines, sled dogs, sleep, sleeping bags, Sleeping Lady, snow, soap, songbirds, soup, south-facing slopes, spaghetti, spaghetti westerns, Steelers.
Teachers, term limits, thrift stores, Thermos bottles, today, Tonka Trucks, troops.
United Nations, United States, United States presidents (only those who don't divide the country by lambasting half - or more - of the people whenever those people question his policies), United We Stand.
Veterans, veterinarians, volunteers, voters.
Wagging tails, walking sticks, water, wax, We the People, whales, when you want nothing, wilderness, wind, windmills, wolves, wrinkles don't hurt.
X-rays that come back negative.
Yarn, yarns, yo-yos (only Duncans).
Ziplock storage bags (except when you forget to open them before attempting to slip in a slimy salmon fillet).
- Tony Bickert
My friend Carrie, helping the FishTaxi pack smoked Copper River Reds, a couple of summers ago. (Its funny because she won't know I posted this picture. Only a couple of real life friends read my blog and Carrie isn't one of them.)
I'd like to take this opportunity to say "hi" to Yukon and not to worry. I won't post a picture of you! Hardy har har
I have not told a soul at work about my blog. No reason except that blogging is something I do away from work.
Speaking of work. The maintenance lead had Photoshop installed on the shop computer last night. I asked "why didn't they do this 10 weeks ago?" I could have been working on Photoshop instead of cleaning all this time! I did get a work assignment though. Make a sign to be sent away and have a real sign made out of it. Pretty cool. I worked on it about an hour tonight and I should have it completed by Friday. If not sooner.
Saved in psd format means the layers can be tweaked still. Thank goodness! We have 3 hrs in class Monday night before the Final Project is due.
Sure was fun but I'm glad Photoshop class is almost over with.
After finals this week I go on days 10-7pm! How cool is that? I'll get up at 8am and saunter into work at 10, lunch at 2 and off at 7pm. Perfect hours for the FishTaxi in the summer.
Mr. FishTaxi took these photos out at the airport today. Only pics of planes are in the background of John Stellings "new" red truck and Hanks old station wagon.
I stayed home with cramps and worked on Photoshop.
When I first drove by these Port-a-Potties I thought the signs read "For Sale". I had to turn around and take a picture.
The guys that used to own this lucrative business were the Leitch Brothers. They sold out and moved to Anchorage years ago. Now Dan the Man rents them out. Sorry folks, not for sale.
Its a miracle I'm blogging tonight. Got home from work and walked Roxy. (She is doing so good. I've been brushing her everyday. She loves the attention and reciprocates by minding well.)
After the walk I made myself a dirty martini and logged on. My 17in Dell flat screen blinked on for a second then went blank! Rebooted and that did not help. I'm frantic at this point. I took Friday off and intended on working on my final Photoshop project at home this weekend. Which is "Design the cover of P-Dub's Fall Schedule".
Right away I called the IT guy who gets off work at 9:30 hoping he would still be up at 11 and he was. I explained my dilemma and he told me to go "back to college" and get another monitor. (I have a key because I'm the one who locks up.) Drop my "on the blink monitor" off and he'll look at it tomorrow. So I did and thank goodness it wasn't my hard drive and the borrowed monitor is working fine. Whew!
I have my design in mind. This will be the first project that we can use our own pictures. And a good incentive is the winner of the best design will get the cover of a 1000 PWSCC fall schedules. I'll post my design. Win or lose. Due Monday LAST CLASS!
Mr. FishTaxi gets the credit for this picture of Prince William Sound on Valdez Bay, off of Gold Creek, practicing oil spill disasters.
When the Exxon Valdez hit the chartered rock Bligh Reef (named by Captain Cook after his navigator William Bligh) in the early spring of 1989 the oil never spilled into Valdez Bay. It didn't follow the tanker traffic purple lane to London either.
It was ironic that the super tanker that spilled a 11 million barrels of Alaska crude into Prince William Sound was named the Exxon Valdez. Did you know that the infamous tanker went on to bigger and better things? Renamed the Medditteranean Sea sails the Indian Ocean and beyond.
Never allowed in Prince William Sound again.
Finally! You could just feel everyones spirit rise with the sun after days of snow/rain, rain/snow. I heard more people the last week talk about moving out of here. This past winter wasn't easy with the high cost of heating fuel. Why Valdez doesn't have natural gas piped over from TAPS (Trans-Alaska Pipeline Service) terminus I'll never know. Sure would make life easier, cleaner and less costly for Valdez residents. Electricty went up 50%, too. For our household, just to maintain it, costs an average of $500 a month just in utilities which includes phone/dsl/ cable. Everyone knows the economic effect of the high cost of living falls on the consumer so groceries are sky high. Now they are saying gas should be $4 a gallon by July 1st. Thats $40 for 10 gallons! yikes! The price we pay to live in such a beautiful setting, on some days...other days we wonder what the heck we are doing here.
Wow, its amazing what good batteries can do. I went to Radio Shack and got Lithium batteries. 4 AAs for $14. I'll see how long they last to see if they are worth it. I sure like the picture quality. Course, with a beautiful model like Roxy, how can I miss?
She is laying right next to me. She is so good! I had to leave her home today since she doesn't like my truck. Plus, the weather has been miserable. Snow & cold rain for days. We still went for walks though. More like short spurts. She knows where she lives now and that its dry and warm. Last night when we went to bed and settled in, Little Sistor, creeped out. She layed down next to my head and started purring. I told her just because we have a dog now doesn't mean we don't still love her. She seemed to be fine with that and this morning she walked all around Roxy. The cats went outside when I left for work. They like to hang out in the attic, so thats the only reason I left Roxy home alone on her first day, with the cats. Everyone is adjusting and getting along well. Even Mr. Fishtaxi.
She has a lot of Rocketts' mannerisms. He was part Aussie, you know.
I skipped Photoshop class tonight so I didn't have to go in to work 3 hours early. I turned in Project Four on a CD though. The quiz tonight was standing up in front of the class with your sticker, brochure and poster on the big screen and giving a 3 minute speech how you did it. If you didn't want to give the speech and still got the project in on time, you just got a zero on the quiz, but it wouldn't effect your grade on the project. I opted for not only eating a zero but not listening to everybody else's speeches.
Those 3 hours were better spent with my dog.
This is a funny picture of her. I got one blurry pic before my batteries went dead. Had just enough juice to download it. I'll get more tomorrow and get a better picture of her.
She has one blue eye and one brown eye with yellow around it. So when I tried taking the red eye out it worked on the blue eye but not the brown without looking like she had a black eye.
When I picked her up at Debbie's they helped lift her in the truck. Seems Roxy doesn't like jumping in and out of trucks. Got her home and it took me a while to coax her out of the truck but when she did everything was fine. We went for a couple of walks introducing her to the neighborhood and she did her daily duty. She met our cat Halfrack but Lil Sistor is still in hiding. She'll come around eventually.
She was sheding like crazy but I think part of it was nerves. She's calmed down now and is sleeping peacefully on her doggie bed.
Roxy is a beautiful, loving dog! Craigslist rocks!
Woke up to about 4 inches of fresh, wet snow. Good day to stay home and work on my PhotoShop final project.
Update on Roxy! Since I wasn't able to get Friday off and go to Wasilla a friend is picking her up for me and will bring her to Valdez Sunday. The owners are having complications and going back and forth to the hospital and can't wait for me to come up next weekend. I don't blame them and when Debbie offered to pick her up on her way back from Anchorage they said that would be fine. They've been keeping her in the garage and the sooner she gets to her new home the better.
I know it will take time for her to adjust (and me, too!) but I'm sure it it is going to work out just fine.
Back to work on my project...due Monday.
Arrived in the mail today all the way from China. The guys tried to surprise me but I walked in the shop when they were putting it together.
We have to weld "pDUB" on it and I'll pull it inside every night so nobody can steal it.
Its that cool!
Photo taken by Ms.M of Fairbanks, Alaska posted on her blog at http://wordsfromafrozenmind.blogspot.com/ Check out more of her photos of the ice carving contest. Great job Ms.M and thank-you for letting me steal the ice fish photo!
My long Monday with work & Photoshop is over. Thank goodness. Woke up to no coffee at home to the espresso machine broke down at work. No coffee all day and I was dragging butt. Drinking cold coffee (beer) now. Tastes so good after the coffeeless day I had.
We played around with Photo Imaging and animations tonight. I felt way in over my head. The gal sitting next to me is a college tutor and an artist. I had more fun watching her creations. She's good at it. I'll be happy just to get my final project done and get a passing grade.
For sale on Anchorage Craigslist. http://anchorage.craigslist.org/
I check Craigslist every day and the other day a dog found me. I miss having a dog and have been waiting a long time.
Her name is Roxy and she's a 3 year old Australian Sheppard. Her owners are having a new baby any day with a 3yo boy and don't have the time to spend with her so they are giving her away to a good home. Out of all the emails & phone calls they received they picked me! We are going to pick her up when we go to Anchorage to see our new mod home. She's in Wasilla.
I'm so excited! I will take her every where with me. Even to work. She gets along with cats and is beautiful. I'll post a pic when I get back to work. I forgot to forward the pics they sent me home.
I'm making potato salad and we're having big, fat juicy beef steaks for dinner. With a freezer full of moose & venison, beef is a rarity around here. I made biscuits & gravy for brunch with moose sausage. I love cooking on the weekends. HEck, I love weekends!
Edit-Took this picture Thursday night from the parking lot at work at about 11pm. The lower one I photoshopped.
Did you know its no longer PC to say "Test on Friday or a pop quiz , etc?"
Saying that just makes a student nervous to where they might fail, just at the thought of a test, let alone a pop quiz.
So now the gentler way of getting your point across and not scaring the students is to say it something like this:
"Close your book, put on your thinking cap and get prepared for a SKILL INVENTORY!" muhahahahha
The Crocuses were spotted near the front steps of Pdub today!
It was raining/snowing so they were not blooming but still a sight to behold.
I gave the rose bush a huge drink of food & water. Part of my job this summer will be taking care of the plants. Watering, feeding and deadheading. I'll help with the planting too but the city flower lady will be in charge of that.
It will be fun for me to get paid to play outside in the dirt. First though, I have to make it through Thursday, which is my 6 month review on the job. They've been known to fire janitors at 6 months because after that, since its a union job, it is harder to fire. I'm shooting for a raise and shift differential for working nights.
Then I'm buying a modern home.
One can of Red Hot Chili Pepper freshpack Copper River Reds (pictured below).
Elbow macaroni, pickles, black olives and Best Foods mayo.
I took a pic of the finished product but it turned out blurry and even Photoshop couldn't help it. My batteries must have been low (it couldn't have been the photographer:) and we already ate it by the time I downloaded the pictures!
We worked on our loan application for the new mod(ern) home this weekend. We have an appt with the bank Tuesday. If all goes well we are going to Anchorage next weekend to walk through it and make an offer.
Saturday, Mr. FishTaxi tried in vain to dig out a pathway to the shed where his beloved motorcycle spends the winter. He managed to get in there and sit on it and start it up! Poor guy, I couldn't help but giggle. Next weekend, baby!
Started 3 flats of Livingstone Daisies today. One for my daughter, one for a friend and one for me. Debated on starting more flowers but with foundation construction going on this summer I decided to wait til fall and plant bulbs. Tulips, irises and trees. With a permanent foundation I'll get back into landscaping. Can't wait!
Have a great week everybody! I think I'm over Daylight Savings Time Sleep Syndrome.
[title a lyric from a
Pinkard & Bowden fishing song]
Picture is of a halibut carved out of soapstone.
http://www.naalive.com/cataloglistingitem.aspx?lotid=1533538
Edit: THe halibut sold for $900.00!!!
Carved out of bone-->>
I got this picture from http://www.alaskaauction.com/upcoming.html
Its an auction site that I like to watch. I'd love to go in person some day. If you happen to be in Anchorage check it out. The prices the art & jewelry go for are incredible. You can bid on whole storage units, palletts of stuff, estate sales to everything under the sun.
You can bid on-line but you have to pay a lot extra for shipping and handling. Makes the deals not so sweet. Be better to go in person and walk out with your treasures.
Its heart-breakingly fun to watch and see what the items sell for. If I remember right this School Of Salmon went for $20.00!
The actual time that I took this picture was 10:45 pm. Nobody has bothered to spring ahead the hands of time yet. And time goes backwards on it. Its the craziest clock I've seen in a while. I'm used to it so I can figure out what time it is unnormally fast. I'm getting younger every day according to the clock at the shop.
If you've ever been through Glennallen on the Glenn Highway you've passed this old lodge. Gone are the days of traveling Alaska highways stopping at lodge to lodge. Many reasons like they kept burning down, couldn't afford required by law handicap access renovations and the main reason I believe is cars run better and further these days. No reason to stop if the road is good and you have enough gas to get to the big city. Another reason could be the DUI laws stopped drivers from stopping in for drinks for the road.
Last summer, on our camping/fishing trips to Lake Louise, I noticed somebody had started fixing this old lodge up. The boarded windows were replaced with windows and through the long window on the left you could see a big table with people sitting down for dinner. It looked like the new owners were not fixing it up to open for business but to live in.
It will be interesting to see what they do with it.
Earlier tonight I went to the store and got my Nenana Ice Classic tickets. While I was there I browsed the movie section. Its been a really long time since I've watched a movie. I hardly ever watch TV either. Mr. FishTaxi loves that as he watches his hunting/fishing shows like they are going out of style.
Well, tonight I'm going to catch up with the rest of the world and watch Million Dollar Baby. I also rented Memoirs of a Geisha and March of the Penguins. They are due back on Thursday so thats one a night.
I'll work on my final Photoshop project during the day before work and the weekends. Its a biggie. A poster, a brochure and a logo all pertaining to one fictional Alaska kids Camp. I have 3 weeks to finish it so I thought a movie break would be the great escape I could use right now.
FBI WARNING: All kids be quiet! Its movie time!
~Later that night...Wow! What a great movie! I give it 3 stars. Warning!! Spoiler!!!
I knew it was going to be about boxing but I didn't expect her to die at the end. I wanted her to win a million bucks and buy that diner.
Bummed me out that Frankie never got an answer from his daughter. Left us hanging. Maybe they'll make a sequel.
His daughter's daughter could show up.
That Catholic priest was funny. Leave it to Hollywood.
Morgan Freeman could recite the phonebook and make it interesting. (Stole that line from David Letterman) I loved the Bleach scene! And when Maggie sees his room she genuinely says its nice. The HBO and holey socks comments were too real. Frankie would give him money for socks and he'd go to the track then when he comes to his room he sees he's got HBO. Maggies trip home was surreal. The welfare plight is way too real. Her mother shoving that pen in her mouth made me gag. I was waiting for Frankie to beat them up.
My dad used to put boxing gloves on us kids in the basement when we were fighting. I had longer arms than any of my siblings. So after I got done winning every bout Dad would put his fingers in the gloves and whomp on me. So I learned from early on theres always somebody with longer arms than you.
