well, its finally happened. I’ve avoided it for weeks, but I ultimately lost the battle. I got sick. Not that I’ve had much respite from the busy life of Haines, you understand. Its been a crazy week of juggling my schedule between Mountain Market and the kayaking, so that I could free up this weekend for the South East Alaskan State Fair, where I will be preforming, with others, as a Puppeteer in the Lilliputian Puppet Sideshow. My particular piece is entitled “psychoanalysis after the apocalypse.” However, apparently puppeteers are not a very rehersal minded bunch, and all of my theater instincts are screaming at me to run away, because a show this haphazard shouldn’t be preformed for any one. But, it goes on. I will report, after the fact.
Lets see, since I last posted, I have been to Canada for the first time, all the way up to the Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon. The best part about this was finding bread and cheese to make a man weep. Truly, I nearly did. Real German Volkhorn brot and bauern brot and oh me oh my. Also some great Guyere cheese that reminds one what cheese can be, if one is in the know. All in all, I spent fifty dollars on bread and cheese, along with some good honey and these amazing dutch waffle cookies which are not easy to find, and I usually have to have someone fetch them for me from amsterdam.
I also have seen my first brown bear. I was paddling along happily with a group on Wednesday when 600-700 pound brown bear came out of the alder not fifteen feet from my kayak. He didn’t seem terribly interested in me, or any one else however. He would look our direction, turn, and amble along ever so peacefully, as if we didn’t know he could catch up to our kayaks pretty easily if he so desired. There is something frightening about 700 pounds that can move like sprinter. I was counting myself lucky it wasn’t a sow with her cubs. Then we might have gotten charged. Which is a whole different blog post entirely. I expect more and more bear sightings this next week, considering the salmon are running in high numbers this next week.
Right, I must shower and breakfast myself. I put far to much cayanne pepper in my tea last night, in an attempt to shock my system out of being sick. It had the affect of making my throat feel like its been sanded and chalked.
oh, and I also went to the very last midnight selling of harry potter. but that is a post all on its own. havn’t touched the book yet.
I knew there was something I meant to say, but didn’t. The eagles are out in force these days. If you are very quiet, you can glide your kayak right under them, as they are drying out their wings. I prefer the younger, mottled eagles, before they have developed the white cap. The nice thing about bald eagles is that once one gets close to them, they are very unlike their iconic image. Much fiercer looking, with a kind of cruelty in their beaks that defies the sentimentality of patriotic symbols. Robinson Jeffers says the storm is tucked in their wings…
I know, I have been absent for a bit. But don’t worry, I havn’t forgotten you.
Its been rainy the past few days, till yesterday it began to clear up, and today was as blue a sky day as it could be. I’ve been working everyday since sunday, out on the lake eight to ten hours at a time, with yesterday’s thirteen being the capstone. I come home drained most days, and need to have several cups of tea before I am worth anything. I think Byrne is starting to get annoyed that I’m falling asleep during most things that arn’t ‘open water’ or ‘irreversible.’ No work till noon tommorow, which is the best news I’ve heard all week.
We had three trips today, but I didn’t need to go out on the second one. The cotton wood was blowing across the lake, like snow in the middle of summer, so I took out a kayak and paddled out by myself and found a little patch of beach on the side of the lake which has the waterfalls. I managed to get my kayak up on the sand and clammbered out, yelling hello to make sure that any bears in the area heard me and weren’t suprised. I clambered around on the waterfall and laughed at cotton wood till I had to turn back, and lead the next trip. Mostly, I tried to see. The only draw back to this was that the wind had come up by the time I headed back, so I had to contend with some choppy waters. But that is fun all in itself.
In a bizarre situation, the first trip I took out had a biola grad in its midst and turns out the whole family has their feet firmly in Biola, with one daughter an alum, and another having considered Biola but declined, but was debate partners with Danielle Howe in highschool. Rebecca Nations, if any one knows her. It was very, very weird.
Byrne is in bed and the clouds have come up and I am going to walk on the beach. I keep waking up with my hands hurting and stiff, and it worries me. There better be nothing permanent.
Time is a quixotic archeologist, and the things he decides to unearth, dust off, and set up for display are always suprising.
so, yes, I am very lazy sometimes. which is why I havn’t posted in a week. so there are also some stories piled up. first off, fourth of july…
because wednesday’s are the biggest days for all of the tours and guide offices here in haines, it was out of the question that any of us would be having any sort of holiday this fourth, as it fell on a wednesday. The cruise set has no respect, apparently. Any how, so my chances at holiday celebrations didn’t materialize until after I had been at work for ten hours, and got back at about 7:30 pm that night. Byrne was going to the party held by his co-workers (a subtle distinction:I work for Chilkat Cruises and Tours, Byrne works for Chilkat Guides) and I tagged a long. There was a mass of people down by the docks,with kegs and salmon and all sorts of food to be had. To understand this situation you have to keep in mind two things: one is that it is raining and very cloudy. This perturbs no one. The second is to understand the drinking habits of Haines, Alaska. Haines has the highest percentage of consumption of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer any where. Full stop. Now, if you are like me at all, the first thing you think of when you hear Pabst Blue Ribbon is Ed Hopper in Blue Velvet. I didn’t realize any one actually still drank the stuff, besides deranged ahsmatic psycho rapists. Well, it turns out this town does. So everyone is standing out in the rain, drinking great quantities of PBR, and setting off fireworks. This is a situation where it is better to be sober than not, because you can’t pay for this kind of entertainment. The best part being the trio of shifty young men trying to set off a potato gun on the beach. Everytime the police would come by, bleating that fireworks weren’t allowed (an exercise in pointlessness) they would quick hide it in the grass, looking innocent. Apparently, the engineering behind a potato gun had proved too much for these enterprising fellows, and they gave up fairly quickly. But, what to do now? Well, there are plenty of aersol cans containing hairspray and engine starter around, and we have lighters, so…
Well, there is nothing quite like a crowd of drunken Alaskan’s all armed with blow torches, hooping and hollering. Byrne and I kept moving around, trying to make sure we weren’t behind any of them. People were writing their name in flames on the sidewalk, people where singeing eachother’s backsides, there was a dog who took particluar interest in fireworks and kept running towards any hint of fire and explosion. It was a pyro maniacs convention gone intoxicated. It was also the most forthwright expression of American freedom and values a good patriot could have hoped for.
This also lead me to dream that I was setting people on fire in a major airport. I was struck with deep remorse, and was going to turn myself in, right before I woke up. Nice to know my moral sense is still active in the subconscious.
The other recent surreal experience was TAM class. For my job at Mountain Market, I need to be have certification to sell the booze. This meant I had to go to the Techniques of Alchohol Management class. This was held at the American Legion building on Monday. My first problem was that I unthinkingly put on a German military shirt before going, which lead to me sitting very uncomfortably surrounded by militaristic Americana. But truly, the class was like something out of John Waters film. The woman who taught the class had projection that would make me weep if I had it in an actress, and elongated all of her words into small arias of nasal vocalization. The cross section of people there was also fascinating, including the people from whom you had the impression that they didn’t have any place better to be. They insisted on regaling us all with tales from the alchohol business, which were long and pointless. There was the fellow across from me who had recently fallen off his motercycle and sat there picking the largest scab I have ever seen. Happily, I got my card, and am now a certified member of the alchohol selling community. Oh, and it tastes good.
Must be at work soon, so I’m off to another rainy day on the lake. Don’t drink and play with fire.
To whom it may concern: two days ago, I ate my last packet of Indo Mie noodles. It was the most delicious of sorrows. In its honor, I listened to an album of South Sulawesi strings, with a piece from Makasar to accompany the final bites. It was a breakfast of bittersweetness, with a dash of ginger.
No other noodles in a package compare. These Thai brand noodles I bought will hang their heads in shame.
some times, things suprise you. for example, when at mountain market, just as I was considering how awful the country top 40 chart is, shockingly, wilco’s ‘impossible germany’ and laura viers’ ‘galaxys’ played back to back. this was unexpected, and I was shocked into remembering that decency does happen when you are unawares, every once and awhile. reminded of all sorts of things, really.
another thing, is the fish. fish so fresh, its still suprised about being caught. ladies and gentleman, I imagine very few of you (maybe those of you for whom wilco and laura viers breaks through) have had fish this fresh, like butter. halibut that will make you sigh and keep silent. rockfish that might kill you while you gut it, but it will love you when you eat it.
do yourself a favor. open a bottle and turn on some wilco. but forget the fish, it won’t be as good.
