Stick A Fork In Me

It has been a really tough week for a few different reasons, but mostly because I have been very busy putting out fires at work for days now, and these events have taken both an enormous amount of physical and emotional energy.  I am so glad that it is Friday evening.  Stick a fork in me because I'm done.

These pictures were snapped in a hurry prior to the opening of a boat show at the Convention Center in downtown Juneau this afternoon.  No  - I wasn't attending the boat show.  I have little interest in such things.  I was merely passing through the building because I had parked my car in the back parking lot.

I took these pictures before the show began late this afternoon.  I stuck around just long enough to take the pictures, and pick up an ice scraper, coffee travel mug, couple of pens, a keychain, mouse pad and two little snack-sized chocolate bars (all free take-one items set up at tables and booths at the show).  And then I beelined out of there.......

Earlier in the week I was walking through the same facility for the same reason, and there was food sitting on a line of tables in the middle of the convention center - leftovers from some special event or other.  I thought......why not??  And grabbed a platefull of food on the run.

I don't make a habit of doing this type of thing, but it's been that kind of week.  And when both my body and my mind have been working in overdrive nonstop for days-on-end, a key chain and a bowl of leftover pasta on the way out the door just seem like small compromises to my integrity.

There has been a lot of talk over the past weeks about the teacher who was killed by wolves in another part of the state while jogging .  Couple that with early sightings of bear activity in the Juneau area, and the local newspaper article this morning about the sighting of a large light colored wolf walking up to a womans' vehicle near Mendenhall Glacier yesterday and I decided to stop at a gun store called Rayco Sales after work tonight.

I spoke with the owner of the store, told him what shooting experience I have, what I needed a firearm for, and he showed me a couple of handguns.  After some calls to my Mountain Boy back down in Tennessee I put a firearm on lay-a-way (Taurus 454 Casull Raging Bull with 5 inch barrel).  It feels good in my hand

My Mountain Boy is also sending a 44 Magnum up to the gun store.  I have shot both in the past but not without his oversight, so will have to go to the practice range when I have them both in my possession.  I never ever imagined that I would ever actually feel compelled to carry a firearm, but since the weather has begun to break I have come to realize that if I am going to continue to go out into the woods I need to carry something more serious than bear spray and a Kabar.

I almost hit a deer with my car a few mornings ago.  It was early day break, the skies were grey, and she was standing right along the side of Glacier Highway getting ready to step onto the road.  It took me a minute to actually see her because she blended in so well with the background.  But when I did (she was only 40 or 50 feet from me when I saw her) I slammed down on the horn and she thankfully did not startle and bolt forward.  This girl actually just turned and walked calmly back into the woods.  She is the one and only deer I have seen since I arrived in Juneau and I was both surprised to actually see one, and surprised at how big she was.

I received two more boxes of belongings from Tennessee today.  This cabin in the woods is actually beginning to look like a home.  It has the necessities, and also now has some of those useless, homey things that clutter up shelves and which we women have a tendency to collect.

We had one outstandlingly beautiful sunny and warm day this week, one half a day of nice and sunny, and the rest was a combination of clouds, rain and wet snow.  These are more pictures taken early in the week when every Juneauite who was able to, found a way to be outside and relish in the blue sky.

The St Roberts Tram station downtown.  I saw the tram actually moving up and down the mountain on Tuesday for the first time since I had arrived.

Picture taken earlier in the day along the highway downtown, with the fog still laying thickly in the channel.

Along the boardwalk.

Taken in the parking lot of Fred Meyers after buying nightlights - as I was buying them I told myself that they were for visibility during the night if I had to get up, but really they were to ward off the boogie men of not-yet-outgrown nightmares

Taken on the way home from work at the end of the day - at one of the overlooks just a few short miles from my house.  Since we sprang the clocks forward last weekend we have more hours of daylight in the evenings.  The days will continue to get longer and longer for the next few months, until our daylight here in Juneau last for 18 hours or more.

Tomorrow I will go hiking on John Muir trail with a group.  They meet up informally at different trails twice a week and I do not know any of the people.  But I will certainly give it a try and see what happens.  I have no idea what the weather is supposed to be like, and it doesn't really matter.  If I can hike in the woods it will be a beautiful day regardless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB7T3lJ3dZ4