You Bring Out The Alaskan In Me

Today was a quiet day of false starts and mundane activities.

At 9am I called Costco to try and make an appointment to buy and have installed a new battery for my car. 

I listened patiently to the friendly lady on the recording professionally informing me that Costco did not open until 10am on Sunday, and then hung up the phone dissatisfied that I had not made any headway in solving my dead-car issue.

At 9:30 I dug the milk carton out of the fridge, checked the date stamped on the side and saw that it had expired a week ago.

Looking at my dog, who was already bouncing around the living room in anticipation of getting to go somewhere, I begrugingly decided that I needed to go to Fred Myers.

I needed gas. 

I hadn't been to a grocery store in almost three weeks and had nothing to eat in the house. 

Jamie needed more dog food. 

I needed money to go buy a ticket at the ferry terminal.

My excited pup hopped into the front seat of my beloved truck, I moved her over from the drivers side to the passenger side of the vehicle and we headed for the Valley.

I hate shopping almost as much as I hate cooking and was in and out of the store within 10 minutes. 

One more stop for gas and we were outta there and headed back Out the Road.

As I was driving past Auke Lake I looked over at the mountains as I always do when I drive by, saw that the lake was very calm and that the mountains were reflected beautifully in the water.

I pulled off Glacier Highway on the spur of the moment, drove around to the back of the University of Alaska Southeast, and pulled into a church parking lot so I could stop and take a picture of this beautiful scene.

The first picture I took is above and the one immediately below is a closer look at the mountains.

After my very brief picture-taking stop I continued further and pulled into the ferry terminal. 

When I pulled on the front door of the terminal it didn't budge, and after looking through the windows and seeing only darkness I realized that nobody was home.

I did not see any hours of operation posted on the door and walked around to the side of the building to see if there was anything posted on the side door.  Nope.  Nothing.

I'll have to stop on the way home from work tomorrow night I guess. 

I'll be a walk-on (no vehicle or cabin to worry about), am travelling on Thanksgiving Day, and don't anticipate a last minute rush of folks wanting to head to Sitka, but would have felt better to physically have ticket-in-hand. 

As I climbed back into the truck I called Costco again and a very nice lady told me that I could buy a battery at Costco but they did not install them. 

Tires only.

Sounds like I can get one for under $100 and will see who I can talk into installing the thing for me.

In the meantime I will just leave the old beast sitting in the driveway until I get it sorted out. 

I don't trust it to drive it, if the battery can run down after only sitting idle for one day.

Tried to call Son #2 to wish him a Happy Birthday but ended up listening to another friendly professional canned female voice encouraging me to leave a message.

Happy Birthday Baby.

Doesn't the boy ever answer his phone??? 

By the time I pulled out of the ferry terminal I had had enough with spinning my wheels, Jamie had had enough of sitting in the truck, and I headed towards Auke Village Recreation Area.

James needed to walk, and I needed to start a fire in one of the pits and burn a bunch of old and junk mail........

When James and I arrived at the rec area I started to relax again - no more wheel spinning.

Just a quiet and chilly walk by the water for me and my girl.

Auke Village Recreation Area is widely used during warmer months because it is extremely user friendly - you can drive right up to it, it has wide open and well maintained trails, beautiful picnic shelters, beautiful walled-in shelters with huge fire places, and views of the mountains and channel........

A view of the channel from one of the many short side trails that shoot off from the main trail...........

While we were leisurely walking towards one of the shelters I happened to look up into the trees and was surprised to see this guy.

An adolescent eagle, still speckled instead of the typical white head and tail of adult eagles, sitting quietly by himself while overseeing the channel...........

Jamie and I veered down a side trail so we could walk on the beach, but we did not walk far before I realized that I was just not motivated to travel any real distance.

Fighting introspection.  Fighting other things I suppose............

Before turning back and heading for the shelter and one of the fire pits, I studied this very old and very large tree trunk that was lying on the beach.

It was obviously very old, the cut marks were still clearly visible near the base, but the trunk was mottled and aged and textured and beautifully weathered.

I regarded it for a few minutes wondering what kind of stories this tree had to tell...........

You cannot tell by this picture, but the base of this tree was HUGE.  Taller than I was by at least 3 feet.  My extended arms did not even begin to approach the width of it.

So rough and rugged and beautiful...........

A few of the very many structures that dot the area.............

A couple playing with their dogs on the beach..........

I had an entire grocery bag stuffed full of mail that I wanted to burn, and I found out very quickly that burning even paper when the air is damp and cold is no easy task.

It took a long while to get the fire started and then more attention than I expected to have to devote to keep the fire burning.

After what seemed like a long time the deed was done.  

The couple playing with their dogs, who had kept Jamie's attention the entire time I was burning paper were gone.

And I was very very cold.

Time to go home.

A quiet Sunday................

One last picture of the mountains and Auke Lake.............

YOU BRING OUT THE ALASKAN IN ME

By:  Kelly Nemeth

You bring out the Alaskan in me

The sit outside in the rain in me

The "Be home by dark" and the "But mom that's only 4:30"

You bring out the Xtratufs in me

The Helly Hansen's in me, the long johns in me

You bring out the wearing pajamas under your clothes to keep warm in me

You bring out the fresh fish and the 16 dollar cabbage in me.

The Costco in me, the seeing three months of food packed into your car in me.

You bring out the amazon.com in me, the Netflix in me, the endless episodes of Star Trek in me

You bring out the swimming in 40-degree water in me, the 4 bikes in me, the 10 miles of road in me

You bring out the Kim Heacox in me, the Indiana Jones in me. 

The kayaking in two-foot seas in me

You bring out the community in me

The April Fools in me, the "Why is there a tree growing in the middle of the driveway?" in me

You bring out the ravens in me

the mountains in me, the ocean in me.

You bring out the fear of the dark, snow-covered forest in me.

You bring out the being on weather hold in me

The studded bike tires through six inches of slush in me

You bring out the Alaskan in me.

Kelly Nemeth is from Gustavus.  She is currently at the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey where she wrote this poem for a class writing assignment