To Live In Alaska

One thing Jeauneauites are not is complacent.

They expect and demand that they voices be heard, and they generally possess very strong feelings about many things, not the least of which is their natural resources.

They are fiercely protective of and love their extensive and very wonderful trail system and their abundant waterways, their ski resort and their small urban parks.

And they love their wetlands.

That extraordinary refuge for wildlife and birds that every one of us passes as we travel between the Valley and downtown.

Glacier Highway (that eventually turns into Egan Drive as you get closer to town) follows the Gastineau Channel, and the Mendenhall Wetlands pull-in is located immediately off the highway.

I had four meetings today - ridiculously the first was in town, the second in the Valley, the third in town, and the fourth in the Valley (thankfully at the end of the day and taking place at the Heritage Coffee Shop because by then I needed one), so had a number of chances to pass by this special place.

With only a few minutes to spare on the way back to town in the middle of the afternoon, I pulled into the parking lot, climbed out of my car and tried, just for a few moments to decompress.

Walking precariously on ice covered black top I stood beside my car, looked behind me for a moment at the mountains on the Juneau side, took a deep breath and then scanned the view of Douglas Island in front of me.

Trying hard, and so far succeeding, in keeping the stress-related work-related internal pressure valve under control..........

While in Sitka I bought Jamie a light to attach to her collar.

The days are short and she spends a lot of time by herself right now.

So when I get home from work my dog is nearly hysterical with excitement.

Excited to see me, excited that she can go outside to pee, and excited because we have developed the system of going for a walk as soon as I get home.

The light can be set to either single or blinking action, and when she is walking point ahead of me all I can see in the dark is the red light.

I feel better that she wears it, because with my headlight and her collar light we are now both visible to on-coming traffic when it passes.............

If I am going to send Christmas presents to my boys in Tennessee and New Brunswick I had better get the lead out.

I need to shop.  To wrap.  To mail.

Maybe I can shop online and have gifts sent directly to them.

Part of me wants to support local businesses.

Part of me does not want to go into stores.................

The weather forecast is calling for periods of snow through the weekend.

I am hoping the forecast holds because I want to try out my cross country skis for the first time.

I am curious if I can do it.  Curious if I will like it.  Curious if this new activity will become something that I will enjoy and become decently good at..............

I have been in Juneau for almost 11 months now.............

My youngest son, after unhappily and unproductively spending two years on a college campus in Tennessee prior to joining the military, has decided to go back to school in New Brunswick.

He is reconnecting with his father there right now, and will begin studying Forestry in January.

Very good for him on both counts................

The sky today was filled with clouds and light snow.

For the past few nights while walking with Jamie I have looked at the sky, and it has been absolutely clear.

To see the moon and a million and ten stars shining on the water in the cove at the end of my road, while walking on cold and dark and very quiet winter nights with my dog is a beautiful thing............

I struggle, sometimes successfully and many times not, to not get caught up in the minutiae of daily life.

I struggle to keep remembering why I was drawn to Alaska.

My jobs was a means to an end - to experience this wild and rugged state.

I came to Alaska to live - to LIVE - in Alaska.............

His simplicity was his power. He knew nature as no one else did... His affection for the commonplace little pine-needle was as genuine as that for the most beautiful flower or the grandest tree, and the little flakes of snow and the little crumbs of granite were each to him real life, and each has a personality worthy of his wonderful mind's attention; and he talked and wrote of them as he did of the ouzel or the Douglas squirrel— made real persons of them, and they talked and lived with him and were a part of his life as is our own flesh and blood. One cannot describe Mount Rainier, one cannot describe the Grand Canyon, one cannot describe his beloved Yosemite; humanity is silent in their presence. So it was with John Muir to all who knew him; so has his influence affected mankind, and so will his life and work impress generations to come. This most wonderful of men, lifted above death and time by his human sympathy no less than by his genius, will forever influence the world, and it will be the better for his example and his inspiration........Robert B. Marshall