A long, long time ago . . . in a land far, far away . . . okay – it was just Ohio, but it WAS long ago (30+ years) . . .

we had a pastor who told of naming his boat “Visitation.” That way, whenever he was out fishing and a parishioner called for him his wife could honestly tell them that he was “out on visitation.” Yeah, he could tell that story from the pulpit with a straight face and pull us into it right to the end when we would all just cackle.

In fact, when we moved to Alaska and bought a boat our thoughts went right to that story when it came time to name her. (Boats and trucks are ALWAYS “her”, by the way). Hubbymoose and I owned a business then – and when you are business owners it seems like you can never get away from the shop.

If you DO manage to get away people seem to take offense that you might be out filling up your freezer instead of being at their beck and call 24×7. I was often left to answer the calls and face the upset folks – so hubby and I put our heads together along with our Alaska pastor and came up with a perfect name for the boat: On Business. That way I could always be telling the truth when calls came in and I told customers “sorry, he’s out on business.”

This all flickered through my mind when one day last week while leaving Wally’s I saw a van in the parking lot . . .

Yay! Someone had the same idea!

I love small town life in Alaska.

And, I also love rhubarb – so it’s a great sign when I see the first shoots poking up through the ground:

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm yummo!