Slept in this morning . . . clear up to 8:30! That’s an extra three hours for me – felt good. Off to breakfast with hubbymoose . . . and then, of course, I had that burr under my saddle – time to go shooting.
Pictures, that is.
Today is the first day of dipnetting on the Kenai River – I knew we should be able to see some folks wading and plying their dipnets.
click for larger views
Unseen in the pics are the parking areas (full) and the portapotties the city sets up for the fishery season. We have tried bank dipping in the past – it is not so easy to do. Our best successes came when we put the boat into the water and held the nets off the side as hubbymoose slowly motored downriver. I image there will be plenty of boats on the river in the days to come.
Hubbymoose does not eat fish (gasp!) so we don’t go out any longer. We used to fish when the girls were home. The three of us ate it.
🙂
The area is rich with history. Nearby is an old log structure that I try to shoot every year as it slowly falls inward on itself. This year the city has added new flowerboxes all around town and I love the old-new flavor of this building now.
I think this is my favorite picture of this morning:
If you have read here over the years you might remember that HubbyMoose and I take one (of the 7) grands on a weekly lunch/dinner date followed by shopping. We do our weekly grocery shopping and get to enjoy one of the (not so) “littles” alone for a few hours. We’ve done this for several years – and the kids all pretty much know when it is their turn. We go by age – youngest to oldest (although HE has been much too busy working and playing these last months and so has missed out).
It starts just as soon as we can take the little ones away from mama for a few hours – long enough so they don’t want to nurse – and when they can eat solid foods. ‘course . . . that is sort of a moot point now that the youngest is almost five years old! (ack! where DOES the time go?)
This week we got to take 12 year old D for his trip – it has had to be put off for a few weeks because either we were gone or he was gone/busy, etc. But THIS week it was his turn.
D had his birthday in November, so we were also going to let him pick out a book he wanted – then we found out he had all of his birthday money, too . . . so it was off to the independent book store we went.
The owner loves it that we would rather shop for books with these kiddos than for toys – she loves it when we BUY books for Christmas instead of toys, too. 😉
After many books were chosen and paid for . . . it was time for dinner. We decided on a Chinese restaurant nearby for something different – it is not something we can do every week – the tab was WAY more than we are used to spending for lunch/dinner with the grands . . . but this was a special treat for D.
Thus the challenge . . .
KunPao Chicken . . . complete with peppers. Paw-Paw said “be careful, the peppers are REALLY hot, so don’t bite into one.”
CHALLENGE!
You could just see the wheels turning in D’s head . . . (internal conversation) “Paw-Paw’s a wimp. I can eat ’em. I’ll show him!”
He reached out, took a pepper and put the whole thing into his mouth and began to chew. “It’s not so hot!” he declared.
And, then we watched as he visibly grew taller in his seat . . . his face turned red the more he chewed . . . he began to rock in his seat . . . he took a drink of his root beer (he had told us before dinner that root beer cut the HOT of any pepper – heh) – rocked some more and then sat taller and taller and taller still. I watched as tears began to roll down his face – then he held his ears (later telling us that they hurt from the inside – until he put one of the peppered fingers into an ear to stop it hurting – and then it hurt from the outside, too!)
The waitress heard us chuckling, came over, took one look and left saying over her shoulder “I’ll get something to help.” She came back with orange slices telling D that chewing them would help cut the hot.
“I told you not to take one,” Paw-Paw said. “Did you think that I was just a wuss?”
D nodded his head and then asked to be excused to get tissues from the bathroom to blow his now running nose.
Poor kid!
He was warned.
He thought he could outsmart/out pepper his grandpa. LOL
Everytime we tell the story (to others and each other) we just start chuckling and then LAUGHING and soon the tears are rolling down OUR cheeks, too.
Grandkids . . . you gotta love ’em. They are what makes having kids worth it all!
I really was headed off to bed – and I thought to check just one more email before I did. An acquaintance had emailed me yesterday asking my opinion of Sarah Palin – did I know her? What did I think? What did I know?
My reply was to the point, and honest. My main comment to my friend was the same you’ve seen here before and will see here again – I tell no one how to vote, I simply ask that you do vote and that you do it with wisdom and education.
When I checked that email address a few minutes ago, my friend had sent me a copy of the Kilkenny letter – something that a resident of Wasilla had sent to her family and friends while asking them not to forward it on to anyone.
What? She asked them not to forward it on.
Come on, people, you KNOW that is exactly the type email that will be forwarded – ad nauseum. The letter was written 8-29. It is at the top of the g****e searches for Kilkenny letter. It is expanding at a VIRAL rate.
So, why am I even mentioning it here? After all, we’ve already agreed that I am not going to tell you how to vote, right?
But, please, I have to repeat her fourth reason for having written the note: “Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996 . . .”
Can we say pettiness to the extreme?
I live in small town Alaska. My town is probably about the same size or a tad smaller than Wasilla. We, too, are becoming a big box store kinda town, and no, I don’t like that much. But, contrary to what some would say, Wasilla becoming that kinda town is no more Sarah Palin’s fault than Kenai becoming one is any one mayor’s fault.
It’s likely partly MY fault because I sat back and let it happen – or didn’t fight harder so it wouldn’t happen. You know what I’m saying?
Some of you don’t know this about me . . . in the 90s I was TOTALLY immersed in small town politics. I (like Kilkenny claims about herself and Wasilla) – I attended EVERY borough assembly meeting, MOST every school board meeting and MOST city council meetings. I attended planning sessions and committee meetings. I said my piece. I took down names. I counted the votes. I got involved.
I EVEN ran for office at the borough level (we don’t have counties, we have boroughs). I actually WON once – and then lost it in the run-off that was required because neither I nor my nearest opponent garnered 40% of the votes as the borough requred. I lost the run-off by 32 votes! Gosh, no, I’m not bitter – really. I’ve seen my former opponent. He is now a FAT cat in the most literal of senses.
Alaska, while the biggest land mass state in the union, is still small town. In addition to our city and borough reps, we know our state senators and representatives by their first names. We go to school functions with them (used to be our kids were in school together, now it’s our grandkids), we go to church with them, we eat in the same restaurants. We know which of them got picked up for one too many DUI charges (driving under the influence). We know when their kids are hurting.
Most of us let each other live their lives and either pray for them or lend helping hands when they have a need. Most of us mind our own business.
Some of us are like Kilkenny. THOSE are the ones who make the newspaper headlines.
And, that is a sad thing – for Alaska – and for the union.
Now, you all go on and do the right thing. If you’ve been thinking about forwarding that letter, think twice, remember small town pettiness, remember how you would feel to have some of those things said about you. And remember most of all . . . untruths are often have just enough truth in them to make them that much more believable.
I’m just sayin’
‘night everyone.
Okay – it wasn’t really a vacation – but I did take a bit over a week off work. June 30 is the end of our fiscal year and we cannot carry over more than 160 hours of annual leave. I was right on the cusp of that so needed to take some time off.
Didn’t go anywhere – but did have some much needed down time. I did have to go to work four hours last Wednesday for my CPR training – missed it in January when I had that pesky little heart attack. Other than that – no work for me.
Came home with BIG plans to clean my house and the like – haha! Didn’t happen. Well, I actually got this room straightened a bit – enough that I can at least walk into the room and find my way back out – without having to tie a rope around my waist for safety’s sake.
Hubby and I spent some time with Master TAT a week ago – and TAT and I had that lovely time with Miss Jackie, but other than that I actually kept pretty close to home – taking it easy. It was a much needed break (and, don’t tell anyone, but it is going to be a bit hard to go back to work tomorrow). 😉
Hubby and I decided that I couldn’t let the whole time slip away without at least getting out of town. We thought about running up to Anchorage, but he had some business appointments – so, we thought, how about Seward? It’s closer – so that even if we weren’t able to get a room for Saturday night (and we were not!!! Durned tourists! okay, just kidding) – well, it’s close enough for a day trip that wouldn’t wipe us out completely.
The plan was for us to sleep until we woke up this morning – get breakfast – get coffee – and get on the road. We headed for Seward just about noon. It was a drizzly sort of day, but we did find some sun spots here and there – and we had a lovely time together.
We saw some flora:
that’s an Arctic Rose – stopped alongside Kenai Lake and found a couple of huge bushes – can you see the rain drops? Well, maybe not in this smaller picture, but I hope to get some prints made of the larger shot. By the way – I know of at least one reader who likes to borrow other folks’ pictures. I don’t really mind, but please don’t forget to give credit where credit is due – okay? And it would be nice to ask first. But then, you all knew that.
We saw some fauna – first a shrew hightailed it across in front of our car – it made it safely into the underbrush. We saw a moose on the way home – and we saw a LOT of roadkill – looks like it is a big year for rabbits. (they are cyclical – I can’t remember if they have high years one in seven or one in two – I think it’s one in seven)
We visited the SeaLife Center and saw lots of animals there – harbor seals, and the like.
But on the way back from Lowell Point we saw:
see those two dots????
Here . . .
Sea otters just playing and rolling and eating while a fisherman sat quietly nearby watching them – and while we watched them. So cool!
On looking closer we noticed he did not even have his line in the water – he was so captivated by the otters – and I think he didn’t want to chance getting them tangled up in his line. You see the rushing water next to him? He is sitting on rocks below a spillway I guess you’d call it. Across the road where I am standing is a waterfall – it comes under the road and rushes into Resurrection Bay. His truck was parked nearby – and he walked down onto the rocks where he is sitting.
We also saw some kayakers –
We ate a late lunch/early dinner, walked along the harbor for a bit and then headed home. I took several more pictures in Seward and a couple of shots on the way home – I’ll show you at least the ones from the trip home next time.
I need to get off to bed soon – swimming early tomorrow and then off to work . . .