It's been a while!!!
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Hi everyone. Had a short run today and so am in early enough to get to the computers - and so far there is no waiting line. It has been a while since I have got on the internet - we've been having several meetings the last two or three weeks which has taken up some time - the internet was down for a while there - so all things considered, I just haven't got to you in some time. Just talked with Linda a little bit ago. She is feeling a little better - wish it was a LOT better but that kind of injury just takes a while to heal up. It has been especially difficult to be apart this past week knowing she doesn't feel well. I should be there taking care of her. I keep telling myself that June and July went really fast so we can make it through August and half of September. I'm thinking we will either not be doing this again or be doing it together.
Have talked with the kids a couple of times lately. They are all doing good. Hollie is about to wrap up her summer teaching job at the community college and getting ready to go back to her fifth graders before long. Sara was in Phoenix last week and will be again this next week for more schooling with her job, which she loves. Bill is still hard at it with the cable boys - I even got a picture of him that they took when Linda was out there over the 4th of July - he was pretty high up that pole about a block or so away from their house. Proof that he really does what he says he does!! Ha!! Had a really nice visit with Connie and Joe Buescher last weekend. They are on a land/cruise trip with brother and sister in law. I saw them on the road in the park and then we met up and went to the Salmon Bake for a nice meal and good conversation. It was really great to see friends from home in this setting. Jim and Sherry will be here later in August for a few days. Looking forward to their arrival. Well, I haven't been on the computer for a while but I have jotted down some notes - not as many as I should have, but then we have been way too busy with the union meetings - we did take a strike vote - voted to strike - have not set a date to do it though - maybe it will be tomorrow and I will come home!!! I don't really know just what will happen - nothing probably - just taking this whole work/strike thing a day at a time. It was really great to hear from my bud Joe. Sounds like I'm missing some pretty important "meetings" at home. Hope Joe and Judy have a great visit with their grandkids.

From my notes . . .
June 24, 2008
Just a note to let everyone know what is going on in Denali land. Work is good and I am feeling much better finally - still only working five days a week though so that I can get rested up before the peak season starts in earnest. Lots has been happening on the road. The wildlife has been incredible. The snow shoe hare is everywhere. Normally, numbers for the hare is about 25 to 50 per square mile, but they are in a boom cycle and there is about 2500 per square mile. That is a lot of food for all the other animals - and they are quite healthy. I pass at least eight fox dens every day and they all have at least five kits. In the early mornings they are all out playing as we head out into the park - and fox kits can put on quite a show. There are lots of Canadian Lynx this year also. I have seen five this year already and that is a lot of sightings. There are other drivers who have been coming here for years and have never seen one. I have a calibrated eye ball - it's the Indian in me that gives me that keen eye perspective. The moose have started calving again and there are a lot of twins. We have one set of twins close to my camp. We don't move when we see them passing through, that way they don't feel threatened. But there are grizzly tracks just behind my room - they have come down to the front country to hunt the newborn calves. The moose come down to the front country to calf where there are more people and less bears. But the bears have such a great sense of smell that they are starting to follow the newborn scent - the young calf is one of their springtime food sources and they are good at finding them within the first week after being born. The cycle of life!

We had quite a bear incident two days ago. We had a large male attack a smaller male and tried to kill it right on the road - just on the east side of Stony. It was incredibly violent. The power of a grizzly is unbelievable. The bigger one, maybe 400 pounds, picked up the smaller bear by the neck and shook it like a little rag doll. The smaller one was trying to fight back and did get in a couple of swipes on the larger one. But the injuries to the little one included a hunk out of its back and out of its hip and leg, and one ear was torn. It finally got away from the bigger bear and got under a bus up by the motor and the bigger bear could not get to him. After about 15 minutes the bigger one walked away and the little one was able to still walk and headed off in the opposite direction as soon as it was safe for it to come out from under the bus. The sound that two grizzlies make when fighting is frightening and the speed at which one can move is unbelievable. They say a grizzly can run as fast as 35 mph for a short distance but can run for miles at about 20 mph. There were several people that witnessed this attack and some had movie cameras, so we are watching the Internet for a posing on U tube of the fight in Denali. If I find it, I will let you know. We had two employees who were out in the park on their day off and had also gotten it on video.

The cotton seeds are falling and it looks as if it is snowing outside when the sun is shinning. I took pictures, but don't know if it will show up enough to do it justice. But the sun highlights the seeds as they float through the air.

Good news earlier this week - the two girls that have been missing for six days were found. What a relief! They worked for one of the lodges in the front country. I had the parents of the two girls boss on my bus that day after they were found. They were only ten miles from Anderson, Alaska when they were located, so what happened was they walked south when they were supposed to go north. Six days in the wilderness of Denali is no little walk in the park. They were very lucky not to have drowned in stream crossings or fallen into Savage River Canyon - not to mention the predators. They were very lucky!!!

. . . T I M E . . . . .
I am working on a new time system. It is a new way to measure days to weeks, weeks to months and months to a year - all to preserve dryer time. Only two dryers for about 120 people - that's a lot of dirty socks - so we all have to do our part - it's all about the environment and the human footprint (and my feet are pretty big) so I'm doing my best. The way I've got it figured is that Hollie says, "Dad, how many days have you been wearing that sweatshirt?" and I always tell her just a week. So I think it is like dog years but backwards - so an hour is like one minute and a day is like ten minutes and a week is around 2 hours and I have 78 loads worth of 2X Ultra Tide with Color Clean Bleach and 110 days worth of clothes wearing time, not counting by bathrobe time, so dividing 110 by 78 which equals 1.4 times 10 which is 14 plus 2 is 16 which is the number of days I can wear my Rural King Sweatshirt until it has to be washed - plus add in the number of bathrobe days into the formula which is 19 divided by 4 (because one year in people time equals 4 years in dog time) so that's another 4.75 days which can be added in so that makes a grand total of 20.75 days in a row I can wear the same Rural King Sweatshirt without having to wash it. This is the power of meditation.


July 14, 2008
A cold and rainy day. I have the day off so laundry needs to be done and a walk to the post office is in the schedule. Was planning to go for a hike on the back side of Polychrome, but too much rain has fallen so the chance for a rock slide is possible - so I will stay off Poly today and wait for better weather. Called home last night to talk to Linda and found out that Joe & Connie Buescher are coming to Denali next Saturday. Hopefully I will get to see them on Sunday - maybe for dinner - I am like a kid in a candy store I am so excited to see someone from home. I can't wait. Hopefully the weather will change and it will warm up before next Saturday so they will have a nice day to go into the park. I have caught a cold!! Can you believe it!!! Most everyone has a head cold going on right now. I feel miserable but in 10 days it will be gone and 10 more days will have passed - not like I am counting the days or anything. It has been a long summer but I try not to think of how much longer I will be away from home.


July 15, 2008
The weather has changed and we have a nice day for a change. Yesterday the weather forecast was for party cloudy so it rained hard all day with a high of only 45 degrees, so it felt damn cold! You would not believe how bad the weather has been this year compared to last year. Last year, every day was like a beautiful fall day back home. This year, nine days out of the last two months has been nice. We've had a lot of rain - we've had snow (as late as two weeks ago!) - and just chilly weather.

THE TABLE . . . . .
A group of fellows crowded around the square table that sat in the far back corner, where the light was dim and the windows were closed tight to keep in the secrets of the day. Their society was secret - their membership select. This was a group of men who held the destiny of many people's faith in their hands daily - the Old Bunch as they were called, were the best of the best. A group that had been pulled together by their common interest - all with similar interests but all from different backgrounds. A more diverse group could not be found anywhere. They were all quick-witted and all had that still grey stare that people noticed - and you didn't cut in front of a person with a cook gray stare when they were in line at the dessert bar. A nicer bunch could not be found anywhere, but there was something different with this bunch - they were all captains of their own ships, generals from great battles, leaders - men among men and all that kind of stuff. A secret society, maybe, but they had no secrets at this table. It was like a game of scrabble every night - the first story of the day being topped by the next and on it would go, night after night, until that one night when it happened. A pimping was in order. The first to go was Randy the Bull, a man who could eat enough greens and lettuce in one sitting to keep a small caribou herd alive for an entire winter, and then have three helpings of bread pudding. No one more health conscious could be found. He was first with his tale of the one-legged lumber jack who fell to his death when his dentures popped out of his mouth as he topped a hundred foot spruce. That's a good one and "yep", "yep", "yep", "yep" was heard from all, which is a sign of approval. Next came the Phoenix Flyer, who only spoke the truth because his stories were from a time of legends. Legends of great fish caught. A bush plane crashing in the back country and then he would walk for two years to reach the coast and the building of a signal fire to get a passing ship to stop and pick him up. But the ship was the Valdez and it was having some trouble navigating some rocks so he just walked on around the shoreline till he came to the nearest phone booth and called a cab. "Yep", "Yep", "Yep", "Yep" and the Arizona Flyer pushed back from the table, folded his arms over his chest and looked over the top of his glass and no one said a word - dead silence for at least 10 seconds - anybody for some more bread pudding? Next to speak was the Minnesota Flash. His story was precise and his dictation exact with "Ha!!" and "Bygolle" being used in every sentence. A bobcat discovered in a trap out in the boundry waters and what to do about it - they didn't want to shoot it and they couldn't just let it go for fear of it attacking them, so it was decided to put one of their packs down over it and then take the trap off. So it was done. But who would let it out of the pack - not a volunteer in the bunch. Let's take it to town and put it on the corner and someone will walk by and want to see what's inside. What a plan. On the corner the pack was placed and a car came to a screeching halt then sped away for only a block and then the car stopped, all four doors flew open - free at last, free at last. "Yep", "Yep", "Yep", "Yep" More bread pudding, anybody? Murphy was next. A man with considerable intellect and who believed in reincarnation. He had once been a history teacher. His hat was cocked to one side, his cookie duster of a mustache obtained half of what he had tried to eat that night - but when Murph the Mouth started to talk, people listened. They had to because it was hard to understand what he was saying with one foot in his mouth, but it seemed as though he had at least one foot in his mouth at all times. Livestock is one of those things you have to be careful about when you are table talking, but a goat was the main subject of this tale of days gone by. A goat at the Catholic Academy. A goat in the dorm at Christmas time when all went home. A goat running free in a college dorm. The head-master was the first to return from the Christmas break, the first to be confronted by the goat. More bread pudding anybody? Randy asked. Someone would have to confess and be punished. No one would tell. No one confessed, so all were punished. But after Sunday mass - my confession was given, "forgive me father for I have sinned" "Yep", "Yep", "Yep", "Yep" We are all out of bread pudding but there is some apple crisp. No one move - I've got an ice cream scooper and I'm not afraid to use it! So ice cream and crisp all around? "Yep", "Yep", "Yep", "Yep". A plan was hatched up by the Quiet One, who listened more than he talked, but when he did talk, they were good ones. I have something to say - listen, fellas, there is a pimping in order for a bragger from another table - a lesson that needs to be touch. We'll tell him of our new plan and see if he will join in. It's a plan to get more zing at the end of the day. All of you agree with me when this Alaskan Bragger tries to join in. The trap was set, he was not long in taking the bait. As he walked by the table he asked how you all do today - I did quite well of course. We have a new way of rakin' it in - we put up a sign "will work for food" - evokes sympathy that is separating them from their tens and twentys like you can't believe. Just suck in your cheeks and look faint at the end of the day and those little old ladies will give their husbands a shove to the side and tell them to open that purse of my you are carrying and give that nice young man a tip. You won't believe how much one little sign can make such a difference. Can we do that? the old bragger asked? Sure we can, we just can't ask for tips. Try it and you will be doing 150 to 200 a day like all of us have since we started with our signs two weeks ago. No kidding, you guys all doing that good with just a sign that says "will work for food" "Yep!" You want some bread pudding? "Yep", "Yep", "Yep", "Yep", "Yep"


Well, I gotta go. This has taken me a while. I will try to get back to the computer again in a week or so. Let me hear from you with your stories from home and what you are doing. I miss you all and look forward to your blog comments and getting mail is good, too.