And Now the Dark Time...

What happened?  When I left town it was in the mid-50's and the foliage was still more-or-less green.  It was fall or at least what passes as fall in these parts.  There was barely a hint of termination dust behind the Mendenall Glacier.

Upon boarding Alaska Flight 61 in Sea-Tac the pilot cheerfully announced that the weather in Juneau was clear and eighteen degrees.  Previous communications with mom had indicated that Juneau had already experienced its first Taku winds of the season - gusts downtown and in Douglas over sixty mph. 

Uh-oh...

Sure enough, final approach into Juneau included a bump or two and the wind was blowing pretty good down Lynn Canal.  And disembarking from the plane into the great outdoors confirmed the temperature.  It is winter. 

The point was driven home yesterday when we got a couple of inches of snow.  I was serenaded all morning by the sounds of sirens as Juneauites re-learned how to drive in the snow.  A couple of cars were in the ditch when I went downtown for a workout.

It's now 8 AM and barely twilight.  And it was getting pretty dim by 5 PM.  We are now entering The Dark Time.  Oh well...

My trip was fun but certainly not a typical vacation.  I spent the first week in Hillsboro at my friend Adam's mom's home.  Read all of Adam's medical and social records and made sure that his disability attorney had received all important documents.  We had a very good meeting with the vocational rehabilitation folks who have been working with Adam and procured a document that I expect may well be critical to the judge's decision.  The hearing itself occurred on October 17th.  After the hearing the attorney was coy as to the prognosis; but I interpreted his mumbling to indicate that approval is a 50/50 proposition.

After the hearing Adam and I took a road trip down the coast to Northern California. 

We stopped in Newport to visit his grandma who was in the hospital - she passed-away peacefully just a couple of days after we saw her.  She was very elderly and frail and I think the family recognized it was time...

The weather in southern Oregon and Cali was quite sunny.  We did the Redwoods tour including the Avenue of the Giants.

The Avenue of the Giants - these trees are big!

The southern Oregon coast just south of Coos Bay

From Arcata, California we motored up to Ashland, Oregon.  A night of theater.  None of that low-brow Shakespeare stuff for us.  No sirree.  We saw "Animal Crackers" the theatrical production that most folks would recognize from the Marx Brothers film of 1930.  It was great!  Hooray for Captain Spaulding, the African explorer...

Then back to Portland/Hillsboro for the weekend.  We went to a techno music show at the Memorial Colliseum - featuring one of Adam's favorite DJ's "Bassnectar".  I am now offically a Basshead.  The show was quite amazing.

Unfortunately, I did not get to visit any of my ol' Juneau pals living in the Great Northwest.  Next time, buddies!  I did get to spend some quality time at a great supper with Amanda and Leah in Portland.  Amanda hopes to be back to Juneau in a week or so and Leah is still beavering-away at the Sokol-Blosser winery.  They both looked fantastic!  I'm mighty fond of those gals.

So...time to settle in for the winter.  Mom is doing OK and I will ascertain auntie's status when I motor up to see her today.  Baked a couple of loaves of zucchini bread yesterday and will make deliveries here shortly.  I expect that auntie's house will need some serious work...

Later gang!

On Holiday

Wheels up this afternoon for Seattle.  And tomorrow morning I will motor down I-5 to Portland for a spell.

Sunday I will be enjoying fine dining with Amanda and Leah in the Pearl.  I do like Portland! 

I'll be staying at my pal Adam's home in Hillsboro.  Adam has his SSI eligibility hearing next week and I will be offering moral support and meeting with his attorneys.  Adam's mom has been doing a lot of the leg work getting prepared for the hearing and I will be more than happy to assist in any way I can...

After the hearing I hope I can manage some sort of road trip for a few days.  We'll see.  I will be back to Juneau no later than the end of the month.

Bottom line...no blogging for a bit.

In other news I have now put all the yards to bed...finished cutting-back perennials at mom's on Monday.  For the first time ever, I actually did all the fall chores in decent weather.  The chore is almost enjoyable when done under the sun.  I still have bulbs to plant but it's still been in the 50's during the day and I was afraid to stick 'em in the ground.  I should be able to manage the bulb planting when I return...

Well, gotta finish packing and think I'll head to town for a quick workout. 

I leave you with another gem from the Alaska Coastal series...

The ramp crew are dressed like caddies from the Masters.  

Hasta luego gang!

The Ryder Cup

I am a terrible golfer.  I enjoy it immensely.  I am just not very good at it.  Thus, it is hardly surprising that I watch a lot of professional golf on television.  If I can't do it...I can at least watch those who can...

This weekend the biennial Ryder Cup event was held near Chicago.  The best golfers of these United States take on the best the Europeans can  muster.  The tournament is held over three days with team events, e.g., four-ball, the first two days and then twelve mano y mano matches on Sunday.

The U.S. has not done particularly well in the Ryder Cup the past couple of decades.  But on Sunday morning the red-white-and blue crew were poised to pry the Cup out of the hands of the Europeans leading ten to six after two days of play.  The U.S. needed only to win five matches of twelve to clinch; and historically the Sunday matches have been the Americans' best event.  It looked mighty grim for the Old World.

Then the wheels came off the bus.  The Americans not only didn't play as well as they did the first two days - they didn't even look like the same players.  One of the biggest upsets in golf history ensued.  I was shocked, dismayed and appalled.  What happened?

Four American players prepare to tee-off on Sunday at the Ryder Cup.  Tragic.

  Four of America's best prepare to tee-off at the Ryder Cup on Sunday.

From left to right:  Phil Mickelson, Brandt Snedeker, Tiger Woods and Bubba Watson

These guys didn't even look like the same players from the earlier rounds...

The regular PGA season takes a break until January.  Time to focus on the baseball playoffs...

In other news, my pal Enrique arrived yesterday and will be staying with me through mid-December.  He is starring in Perseverance Theater's production of "Oklahoma!".  It's great to have a roomie again.  Unfortunately he arrived without his faithful four-legged companion, Nikki, who is being boarded with his mom in Texas.  The theater booked Enrique on a circuitous series of multi-airline flights from Austin to Juneau and the airlines refused to allow him to book a doggie on the flights.  Damn!  Nikki is my pooch pal.

The weather the past couple of days has been and is predicted to continue to be half-way decent.  On Sunday I cut back all the flowers in the yard, mowed for the last time, and spread fall fertilizer.  Yesterday I mowed mom's yard and fertilized there as well.  And today it's up to auntie's for the same treatment.

I have been spending a lot of time at auntie's helping out with chores and generally functioning as morale officer.  She has been pretty chipper.  She has decided to get a new TV and computer.  She is upgrading her TV offerings and finally getting a cable connection for the computer.  She has been operating with a dial-up modem (yes, they do still exist) and the slow connection does not work well for her.  For example, it takes about a half-hour to load my blog.  She gets impatient and tends to start pounding the keyboard with predictable and unfortunate results...

Last week I called our local telecommunications provider from auntie's phone to make the necessary arrangements.  The provider guy had to speak to auntie to verify that I had her permission to order the changes.  This took a mite longer than one might expect insofar as she felt compelled to reminisce about the history of television in Juneau.  

This trip down memory lane invariably begins (but does not end) with the story of how my arrival in this world coincided with the arrival of television in Juneau town.  I spent the first weeks of my life at auntie's home as mom recovered from some medical complications.  It seems that auntie and her daughter, Jan, found me quite charming and doted on me morning, noon, and night.  My uncle and cousin Sandy, - not so much.  They preferred to watch the test pattern on the new TV.  Although I have no recollection of these events, I find the story entirely credible - if for no other reason than I have heard the story a thousand times.

Finally, I was permitted to conclude the business at hand and at the end of conversation the call was transferred to a third-party to verify that auntie did, in fact, desire to change telephone providers.  As he prepared to transfer the call, the provider guy gently suggested that auntie might want to confine her answers to "yes" or "no" with the person at the verification service.  Auntie laughed - but also complied.  I was proud of the ol' gal.

Later gang! 

The Lindstrom Bounce

Well, the weekly polls are all pointing in one direction - a significant increase in support for President Obama.  And while causation is always difficult to prove in these matters, I am confident that my endorsement of Mr. Obama was instrumental in moving the numbers.

Sure, you can make a case that Mr. Romney's own loose lips contributed to his fall - his matter-of-fact comment to rich donors that 47% of Americans are simply on the mooch probably didn't do him any good.  And while the right-wing pundits have been clamoring "Let Ryan be Ryan" - the Florida numbers suggest that Mr. Ryan's proposal to privatize Medicare has not gone down well with the Early Bird Special set.

When all is said and done it is simply clear that Mr. Romney always has been and remains a seriously flawed candidate.  Indeed one is reminded of one of the favourite stories of my attorney, Mr. Rickey, -  reproduced here courtesy of The Intrepid Ideas Blog.

Once upon a time there was a CEO of a pet food company who wanted to increase his profits from making dog food. So he consulted the wisest men in his company, who knew all about developing computer programs that would analyze the nutritional content of various grains and food supplements. Eager to please the CEO, the wise men programed their computers to come up with the optimum combination of grains and supplements that would meet the nutrition needs of man’s best friend at the lowest price.

But a strange thing happened. During the first six months of selling the optimum mix at the lowest price, profit margins of the company declined. The next quarter, profits dived once more. “What’s going on?” the CEO demanded.

Since his wise men didn’t have an answer, the CEO consulted the greatest expert in the land, who knew all about the mysterious science of systems analysis and who conducted an extensive study (at considerable expense.) When he was finished, the expert appeared before the CEO.

“Have you discovered why our profits are declining?” the CEO demanded.

“I have,” said the expert, leaning on a thick report. “The dogs don’t like it.”

 Americans bought Mr. Romney's story once before.  It was called the Bush Administration.  A majority of us discovered it didn't work.

Finally, another installment in the Alaska Coastal series. 

A winter's day at the Juneau Seadrome in the mid-1960's

Lindstrom Endorses Obama for President

Well, don't hold your breath waiting for the title of this blog to appear on the AP wire; but nonetheless I will take this opportunity to urge my fellow Americans to cast their ballot on November 6th for Barrack Obama.

And while I do not expect any of my friends or even acquaintances are surprised by my choice, I nonetheless feel duty bound to state the reason for my endorsement.

To my mind the biggest challenge facing this country is obvious:  The mal-distribution of wealth in the country - the concentration of economic power in the hands of a relative few - threatens both our economy and our rights as citizens.

No, I am not a communist.  Marxism strikes me as fanciful as Christianity.

I am a pragmatist.  I am a realist.  And what I realize is that our economy and political system are threatened by an economic elite that is largely disassociated  from the wider American society and has adopted a quasi-religious economic world-view that says their collective rapaciousness is not only acceptable, but admirable.  Trickle down economics.  It is also the creed of one of our two major political parties.

To raise this issue is, as the Republican Party will tell you, "class warfare." 

My reply is simply that if you choose to look at it that way then you must agree that the war has been going on for a long time (at least since the Reagan Administration) and that most of the battles, thus far, have been won by the wealthy.  The numbers speak for themselves.  The poor get relatively poorer. The rich get relatively richer.  And the super rich are wealthier beyond belief

The Democratic Party and its standard bearer, Mr. Obama, are far from perfect.

There are any number of Congressional Democrats who I would refuse to invite into my own home - for fear of the silver and much else.

But there is no doubt in my mind which party, and which standard bearer, comes closer to recognizing my concerns.

AND THEREFORE IT IS WITH GREAT PLEASURE THAT I NOW ANNOUNCE MY ENDORSEMENT OF BARRACK OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT OF THESE GREAT UNITED STATES IN THE YEAR 2012.

So there you have it.

P.S.  Here is a suggestion that I have sent-on to the Obama folks for action if he is reelected.  I suspect it will happen - right after he confiscates all our guns.

I think it should be called the George W. Bush Proclamation.

Purpose:  Eliminate government waste and reduce the number of future political frauds

Proposal:  Reduce wasteful government subsidies to the undeserving rich by requiring all universities receiving any federal funds to refuse admittance to any student based on financial contributions to the university by the applicant's family, or the family's previous connections to the university, when said applicant does not otherwise meet the academic standards for admittance.

Analysis:  I recognize that this requirement may be opposed by many prestigious universities that depend heavily on contributions from wealthy private donors.  Therefore I propose a market-based exemption to ameliorate this potential problem.

All Universities will be given a "prestige rank" and allotted a certain number of exemptions.

A hypothetical institution, say an institution named "Harvard", could be given five exemptions to this prohibition and allowed to conduct an open air auction whereby rich kids who could not otherwise  meet the academic requirements for admission could be admitted. - the highest bidders prevailing.

Let's say someone named "Romney" bids $12.5 million to build a new dorm and it is the fifth highest bid.

And then someone named "Bush" bids $26 million for a new science lab.

Well, the dull-normal "Romney" kid would be shit out of luck. Might have to go to a "State" school or even get a job.  But what's the harm?  His or her parents are still really rich so he or she will probably do OK and maybe even have health insurance.

Over time these `reverse` scholarships would come to be known simply as "Bushies".

And a bunch of other smarter kids could get really good educations.

Rain - Heavy at Times

Ah, the dreaded "Rain - Heavy at Times" forecast.  And it is performing as advertised - even as I type.  Whitecaps on the channel too and breezy here on the point.  My hanging baskets are doing a serious dance.  Oh well, they've had it for the year in any event.

It's been a subdued indoor kinda week.  Lots of cooking.  Had the elders over for a halibut feed on Sunday which was well received.  I've started doing some housework for auntie a couple of times a week although her daughter arrived on Monday so it will be a short week on that front.  Auntie seems to appreciate the help and I think it will do wonders for her morale if we can keep the house in reasonable shape.

There was a break in the weather on Monday and I got all three yards for which I am responsible mowed, weed-whacked, and raked.  I reckon there's only one more mowing left to be done before it's time to put away the mowers.  And in another couple of weeks it will be time to cut-down all the perennials and toss the annuals - a job I truly detest - not because I object to the chore, as such, but because of what it says about the calendar.

The last gardening activity early in October will be to plant spring bulbs - a more cheerful task even though the payoff is many months down the road.  And after the last bulb is planted I will go retrieve the snow shovels from the rafters and put them at their duty stations...

My step-daughter Amanda has had a serious outbreak of her chronic ulcerative colitis and was in the hospital in Portland for a few days.  She's back on a medicine she took previously and feels better now.  I expect she'll be back in Juneau early next month and hopefully will be able to move back into her job at Harborview School.

The Juneau Golf ClubTournament is happening this week in Redmond, Oregon.  Doug, Alison, Eric, Dick, Candy and about eighty other folks are playing golf in the sunshine.  Part of me wishes I had joined them - although I have not swung a club in over a year and I'm sure it would have been an unmitigated disaster golf-wise.  Maybe next year... Sounds like the golfers are having a good time although they seem a tad reticent about the actual golfing part...

In other news, the political front has been largely dispiriting and I have been unable to muster any enthusiasm for the subject.  Perhaps that will change now that we are on the final stretch.  The polls are somewhat encouraging on the Presidential race; but I see no light at the end of the tunnel as far as Congressional gridlock is concerned.  Alaskans will, of course, enthusiastically re-elect our neanderthal lone Congressman.

I have been reading a lot.  I finally fired-up the Kindle I got for Christmas last year and really like it.  Much easier on the eyes.  I have read a few trashy novels and of late several excellent books on the campaign in the Pacific in World War II.  I particularly enjoyed Neptune's Inferno:  The U.S. Navy at Guadalcanal" by James D. Hornfischer.

The Solomons campaign was truly brutal and while it is generally viewed through the eyes of the Marine Corps fabled stand, the naval campaign was equally brutal.  More sailors died at sea during the campaign than Marines and soldiers ashore.  Much of the fighting was big gun ship-to-ship action.

The torpedoing of the U.S.S. Juneau by a Japanese submarine was particularly horrific with only ten survivors.

Well, I'm just rambling...so reckon it's time to head to mom's for coffee and then a workout.  Think I'll do some baking this afternoon.

I leave you with a couple more pics from the Alaska Coastal series.

 A PBY at Sitka by the sea

In Sitka, the PBYs would land on the water and then taxi to the beach.  Pontoons were raised and the undercarriage was lowered allowing them to taxi right onto to the beach.  Pretty cool.  Note the waist blisters and rounded tail - this was before modification of these structures.  The paint scheme would make this in the 1960 - 1962 period.

The Goose fleet at the Juneau Seadrome - late 1950's

Later gang!

This and That

Well, another week.  And not bad...all things considered.  I did lots of baking and cooking for the elders.  I believe it is appreciated.

Mom's universe is getting smaller.  Aside from a little leaf raking and flower deadheading she is not able to do much in the yard these days.  But...that has not dampened her enthusiasm for flora.  She is in the process of building a very sizable African Violet collection.

Mom has two tables of African Violets...and another dozen leaves rooting...

They're all beautiful and healthy specimens...

...In a variety of colours

I brought a couple home today and they are now perched on my windowsill in the living room.  I expect I will have more headed my way....

Alison and I took several walks last week including a hoof up Salmon Creek to the old powerhouse.  Fall is in the air...  We happened upon a couple of young porcupines.  They are not in the least bit intimidated by folks on the trail...or anything else, I suspect.  Serious attitude.

You wanna piece of me big guy?  Sure!  Come and get it you jerk.

A few nights ago I got a text from Cousin Dick in the Manor House above my serf quarters.  He said "4 bears coming your way."  I went out on the porch to get some pics; but apparently they sensed nothing in my surroundings that appealed to them and crept through the brush out of sight.

Dick had been doing a BBQ gig.  And I'm sure they were offended that they did not receive an invitation.  To show their displeasure - they left a big steaming pile in his front yard.

Next time we want a formal invitation...  Bon Appetit!

Later gang!