Sometimes things just fall in place. Just weeks ago, The Wife and I were facing the very real prospect of having to make mortgage payments on a vacant home in Wyoming while making rental payments in Anchorage. Something that would have broke our bank account's back in short order. Instead, we were able to sell our old home, and find another in a matter of weeks. Pretty sweet, huh? If everything goes according to plan, we're set to close on July 10.
In other news, I've been slacking on the blog big time. Between work, the chaos of moving, and an impending bar exam, It's become too easy for me to neglect The Lunker. It's not that I haven't had material to post about, it's that I just haven't been finding the time to sit and write about it. I'll see what I can do to remedy things...
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
A Little Public Radio
Two things crossed my mind yesterday while listening to my weekly dose of public radio. First, there's a direct correlation between how rural an area is and the quality of it's public radio station. Either that, or the lack of competition for a person's entertainment in rural areas creates quite an illusion. Wyoming, which is about as rural as it gets, has great public radio. KSKA, based in Anchorage, is pretty good, but leaves a little to be desired. KLCC, based in Eugene, is a fine station, but lacks the charm of it's more rural brethren.
However unrelated, this gets us to my second realization--that too many American's really are arrogant cusses. I found myself enthralled with a program on KSKA yesterday. This American Life was chronicling the experiences of a Man and his adoption of a Samoan girl. You can listen to the program here.
The gist of the story is that an American family had adopted a Samoan girl in the hopes of providing a better life for the girl, only to find out well after the fact that the adoption agency was fraudulent and had, more or less, stolen the girl from her natural-born family. What's more, the U.S.-based adoption agency had enabled nearly 1,000 similar adoptions between Samoan children and American families.
The story is quite compelling, pitting the childhood provided by a wealthy adoptive family in America against the upbringing provided by natural parents in a poor Samoan community. It seems to me, you need to be awfully arrogant to believe that you can provide a better life for a child than that child's natural parents just because you have more money. But, what do I know, I've never been adopted and, even at my poorest, my wealth wasn't the limiting factor.
However unrelated, this gets us to my second realization--that too many American's really are arrogant cusses. I found myself enthralled with a program on KSKA yesterday. This American Life was chronicling the experiences of a Man and his adoption of a Samoan girl. You can listen to the program here.
The gist of the story is that an American family had adopted a Samoan girl in the hopes of providing a better life for the girl, only to find out well after the fact that the adoption agency was fraudulent and had, more or less, stolen the girl from her natural-born family. What's more, the U.S.-based adoption agency had enabled nearly 1,000 similar adoptions between Samoan children and American families.
The story is quite compelling, pitting the childhood provided by a wealthy adoptive family in America against the upbringing provided by natural parents in a poor Samoan community. It seems to me, you need to be awfully arrogant to believe that you can provide a better life for a child than that child's natural parents just because you have more money. But, what do I know, I've never been adopted and, even at my poorest, my wealth wasn't the limiting factor.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Some Alaska Culture
A number of years ago, The Wife and I were driving up to Prince Rupert, BC from Oregon. From there, we planned to take a couple ferries to Thorne Bay, Alaska and work away the summer season for the Forest Service. It must have been mid-May because I had just finished my first year of law school.
The drive from Oregon to Prince Rupert was a leisurely three day drive. Somewhere on the second day, along the Fraser River Canyon, we got a hell of a show. The highway runs along the canyon wall through sporadic tunnels. After the first tunnel or two, we got in the habit of holding our breath as we drove through a tunnel. Something to pass the time, I guess. All was fine and dandy until one such tunnel. Here we are out in the middle of nowhere doing our best blowfish impersonation when in the oncoming lane we spot a fully naked man running toward us. Everything flapping in the breeze, so to speak, without any effort on his part to hide things.
Desperately, we tried to hold our breath through the remainder of the tunnel.
Once through, all I could think of was to try and remember if he even had any shoes on. Well, as it turns out, it's become a pandemic. From the Anchorage Daily News:
The drive from Oregon to Prince Rupert was a leisurely three day drive. Somewhere on the second day, along the Fraser River Canyon, we got a hell of a show. The highway runs along the canyon wall through sporadic tunnels. After the first tunnel or two, we got in the habit of holding our breath as we drove through a tunnel. Something to pass the time, I guess. All was fine and dandy until one such tunnel. Here we are out in the middle of nowhere doing our best blowfish impersonation when in the oncoming lane we spot a fully naked man running toward us. Everything flapping in the breeze, so to speak, without any effort on his part to hide things.
Desperately, we tried to hold our breath through the remainder of the tunnel.
Once through, all I could think of was to try and remember if he even had any shoes on. Well, as it turns out, it's become a pandemic. From the Anchorage Daily News:
JUNEAU -- A man is under medical observation in Juneau after he was seen running naked on downtown docks and ultimately was subdued by police with a stun gun.
The man's name has not been released and charges have not been filed.
Sgt. Steve Hernandez says police were called about the jogger just before 10 a.m. Wednesday. Police say the jogger refused to comply to a responding officer's order to stop, so the officer used a stun gun to subdue the man.
Fire department medics responded and took the man to a local hospital.
Earlier this week, state troopers in Fairbanks arrested a naked man seen walking on a bike path
Friday, April 17, 2009
A little country
While sitting in my office today trying to figure out yet another convoluted federal pollution control statute and its accompanying regulations, Waylon Jennings decided to make an appearance. Or, more precisely, Pandora's algorithm decided I wanted to hear some classic Waylon Jennings. "Damn," I thought, "not in Wyoming any more."
I've been in Anchorage for over two weeks now. Both The Wife and I have a fair number of friends here. One of my undergraduate roommates lives here; a coworker from my time in Southeast Alaska lives near here; a few of The Wife's college friends live in the area. I have a great job--and The Wife likely does too. There's nothing wrong with the fishing--at least in the fall. The skiing ain't bad. Anchorage will treat us well.
However, . . . nobody ever rides their horse down Main Street. There are no cows. A rye at the LB with my good friends is a long ways away. Nobody claims the local coffee shop as their primary domicile for tax purposes. Yes, for those in Lander, I'm talking about Juan. Sagebrush? What is that?
Two days ago while walking Karta I had to turn around because a moose was in the way. She (the moose) seemed nice enough and Karta was eager to be friends, but I figured there's no need to push things. Three days ago while commuting to work, I had to slow down because a moose was on the on-ramp. There's been a mild, yet persistent, volcanic eruption for months. And a 4.6 earthquake last week. The Wife is 3,000 miles away.
Yup, not in Wyoming any more.
I've been in Anchorage for over two weeks now. Both The Wife and I have a fair number of friends here. One of my undergraduate roommates lives here; a coworker from my time in Southeast Alaska lives near here; a few of The Wife's college friends live in the area. I have a great job--and The Wife likely does too. There's nothing wrong with the fishing--at least in the fall. The skiing ain't bad. Anchorage will treat us well.
However, . . . nobody ever rides their horse down Main Street. There are no cows. A rye at the LB with my good friends is a long ways away. Nobody claims the local coffee shop as their primary domicile for tax purposes. Yes, for those in Lander, I'm talking about Juan. Sagebrush? What is that?
Two days ago while walking Karta I had to turn around because a moose was in the way. She (the moose) seemed nice enough and Karta was eager to be friends, but I figured there's no need to push things. Three days ago while commuting to work, I had to slow down because a moose was on the on-ramp. There's been a mild, yet persistent, volcanic eruption for months. And a 4.6 earthquake last week. The Wife is 3,000 miles away.
Yup, not in Wyoming any more.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
A long drive north
The Wife and I made the drive up to Anchorage from Lander a bit ago. Our trip took us through Billings, Great Falls and nearly to Calgary on the First Day. With snow falling over night, we decided to stay on the main highways on the second day, driving through Calgary, around Edmonton and into Dawson Creek, British Columbia. We had great weather and dry roads for the rest of the trip, completing our journey in five days.The Alaska Highway officially begins in Dawson Creek. Dawson Creek is a small town that can't seem to decide if it wants to be a tourist destination or just another oil/gas boom town. While I'm sure it gets inundated with motor homes in the summer, it was pretty quiet while we were there.
Since I've let too much time go by since our trip, I'll keep this short on the narrative and long on the pictures... Not far into our third day we spotted our first caribou:
The highlight of the trip for Karta:
We worked our way through Stone Mountain Provincial Park and came across these stone sheep. The little bugger sure was cute:
Moving along, we eventually made it to Laird River Hot Springs. We had heard about these springs from various friends who had made the trip. Our original plan was just to take a look at the springs and move on, but Karta promptly dropped her ball in the springs "forcing" The Wife to go for a swim to retrieve it.
We got to see our first wood bison:
We spent the third night in Watson Lake, Yukon. Let me tell you, we should have just kept on driving--or better yet, just stayed the night at Laird Creek Hot Springs.
After touring around Whitehorse for a bit, our fourth and final night was just over the border in Tok, Alaska. This place boasts the highest number of hotel rooms and campground spots per capita of anywhere in the U.S. Since it was the off season, there were plenty of vacancies.
Excited to be in Alaska and realizing we had nearly no pictures of us, we posed for this shot (no Karta did not take it):
As expected, the drive was beautiful:
The highlight of the trip for Karta:
We worked our way through Stone Mountain Provincial Park and came across these stone sheep. The little bugger sure was cute:
Moving along, we eventually made it to Laird River Hot Springs. We had heard about these springs from various friends who had made the trip. Our original plan was just to take a look at the springs and move on, but Karta promptly dropped her ball in the springs "forcing" The Wife to go for a swim to retrieve it.
We got to see our first wood bison:
We spent the third night in Watson Lake, Yukon. Let me tell you, we should have just kept on driving--or better yet, just stayed the night at Laird Creek Hot Springs.The Wife and I had a friendly wager on how many moose we might see. I bet 17 and The Wife went with 20. While at one point it looked like The Wife was a sure lock to win, the sightings slowed toward the end of the trip and I sneaked away with the win.
After touring around Whitehorse for a bit, our fourth and final night was just over the border in Tok, Alaska. This place boasts the highest number of hotel rooms and campground spots per capita of anywhere in the U.S. Since it was the off season, there were plenty of vacancies.Excited to be in Alaska and realizing we had nearly no pictures of us, we posed for this shot (no Karta did not take it):
As expected, the drive was beautiful:
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