Winter Walk – Day 3
I wake up earlier than the sun rises these days, which is no hard feat considering the it doesn’t start getting light until after 9 a.m.  When I went out to the outhouse around this time, I was struck by how pretty and still my backyard was.  There was no barking from the neighbors’ dogs, no cars passing, no snowmachines or four-wheelers racing around.  It was quiet… and cold.  The thermometer read minus 20, which is cold enough that skin left uncovered begins to burn slightly after about ten minutes. I had some work to do at home and waited until the sun came up to go for a walk around (on?) the lake. The skies were cloudy and the sun hidden, but

A Winter Walk – Day 2
We’ve been lucky enough to get yet even more snow! It is such a wonderful treat to wake up in the morning, look outside and see a fresh blanket of white powder everywhere. The morning was mostly cloudy, which means temperatures are a little warmer, but I would rather have cold and sun.  I think most people would.  I decided to wait out the clouds and see if they might dissolve into sunshine, which they did around 11 a.m. or noon. Here is a picture of the front of my love

A Winter Walk – Day 1
I certainly wasn’t expecting all the new snow today, but here it came, falling down like thousands of little feathers.  I took Sadie out for her daily walk – she was quite persistent about it, which is no surprise because I’ve been so busy and neglecting her lately. I have decided to try a little experiment.  Let’s call it “7 Walks in 7 Days.”  I have been getting a little restless with the same routine every day, so hopefully this will motivate me to explore some new places – or at least places I haven’t visited in a while.  As most people in Fairbanks know, getting outside is particularly critical this time of year w

3.20.2003
In honor of President Obama’s first visit to Alaska, I pulled out a journal entry I wrote six and a half years ago on the day following President Bush’s invasion of Iraq.  At the time, I was 24 years old and living with some wonderful roommates on 10th Street in Berkeley, Calif.  I edited it slightly, but the following is pretty much exactly what I wrote about how my friends and I marked that momentous day.  Sorry, no pictures. *** I went to the protest yesterday in San Francisco, opting out from the early morning direct action in the Financial District because I was not only sleep deprived from just having gotten off the graveyard shift at the veg

Tribute to the Unorganized Borough with a capital “U”
Perhaps it is the former reporter part of me, but I love listening to and reading transcripts of government meetings.  Often they can be quite boring, but sometimes wonderful gems of wisdom or colorful stories emerge and it makes the entire experience worth it. I’ll always remember attending a city council meeting in Nevada City, Calif. at which a citizen’s request to cut down a tree in the historic district was being considered.  During public comment, one guy stood up and said, “I want to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. I want to speak for the tree.”  He then stood there, silent, for quite a while.  It was wonderful. I̵