Nope...it is NOT Halloween. It's the scourges of old age. What I usually call my Walgreen's glasses...those $10 magnifiers that you can read with...no longer were doing the trick. Time to go to a higher strength Walgreen's glasses. BUT there isn't a Walgreen's for 783 miles...in Wasilla, AK...near Anchorage. So we call them the Skagway Hardware $3.99 glasses....or simply my ugly glasses. I love them. And they allow me to read for more than 10 minutes without eye strain! Life is good!
And while it looks like I'm dressed for summertime...and am...even with capri jeans and bare feet...it continues to be in the high 50's and overcast. We had two VERY sunny days this week and they were very much appreciated...especially that clear night that I went out and saw the lights. That was the only window of opportunity all week. Life is good!
This week has been one of work. Mike is now over his fever and GI upset and back to work. Most of the guests this week have been wonderful and fun and interesting. Some of the people here are beginning to return home and that's rather sad...changing the dynamics of our "family" up here. They will be missed. Last night the mechanics hosted a BBQ for everyone and good times, good people and burgers and brats abounded.
I have to confess we didn't stay long. You see...the salmon are beginning to run. Ok...they haven't sprouted legs or anything like that, but it is called the salmon run...when the salt water salmon swim upstream to spawn. There is limited man-made entertainment here in Skagway. The entertainment that exists are primarily directed at tourists, the occasional local event or getting together with friends. The rest is the call of the wild: hiking, fishing, bird-watching, etc.
Right now it is the pink salmon that are swimming upstream. Their average length is 20-25 inches and they weigh 4-6 pounds. They're still good eating while they're out in the saltwater inlets. But now that they're in the river, their mission is to spawn and die and make for very ucky eating. So we joined many locals and summer people who made the drive out to the flats of the ghost town of Dyea.
You can actually see these fish swimming in the clearer small creeks...flopping or with their dorsal fins sticking up out of the water. It really is fascinating to see the creek so full of salmon! But what is more fascinating is that they are: bear food. And so the people waiting in the flats with binoculars, cameras and the occasional fishing rod are here to mostly watch the bears fish for salmon.
Up here there are two kinds or bears: the black bear and the brown bear. The brown bear is the (to me) misleading and gentle-seeming term for a grizzly bear. We arrived out on the flats and headed out to a foot bridge over the little creek to first take a look at the salmon. A woman nearby warned us: "There are two brown bears that just went into the woods and one of them is very aggressive." "Ok," we said. We were just off to look at the fish.
WHOA! Were those bears closer than I expected when they came bounding out of the woods...the larger adolescent chasing the slightly younger and smaller adolescent. And they move...very...fast! Now...the key video that wasn't captured had the following line: "Shari...face the bear and slowly walk backward." It was the worst possible condition. Mike has always joked that he needn't out run a bear, he just has to out run me. He includes variations on this theme when he is talking about bear safety with his coach passengers. We had arrived at the worst condition.
But being the woods woman that I am, I also recalled from somewhere in some condition you're supposed to raise your arms and look bigger to the bear. I did not recall that you're to do that when the bear is charging AT you....and not merely chasing another bear. I thought Mike was going to wet his pants...he was laughing so hard and said: "I told you to face the bear...not surrender to the bear!"
But we were pretty close to the bears. They ran around the group of cars in our little area. We all calmly, and resolutely, though not too quickly enclosed ourselves within our vehicles...only to get out again when it appeared they were far enough away...or when the bugs were too obnoxious. Usually it was more than sufficient to return to the pick-up truck because of bugs rather than bear threat.
We watched the bears not only fish for salmon, but catch and eat a salmon. It really was just like on Animal Planet!!!! Paying for a movie or a ball game has nothing on watching bears in the wild!
This morning we had another communal breakfast prepared by our wonderful Sarah. It was a very small gathering. And I confess and apologize to Sarah for not helping her clean up. Her roommate Chelsea, it turns out, is an avid reader and soon we were sitting with my computer and her reading list...comparing books and adding more books to our respective wish lists of what we'd like to read. Time flew in a most enjoyable and unexpected manner and I'm glad I got to know this side of her. It only takes time and interest to get to know someone else a little better. I am glad we spent this time together.
I once belonged to a book group for a little while when I worked at Bridgeport Hospital many years ago and it was very enjoyable. Since then I've always been saddened that I haven't found another group in which to participate. I'm a voracious reader and my biggest flaw is that I don't retain as much as I would like to. Never have. Too many times I'm re-reading a book that I read many years ago. The good/bad news is that I recognize that I've read it before...good because I made the recognition and bad that I didn't remember it in the first place. Worse is the good/bad news that I don't recognize it until late in the book. Good because it all seems fresh. Really bad because it took so long to make the recognition. Yeesh.
I'm really grateful that I have so many people that are reading my blog, enjoying it and sending me such nice notes about it. The down side of all this is that it makes me feel as if I have nothing to say....and that feeling has kept me from picking up the telephone. (The good side being that we're not running over our minutes, of course.) But today I called the mothers and am reminded of life back in Arizona and how much I miss everyone.
So, in the interest of actually being more interested in what's going on at home...let me know what y'all are up to in your lives...what books you're reading...what are your hopes for the coming year. Ok, so it isn't January 1 and there are no resolutions involved. What are you working towards in your life?
You have to look quickly, but the above video shows the two bears running across in the distance.
Sherri, this is so funny, Funny Girl! Be
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