Continuing the Tradition . . . .

Okay, quick, what is the common thread - Alena! on the dance floor, Cookie Dough in a swimming pool and now Steve in his sister's bathroom - give up? All photos taken from over head, accentuating an Unalaska Blogger's boobs . . . . gee, it seemed to work when they did it . . . Brian, you're next buddy . . . .

Not too much new to report, it's a pain to get on a computer but I needed to contact work so I downloaded photos as well. Shoulder hurts, not too much going on outside the living room window, my sister is spoiling me and cranking the AC to keep her polar bear brother comfortable, the rest of the family is sleeping and made the mistake of leaving strawberry shortcake makings on the kitchen cupboard when they went off to bed . . . .

Odds and Ends and Off to Idaho

I'm cleaning the recent photos off the cameras and packing to fly out to Idaho this afternoon to "get some work done".  Here is a fellow local blogger, husband and grandson engaging in some multi-generational subsistence salmon fishing right off the beach in front of their house - passing on the tradition.

Lovebirds spending some quality time together by the Dutch Harbor spit.

The newest member of the Aleutian Rod and Gun Club demonstrating how it's done.  If you're going to tick Goldfish off, I recommend standing a very long ways away . . . . 

Cannery cats by Alyeska bunkhouse.

The horses have been hanging out at the far end of Summer Lake the last few times I've rode the pass.  It is getting greener by the day, and the lupine is popping out at sea level now.

One of the many neighborhood foxes.  You can see the dandelion crop is good this year . . . 

Road to the pass - just wide enough as long as you don't want to exit your vehicle.

Bird on a wire.

And I'm outta here!  I'll be posting from Idaho, I'm going to try to convince the anesthesiologist to take some pictures during the surgery.  Not sure what Sis has in mind for afterwards - hope she knows I'm not painting her house this time through . . . . .  

After the Storm

So, I haven't posted in a week, and it's 3:30 AM and I'm lying awake in bed snuggling a fast-asleep and very beautiful Goldfish whom I unfortunately woke up when I attempted to sneak out to the computer.  What drives this blog are pictures, and the only pictures I've taken this past week would get me in trouble with family and quite possibly the authorities so in a rare exception to my rules, these two photos were taken a few months ago, not in the past week, but they have been sitting on my desktop awaiting an idea, and the idea is this:  life's storms can either strip away the non-essential and reveal the essence, or they can deposit new and interesting features that add to the whole.

The top photo was taken at Summers Bay after a particularly savage storm in March.  The sand has blown away leaving the stones sitting on little pedestals with the sand accumulated on the leeward side.  The bottom photo was taken at Little South America after the same storm, and all matter of strange items were thrown up on the beach by the waves (I'm still fascinated by king crab shells on the beach).

I guess life is a bit stormy for me right now as I head to Idaho in four days for shoulder surgery, my first glimpse at the idea that there are limits to the human condition and that the fun we have in life has a cumulative effect on our bodies.  Too early to tell if the storm will strip away the extraneous or deposit the unusual . . . . how have life's storms treated you lately?

Coast Guard Cutter "Spar"

The USCG Buoy Tender Spar has been in Unalaska this past week servicing the navigation aids in the area.  The Spar is a Juniper class buoy tender, nicknamed "The Aleutian Keeper".  She is 225 feet long and powered by two 3100 horsepower Caterpillar 3608 engines and has a 6900 mile cruising range.  She also has a couple .50 caliber machine guns in case she wants to play rough.  WLB-206 is the second Spar to serve the Coast Guard - the first Spar was WLB-403, launched in November 1943 and serving proudly for 53 years before decommissioning in 1997.  The Spar name comes from the Coast Guard Women's Reserve which served as a supplemental Coast Guard force between 1942 and 1946.  The acronym SPAR stands for the Coast Guard motto, Semper Paratus!  Always Ready!

In the third photo, you can get a closer look at the crew cleaning and servicing one of the channel markers in the East Channel.  I believe Mike Rowe did a Dirty Jobs episode on a buoy tender, possibly the Spar.  In the bottom photo you can see that those View For the Living Room shots I post on here sometimes really are right from the living room!