Kurt Vonnegut died yesterday, at the age of 84. There is some karmic irony in the fact that his death was related to a recent brain injury. Some would say his entire body of work demonstrates an injured brain. I would say that any injury previously suffered simply showed itself as the scarred, scathing wit of the damaged innocent, forever trying to make sense of a world he’d seen become so utterly senseless in a split second in Dresden all those years ago.
Rest in peace, Kurt.
“It is done.”
With 630 days remaining until the 2008 election, and a vast field of declared candidates already in full swing, I decided that today is not too late (nor, indeed, a day too soon), to announce the 2052 Presidential candidacy of my as-yet-unconceived child.
While there remains some doubt as to the Candidate’s sex, name, and age at the time of the election, I am quite sure that he or she will make an excellent Candidate. My child, the Candidate, will have been raised to be an upstanding, moral, ethical, and, above all, rational citizen — one who carries, at all times, a national ID card and “three days, three ways” disaster preparedness kit. My child will not have not inhaled. My child, the Candidate, will have demonstrated academic, business, and political success, have an innate ability to move fluidly among all ethnicities, dance along the knife-edge of critical national issues, skirt debate, and avoid any and all poorly-lit photo opportunities. The Candidate will be charismatic, attractive, and articulate, even in 3D projections, and, if the campaign manager can swing it, will be a war hero.
If we start investing and asking for public support now, there remains a slim hope that the Candidate will be able to field a reasonably-financed campaign, despite the vagaries of inflation and uncertainties of the future economy. We are declaring now, in part to avoid campaign finance reforms, but mostly so we can begin to get our platform and message into the American People’s awareness ahead of the competition. You can never build mindshare too early!
This dream can only happen with your support! Don’t let yourselves be left behind. Leave a legacy! Act now to secure the future of this nation and donate to Campaign 2052: My Kid For President, before it’s too late.
Well here we are in February and I have driven home more often this past week in the light than in the dark. It is a nice change. Well, my wife is calling and a baby’s crying. I have to go.
Michael
Well, I finally got around to taking my truck to the dump. Not the truck, but the stuff in the bed. A nice drive with two of my buddies (Isaiah and Daniel) covered a few miles through downtown and then a short trip to the burbs. On the way there we saw a large moose on the side of the highway and a pair of Bald Eagles soaring overhead. The trip went well, we got everything done, and oh, I finished my first Master’s course. The baby is crying, I have to go.
It’s shameless, I know, but when you get great service, you want everyone else to share the experience.
I recently had a flat tire that Firestone wanted to charge me nearly $30 to fix — until they decided it was not repairable, at which point they wanted me to buy a new tire at $128.
I wanted a second opinion, so I took it to Les Schwab. Not only were they able to repair my tire, they did it for no charge — a tire they don’t even sell. When I went in to pay, the guy behind the counter said, “Oh, don’t worry about it. Just come back and buy tires from us sometime.” You can bet I will. And you should too. Great customer service deserves loyalty, so I’m spreading the word — buy your tires at Les Schwab!
The rogue ambles through the dark, snow covered lanes of Cedar Hollow. His tall and lanky body meandering from house to house, he peers into windows, digs through snow, searching… What is he searching for? For food. The Bull Moose who we will have to name soon has appeared in our neck of the woods (Cedar Hollow) twice in the past few days. He was lingering outside our house yesterday evening as I was leaving the base. Sarah went nuts just watching him dig through the snow directly across the street from our house. The boys all thought it was cool too. I would include a picture, but I did not write down the exact instructions last time I spoke to Marc and could not duplicate what seemed intuitive at the time. I will be sending some pictures over email soon though.
To think I was just complaining about not seeing any moose for a couple weeks. Well this bull and cow gave me quite a lot to look at. It was Sunday morning. I was in the middle of a conversation with a couple little people and my wife when I looked out our large living room window… I immediately ran out the door with my camera and my shoes half way on in jeans and a t-shirt (since it was warmer than 15 degrees above zero). Once I crossed the street and selected my defensive/escape position (since I was about 10 yards from 2 really big animals who may have been a bit on the ornery side due to a significant lack of flora these days) I snapped a few photos. The one I am sending is the best of the three I took. I hope you enjoy seeing it as much as I enjoyed taking it. To put it into a medievil perspective I was close enough to successfully hunt them with a spear. I probably would have taken the bull first (although I wouldn’t want to get into a kicking contest with the cow either).
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I have a question for the intellectual readers of this site. Why do we add an “s” when pluralizing carniverous animals but not herbivorous (if that is even a word) animals? For instance, the plurals of moose, deer, elk, and caribou, are moose, deer, elk, and caribou respectively; but the plurals of bear, wolf, wolverine, and cougar are bears, wolves, wolverines, and cougars respectively. I was just curious to know why, but not curious enough to do research on the subject. Anyway, now that I have been instructed on how to add pictures to this site I will be adding a bit more colour (or color for Americans like me) to my posts. Have a great day. Everyday in Alaska is a great day for me!
Well, it’s just after 10:30am and we have had daylight for about an hour already. The short days weren’t really that noticeable. The kids had a very Merry Christmas as did we. We do miss all of you though. I am plugging along in my Master’s Program (1 assignment and 1 midterm graded and still no less than 100%). From now on I’ll refrain from updating my progress until I either finish a class or fail to achieve 100%. I have been contemplating (still) a change in careers. I’ll keep you posted as or if it develops into more than a contemplation. Six more inches of snow fell last night and I just rediscovered or vehicles and drive way (again). The kid’s snow fort is complete (4 walls and one tunnel entrance). I’ll send pictures to those who request them. Next year, if the kids want to help me build one, I might even throw on a roof. Then we might be able to camp igloo style. I haven’t seen a mouse for a couple weeks and am getting antsy to run into the woods. Today however we will be spending the day at the Arctic Oasis on base (a fun place to play for the kids while mommy goes shopping). Gotta go.
I’m dreaming of a white Christmas… OK, I’m not dreaming. It’s reality. The snow continues to fall over Anchorage and we already have about 2 feet in our backyard. By the time it is through on this go around we may have 3 feet. I’d be really happy with about 5 feet. Just enough to start tunneling through. If I could get on the roof as easily as I could at the last house we would already have a large pile somewhere (probably the back yard since the front yard is almost all driveway and I have already created a couple of snow berms at least 3 feet deep (4 feet in places). The Christmas Angel and reindeer in the fron yard have been buried. The reindeer is still showing the tips of its antlers and the angel is only waist deep. After tonight that will change significantly. I need to get back outside and shovel the driveway before Elisabeth gets home. This will be my 4th shoveling in 3 days. Good thing she got sick when she did or I would not have been home to take care of this. I have Saturday through Tuesday off and am hoping to get some school work done next week while everyone else is out of the office. So far so good, I have acheived the highest grade in the class on two written essays and one quiz (the only three graded assignments we have done so far – 100% on each). The instructor seems to be a fair guy as well. It is easy to tell when reading assignments who has spent some time researching, thinking and writing and who has not. Well, as I said earlier I need to go, I also need to take care of a couple babies. Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
I can’t begin to describe how impossibly beautiful it is here. The way the fog swirls through the snow covered alpine firs as they cling to the edges of jagged moutains below the timberline, how the sun makes the snow covered world glitter like diamonds, how the steam rises off the large rivers when temperatures drop blow 20, or how the smaller rivers churn swiftly beneath the snow covered ice formed at the height of their swells. How the steam escapes the mouth of the moose seen standing at the edge of the trees along a busy street, or just driving up the road through the frozen lowlands and seeing majestic snow covered-sun bathed mountains ahead, behind, and beside you. Pictures alone cannot capture this beauty, nor can the simple words from this simpler man. Just walking outside of town you get the feeling that God Himself has touched this part of the world in ways we can only dream of, and hope and pray for Him to touch the rest of the world as He did here. The view from my back bedroom windows is stunning. I am hoping to have my deck finished by the end of next summer.
Every season here is better than the one before. We arrived in Autumn and it was beautiful. Winter however contains its own beauty and in ways outshines the Fall. Spring I can only imagine gets better than winter, and summer better still as the days grow warm and unimaginably long. When the leaves turn again in late August it will bring more beauty still, getting progressively more stunning as the days shrink into an overpowering dark that stays illumninated from perpetual winter snow. Close your eyes and imagine, but you will not see until you experience Alaska.
If those who read this want me to come back to the lower 48 pray I get promoted to Major. Should that fall through (for whatever reason) I might have to stay here a little longer to explore. This is a fantastic place for older boys to be (it would be hard to leave here if we were not forced to). It will be hard to leave for them and for me. Until such a time I shall enjoy every breath and every view and every eagle that soars through it. Have a great day.