Sitka, Snow, and Frozen Pipes

Kathy flew to Sitka this morning, for a two-week stint at the SEARHC Clinic there.  It was a beautiful sunny day today, and she had a nice flight in a little Cessna.  It's a one hour flight, much better than flying to Ketchikan, then transferring to Alaska Airlines, and flying to Sitka.  She is staying in an apartment, so doesn't have to eat restaurant food every day.  There is at least one theatre there, too, so she'll get to go to a movie!  


 

View this afternoon of the mountains from the Klawock-Hollis Highway

She'll be handling walk-in clients for them.  They are down three people, so have a big backlog.  This trip came at a good time:  we are both needing some time off the island.  Even though it's work-related, it's definitely a change of scenery, and a much larger town, so will be a good change.


So, I get complete control of the TV remote, for two weeks!  Ha!  I probably won't be using it much, as I've got three good books to read. 

I was sent home from work right after Kathy left, due to frozen water pipes.  It got down to 21 degrees overnight, and was cold all weekend.

My job is going well.  There is a Tribal Council meeting tomorrow night, and we should get more direction after that meeting.   

The shoreline freezes overnight, then the tide goes out and the ice breaks up, and creates a beautiful example of natural art.

The juncos are our best birdseed customers, coming around soon after we put it out.  There are a few other little birds, but we haven't seen a jay for a long time.  The cold and snow doesn't bother the ravens at all.  They are ever-present, flying, congregating, jabbering.  Canada geese are still here, too, some having never left.  I saw some this weekend standing on the ice.  It looked like they were a little bewildered.  We still see the occasional bald eagle, too.  


I don't remember if I wrote about the ridiculous 'normal' cost of a crown that Cigna Insurance tried to foist on us, $250!  I appealed this, and after two months, they finally changed it to the full cost of what our dentist was charging, of which they paid half.  This meant an increase of $300 in their share.  On top of that, they allowed the dentist to re-bill for several other clients, who also got rebates, pretty cool.  All was fine, until Cigna sent us an 'Explanation of Benefits' for Kathy's crown, and guess what, they said the 'normal' and covered cost was $250!  So, another call, and the Customer Service Supervisor I'd been working with was a little embarrassed, as she should be.  I wish I had the contact information for someone higher up in the company:  this is ridiculous.  


That's all I can think of to write.  Between the weather and the scenery, there really isn't much else going on.  I'm sure by the end of the month, the bears will be out of hybernation, maybe the herring will have returned, and there will be lots going on!

Island Life: Snow, Mountains, Water, Work

We had more snow overnight, just as the locals predicted.  It was enough to coat everything.  The dogs both love new snow, love to role in it.  This is about the third snow we've had in the last week, none of them major.  


I don't think either one of us really mind the cold or the snow.  The snow is a beautiful bonus, and the cold is not as bad as we expected.  The rain is a different story.  


I was in an EPA Grants Workshop on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning, with 10 other tribal staff members from around the island.  This was very interesting, and helpful.  Three of them used to work in the office I work in now, and one of them is now a Councilmember for the tribe.  


What do I really do?  I work in the Tribal Transportation Department, which is all of two of us right now.  Since there is no road construction going on yet, it's pretty quiet.  Once the City gets the sewer line replaced, we will start back up, having our contractors pave the last major section of road in the City.  We have already paved most of the City.  Next, we will be looking for more roads, even outside the City, to get details on and add to the list of future projects.  My director is in the process of ordering one of the new GPS tablets, to replace the simply GPS unit we now have for field work.  


These tablets are amazing.  I heard about their use from archaeologists when I worked at the San Diego Archaeological Center.  They present real-time satellite maps as you walk along, and allow you to fix points, add notes on the terrain, obstructions, etc.  


So that is part of what I do, field data collection.  The data has to be loaded into a computer, then added to the detail of the roads.  We submit new projects, or 'road inventory,' data to the State once a year, then it's accepted by the Federal Highways Administration (FHWA), who then will provide us with grants to improve the roads.  


As the roads are being improved, I take before and after pictures for our records, and the FHWA.  I also maintain records on the status of all the projects, so we know at any moment in time if we are on track, time and money-wise.  


Our new director also has me looking into other projects, such as a Cultural Heritage Tour program.  This whole island is rich in cultural heritage, but severely lacking in any attractions or educational offering to visitors, and we both feel like there is great potential for such a program.  It would not only celebrate the heritage, it would hopefully provide new jobs, for tour guides, Native artisans, etc.  


Kathy is going to Sitka for two weeks, flying on Monday.  The clinic there has suffered a loss of staff, and is getting behind in its services, so asked for volunteers from the other clinics to come and help them pare down their backlog.  Kathy has been to Sitka once before, on a cruise with her Mom several years ago, but not since.  This will be a nice change of pace for her.  I'm trying to get her to fly to San Diego sometime in April, too:  she needs a break, from the island, and her heavy client load, and, of course, to see Henry!  Oh, and Kelli and Jared, too.  :-)


Brady is scheduled to fly home from Halifax tomorrow.  He's been there for 11 days, visiting three different offices of his company, updating computers.  His weather has been very similar to ours, in temp and snowfall.  Communicating has been tougher than usual:  he's in the Atlantic Standard Timezone, which is an hour earlier than Eastern, while we are in the Alaska timezone, so we are five hours apart, crazy.  

Out in the Rain Hike to the some Big Trees

My second week of work with our new Director went well.  We get along very well, and I think the future is bright.  We have a lot of work to do, which is fine with me:  I like to be busy and productive.  Between the two of us, we can accomplish a lot of improvement.

Yes, despite the new director being hired, there are still just two of us:  my co-worker, hired the same day I was, has been let go.  Of course I don't know details, but she didn't seem to know QuickBooks as well as that position required, so that may have been part of the reason.

SEARHC hired a new therapist last week, which will be a tremendous help to Kathy.  The new person will be working in the Craig office, which will be more convenient for Craig clients, too.

The weather continues to be dry and cold.  It's nice to have a reprieve from the rain.  People tell us this is normal for February, then March brings back snow.  I still haven't had my fill of snow, and would rather see that any day than rain.  The weeks are flying by, now that I'm working, so Spring will be here before we know it, then Summer, and, maybe, another visit by Kelli, Jared, and Henry, maybe?!  :-)  It's actually our turn to go see them, but that might not happen until niece Mary's wedding in September:  after dealing with Fall and Winter, I'd really like to enjoy every day of Spring and Summer here, with the flowers blooming, the salmon running, black bears about, and bald eagles back en force. 

Saturday morning I went on an organized hike to see some of the largest trees in the entire Tongass National Forest.  This was a fun hike near Thorne Bay.  The trees happen to be near where two rivers merge, and create a good fishing hole, several fellow hikers told me.  

On the way to the hike, I saw my first Prince of Wales seal lions.  Others told me they were chasing herring, which are here a little early.  Kathy and I went back to the spot later and saw them again.  The arrival of herring also brings the return of the whales, so we have our eyes peeled for them.  Coincidentally, last night we watched a great Nature special on the intelligence of dolphins and whales.  The segment on humpback whales was amazing, and filmed somewhere not far from Prince of Wales Island.  They have been seen to act as teams, herding the herring to make it much easier to eat them.   

Today, Sunday, I took Kathy back to a spot on Big Salt Lake where my friend Bob had pointed out swans.  This was the first time I have seen swans, in Alaska:  I think we saw some in Yellowstone.  They are huge and beautiful, and were still there in the same place today.  They are another example of the white white of this new home of ours, going with the snow that falls, the very white snowy peaks, the white head of the 'bald' eagles, the white patches of the orca,  in contrast to the black black bears, the ever-present shiny black ravens, and the black orcas.


I need to get busy and finalize a supplier for the 13th Annual Prince of Wales Island International Marathon and Half Marathon.  It takes place on May 26.  About 400 people will run, and it should be a lot of fun.  


Brady is in Halifax, working hard on offices of his company.  He's so far east he's in a different timezone than Eastern, so with us being beyond Pacific time, we are five hours apart, pretty crazy.

I'm working on our taxes, much more interesting than usual, with our relocation and our two-state residence issues.  I didn't make any money in Alaska in 2011, and Alaska doesn't have state income tax, so it'll be easier than it might have been.  

I read crying about gas prices in San Diego.  I wish we were paying $3.99!  Our price has recently dropped to $4.28, a 15 cent decrease.  Luckily, we don't use much:  our commutes are all of five minutes, and the bigger town of Craig is only six miles away.  Hang in there, SoCal, I'd bet on continued higher gas prices.  

 

Snowy Trip to Thorne Bay

We take a trip to the east side of the island, to Thorne Bay.  Snow still covered the side of the road just a little east of our place, surprising us.  It was deep all the way to Thorne Bay.  We haven't seen it in Klawock for at least a week.


The Big Salt Lake Road follows along the Big Salt Lake, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean that looks like a lake.  It stretches about eight miles into the island, and is one of the most scenic sights on the island.  It's about half a mile wide, and surrounded by forest right down to its shoreline.

About six miles from Klawock, there is a thumb of the 'lake' that sticks into the forest, only about 250 yards across.  This picture is a shoreline, showing the icey cover and the snow covering that ice.  It's really beautiful.

 Kathy is still waiting for her reinforcements.  A new counselor has been waiting in the wings, dealing with HR issues, which have finally been resolved, and he should be here this week.  

Tomorrow starts the second week of working for my new director.  She is getting up to speed very fast, a good thing.  

We went to the last game of the season for the Craig High School Panthers last night, and the varsity beat the Sitka Wolves, who were one game away from an unbeaten season!  It was an exciting game, very close score the entire game.  Now they move on to regional playoffs.  

 I'm working with the 2012 Prince of Wales International Marathon and Half Marathon committee, on the 13th annual event.  It takes place May 26.  

Brady is off to Halifax for 12 days tomorrow.  Hope the weather isn't too bad.  

Have a good week all, and a nice Presidents Day.

 

Finally, a Department Director

Sorry everyone, really lagging on my blog.  A job taking 37.5 hours of your week puts a crimp in my free time, you know?


The new Transportation Department Director started today, and at first glance, she is experienced, direct yet still personable, and goal-oriented, so we should get along fine.  I'm looking forward to the department getting its act together quickly, and moving forward.  


I got to walk home again today, as I have about twice a week since my second week.  February has been relatively rain-free, which helps.  The sun is staying up longer and longer, and that helps.  Check out my Facebook page for the scenery I had walking home today.


Kathy is full up on patients, and looking forward to a new counselor starting soon, to help with the client load.  His starting day keeps getting put off, for some reason.  Kathy got equally good news in that a licensed marriage and family counselor will start in the Juneau center the end of this month, and so she will be able to get supervised hours for the license she came up to Alaska to get in the first place.  This is really good news.


You won't see me writing much about Kathy's job, due to the sensitive nature, which she cannot share with me.  I do know she gets almost weekly compliments, from patients, friends of patients, and co-workers who overhear patients talking, plus from her boss.  She also gets frequent referrals from current clients, which says they appreciate your counseling.  


So far, we know of two friends that have booked cruises to Alaska for this year.  One of them will be in Ketchikan on a weekend, so we plan on taking the ferry over for a day and a night, and catching dinner with them.  The other couple will hit Ketchikan during the middle of the week, so we'll have to miss them.  


For anyone who is thinking about coming up to visit us this year, I found a nice graph that explains the best times to visit, depending on what you want to see:  Best Times to Visit Southeast Alaska  The first half of June looks like the best overall time.  


Planning continues on the 13th Annual Prince of Wales Island International Marathon and Half Marathon, which happens May 26th.  I'm on the committee, and enjoying working to make this event special for all participants.  


Happy Valentine's Day!

Warmer Days and a Lot Less Rain!

Wow, what a Super Bowl!  My team lost, but it was a heck of a game!  This year almost all the playoff games were just as close.  Still can't believe Eli Manning's team beat Tom Brady's.  

We missed the big Wescott Party at Mark and Jenny's, but heard Mark did too!  He thought snowboarding with his buddies would be more fun, have to agree.  After all, it's just a game, right?  Oh, and a good reason for a party.  

We did get to Skype with Kelli and Jared and Henry tonight, which is always fun.  Henry loves to chat up a storm, even though he uses his own language.  :-)  Kelli is very good about Skypeing every week, and sending us pictures of Henry on our phones.  Thanks Kelli!

We are slowly adjusting to the new routine of both of us working.  It's a little tight in the morning, but getting better.  It's so nice to have us working slow close to home, and so close to each other.  We really have nothing to complain about. 

We planned on going to a benefit dinner on Saturday night, for a family whose house trailer was completely gutted by fire.  We couldn't find the Hall though!  Many places don't put any signs up identifying their business or building, which I find very strange.  So, we missed the dinner and went to Zat's Pizza instead.  

After dinner, we headed to the Craig High School for the Island Grind.  This was our first Grind, but it was much like some other events we have seen.  The Craig High School is only about ten years old, and really nice, inside and out.  It's auditorium is the site of many island events.  We really like going to events, because we run into new friends, and make new ones.  The entertainment is always fun.  This time there was even open-mike acts.  My problem is, they have 1960's audio equipment, and apparently no one knowledgeable enough to make it work without taking a lot of time.  This means it can take five to ten minutes between acts as they re-arrange microphones and speakers.  This time, they tried to improve the process by putting those auto repair hats on each of the microphones.  These are the bright colored plastic hats that are magnetic and stick to the top of your car, normally.  The funny thing is, it took longer between acts this time, even with the hats!  I think someone needs to right  grant for a decent sound system.  

Saturday  I went for a walk down to the Klawock River, along the main highway.  Despite several days of higher temperatures and no snow, there were still pieces of ice and even some snow scattered around the shoreline of the river.  

The Klawock River splits at its mouth, the river itself going under this bridge just to the left out of camera view, right near where Kathy works.  Another arm has been blocked off for about 30 years, but just last Fall was opened up to the Klawock Inlet via a box culvert installed under the highway.

This week, Kathy has a new therapist joined the department, which sill make a big difference to her workload.  I have a consultant coming in who has worked with the Klawock Cooperative Association for several years, so we should make great gains.  
 

Six Months In Alaska!

Happy February everyone!  We have now been on the island six months, amazingly.  Due to our housing challenge, we’ve only been in our cabin about four months.  The weather, of course, has been different, pretty wild for the last three months, much better the first three.  That's when it was almost a constant 55 degrees or thereabouts.  Then came November, it got colder, and we ended up with a White Thanksgiving, something the locals said was very unusual, and portended a snowier than normal winter.


I walked home again yesterday.  It was raining lightly, not bad.  It took me twenty minutes at a brisk pace.  I'm so lucky to have a job, this job, and in this location.  It makes our single-car family project work great.  

I've got nice family pictures on my desk at work now.  I have of Kathy in her graduation gown, with me and Kelli and, of course, Henry, on the day she walked for her Masters in Family Therapy.  That was only May of last year!  Who could have predicted what that day would lead us to?!


We moved Kathy into her new office on Wednesday evening, after work.  She now has a little bigger office, with a window, nice!  She also has a new co-therapist coming into the department, starting Monday, so that should help with her workload.  Steve will be moving from Florida, so will have similar issues with weather as we do.  

Brady is flying, or has flown, home from two days in Toronto.  Next, he's in Halifax for 12 days on the 20^th of February.  He sure gets around!  He was in Chicago for one or two nights last week.  Faith was at the Sundance Film Festival this past weekend with a girlfriend.   How cool is that?

They are getting a replacement cat for Animal, from the breeder where they got both Animal and Pixie.  The breeder feels responsible for the heart ailment that took Animal down.  Pixie greets them at the door each night hoarse from mewing, so she definitely needs a partner.

January 31, 2012, Tuesday

I got to work early today, finally.  We had a mixup on the car, though:  I thought I was taking Kathy to work and she wasn’t ready to leave, so was just dropping me off.  I had to walk, then, to the POW Watershed Association meeting at the Klawock City Hall, about eight blocks from work.  The weather was okay, but I thought I saw a shortcut on the map.  It turned out to have a long bank of snow and bushes, but I managed it.  The rest of the way was uphill on a paved street, so that was good, but I was out of breathe from scrambling up the bank of snow.  Anyway, I made it, just as they got started.  I couldn’t stay to the end, unfortunately, but that was okay, there for most of it.  I'm still hoping I can get myself on the board of directors.  This is a brand new group, working on getting off the ground.  The four island tribes are now apparently interested, which is good.  We did get the bylaws accepted today, which is a huge step forward.  We did not get a board seated though, which would have been nice.  Next up is the logo, which, since it’s art and will represent the association, is likely to be highly controversial:  people have way different tastes with art.  Maybe we will get lucky and a majority won’t really be concerned with it. 

I decided to take another route back to work, sticking to the streets, then found another path that I thought would do it, but it took me right back to the snowy bank.  Good thing, too, because that is where I found my missing gloves!  And, I only fell once on the icy path:  had the wrong shoes, for one.  

Our grandson is growing up seeing us on a computer screen, waving and saying hi and giving kisses to it.  What kind of grandparents are we?!  There are only two things worse  than absentee grandparents.  What are we doing up here?!

Boy, the cold water coming out of our faucets is cold!  This morning it was icy, a wonder it was flowing at all.  When it’s been really cold for a few days, people start leaving the faucets running, can you San Diegans imagine?  We just let it run, all night long!

Kathy told me yesterday that a LICENSED Marriage and Family Therapist had been hired by SEARHC in Juneau!  This means she will finally have a supervisor for her hours, and she can get HER license!  This is great!  Finally!  

Kathy went to the dentist last week and found she only has one tooth with issues.  She thought she had three.  She will need a crown, but that’s better than three.  She also found out she grinds her teeth, which was news to both of us.  I’ve never heard nor suspected she did this.  We expect it’s the result of the stress she is under at work.

This story is over a year old, but new to me.  It's the craziest set of pictures of nature I've seen in a long time.  Check out this story and set of pictures:  grizzly chases bison.