Caveat: Yesterday’s stake for lunch

Yesterday I found the middle stake on the southern property line – the division between the two lots of Arthur's property here. Now from here, I should be able to use the same technique to find the southwestern stake, which was the original quest.

I had begun to worry I was an incompetent stake-locator. Therefore I am pleased that I succeeded in this task, and it gives me optimism for finding the next one – I know how to do it now, and I know the method I used works. Basically, I used string measured to the appropriate length, and a precision bearing, using a compass app in my smartphone.

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[daily log: walking, 4km]

Caveat: a big solving, indeed

It is reported that Seoul has been saved from anihilation. The below is apparently an utterly true transcript.

Dramatis personae: the new space emperor, Kanye West, Jim Brown.

"MR. BROWN: And I like North Korea.

THE PRESIDENT: I like North Korea too.

MR. BROWN: (Inaudible.)

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. Yeah. Well, he’s — turned out to be good. Dialogue. We had a little dialogue. And Secretary of State just came back — Mike. He just came back from North Korea. We had very good meetings, and we’ll meet again. But we’re doing good. No more nuclear testing. No more missiles going up. No more nothing. And it’s — that was headed to war. That was headed to war.

MR. BROWN: Yeah. I mean, it was — to me, it seemed like that.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah. It was so close. We spoke — I spoke to President Obama. I will tell you, that was headed to war. And now it’s going to be — I believe it’s going to work out very well.

MR. WEST: You stopped the war —

THE PRESIDENT: We really stopped the war. Saved millions of lives. You know, Seoul has 30 million people. You don’t realize how big. Thirty million people who are right near the border; 30 miles off the border. Millions of people would have been killed. And I will say, Chairman Kim has been really good. Really good. And we’ve made a lot of progress.

That’s nice that you say that, because that’s a big — that’s a big thing. These folks were covering — they were covering North Korea not — I think not very promisingly. And there were a lot of problems. President Obama said that was his biggest problem. And I don’t say anything is solved —

MR. WEST: You, day one, solved one of the biggest problems.

THE PRESIDENT: Yeah.

MR. WEST: We solved one of the biggest problems.

THE PRESIDENT: It was a big solving. And not solved yet, but I think we’re along — I think we’re on the way."

(h/t The Rude Pundit)

[daily log: walking, 4km; tromping, 350m]

Caveat: Training to be an Alaskan

I think Richard has decided I need training to be an Alaskan. He asked for my help on his landing craft again today. So when Arthur and I went into town, Arthur hung out with Jan (Richard's wife and, coincidentally, Arthur's local VA advocate), I spent a few hours with him putting on the port side deck piece over the other engine, which he'd gotten dropped in place. It's a two-person job because one person has to be on each side of the deck (above and below), while the nuts and bolts go through and get attached.

Here is the landing craft. The engines are at the back, in the compartment under the cabin canopy at the stern of the boat.

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It was raining the whole time we worked, and the tide came in, so that halfway through the work the boat began floating, lending a certain instability to the proceedings.

[daily log: walking, 2km]

Caveat: nuts and bolts

I went into town early this morning, because I'd offered to help Richard (the guy who's doing the work clearing the adjacent lot, here, with his excavator) with his work on his landing craft. I mentioned his landing craft a few weeks ago when Juli and Keith and I visited it (previous blog post). 

He got his starboard engine installed, and is putting on the deck over it. It's a two person job to be on both sides of the deck piece (above and below) while the bolts are all attached. So I got to climb around the engine compartment. A good morning's entertainment.

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[daily log: walking, 4km]

Caveat: Furnished studio

I broke down the temporary tarp arrangement over all my stuff (meaning, the stuff he didn't want in his house – about half of what I shipped here). It was time to free up Arthur's driveway and start using my new storage unit. Which is a glorified tent.

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So I moved it all in. 

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Classified Ad
Furnished Studio: premium plastic tarp construction, dock access, moss garden adjacent, slightly tilted, no electricity or plumbing – classic " Alaskan granny flat".

[daily log: walking, 1km; boxes, a lot]

Caveat: Foggy morning

Today had a foggy morning.

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I'm feeling overwhelmed by the tax paperwork I've been working on, but I genuinely feel it should be my priority.

I sense Arthur is frustrated, too – by his own struggles. He doesn't feel in control, but as time passes, he seems to be becoming more aware of not being in control. I can see the discomfort of it. One has to decode his remarks: "Full Ahead Slow" means things are going OK. "It is what it is" indicates extreme displeasure. 

Life goes on. Winds cleared the sky in the afternoon.

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[daily log: walking, 3km]

Caveat: blind, we follow / rain slant

Coda

A strong song tows
us, long earsick.
Blind, we follow
rain slant, spray flick
to fields we do not know.

Night, float us.
Offshore wind, shout,
ask the sea
what’s lost, what’s left,
what horn sunk,
what crown adrift.

Where we are who knows
of kings who sup
while day fails? Who,
swinging his axe
to fell kings, guesses
where we go?

– Basil Bunting (British poet, 1900-1985)

[daily log: walking, 2km]

Caveat: Full ahead slow

Arthur says this all the time. It's like his motto, nowadays.

So it's mine, too.

Here is the water, just after dawn.

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Here are some alders (I think – not totally confident on tree identification, here, yet).

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Here is a snail, crossing the road.

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[daily log: walking, 4km]

Caveat: Tarp above, tarp below

I more-or-less completed my little "studio" (as I'm jokingly calling my new storage unit). I assembled the frame, put on the plastic top and sides, bought another tarp as a floor and put down some plywood down the center to be a walkway into it. I'll get my pile of possessions sitting under the ad hoc tarp in Arthur's driveway moved into this slightly less temporary arrangement. 

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[daily log: walking, 4km]

Caveat: Oh deer, a drum solo

This made me laugh a lot. Plus, I like that old song.


Arthur and I went shopping in town today. I also made progress on constructing my storage facility. Finally, we saw a bear cross the road during our afternoon walk.

The bear did not play a drum solo, however. Sometimes the wildlife lets you down, I guess.

[daily log: walking, 4km]

Caveat: Emergency!

It was only a test.

My phone surprised me this morning. It announced an emergency, but it was only a test. Some kind of national wireless emergency test message. But my phone made noises I've never heard it make before – it was a bit alarming, until I figured out what it was about.

The Korean government sends out advisories and warnings all the time – flood warnings for some area nearby, heat wave advisories, extreme cold advisories – those messages were part of the background of my everyday life in Korea, and I rather enjoyed getting them, because they would give me opportunities to decipher some Korean language.

But that kind of thing doesn't happen in the US, right? The US is in the technological dark ages… until today! 

Well. Consider me alerted.

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[daily log: walking, 3km]

Caveat: Mirror

Not much to report today. I went off tromping on the southern property line again. Slow going, my search for those other two stakes. It's fully overgrown. I'm trying for a precision method, laying string on the southern lot line, perfectly straight with the right compass bearing, from the one stake I found. It's tedious because then you need line-of-sight: trees to be moved… 

Here is the mouth of the Saint Nicholas River, taken during our afternoon walk.

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[daily log: walking, 4km; tromping, 300m]

Caveat: Garage-in-a-box

I started building my new "storage unit" today. My stuff that I shipped from Minnesota – the stuff Art didn't want in his house, like all the furniture, etc. – has been sitting in his driveway wrapped in a giant plastic tarp to keep it hopefully dry. So we bought a sort of kit "garage tent" which are quite popular up here in Alaska. And I started building it today.

It's going to be set up in what I call Arthur's "moss garden" AKA his front yard. It's not much of a yard, and he said he'd rather it be there than in the driveway. I can tell it's hard for him to accept this particular thing – it's because it doesn't fit in with his view of how his property should look. Hopefully it will be temporary and I'll transition to a more permanent shed at some different location in the future.

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[daily log: walking 4km]

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