Category: My Photos

As many of you already know, I have acquired an RV. It is known as “the GDC,” per its previous owners Mark and Amy.
I installed its new Alaska license plates today. I now have a legal license to practice my art, whereas up until now my artwork was unlicensed. This artistic license was included for free as part of my vehicle license plates:

In case the above is unclear, it is a joke based on the slogan on the new license plates.

Art and I dropped my friend Peter off at the ferry this morning. It’s back to just us chickens, now.

At 6 this morning, I drove my friends Mark and Amy to catch the ferry. They left their RV here (per the plan) – so now I have another project.

During the day, I worked on finally finishing the move of the storage tent – which I jokingly call my “studio” – to it’s new spot on the western lot.  Here it is.

Then I drove back to the ferry terminal and met my friend Peter, coming in. Here he comes…

The neighbor’s house burned down last night. It’s still smoldering, at 6 AM.
It was scary. A bit after midnight, Dean (the neighbor, not the same Dean as recently mentioned who is Arthur’s friend) knocks on our door and says, “Call 911, my house is on fire.” The next 5 hours are a blur. Here is a picture of the house, at about 1 AM:

This house was here before Arthur moved here – it’s one of the oldest houses on all of the Port Saint Nicholas Road.
We put our hoses on and tried to prevent the fire from burning into the trees west of the house – because our house (where Arthur and I are) is only 50 feet away, through some trees, to the west. And the trees closest to Dean’s house were burning. Here’s a picture from Arthur’s dock, at around 3 AM, looking back toward shore. You can see how close Dean’s house is to ours. That speck of light in the dark on the right side of the photo is someone with a flashlight at the eastern wall of Arthur’s house.

The power was out for a while, because Dean’s house’s electrical connection shorted out the system, as it burned. APT (the power company) actually got here before the fire department, and were working on fixing the situation. A fire truck came from the Craig Volunteer Fire Department, but they only had 800 gallons in their tank – they sprayed down at the trees and when the power came back on we resumed spraying with our garden hoses. I estimate we used about 2500 gallons from Arthur’s 3000 gallon cistern. Fortunately, we have a well, now, and the cistern is now re-filling.
As of dawn, we seemed to have suppressed the spread of the fire. It’s just there smoldering now. Here it is at 6 AM.

What a very intense night. My friends Mark and Amy, still here, were helpful throughout the night. I think they will now have a very amazing memory of their visit here.
We had some panic when it was spreading into the trees, because it seemed like nothing could stop it from catching our house, as the power was out. At around 2 AM, we evacuated our house, got out our computers and important documents, drove vehicles over to the western lot. That was pretty scary.

Most of my anxiety is pointless. I realize this.
I got my test scores today, for the Praxis Core I took on the 10th. Although it’s been a few decades since I took a standardized test, I exceeded even my previous performance. I’ve always had a knack for test-taking, but I think teaching Korean kids how to do a-b-c-d exams for 10 years probably just made me even more aware of how to do well. Admittedly, the Praxis Core is an “entrance exam” – it’s not particularly stringent.
My scores.

Later, I went on a walk in the rain. I saw Mike and Penny’s boat at their dock.

There is a lot of rain right now. I saw mud from the creek staining the inlet.