Caveat: Finally, snow

It’s very hard to explain to people that I’ve moved to a weird part of Alaska where snow is rare. Really. Call it “tropical Alaska,” if you want.
Yesterday, it snowed. This is the first snowfall I’ve seen here since moving here. The only other snowfalls I’ve seen were when I was here in the fall of 98. I do believe I’d have seen some snow if I hadn’t spent 2 months driving around other parts of the continent, however.
I announced I was going to take a walk. Arthur was skeptical of the idea of taking a daily walk in the falling snow, and I expected him to decide not to come along. Yet much to my surprise, he elected to come along.
I took a few pictures.
Here is a picture going out the upper door, looking up the steps.
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Here is a picture of Arthur’s retreating backside.
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Here is is a picture of my favorite pond, which I call the “Rockpit City Park”. It is completely frozen and snow-covered.
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Here is a picture of the mouth of the river.
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Here is a picture from this morning, from the deck over the boatshed.
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Personally, I love snow. It’s pretty clear Arthur doesn’t, however.
Today we need to go into town – Arthur has an appointment with an itinerant VA audiologist (which is a very convenient service the VA provides, in my opinion – as usual, I have only good things to say about the level of service the VA provides, so far). Driving on the road will be even slower than usual.

Caveat: Tree #33

A daily tree. The photo is from yesterday – today it is snowing, and that same tree might look different.
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[daily log: walking, 2.5km]

Caveat: Tree #24

I’m not doing very well with posting interesting stuff.
I’m spending a lot of time with the moldy boxes my “studio” prepared to greet my return to Alaska. Sigh. I have a lot of “stuff” that’s hard to define. I’m stupid. I don’t get rid of stuff well. I attach little nostalgic memories to everything, reviewing these possessions later queues up those otherwise lost memories. I like that. It’s helps me maintain the narrative of my life. It can be any kind of possession – old t-shirts, knick knacks, notebooks on classes, from high school 10th grade geography to an undergrad class on astrophysics to a graduate seminar on 19th century Argentine literature. All sigh.
Here is a tree.
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[daily log: walking, 2km]

Caveat: Tree #23

Here is a new daily tree. It’s a reflection in rain-speckled water, thus a bit impressionistic.
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I’m struggling with a relapse of the cold I had for a while during my travels. Not really feeling 100% currently.
Also messing with the damp, moldy boxes from my storage “studio.” Disappointed it didn’t stay as dry inside as I’d hoped.
On a positive note, Arthur made his signature chili last night. It was good.
[daily log: walking, 3km]

Caveat: Tree #21

Here is tree number twenty-one.
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This tree is quite young.
Arthur and I got the water filter fixed this morning.
I’m feeling a bit discouraged because I decided to check on the contents of my “studio” (the storage tent in the yard) and realized that although well-sealed, the condensation moisture on the inside has been substantial enough to damage some of what was in there. I’m going to have to deal with that.
But first: procrastination!
[daily log: walking, 3km]

Caveat: Tree #20

Here is tree number twenty.
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This morning, I placed the Rockpit, AK, sign that Arthur’s friend Wayne had given him for Christmas. Now our “town” is properly identified.
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Midday, we drove into town because we have a leaky water filter we’re trying to fix, a problem that appeared when we reactivated the water supply after our long absence.
On our walk this afternoon, I saw Arthur sitting on a rock. He looked like a cantankerous forest gnome.
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[daily log: walking, 4km]

Caveat: Tree #19 and some pictures

I had a kind of reunion with Arthur’s property here.
I went on a full circuit walk around the corners of the two lots. That sounds trivial, but in the highly overgrown, damp, boggy and slashy hillsides, it’s a major undertaking. I call it “tromping” as opposed to just walking or hiking.
I found the two strings I’d placed on the southern (uphill) property lines still intact, after 2 months of neglect. You can see the neon-green bits of string in these pictures.
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I took a picture of Sunnahae (“sunny hae”) mountain, with its snow, from up the hill.
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Later Arthur and I resumed our daily walks down the road to the east. I found my “rock folly” (a random collection of found objects) at the mile 8 bridge still there.
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I took some pictures along the road.
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Here is tree nineteen.
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Here are some additional pictures from the time in Ketchikan, yesterday.
A trailer park with a view.
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The dam at the Ketchikan reservoir, Carlanna Lake.
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Sunset from the Hollis ferry.
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[daily log: walking, 4km; tromping, 500m]

Caveat: 11034 miles (17757 km)

My trip odometer was 11034 miles (17757km) since departing home 63 days ago. That’s a lot of driving. And now I’m home. I think I’ll do absolutely nothing for a few days. A vacation to recover from my vacation. Hah.
Here is a tree I saw while taking walk in Ketchikan as Arthur and I waited for the Hollis ferry.
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[daily log: walking, 4km]

Caveat: Tree #16

Arthur and I drove north from Forest Grove, Oregon, to Bellingham, Washington.
I saw this tree, with truck, at a rest area off I-5 near Centralia, WA.
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We arrived in Bellingham and checked in to our ferry with Alaska Marine Highway. Our boat will be the M/V Columbia.
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I saw this view of the area of Bellingham called Fairhaven from the dock – this used to be an independent town but has been absorbed by Bellingham. Bellingham reminds me a lot of Eureka, California (a town of my childhood).
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We boarded the boat right at dusk.
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This blog post posted from a floating boat, just underway.
[daily log: walking, 1.5km; driving, 500km]

Caveat: Tree #15

Here is tree number fifteen – from yesterday.
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Today I was too busy. Here are some horses in the next door field, saying hi at the gate.
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I went to the mechanic (for the Blueberry). I went to meet my friend Raven in Portland – I went to elementary school with Raven.
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I went to get the car cleaned in the afternoon. And Arthur and I went to Costco. I spent the evening packing.
Tomorrow, we leave for Bellingham, whence we take the ferry to Ketchikan. Headed home.
[daily log: walking, 1km]

Caveat: … when I’m seven

Over the weekend. I visited my stepson Jeff and his family in the south suburbs of Seattle.
His wife Yvonne took this picture of the three of us (referring to the 3 generations). We were playing a game. Parker is 3 years old.
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I gave Parker some legos as a gift. He was building a tower.
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His mom asked him, “Don’t you wanna share them?”
Parker answered, “I’m gonna share when I’m seven. But not my candy.”
Being referred to as “grandpa” caused me to decide to shave off my gray beard and hair.

Caveat: Tree #9

This is pretty good picture of an archetypal Oregon tree.
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This is the Tualatin River. It has more water than it did during the summer.
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During a walk up to the tree farm, Juli took this picture of me with the dog Walter on a stump.
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Tomorrow I’m going to take a jaunt up to Seattle and come back to Forest Grove. I’m going to visit my stepson and his family there.
[daily log: walking, 5km]

Caveat: Tree #8

Here is tree number eight.
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Here is Mount Hood, seen from the tree farm.
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Here are some former trees, awaiting their fate.
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Here is a very lonely apple seen on a tree by the road.
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[daily log: walking, 5km]

Caveat: Tree #7

Here is tree number seven.
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In the morning, Arthur and I drove to Astoria. That’s because he had a heater getting repaired up there, and apparently there was no place closer that would make the repair.
It’s about two hours up to Astoria. It was raining in a nice, pacificnorthwesty way, the whole time. It makes me nostalgic for my childhood, of course.
On the way back, we stopped at a restaurant-cum-logging-museum called Camp 18. We had a late breakfast. There are a lot of old pieces of machinery around there, as used in 19th century logging operations. This is a steam donkey – used for winching large loads up hills.
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[daily log: walking, 1km; driving, 200km]

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