Friday, July 21st - Out and about with camera in hand

The past week has been relatively uneventful. There's not much fun to be had when you're on the verge of constructing an ark and gathering up Alaska wildlife in pairs. Rain clouds seemed to park over Fairbanks and stay there - for days. We finally started seeing sunshine late on Tuesday afternoon and everyone's spirits lifted. Since then, the weather has been beautiful. While the rest of the country seems to be melting in some of the hottest temperatures on record, Alaska has been absolutely gorgeous.

Our mornings start out on the chilly side (low 50s at times), but warm up to the 60s and 70s by noon or so. This makes for awesome sleeping weather and the perfect weather to be out and about. Not many homes have air conditioning here. Our house doesn't. We rely on fans to circulate the air, and when it's warm, it's not very comfortable. Over the past two or three summers, we had horrible wildfires and terrible smoke, which held the heat and humidity in. This meant hot and humid summer temps in the 90s at times, and no relief. Trying to sleep at night was the worst. But lately, it's been dipping into the high 40s/low 50s at night. With windows open all over the house, and fans strategically placed, Steve and I have needed a quilt on the bed. Perfect sleeping weather!

I bought two sunflower plants back in late May. (I may have written about them in my journal.) I paid $3 each for them; they are both dwarf plants. I also bought some alyssum to plant around the sunflowers. When we got the freak snow in early June, I was glad that I still had them on my windowsill inside because so many other avid gardeners lost their plants to frost. About mid-June I finally transplanted the seedlings to a huge terra cotta pot on my porch. My alyssum didn't do as well as Rachael's did (hers are beautiful with many tiny flowers blooming on them!), but slowly but surely they're coming around. But whereas Rachael's sunflowers didn't make it, mine seem to be thriving! I should have a bloom within a week and I'm very excited about that.

I'm still walking each morning with Rachael, and when she has an appointment or I oversleep (this has happened a few times, even though I usually complain about insomnia), I take Sedona out for a walk through the woods wearing my camera backpack. I like to photograph the wildflowers I come upon as we traipse through the woods. As the months pass, some flowers die off and new species of flowers take their place. The wild prickly rose which came to life in a riot of pinks and purples in late May and early June is now gone. In the place of each dead bloom, is a rose hip. But the fireweed are now abundant in their glorious shade of magenta. The contrast of color against green bushes is stunning when he sunlight hits them just right. I'm seeing a lot of berries now too. Soon the blueberries will come, and I will drag Steve out looking for them. They are yummy in pancakes or muffins, as well as on cereal.

I never know what kind of wildlife I'll see while wandering through the trees. Yesterday, it was a mama moose and her baby. I was on my way home with Sedona, when she stepped out of the trees with baby at her side. We stopped where we were and let her get used to our presence. Sedona behaved so wonderfully! No barking on lunging towards her; just watching. Sedona finally sat down alongside of me and waited for the moose and her baby to go into the woods so we could pass. We waited a good 15 minutes, but the cow moose was more interested in grazing on the birch branches than she was about the human and dog who were waiting for the coast to be clear. Since she was much bigger than us, we backtracked and found another path through the woods which would take us home. On the new path, our only 'wildlife' encounter was a tabby cat who was enjoying a dirt pile. The cat got more of a rise out of Sedona than the moose did.

When I got home from my walk, I sent a message to my friend Shawna and asked her if she wanted to go to the Botanical Gardens and Pioneer Park with me. I was definitely in the mood to 'shoot', and after so many rainy days, the weather was perfect. I was also craving some cute baby time, and her two children (Courtney and Collin) are always good for some hugs and photographs.

I picked them all up and we headed off to the Georgeson Botanical Gardens at UAF. I was pleasantly surprised to see about a half dozen painters in the gardens with their easels and paints. It was a perfect day to paint such a beautiful landscape. I snapped a few photos of the kids too, but they weren't in very cooperative moods. After a quick lap through Pioneer Park, I took Shawna to Walmart to pick up a few items she needed. And that's when an otherwise beautiful day turned aggravating.

There was nothing I needed at Walmart, but inevitably I found myself in the coffee maker aisle. Steve and I have been discussing the purchase of a new coffee maker since our 6-year-old coffee maker started taking nearly 40 minutes to brew a pot. Let's face it - they're not made to last forever anymore, and frankly we were happy to have gotten 6 years out of the one we had.

I chose one of the mid-range makers - a Mr. Coffee Programmable, which had a price label on the shelf beneath of $42.48. When I got to the checkout, it scanned at $47.72. There was a long line of customers behind me, so I let the cashier ring it up, with the intent of going back to the aisle and double checking the price before leaving the store. In the event I was right, and the pot had scanned wrong, I planned to go to the customer service department for a refund of the difference.

While Shawna waited for me, I ran back to the coffee maker aisle and double checked the label. I even compared the SKU number on the label to make sure I hadn't picked up the wrong coffee maker. I was right - it should have rung up $42.48. I walked over to Customer Service to get my refund.

The clerk there had to call "Kathy" - the department manager in housewares - to get a price check. Kathy told her (by phone) that the pot was $47.72. I disagreed with the clerk in Customer Service and told her that I was going to go get the label off the shelf and bring it to her to prove that I was correct.

You can guess what happened. I went back to housewares, and 'miraculously' the label had disappeared from the shelf. "Kathy" and a few other sales associates were standing in a cluster at the end of the aisle. I walked up to Kathy and told her to her face that I knew she had removed the label, and that she was a poor excuse for a department manager. I went back to Customer Service and demanded a full refund. Because "Kathy" didn't want me to get the $5.00 price adjustment to which I was entitled, she lost the store a $42 sale. Where is the sense in that?

I was incensed by the experience, and went online to locate the name of the store manager for this particular Walmart. While 'googling' Walmart, I discovered countless civil lawsuits across the nation against Walmart for 'price fixing' and 'fraudulent pricing procedures'. Did you know that the average department store has, on average, 2% of their merchandise scanning incorrectly? Did you know that Walmart, on average, has more than 7% of their merchandise scanning incorrectly? Did you also know that Walmart has the highest incident where 'the customer ISN'T right"? My experience is one indication of this. Rather than do what most stores would - sell me the item for the price posted - their Sales Associate deceived me by taking down the label, which lost the store the entire sale.

If you've been reading me for a while, you know that I'm not one to use this journal as a forum to voice personal complaints. But this experience so angered me, that I felt I had to make it known to whomever stumbles upon this journal. I'm all for free enterprise - but PLEASE make sure you check your sales receipt if you shop at Walmart. Tomorrow I will be drafting a letter to the store manager, and sending a carbon copy of it to the daily newspaper. It may not make any difference in the world, but at least I didn't just sit by and accept the situation. And that's the end of my rant.

Back on a more happier note: Here are some photos I took while on my walk with Sedona, and at the Georgeson Botanical Gardens and Pioneer Park:

Sedona watching moose	Delphiniums	Goldenrod	Painter in gardens
Wooly bear caterpillar	(Can you identify this flower?)	Courtney and Collin	Summer squash and more
Watercolor masterpiece	Courtney moody	Flowers at the Kitty Hemsley house	Wood carving outside shop at Pioneer Park

Tonight, Steve and I attended the comedy show hosted at Pioneer Park as part of the Golden Days celebration. Tomorrow we plan to attend the Rubber Ducky Race down the Chena River, as well as meander through the various stands lining the streets downtown. On Sunday is the famed "Red Green Regatta". This is the highlight of Golden Days (in my opinion) and is when the home-made boats will race down the Chena River. Participants must construct their vessels using duct tape. You can read some commentary about this hilarious event if you check out my July 2005 entry. I look forward to seeing the entries this year.

I'm going to Philadelphia from August 11th through the 18th to visit with/care for my mom. My brother (Steve) has vacation time coming to him - and it's his birthday week. Time to themselves is much deserved after all that they have done in caring for our mother. I can not praise them enough for the sacrifices they have made - putting their life on hold and taking care of all of her needs over the past 7 months or more. I am also so thankful for my mother's dear friends who have come by to visit, have helped Diane by bringing food, preparing meals, running errands, taking my mother to and from doctor's appointments, etc. They are angels!

Mom is still undergoing chemotherapy. The tumor has not grown, which is good news. Mom is in a great deal of pain and fortunately she has an arsenal of pain meds to make her more comfortable. She has good days, and she has bad days. As always, the good days renew our hope and lift our spirits. She is fighting a very hard battle and needs all the emotional and spiritual help we can give. We appreciate your continued healing thoughts and prayers. They mean so much to all of us.