Wednesday, March 28th - Enjoying the Squirrels

I haven't posted because there hasn't been much going on. To be honest, I've been feeling quite lazy lately. Since we got home from Homer, I've been in hermit mode. In fact, I didn't even leave the house until this past Sunday. Steve seemed to be happy to be in hermit mode too. It's been so cold in the morning (STILL!) and that doesn't give either us any motivation to get dressed and go out. Fortunately, it's warming up in the afternoon, and the sun has been coming out.

On Sunday, we met our friends Gip and Carmen at Pikes for the champagne brunch. The food was good - as always - and the company was great (as always!). As we were finishing up our meal, we talked about seeing "Wild Hogs" at the theater. If we hurried, we could make the 12:30 show. And so we did.

The movie was entertaining, in a mindless and comical way. And that's exactly what all four of us were in the mood for. There were some great actors in the film too, and I've always been a fan of John Travolta. Steve (of course) mentioned that it would be 'cool' to go riding on a Harley, but I nipped that fantasy in the bud. The last thing I want to deal with is a 50-something year old riding a Harley around town. Actually, I wouldn't really care if he wanted to get a bike and ride, but it's not a feasible pastime up here with such long winters. If Steve has a need for speed, I'd much rather invest in a snowmachine. At least we'd get a lot of use out of it.

We've been throwing some bird seed on the back deck lately (out of laziness mostly), and the squirrels have found the bounty. There is a pair who visits our yard regularly. One is content to stay in the tree line, hanging upside down from the suet cage to get a nibble, while the other brazenly comes up on the deck to enjoy the sunflower seeds there.

Airborne lays in front of the sliding glass doors watching this particular red squirrel fill her/his cheeks with seeds. She presses her body close to the floor and tries to conceal her body behind the sliding glass door tracks along the bottom. I don't think the squirrels or birds can see her because of the reflection of the glass, but Airborne still enjoys being in stealth mode. A few times she's crashed into the glass trying to get at them. I shouldn't, but I laugh. (I think that squirrel in the photo at left is smiling at us!)

Yesterday, I picked up my friend Dawn (I'm still getting to know Dawn and enjoy spending time with her). We drove around town and then up to the top of Murphy Dome. I wanted her to see how beautiful it is to be on 'top of the world' in Fairbanks. It was a bit cloudy, but the White Mountains were still visible, and the Alaska Range was visible if you squinted just a bit. She was mesmerized by the sweeping views and can't wait to go back again when the weather warms up and the snow is melted. I told her about the beautiful wildflowers that grow up there, and the hiking path that leads to the Tors rocks. I love showing new folks the Fairbanks I have fallen in love with - in every season.

We drove around town a little bit and I showed her the Tanana Chief where it's frozen in the river. She snapped a few photos. We headed to the Riverboat Discovery (another tourist attraction that's very informative), and it's frozen in the river too. We couldn't get close to it unfortunately. As we were leaving that part of town, we passed a private residence that had two tall log sculptures in front of it. I had to take a photo of the one with the bears on it. I just love the detail in this carving. Steve and I saw a place in the Kenai/Soldotna area that made these carvings. There were some awesome 'big as life' carvings of eagles on treetops, and foxes, etc. Down the road in Salcha, we have the Knotty Shop which has these neat wood carvings too.

After our visits to the riverboats, I took Dawn by the campground (Chena Marina) that Steve and I stayed at for a few days when we first arrived in Fairbanks. It's situated right on a float plane pond, and we watched planes take off and land the entire time we stayed there. On the way to the campground we passed a few homes that had float planes parked in their yard. There were more planes at the small float plane facility, but the frozen pond looked untouched as far as any sign of taking off and landing. Some planes are equipped to fly in the winter. They remove the floats and add skis instead.

We then drove down to the city park on Chena Pump Rd. It's the park where you can see the house on the hill that I like to shoot in different seasons. The Tanana River is still frozen (not a surprise) and there is no sign of thaw anywhere. We saw a man down there running his dogs. We're not sure if he was skijoring or actually sledding as we got there when he was packing up to head home. The sky looked really pretty though. The clouds were billowy and the sky (what we could see of it) was blue.

After our little drive around town, we decided to stop for lunch. We chose Hot Tamales - a Mexican restaurant in downtown Fairbanks. The meal was delicious as always, and we lingered over our enchiladas and Spanish rice - talking and getting to know each other better. Finally, full to bursting, we left the restaurant.

As I approached my car, I noticed long marks down the side of it - at the lower portion of the driver's door and onto the skirting below the door. When I got closer, my fears were realized. Someone had hit my car and then took off! I was so angry; words cannot convey the rage that enveloped me. There was no note. There were no witnesses.

I even went next door to the News Miner (the local newspaper) with the hopes that their webcam saved the tapes for a period of time. But it doesn't. It's a webcam that broadcasts every minute across the Internet, without saving anything to backup. My hopes were that the camera had caught the perpetrator. I was out of luck.

In 32 years of driving, I have NEVER had an insurance claim. Because I have such a good driving record - and much luck with other drivers, I have always elected to keep my deductibles at $1000. Now I have damage to my car (which is only 7-8 months old), a high deductible, and a hit and run driver. I am so mad! How can people be so irresponsible?! GRRRR!

I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't know if I want to spend all the money to have the car fixed, but I know that everytime I look at the damage I'm going to seethe inside. Steve thinks we should just get some touch-up paint and at least paint over the parts that go down to the metal to fend off rusting, and forget repairing it. His thoughts are more along the lines that this is Alaska, and winters are brutal and slippery, and we could put all that money into fixing the car and then end up in a ditch next year - or hit by someone else. I'm a 'drive them till they die' gal, so I don't have plans of trading it in on another vehicle - but still... I was so proud of my new car and planned to take such good care of her. I'm not a mean-spirited person, but I hope that karma gets the person who hit me.

I never got back to the ice park. I heard that they extended the closing date another week. I suppose attendance was down with the bitter cold we've had this month. I also heard that vandals broke some of the more intricate sculptures. What is it with people today? Why? I just don't understand why someone could get joy out of destroying something beautiful. *sigh*

Remember the herb garden I started? It's growing quite well. I do wish I remember what I planted in each portion of the planter though. Regardless - it's good to see the green on my windowsill.

In closing I'd like to share one more photo with you. It's my canine furkid Sedona romping in the snow. I thought you'd get a kick out of her snowy nose. Although winter seems likes it's never ending this year, she certainly enjoys running through the deep snow in the yard. She's got the fur for it, that's for sure!

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