no meet and greet though. got my article finished...just a few edits and i can send it off to the ADN editor and see if they run it. added a draft of the article in these petition packets. figure i can give them a chance to respond and then send the commentary in when i get back from Fairbanks. the other package i took to fish and game to be delivered to those new decision makers. lost ink and paper, but saved on mailing costs i guess. this way i knew they got it and they know it was important enough for me to hand deliver it. still i may not get any sort of response at all.
today after stopping by the Governors Anchorage office i headed down to Westchester Lagoon to walk Blossom. Rio stayed home today happily. it was pretty slushy in parts. the snow is a mess out there. guess they are busy tonight hauling snow in to make an 11 mile trail for the Iditarod teams to run through town in the ceremonial start. i still have loads to do on my to do list to get ready for my drive north.
was happy to get the article written and those packets delivered...success!! tomorrow i need to find time to get to jiffy lube and get an oil change.
nice enough day out there i guess. besides walking with Blossom i had PT and hit the pool. PT went better. i am doing much better and i don't have another appointment until the 16th...with any luck it may be my last one. the pool felt great again. did 60 lengths or 30 laps. i think like 75 lengths is a mile?
got my voice message working on my new phone. pretty sad that i didn't notice it wasn't set up until the other day....that is how rare my phone rings. i do miss my barking ring tone. not sure about the one i selected on the fly. wonder if i can find barking again. hmm.
views of the port in Anchorage with all the containers. this is how we get our stuff up here.
not too many people on the coastal trail today. the pool on the other hand, was pretty packed. i had to share a lane with this big bald dude. he kept swimming in the middle of the lane instead of on his side. i feared getting clobbered by him and i kept hitting the lane divider as i was pushed over as far as i could get. finally he got out! eventually, kiddie time ended and i got my own lane. of course these little kids got out with their dad just wearing regular underwear...wonder how many times they pee'd in the pool tonight. lovely thought.
tomorrow will be another busy day. want to get downtown early as i love watching them set up for the run more than the run itself. tomorrows paper has the line up so that is always cool.
this one turned out a bit blurry but it kind of looked like a watercolor painting because of it. kinda cool looking.
lots of ice out there in the inlet...so it's not totally spring yet.
loving my new walrus picture over my desk. i really need to make prettier piles on my WARIS desk. i am a pile maker. i don't think i'm to hoarder level yet though. every so often i get a good purge going on and i just throw stuff away or put it outside with a free sign on it. may have to do that when i get back from Fairbanks. no time before then to get into a crazy cleaning session.
got my other three board members business cards on order. hope they like them.
downtown Anchorage from the trail.
the truck was out there on the lagoon removing the heavy stuff. figured they have to get it off before the ice gets too thin to drive the truck out there. crazy how warm it's been...everyone is sad..well almost everyone.
these moose are from my walk the other day. on my grumbly day.
mama and calf, though the calf is pretty big and i suspect it will be sent packing come spring. animals have no mercy...when you leave the nest you are not given a pass to return again...you are on your own
tomorrow is the 50 year anniversary of Black Sunday, at least i think i heard that. it was a peaceful demonstration in the south for civil rights that went horribly bad when the authorities sent off tear gas and things got ugly. blood and i think death. after this the civil rights act was passed by Johnson. though blacks had been given the right to vote they had it revoked by local authorities as they couldn't pass the "literacy tests". things in the South were pretty ugly it seems. that law was passed in '65, i was still a baby. i was in the womb when JFK was shot.
i did get to do a march in Washington DC once. it was in support of gay rights. you have to march in DC at least once in your life, right? it was a pretty big march, seemed like it to me. after on the mall, they had quilts laid out. each quilt was dedicated to someone who had died from AIDS/HIV. we were looking to see if we could find a quilt for friends who had died of AIDS. Greg and Buzzy. never found a quilt for either of them. there were tissue boxes on the corners of the quilts...i remember that. we went up in the big monument and you could see all over the mall and all those quilts laid out. pretty impressive and sad.
Buzzy was more just known to me, he was my brother Jeff's friend really. i remember hearing that Buzzy's dad had held a knife up to his neck when he found out Buzzy was gay. he was one of the earliest cases of HIV and people were in a state at that time over anything HIV/AIDS. there was just so much not known about it. Jeff said he'd visited him and he'd had to get totally garbed up to go see him.
Greg was my friend. a bunch of us were questioning our faith and belief in the Mormon church and we created a group really. did so many fun things, we loved the comedy clubs, especially the Ice House in Pasadena. we went there pretty regular. we all laughed so much together. During the Rose Parade we'd camp out on Colorado Blvd and Greg would pick us up in his fancy car and we'd cruise the blvd together. he never said he was gay and we never asked, though we all knew. it was enough that we were all leaving the church, we never discussed that either really....there were no heavy discussions come to think of it...we all just went out and enjoyed life. we laughed...that is what i remember, all the laughter.
we hit the Ice House for the added dinner before anytime we saw that Brad Garrett was there. he's super tall and the comediens would come around and chat with the guests if you came early for dinner. so we met him a few times. he was hysterical in stand up. later i saw him on the show,"everybody loves raymond". took me a bit to figure out it was him.
i lost track of Greg and then years after the fact i heard he had died. really bummed me out. just a great and fun guy.
random memory of meeting this guy in a bar and going on a few dates with him to the Ice House once i remember. the guy was blind, he'd been shot in the head. i remember the comic picked on him in his act, then he said something like, "what are you blind" and my date held up his white cane. i think that poor comic was a bit embarrassed, he'd had no idea. dated a lot in my 20's. met guys everywhere. crazy times, but fun times. it's good to have memories of wild and fun times. life evolves and you roll with it.
thankful for...1. crazy times with good friends over the years. i have taken the road less traveled and that has made all the difference. 2. being brave and doing stupid shit, living life in a bubble, living safe...it's a bad way to go. 3. making hard choices and realizing that change is never as scary as you thought it would be.
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