Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

On January 13th, the legendary “Eagle Lady”, 85 year old Jean Keene, died with several good friends in attendance.  Jean’s feeding program drew hundreds of bald eagles and many photographers (myself included) to the Homer Spit each winter.

If you’ve been reading my journal for awhile, you know that Steve and I have made two trips to Homer - specifically to see the eagles - in March of 2007 and 2008.  We planned to return this year, but after hearing of Jean’s passing, we’ve considered canceling our trip. It just won’t be the same without Jean there feeding the eagles.  On the other hand, I would like to go in memory of this wonderful woman. We’ll decide when we get back from Hawaii.

From the Lands End Resort website in Homer, I found the following information. I wish we lived closer, so that we could attend:

Ceremonial Eagle Feeding to be held at
Jean’s home on the Homer Spit
at 3:00 Saturday, January 24, 2009
Memorial Service & Reception to follow at 3:30
in the Quarter Deck at Land’s End Resort in Homer, Alaska

I created this composite memorial photo with a quotation in honor of Jean. This is one of the photos I took, while visiting Homer in March of 2008. I am certain that Jean is now soaring with the eagles in heaven.  RIP, Jean.

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Thursday and Friday, we had the most amazing warm up here in the interior. Highs at the Fairbanks Airport reached 50F. While we were having this unseasonable ‘heat wave’, many of you in the Lower 48 were experiencing some of the coldest conditions recorded in years.  I did feel sorry for you all, for a split second, while I basked in the tropical warmth settling over North Pole. I heard the drip, drip, drip of snow melting off my roof, watched the snow disappear from my back deck, and saw the brown branches of bare trees reappear as the snow melted away.  All of this was absolutely lovely. My winter coat was replaced by my fleece jacket, my hat and scarf were tucked away, and I even drove around town with my car windows down, so Sedona could enjoy a comfortable breeze.  Unfortunately, the warm up is on its way out now, and by Tuesday evening, it’s predicted we’ll see lows of -20F again. It was nice while it lasted!

While the warmth felt good on the skin, it didn’t feel so nice under the tires. The roads turned into a skating rink and there were accidents everywhere.  I worried about Steve driving the hills to work, but he took it slow and only had a few episodes of losing traction briefly.  Unfortunately, not everyone was lucky enough to make it to their destination without mishap.  On Friday, a truck jackknifed on the Steese Hwy in the late afternoon, which stopped traffic completely. Steve had to stay an hour after his shift ended before the road was clear and he could make his way home. Also, the hills on Chena Hot Springs Road were so slick that many vehicles could not make it up the incline near Nordale Road.  I didn’t leave the house that day, despite the spring weather. I’m not fond of driving on ice.

The one positive thing about Friday, was a most glorious sunrise. It was beautiful with its purple and pink uplit clouds, orange bands of light, and deep turquoise blue sky low on the horizon. The glow extended to the snow, and everything had a pink tinge of color to it. I had to photograph it, so I ran outside in my pjs with my camera. Not long after, I saw that my friend Karen had posted a photo online that she had taken with her cellphone, and even later I saw a photo of the sky in the local newspaper. It was definitely a morning that everyone seemed to take notice of.

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Yesterday, I spent the entire day with Lisa. We went to the movies and saw “Bride Wars”, which got terrible reviews. We chose it because we hoped it would be funny, we both like Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway, and I had two free passes (courtesy of Steve’s employer), so it didn’t cost us anything. The other movies showing locally are either movies we’ve seen, movies we don’t care to see, or kid movies.

We wanted to be entertained and have a few laughs, and we were. I have to be in the mood to see movies that require keen attention and deep thought, and yesterday I was not in that mood. “Bride Wars” was a perfect choice.  If you like chick-flick type movies like “27 Dresses”, you’ll probably enjoy this movie.  It’s not a ‘full price’ movie by any means, but worth a rent when it comes out on DVD.  If you have teen-aged daughters, they’d probably get a kick out it too.

After the movie, I had errands to run, and Lisa was nice enough to accompany me. One stop was PetCo, so I could pick up some food for Sedona. As soon as we pulled up, we saw a man and a couple of children with a box of kittens, standing in front of the store. Of course we had to go see them.

The box held the most adorable kitties. Several were orange tabby, and two were white. I cuddled a white female close, as she mewed in her high-pitched squeaky voice. She was shivering, and I felt terrible that she was outdoors in a box. But as much as I love cats, I know that realistically I can’t bring another pet into my home at this time. I’ve had both Sedona and Airborne for 12 and 11 years respectively, and they have become so accustomed to life as it is. It wouldn’t be fair to them.  So I reluctantly handed back the pretty little girl and left PetCo with only my dog food.  If I could, I’d adopt every homeless animal I see.  (That scares Steve!)

After having a late lunch at Boston’s, we drove up to the Botanical Gardens and found a place to park with a good vantage point of the fireworks. We were there about an hour early, so we sat in my warm car and chatted. Soon, more people started showing up, and about 10 minutes before the start, we found a place where I could set up my camera and tripod.

I was only wearing thin gloves for dexterity, and the wind was kicking pretty good where we were standing. I couldn’t feel my fingers after awhile, so I stopped worrying about settings and composition and just pressed the shutter button over and over again.  It was such an awesome show, that I didn’t want to miss it by viewing it through the camera, so I kept my fingers crossed that I’d get a few “keepers”.  During the grand finale, everyone cheered. What a wonderful evening it was! I love fireworks in winter!  (We can’t have them in the summer, because it doesn’t get dark, so we never get July 4th fireworks)

This first photo was taken during the Grand Finale. I like that you can see people sitting on the bench at the Botanical Gardens.

Sometimes the glow was so bright, we had to squint our eyes. It really lit everything up!

This type was my favorite, because of the different colors. It reminded me of the Christmas lights on the cabins in Gold Rush Town:

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Today, the first race of the Annamaet Series was scheduled to take place. Unfortunately, the warm weather has wreaked havoc on the trails, so it was canceled yet again. Usually, the first race takes place in December, so this is really getting off to a late start. I miss seeing the dogs race, and hope that conditions improve before too long. We did get a little bit of snow today - about 2″ - and I was glad to see it. It was just enough to add a pristine blanket of white to everything.

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As I mentioned in my last journal entry, I’ve been sorting through and converting old family photos to digital format.  I also wrote about my surprise at seeing just how much Brandon looks like his dad when he was the same age. I put together this composite photo so you can see the similarity too. There’s no denying Brandon’s parentage, that’s for sure! It appears they both favor the same style of facial hair too.:

Here are a couple more photos that were taken between 1979-1982. In the first one, I look like I’m thinking, “OK.. now what?!” The rest of Chris’ baby photos are in his baby book. I’ll have to dig that out at some point and convert them too.

We used to go to Wildwood quite a bit with Christopher. He loved the ocean, the sand, and making sandcastles. This photo of me was taken during one of those weekend trips.

I like this photo of Ralph and Chris:

My father loved Chris and spoiled him rotten. I love this photo!

This is a photo of Lisa (my SIL who just passed away in July) when she and Mike were either still dating, or just married - I’m not sure. And of course, my mom too.

Chris always sat with my dad in the morning and would ‘read the paper’ wearing his glasses. It appears he’s checking out a road map in this photo - and drawing? Writing directions?:

It’s been very bittersweet, to take this walk down Memory Lane. Each day that I looked through these photos made me wish that I could go back just for a little while and hold my babies again. I wanted more than anything to caress their baby soft skin, smell their freshly-washed hair, cuddle their tiny bodies close, read them bedtime stories, and hold their hand and take a walk.

I shed some tears, smiled, remembered details that came back after decades of being filed away in my memory, and called my boys quite a bit! I felt sad that I didn’t take the time to really savor each moment with them when they were little.

I was talking to a friend of mine about my feelings, and she told me that this is why grandchildren are so special. All young parents wish that they’d have taken more time to savor their children’s younger years, but raising children is such a huge responsibility and we sometimes find that our focus is on keeping them healthy, safe, clothed and fed. We find our attention diverted by our other children, or jobs outside the home, or dealing with financial issues, or going to school, and so many other things.

But with grandchildren, we savor the moments. We don’t stress about the little things. We focus on all the joy that our grandchildren bring into our lives.

In looking at the photos of my sons when they were little, it made me want - even more - for Brandon and Becky to have a baby. I want Chris to find a nice girl and settle down, so he can give me a grandchild. I want to see my sons’ faces reflected in the sweet faces of a new life.

If I can’t have my babies back, I want their babies! *grin*

I have a bunch of photos of Brandon that I converted too, as well as photos of Brandon and Christopher together. I’ll share them in a later entry.

I hope these old nostalgia photos haven’t bored you.

Less than two weeks and we’re Hawaii bound!!!  Safe travels to Lea Ann and her family, as they leave for Hawaii before we do! Enjoy the warmth!