Downtown Bears in Anchorage

We have an abundance of bears roaming around town this summer. There haven't been any deaths, but there have been several attacks. Unfortunately, they have the right of way, and you are not allowed to shoot them. Sooner or later, the fish and wildlife people will realize we need to protect people first. Well, I'm not running for office, and no politicians even dare mention this, but it's a fact of life.

There's a lot of other problems going on in the big State. Right now, national news has highlighted how our beloved Senator Stevens has been indicted for 'not reporting favors'. He just didn't keep track of the work his friends did on his cabin while he was in Washingon D.C. He said he paid every bill he received, but think about it . . . you know his staff paid it. Anyhow, everyone I know is supporting him, and expect to get him re-elected in November.

My last blog talked about the rains, and they are still with us. However, just when you thought you couldn't take any more, a beautiful day with sunshine happens. Not enough to get used to, but we remember the beautiful summers we usually have. The baseball season is over, but on the last beautiful day, the Anchorage Bucs came thru winning big. . . I think we beat the Fairbanks Goldpaners 14-4. Ah, what a little sunshine can do . . . the song says 'what a little moonlight' but we aren't seeing the moon during the summer - remember the long daylight hours here.

While I'm writing this, TV is announcing another bear attack.

The Dog Days of Summer

It's not unusual to see characters like this, watching the Fourth of July parade. . . because of construction, the parade was minimal, and the only band was a rag-tag group, bless them, that got together to have some music on the march. There were about 2 floats, and it was obvious that people are avoiding downtown, which is totally under construction. . . you can't get from point A to point B. I was traveling west on 9th Avenue when I came to a barricade at G Street . . . to the south is the Park Strip (no roads) and to the north is a one-way street pointing South, so you are at an impass . . . I tried to decide between a U-turn or using a parking lot to reach an alley . . the latter idea worked . . .summer ended early in Anchorage . . . mid July . . . the weather has let us down, and also, the Anchorage Bucs Baseball Club is also suffering from a lack of decent pitchers. . . not a good time to write a blog. . . however, there is a bright side to all this. . . we're not on fire, and we're not needing to use air-conditioning, and no inspiration to play golf between the drips, so I'm saving big bucks . . . besides that, I am straying from my non-political promise, and denouncing our pretty governor, who wants to give away $500 million to a group in Canada to have them maybe build a gas pipeline. . . crazy, eh? Thank God for checks and balances, because I don't see how she'll get her way this time. . . please seal my lips before I say another word . .. til later.

Baseball season in Alaska

Yes, we do have a baseball season here, altho' it's pretty short. The High School competition has ended and the Alaska Baseball League is starting now. The price of gasoline has caused some major adjustments, as the big bus used to transport the teams out of town, gulps a large amount of fuel to reach Fairbanks, etc. Fairbanks is the farthest we travel which is about a 7 hr. drive by bus. That beats the train, which takes 12 hours, but this is the tourist-preferred way. It's too bad some good Samaritan doesn't offer a company airplane, but with the political problems we've been having lately, no one dares to lobby or bribe in any way. So it does take a little more cash to play the 6 week season. All of the clubs are hurting, not just 'my' Anchorage Bucs Baseball Club.
I thought life was going to get easier as we reached retirement age, but it's not the case at all. Thank goodness for good health, anyhow. The golf courses here are all public courses, and their prices are also going out of sight, well, for me anyhow. So far, biking is still free and we have the best Coastal Trails that I've seen anywhere. The weather has been cooperating, and it's sunny and beautiful outdoors today, so this ends my blog, and I'm heading out. .. come back soon.

Elton John Visits Alaska

I've been listening to Sir Elton for over 30 years now, and he's been acceptable but no big deal. However, last night I saw this musician in action, as he did his first (of two) shows in Anchorage. The large arena where he played to a sold-out audience, is hardly noted for its acoustics, so I wasn't expecting much, when I accepted the invitation of friends to join them in the first row. Well, I was wrong . . . this was a great show as he played to the masses, and he really knew how to work the crowd of all ages. Some near us were decked out in boas, and funny eyeglasses, etc. to join the feel of this quirky guy, and he started off with "Your Song". He finished non-stop almost 3 hours later with "Crocodile Rock", the crowd of all ages (ahem!) were mesmerized. So now I've taken in by the ultimate international entertainer.

As a bonus, he did strut around the stage, wearing his "Music Magic" ornate coat, throwing kisses to the audience and waves, and at one point even signed autographs for several people who raced to the stage after what I thought was the end of the evening. It wasn't. He added "Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me" and "Benny and the Jets" and it seemed like he just couldn't stop playing. Kudos to the lighting techies, as the light show behind the stage, about 40 ft. high also added a lot to this one-man show.

I don't know about him, but today, I'm still exhausted as I felt I was working right along with him. If you get a chance, spend your life savings and go see him when he comes to your town.

Alaska Viewing

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I am one of many who love "Dancing with the Stars", so thought I'd post some images from the show for you today.
Also, I'm hooked on writing html pages on notepad, and don't use crutches, so here's a page you may find helpful if you're like I am.
It's a beautiful day in Anchorage, so time to get out in the warm sunshine. Come visit us. I can help you plan your trip.

Arturo Sandoval Visits Anchorage

This was the first visit for Arturo Sandoval, and he and his 5 piece band landed at 4 p.m. today. . . His concert was at 7:30 p.m. and I think they're leaving on the 'red eye' at 1 a.m. How's that for a look at Alaska. Don't blink or you'll miss it. I was the one to give the pre-concert lecture, and it went quite well. I had the help of a Cuban fellow in the audience in pronouncing some Spanish words, and some musicians to describe the beat of some Latin rhythms, so that helped.
The opening number was My Foolish Heart, which they played straight, and it was just beautiful, but the loud noises that followed were not my cup of tea, and it was a long 3 hours for me. They were all good musicians, but I just don't care for the loud Latin beat. Maybe they were trying to keep awake. I put my ear plugs in my ears early on, and they stayed in the rest of the night. My friend said afterwards that she wished she had some ear plugs, too. If you want a sample of some good A.S. music, just log onto his webpage.
There's lots more happening in Anchorage this week, as the high schools are having their graduations, sports continue to draw crowds. The Alaska Wild Football team (IFL) fired and rehired their coach. The weather is beautiful, and spring is here to stay this time.

Sunshine hits Anchorage

It's been a week now that I returned to Anchorage, and the sunshine continues. This may not seem like something to write home about, but it definitely is for me, as it bolsters your spirits and contributes to ambitious projects. . . namely, it's time to replace the plastic flowers of winter with the real ones of summer.
Anchorage has two golf courses in the area already open, so the spring golf luncheon comes next week. Yes, this is going to be a good summer.
The last Symphony of the fiscal year is this week, as is the Pioneers of Alaska Fun Night. The theme is "Rockin' to the Fifties" and I somehow was made chairman of this. However, both the men and women help a great deal, and I'd be lost without that. It kinda worried me when 'they' decided we should have a limbo contest, along with hula hoops, root beer floats, and poodle skirts, but I talked a doctor friend into coming, who dresses up as Elvis, so he may be doing double duty. We have a disk jockey coming too, so it should fill in the blanks.
Well, a blog isn't much with some images, so I promise to take my Cool Pix camera along and snap a few.
The other big thing in my life is the purchase of an MP3 player. This is the category, and the IPod and Walkman are the Mac and PC versions. I got the latter because my son-in-law is an exec at Sony. It's the size of a matchbook (opened) and hard to believe that 4 gigs holds 8 hours of video and 7,000 songs, but it's true. I have about 6,550 left to download at this point, but it sure does keep you off the streets . .. busy, busy. Well, check back to my blog next week for some better stuff.

Alaska Living

This sounds like a magazine, but I don't think there is one. So you can envision decorating your table something like this image, which caught my eye, as I believe in a daily intake of bananas. Seems like socializing these days involves food . .. too much food . . . there is no place I visit that some kind of food isn't offered, and if you're on a diet, you fear insulting your host if you say, No, thanks. . . this is what happened to me yesterday, and altho' I'm not on an official diet, I was trying to behave, but ended up eating 3 breakfasts and an afternoon dinner, but I did skip an evening meal. It's just how things happened.

Throw in a Mimosa and a Bloody Mary, and it makes it a high calorie day. Okay, so I have nothing to write about today except my personal life.. . tomorrow is another day.

Between St. Patrick and Easter!

To some, this is Holy Week, but Holy Moses, what a neat St. Patricks Day we celebrated in Anchorage. Just sharing some pictures taken by my good friend at some local pubs.

Today is also the first day of Spring, and I have some other personal reasons to be pretty happy today. Hope the Easter Bunny can find us okay way up here in the frigid North, but the sun is shining and should lead the way.

Lost in Paradise

I blogged the Iditarod Race start and had some images on it, too, but I can't seem to find it. So while I was experimenting with my settings, I somehow got this blog you see below in Hindi. Well, I'm back to the real world now, and will have to send you to my travel blog to read about the dogsled teams until I make some corrections here. So try My wordpress blog - oh, my, I'm having such a time trying to navigate around blogs, but I'm learning by trial and error. . . very slowly.

Magic March

इ गेस इ'म अ बिग कांफुसेद हियर । । । इ हवे सोम फ्रिएंड्स फ्रॉम इंडिया, व्होम इ थौघ्त वौल्ड एन्जॉय रीडिंग माय ब्लॉग, सो इ होपिंग टू गेट माय ब्लॉग पुब्लिशेद इन बोट इंग्लिश एंड हिन्दी। व्रोंग! थिस इस ओब्विऔस्ल्य् जुस्त इन हिन्दी। सॉरी अबाउट ठाट । व्हें इ फिनिश थिस पोस्ट, इ प्रोमिसे टू रिटर्न टू सेत्तिंग्स एंड चंगे थिस। नो मोरे एक्सपेरिमेंट्स फॉर मी!

Running of the Reindeer

Yes, we did it, as only Alaska can do . .. the reindeer farm in Palmer, Alaska brought a dozen reindeer into Anchorage for this new event after they had trained the usually docile animals into attack animals. They raced for 3 blocks, bypassing the reindeer hotdog stands and other tourist 'attractions'. It was considered successful, and look for a new tradition here.
Now we're on countdown for the Iditarod races which start next Saturday, March 1, 2008, that is. By the way, the weather has warmed up and it's about freezing now.

Dog Sled Races

The three day race for the Fur Rendezvous Champion ends today. It's been a wild ride and lots of fun, but there are some negatives, too. .. downtown has become a maze of 'do not enter' and 'do not park' signs.. . trying to find a street to get to your destination is not easy. But the pluses outweigh the minuses. The opening day parade was great, and the traditional pancake breakfast at Pioneer Hall was a winner, as it is every year. This building was given to the Pioneers of Alaska several years ago, and the second floor 'ballroom' is about 80' x 100' . . . it's here that we serve a great breakfast to about 1500 people over the two mornings.
The new feature of the event is the "Running of the Reindeer". I hope to post an image of that in my next blog. The idea was 'borrowed' from the Running of the Bulls in Pampalona, Spain. The Fur Auction is given minimal attention and venu on the edge of the action in the Buttress Area . . . Third Avenue and E Streets. Poker games, Tales of Old Alaskans, arts and crafts exhibits continue.
This is all a buildup to the start of the Iditarod Races on March 1st. Check back!