Basketball Tournament

Last week was the L'il Dribblers Basketball League tourney.  Stuey's team Island Expresso made it to the semi finals where they lost by a point after coming back from 9 down in the final 5 minutes to tie it.  One of Stuey's best friends Liam was on the other team, and the 2 of them were on the same team 2 years ago when they won it all.  But not this year.

Ironically, the semi final game played out exactly the opposite of the first game in the tournament against the same team.  In that game Liam's team came back from 10 points down and lost by one point on a final desperation heave.

Watching the games I decided that some of the best life lessons were in the games that were not close.  I was most proud of Stuey and his team when they lost by over 20 points to one of the best teams in the tournament.  And yet they did not give up and played hard until the very end.  In my opinion, learning to lose gracefully, with dignity and spirit is more important than winning.  Patrick

Under the hoop - will it go in?

Stuey and Liam on opposing sides

Burger Grind

Last Wednesday was the annual burger kind party.  We ground up 130 pounds of meat into burger and Italian 'Goat' Sausage.  This is the annual event that marks the absolute end of the hunting season.  It's also a pretty fun time.  We drink beer and grind meat.  Philip brought pizza.

Now the freezers are full and we'll wait until August rolls around again and starts things off once again!

Patrick

What a difference one day makes!

After a weekend of rain it cleared up Monday and I went skiing on Pyramid.  There was very little snow left (see 2 photos below) and what snow was left was crusty and hard.  But at least it was sunny and there was enough snow that I did not hit any rocks.

On Monday night I woke up to rain and feared the worst.  I drove to work in the rain.  Then around mid morning I looked outside and saw snowflakes.  And then it cleared.

After work I drove up to the pass and there was new snow all the way down to where I parked the car.  We got over 1/2 a foot of new snow up high - whoooo hoooo!  Sunshine and new snow puts me in a good mood!  Patrick

Postcard from the past

While out east for Thanksgiving I was rooting through all the old books on the shelves looking for a book to read.  I saw a good one that I had left behind after finishing it years ago - Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.  I kind of remember liking it - a raw, dark, and violent western, and so grabbed it off the shelf.  When I looked inside the back cover I was surprised to find a note I had written to myself way back in 1993!

I spent the summer of 1993 on a remote archaeological excavation in outer Frobisher Bay, Canada.  It was the summer I almost got eaten by a polar bear.  If we had an on shore breeze the ice would push up onto the shore of the island where we were staying and the bears would walk off the ice and onto our island.  We called such pan ice 'polar bear taxis' and on the nights when the ill wind blew someone would have to stay up to look out for marauding polar bears. A member of the Canadian team died of hypothermia when a boat tipped over.  It was a summer spent living on the edge.  And in a very real way it matched what I read in Cormac McCarthy's book.

Reading the note took me back to the summer of 1993.  On windy days the water often stayed flat calm because of the pan ice.  I washed my clothing in salt water and it was always slightly damp, and I probably smelled pretty bad.  During our excavation we found really cool things carved out of wood and bone, and when things thawed out you could sometimes smell 2000 year old urine.  I carried a gun around.  All this was in my note.

When I was in my 20s I travelled a lot, and I would often write myself postcards.  I'd mail them home.  And then when I returned home I could relive a particular moment in time that had arrived in the post.  I don't know if I still have any of those postcards, but I do know that I just found a note I sent by time machine almost 25 years into the future.

Now it is time to re read the book.  'A classic American novel of regeneration through violence.' (from the cover).  Sounds like a Western to me.  Patrick

The paw of the bear that tried to eat me

On the way home at the end of the summer crammed into the Pitsulak (Inuit for Pidgeon Gillimont)

I learned from the Inuit how to butcher and pack out caribou meat

A Raw land in SUMMER!

Getting eaten alive by mosquitoes - at one point we killed 74 with one hand slap

That's a frozen ocean as far as you can sea - in 1992 it never did thaw

Note the polar bear taxis

Trees

Out east I seemed to have been intrigued by the trees with no leaves.  I certainly took a lot of pictures of them anyway.  Here are a few that I particularly like that I seem not to have posted earlier.  The trees In New England are way different than anything we have in Alaska.  Patrick

Kids On Snow

Yesterday after work I took the kids skiing at the golf course.  The skiing is on the icy side of things and very, very, FAST.  So I was a little worried they would not like it.  I brought the sleds in anticipation as an alternative activity.  But on arrival they only wanted to ski.  I was totally happy.  They did sled a bit, but preferred skiing down the hill fast over the sleds.

Stuey borrowed my skate skis and was bombing all over the place.  I was amazed that he was skating up hill.  It is clearly time to get him his own skate ski gear.  What's funny is that I would not take most people I know skiing at the golf course right now.  It is too fast and scary.  But clearly not for Nora and Stuey - they embraced the speed.  Patrick

Late Afternoon Sunrise

Yesterday for the first time this season I took the doggies XC skiing at the golf course.  In town it was a beautiful sunny day and I was looking forward to skiing in the sunshine.  But I forgot that at this time of the year the sun does not clear the mountains at the golf course.  I got a little bit of a sunrise at around 2:30 but that was it!

Still the conditions were super fast, and, despite the lack of sunshine, it was beautiful.  I ripped around and around and wore both me and the doggies out.  Patrick