28 September 2005

Temperature this morning when driving into school: 39 F
Precipitation Today: Rain mixed with snow
.

Weather man tells me we're in a Alaska, and I think I believe him...

My big hope is that as winter weather sets in, the climate starts to exhibit some of its infamous aridity, and the mud and wet molds go away like they're supposed to.  It'll be a big bummer if we brought Indiana's muck with us.  

Bummer to me, not to the makers of Benadryl.

On a more serious note, this week Meghan's had a couple of her occasional but regerettably not infrequent headaches, and they were preceded by some occular manifestations this time.  So we're thinking it might be time to get her into a doctor for some migraine treatment.  We also think we need to get her over to an eye doctor to make sure she's not putitng more strain on her eyes with a couple-year-old prescription and working with computer screens and paperwork so much of the day.

I myself have taken to wearing my glasses regularly again for reading.  I had stopped because the problems caused by the arterial occlusion in my left eye made them pretty pointless since that was my worst eye to see with anyway, and the glasses can't help it anymore.  But the volume of reading I'm doing is leading to general tiredness of the right eye, too, and my hope is that the glasses will take the edge off that.  Reading is pretty exhausting for that left eye, though, despite its poor utility in the task.  I might try covering it while I read so it doesn't waste its effort trying to overcome the distortions -- but I also don't want it to atrophe and get even worse.  So I'm probably stuck with tiring it out, at least for now.

Classes are kicking it into full gear.  Got my first mid term coming up (take home exam for Structures) and presentations are starting to creep in.  Next Tuesday I have to distill Tylor's omnibus Primitive Culture into a five-minute summary for Structures, and the following Thursday I'll be leading an AnthRel class on shamanism, priests, and healers.

Now I'm actually a real student. :)

NickC---

26 September 2005

Today's Useful Fact from Human Osteology #1: If you're going to fall from heights, don't try to land on your feet; your best bet is to land on your side and let your arm take most of the compressive force.

Today's Useful Fact from Human Osteology #2: While there are a lot of things you can tell about a blow to the cranium from a fracture pattern, you cannot the shape of the object used, thanks to the nature of the bone structure there and the way it fractures.
.

Goodnes oh goodness, no more alibis; I'm just horrible about updating this place.  I think I get intimidated because so many days I don't honetsly have any time to get on here and then I feel like I need to catch everyone up on everything, and I think that's going to take too much time.  I'm a coward, I get it. :)

There are a variety of little updates around the whole site today and through this week, various quotes and peronality test results, etc..., so make sure you click around and have fun.  These updates have been too far and between to waste by only reading my 'blog!

Meghan had to go to training last week in Denver, CO, so that was kind of a drag for a few days.  She was "only' gone Wednesday through Friday, but that's more than enough!!  :-p

And, yeah, I know, other married couples often have to spend more time apart than that, and that's crummy, but it doesn't diminish my own crummy experience with it! :-p

Actually, Meghan had a heck of an adventure, too.  Something happened with the alarm on Wednesday morning, and she was supposed to be taking off at 7am, but I never heard the alarm or else turned it off in my sleep, so we were both pretty freaked out when I woke up with a start and realized it was 6:45am.  Oh my!!!  We threw on clotches, grabbed her bags, and sped to the airport, which is thankfully right on our side of town.  I dropped her off at about five 'till 7 and they were good enough to call ahead when she was going through security and hold the plane for her.  Whew!

The excitement didn't end there.  Next day she tried to take a taxi to the training, but the taxi driver got confused and took her twenty minutes out of town before she realized they were probably going the wrong way.  They made it, training  went well, but then she came down with a 24 hour bug, and didn't sleep good at all.  Next day, not feeling even slightly good, she went to the airport after training to fly home and found out her flight to Seattle (where she would connect to Fairbanks) was cancelled.  After some scurrying around, they got her re-routed through anchornage, and she still managed to get home by about 1am, still not feeling very good, but very much glad to be home.

Let's see...  What else is going on...  Our fantasy football league started up this weekend.  There are a few thigns pendning on the Monday night game still, but it looks like Meghan's gonna clan Jason's clock and would have whooped any of us this weekend.  I should squeak by Dad, but mainly because he was really stung by the bye week and some bad advice from me.  And Tiffany should beat  Sunbeam pretty comfortably.

Hmmm...  Mainly it's more homework, lots of reading and starting to gear up for projects, and I'm preaching again this weekend.

I won't set the bar too high or else I'll get intimidated and won't keep up with the 'blog like I intend to.

Peace out!

NickC---

15 September 2005

Tennesee Titans Turnovers: 3
Tennesee Titans Missed Field Goals: 1
Tennesee Titans Total Scoring: 7.

 

Normally, I would print out the documents because I read and comprehend off paper much more readily than I do off a computer screen.  Unfortunatley, since these are PDF's, they kill the printers in the grad room and bog down even the printers in the library.  

So I had this great idea: I'd find a PDF-to-plain-text converter program.  I found many which were reasonably priced, demo'd a couple on some PDF files I had laying around on my tablet's hard drive, and was pretty satisfied.  So I went into school the next morning planning to purchase one for $12.95 and then convert a bunch of ERes class work and go to town.  At the last minute, I noticed a fine print dislaimer on the software.  "Note: this will only work on PDF files with embedded fonts."  I had a sinking feeling what that meant, and demo'd the conversion on an ERes file.  Sure enough, there were no embedded fonts.

Apparently, in order to speed up the scanning and posting process to be able to meet professors' last minute demands as best as they can, the library staff scan the documents in basically as images -- no fonts, no highlighting allowed, no editing allowed, etc...  So no conversion progam will be able to touch them.

That means I'm back to working off the screen and taking notes on separate paper -- and that means I'm working slowly and inefficiently for my brain.

Well, that's a mere sample of the side issues which are going on.  Nothing really to do with professors' assigning ogre-like tasks; more to do with being an old man going back to school in a young man's world.

Interesting presentation on Friday.  olarship.  More on my classes as the week unfolds.  I hope to get the schedule thing worked out so that I can update the 'blog and the rest of the website closer to daily.

Oh, I posted a highly appropriate new quote on the quotes page of the website.  :)

Apart from classes, I did end up preaching again this past Sunday. The associate pastor was scheduled to preach now that he's back from the north slope, but he had an irresistable invitation to go out hunting this weekend (the open of moose season) and asked if I could pinch hit again.  I did so gladly, and I think it went well.  

Well, that's not a very in-depth entry again, I know.  Hopefully as I master this scheduling issue, I'll be able to keep up better and get more detailed entries.

NickC---

10 September 2005

Things I learned on CSI: There are 206 bones in the human body and if you can't tell if something is bone or rock, you can lick it.

Things I learned in Human Osteology: Tehre are 206 bones in the human body and if you can't tell if something is bone or rock, you've probably never seen or felt either bone or rock.

Obviously I haven't mastered the schedule thing yet. Honestly, the workload isn't that horrible.  It's just that while I'm trying to get the work done, I'm also trying to figure out the best way to do the work.  For instance, UAF used a great system from DocuTek to accomplish something I once recommended the TUFW library try with Blackboard (but at the time we had too many other things going on with the library to pursue it) -- electronic reserve for required course readings.  Well, the only downside to the way that the ERes system works at UAF is that the documents are posted as PDF files (Acrobat Reader files, in other words).  In case you've never heard my rant, PDF = bloat.  There is rarely a reason to post something in that format rather than rich text or another file format which preserves formatting but doesn't result in large files which are slow to download, difficult to read  and unholy to print.  

Normally, I would print out the documents because I read and comprehend off paper much more readily than I do off a computer screen.  Unfortunatley, since these are PDF's, they kill the printers in the grad room and bog down even the printers in the library.  

So I had this great idea: I'd find a PDF-to-plain-text converter program.  I found many which were reasonably priced, demo'd a couple on some PDF files I had laying around on my tablet's hard drive, and was pretty satisfied.  So I went into school the next morning planning to purchase one for $12.95 and then convert a bunch of ERes class work and go to town.  At the last minute, I noticed a fine print dislaimer on the software.  "Note: this will only work on PDF files with embedded fonts."  I had a sinking feeling what that meant, and demo'd the conversion on an ERes file.  Sure enough, there were no embedded fonts.

Apparently, in order to speed up the scanning and posting process to be able to meet professors' last minute demands as best as they can, the library staff scan the documents in basically as images -- no fonts, no highlighting allowed, no editing allowed, etc...  So no conversion progam will be able to touch them.

That means I'm back to working off the screen and taking notes on separate paper -- and that means I'm working slowly and inefficiently for my brain.

Well, that's a mere sample of the side issues which are going on.  Nothing really to do with professors' assigning ogre-like tasks; more to do with being an old man going back to school in a young man's world.

Interesting presentation on Friday.  olarship.  More on my classes as the week unfolds.  I hope to get the schedule thing worked out so that I can update the 'blog and the rest of the website closer to daily.

Oh, I posted a highly appropriate new quote on the quotes page of the website.  :)

Apart from classes, I did end up preaching again this past Sunday. The associate pastor was scheduled to preach now that he's back from the north slope, but he had an irresistable invitation to go out hunting this weekend (the open of moose season) and asked if I could pinch hit again.  I did so gladly, and I think it went well.  

Well, that's not a very in-depth entry again, I know.  Hopefully as I master this scheduling issue, I'll be able to keep up better and get more detailed entries.

NickC---

5 September 2005

Days of Class, Week One: 2
Days of Class, Week Two: 4
.

I'm doing pretty bad about keeping the website here up-to-date.  Still trying to figure out how to manage the various tasks, chores, and activities of life with our schedule these days.  My classes start at ~ 11:30 every day and go past 17:00 at least three days a week.  Then there's TA work, tons of reading for class, independent learning required for my overall graduate program, working out, household chores, and trying to have time to just relax with Meggie once in a while.  It's not overly much; just a matter of figure out what timeslots to plug what into.

There was an interesting presentation on Friday afternoon in the anthropology department.  Normally I wouldn't peg a colloquium on the topic of mushroom gathering in the Alaska burn zone as something which would capture my attention, but it relaly did.  Apparently, morel mushrooms only grow in the burnzone of forest fires, and since last year was a record year for fires in Alaska, this year was a bumper year for morels.  I won't go into any more details because I don't want to scoop another student's research, but if you ever get a chance to read up on the culture of "circuit pickers" who travel the country picking, buying, and seling mushrooms and other forest products, you should.  It's a complex, multifaceted sub-culture well worth knowing more about.

I think there's a chance it might come acorss from my 'blogs that I'm not happy here in Alaska, maybe that I even wish we'd not come, and it's important to me that you not get that idea.  All uncertainties about what to make of the town and its people, all stresses about scheduling and how to get things done, all frustrations with systems which seem almost designed to be inoperable -- all these things are things which will pass, things which I must work through and try wrap my mind and emotions around.  But they are not things which create any real depression or dissatisfaction in me.  Too, even if, after a year or two, we decide Alaska really isn't for us, I would never regret coming out here.  I know that this was the right thing to do, and I know that even if it ends up being only a short stop-off point in the career of our lives, it will be well worth it, and I would always regret not taking advantage of this opportunity and always be left wondering what it would be like to live in Alaska.

In that spirit, I think it's important for me to close this 'blog entry with  something really nice to say about Alaska.  A lot of folks from the midwest you hear talking about fall in Alaska say that they don't really care for it.  (And, yes, it's fall here; the leaves are changing and falling -- and we've had a couple of frosts.  I had to scrape the windshield once last week, too.)  Anyway, these midwestern folks quite reasonably miss the rich reds and oranges and range of colors you get back home.  It's true, the birch trees and all turn pretty much the same shade of yellow, but I think autumn is quite beautiful here.  On a distant scale, the foot hills are given an exquisite sense of depth to them by the mixture of yellow deciduous trees and dark green conifers which retain their full hue still.  And up close, the white trunks of the birches sear through the swath of yellow, and the evergreen branches poke through here and there to interrupt the field, while the underbrush turns a fiery red.  All very pretty; I don't miss the leaves of Brown County at all.

NickC---

30 August 2005

Hours 'till school year opens: ~ 41 hours
Hours I've been registered for classes: ~ 17 hours
Hours I've had a UAF login/e-mail: ~ 0.5 hours
.

It's very nice to be registered for classes.  I met with my interim advisor yesterday and got his approcal for the classes I thought I probably needed to take, so I'm officially on my way. I finally have an e-mail address, too, as well as a desk / cubicle in the graduate TA room in Eielson.  And we've had a couple of TA meetings with Dr. Shannon and the the other two TA's for ANTH 100x.  Things are finally starting to happen.  Maybe tomorrow I can even get a student ID card!

What's next?  A parking decal????

This will be a pretty random 'blog today as I'm actually squeezing it in amidst chores, but I wanted to get some kind of update out there for everyone.  The sermon went well on Sunday.  I wasn't too nervous and the people we're too hostile, so all in all it was what I'd hoped for... There's a change I might be preaching again this upcoming Sunday. Pastor David is still out of town and Pastor Pat was slated to preach in his place, but he was asked to go out on a labor day weekend (i.e. open of the moose season) hunting trip with an old friend he hasn't seen in a while.  We'll see how it shakes out.  Like everything in Alaska, I'm sure it will shake out in it's own sweet time, not necessarily when I'd like it to.

On Saturday we went out to try and find some real Alaskan wildlife.  We though the Large Animal Research Station would be a good place to do that, but turns out you have to pay for a tour to get up even to the fences of the areas the large animals are in, so that didn't happen.  We'll probably go back this weekend, more prepared for that.  Still, we got to see some nice scenery on the drive...

OK, that's it for now.  More later, perhaps.  I'll bug Meghan and Sunbeam to update theirs, too. ;-)

BTW -- the descriptions of the classes I'm taking are posted on the, "What we do," page.

NickC---

26 August 2005

Cost of Gas: $2.51/gallon
Cost of 1/2 gallon Milk: $1.99 -- $2.99
Cost of $0.79 nachos at Taco Bell: $0.99
.

Ah, it's good to be re-connected to the world...  By the way, there may be some material on the site, including the previous entry in this 'blog, which is from late July but was written off-line and never able to be up-loaded, so be sure to look for that, as well.

So I suppose after a month away from the internet and this 'blog, I'd be better off starting with reflections and thought on Alaska and life as I now know it rather than trying to tell all about the trip.  I think the rest of the pit-house should help let the light in on that, anyway.

I'll start with the obvious.  What's Fairbanks really like now that we're here?  Good question.  It continues to elude me after only a few weeks. The city itself, the people who live here, the natural environment...  Everyone always talks about Alaska about being big and overwhelming, so I sort of planned on being blown away.  Instead, I'm left grasping for little threads to pull together and not coming up with much.

I think partly it's an effect of the degree of remoteness we're dealing with here.  I'm sure I expected Alaska to be more or less a colder extension of the experience we had in Wyoming, and Fairbanks to be a northern version of Laramie or Cheyenne or something like that.  There, isolation seems to take on a sort of universalizing character: the winds sweep through and the skies go on forever, makign you physically feel a part of a broader piece of the world; people are forced by conditions to depend on one another.  Here, however, isolation is individualizing.  There is almost no wind and foothills loom all around, leaving you feeling physically surrounded.  And, as a friend who shall remain anonymous described it, meaning a warning and nothing offensive about the city or the people he loves, "The whole city sends out a signal, 'I don't need you.'"  Rather than create an atmosphere of dependence and sociability, the Alaskan interior's isolation creates more a feeling of self-relience almost to the exclusion of others.

Compounding this, in the lower west, your remoteness allows you escape into the wilds.  Here, the remoteness leads to such a loss of and cost of services, that your wanderings are more limited.  So, unless you're going out to your cabin in the bush, you pretty much stay in town.  There is an emphasis on outdoor life, but it's harder to exerpience that life without more resources at your disposal.

Too, Fairbanks feels like a much bigger city than one might expect. While lacking major business or inudstrial complexes, it is still the center for all the villages in the interior.  This makes it a hub of travel and activity at all hours of the day.  (While I've yet to see anything that comes close to a traffic jam, I've also nevertheless less never gone a minute without hearing vehicle noise.)  Statistically, the ~ 30k population figures for Fairbanks are also quite mis-leading.  Between the traffic from the village, the high percentage of military and college families (often not counted as population), and the fact that a majority of residents live technically outside of city limits, means that only the ~ 120k population figures for the burrough begin to give you an idea of the size of the town.

The size also leads to sometimes furstrating situations in which you're dealing with the impact of remoteness (higher expenses, slower turn-around on delivery of service, less reliable connectivity to the rest of the world), but without the actual experience of remoteness you might expect to go along with with it (fewer people, less car noise, lower automobile emissions).  

Lastly, it seems as if there's a major identity problem here.  People here are desparate to distance themselves from images of igloos, eskimos, snow, gold-mining, and all those other stereo-types -- but haven't really found a way to assert an identity apart from those things.  There's the cold, and there's moose hunting...  things like that...  But there's not much, "Hey, this is how you can tell I'm an Alaskan."  The folks are feircely proud of being Alaskan, but don't seem to have a good, comfortable communal identity in that.

It's important to stress that none of this means that I don't like Fairbanks, Alaska, or the people of this area.  It only means that I am still very much struggling to understand this place, let alone how I feel about it.

Well, I should wrap up  now so that I can get the up-dated website loaded on the server and e-mail folks to let them know we're back up and running.  Just a couple of really quick notes on what's going on in my daily life.  On Monday, I meet with Dr. Shannon and one of the other TA's for 100x to talk about what's going on with the class.  Hopefully soon I can meet with my advisor and get registered for fall classes and get my student ID card and all that, but he's just back from a trip to Wales and Russia, so I don't know how quickly he'll be swinging back into action.  And, last big note I can think of, this Sunday I've been tapped by Pastor David to preach a sermon in church while he and Pastor Pat are both out of town.  (David's at a conference and Pat's coming up on the end of a work shift on the North Slope.)  

More on all that later; I need to finish updating the other pages and get uploading so I can go get the dishes done before I pick Meghan up from work. :)

Out!!

NickC---

30 July 2005

Home of the NHL'ers
or
Help stop the spread of dutch elm disease.  Don't transport firewood..

Not sure where to even start reflecting on this trip, but perhaps just a word about this whole international travel in Canada thing.  I realize I'm a spoiled American, and that travel here really isn't bad, but fellow spoiled Americans should be warned: odds are, you're better off driving most of your way across country in the US rather than Canada, if you're heading to Alaska.  The Canadian highway system is decent, but it's not an interstate system.  The Number 16 (TransCanada Highway) passes through towns, so it can be slow-going at times.  

Gas is really expensive here and can be difficult to find for someone used to truck stops and travel centers at regular intervals along a highway or gas stations at each end of a highway passing through town.  Pay at the pump is a rarity in western Canada, and stations are cramped, often with full service but pay-inside arrangements.

Road signs are smaller than Americans are used and less frequent, and often only reflect one or two of the several names and/or nubmers by which a road is designated. Warning signs about exit lanes are also less frequent, so you have to be pretty eagle-eyed.

Like I said, it's not bad, but it's a lot more stressful for a frazzled American travel accustomed to the Interstate System in the states.  God bless Eisenhower and his legacy!

Probably worth some reflection on the places we've traveled.  Indiana really is prettier than we Hoosiers give it credit for.  It's fairly flat, but there's a lot of variety in trees and bushes that give the state a very green and alive, especially south of Fort Wayne or so.  

I don't much care for the scenery of Illinois.  Especially south of Peoria or so, it always looks messy to me or some reason, and the skies almost always seem to be cloudy and grey, even on a summer day which is sunny in Indiana and north Illinois.  I think it's probably the influence of St. Louis dragging it down.

Wisconsin was really pretty once we got to the Dells.  Actually, I was surprised by the hills north of the Dells.  Very cool mid-western wilderness and farm land.  Would be fun to go camping there, no doubt,

The parts of Minnesota we drove through were frankly pretty boring.  A few areas had a touch of the wetlands and lakes which make the eastern part of the state (which we didn't drive through) so great by reputation. But most of the St. Paul --> Fargo route was pretty un-spectacular.

Speaking of Fargo, there were some cool old farm buildings in North Dakota, but the eastern part of the state, through which we were driving,was not to my taste at all.  It seemed like it was really really flat, but still in most places lacked the great horizon and high sky which can redeem that sort of great plains monotony.  I'll grant that some of the fields were still pretty, though.

Manitoba, once we'd gotten about an hour past Winnipeg was amazingly beautiful.  I'm a sucker for wet lands, and they're all over the place in the province.  Not to mention, some really fantastic hills and a few glimpses of great horizon.

Saskatchewan in the east was much the same as Manitoba, and I quite enjoyed that, though the middle was more like North Dakota, and I didn't so much enjoy that.  

Alberta is a province which still escapes me.  It has a lot of rolling hills, a lot of sweeping horizons...   But for some reason, my first impression when I think back on it is, "Eh."  Not sure why.  Maybe it'll come to me.  

British Columbia.  Wow.  We've only driven in BC for about six hours or so, but it's been pretty amazing.  The rockies and their so-called foothills are just beyond compare for mind-blowign scenery.  And where else can you be driving on a highway and see not only hawks, ravens, and deer, but moose and a bobcat, too?  The rockies are wonderful to drive in, and BC is crammed full of 'em.

The trip has been so crazy it would be hard to say it's been fun.  All the ordinary stresses of moving and leaving friends and family have been compounded by the frustrations of trying to learn how to travel in Canada, silly as that sounds.  Still, we've had our good moments.  (Like sitting outside eating corn dogs at the Chief Buffalo truck stop in Minnesota, pulling over to take some pictures in Alberta, things like that.)  And our adventures.  (Like the thunderstorm which literally drove us into a parking lot in Edmonton to wipe down our windshield with napkins, and our total inability to find Highway 43 this morning.)  And I think when we look back on it, we may regret the rushed pace we've kept up, but we'll still think fondly of it. That's usually what happens with nostalgia over frustrating trips.

Thank God.

NickC---

27 July 2005

Well, I'm not going to dwell on U-haul day.  It was pretty tense, but we got most of what we needed done done, and we got to pack most of what we were hoping we could, plus some more.  Sure, it it about 92 out with 95% humidity. Sure, Meghan and I respond to this sort of stress in totally opposite ways.  But with God's grace and my parents  help, we got packed yesterday and this morning.  Whew.

Only two real glitches today, apart from stresses over last-minute packing.  First, the Blazer wouldn't start.  The battery was totally and utterly drained. And, of course, it was pouring rain for both the last minute packing and the Blazer's not starting.  Dad jumped the battery with his truck, and it was good to go.  We think maybe the U-haul electrical stuff shorted it out somehow, so I unhooked all that tonight before retiring.

The other glitches was that the route which my Dad and I concocted to save time to avoid Chicago ended up adding like 150 miles or so to the trip.  Doesn't seem like much but when it changs 12 hours into 14 hours of driving, it feels like it.  Oh well, live and learn..

Last thought for tonight: dont' stay in the Motel 6 in St. Cloud.  It's nasty.  I don't usually even mind smoking rooms, but this entire building reeks of stale, nasty cigarettes.  And the ceiling above the shower has tiles which are black with mold and mildew.  And the carpet has mildew stains.  And the first floor rooms in this building, except for Room 1, start with 3xx.

NickC---

25 July 2005

Days 'till we pick up the U-haul: Uh, one.

So when I said the 28th in the last 'blog, I meant the 26th.  I was looking at the wooden calendar on the wall by the outside door in the living room and didn't realize that the slider tiles hadn't been re-arranged for July yet.  Oops.   So, U-haul day is tomorrow and pull-out on Wednesday morning, bright and early.  Pretty insane around here.

I should have been updating my 'blog long before now, but ever day has pretty much been the same.  We didn't even end up getting out to the fair, unfortunately.  We still have a few things we want to do before we leave and that sort of thing, but we've been pretty wrapped up in the pursuit of housing. It's been a pretty miserable time, but there are few lights at the end of the tunnel right now...  We're working on two possibilities, one which would be with university housing and would not allow us to bring Sunbeam with us.  The other, with an apartment complex where David and Marci know the management; that one would let us bring our kitten and might entail our helping out around the complex some.  

We should know more about that by the end of the day.

Today, Meghan's dad and grandparents are coming to visit.  In fact they'll be here any minute, so I'll sign off for now and try to write more later.

NickC---

25 July 2005, pt. 2

We worked out a basic itinerary plan and I posted on the, "Move," page in the, "Adventure: Us" section of the Pithouse website, along with Google map links for each of the main travel points in our trip plan..

The days will be long, but audio book swill help it pass the time, I hope. Audio books and bathroom breaks.

Looks like we'll probably not be going with the university housing.  We did get approved finally, and I really appreciate Belinda's work on our behalf.  But it looks like the apartments that David and Marci are referring us to will let us take Sunbeam with us pretty inexpensively.  Since we appear to have that choice, we're going with the option that lets us have our kitten. :)

Meghan called Aunt Kim for advice on travelling with Sunbeam.  Aunt Kim was very encouraging about it, having met Sunbeam once before and being an excellent vet with a great heart for pets and pet owners alike.  She recommends that we let the cat have a bathroom break at least every eight hours or so and that we do it by letting her use the litterpan inside the car.  That's great, because I wasn't comfortable with the idea of putting her in a harness to use the pan outside and risking her running away 1800 miles from either home.  She said not to worry about sedatives, but that if she seems to get a car sick after a well we can give her a portion of a small dose of dramamine non-drowsy.

Not sure how much they'll sock us with lodging plus pet costs once we get into the Yukon and all that, but we'll deal with that once we get closer.  I have the first two nights' hotel reservations, and right now I'm planning on doing it in small steps like that so we have the flexibility to adjust the itinterary if we want to go shorter on some particular day.

NickC---

17 July 2005

What's the point of a rainforest level of humidity without the rainforest?

Now we're trying to get everything taken care of before we head out.  I'm tentatively thinking that the 28th will be our pull-out day, or at least our stuffing the u-haul day, but there are still some odds and ends to work out, and we theoretically don't need to be there absolutely until the 7th, assuming we don't want to roll into Fairbanks at 7:30 am on the 8th, in time for me to drop Meghan off at work and then take our stuff to wherever we're going to end up living..

Among preparations, there's the final sorting and re-packing or boxes, making sure we have a solid set of "must go" boxes as well as "maybe" boxes and so forth.  Meghan and my mom have been working on that, and been doing some good miracles with a few of our more hastily thrown together boxes from the previous move.  Hopefully we can make sure we have everything we need plus room for our broken-down assemblable furniture, the futon from Meghan's old house, and our bikes.  We should be able to have suitaces, guitars, computers, etc... in the Blazer ("Mr. Green Truck"), and our clothing vacuum bags and some other protected, flexible stuff in the rooftop carrier.

We're also working on making sure Meghan has all the professional wardrobe and accuterments she needs to feel comfortably and confidently prepared for her new job.  Clothes shopping is neither of our favorite activity.  Shopping for a PDA is not so bad. ;-)

And, importantly, we're trying to take care outstading maintenance details on Mr. Green Truck.  Next up, some noise in the rearend that's hopefully just something pretty straight-forward like a shock absorber.

Today I also got to some yardwork, trying to help Mom and Dad get the trees and stuff into shape while I can still do that.  Cut a ton of branches off the Willlow Tree to clear most of them off the roof o the garage and get rid of the worst overhang growth from where winter ice storms distorted the way the branches hang and buds could grow.  And then I went through tried to cut back most of the worst overlap in the southern row of trees.  Hopefully they still provide a good hedge but now look like distinct trees once again.  I need to do a little more wrap up there and hit the front yard like the good kind of tornado tomorrow or Tuesday evening.  

Plus the fair just started today so we need to get out and checkout the livestock houses!

Let me just wrap up by saying that it's strange how you go all summer waiting for some idea of the time-frame you're under, some clue to the pace of your next step in life -- and then when you finally get the clue you've been waiting for, the timeframe is, well, now.

Whew, I'm tired. :)

NickC---

13 July 2005

Originally posted on Tripod, moments after the last one

WOOHOO!!!!

I knew she could do it -- she's the best!!! :-D

NickC---

13 July 2005

Originally posted on Tripod

NickC---

6 July 2005

Regular gas: Alex -- $2.29; FW -- $2.47

I suppose in some ways where Ieft off yesterday might seem pretty self-obvious.  "Oh, so you're saying, Nick, that we relate to something better when we know more about it.  Really?  Amazing!"

Not quite where I was going, though.

I don't know how well my analogies always translate to the way other people think anyway, but here's the central question.  I could easily learn more about many of the people who died in London than I know about Jason's friends.  Yet learning that material wouldn't have the same "realism-ing" effect.  Why is that?

To me, the analogy works like this.  The news is data, like basic algebra with variables.  Learning more about the people involved is like putting in numbers.  Suddenly it corresponds to life, and the significance can be felt and understand.  But knowing someone who knows the people suddenly makes it a story problem, something that can be incorporated into my life.  After all, I can directly identify with Jason's friends.  Meghan and are among them, and are friends with others of his friends.  So the tragid death of Jason's friends is something I understand in a very personal way.  But, like with story problems, something I have a harder time working out and analyzing.

Well, enough philosophizing for the moment.  Today I got to do some demo with Dad.  There's an on-going project to redo parts of their bathroom, and I've been pitching in some to help where I can while we've been here.  Today we were getitng things started for the replacement of the old medicine cabinet with a newer, larger one.  Hammers, a reciprocating saw, and several pounds of dust and debris.  Woohoo!

Incidentally, Dad finished the effort this afternoon while Meghan and I were gone.  New medicine cabinet is in and looks nice!

This afternoon we went up to FW to help Tiffany and Eli help Jason and Bethany move a load into their apartment and then go out to to dinner with the whole gang.  Spent the first couple hours battling headaches and asthma from a gas leak in Jason and Bethany's oven.  Jason and I pretty much identified the problem pretty much ri