I’m remembering that one time, in my little cabin in Kake, when I heard something on the porch. I looked out the window and found myself nose to nose with a fellow mammal. This also makes me think of a time while I was at school. One of the kids, Timmy*, came galloping down the […]
In deference to spiders
I grew up around spiders. My grandfather built the house in 1921, complete with a damp musty cellar in which we stored, among other things, firewood. That corner of the cellar was the domain and realm of the so-called “wood spiders,” hairy and fast-moving and about the size of a medium-sized mouse. Apropos of nothing, […]
The longest short plane ride ever
How, you may ask, did a 45-minute plane ride from Twin Hills, Alaska to Dillingham stretch into six hours? Well, since you asked. . . I was in Twin Hills waiting for my flight to Dillingham, the first leg of my long journey home. One of the paraprofessionals from the school was waiting also. With […]
In which I acknowledge the finer qualities of chickens
A few months ago, I stopped by the post office and heard a sound I hadn’t heard in forty years. It was like a google earth experience: pull way back, make a wide lateral swing, zoom back in. Is there a google time app yet? Anyway, the sound I heard was the chirping and scruffling […]
YouRube.com: Seattle layover
The titular gem you see here came from a typo. I was, of course, looking for YouTube, but accidentally typed it in as you see above. There must be many thematic ideas for YouRube.com. One promising idea is a travel blog seen through the eyes of a country bumpkin (“country bumpkin” being the first online […]
I am going to learn how to use this magic. . .
As a beginning reader I was unable to hear the difference between the words “magician” and “musician.” Why, I wondered, with the apparently infinite combinations of letters and sounds, would we use the same collection to describe these two differing occupations? When I first approached the door of my first-grade classroom, trying to hide behind […]
Gilding the lily
I started wearing makeup at sixteen, which was the age at which my mother would shake her head in disapproval but not actively interfere. I got my ears pierced that same year (same scenario). I got it done at one of those mall kiosks, and I almost fainted afterwards. As I left the booth, my […]
Bears on the porch, bears in the kitchen
When I was about eight, we found a perfect, complete bear track in the mud down by the river. In those days, signs of bears in Powhatan were extremely rare, although I understand that they are much more common now. We stared at the track and spoke in hushed tones of how it must have […]
In which I make peace with chickens
A lot of people living in small spaces have chickens these days. In Craig, Prince of Wales Island’s answer to a “big city,” you can have chickens in your back yard, as long as you don’t have any roosters. I grew up on a family farm in Virginia, and our main cash crop was eggs, […]
Adventures in losing things
I spend a fair amount of time looking for my stuff. My phone is the most common item to go missing, followed by my keys, my coat, my glasses, my purse, and my cup of coffee. I live in a big house, and I tend to set things down without being fully aware of my […]