{"id":258,"date":"2021-03-28T10:21:27","date_gmt":"2021-03-28T18:21:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/?p=258"},"modified":"2021-03-28T10:23:19","modified_gmt":"2021-03-28T18:23:19","slug":"in-which-i-set-out-to-learn-a-new-skill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/?p=258","title":{"rendered":"In which I set out to learn a new skill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I think one of the secrets of life must be to keep learning new things, no matter how great or how small. Some will learn how to build a new and better space rocket, while I have a more modest goal: to learn how to confidently pilot a four-wheeler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of communities in rural Alaska use four-wheelers; in the colder areas the residents might use snow machines in winter, and four-wheelers in summer. Craig is not one of these communities; the roads are paved and everybody drives cars. When I learned that I would be coming to Aniak to teach fifth grade as a long-term substitute, the first thing I thought of is how I would get around town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, I can walk to school in about five minutes, and the district office is only a little bit beyond that. However, the one and only coffee shop is all the way on the other side of the airport, and that just will not do.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a farm kid I learned to drive some interesting machines. I remember one shining moment, when my father watched me back his cantankerous old pickup truck into the driveway and said, \u201cWhy, Ev, you\u2019re a truck skinner.\u201d Years later, my husband and I worked for a few summers at a tree nursery in Anchorage. One day about five guys were standing around the boss\u2019s new tractor, trying to figure out how to start the fool thing. I noticed that it had the same set up as the one my family had\u2014starter button on the floor\u2014so I confidently climbed aboard and fired her up. While at the nursery I also learned to drive a Bobcat with confidence, but I never did get the hang of that stupid pull-start weed trimmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway. The people of Aniak handle their four wheelers and their snow machines with a practiced ease that I would like to emulate. My landlord has rented me a four wheeler for a reasonable rate and given me a basic tutorial. Now, I just need to practice. And I say, whyever not? I\u2019ll bundle up nice and warm, put on my bright orange safety vest, and hit the open road at a modest rate of speed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think one of the secrets of life must be to keep learning new things, no matter how great or how small. Some will learn how to build a new and better space rocket, while I have a more modest goal: to learn how to confidently pilot a four-wheeler. A lot of communities in rural […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,168,167,166],"class_list":["post-258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-as-an-alaskan-educator-and-citizen","tag-alaska","tag-aniak","tag-fourwheeler","tag-learning-new-skills"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=258"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":261,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258\/revisions\/261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rightasrainonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}