random

other, stories

Well, ok..no, it wasn’t really morning, and technically it wasn’t breakfast seeing as we ate at around 1 o’clock, but by george it was a beautiful morning and it was a beautiful morning all because of breakfast. This breakfast. It was THAT good. The bacon was thick and delicious, the french toast perfect, the maple syrup was the real stuff (and good quality real stuff, at that), the potato and onion and red pepper fry was exactly as delicious as it sounds like it should be, the OJ was cold and zingy and the coffee fresh brewed and hot out of the thermos. It has become something of a saturday afternoon tradition for the four of us here: a big hearty breakfast sometime after noon on saturdays, usually a similar sort of thing..pancakes or waffles or french toast, bacon or sometimes sausage, eggs often and/or when the supplies afford it, fried potatoes and onions and bell peppers.

You know, routines and habits and doing the same old thing sometimes get a bad rap. Don’t settle into a rut, don’t be afraid of change! Do something different each day. Do something that scares you! Well I am good with doin’ something scary and I do believe that complacency in most parts of life can be deathly. But I’ll be damned if I don’t love sleeping in till just about the same time on Saturday and then eating the same-ish perfect breakfast in the afternoon and then sitting back with a cup of coffee to enjoy the ensuing food coma.

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complete with a cameo appearance by none other then uncle silas
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yum.
other, stories

The bread is almost ready for a second kneading. Another ten minutes should do it. It’s six in the evening, and I left work at 4:30, what must be a personal record. The kitchen is clean, I folded my laundry. I pull up my google news feed, and the first two headlines are:

Iran’s president calls for ‘constructive’ dialogue, end to ‘unhealthy’ rivalries

&

Pope seeks to shift Catholic Church’s priority from dogma to mercy

Maybe just for a little while today the world isn’t so bad.

So what now? Indubitably at this point I would begin to think of bad men in ties, mosquitos, war, or some other depressing thing. This must be staved off. I’ll think about flying. Flying is one of my favorite things in the whole world, and it is also a thing that no matter what technology or fable of creation we humans invent we will never truly experience. Ever. Except for in our dreams.

So here’s to mercy, constructive dialogue, bread, flying and dreams.

(…and jason for sending me this video)

other, stories

Work is hard but wonderful. I love my job. Teaching earth and space science is totally a hoot, we’re making clouds in bottles and checking out 8-day pressure charts. Big storm rolling around in 8 days, pressure down to 960 by 10am next friday. More laughing then ever before in my classroom. As always, I have my grievances about standardized testing and big men in suits, but at the end of the day I remember it’s all about the kids, and everything is ok.

Breakfast report:

I tried something different for my weekday breakfast routine. For those who know me, this is a big deal. I ate a tube of oreos with a glass of milk instead of my traditional can of peaches / can of vienna sausages combo. Conclusion? No-go. It’s 11:26 and my tummy is rumbling uncomfortably, threatening to start making funny noises.

other, stories

So I leave Diomede something like a month ago, maybe three and a half weeks, and between then and now there was so much. Lots of great things, like flying and big old boats. There were downers, too, but thankfully there were a lot more ups then downs. For now I’m happy. Well no ‘happy’ isn’t the right word, it’s more like content or glad, to be back on the island. It’s beautiful here.

So there is this pizza place in Nome. Well, to put it better: the pizza place in Nome. And the wall decorations are these giant 5′ pizzas, cut out of plywood and handpainted in any way: pepperoni, combo, veggie, et cetera. On one wall there is the ‘current’ pizza, and all are welcome to Sharpie their names, thoughts, and drawings. When the current pizza is full it is placed somewhere else in the restaurant. And the other day in Nome, while I was enjoying my pizza and beverage, I saw what was the best* thing of this whirlwind three and a half weeks. It was written on the ’97 pizza, if I remember correctly.

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*Just in case you don’t know, Nome not only was a gold rush town back in the day, it is still a major center for gold mining–and more specifically, many of the people who live in Nome during the summer are one-man or two-man gold mining operations. They work incredibly hard, like the old miners of the tales, and they make a lot of money.

diomede, other, photography, stories

So there are a few trails on the island. Two head north out of the village, a low one that stays a few hundred feet off the water, and a high one that heads up to the top of the island. The low one, I found the other day, only goes to the north cliffs…where it stops gradually. Well, sort of. The trail starts out incredibly nice, wide and easy, fades to a narrow and sort of tricky little route, and eventually you turn a corner and, wham, cliffs. Big cliffs. Up to that point, it is a gradual fade, though. From the best I could tell, the north cliffs are just shy of the northernmost point of the island.

So the trail is nice at first
The trail is wide and flat!
There are great places to sit down for a spell
There are great places to sit down for a spell
The trail gets narrower (can you see it?) and the going gets steeper. I didn't take any pictures of where the trail stops. I was a little bit preoccupied.
The trail gets narrower (can you see it?) and the going gets steeper. I didn’t take any pictures of where the trail stops. I was a little bit preoccupied.
Looking back where I came from--the trail skirts over that cliff
Looking back where I came from–the trail skirts over that cliff, just above the picture’s frame
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cliffs
northwest corner
northwest corner
and of course the picture of the flower from the lovely walk back
and of course the picture of the flower from the lovely walk back on the upper trail
photography

Last week of school: rocket week. Success, all the kids shot off rockets to finish off the last day of school.
Last week of school: rocket week. Success, all the kids shot off rockets to finish off the last day of school. One of my students put wonderful time and hard work into her rocket, and this is the beautiful finished product.
After the last day of school? Deep cleaning.
After the last day of school? Deep cleaning. DAYS of deep cleaning.
Playing the waiting game on the helipad. Will we make it out, will Cap'n Mike fly in horrible weather, after being weathered out for a week?
Playing the waiting game on the helipad. Will we make it out, will Cap’n Mike fly in horrible visibility after having been weathered out for a week?
Yes. And I got to ride shotgun :D
Yes. And I got to ride shotgun. Thanks Cat :D
See ya 'round, cap'n Mike
See ya ’round, cap’n Mike
What now? We have been living in close quarters for 9 months, working all day long with each other. So what do we do when we're off the island? Road trip!
What now? We have been living in close quarters for 9 months, working all day long with each other in a sometimes very hard and stressful job. So what do we do when we’re off the island? Get some personal space? NO WAY. Road trip :)
Ms. T kickin' it
Ms. T kickin’ it
Jori and her dog being adorable. PHOTO BOMB.
Jori and her dog, Zorra, being adorable.
BEER, DELICIOUS BEER
BEER, DELICIOUS BEER
Great friends, great times
Great friends, great times
REALLY good fish'n'chips. This one's for you, mom :)
REALLY good fish’n’chips. This one is for you, mom :)
Ms. T and her million dollar smile
Ms. T and the million-dollar smile
On the other side of the lens
There is a reason I avoid being on the other side of the lens… 
Zorra
Zorra. She is incredibly cute, and likes to pee as much as she is cute.
The one, the only. Man, myth and legend. Mister Moses.
The one, the only. Man, myth and legend. Mister Moses.
Jori lookin' like a million bucks.
Jori and Catherine are like smile-twins. Because they each got a million-dollar smile.
photography, stories

Firsts: ice axe, crampons, beard-frozen-to-parka, solo top trip, winter top trip.

I’m not sure I would’ve made it down safely if it weren’t for the tea and biscuits shot of calories and warmth one little climb short of the top.

The picture with the little pointy mountain is a shot east towards mainland AK and the village of Wales.

The nighttime shot is of the school, during the home-stretch back. I underestimated (badly) both how much daylight I had left and how long it’d take me.

The picture of me, that’s the only place up there where I could stand up straight-ish.

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It was a good monday afternoon :)

diomede, photography

Ice fog, snow and the fierce winter wind is beautiful in it’s unique way, but it’s nice to see the deep blue sky and our russian neighbor island once in a while. It’s been at least a week, maybe two, since I’ve seen something aside of white when I look out my classroom windows…

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And in unrelated news, a box with tea in it and another with a nerf gun in it came in the mail this week :-). Money can’t buy happiness, I’m a firm believer, but it can buy nerf guns. money can buy big nerf guns. and big nerf guns are up there with homemade cookies, good cigars, coffee and good tea for being close to happiness.

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see the nerf gun down there in the sneaky hiding place?
(of course, because of it's default status, the irish breakfast tea is in a lower cupboard closer to the stove)
(of course, because of it’s default status, the irish breakfast tea is in a lower cupboard closer to the stove)
other, photography

start with some vienna sausages and make some bisquick. narrowly averted disaster when i started to crack the egg into the pan instead of the pancake mix
start with some vienna sausages and make some bisquick. and don’t accidentally start to crack the egg (for the bisquick pancake mix) into the pan, otherwise you’ll have some weird eggy-texture-mini-blobs in the pancake.
get those little guys good and crispy and delicious
get those little guys good and crispy and delicious
add some savory spice and pour that batter right on in there, on top of that sizzlin' canned meat
add some savory spice and pour that batter right on in there, on top of that sizzlin’ canned meat
put the spatula down child, no use for one of those. flip that big-boy-size fried pan-meatcake like a professional
put the spatula back in the drawer, child, no use for one of those. flip that big-boy-size fried pan-meatcake like a professional
and the maple syrup, put that down too. while you're over by the cupboard, grab the bottle of sriracha, 'cuz that's what you need for a big-boy-size panmeatcake.
and the maple syrup, put that back in the cupboard too, you won’t need it. while you’re over by the cupboard, grab the bottle of sriracha, ‘cuz that’s what you will need for this big-boy-size panmeatcake.