Greetings friends! I've been enjoying a little break from the rigors of being underway, on our last real break of the field season, since we are loaded with surveys for the next few months with nothing other than one day 'touch and go' stops between them.
As I said in the brief post the other day that I would relate a hopefully amusing story of an event that happened while we were making way up the Inside Passage last week.
Our Captain very generously made it possible for us to put the Peggy D. in the water and take a few groups of people upp into Glacier National Park to see the sights and take pics. The first trip filled up quickly before I even knew they were going, but I sort of thought to myself that I really needed to be working, rather than riding around goofing off for six hours.
But, as I heard about the things that they were seeing, I realized that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. People pay THOUSANDS of dollars to come up here and see this place, and don't even get a chance to get as close as we do.
But, the second boat left with out me on it, because I was still conflicted about the whole work thing. I happened to mention to my boss that I really would like to go, but I didn't want to ditch work. He told me to ask him "How many glaciers had he seen?" So I asked him, and he replied, "Lots... Go."
So, on the third and last day of the trips I went. We had an awesome time. It was really cold, of course but the sky was mostly clear for the better part of the day. We saw a few small black porpoises and a sea lion, as well as an otter or two on our way up into the park.
We went right up into this secluded glacial lagoon that had sheer rock walls thrusting up out of the water. It was glass-calm with a mostly sunny sky overhead. I got some good pics (which I will share more of) and then it was in for a closer look, as we got down to McBride Glacier, and prepared to go into the little cove there, then...
the engine sputtered and stopped...
Yeah, we were two hours up into Glacier National Park with the Oscar Dyson 'barely' in radio range... and we were out of gas.
Of course they had to try everything else to see what the probable cause was, BEFORE they determined by executive decision that they had forgotten to refuel the night before.
However inconvenient... we were able to raise the Dyson on another channel due to the fact that the Forestry Service had installed signal repeaters that far up into the park the year previous, so we radioed the ship of the situation and they laughingly began heading our way so they could get the smaller faster launch boat in range to bring us more fuel.
While we waited, we got to nose up to the shore and get off the boat for a while. I hiked a ways up the beach where I tool the majority of my pics and found another piece of driftwood that I was so tempted to bring home with me, but there are regulations that state the we are ot allowed to bring anything out of the park.
Anway, the FRB (Fast Rescue Boat) came and brought us fuel, and the Dyson was just a short distance away by that time, so there was no 2+ hour ride back. We reboarded the ship, ate dinner and ended an fun and interesting day at sea.
Greetings my friends! May the Blessings of the Goddess shine on you like the sun. This is just a short entry to say that I am here in Kodiak for the next eight days , and will be updating the blog... I've taken some time to meditate on the whole thing with my stepmother... Thanks for all the kinds words and support. I was pretty pissed and really didn't need to do anything stupid like I was thinking about.
We had an excellent couple of weeks in the Inside Passage, and went to Glacier National Park I've got some mroe pics to share, and a story that hopefully you will find amusing. (I know, I know...no more work gossip, Orenda, LOL)
Ok, I've got some work to do... we're on in-port hours so we've got lunch to prepare, and we are closed for dinner all this week! Huzzah! So stay tuned... Same Bat-Time... Same Bat-Channel... well, you know what I mean...
If there was ever a time that I would risk the full penalty of the threefold law it is now. I received the email from my sister that told of the ill-conceived circus that passed for my Father's memorial.
To begin with, my sister and her husband, and daughter arrived in the afternoon on Friday, the 6th to find my Father's widow (Dawn) completely shit-hammered. I am told that she remained in that state the entire weekend, and has been drinking heavily for some time now. She also has a man living with her. He moved in about two weeks after my Father passed away. His name is Jerry, and he is her boss from work. He is also married.
The "memorial" was held at a local Veteran's of Foreign Wars/Bingo Parlor. The carpets were filthy and the furniture was stained and tattered. A large banner that my sister described as ‘nice' was suspended from the ceiling and there was a board with pictures of my Father next to a table with some kind of food. I do not expect that it was very good. Oh yes, my Father's friends from Huntsville, AL showed up. They stayed drunk all weekend, too.
Seventeen people showed up. All of them were drunk, or got drunk. Then Jerry gets up and turns on a microphone. He drunkenly professes his love to Dawn, and then proceeds to elicit stories about my Father from those gathered. It was tacky. (so says my sister, and I agree.)
I had suspected that Dawn was sleeping with someone else back when we went to visit her right after my Father died, but I was mistaken as to who it was. My Father had a friend named Jeff, who was at the "service", and I originally thought that it was him. I was wrong. It turned out that Jeff was as disappointed with the whole thing as my sister was. He was also the one who informed my sister about Jerry.
My sister managed to bring back a couple of important items that I wanted to keep. She brought my Father's old pistol that I got my ass whooped for when I shot holes in everything that was not nailed down when I was fourteen; A pair of really old sneakers that my Father used to call his ‘scooty-pooters'. They are the old nylon sneakers with the stripes sewn onto the sides. They are completely worn out with holes, and the soles are cracked. He had them bronzed many years ago, and my grandfather's watch. Yes, and an unopened, never-been-played, Lynyrd Skynrd: Street Survivor LP (remember the flat, black things that we used to listen to called records??)
Dawn said that my Father didn't have/need a lot, so there was not much that was his there with the exception of his albums, his tools and the 1957 Chevy that he and I were restoring. (That was before ‘The Rift' which I will detail in an upcoming post.) I have told her that I want his tools, and I want to finish the Chevy, or have it finished by someone who really knows what they are doing. But, I have learned that this Jerry seems to be trying to get rid of all of my Father's things. I need to act quickly in order to keep this stranger from selling off things that he has no business touching.
As far as Dawn is concerned, I have considered working some sort of curse... I've got a few choice words for her, too... but, I would rather that wait until I have secured my father's personal effects before I unleash this nasty little morsel of magick on her. Maybe I will have calmed down a bit by that time. We'll have to see won't we?
So, I was web-surfing last night… just putting some art books on my wish-list on deepdiscount.com (no, it’s not a hint… I just bought them a few minutes ago, but I didn’t have my wallet on me last night so…)
ANYWAY… before I went to bed, I checked my email and found a cryptic email from my sister.
She wrote:
Hi Rich - How are you? Everyone here is ok. We got back from Atlanta about 2 hours ago. Boy, there's a lot to update you on. Almost too much to put in an email. Suffice it to say, boy were we wrong about what we thought was going to happen... I will write you a detailed email tomorrow - I am almost ready for bed now - it was a long weekend. Love, Robyn
(side note here: my given name is Richard, but some of you know me as Kurt, which is my middle name, and that which I go by at work… clear as mud, eh?)
As those of you who follow my blog posts, you will remember that this weekend was the memorial service for my father, who passed away in October.
He was cremated and his ashes were sent back to his home, where his wife kept them until all of the legal matters around the dissolving of his corporation were settled. The memorial was held at a VFW hall, I am not exactly sure where, but probably not far from his home.
So now the suspense is… well… keeping me in suspense.
It may take days for my sister to actually sit and write that email, though. However, my mind is working overtime trying to figure out what happened that was so different than what my sister and her husband expected.
I mean, I have a great deal more experience with the type of life my father led, at least ‘back in the day’ anyway… but I can imagine that it was a memorial that will not soon be forgotten.
I want to tell you all just how beautiful this section of the inside passage here really is. We are outside of Ketchikan, Alaska... and there have been very few places that I would just change my entire life to go and live there... but this is one of them.
Ther water is glass calm today and it is overcast. A small motorboat cruises past us leaving quicksilver ripples in it's wake... A small island with perfectly formed fir trees rests in the middle of a small bay... the lower branches of the trees at the waterline appear to be expertly if not preternaturally pruned. There are small houses nestled in the trees along the shoreline, and a fine gossamer mist weaves through the branches on the hillside above them.
