Winter is coming

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The Starks are assholes. Not because they’re all self-righteous jerks, but because I live in Alaska and their words ‘winter is coming’ has REAL meaning. Long summer days is what we get for enduring 6 months of cold, wind, snow, and darkness. This is what has kept me from converting 3 pretty good blog post ideas into actual blog posts this week. Today, I spent my entire day outside digging holes, building a shed and cooing at some goslings* that I’ll have to cull in the next couple of months. Really, I’d have liked to spent that time inside revising, and getting my WIP ready for beta readers and editors, but not really. It’s amazing out there. The temperature is just a little cool with a breeze making the physical labor that much more comfortable, and the fire-pit this evening feel cozy.

When it’s daylight almost 24 hours/day, it’s tough not to be outside basking in it and making the most of the accommodating weather. So, I’m not blogging much and not writing much, but I don’t feel bad about it. In a few months time, it’ll be blustery and anything needing to be done out of doors will be painful. That’s when I’ll be inside, aggressively plugging away at my computer, resolutely ignoring any outside chore.


* No, we didn’t name any of them Ryan, largely because goslings become geese and the humor would pass.

Photo courtesy: ME!

Working this weekend

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On Saturday, I’ll be in Anchorage, AK. Not that this is a big deal, I work there, and live fewer than 40 miles away. The big deal this weekend is ceremonial start of the Ididarod. I’ll be less than a block away, suffering from the traffic, parking, and crowds. What I will not be doing is watching the start. I’ll be in a conference. Turns out that this week is also the Alaska Anthropological Association annual meeting. Normally, this would be little more than a footnote in my year, and simply signify a slightly reduced period of e-mails and phone calls (It’s usually a time I can focus on stuff I need to get done, without interruption) However, this year I’ve been prodded into giving a paper*. Of course, this means that this weekend, I won’t be writing, and the last couple of days I’ve been completely focused on putting together my presentation instead of writing. Now, I’ve given the presentation before, and so it shouldn’t be a big effort, but I always spend a lot of time rehearsing before these. Anyhow, I’m not sure where I’m going with this, except to say that if you’re in Anchorage this weekend and don’t want to see the Ididarod, come to the aaa meeting, there’s going to be a lot of really good information about subsistence research in Alaska.


* I’m not an anthropologist, I’m an analyst and database manager.

photo credit: fast via photopin (license)