Hi you all. My god it is so good to be back by the ocean.
What a killer place this is. I had the day off today and have just been walking around Ketchikan and found this internet cafe and for 5 bucks an hour I can say hay! The weather has been unbelievable. It is sunny and hot right now and has been for most of the week. I started driving teams last monday and have been so intensly consintrating on what Im doing I can hardly think right now so please forgive me if I wounder. My new baroque flute was here when I arived (I can do better then that I think its arrived) Boxwood with tortis shell rings and such a sweet sound. I can only play it about 10 minutes a day for 2 weeks and then 15 minutes a day for 2 weeks. Heck it takes me that long just to get it working. It is a beautiful thing and I love it. Very different to play and will take some time. I met a friend of yours up here David. Greg and I got together last night for some tunes. Very nice guy and a great voice. I will not, however, bring my flute to the gig tonight. Not ready to play in front of or with anyone yet. Jeez I suck sometimes. Bald eagles are like seagulls around here. They are everywhere. The air is sweet and the humidity made for wooden flutes. I am in heaven. The horses are pretty good. I had a team yesterday that realy kept me on my toes which is a good thing. The streets are narrow and the traffic is intense but so far so good. Hope your doing well Jessie and the little one is a growing. I just dumped a fist full of cash at the utilities office today and my phone line should be installed by the 17th. That will be cool. Lets see, where I am living, from my deck about 20 feet is a salmon creek soon to be filled with spawning salmon. It is a sweet place to practice. The flute that is. The people I am working with are great, this is going to be a killer job. I guess I am too pooped to realy express how wounderful I feel and how happy I am with the way this unknown path is unfolding before my feet. Its so weird how the things you learn in life can serve you. Yesterday I had to back into parking places 3 times with my trolly. Now these things are 40 feet lont and pretty weird to drive. The first time I got a standing ovation from the passangers, the secound time the owner of the company, who I didnt know was around came up and praised my technique, the third time I had to pee so bad I lept from the trolly and made a run and when I got back my boss was waiting to tell me how impressed he was with my driving. Not a bad day. Good tips too. Well, I will check in again later as I have already used up half my hour and I have to email Luc to tell him the flute arrived safely. Ill check back before I get out of here to try and answer any questions in the next half hour then I have to go.
welcome back online. I have to run to catch the bus home, but I wanted to say “hi” & that I’m glad things are going good up there. After you’ve had more time with it, tell us more about the flute you got from Luc.
Tom, it’s great to hear from you, and I’m glad to hear you’re doing so well.
Before a few weeks ago I had seen maybe two bald eagles, both up in northern Maine (well, central, really, but Katahdin seems northern to most of us). Then about three weeks ago we flew into Dulles airport (about 30 miles outside Wash. DC), and, lo and behold, there was a bald eagle circling as we left the parking lot. I knew we had peregrines in the area, but a bald eagle? I was flabbergasted.
With all the shit happening today, it’s things like seeing a bald eagle in a suburban area that give me hope for the human race and the world.
PS – I’d never been much of a fan of birds as a race, but the last few years I’ve been seeing pileated woodpeckers a lot on my runs, and two years ago there was an owl being harrassed by a scream of crows every day for several weeks. Now I think birds are cool, even turkey buzzards.
Lovely place, isn’t it? And it sounds like you’re really enjoying yourself.
My wife and I visited a couple of years back, and took the horse-drawn tour Tom’s currently driving for. I’ll second his description - it’s one of the loveliest places I’ve ever been.
I talked to a man who’d moved there from Hawaii years before, and never left. Context: a LOT of folks go to Ketchikan, or other parts of Alaska, to work in the summer, then leave for the winter. And Hawaii is a popular off-season destination. But he loves it so much, even in the winter, he never wants to leave.
But it does rain - a lot. And it’s wet enough that the kid’s sports fields need to be gravel, not grass (tough kids, I guess - they play tackle football on gravel).
Tom, do they still have that yearly rainfall marker on the dock?
(Drat it - now I want to visit again. And it’s not going to happen this summer, and probably not next either.)
-Greetings from Seattle, Tom, and good to hear Ketchikan streets go swimmingly. I’ve just picked summer shifts at King County/Metro in Seattle and will spend summer tooling a bus up and down past Pike Market, often passing carriages drawn by big Belgians (I think) serving touristi downtown, usually past Lark-in-AM near the market. Blindered beasts merit a wide berth for sake of their charges & their own peace, but its a reality check to see them while bringing a crowded coach down the line-a reminder speed is only speed. Maybe our CO2 laden atmosphere as well as our national temper would benefit from a return to horse-drawn transport, 'though steaming mounds of horse puckey also emit. -PM me if you plan to return through Seattle to your NE Washington digs, and I’ll drag you out to Conor Byrne or some such for music & brew.
Hi Tom: I guess you’ll miss my post ~ hopefully you’ll get back to the cafe soon enough…
You sound so happy ~ I’m GLAD things are working out!!
Enjoy God’s country! (when it isn’t raining, that is ~ that’s coming, trust me )
You new flute sounds great ~ I’m glad you got it!
Later,
Mary
Well, Im steeling a little time on a friends phone line, still waiting for the phone company to find me. Another 4 days of solid sunshine and 70 degrees. Jessie what a beautiful girl you have there. All my best to her. Ya David M. it is a friend of yours, Greg T. used to play in your band I guess. An Aussie. Anyway real nice guy, he does kayak tours up here. And makes music. Well this realy sucks, everything I typed from here on just disapeared. I dont have time to start over now nore do I remember what I said. Thats what these things are for. Well heck I got a go. I`ll get back to ya soon
Yes, Greg Thomas!
Not only a former bandmate of mine (The Barley Boys! We were quite the hit in St. Louis. We sucked, but we were quite the hit! Greg’s got great stories about that. Ask him about the principal, or Marnie the Lesbian Fiddler!)
He was also the best man at my wedding a decade ago.
He’s a gem. No one nicer or more loyal.
Well, he’ll love hearing your flute playing, no doubt. He’s been harping me to come visit for years and all along his kayak biz has flourished.
Ask him about his movie star brother, the surfer in Australia.
Anyway, please, please give the man a hug for me. And let him know i’ve not forgotten. Just working out my chops!
dm
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