Sunday Morning Wrap-Up

It's been a strange & eventful week in southcentral Alaska.

Mt. Redoubt's eruption, yesterday, dumped one-quarter inch of the abrasive, corrosive ash on the southern Kenai Peninsula. Sounds like Homer got the worst of it; that's only 125 miles south of Anchorage, as the eagle flies, although it's a five-hour drive.

There are 15 (or is it 16) candidates for Mayor, in Tuesday's election.

There are 22 candidates competing for 4 school board seats.

There's the strange case of the machete-murderer who's blaming E.T. for commanding him to carry out multiple killings and shootings.

The U.S. Department of Justice moved to dismiss its own charges against former Alaska senator Ted Stevens, although the judge has yet to rule on the motion. While it would be a vindication of "Uncle" Ted, it's too late to do anything about him losing his seat after 40 years, in a very close election.

A black bear has been chasing - and in at least one case, treeing - people in Far North Bicentennial Park, here in Anchorage. The local bear expert from the Dept of Fish and Game is looking for the critter, but hasn't seen it yet.

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On to other things: we're just another day or so shy of reaching 14 hours between sunrise & sunset. It was just dark enough to make walking difficult, at 10:00 last night. We're still gaining well over five minutes per day of daylight, and of course it's light long before and after the "official" times. In summer, here, the sun never goes that far away - it dips just below the horizon for about 90 minutes, in June, but the skies never really get dark.

One of the bigger concerns here is that the tourist season is looking a bit shaky, this year. Many of the charter companies (fishing, flight-seeing, whale-watching, sightseeing) are offering prices at half-off to locals, just to drum up a bit of business.

The Daily Noise is reporting that cruise line revenue is down about 40 percent for Alaska. That's not good.

South-east and south-central Alaska rely on tourism for a very large part of their revenues, each year. The impact on smaller retail outfits - stores, artisans, art galleries, souvenir shops, fishing charters, etc - will be devastating.

Long-time readers of this little blog will remember that I used to manage several buildings, including a retail mall in downtown Anchorage. The mall specialized in Alaskan-made merchandise, with nearly 20 mom-and-pop shops. Without tourists, they will not survive.

Summer here is only about 100 days long, and those shops must make the bulk of their annual sales during that time. If not, they won't make it through the upcoming winter. That's just the way it is.

On the one hand, I'm glad now to be out of the tourist-related business, with all of its ups and downs. I do miss working downtown, with its coffee shops, restaurants, sidewalk vendors, buskers, and multitude of colorful characters. On the other, my new job is much more stable, and less prone to economy-related downturns.

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That's about it, for today. If the volcano blows again, or anything else of interest happens ... I'll be back!