Friday Morning 5/8

Good morning!

Mt. Redoubt has been quieting down, over the last 72 hours or so. The seismic activity is decreasing, although it's still "significantly above background levels." Some observers saw flares and smoke trails earlier, and got excited.

It turns out the military is conducting some sort of training exercises in the Redoubt area (disaster recovery, perhaps?) and is using flares. I know the personnel are doing what they're ordered to do, and as a veteran I know the importance of training ... but ... firing flares in the vicinity of an erupting volcano would seem to be from the same playbook as flying Air Force One at low altitude over Manhattan. Insensitivity to people's apprehension, at best.

I expected better than this from our government, but apparently my expectations are no longer realistic.

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It was already light when I arose at 5:10 this morning. Have I mentioned how much I love springtime/early summer in Alaska? It won't get dark until after 11 p.m., and we're still gaining light at the rate of over five minutes per day.

We've also already had more sunny days than in all of 2008. That doesn't hurt, either. Many of us are literally light-deprived, and this is helping that condition big time!

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The ice-jam that caused the Kuskokwim River to back up & flood the village of Eagle finally broke yesterday, and the waters are receding rapidly. Now the villagers are trying to figure out how to recover. Many if not all of the buildings were pushed off their foundations by the ice, and some of the buildings appear to have been ... well, folded comes to mind. It's not pretty.

The receding waters have also left massive piles of ice behind. As I mentioned yesterday, many chunks are as big as houses.

Several other communities are facing similar prospects, along that river and others. Governor Palin cancelled her trip to the east coast, yesterday morning, and flew to that part of the state to survey the damage before declaring it a disaster area.

The news today is full of a report, by a local pollster, that Sarah's positive rating has slipped to 54%. It's amazing to me that she's still ranked that high, given the non-stop pounding from the press and the hard-left loons who hate and fear her.

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Our gas prices has risen to $2.49 per gallon. Neither public outcry nor threats of strict legislation have impressed the refinery operators. You can read more here.

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That's about it for this morning. Thanks for visiting!