Gray Skies Are Gonna Clear Up (Updated)

Maybe not so much. It's a reasonably bright day in spite of a low cloud cover, so the clouds are either thin or devoid of much water content. Update: nope. It's dark & starting to drizzle. Current temp is 51 degrees, and there's a bit of a breeze ... an altogether nice morning.

There's a raucous bird in the front yard, of an unfamiliar type (the bird, not the yard). It has a black head with a topknot, and some black on its back. The rest of this larger-than-a-cardinal sized fellow is an iridescent blue-green. I don't recall seeing one of these before, but it has an annoying raspy voice.

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I'm liking pretty much everything about the new Kindle except the smallish display screen. On the other hand, I'm not getting any newsprint on my fingers, and it's easy to press the "next page" button, with one on either side of the device. I also downloaded 52 new books in about four minutes this morning, for the price of $1.99 total. I'm getting over that "smallish display" real fast (g).

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In local news, Alaska's unemployment level fell to 8.3 percent in May, the lowest in eight months (according to a report in the daily fishwrapper. That's nice, and I'm willing to bet that certain National Socialist Party progressive politicians would like to queue up for taking credit. However, it's primarily due to the tourism and construction industries, which always ramp up in the summer-time. Those new jobs will evaporate in September (tourism) and October (construction) as the next winter approaches.

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Said local paper is also taking the Muni government to task for not being more proactive in responding to grizzly bear attacks (and near-attacks) along local trails. Excerpt:

"The issue isn't whether the trail is city, state or national. The issue is the presence of bears and the danger they pose to trail users. If the city is willing to flag the trail as dangerous and warn people off, why not just close it? Close it until the bear magnet of salmon have run their course in the South Fork of Campbell Creek.

That would send a stronger message, emphasize the danger and put a premium on public safety.

Far North Bicentennial Park is not the Delaney Park Strip. While it's within the boundaries of Alaska's largest city, it's right next door to Chugach State Park. It's bear habitat. Whether it should be is an ongoing argument we won't resolve today or tomorrow. Later, we can debate limited hunts to thin bear numbers, rerouting Rover's Run away from Campbell Creek's salmon or the nature of urban parks in Alaska. Right now, bears are there, so hikers and bikers run a high risk of sudden encounters.

Word.

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Have a great weekend, folks ... and if I don't post anything tomorrow, Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.