01 December 2014

Monday Morning Update

Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining Dept:  "A small animal" (species unspecified) got into power generation equipment in the part of town where my building is located. Power was off for 3+ hours yesterday, so I got to spend my first 90 minutes at work this morning opening magnetic fire doors and resetting thermostats.

One bright side, the freezer in my office fridge only defrosts itself when the power is off, so it's all clean again. :)

Other than that puddle under the fridge, of course.

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You're Not Paranoid If They Really Are Following You Dept: The long-debated idea that Kodiak brown bears -- the biggest of North America's grizzlies -- come running to the sounds of gunshots hoping to grab an unlucky Alaska hunter's Sitka blacktail deer could have a new twist based on preliminary results from a study out of Montana.

Maybe the bears don't come running at the sound of gunfire. Maybe they are lurking nearby all along, dogging the trails of hunters and hoping for scraps.

Montana researchers say they now have evidence grizzly bears in that state follow elk hunters hoping to scavenge their kills. Or at least that's what one bear fitted with a GPS-tracking collar did.

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Every Dog Has His Day Dept:  And this one had a REALLY lucky day.

What started as a casual outing on a popular Girdwood trail quickly became a rescue operation for Colombo, a 6-year-old Siberian husky who had somehow become stranded on a cliff about 30 feet above the raging waters of Winner Creek.

Soren Wuerth's dog, Colombo, was rescued from a small ledge along a cliffy section of Winner Creek near Alyeska in Girdwood on Nov. 13. Soren Wuerth

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Starting South, Racing North Dept: Every February, downtown Anchorage is enlivened by the Fur Rondy, a two-week long festival with exhibits, arts and craft shows, live performers, a carnival, and lots of food. 

Oh yes, and racing. LOTS of racing. The World Championship Sled Dog Race events are part of the Rondy, with sprints and timed-distance runs. The final weekend of the Rondy features the ceremonial start of the Iditarod, too.

But in 2015, the first weekend will have something new: the world-famous Iron Dog Race (teams of snowmachine* racers) will have a ceremonial start downtown, too.


* Snowmobiles, for those unfamiliar with Alaska-speak.

2 comments:

Guffaw in AZ said...

re: power
Worked security at a steel mill wherein a cat made the connection between two terminal points of a transformer.
Power out for hours - what was left of the cat was thrown a couple hundred feet.
So much for nine lives...

gfa

Rev. Paul said...

Guffaw, I hear ya. Cats & squirrels were the bane of the linemen in the Midwest, too.

Called 'em IKKs: Instant Krispy Kritters. :)