And It Came To Pass ...

that your host and his bride perused a recently-arrived Christmas catalogue, and had to pay a visit to the local outlet.

This one, in fact:

... whereupon shopping ensued. Not only was there the 10% discount afforded to veterans, but sundry items were on sale.

Money and goods exchanged hands, and a grand time was had by all. Leastways, it was had by us. The staff didn't seem to mind, either. 

It's Been Awhile

since I posted anything about our lives in the Last Frontier.
This won't be much of that. :)


This morning dawned sunny, and it sure is nice to see daylight at 0600. That will make the morning commute much more pleasant. No more hitting potholes in the dark ...  Meanwhile, the snow is melting quite rapidly, and large swaths of yard and driveway are visible. That's a good thing.

After breakfast, we drove into the edge of Anchorage to Big Box Hardware (not orange; the other one) and picked up a new light kit for the bedroom ceiling fan, and a lamp for the dresser. Now all the lights in the master will have the same alabaster shades. We also picked up a rug to go under the recliner - my private reading nook, upstairs - which matches the other there.

Returning to our town, we stopped at the grocery store for the few things we were low on, topped off the gas, and drove on home. After unloading said items, I took the bug-out pack out of my truck, and put the summer tires in.

Tomorrow morning, the studded snow tires come off, and the much quieter summer tires go on. Better, quieter ride, and better mileage ... until mid-October, when we reverse the process.

But now, it's approaching lunchtime, and since both daughters are at work today (sorry, girls) my lovely bride and I will have lunch in the breakfast nook. It's a sunny bay window area with views of the backyard and the big mountains a couple miles to the south.

I hope all y'all are having a wonderful Saturday. Be blessed and happy, and thanks for stopping by.

Another Week Begins

Good morning, America! Who's offended by what, today? :^)


It's overcast and 14°, with yet another dense fog advisory in effect. Not that it's any big deal ... the weather will do whatever it wants, and we adapt accordingly.

AccuHunch guesses we'll have a couple of normal days before the next cold front arrives, mid-week. Lows in the double-digits-below-zero, and so on. Then another round of snow moves in. Again, nothing out of the ordinary.


Younger Daughter needs a new bed, so that's an afternoon's drive into Anchorage. This morning, after those things which are needful, we'll head out for the breakfast-all-day buffet at our favorite local grill. Then we'll head south to the big city. Not my favorite place to spend a Sunday afternoon, but it's where we find the store which has the bed she wants.

A quick glance at this morning's headlines leaves me wondering how much long the local paper can stay afloat, if that's all they could find to publish. Ah well, it's not my problem.


Mostly, we've just had a leisurely morning, coffee in hand, as we marvel once again at the wonderful home the Lord has provided, and at how beautiful the mountains and forest are. Do I sound like I'm bragging? Not at all; just grateful for the Lord's provision.


I think I'm going to do things not revolving around the computer today. I pray each of you has a relaxing, refreshing and rewarding day today. Thanks for stopping by, friends.

What We Did at the Sporting Goods Store

My wife, a crack shot who's been riding the fence about a personal sidearm for several years, finally decided to take the plunge.

Yesterday, we visited the Sportsman's Warehouse*. At the gun counter, A. Friendly Clerk brought several different models to us, so she could try each one for size and grip.

We started with the Ruger LC9s, and while we know its reliability and performance (Older Daughter has a 1st generation model), she didn't care for the short grip. It isn't quite long enough for her to get all four fingers around it, even with the drop-down extension on the magazine.

Ultimately, she decided on the Smith &Wesson M&P9 Shield, a fairly compact 9mm with an 8-round magazine.

It just felt better in her hands, and that was that.

We also opted for the model without a thumb safety (it's available, at a slightly higher price). Her experience has been almost exclusively with a revolver, so this is new to her.

Years ago, I owned a Charter Arms Pathfinder in .22 WMR, which she enjoyed immensely. She regularly embarrassed both her brother and me in target practice, too. She's one of those people who can pick up a rifle after not shooting for 20 years, and blow the center out of a target at just about any reasonable distance. Pistols, too.

So this will be a new thing for her to learn, which she's looking forward to. She has no bad habits to unlearn, either, so it'll be fun to turn her loose, after some initial instruction at the range. More "thug life gnome" targets will have their centers perforated, in short order.

:)


* I've already been asked, "But you guys have Cabela's AND Bass Pro Shops - why didn't you go there?"  Because Sportsman's Warehouse was cheaper; enough so that I was able to throw in two boxes of ammo for the same price as the pistol cost at the competitors.

Saturday: A.M. Potpourri

Yesterday morning, it was 26°, today it's 29. AccuHunch says it will be warmer today, going all the way up to 49. Heat wave!

* * * * *

I'm not sure what our agenda is this morning, 'cause my wife hasn't told me yet. Heh. But it will include a trip to Sportsman's Warehouse and Cabela's, so there's that. Any trip that involves those two stores makes it a good one. :)

Let's see ... I'm going to mount a new, motion-activated/dusk-to-dawn light above the man-door on the garage.

We're going to blow more leaves out of the driveway. I'm convinced this round of ground cover comes from the neighbor's yards, because we certainly cleaned up ours, last week. Amirite?

There have been six car/moose collisions in the last week, and a few bears crossing the roads as well, all within a few miles of us. It's looking more and more like we'll finally have a decent (read snowy) winter this year.

Older Daughter is at a local oil-change place, and they apparently have free Wi-Fi while she waits. She's blowing up my phone with funny pictures and jokes while I'm trying to type.

The sun will be coming up behind the mountains any minute now, and melt some of the frost. I doubt the roads are slick, though; we haven't had enough sub-freezing weather to get the ground cold. Yet.

And now I hear footy-steps in the other room, so our departure is imminent.

All y'all stay safe out there, hear? Thanks for stopping by.

Frenetic

adjective

1. frantic; frenzied. 

 We're heading out to the new house for the final walk-through this morning, with a longer-than-normal shopping list afterward.

Ordering some things to be delivered after we get the keys, and buying others. Putting a couple of items on lay-away for about two weeks, until the unpacking is done. Then we'll arrange for delivery.

Also need to wash the truck, as it looks like the northern birch trees dropped 90% of their seeds overnight, and refill the gas tank. That's one task that's going to be happening a bit more often, now that we've moving out of town. Not very far out, granted, but still about 11 miles farther each way (for me) than now.

Most of that's on the highway, though, so there will be some grace due to higher mpg achieved due to that.

Positive notes in all this: by waiting until the coming week to close, the first mortgage payment won't be due until July 1. And with the security deposit refunds on the houses we've rented all these years, and getting half of the earnest back at closing, we won't have to make any out-of-pocket payments until Sept. 1.

So basically we get to move in May, and have most of the summer free from major expenses while we outfit the new place with the toys we need: gas-powered snowthrower to replace the smaller, electric unit we have now; a leaf-blower; and a new, larger BBQ grill.

So we'll close on Monday, and get the keys (and a hefty refund) on Tuesday. 

And money left over. God is good!

Let The Game Begin

We're scheduled to close on the new house next Monday, so things are getting real, now. My wife and I spend a few hours this morning going through the remaining unpacked stuff in the garage. Everything there is now ready to be loaded and shipped up the road.

The only parts of the current abode not ready to go are our clothes closets, the office furniture and the kitchen. By the coming weekend, we'll have a few days' worth of clothes in a couple of suitcases, and just enough food to eat for a few days.

Utilities have been transferred, forwarding address is being sent to those who need it, and the movers will be here at 9 a.m. Friday, May 13.

Nearly all our attention is on this process right now, so my scrolling around other blogs may (or may not) be limited. I haven't been back to work yet, so don't know for sure what may be awaiting me there.

Do I have to go back?  Oh, never mind.

Anyway, we've been out today looking at new BBQ grills, some furniture for the covered deck, and lighting for the master bedroom. Despite the lingering degree of travel fatigue (not much, but definitely there), the looking is fun, because we'll be purchasing those things in the next two to three weeks.

Meanwhile, I'm going to sprinkle in pics from our recent travels, just because. Hope you enjoy!

Another Saturday Night, er, Morning

Living alone, if temporarily, has its rewards: my weekend shopping run only took about 40 minutes, instead its usual two to three hours.

Older Daughter and I will be heading back out to look for some security-related items for the new house. It's more a matter of matching the color of the existing hardware than anything else. But it's fun, just the same, as it's for a great cause. :)

Speaking of the new place, we'd have been able to close yesterday, had we not scheduled both vacations in April. But that's the way it goes. Like John Lennon famously wrote, "Life is what happens when you are busy making other plans."

But, other than finishing the packing, we're ready to move. All the paperwork is finished; the VA, mortgage company, title company, sellers, and everybody's brother are all satisfied. We'll need movers for a few of the bigger items, but we can do most of it ourselves. That Very Large Garage (with apologies to A.A. Milne) makes a terrific staging area, and only the stairs will present a challenge.

Due to the terrain-related challenges of building in the greater Anchorage area (lots of mountains, not much flat land), many lots are quite small. Accordingly, many homes are multiple-stories tall. Our new lot is roughly .6 of an acre, but that's more an anomaly, here.

So, life goes on ... and so do we.  Thanks for stopping by, friends.

Snowpocalypse 2016

isn't happening here. Dang it. All you who are afflicted with the Alaskan snowdump have our sympathy, and a little envy.

We should be having that, but no: we get light snow mixed with freezing rain, changing to an all-wintry mix this afternoon.

Sigh ...

Oh, well, it's off on the weekend shopping run we go. 

Just Busy, That's All

We've been doing lots of extra running today. Buying some things for work, looking for things we didn't buy, and pricing computers.

Yeah, that. Our laptop is roughly four years old, and still works fine ... until you try to reboot the thing. On Wednesday evening it took 12 cold reboots and three hours before it finally launched sucessfully.

Today's mandatory Windoze update and obligatory multiple re-starts had me thinking we'd never see the home screen again.

So we headed out to various box stores looking at prices on all-in-one desktop units. The best combo of features vs. price was at Costco. But only by a little.

Ah well, maybe January.

Saturday Mornings Have Become Routine

I've written this narrative before, on many a previous Saturday. Our mornings are usually the same:
up at 06:00, coffee, breakfast, shopping, and back home before lunch.

Today we added a stop at the eye doctor's office, for Wife to pick up her new specs. Then the car wash, to remove at least the surface layer of grime from her new wheels, and start out the coming week with fresh dirt.

Then Blockbuster on the way home, to get a couple of recent releases (because what's available on Netflix right now looks boring).

Pizza coming up for lunch in a half hour. Afterward, tune up my truck.

After that, we'll kick back and enjoy the Christmas decorations we put up, set out, stood up, or hung yesterday. Beyond that? Enjoy what's left of this deliciously long weekend.

That's about as exciting as our Saturdays get, which isn't a bad thing. Thanks for stopping by, friends.

Snowy Day

Anchorage received five or six inches of snow overnight - the third snowfall of the season - and it remains grey and overcast. The driving this morning was fun, as side roads don't get plowed for a two or three days. It's hard to find a stretch of undisturbed snow in the city, as some of the more enthusiastic 4x4 owners will head out at the drop of a snowflake, to be first to leave tracks.

But we did our routine winter shopping, and filled up gas tanks, ran the snowthrower through our driveways (plural, because our daughters live next door), ate lunch, and then headed back out.

I hadn't had a chance to drive my wife's new SUV in snow until now, because the last two snowfalls have been on workdays. But since this one's on a Saturday, it was off to the races. :)

Her studless snow tires grip on packed snow and ice like cleats; I wouldn't have believed it if you'd told me that before we bought them. But there are some surfaces where those tires work better than my studded versions. On the other hand, mine recovers from a skid a bit faster. Nothing dramatic, just a roundabout with some loose, chewed-up snow about halfway 'round.

But now all the chores are done, and we're going to kick back and scan the DVD cabinet for any movies we haven't watched recently.

Y'all stay warm - or cool - as the case may be, and thanks for stopping by.

Life Overseas: Amazon Is Our Friend

A liberal airhead college student (but I repeat myself) was asked, earlier this week, about her preference for President. She told the reporter, "If Trump wins, I'm leaving the country. I'll move to Alaska!"

Quite a few Alaskans might wish that it were true, but we're part of the United States ... like it or not. Never mind the Lower 48 businesses that won't ship merchandise here, because - in their words - a) we're overseas, or b) outside of the US, or c) not part of the "continental U.S."

That one floors me, every time.

We're not part of the contiguous States, I'll grant you, but Alaska is part of North America ... at least the last time I checked.

On the other hand, people aren't famous for thinking. Go back to the first paragraph, if you need proof. However, I doubt that anyone reading here will be of that low-information crowd.


So why do I go on about this?

Because it's a continuing source of frustration for those of us who shop on-line. Amazon has no problem with shipments to Alaska; I get them every week. We have the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, and FedEx all making daily deliveries. A first-class stamp sends mail here, just fine.

But some retailers refuse to accept that. "It costs more to ship to Alaska," they claim, and perhaps that's true. But we're willing to pay for it, so where's the harm ... exactly?

A perusal of most shipping policies reveal a statement to the effect that prices are higher "in Alaska and Hawaii". Yes, Hawaii and Alaska are both accessible by air and sea. But we also have ground transportation, which is more than Hawaii gets.

Ever tried driving to Hawaii? You get a flooded engine ... among other things. :)

One retailer selling through Amazon told me he wouldn't ship here because "Alaskans are too fussy." Apart from what was probably a federal discrimination case awaiting trial, I read between his lines. He meant that we don't like items crushed or damaged by the transport in which they travel.

Go figure.

So we go on, reading shipping policies carefully when ordering from a new supplier. But those items marked "fulfilled by Amazon" are worry-free.

At least that company knows where we are.

Saturday in the A.M.

We stayed up late last night, watching the latest season of Blue Bloods on Netflix, and then slept late this morning.

So we still need to do our usual shopping circuit, and of course it's still raining. (That steady rain overnight is part of how-and-why we were able to sleep late.)

Later, y'all.

Shopping Fun & Other Things

So yesterday we did our usual weekend shopping. Let's see ... there's the initial stop at Wally World ("Home of the Reavers"), then its twin across the road. That's the really big store, where if 20 rolls of bathroom tissue are good, then you'll love their 120-count barge o' TP.

We moved on the big natural foodmart in mid-town, where hippies gather in all their mismatched clothing and abnormal hairstyles to discover how many ways producers can print "organic" on a package without mentioning what exactly makes their 13-bean Euro soup mix any better than anyone else's.

A brief stop at the spice store, where all temporarily reverts to normal - and smells good in the process.

Then the Southside Dodge 'Em Cars, where supermarket shoppers have the opportunity to establish two-way traffic with their full sized four-door 1-ton pickup trucks. Those trucks are the ones which usually pull in at a 30 degree angle across two spaces, and still make other drivers swerve into the oncoming lane in order to avoid impaling their cars on the full length beds and the trailer hitches (never used) which stick out into the too-narrow driving lanes.

On a side note, I actually saw some using a pickup to haul a load of brush away from a job site. Who knew those trucks could actually hold something besides barking dogs? :)

Gas dropped to $2.46/gallon, so I topped off my tank even though it wasn't down too far. When prices get this low, everyone starts getting twitchy as we await the inevitable 30-cent hike.

Then we stopped at the local Carl's Jr., which is the parent corporation of what were known as Hardee's burger joints in the Midwest. And just our luck: it was "let your kids run around and scream like wild animals day". Never let it be said that the dozen or so little kids running amuck didn't add a certain atmosphere to the meal.

It's one we're not anxious to repeat, however.

Still no snow in the forecast, either, which is a little strange now. We usually get lots of flurries and snow showers by mid-October, but our temps are stuck in the upper 40s to around 50. A number of drivers got spooked by the 3" snowfall in late September and had their studded snow tires mounted already. Most of us try to wait until there's snow in the forecast, to preserve both the studs and the pavement ... but of course that leads to long lines at the tire shops as everyone wants said tires installed at the same time.

Ah, well, that's life in snow country. Speaking of which, we took the plunge and bought studless winter tires for the new Escape. We'll see how they do. I slid through too many stoplights, without them, to ever want to repeat the (ahem) fun of playing slalom in a 3-ton SUV again.

But today it's rainy and in the mid-40s, so the fun is of a different sort. And before I forget, happy birthday to Younger Daughter, who turns 20 today.

Thanks for stopping by, friends.

Sunday Morning Blogging

After early morning worship, we did a bit o' shopping:

'Nuff said. :)

Not Always What You Think

So you know that we're in Hawaii. 

"How exotic," you might think. "How beautiful and exciting!" And it can be all that. 

But right now, I'm in a chair outside the fitting rooms at a HUGE Macy's, while my lovely wife tries on in excess of a dozen outfits. 

"Exotic" doesn't quite cover it. 

Sometimes it's not where you are; it's what you're doing. 

The Day That Was

We woke to a frosty morning, but the rising sun soon put an end to that. It's currently 44°, and tomorrow looks like a re-run.

The wife and I did our usual Saturday shopping run; no particular excitement there, although we did notice an unusual number of pickups with covered loads in their beds. I have no idea what that's about.

After a lunch of pasta and home-made sauce, smothered in parmesan (yum!), I taught Older Daughter how to change her to set the gap for new spark plugs, and to install them. I provided a couple of tools she needed, and some pointers along the way (that's what dads are for, of course!), but she did the work.

And now I can smell the chicken vegetable soup simmering on the stove, and both daughters are visiting, so I should get back to the group.

Thanks for stopping by, friends.

Saturday in the A.M.

Aliz Zirkle is currently in first place, having left Huslia last night, just after 8:00. Rounding out the top 5 are Mitch Seavey, Jeff King, Aaron Burmeister, and Dallas Seavey.

Aliy Zirkle and her team of 16 dogs arrive in Huslia on Friday, March 13. (Photo by Loren Holmes/ADN)

* * * * *

It was -5° when we awoke this morning, but has warmed to only -3 now. :) 

The sun has just peeked over the Chugach Mtns, and we'll warm all the way to 10 above today. My mom has opted to sit out the Saturday grocery/staples run.

Thanks for stopping by, friends. Later!

It's a Quiet Day

The temp is hanging right at 32°, but the clouds are intermittent with some peeks of sunshine from time to time. It was frosty when we first went out this morning ... or rather, the streets had frosty patches, and cornering was an adventure.

But it's clearing now, and the forecast formerly containing hints of snow now calls only for scattered bouts of freezing rain and/or ice pellets.

Whatever.

We did the weekly shopping, had lunch at the hotel's cafe' where Younger Daughter is serving as hostess (it's slow season in the pastry kitchen), and picked up a couple of movies with which we hope to divert ourselves this afternoon.

Which movies?  Left Behind and How to Train Your Dragon 2. Like I said, we hope they're diversionary; in the case of the second one, we hope it's funny. The first one was (very) light entertainment.

Yeah, I know, but there's nothing else available right now.  At least, nothing else we haven't already seen.

And we've seen each of the DVDs and Blu-Ray movies we already have so many times that we can watch them with the sound turned off, and recite the dialogue from memory.

* * * * *

On a happy note, gas has dropped to an average of $2.66/gallon here. Makes my wallet happy. :)