Dan
September 08
9/1/2008 |
We got up, a had breakfast and did some more
outdoor stuff. Rhonda was not feeling well, so we packed
up early and left around 1:00. We were looking at the
river every chance we got just in case there was another bear
out there. Well, we did not have to look very hard because
there was quite a traffic jam at one point. When we got up
to the area where the traffic was, we saw a grizzly on the side
of the river eating salmon.
Of course, we pulled over right away and got
out to take pictures. This was a little more exciting than
the black bear we saw yesterday because the grizzly was on the
same side of the river where we were standing. He started
out a couple hundred yards away. However, he decided to go
into the river for a quick swim. He ended up getting out
of the river right below us at the bottom of the bank. The
bank was probably about 30 feet high and the bottom of the bank
was probably about 20 or 30 feet straight out from us. So,
on a straight line, the bear was probably only about 40 feet
away from us.
I did not think much of it until Andrew
started to walk down the bank to get a closer look. It was
a really steep bank (30 feet high and 20 or 30 feet out - which
means more than a 45 degree slope). As soon as I saw him
walking down the bank, all I could think of was him losing his
footing and ending up right in the bear's lap. I
immediately grabbed him and brought him back to the top of the
bank.
At this point, the bear started to move down
the river again parallel to the bank. As soon as we lost
sight of him in the trees on the bank, I thought that it would
be best to get in the car and get out of there. You don't
always think about the Lord's protective hand being around you.
But it is! We put ourselves in a vulnerable position.
You know what they say, the Lord has mercy on drunks and stupid
people. Well, we weren't drinking.
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9/8/2008 |
The Alaska Permanent Fund Dividend or PFD (http://www.pfd.state.ak.us/)
checks starting to arrive in the hands of Alaska State residents
this week. Basically, the state sold its rights to the oil
and gas deposits to oil companies and part of that sale included
the formation of a fund that provides annual payouts to state
residents. We do not qualify yet. We need to be here
for 12 months before we can apply.
This year's payout is the largest in state
history. The PFD check itself is around $2,000 per person this
year which, again, is higher than any previous payout. In
addition, the governor authorized a one-time distribution of
excess funds from energy taxes to state residents with the
intent of offsetting increasing energy costs. Sort of a
circular statement there .... anyway .... The energy rebate
equaled about $1,200 per person and was added to the PFD
checks. So, each state resident will be receiving a check
for around $3,200. So, a family of four, gets around
$12,800!
Not bad .... Come to Alaska ... they pay you
to live here.
There are all kinds of "PFD sales" going on
everywhere. Print ads, and radio and tv ads beg you to use
your PFD checks for cars, vacations, houses, clothes, etc ..
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9/9/2008 |
I believe that I felt my first earthquake
today. First, you have to realize that Alaska experiences
over 4000 earthquakes per year ... which means like 100 per day.
So, obviously, after 8 months, I have already experienced over
2000 earthquakes. However, there are very few that you actually
feel since most register less than 3 on the Richter scale.
I have not felt one before today. And ... I am not 100%
sure that what I felt today was an earthquake.
I was on the 19th floor of a hotel inside of
a meeting room with another Bentley employee. We were both
sitting at a table working when the other person said, "Do you
feel that?" I had felt some vibration in the floor, but it
felt like he was bouncing his foot on the floor, or something
like that. I said, "Yeah, I feel it. You mean, you
are not bouncing your foot on the floor?" He said, "No."
The vibration lasted for about 30 seconds.
I checked the Alaska Earthquake Information
Center website (http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/).
This is a University of Alaska website that provides a ton of
info about Alaska earthquakes. It also has a page showing
info on recent earthquakes (http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/recent/sub/index.html).
The list of recent earthquakes gives you
time, magnitude, and location info on all recent earthquakes.
It turns out that there was an earthquake around the time that
we felt the vibration, but that is no surprise. With over
100 earthquakes per day, there are earthquakes every 14 minutes
or so (on average). The one that happened around the time
that we felt the vibration was a magnitude of 2.0 and occurred a
little south of Denali National Park. I guess it was
around 125 or so miles north of us. I am not sure if a 2.0
earthquake is strong enough to travel 125 miles.
Anyway ... it was an interesting moment.
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9/11/2008 |
Obviously an important day for the whole
country. For us too ... Today is Rhonda's birthday!
I heard some interesting news today about why
9/11 was a little different for Alaska than anyone else.
It is fairly popular to fly into a remote hunting or fishing
camp and to spend a few days isolated from the world while you
hunt or fish. Obviously, when you are out there in the
"bush", there are no radios, or newspapers, or cell
phones, or TVs. On
your scheduled pick-up day, you are told to have all your stuff
ready to go at the designated pick-up spot.
From what I have heard, 9/11 was a beautiful
day here in Alaska. So those that were scheduled to be
picked up on 9/11 had all of their stuff together and were ready to
be picked up. However, since nothing except for military
planes were allowed to fly, they did not get picked up. As
a matter of fact, the air taxi services and guide services were
not allowed to fly for four days!
These people were stuck out in the bush for
four days with no communication whatsoever, waiting to be picked
up. It is not so uncommon to have aircraft problems that
would delay your pickup by one day, or even two, but four days
is pretty extreme. The owner of the guide service that was
interviewed on the radio this morning said that those people that were
picked up four days late actually started to think that they
were forgotten out there.
Another interesting thing is that there were
some people out there hunting, or fishing with their own plane.
When it was time for them to come, they got in their plane and
flew home ... no big deal right? Well for those four days,
it was a big deal. As a matter of fact, each one of them
that flew home during those four days, were immediately
intercepted by a fighter jet and escorted to their destination.
I am telling you ... EVERYTHING is different
in Alaska.
|
9/12/2008 |
Today Andrew turned 9! He got some
really cool stuff including a skateboard that can be customized
(you paint it and decorate it). He got Cars from the movie
Cars. He also got the Lego Indiana Jones video game for
the Wii.
To cap it all off ... Andrew wanted to go to
Golden Corral for dinner. We were introduced to this place
when Rhonda's father and Joan were here. Golden Corral is
a chain restaurant that is one of those buffet style places.
We went there because Rhonda's father goes to the local one in
Florida where they live and he wanted to try this one.
The kids LOVED it. I think every kid
does. They can go up and get whatever type of food they
want as much as they want whenever they want. Paradise for
a kid, right? So, Andrew has been talking about going to
Golden Corral on his birthday since we went there in July with
Ron and Joan.
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9/14/2008 |
We had a little party for Andrew today at the
roller skating rink. He invited a few of his friends and
they all had a great time. He got some more really cool
presents at the party too including ... a model rocket, a toy
Hummer and an Indiana Jones Lego set.
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9/20/2008 |
I was at a conference today at a local church
that was focused on educating people who serve in children's
ministries. Last school year, I began volunteering as an
Awana leader. I continued doing that at the beginning of
this school year, so I thought it would be good to go to the
conference.
It was good conference. The interesting
thing, though is that people from all over the state of Alaska
were invited. And, people from all over the state came.
The people who came from furthest away were from Fairbanks which
is about 400 miles away. There were people from Kodiak
island. There were people from Healy which is one of the
towns near the entrance to Denali National Park. There
were people from Delta Junction which is a pretty remote town
about 300 miles (by road - much less on a straight line)
northeast of Anchorage. I am sorry to say that I was just
as interested in hearing from these people about what life is
like in these areas of Alaska as I was interested in the
conference presentations.
It's funny ... if you go to a conference like
this in PA, you might meet people from Quakertown, or Perkasie,
or Sellersville, or even as far away as Harleysville or
Bethlehem ... oooh! Can you imagine someone coming from
North Carolina to Faith Baptist in Sellersville or from Maine to
Sellersville for a conference on children's ministries?
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9/24/2008 |
I went up to the North Slope today.
This trip was way different than the trip I took up there in
March. Back in March, the North Slope was noting but a
frozen wasteland completely devoid of any visible life (except
for one caribou that I snapped a picture of). It was well
below zero for the entire trip in March getting down as low as
40 below at one point.
During this trip, the North Slope was nothing
but a melted, muddy wasteland. This time, I saw no life at
all. All of the vehicles were the same color ... mud.
I am not exaggerating, every truck was completely covered in a
thick coating of mud. There are very few paved surfaces up
there. Most of the roads are gravel, or just dirt.
This time of year, when all of the snow is gone and the top foot
or two of the ground are thawed, it is a total mess up there.
The low temps were high 20s and the high temps were high 30s.
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