It took nearly a month!

I started August 30 trying to switch from the local "DSL" to ACS's mifi system for my internet access.  I spoke to nearly every CSR Alaska Communications employs in Anchorage...I talked to Mike, Michael, Whitney, Melissa, Chris, Ashley and John.  The first one sent the first modem to the wrong location so when I called back a week or so after the initial call, they sent another one.  Then I received the first one and... it didn't work.  So I waited for the promised call from Isaac the supervisor.  Of course he didn't call! I persisted for some unknown reason... so one of the CSR's (it all blurs) had tech send me another little unit.  It didn't work.  It even caused a blue screen of death on the poor computer. 

I gave up Sept 24.  Done.  No more time to mess around with this...  I called one last time to ask how to send it back since lithium batteries are hazardous and have to be packaged with big scary 'how to put out a chemical fire' labels. (which one was it... ) Ashley connected me directly with tech... I whined at the tech guy that I was done, all I wanted was to send it back.  He said ok, but just try this: I told him the numbers on the back of the little machines and he had me turn them on one at a time then yank the battery out just after the lights came on.  That way he could look at the mainframe and know which one caused any reaction. 

He had me download the CURRENT software.  Now I can actually download books from Listen Alaska, I can watch a short youtube video with out waiting 10 minutes.  I have modern internet. 

Thank you tech guy.

Cold Yoga!

Everyone's heard of hot yoga, but we here in Haines have been practicing cold yoga.  The dance studio where we practice is in the dilapidated, aging Chilkat center.  There is no boiler in the building and according to the radio station manager (they have their studio in the building) the guys who were coming to replace the boiler hit a moose on the way down from Anchorage.  Oh and the guys that were coming to fix the rotting roof... they went moose hunting instead.  It must be September.

Cold yoga's not so bad, actually.  Layers, as in any Alaskan endeavor, are key.  Socks until you do your first down-dog and want your feet to stick, a hat until you're warmer, 3 layers on top until you can feel the heat coming out of your chest.  Leg warmers, that 80s staple, until the end of class when you put all those other clothes back on for shavasana.  Bikram has nothing on the community building of cold yoga.

time's fun when you're having flies...

I'm pretty sure that's a Ray Troll shirt but I still like a good pun.  Fall is here, we had a serious amount of termination dust after a storm last week.  Not the usual little sprinkle of snow on the peaks that is a warning of winter, this was snow 1/4 of the way down the mountains, even Ripinsky had snow!  It's melted back but it was the talk of the town for a couple of days!

 Late in the summer the sunflowers realize it's time to make flowers

 The only cosmos flower that made it to flower...then it got battered by rain, poor thing!

 Sometimes the weather gets better in the fall.  As a kid I swore the first day of school was warmer than all of August!  This is the view out across the Chilkat river near a famous local author's house.  I'm not writing her name here because last time I did she commented, in person, on something I wrote. 

If you're a northern tomato grower get these seeds!  Seriously delicious and fast enough to make lots of fruit even in a record cold and wet summer.  They are Territorial seeds (good company, not Monsanto or other giant conglomerate) TM877 "Gold Nugget".  After a frost warning, I brought this plant and 2 others inside, am harvesting little gold yummies daily.