August 2008 -

26 Aug

Cat versus Spider

Once again, I face the moral dilemma: is it wrong to call the cat, in hopes that she will eat a spider and I won’t have to deal with it?

I asked my roommate, while we were waiting for one of the two cats (both watching the arachnid creep around the carpet and occasionally patting it with a paw) to dispatch a spider.

“Why, no!” she said, “It’s part of the Great Circle of Life!”

I know they eat other creepy crawlies, and if the cats didn’t do the grisly bit I’d evict them rather than squishing them, and maybe it’s just societal norms anyway, but gewww! I don’t like spiders in my bedroom, or heading towards my clothes closet, or, worse yet, towards my bed!

09 Aug

Back in my hometown

Being back in my hometown, appropriately called Homer, in Alaska, is odd but overall comforting. Ran into a girl my age that I have known off and on even after I moved away, and went to see her very first art show in one of the galleries. It got me thinking to what path I might have taken if I had stayed living here. Not that I am in any regretful of where I am these days, but I want to be an artist too!

Instead, I’ve been hiking (Ressurrection Pass Trail), fishing for halibut, and yesterday took a breath-taking flight across Cook Inlet from Homer to Katmai National Park, where we hiked around the beach at a river mouth and saw half a dozen brown bears. The fish aren’t quite running strong yet, so the bears were mostly being lazy. Sleeping on the side of the river and looking like a beached log kind of lazy. Every so often they’d roll over and stretch. Of course, there were a few walking around in the grass and such as well, and generally just chilling. Pretty damn amazing. And on the way there we flew by a big ol’ glaciated mountain and saw some steam vents indicative of the volcanic activity happening down below. Did I say yet that it was amazing?

01 Aug

Ferry to Alaska

Had a chill time on the ferry.. saw humpbacks and Dall’s porpoises. Haines was lovely, as was the mother of a friend we stayed with, who had a big dog and an enormous cat. We drove to the river mouth there and saw a momma grizzly with twins catching fish, and some seals in the river as well. Lots of eagles around as well.

Drove up to Tok yesterday, passed through Canada. Saw a couple of cute and curious Arctic ground squirrels and a pair of coyotes (separately). I saw a black bear, but Alex missed it as the driver. We stayed in the Tok Motel, which was less run-down than I expected for a place behind a liquor store.

Today we’ve made it to Anchorage, passing through a lot of gorgeous, though mostly socked in, scenery. Saw the Matanuska Glacier, which was an impressive big pile of ice. Also went through some impressive road construction work. Saw a swan and a couple of rabbits.

Still haven’t seen any moose or caribou. We’re headed off to the Ressurrection Pass Trail, which will go through alpine lands and hopefully we’ll see some marmots and such.

That’s the wildlife update! Off to the wilds again…