Hope!

Howdy All,
Saturday Larry and I took a short road trip to Hope. Hope is on the Kenai Peninsula about 2 hours from Anchorage. People go there to hike and camp--one of my roommates Jackie, lives there with her husband and son. There are 13 students in the entire school--K-12, so you can imagine just how small the village is! Anyway, the area is magnificent--woods, whitewater river, ocean--sounds like paradise-aye! Well the village is a dump! It looks like each house has it's own landfill only no one has bothered to "fill it in"!! What a bummer--really, Alaskans just pile stuff up where ever--porch, yard, neighbor's yard, etc. I did get some nice nature pictures though.

Larry is getting ready for his McKinley climb--seriously--who does that! He goes for about three weeks starting on May 5th. He goes on "hikes" every other day and sends me photos from the top of whatever peak he's climbed. I'll try to download some of them--amazing. I don't go with him because he's faster than me (explanation follows). Besides, really, you all know me--I'd rather read a magazine!!

Most people in Alaska have some sort of whacked out, extreme hobby. If it includes the outdoors you can bet they are going to recruit you--I know this first hand because they did it to me until I figured it out--duh! These people love to recruit naive newbies because chances are they run, hike, ski, walk, bike, etc. slower--being new to the terrain and all. Here's the thinking--always go outdoors with someone slower that you--that way the moose and bears will get the slower party and not you!! See how it works--I wondered why I kept getting invited to things--hell, they have a whole club that works on this theory!! So, now I'm recruiting pokey people to go outside with me--LOL!

I start teaching poetry this week--ummmmmmmm--not really my thing! I told my 7th graders that we are writing "love sonnets" first thing on Monday--Ha--imagine a bunch of hormonal 7th graders writing love poems-LOL! I crack myself up!

By the way, It's light out from about 6am to 10pm--weird! I'm off to by "blackout curtains"--NOT!

It might get over 50 degrees this week!! Here's to Hope-ing!!