Category: Washington

October

The Juneau summer this year was not the warmest or the sunniest I have ever experienced since moving to Alaska. They all can’t be winners when you live in the middle of a rain forest.

As fall hits us with a shock the weather has turned cold and the air has become very dry. At the start of October people have had to start waking up earlier than normal to make sure their cars are defrosted and warmed up for the morning drive into work. Before the month was out we got our first real snow fall that dusted the landscape like sugar.

With all the recent cold weather, and the daily continuing loss of sunlight that comes with living this far north, we have had some bright spots too. Most notably is that during the daylight hours we do have they have been bright and sunny. Hannah and I have managed to go for some walks after work all bundled up and trying to soak up some of that natural vitamin D from the sun. We are lucky enough to live really close to a park with a lake, so its easy for us to walk out our front door and down to the lake where we walk the length of it and back.

October is also the month I was born in and Hannah put together a nice little party with some good friends. Some of which flew all the way in from southern Washington State. It turned out to be a great weekend that I don’t think I am going to ever forget.

Halloween is also in October, so of course we carved out some pumpkins and turned them into some great looking Jack-o-lanterns. My brother Abe came over and the three of us took to work on four pumpkins. This is the second or third time since I have lived up here that I recall it snowing when we set our Jack-o-lanterns outside.

Ice Road Juneau

Snowy Juneau plowsThe snow has really been coming down on us this year. It is safe to say that the city and borough of Juneau, Alaska has forgone any responsibility toward keeping our roads safe to drive on.

I can understand a place like Seattle not keeping their roads clear of snow an ice. Weather conditions like the ones they have recently suffered, have been dubbed SnowPocalypse or SnowMageddon, are not a daily, monthly, or even yearly occurrence. They are just as random as achieving a critical hit in Dungeons & Dragons. So I can let places like Seattle slide on having bad to unsafe road conditions every few years. It’s hard for a city to justify having plow trucks for a meteorological even that happens randomly and lasts for such a short time.

A place like Juneau, Alaska on the other hand is much harder for me to forgive. The city and state know that each year it is going to snow. They know each year what the roads are going to be like. Yet, for some reason this year they do not seem to be taking the task seriously.

snowy JuneauIn years past I could rarely drive down any road in Juneau and not see a city plow truck scraping snow and ice off of the streets during the winter. This year it has been a rare occurrence that I have seen a city plow truck and when I do they are not scraping the streets as they plow the snow. This has resulted just about every road in Juneau is covered in ice. Everyday that I have driven to work or driven home in the last several weeks I have seen a car accident of one kind or another.

What is more astonishing to me is that it is currently January, almost February now, and the city has still done nothing to correct this behavior. Even after citizens have complained. Sadly, I think it is going to take a vehicle accident involving some kind of official for them to step up their responsibilities to normal levels.

Root For The Bad Guy

Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s there was a great band located in Oak Harbor, Washington that went by the name of Wearing Black. My own band at the time, Kira’s Modern Mourning, was occasionally lucky enough to play gigs with them in and around the Oak Harbor area.

Wearing Black originally consisted of two acoustic guitar players and an electric bass player. Their music was amazing and it was guaranteed that whatever venue they where playing at, they would fill it up.

‘Root For The Bad Guy’ was one of Wearing Black’s’ popular songs. People at the time loved to hear it and would sing along with the band when they played it. The song is an anthem to all evil doers and bad guy in fictional genres.

The band eventually disbanded leaving only a few recorded songs on-line for their fans. About a year after the band broke up it’s lead singer and guitar player, Saul Nathaniel McCartney, recorded a solo version of ‘Root For The Bad Guy’. Well, I really liked the song a lot. So, over the last 8 months I worked on a type of music video for it and uploaded it to YouTube. I hope you all enjoy it.

My Top 4 Favorite Movies To Watch In October

4. The Ring

I first saw this film in the early 2000s when I lived in Oak Harbor, Washington with my roommate Brannon. One night randomly he brought home ‘The Ring’ and we both gathered on the couch in the living room to watch it.

We knew it was a scary movie, but it had been so long since either of us had been scared by a movie that we didn’t expect this film to change that. With the lights on and sodas in hands we both sat watching this film.

Because this film is older I don’t feel bad talking about parts of the film. The story is  about this weird short film that is floating around. If you watch it you will get a phone call as soon as the movie is over. The voice on the line will tell you that you have seven days to live. So people that saw the film die after seven days.

At the end of the film during one of the climactic scene the phone rings. At that exact same moment my cell phone rang and Brannon and I both jump up from the couch screaming.

It took a second for us to realize what was going on. I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and answered it like this, “You fucking scared the shit out of us! What the fuck is wrong with you! Fuck!”

On the other end of the line I heard my friend Chris say, “What? Are you watching the ‘Ring’?

“Ok, That is just eerie.” I said. “I am going to call you back.”

I hung up the phone. Brannon and I got new drinks and after several minutes of nervous laughter about the whole thing we went back to the couch and finished the ‘Ring’.

3. Trick ‘r Treat

This is just a great Halloween movie. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. It reminds me of ‘Pulp Fiction’ with the way the story time is out-of-order. I really think this is a sleeper hit that will end up as a classic.

2. Donnie Darko

The first time I saw this film was in the mid 2000s with a group of friends in an old run down theater in Bellingham Washington. It was the first showing of the extended directors cut. I was blown away by this movie.

1. The Crow

I don’t remember the first time I saw this movie sadly. I remember friends of mine who were obsessed with it in high school. I believe it was through their talking about it that I bought my first copy of ‘The Crow’ several years later.

It’s great! It’s a love story and I am a sucker for a good love story.

Hawaii Day 1

After our PAX trip to Seattle, Hannah and I flew to Hawaii for our honeymoon/vacation. When we landed we picked up our rental car, got some groceries, checked into our apartment, and then went straight to the beach.

For those of you wondering, all photos were taken with either a Canon G12 or an iPhone.