First

No matter how old I get, there is still something really magical about the first snow of the year. It’s a little after 2 pm on Monday afternoon and the first snow has just started falling. And it’s lovely to look at from my office desk.

Depending on where you live, I wish you a happy first snow, or second, or third …

Oh, The Places You'll Go (and hopefully me too one day)

Every so often I hear about trips and journeys that make me green with envy. The refrain "one day" plays over and over in my mind, as well as the sinking feeling that perhaps "one day" may never come.

On top of the many, many countries that I still need to visit, areas of the world I need to explore, there are journeys I'd like to take, many of which involve driving. This was not an original idea of mine, but I'd love to take a roadtrip one summer through the states and visit all the baseball stadiums and watch at least one game in each. I'd love to combine that with music festivals, and an obscure museum tour.

People take these kinds of journeys all the time. I read about them. I hear about them. A friend here in Wrangell has ridden his bike from Haines, Alaska, to South America. My friend in Petersburg is planning a bike trip from Alaska to Texas. Journeys are embarked upon all the time, at any moment.

Oftentimes – certainly not all the time – journeys are taken by two people. My not-so-secret dream is to find a man who will go on these journeys with me, and suggest his own. Adventurous is definitely a trait I look for in a companion, which actually backfires on me, as that person is too adventurous to stay in one place, to commit. But that is a completely different topic of discussion (and perhaps one I’d rather not discuss for fear of sounding bitter, which I’m really not.)

Getting back to the subject of amazing journeys that make me envious, there is a couple in Wrangell this weekend who are on a trans-Americas journey. I plan on interviewing them tomorrow and am very excited and a bit intimidated because, clearly, these people are cool.

I implore you to check out the website: http://www.trans-americas.com/

And read about, “This is the Internet home of the Trans-Americas Journey. Keep tabs on Karen Catchpole (journalist) and Eric Mohl (photographer) during our three-year, 70,000+ mile road trip through North, Central and South America and maybe get inspired to quit your own job and hit your own road!”

Who else wants to quit their job?

Info

Favorite thing about being a newspaper reporter: Getting to know people in all sectors of the community.

Interesting thing about being a newspaper reporter: Calling the state FBI office to find out about a search that took place in Wrangell starting October 10 on a case that may or may not involve kiddy porn.

Least favorite thing about being a newspaper reporter: Getting shot down by official sources, like when a housing authority says, “We’re not at liberty to be discussing anything about our clients,” or when the chief of the Wrangell police department says, “Don’t know nothing about it.”

Alaska Day

According to Wikipedia: "Alaska Day is a legal holiday in the U.S. state of Alaska, observed on October 18. It is the anniversary of the formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States following the Alaska Purchase, which took place at a flag-raising ceremony at Fort Sitka on October 18, 1867.
Alaska Day is legally observed statewide, and is a paid holiday for State of Alaska employees. It is generally only celebrated in Sitka, where schools release students early, many businesses close for the day, and events such as a parade and reenactment of the flag raising are held."

Just to make things clear, I am at work today as are the majority of people I know. The KSTK bunch is off; therefore, an unfamiliar voice is coming out of the radio today.

In honor of Alaska Day, I thought it might be nice to reflect a bit on my time here, take stock.

Since moving to Wrangell, I’ve written for 47 issues of the Wrangell Sentinel, the “Oldest Continuously Published Newspaper in Alaska,” not to be confused with the Nome Nugget, “Alaska’s Oldest Newspaper.” For each paper, I write anywhere between 5 and 8 stories, and out of all that writing, all those words, I have trouble thinking of stories I’d use as clips to send out.

Before I moved here I thought I’d have all this time to stare out the window and write for myself. I thought I’d be so bored that I’d be forced to write. I thought this was my time.

I had this thought fairly recently and I tried to explain it to a friend but not sure if I conveyed it enough. I have all these thoughts of what I would do if this, what I hope to do, what I mean to do, what I will certainly do one day, what I will one day change about myself – essentially I am at this constant stage of expectancy. Everything seems to be a prequel to something else. I went through every ordinary stage of schooling, I’ve traveled some and have lived elsewhere, I’ve dated – all this material that I assumed was preparation.

It’s funny because I find myself grasping at clichés to explain what I’ve been just starting to realize – the light at the end of the tunnel is right in front on me; the end of the race is here. Perhaps what I’m doing a bad job of explaining is something everyone else has already dealt with, or just always knew. It doesn’t necessarily have to do with living in the present as it has to do with accepting who I am in the present. The person I am now may actually be who I just am. And this life that I’ve been preparing for started a few years ago.

This does not just apply to what I hope to accomplish. It has to do with habits I’d like to shake, personality traits I’d like to conquer. Like: What if I never write for myself (this blog doesn’t count). What if I never write a query letter. What if no location ever forces me to write. What if I’m not really a writer. What if I am a jealous person. What if I’m always more sensitive than the average person. What if every time I confront someone, I get a bit choked up. What if I will always prefer to spend time with friends doing nothing than spending time alone doing something more substantial.

I’m not eliminating or downsizing the possibility of change. I buy a plane ticket to Alaska and, poof, change - almost everything is different. It’s other things – notions, ideas – that I’ve had lodged in my mind for years that are harder to evoke.

I do think that I’d have a better time if I did accept myself more for what I am now, instead of what I hope to be.

My ‘taking stock’ process didn’t really come out like I wanted. Nothing I just wrote has to do with Alaska necessarily. Or maybe it has everything to do with Alaska.

Happy Alaska Day.

A Story

I usually don’t post stories that I’ve written on here as I think most of them would bore people outside of Wrangell (they might even bore people in Wrangell), but this one is kind of interesting as it involves the Crossings folks, some of whom I call friends, most of whom I am friendly with.

Before I post the story, I have to point something out. Interacting with Crossings people on a social level and hearing about, at various times, what they do in the field with the kids had made me realize, perhaps for the first time, that people who I can call my peers are actually making a difference in this world. And by doing what they enjoy and feel passionate about. In all seriousness, this was an important thing for me to realize in my thus far short-lived adult life.

This is a story of an incident that took place last weekend. The picture below the story is one taken in February during Crossings staff training week when the Coast Guard came:

While it may be well known that it takes a community to raise a child, on Saturday, it was proven that it also takes a community to save a child. Through the collaborative efforts of field and managerial staff of Alaska Crossings, Wrangell Search and Rescue, a local Wrangell doctor, and the Coast Guard, a 13-year old girl suffering from appendicitis was helicoptered off Shakes Mountain, brought to Ketchikan General Hospital, and then medevaced to Anchorage where she had surgery.

On October 14, day 41 of the 46-day program, at 10:24 a.m. the managerial staff of Alaska Crossings, a wilderness program which is a division of Alaska Island Community Services, received a call from field staff regarding a girl who was experiencing right side belly pain. Through a shaky connection with the field satellite phone, enough details were collected to pass on to Dr. Dave McCandless.

It was McCandless who recommended the girl be removed as soon as possible, “Going over their symptoms it was clear that this was not a minor illness and then it becomes a decision of how is the best way to get that person out of there. It’s just kind of a judgment call of what you need to do.”

Both Tim Buness of Wrangell Search and Rescue and the Coast Guard in Sitka were contacted and informed of the situation. The decision between using either the helicopter in Petersburg or the Coast Guard had to be made first. “We turned that over to the experts at Wrangell Search and Rescue to make that determination. Tim [Buness] spoke to the pilot, we used the data we had on the landing site, and their flight surgeon spoke with Dr. McCandless, and it was determined that this is not something we could do just directly with Wrangell Search and Rescue and local EMTs. The Coast Guard would come in and do the evacuation,” said Steve Prysunka, director of Alaska Crossings.

The field staff on the mountain – Lars Hall, Jessica Kayser, and Stephanie Sleen – made sure all the kids were “hunkered” down on the mountain, said Prysunka. “It was really foul weather. They were at about 1800 feet and they had sleet and fairly heavy southeast winds but they had the girl who was ill set up and taking vitals and giving us information as they went along.” Shakes Mountain is located in the South Etolin Island Wilderness Area.

Armed with training they had received in February from the Coast Guard for exactly the kind of situation they were in, Hall, Kayser, and Sleen were well prepared. “They actually lit off smoke to let the Coast Guard know exactly where they were because they were having trouble finding them exactly on the mountain with the way the clouds were and the fog was rolling in,” explained Prysunka.

When the Coast Guard arrived at 3:30 with five personnel – two pilots, a rescue swimmer, a flight engineer, and an EMT – the Coast Guard swimmer rappelled out of the helicopter. They packaged up the girl in the rescue basket that had been lowered from the helicopter and raised her first. Sleen was raised second and the swimmer last.

They flew immediately to Ketchikan and arrived at 4:30. There it was determined the ill girl should be medevaced to Anchorage. Sarah Penfold, assistant director for Alaska Crossings, had flown down to Ketchikan from Wrangell to meet up with the girl, and she was able to escort her on the medevac flight to Providence Hospital. Penfold remained at the hospital with the girl and the girl’s mother until the time of surgery early Sunday morning.

Alaska Crossings is currently in its sixth season. “This was the first time we have ever had to use the Coast Guard and it was the first year that we ever trained directly with them. We’ve always talked about it but never had them fly in. It was just a fantastic outcome,” said Prysunka. “[Hall, Kayser, and Sleen] did an excellent job of taking vitals and using their wilderness medicine that they had been trained in and then also just were really well prepared and ready for the Coast Guard evacuation.”

Besides direct training from the Coast Guard, the three field staff had been educated on how to deal with common medical emergencies, and were equipped with a satellite phone, with which the original call was made, VHF radios, and an emergency location transmitter. For Prysunka, the weekend’s events “highlight for us how important our staff training is. We don’t have a lot of medical incidents but when we do it’s really nice to have all of that training done.”

The girl is currently recovering at Providence Hospital and should be out by the weekend. An Alaska Crossings therapist will visit her on Friday.

Thursday

About to leave work and walk to my new home, which is this house right on the water. There's a dog there. I don't know his name, but he's a husky, 15 years old, and only has one eye. And I have three roomates.

A new home, a new chapter.

Here's a rainbow we saw from the office about an hour ago.