It's past 4 pm and the sun is still out

My friend Mike in Petersburg (the reporter at the Petersburg Pilot, my counterpart) wrote a recent blog entry in which he referred to “the sense of family felt in a small town where I'm related to nobody.”

It’s a perfect phrase. I’ve written about this sentiment before but wanted to highlight it again because it is this exact quality of small southeast Alaskan towns that makes the living here worth it.

What’s funny about that phrase is that not many people in Wrangell or Petersburg could say the same thing. Everyone is related to everyone, someway, somehow. I actually can’t speak about Petersburg, but it’s definitely the case in Wrangell. It’s to do with the small population pool. Not to say that people are incestuous; just that there’s a lot of the marrying young, divorcing young, trying someone new, and so forth. There’s this saying here, “You don’t break up with your girlfriend; you just lose your turn.”

I’ve veered from where I’ve started.

Fridays in the office have become revolving door day – one visitor after another. Can’t get any work done. It’s great.