Hi again, I'm still here. Sorry I haven't posted in a few days, It's been...interesting up here. First of all, I've been sick as a dog for about a week. Some kind of flu/cold thing, pretty nasty. Unfortunately I don't have the luxury of laying in bed getting better. For some reason the stove doesn't seem to care if I'm sick or not, it wants to be fed. For anyone who has never put on snowshoes and run a chainsaw to drop a 50' tree in
-30 temps while you're running a 101 temp and doped on cold medicine..it IS a rush, but don't try this at home, kids. Nick had his very first REALLY close encounter with wildlife the other night. We had just taken down a tree and were cutting it up when the dogs began chasing a moose. Apparently it was a mentally challenged moose because it ran within 10' of where I was bent over, running a chainsaw at full RPMs. Nick was busy plugging the truck in so we could try to get it started and the moose actually ran close enough to him that he felt it brush his arm. Another couple of inches and he would have set a news distance record for teenagers in flight. I make light, but it was actually a very scary situation that could have easily NOT been funny. The moose are being really weird up here right now, we aren't going out to cut without being fairly heavily armed. Ah, Alaska..As I write this I'm trying to warm my house back up. We've all retreated to my bedroom where we run the space heater at night to keep warm. Now, when I say all..that is the 4 of us, 4 dogs and at least 3 cats, usually 4. The old girl, Momo, is a himalayan and seems to prefer hunkering by the fire as opposed to being social. Anyway, the wonderful crowded conditions and sleepover elements have all combined so we share germs beautifully. Yep, now ALL of us have the same crud floating around..Anyway, I better cut this short today, It's actually above 0 for the moment so I need to take this opportunity to go cut some wood so the chainsaw will actually cut instead of acting as an ice chipper. Have a good day, everyone! I'll write again soon.

Well, the results are in at Amazon Studios and, unfortunately, they didn't pick my script to move forward with. Not a huge surprise, I didn't really expect them to, but somewhat crushing none the less. Eh, I'll wallow in self pity for a bit, It's a luxury I've learned to allow myself for a little while, then I'll polish the script, add to it and send it someplace else under a different title. Even if it never gets produced I know now that I can write an entire script in 48 hours. Rejection is a HUGE part of writing and I suppose I better get used to it earlier rather than later. Still, I'm pouting for a bit. Dammit, I've earned it. It's a good day for self pity. It's -22 again, the wood pile is shrinking fast, and I'm absolutely miserable with whatever crud I've been infected with. Headache, body ache, incessant cough, all the top contenders for the 'I feel like crap' award. I'm not going to delve deeply into the self pity thing on here, Mostly because it's honestly really boring reading. (Hell, I wouldn't even want to read THAT and I'd be the one who wrote it. It TOTALLY makes proofreading difficult when you can' stand reading what you wrote! Oh yeah, wait a minute..I rarely proofread.. But I digress..) I'll reference my post the other day about "sometimes life just sucks no matter what you do" and leave it at that. For anyone who didn't read that post- HA! Now you'll either be forced to go back and read every other post I've done until you find that one reference or live forever ignorant of what I'm talking about! For school I have to have a script finished and turned in by 8:00 tonight. I've been writing a comedy, although hopefully I feel a little funnier before I have to finish it.   I'm thinking a double dose of nyquil and I should be hilarious! I've been looking at the statistics of this blog and I feel I have to send out a big thank you to my TWO loyal readers! I appreciate you taking the time to read this tripe. You completely validate my newest odd habit and it makes me feel slightly less crazy for doing it. Knowing someone is actually reading this stuff makes me feel more like I'm talking to someone and less like the crazy old dude who wanders down the streets of cyberspace mumbling things to himself. Well, I still mumble things to myself, but I try not to giggle to loud at the funny jokes I tell myself in my head when others are around. Have a good day, Both of you! I'm gonna go wallow for a bit now.

Yeah, I know..I just posted, but the muse is upon me and I'm waiting for Beenie to get up and get ready for school so I figured I'd write more. I saw a preview for 'The Grey' last night. It looks like it will be another new "plane goes down in Alaska, passengers have to fight the elements and a vicious pack of wolves to survive' movie. Yawn...I really wish the people that write these things would actually bother to talk to someone that lives up here before they film stuff like this. The kids want me to take them to see it so they can laugh at it. They love watching movies like this and mocking them. I guess when you have a pack of wolves that you hear on a semi regular basis in your own back yard it sort of hardens you to watching over dramatized tales about the 'vicious wolf pack' that tracks them for hundreds of miles. It might not be a bad film, It's a Liam Neeson flick, probably worth a watch, I'm sure it gets all into the 'man vs. nature' philosophy that so many writers are fond of. Ah, thank you, Jack London.. I just wish that some of the people that write scripts like this would come spend some time up here, See what it's really like. I suspect watching it from our perspective there will be a million things that the kids will chuckle about and say "You know, if that really happened and they tried something like that, they would be SO dead." Maybe someday I'll write an Alaskan survival film. a more realistic one, although there has to be SOME suspension of disbelief I suppose, or it would be a really short movie with an unpleasant ending. In the previews it showed a group of beaten up, ragged men walking across the frozen tundra, sinking inches into the snow as they walked.. All I can say is I hope they made snowshoes, although it didn't look like it, because I can't manage to go 50' into my yard without them. Maybe if the writer tried walking in 6' deep snow for a few minutes he'd gain a new perspective on things?

Well, the brief respite in the weather has come to an end..It's now back down to -12 and falling again. Still, I'm comforted by the fact that we have a tree cut and split, sitting happily in the wood box. It's amazing how fast we're getting at doing that. I took down a ~50' birch tree yesterday afternoon. The kids and I descended upon it like locust and we had it cut, sectioned, split and stacked in the house in just over an hour. Pretty amazing stuff considering our ragged band of lumberjacks! I was also reminded of the frailty of life when we were cutting it. I followed all the rules, made sure I had a clear path of retreat, sectioned the tree in the proper way and when it fell I tried to run away as per normal and my snowshoe got buried under a minor avalanche and all I could do was cover my head as I watched the bases of the tree kick over and start coming my way. Well suffice it to say, it missed me..by inches. I was lost in a huge cloud of falling snow for a few minutes, the kids thought I was a goner, but it fell right next to me instead. I guess I think that when things like that happen maybe Glenda is watching out for me, giving the tree a little nudge while she shakes her head and sighs. Eh, life in the wild. Experiences like that definitely remind you you're alive. I was also reminded of how spirited and tough Alaskans are yesterday. One of the residents of Willow, an 83 year old man, was attacked by a moose as he was letting his dogs into the house. It's that time of year, the moose are going crazy cause of the snow and the cold as much as we are, so they're cranky. His wife saw this and did she call 911? Nope..well, afterward, I'm sure..but during the incident she didn't wait for help, she didn't wring her hands and cry piteously for someone to come save her husband, she relied on herself. That's right, the 85 year old woman grabbed a snow shovel and went after a 1200 pound bull moose. Beat the snot out of it. Chased it away from her husband and THEN called for help. THAT is the Alaskan spirit alive and well. Stand up, face life's wild animal charges head on and pick up the pieces later. Kudos to you, Dorothea Taylor! I wish this country had a million more just like you!

Ah, I'm basking in the (Nearly) seemingly tropical heat! It's FINALLY +4 degrees out and it feels like it's about 50! It's amazing how a prolonged period of incredibly cold weather puts you into a state of almost animalistic hibernation. Just about all any of us have wanted to do is sleep. Crawl under warm blankets and pull them over our heads and forget about the fact that all the water in the house is frozen, that we have to bathe out of buckets, or that we were literally burning almost an entire tree a day to keep the house above 50. It occurred to me during this period how much heating a house with firewood is like raising a child. They both demand constant attention, care and feeding, they both require careful nurturing to reach their best potential, and they both give you a warm, happy glow when they're doing what they are supposed to. I had a really cool comparison about when you know they're both going to be all right, about them busting into flame and beginning to burn on their own without any help from you, but honestly I forget what it is. Ah well, I think my brain is still defrosting.  I got my 'fortune cookie' on Facebook the other day. It read "Any rough times are behind you." Ah, I wish I could believe that was true! It would be nice if rough times were behind me, even for a while. I've had enough of them, I'm tired of them. Unfortunately, unless some miracle comes along and gives me a source of enough money to live, I fear that fortune is entirely incorrect. I have approximately 20 days to come up with a miracle solution that will allow me to keep my house. So far the sky hasn't exactly opened up and showered me with ideas, although who knows. I'm trying to stay positive and look for opportunities. I've heard many people over the years say, usually to a complaining child, "Life is what you make of it." And that's true, to a certain extent. Of course there is always the disclaimer of "And sometimes life sucks eggs, no matter what you try to do." Maybe my egg sucking time is coming to an end for a while, we can only hope! Anyway, to my loyal reader out there, sorry I haven't posted in a few days, like I said, hibernation. I've managed to get my school work done, although not nearly as well as I would have liked to, and managed to keep everyone sort of fed, although I actually want to start cooking again. A steady diet of ramen and sandwiches gets pretty boring after a while. But..The house is thawing, it's wonderfully overcast, it's above zero out and I'm not beat yet, We'll keep going until we can't go anymore..and who knows, maybe 'Any rough times are behind me'...

Hey there! If there is anyone out in E-Lnd that's missed me I'm sorry. I wish I could tell you that I had a fantastic reason for my disappearance, like having high tea with a yeti or Sarah 'Palin swung by for a snowball fight, but I can't. Plain and simple- I got totally and completely sucked into a different world. I've been playing Skyrim. See, what happened was we had a CRAZY cold snap this weekend. -30 at night, warming up to -8 or 9 during the day. and the boys relocated to sleep in my room. (First rule of brutal cold- small rooms are easier to keep warm than houses are.) And of course, when they relocated, so did the X-box. Oh, I resisted at first, but the game finally sucked me in. See, It's a great imaginary world, just chock full of problems that are EASY to fix. You don't have enough gold? G on an adventure or take out some vicious robbers. You screw up and die? Just reset from your last save. You can even get married in the game and you don't ever have to worry about losing your spouse, because she's as close as the next game reset. The game makes you FEEL like something special. You're the first one in hundreds of years with special powers, put on the planet to save the world, yada yada..It's incredibly seductive and seduced i was. I emerged from that warm room only for biological reasons (Difficulty compounded by a toilet that froze and has to be flushed by pouring water from a bucket down it), to cut firewood, (Still had to ATTEMPT to keep the house above freezing.) or to feed the animals and the kids. Well, I also did a few quick homework assignments, but the lions share of the last few days has been spent curled up in a nice warm room fighting dragons.If you aren't a video game playerI highly recommend you try it, if only just for a little while. The biggest problems in the world case into the back ground for a little while when a dragon's flaming breath is filling your screen. More later!

All right, My snowplow driver hates me. I can deal with that. I'm not sure why, I've never even met the guy, but he definitely has it out for me. Yes, we got more snow, about 7" total I would guess, enough to summon the demon plow driver howling from the bowels of hell to once again destroy my garbage can. I'm not sure why he does it, it's a nice enough garbage can. Plain, unassuming, doesn't really say much, but somehow it's very existence offends him. He religiously swerves in order to catch it in the spray of snow planing up from his blade. I can imagine his cackle of glee the day he came by right after trash pickup and I was gone so I couldn't move it out of the direct path of his fury. Poor can lost a wheel that day. Today I thought I would take precautions, I moved it back about fifteen feet from the edge of the road. I can only surmise that on his first pass he saw it, sitting there innocently, probably whistling a little tune, just happy to have disgorged it's content into it's good friend the garbage truck. When he made his second pass he had to have accelerated, grinning widely as he dug his blade a bit deeper into my road. The wave of snow he threw hit the poor can hard enough to throw it another twenty feet or so, right into the back of my X-terra.  poor can lay on the ground, half buried in snow when I found it, it's lid hanging open, gasping in pain, it's one wheel hanging crookedly off to the side like a wounded game animal gasping it's last breath. Seriously, Dude- Enough is enough. If my dogs would have been outside they never would have even felt it as they got run over. Or one of my kids, walking home from the bus stop. Fun is fun, but I 've just about had enough.