Alaska Airlines to Stop Prayers on Flights

FYI…  Alaska Airlines has included a small prayer card with their inflight meals for 30+ years.  Due to “complaints” from people who insist they should be protected from exposure to the traditions,  or viewpoints of others,  the airline will be discontinuing this meal service tradition.  “Heaven” forbid anyone should have to endure Christian doctrine in a 90% Christian nation.  I love “my” airline,  but you are a pansy-assed loser for caving to a tiny minority of whiners.

Inclusion of a prayer card with my plastic-tasting sandwich did not offend me,  nor does it really offend anyone else with a shred of common sense.  Charging me $6 for a plastic-tasting sandwich when they are already charging me $700 to fly from Yakutat to Seattle AND are getting paid $2.7 million dollars per year to fly to Yakutat by the federal government via Essential Air Service contract IS offensive.

If you’d like to read more on this article,  follow the link:

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/this-is-why-alaska-airlines-passengers-will-no-longer-get-prayer-cards/

And some EAS info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_Air_Service#Alaska

http://ostpxweb.dot.gov/aviation/x-50%20role_files/essentialairservice.htm

An Overwhelming Lack of Ambition

I went in to interview Gordy,  our local ADF&G biologist to get his forecast on the 2012  fish runs,  but he said that all efforts right now for them are focused on the upcoming Board of Fish regulatory changes and he had no numbers for me…

So instead I’m working on my taxes (or more appropriately trying to avoid working on my taxes…).  My jail guard shifts have been cancelled for another week,  as they put off having the guy serve his sentence.  It snowed about 16-18 inches yesterday and today.  Yesterday I spent about 5 hours helping a neighbor shovel out his house instead of doing the work I need to do around here.  I have about half of the painting done on the second floor of the hangar,  but at this point,  I’m trying to put that off as well.

We’re now deep into winter here in Yakutat and I’m losing my enthusiasm for slogging through the snow and darkness.  Maybe it is just the mess of taxes that I don’t want to deal with.  7 different businesses to sort out and deal with by the time you add everything up.  I have been asked many times how I deal with renovating the hangar – it seems to be such a huge and overwhelming project,  where do you start…  Well,  you eat an elephant “one bite at a time”…  Same thing with everything else.  I’m just not feeling very hungry at the moment.

Some Alaska Snow Videos

Saw on the web that there is a LOT of news about Alaska’s “almost a record” snows.  Here is a page with several video clips.  Looks a lot like “normal” to me…

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/the-top-5-videos-from-alaskas-massive-record-snow/

Yakutat Snowfall Totals (so far)

After some national news coverage about Cordova’s winter plight (I posted a link to FOX’s report on the www.situk.net page),  I have been asked by several people about how Yakutat is faring so far this winter.  I called our local National Weather Service office and they provided our totals thus far for snowfall by month.  Here goes:

November 2011 – 81.6 inches,  or a little shy of 7 feet.  I had been saying we were about 7 1/2 feet,  but I was a foot off on my calculations here at the hangar.  We’ll go with the government’s more conservative number…

December 2011 – 39.2 inches,  or about 3 1/4 feet.  December warmed up for us and we did get a lot of rain.  The rain washed most of our November snow away,  although that rain was just barely above freezing.  Snow continued to pile up against the mountains throughout the month.

January 2012 – As of last night,  we had a total snowfall for the first 9 days of 2012 of 25.8 inches,  or just over two feet.  This total does NOT include the snow we are getting hammered with as I type.  We currently have a Winter Storm Warning in effect through tomorrow.  Weather Service said “if” the temperature warms tonight and turns to rain,  we’ll have about 18 inches from this snow event.  If it does NOT warm and snow continues to fall throughout the night,  we should reach about 30 inches in 24 hours before we see any change.

January and February tend to be our heavier snow months with averages between 30-40 inches for each of those months.  With the warmer scenario that turns to rain tonight,  we’ll be well above the high-end of that average for January and we’re only 10 days into the month.  I’m thinking we’ll be seeing some records broken by the time this winter calls it quits.

Yakutat’s all-time record snowfall for a single year is 405 inches,  or 33 3/4 feet.  We’re at about 150 inches so far this winter,  with a LONG winter ahead of us.  Although Yakutat averages more snow than any other Alaskan “city”,  we do not have the avalanche hazards that Cordova faces.  We get more snow because we get more precipitation period.  Being just a little farther south than Cordova,  we have managed to hover just above freezing.  While they have been hammered with snow,  we’ve squeaked by with rain and sleet.

If we see a heavier than normal snowpack going into the spring,  expect the spring steelhead season to be a little late,  or at least very difficult to access with deep snows along the banks of the Situk and a delay in getting the roads reopened in time for the earlier fishermen’s arrivals in late March and early April.

I’ll keep you posted…

Limping Toward Becoming a Real WWII Museum

The endless hallway

Finally,  the hallway is done and ready for paint.  Now on to the last 4 side rooms.  Making slow progress,  but I’m getting there!  Should be able to start displaying some of my artifacts from WWI and WWII throughout the stairwells and hallways.  My plan is to tell the story from WWI to Pearl Harbor on this side of the building.  As you enter the main entrance (doors between the fly shop and the public bathrooms),  we’ll start in 1914,  work our way up the staircase,  down the hallway on the second floor through the armistice years,  then down the stairwell at the other end.

The building on the northeast side (where the restaurant and theater will be) will be dedicated to the war in Alaska and its impact on the global conflict.  I’m a LONG way from doing anything over there,  but at least we are getting closer to displaying SOMETHING at long last!  And of course,  the hangar bay will be dedicated to the aircraft and technology of the war,  with aircraft,  vehicles and anything else we can get our hands on.  I know…  all we have so far is one plane,  but it is a big start toward our goals.  And it is a great plane to start out with!

And the snow is falling heavily right now,  even though it was sunny just a couple minutes ago.  Here is what the snowpile looked like during our brief flash of passing blue:

Yakutat Airport snowpile earlier today!

We Remember

A Relaxing Winter

Considering how hectic the summer months are in Yakutat,  winters are supposed to be slow,  relaxed and an opportunity to catch up on things you didn’t have time for the rest of the year.  Oh, if only that were the case!

My big plans were to completely revamp the situk.net web site and make it into a local news outlet…  Ya,  I haven’t posted a new news article since November!  With the fly shop closed,  I wanted to reorganize everything to make more room for more products…  You can barely walk through the shop with the piles of stuff everywhere.  Teen and I did finish the big year-end inventory last week,  so at least that is done.  Surprisingly,  we had a little less theft in 2011 than the previous years.  Not really sure why adults have to steal spools of fluorocarbon,  but they do.

I have made some progress on the hangar.  My goal is to have this side of the building completed by spring (not including the exterior).  We finished hanging the last of the 2nd floor sheetrock this week and I have the first couple coats of mud on the last 5 rooms.  Have I mentioned that there are a LOT of rooms in this old building?!?!  Today I am supposed to be sanding,  but really don’t want to delve into that mess.  I know,  I know…  good mudders don’t need to sand.  Who ever said I was good at this stuff?  This is my first major construction project other than fixing little things on my house here and there.  Why not “learn” on a 38,300 square foot project when you have virtually no prior experience?  I may just know what I’m doing by the time I’m 80 and the project falls down.

We of course had grand hopes of flying out to the Italio cabin throughout the winter to relax in peace and quiet.  November’s 7 1/2 feet of snow put that idea to rest.  December pretty much had back-to-back nasty storms – warm storms with lots of rain though.  Nearly all of November’s snow washed away,  but with 60 knot blows,  that wasn’t exactly what I wanted to be out flying in.  It is snowing like crazy again.

Tanis has been busy and productive.  He has his own shovel and has earned quite a bit by shoveling snow,  splitting wood and what ever other chores he has been able to perform for others.  He is growing quite the work ethic,  so long as it is for someone else and not his dad.  Of course they pay better than dad does.  He has learned some wonderful lessons on the relationship between effort and pay.  Something the moronic “99′rs” obviously never learned,  or they would be occupying productivity instead of trying to interfere with the productivity of others.

It is snowing like crazy and the State DOT guys are growing the snow pile as I type.  They were up early this morning trying to get ahead of this storm.  I have to complement the city maintenance crew this year.  We were dreading the fact that our newly paved road in front of our house would become the possession and responsibility of the City of Yakutat.  The state always did such a good job of keeping it clear,  while the city has had a much more problematic history of snow removal on their far fewer roads.  They more than doubled their city road holdings this year,  so it wasn’t looking good for our snow situation.  But…

Even through the heavy snows of November that took everyone by surprise,  the city has been on top of the situation and doing a great job.  Secon put up guard rails along the cliff,  which has been the biggest problem to deal with.  the State DOT only had to plow all the snow off the edge of the road and over the cliff into the bay.  Now with the city at it,  they can’t do that without sending the guard rail into the bay as well.  There was a push to make the portion of Max Italio Drive between the ANB Hall and the fish plant into a one-way road,  but that measure was defeated on the ballot,  making it nearly impossible for two large vehicles to pass each other with the narrow road and snow piled on both shoulders.  I think we’d all prefer to have the guard rail removed,  but if the city did that and someone drove off the cliff,  they’d own the city…

So…  my goals of keeping you updated here on the blog have essentially collapsed along with my energy and enthusiasm for sanding.  I’m setting my mind to scheduling blog time over the coming weeks,  so I can get a few things off my chest:
-Dry Bay plans
-Commercial Fishing update
-My Guide Season on the Italio
-Alaska Warbird Museum status
-Hangar Renovation and plans
-Fly Shop news
-Yakutat History stuff
-Fishing Stats from last season
-Guesses and Estimates for next season’s fishing
-Yadda,  yadda,  yadda…

Anyway…  I think I have stalled about as long as I can justify.  Time to don my mask and start sanding.  Better than being outside in this blizzard,  I guess.  At least it warmed up,  so it is well above freezing in my workspace.  There are always things to be thankful for.