Only in Alaska

We had a freaky thing happen at the high school yesterday. A mama moose and her yearling bull calf were hanging out over the weekend at the high school. They had charged the late night custodians so that they couldn't shovel the snow off the front walk of the school. Our high school has a large courtyard/ veranda and this time of year, moose seek out places without snow and they found the area to their liking.

Of course, we can't have moose charging kids and workers as they get really agitated around schools and have been known to kick people to death is school yards.

s0 anyway, yesterday morning the police and the custodians chased the mother away, but it just made the bull angrier. They ended up trying to shew him with rubber bullets and pepper spray and finally they decided they would use their tazers on him. INSTANT RAGE - he charged right at the officers and at about 3 feet away, they had to pull their weapons and shoot him. Right on the steps and deck of the school - in front of the windows of the classrooms. I'm surprised it hasn't been on the national news.

Some kids were shaken and dismayed and felt he didn't need to be killed, but he really did - you just can't have charging moose around schools. The police hauled him behind the school and had a charity come harvest the meat. I'm glad Brian wasn't at work when it happened so he wasn't in on the decision making and so the kids can't get mad at him for it.

I don't have a picture of it, but I imagine the story will be in the Homer News or the Homer Tribune next week. We always have to have a big controversy this time of year to help us all get thru the winter.

My friend sent this

Thought you might like this one so I'm sharing it with you

Hot Chocolate

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their visit, the conversation turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups - porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said, 'Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from add s nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups...and then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate God has provided us.

God makes the hot chocolate, man chooses the cups. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have.
Live simply.Love generously. Care deeply.Speak kindly.And enjoy your hot chocolate!'

Organization question

We have started our New Year's organization push. I've been hearing alot about putting music and files and such onto computer drives - jump drives or small hard drives.

I am wondering if that can be done with tax records? I keep lots more tax records than I need to and so I have boxes and boxes of them lying around. It just occured to me this week that maybe I could scan them onto flash drives and get rid of the paper. Has anyone else tried this and does anyone know how the IRS feels about it?

In reading thru their regulations, all I found was mention of keeping records on microfiche, so apparently the regulations have kept up with the computer age.

Any suggestions or ideas or anecdotes you can share about this subject? Thank you, Charlotte

Our New Year

Space man Mylan



OOps I got 2 of this picture posted - it's cute

Beana in her monkey pajamas and her Christmas jewelry.
Justin on Christmas eve - smile on face, pain pills kicking in.
metal work Brian is doing to repair blown up boat.
more blown up boat repairs
Mylan in snow mobile hat.

We finally have snow and snow and snow. Poor Justin is still laid up with his bum ankle. They still say it is just a sprain, but it has been 2 weeks and he can still not put any weight on it.

Brian has been working on the big boat project - you can tell from the pictues, it is a very complicated project. He had 17 days off from the school and has worked most of them on the boat. He still has a ways to go to finish it. In case you missed it, the boat belongs to a charter fisherman and another welding company was doing some work on it and blew it up. The insurance company totalled it and the owner bought it back from them and Brian is working to rebuild it. The money has been a great blessing to help us get thru the winter months, especially with the cut in Alicia's hours and with Justin being home in bed with the bad ankle.

For New Years Day, Autumn called to see if they could come over for dinner - she was cooking an asian dish and wanted to share it and I said we were planning a Chinese feast as we usually have on New Years, so we combined meals and had a great evening. Mylan kept wanting to wear the snow mobile helmet. It was really funny because it is so big on him. We took a few pictures, but you really can't get the spirit of the thing. We were all laughing ourselves silly. Then Beena tried it on and it was so heavy, it kept tipping her over so we didn't get any pictures of that - just of her helmet head and the look on her face when she got up from being tipped over. They are going tomorrow to buy their house in Kenai, so in a month or so they will be moved up there. We'll have to go up there to go shopping more, since they will be living there and we will want to go see them. It's not that much difference - we drive 30 miles to see them now and will drive about 50 miles to see them after they move. but we will really miss them, especially for church and for scrap booking.

I haven't taken any pictures of the snow yet this year - maybe I'll send the dog out to play and get some pictures for you this week.

Love, Charlotte