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September 9, 2004
the great one
Today I drove North from Anchorage to Talkeetna, where you get a darn good view of Denali, or Mt. McKinley. It is very big. In the past it had always been cloudy when I was up there, but today I got the best view of it yet. Not a cloud in the sky other than contrails. Talkeetna was a cute village, populated mainly by hippies and town drunks. On the way back I spied something surfacing in the stream near the road, so I pulled off and snuck through the brush. Sure enough, it was many coho salmon who had completed their trip to breed. Finally able to stop moving having found a good place to lay their eggs, the males were doing wierd little positionings to see which male could fertilize the biggest female's nest. I have seen the same behaviors in gay bars. Biologists call this phenomenon parallel evolution.
PS: I am taking lots of pictures all over, and pretty darn cool ones too. But I can't upload them from here, and don't really want to until I get home, but I'll make a big-ass photo gallery when I get home, so sit tight. And I hope to break out of my shy spell and take pictures of all these HOT Alaska locals. Carhartt coveralls have not gone out of fashion since I was here last, and people here rarely shave. GRRRRR! Scruffy gay boys in Carhartt jeans are IN TROUBLE when I get back! Look out! (Yeah, like there's a lot of those in DC...'sigh'.)
I forgot to mention that before my brother dropped me off at the Portland airport, we stopped at an AWESOME retro arcade in downtown Portland. I got my Old Skool Geek on with Joust, Berzerk, Spy Hunter, Robotron, GORF, Tron, Burgertime, Crystal Castles, Dark Knight, Arkanoid, Tempest, Mortal Kombat, Defender, and many more I have already forgot. Still just a quarter too. The only ones missing were Venture and Dragon's Lair. I think a retro arcade would really fly in towntown DC, to give the overworked and stressed out contractors and hyper messengers something to do in their 15 minute lunch breaks.
Posted by jimbo at September 9, 2004 12:33 AM
Comments
There used to be a really nice retro nickel arcade here in Dallas, charged a cheap admission, like 3 bucks, and then you were home free. I spent many and many hours there, but it didn't last very long, unfortunately. It was usually a ghost town, and went out of business in less than a year, even with the 5 to 6 bucks I would spend there at least once a week!
My favorite, although a little less retro, is street fighter 2! The original street fighter just pissed people off more than it was fun, haha.
Posted by: Kevin at September 9, 2004 3:15 AM
TRON!!!
The sound of the light cycles take me back
Posted by: Dax at September 9, 2004 9:32 AM
I need to go buy some of those Carhartt overalls...
Posted by: homer at September 9, 2004 5:02 PM
OOH! Tempest! I love the slightly old arcades! I would love to spend a few hours and a few rolls of quarters in one again. I'm an old pinball nut as well.{sigh} the good old days.
Posted by: Lee at September 10, 2004 6:26 AM
Another freaky report from Alaska. You were still in the pouch the last time I was there. In spite of being there just short of two months, we could go outside of our front door and see the mountain. Remember the picture of Brian and Bruce shielding themselves from the sun glare. We were stationed at Ft. Richardson. Remember there is a marker there for your dad. I remember a porcupine waddling around at the gate entrance. I remember hours-long appointments at the clinic on base; meanwhile Brian at home was entertaining his new first-grade friends in our basement with the Shrinky-Dink, and I wondered how I would get through your birth without setting the house afire. The rest is sort of a blur; but we all got home before your birth. I also remember a very windy day, with the sun on the south horizon very LOW, and the wind was blowing, in the fall, and I had to yank kids into the house, or they would have blown away. So much for Alaska, Cook inlet, and other very traumatic incidents.
Posted by: first mom at September 10, 2004 4:44 PM