The last day of 2019: some rain, gusty winds. There are no leafs on the cherry tree. Jan is finishing up working on her skiff which sank at the dock while we were away on our ferry trip, but our friends rushed to our aid and rescued it, arranging for a haul-out and an emergency flushing of the engine which did not end up getting badly soaked. All in all not as bad as it could have been. Thank you to our good friends, the Harbor Department and to our good mechanics.

Our winter ferry trip was wonderful. It has become a tradition for us to take a ferry ride over Christmas if at all possible. We book a stateroom and decorate the room. We pack way too many books and games and snacks for our cabin and have a perfectly wonderful lazy time. We are in and out of cell reception so for the most part we are not checking phones or email. We did get the one call from the harbor department about Jan’s skiff and there were a flurry of calls thereafter but that was fine.

The weather was very foggy and rainy. The bird watching was not great, but the reading was fine. I read a book about Thomas Merton coming to Alaska in 1968. I also read a novel called My Year Of Rest And Relaxation which our son Finn found in the book exchange on the ferry. He had read it and loved it and gave it to me. I had started to read a long, rather scholarly book about the corpse of John Wilkes Booth… don’t ask… suffice to say it’s a research project. When I told Finn that I had learned just about enough about the mummy or the suspected mummy of JWB he gave me this novel about a woman in New York City in 2001 who fairly successfully induces a year long hibernation through a collection of analgesic, psychotropic, and anxiety relieving drugs prescribed by the most brilliantly rendered quack of a psychiatrist I’ve ever seen on a page. It really doesn’t sound like a page turner does it? But in fact I found the book mesmerizing. It was in turns, funny, brutal, horrifying, heartbreaking and beautiful. I have to say that the main character is a perfectly rendered terrible person: sarcastic, smarmy and emotionally dead… but also deadly smart. As the book goes on the reader gets glimpses “back stage” in her life at her parents and her upbringing. Those glimpses are so sad, heartbreaking really, not in an over the top way, but in truthful and natural sense of the character. It all seems natural that she turned out the way she did and I didn’t feel so quick to judge her. Her wild choices started to make perfect sense. The last page of the book puts her and our entire modern era in into a sharp focus, as if we may had all been asleep. I was very impressed by the writing too, on a sentence by sentence level… so clear and lovely at times, and purely mean and sharp as a razor at others. Not a show off as a writer. Just a very good writer who chooses words … and leaves them out… wisely.

Anyway… that’s part of what I like about long ferry rides., time and quiet to read and appreciate such books. Also I love spending time with friends. I got to stop in Skagway and see Bea Lingle and have coffee with her and her friends. She is 91 and is up on everything. She has coffee every day downtown as far as I know, and the company is lively. It was fun visiting her.

Juneau ferry terminal is far out of town, but Finn and I walked down to Auke bay and I had a diet coke, he had a beer and we watched some football. It seemed like an imposition to ask friends to drive out to the ferry to see us, and truth is I don’t have as many friends in Juneau as I used to, I should probably keep my political opinions to myself more. The weather was spooky and very dark for the walk, high winds and weird shadows on the road. I spent a long year back in the eighties in Juneau working on a single murder case where someone took a shot at me and the Troopers surveilled our apartment and Juneau will always have a spooky vibe for me.

Ketchikan always has a fun vibe even though there is a lot more crime and I did dozens of more cases down there… more murders too. People love to talk about crime in Ketchikan. They also like to drink and they don’t feel so bad about it. The weather was horrific when we were in K. Town big low pressure howling through. So we took a cab with “Walking Wolf” as our driver both ways. We had Bloody Mary at the Arctic Bar, and a pulled pork sandwich at Annabelle’s and a salad. I could not interest anyone in my party in purchasing any “Ahoy Fuckers!” tee shirts from the Arctic, which I thought was a little glib of my son and showing he had spent a little too much time in L.A. “Walking Wolf” started in with all his jokes for tourists on the ride back and I almost told him that Finn was a comedian when Wolf offered to write down some of the jokes for him. But I did not. There is nothing that Finn hates more than when I tell people he is a professional comic and they start wanting to give him jokes. But I was kind of pissed at him by then for refusing an “Ahoy Fuckers!” tee shirt from his dad.

I think the most fun on the trip was talking with the crew, eating in the cafeteria and playing board games. The crew on the ferries are so professional, honestly. They took such good care of us. Jan and I have been featured guests on nice cruise ships and no one treats us better than the crew on the ferry during the winter. The Captain and the pursuer paid close attention that we were back aboard when we went wandering around on shore. They kept letting us know that they wouldn’t leave without us. I always felt we got a little bit extra of the best food. But really I don’t think we did. A young guy named Curtis was super friendly and curious about the games we were playing. Even when it was dead in the cafeteria, I would ask him if he wanted a turn at a game, he would say, “Thank you but I’m on duty and it wouldn’t be good if the Captain came down and saw me playing games.” He wasn’t complaining. He was just serious about his job, and he just kept cleaning tables. You couldn’t put a glass down and he would be around to pick it up.

We gave little gifts, cards, cookies and such to each of them on Christmas and when we left. We gave each other little gifts. In our family we take some time and write each other some sincere cards of love and affection each year. We try to make them fresh each year. It’s not always easy. This year we included Emily, Finn’s wife and new life partner. She is perfect for our family. Loves games and books. Loves Finn and likes to sleep in when she is tired, likes to hike but doesn’t like to show off. Jan and I adore her.

We left on the ferry Christmas morning with our friends Robert and Barbara and Liz. We went to Hoonah then Juneau, Skagway, and Haines. Then we picked up Emily in Juneau, off to Petersburg, Wrangell ,Ketchikan back through the same circuit adding Kake to the list then Juneau again then Hoonah again and home to Sitka on Sunday morning. Four nights. Perfect for us. Jan, Finn and Emily had the rear triple staterooms on the Matanuska. Highly recommended. We usually ate dinners on board. We supplied our own breakfast or supplemented breakfast with kitchen food: Our own bread and their scrambled eggs, Our oatmeal, their bacon and toast. On Christmas Night they served prime rib and roast duck for $18. And free fresh baked desserts, cookies and fruit. It was lovely.

I love the ferry system and support it in every respect. One hundred people got on in Haines to go to Juneau. Lots of people traveled from Juneau to Sitka. Some legs of the trip were virtually empty… especially Christmas day. But there are lots of streets and roads that are empty on Christmas day. In Alaska there are some beautiful and expensive roads that are rarely traveled, yet they need maintenance. These boats are lifelines for our small towns. They are travel infrastructure just like roads, water and power. If you love the ferry system the way I do, why not express yourself to your elected officials? Think about how you would want to pay for the ferries. Fees? Taxes? Permanent Funds? Maybe even donations , could we give some of our PFD to the Ferry system? It’s a thought, worth considering. There are no free rides anymore, but it’s such a wonderful ride, what can we do to save it for everyone?

I hope everyone has a safe New Year’s Eve. If you look through this blog you will see I’ve had some ups and downs in 2019 and I’m sure I will have more strikes and gutterballs in 2020. I’m going to continue doing the best I can for myself and for the ones I love in the coming new year. Early January, I’m heading down to Seattle for another Ketamine treatment, then I’m headed down to Florida to meet up with Liz to pick up a puppy to bring home for Jan and me. So I look forward to lots more walks in the Spring and more good stories of dog antics and new ways to battle depression.

Don’t forget that What Is Time To A Pig? will be out in early February and I will be out and about reading from it in March.

I hope you are all well and keeping your heads up.

with only love.

John Straley

Storm from the south:

we roll in a following sea

gifts scatter the deck!