Snowing today. tiny little flakes like motes of dust. Cold wind, and the clouds obscure the islands just off shore. Definitely a hostile day for human beings not interested in winter sports. Yesterday there was some herring spawn along hat the road system in town. The sea turned milky white and turquoise in places as the females came in and laid down their clear caviar sized eggs and then the males their milt on top. Many of the Tlingit families and some cooperative boats laid hemlock boughs there and other places already to get herring eggs for human consumption. It is very rich food. Especially when dipped in seal oil. It reminds me what a Native guy once told me long ago, “Fat is where it’s at, baby!”
I went to the grocery store again today. I saw another guy wearing a pistol outside his pants; an older man there with his wife. I wondered if as he got dressed to go out he put the pistol on as an afterthought thinking, “Just in case I have to shoot some fucker over by the dairy case today.” It really wasn’t crowded in the store and gunplay was the furthest thing from my mind, except I was wearing a bandanna across my face so I was self conscious that I might look like an old west bank robber coming into my grocery store. Nobody gave me a second look. Not even the guy with the pistol. Such are the times we live in.
I was only supposed to buy butter, but I bought salad stuff and ice-cream and a freshly made pepperoni pizza to make for lunch when I got home. I also bought two bottles of ice tea, one for me and one for Jan to go with our lunch as a treat for her, Then I got some cream cheese because it was on sale, and I thought they had fresh bagels which are good for breakfast but I forgot to look for them before I left the store. I went to the self serve check out because why have someone else handle your stuff, especially when you are dressed like a robber? I was thirsty too so I started drinking my tea while I was inside the store. I like the people who work at our store, for the most part, the guy who works the front side, is part of the big grocery family and he studied music in college and he has really good music show on the local radio station and he helps direct some of the musical theater in town. The store gives a lot to the Fine Arts Camp in town, it’s a good family and a good store.
Snowing on April 3, 2020 Cold Day during the pandemic of 2020 and “Social Distancing”
I’m grateful for the food I have access to, I have not put in enough wild food in the last few years. I have thought of this more recently. I lost the vision in my right eye and have not taken the time to learn to shoot from the other side. Our son moved to California without becoming a proficient hunter, which he regrets. He was a pretty good fisherman. We have traded fish for moose meat with a friend up north and I like that. Jan travels north for business often and the trade works out well. Food security is on everyones mind these days. What would we do if the barge didn’t come in? What would we do if the fuel barge didn’t come in. Our electricity comes in the form of hydro from a dam, and that is pretty secure as long as it keeps running and the parts can keep coming in, but again, in our modern times we are so closely dependent on other people and other skill sets. The electric person, the tow boat skipper, and crew, the grocer, and the farmer so far away, not just the farmer but the crews who pick, and cut and sort, the mechanics who keep the machines running where the jobs have been mechanized. The plumbers and engineers who keep the water running and the turbines spinning, I eat a piece of celery in my salad in Alaska and I have a hard time thinking of how many people I should include in my thanks, or an avocado… and I really like avocados. They used to be rare in Alaska when I first moved here, kind of an exotic treat, but now I kind of expect them, for almost three fifty a piece., Jesus.
I know there is a lot of food on the tide flat and in the ocean, in the woods, but how would we organize ourselves on an island to harvest it and distribute it? Winner take all? First come, first serve? In our little town of 9 thousand. All the beaches on the road system would be picked clean in the first week. If fuel was limited, where would the fishing grounds be? Would be back to sailing vessels? Would others group together to feed the elderly and the sick? Would we take care of the children as a community or would each family be responsible completely alone? Would it get Lord of the flies ugly right away, or would we organize into some kind of civilized society? I think some people like to assume the worst. It makes a better and more dramatic story, but I bet in our little town it would end up in a series of long, long meetings, breaking out into small groups, reporting back into big groups, all the usual suspects would be there along with some new players who would be moved out of their houses to keep the peace or to make sure they got their say or wouldn’t be left out. at the end of the world, and in the end, we’d have a kind of Swiss Family Robinson Bureaucracy based on fairness and ernest attempts to share and do right by everybody. Pretty boring actually. Oh there would be some big fights, there might even be some gun play but in the end, in Sitka, AK, if the shit really hit the fan, and help didn’t come in the form of Coast Guard Helicopters or US Navy landing craft right away it wouldn’t look like the aftermath of West World, or the Zombie Apocalypse when help finally did arrive . It would probably look like one of our public meetings and bake sales, but with more meat.
Spring snow, like white dust
falling from the trees all day
… then disappearing.
jhs
Here is a recording I made in the office today, reading and talking about the Haiku of Richard Wright. Dots out on the porch and she seemed prettying interested, at least she didn’t bark much, but you can hear her bumping around in the background.
