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mcnally
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Life in Ketchikan, Winter 2006.
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Jan 11 06:47 UTC 2006 |
The continuing tale of my life in Ketchikan, Alaska.
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| 95 responses total. |
bhoward
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response 1 of 95:
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Jan 11 07:31 UTC 2006 |
So have you put any recent pictures online?
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mcnally
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response 2 of 95:
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Jan 11 07:41 UTC 2006 |
Well, here we are again, another Agora conference, another Alaska item.
Since our last installment, in Fall Agora, the funding for the
Gravina Access Project has been put into play in Alaska politics.
I'm sorry to say I missed the governor's State of the State address
tonight, as I'm certain there would have been something about the
bridge in the address. I guess I'll just have to read about it
in the paper tomorrow morning. You'll no doubt remember the bridge.
Projected to cost $230,000,000 (or more!) and reviled in the
national news as "the bridge to nowhere," money to fund the project
was earmarked in the mammoth transportation bill passed by Congress
and signed into law by the President last year. However, the
project was dealt a surprising blow late in the fall when bridge
opponents managed to remove the earmarks requiring that the allotted
funds be spent on the bridge project and freeing that money to be
spent on transportation projects anywhere in the state of Alaska.
The bridge money is now in play and other constituencies in the
state (several substantially larger than Ketchikan) have their own
projects they'd like to see funded. The last proposal I heard
regarding the bridge funds was brilliantly cynical and I suspect
it may be followed. The Gravina project would be allocated a
little under half of the total bridge money, roughly $100,000,000,
while the rest would be spread around the state. Using the
$100,000,000, the project would start work on the bridge knowing
that available money would only see them halfway through the project
but expecting that once the bridge was half built, with the
connivance of Alaska's senators (who measure success in terms of
tax dollars delivered to Alaska) the federal government could be
made to pony up the funds for the rest of the bridge a few years
from now. It's an ethically reprehensible plan, of course, but
it's also so inspired that a part of me can't help regretting that
I didn't think of it myself.
On the home front, my renovations are picking up momentum, but I'm
not getting any closer to completion because I keep adding to the
list. Right now the downstairs kitchen (in the rental unit) is
gutted and my handyman is working on the floor. I'm not quite sure
what we're going to do with it -- after peeling back several layers
of really ugly linoleum we've hit a layer of what's probably original
wood flooring. Unfortunately it's been buried for quite a while and
is in need of repair in some places. He may, or may not, be able to
to salvage it. In the meantime, redoing the kitchen is going to be
a lot more involved than I expected -- I was hoping to just rip out
the top layer of linoleum and put down some tile. As long as the
apartment is vacant and I'm having the work done, however, it makes
sense to do it right -- it's just going to take longer (and take more
money) than I'd thought.
Weatherwise it's turned cold again -- around midday the rain turned
to sleet, then stopped entirely. By the time I left work there was
a thick layer of frost on my car and I had to scrape for ten minutes.
And when I got home I had to think carefully about where to park:
the last time I parked on the hill when it was cold the street froze
on me and I couldn't get enough traction to back out of my parking
space when morning came. Tonight I parked further down the hill but
I'm not sure whether my choice was a wiser one, as I'm parked on Grant
Street, part of which is built atop a big wooden trestle which was so
slippery I simply couldn't walk across it when walking from the car to
the house. Probably I should just get up an hour early and walk to
work, but I'm not too good at that (the "get up early" part) I'm afraid..
I hope the weather stays cold through the weekend, as it's really quite
beautiful when the snow falls on the hillsides.
Well, enough for one night..
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mcnally
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response 3 of 95:
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Jan 11 07:42 UTC 2006 |
re #1: I don't think I have. I haven't really been out and about
taking pictures very much lately. The only thing I've really been
photographing lately has been the progress of my house renovation
and I can't imagine those being of general interest.
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mcnally
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response 4 of 95:
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Jan 11 20:42 UTC 2006 |
Since weather is a favorite subject here (of commiseration, usually)
I might as well mention that the statistics are in for last year and
despite a very pleasant May and June, 2005 was Ketchikan's wettest
year in nearly half a century with 187.1 inches (~475 cm) of rainfall.
Were it spread out evenly over the course of the year, that would
make a little more than half an inch of rain per day, but of course
we do get some sunny days now and again and except on the rainiest
days it usually stops for at least part of the day.
The plus side, I guess, is that as far as I can tell my roof isn't
showing any signs of leaking, and if it can stand up to 15 feet of
rain in one year maybe I don't need to replace it quite as urgently
as I'd thought..
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tod
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response 5 of 95:
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Jan 11 21:45 UTC 2006 |
I love this rain
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happyboy
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response 6 of 95:
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Jan 11 22:12 UTC 2006 |
i'm turning into a mushroom.
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tod
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response 7 of 95:
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Jan 11 22:19 UTC 2006 |
heyba mamba!
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happyboy
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response 8 of 95:
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Jan 12 09:29 UTC 2006 |
lol
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mcnally
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response 9 of 95:
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Jan 25 22:03 UTC 2006 |
The latest from Ketchikan:
Details are sketchy but apparently a military jet of some sort has crashed
about four or five blocks from here, near the power plant. I'll post more
later if I learn anything interesting.
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tod
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response 10 of 95:
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Jan 25 22:12 UTC 2006 |
I'm just seeing alot of fog on the cam, Red Green.
http://www.earthcam.com/usa/alaska/ketchikan/
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mcnally
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response 11 of 95:
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Jan 25 22:55 UTC 2006 |
Word has it that the pilot(s?) ejected and that there is probably
unexploded ordinance of some sort aboard.
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tod
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response 12 of 95:
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Jan 25 23:03 UTC 2006 |
Hey Skipper. Do you think we should warn the professor and the others on the
island?! ;)
That sounds crazy, Mike. I can't find anything on your local newspaper's
website about it nor in the national media.
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naftee
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response 13 of 95:
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Jan 26 00:21 UTC 2006 |
unlucky
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mcnally
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response 14 of 95:
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Jan 26 00:46 UTC 2006 |
For once #13 may be appropriate.. Rumors are still flying and it's
hard to say exactly what happened but the version that's now circulating
claims that the pilot's chute didn't open and that he was found dead in
his ejector-seat assembly.
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twenex
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response 15 of 95:
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Jan 26 00:50 UTC 2006 |
The Rumour Mill certainly throws up Enigmatic Variations.
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mcnally
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response 16 of 95:
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Jan 26 00:59 UTC 2006 |
Also, I've heard conflicting stories about the plane. Original reports
claimed it was a USAF fighter of some sort but the latest version of the
story is that it was a privately-owned Czech-made fighter/trainer.
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eprom
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response 17 of 95:
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Jan 26 01:20 UTC 2006 |
It was probably a soviet MiG and our HAARP weapon system took it out.
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tod
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response 18 of 95:
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Jan 26 12:55 UTC 2006 |
Maybe it was a Leer and a grouse took it out
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nharmon
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response 19 of 95:
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Jan 26 15:17 UTC 2006 |
http://www.adn.com/front/story/7391193p-7303450c.html
A small private jet crashed into a Ketchikan neighborhood at midday
Wednesday, killing the pilot who was found about 100 yards from the
wreckage, held fast in his ejection seat, authorities said.
The jet, a Czechoslovakian-made Albatros L-39, is one of several types
of former Soviet-bloc warplanes popular with some aviation enthusiasts
and collectors.
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From the sound of it in the article, the aircraft made a nose-first
crash into the ground after a steep dive. This may suggest the crash was
icing-related. The story says the pilot was not from Alaska, so he may
not have been familiar with Alaskan weather, and the icing hazards that
come with it. He waited until the very last moment before ejecting.
Alaska State Police says no flight plan was filed. This, as much as
anything else, tells you a lot about the pilot.
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tod
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response 20 of 95:
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Jan 26 17:21 UTC 2006 |
It also is a scary prospect to think folks can go out and buy an Albatros for
crashing into residential neighborhoods.
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mcnally
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response 21 of 95:
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Jan 26 18:16 UTC 2006 |
re #19: I'm not sure about the "no flight plan" thing -- the reports
that we got up here say he was en route from Palmer, AK (near Anchorage)
to San Diego (by way of Seattle) but made an unplanned landing in Sitka
and then decided to continue his trip with fatal results.
If he was really flying without a flight plan that actually causes me
more concern about our national security than it does about the likelihood
that military aircraft enthusiasts falling out of the sky in ex-Soviet
fighters are going to become a serious public nuisance. Can you really
fly a foreign-made fighter jet over US territory, without a flight plan,
for several hours, without any sort of response from our air defense?
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tod
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response 22 of 95:
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Jan 26 18:41 UTC 2006 |
Maybe his stereo was up and he didn't hear the distress beacons from ATC.
*snort*
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mcnally
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response 23 of 95:
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Jan 26 18:56 UTC 2006 |
Hey, it's hard to fly one of those things with Kenny Loggins screaming
"Ride into the Danger Zone!" in your ear...
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albaugh
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response 24 of 95:
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Jan 26 18:57 UTC 2006 |
Drift: At a tour 20+ years ago at the to-be-opened Fermi 2 nuclear power
plant in Monroe, MI, the guide mentioned that the plant had been built /
reinforced to withstand a direct hit / crash by a Boeing 747 jet (what with
Metro airport just up the road a bit).
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