Land of the midnight sun

OK, we finally had a really nice warm day, about 80 and since then it has been pretty nice. Last night it got a little nippy, but the days have been warm. We got all 9oo and some odd flowers planted last week! Yipes. There are lots and lots of them. Our bosses are such a kick. Tomi is a really take charge kind of woman, and since her stroke she hasn't been able to do lots of things she used to do. The only problem is, she is unable to let go of all the things she used to do, and thinks she still can! Oh dear, what a fracas! If there was a picture in the dictionary under control freak, it would be of Tomi! She so wants to do everything she used to do and say everything she used to say. Talking has always been one of her joys I think. She does pretty well tho, considering. Rich just does what he is told and all works out well!
Holy smokes are the mosquitos out in force now. There are millions of the little creeps. We have a sticker in the office that reads, "There is not a single mosquito in Alaska...they are all married and raising very large families!" I believe it too. I didn't know there were so may devices, gismos and gadgets to attract, repell and kill mosquitos. We have propane ones that attract them and then they stick to stuff like fly paper, we have little round devices that are battery operated that have a citronella smelling sponge in them to repell, then of course there is the citronella candles, and other battery operated devices.
A few of the things I have learned since in Alaska.
1. Alaskan tundra is next to impossible to walk on, and anyone who hikes a lot in AK has to be crazy! It is like walking on a very bumpy and uneven mattress!
2. Fishing and doing other things with a head net on, takes some getting used to. You find yourself looking cross eyed at all the lines in front of your eyes and you still swat at the mosquitos because several of the jokers feel the need to come and buzz right in your ear! Head nets are pretty close to heavenly tho.
3. Alaska is the only place where you can buy cans of mosquito repellent in case lots in grocery stores! In the Glennallen grocery store you can't get diet tonic, but by damn you can get mosquito spray by the case!
4. I feel certain that after living here for 4 or 5 months our blood will be 80% deet! We have sprayed enough of the stuff on us, we have to obsorbed some of it. This is the only place I have ever been where you can buy mosquito spray that is 100% deet, no kidding! Guess some folks get very nauseaus from it......ya think?????
5. Alaska has some of the most majestic mountains you will ever see anywhere. There are mountain ranges after mountain ranges.
6. Most everyone up here has relatives that live "outside".....OK, that means in the lower 48.
7. Even in Glennallen, AK I can't make myself pay $7.00 for a cantaloupe. (Boy those buggers would have to be really really good to justify that price.)
8. Got our hair cut today in the only hair cutting place in Glennallen. $18.00 for girls, $15.00 for boys, and she accepts out of state checks. Her name is Marla, she has 2 kids, 14 grandkids, she has been a widow for 10 years after her bush pilot husband was killed, she sold her house to her fertile daughter and her husband, and lives in a tiny apartment in the back of her shop, or house sits. She was born in OR, hates green peppers and has never been to the arctic circle. All of that I learned during two hair cuts. Yipes, life is good.
9. Glennallen has a very fine dental clinic. It is one dentist strong, his name is Kevin and he works in jeans and tee shirt and mocks on his feet. His hygienist has been a hygienist since 1982 and has a daughter that does the same thing in Anchorage. Only mother daughter team ever to graduate from the hygienist school in Anchorage. Take a bow Char! The hours at the clinic are 7am to 6pm, 4 days a week, and more if someone has a tooth ache. I had an abcess, so had to get anitbiotics, etc. So after the dental clinic I had to go to the pharmacy. The clinic faxes in your script, then you go to the medical clinic/pharmacy combo and get your drugs. The pharmacy is smaller than many closets that I have seen, much smaller that your closet Julia, and smaller than your bathroom Ann, anyway, everyone is just so very friendly and nice.
10. The library in Glennallen rocks! It is run by volunteers and when you request a library card, you get nothing, just your name put into the computer! You get your books and they enter the data in the system and away you go. Barry thinks we had more books when we lived on Manor than are in the library, but we never fail to find some to take home. Pretty good selection of magazines too.
11. I think an 8 wt. fly rod may be just a might small to catch a king salmon on, at least in the Klutina River. Had one on the other day and he took all my line and darn near all my backing before he threw the fly. Yipes, it was very exciting. Didn't get a look at him, but we did get to see some of the sockeyes that were porpoising through the water and the one that Barry had on. Have to keep at it until we get it right.

OK, I'm about done for tonight. Have to work tomorrow at 8 as our bosses will be going to Palmer, so we are holding down the fort. Holy smokes and it is our day off too! Tomi has to go to the Dr., so we just have to step up to the plate, bite the bullet, and all of that. Later