So this morning I asked Chip, my media-minded husband, if there was any good news. “Well, Ukraine is still holding back the Russians,” he said. I was hoping for better. I was hoping for a miracle. I decided not to turn on the radio or scan the headlines. I went upstairs, climbed on my bike, typed in a one hour and fifteen minute medium effort workout and turned on the morning prayer podcasts. Sang the hymns, twice, three times, re-read the prayers. Honestly, these times are making me very Jesus-y. I also laid on the floor with my legs up the wall and said “vuuuu” five times, and on Friday I attended a Shabbat service from a rabbi friend’s temple in San Francisco (via Zoom). The whole service emphasized the Ukrainian situation and included a joyous eastern European song, the kind you clap and sing along too– Yes, in the midst of all this tragedy it helps to pray, breathe and sing.
But back to my question: is there any good news? Yes. ( I say this knowing that we are all well aware of the stuff we have to pray about, have to write Lisa Murkowski about, have to write checks for–)
So here is a moment of lightness:
I flew home to Haines from Juneau yesterday. (Okay, not that light. I was in a plane.) It was a blue bird day– all sky, white snowy mountains, green beaches.
The plane was packed with mail and freight (that’s the airport, up on the left edge of the beach behind Jeff the dog, those little white squares are private hangers) and there were just two of us in tight seats right behind two pilots. Me, and a young man that my kids are friends with, and who has been in the news occasionally for all kinds of reasons. As we landed out in the sun on the runway next to the river, in front of the humble Alaska Seaplanes office, a gaggle of boom mics, camera people, and bystanders came forward.
“Are either of you famous?” the main pilot asked before he opened the door.
We both said no.
I asked my fellow passenger if he had, um, done anything lately that was, perhaps, newsworthy?
“I don’t think so,” he said and pulled his face mask up and his cap down and smiled at me with twinkling eyes. I like him.
The stairs where wheeled up, and out I stepped. The camera crew looked puzzled, so I waved, then my young friend hopped off and skipped past them to the parking lot as I heard someone say, “They must be on the next plane…”
I figured the cameras were heliskier paparazzi, as it is that time of year when the world’s bravest daredevils bomb down our mountains on skis and boards. Turns out they were filming an episode of my Mud Bay Road neighbor Michelle Oakley’s popular TV show, Dr. Oakley, Yukon Vet.
Sure enough, when the second plane arrived, this one from Skagway, Michelle greeted a woman that sailed off toward us all in a white fur hat, big movie star sunglasses, red lipstick, a nicer than usual jacket, jeans and xtra-tuffs clutching an elderly Chihuahua. The cameras and Dr. Oakley (in TV character) came to her rescue. Everyone watched. Smiling. What a world.
It did not seem that the little dog was in too much distress. I heard something about pulling a tooth. Also, I’m pretty sure I recognized the dog’s owner by her voice. I have heard Skagway’s Cooper Lynn Hays on KHNS. She hosts a volunteer country music show, and is as close to a country star as we have in “these parts”, as the country musicians say. She used to run a pretty famous burlesque show at a Nashville honky tonk ( according to a feature story about her on KHNS News). She has told us on the air that she and her husband ended up coming to Skagway for a weekend during the pandemic and… stayed. On the radio, she has fun poking fun at herself while, as she says “shamelessly name dropping” the stars she has met or played with. In Skagway, she joined the local “Bad Hombres” band, and so now it is called “The Bad Hombres and Badder Mujer.” I’m pretty sure her sweet shivering dog will be okay, as she is in good hands with Dr. Oakley. I bet too, we hear about it the next time Cooper Lynn is on the radio. That should be fun.
