We are almost back to normal. With Christmas and New Year’s falling on Thursdays the last two weeks have been kind of manic– on and off again– celebrate and get to it– and today we are sort of on again– it is a work day before one final (sort of) holiday weekend.
There are three obituaries to write for next week’s paper. Fred Strong’s funeral is in Klukwan tomorrow at 11, and Polly Budke and Dave McDermaid both passed away. I thought of Dave New Year’s Eve when we heard the fireworks while walking back from a party at a friend’s house, crunching on the icy road, with a skiff of snow on top and more wet flakes falling. He worked for Chip at the lumberyard for a time, and that’s how Little Dave who still works there, got his name. They remained great friends to the end. I’m sure Little Dave was contributing to the booms and flashes of the fireworks Allen launches off the top of his unfinished castle, the three story concrete and cinder block tower in his backyard up on Small Tracts Road, every New Year’s at around midnight. (They seemed to begin earlier and last longer this year. But maybe there were more folks in the spirit, and it was hard to tell exactly where they all were coming from.) It felt like a proper send off for Big Dave.
Tonight there are home basketball games. The girls play Wrangell. The JV game is at 6:00, the varsity at 7:30, same thing tomorrow. There’s also auditions for Dancing at Lughnasa, an Irish drama directed by Tod Sebens, tonight and tomorrow night at 6:00 in the Chilkat Center, and it looks like Alaska weather is even returning. The forecast calls for teens and single digit temperatures. It may even drop to zero Saturday night, and North winds will be gusting to 50 mph. It’s already picked up, one just shook the house. Watch for ice under feet and tires this morning.
