I was on the radio yesterday, doing my weekly country show hosting in between two obituaries ( William H. Seward impersonator and history buff John Venables and fisherman and artist Jay Miller.) I thought that my editor Tom would not be pleased that I was volunteering rather than working, but there you have it. Duty calls. Which could be the theme for this week. (Fun duty though. The best kind of duty.) On the 4th Chip and I counted runners in the Ripinsky Race as they reached the top and touched the flag, and then took my place at the plate and bun table at the Friends of the Library picnic in the park. (Over 800 hot dogs and burgers sold!)
Monday was jury duty, but after about three hours of listening to other prospective jurors answer questions politely and I thought, so kindly and fairly– I wasn’t needed as they had enough for the six person jury. Then I had the obituaries to get to, chicks to feed, dogs to walk, and the crows to chase from the cherries. They have been waking us at dawn. That would be about 4:00 am.
After much prayer and meditation I decided to give up on making an enemy of the crows. It’s too time consuming. It’s only cherries. I figured I’d embrace the clever Corvids and hang truce flags made by Joanie Wagner. Guess what? This morning we slept in. No crows screaming out the window at us. Coincidence? I think not. My friend Deana calls her place The Cherry House. If I was the house-naming type, or had a house that should have a name, I might call mine The Crow House.
But what I wanted to say, is that the parade was the best ever this year. The marching band was perfect in their beanies with the little twirly-gigs on top, and the Native dancers rocked the regalia, and what’s not to love about the mayor of Haines Junction wearing a sequined sport coat and driving the Zamboni his town donated to ours in a trade for a salmon barbecue?
Of course, the weather helped. It doesn’t get any better than 81 in the shade.
