I live and write on Lingít Aaní, and gratefully acknowledge the past, present and future caretakers of this beautiful place, the Jilkaat Kwaan and Jilkoot Kwaan.

First, some news. If you haven’t heard, there will be a special Haines Borough Assembly meeting tomorrow (Tuesday) in assembly chambers at 3pm to consider this resolution asking for a community wide vote on the chosen harbor expansion plan. Please come if you are interested in it, or contact assembly members (that info is on the Borough web site) if you have suggestions. If you’d like to see changes in the wording, please bring that to the meeting (or ask one of us to) probably in writing with extra copies, as that would be the most expeditious way to address them. I’m not sure how to share assembly information yet here, and don’t plan on making too much of that side of life on these pages, but this is a special meeting, and I want to make sure everyone knows about it.

Sometimes days work out just right- and that happened for me Sunday. The Cubs winning a game in Chicago helped a lot, especially in our family, since that is my son-in-law’s culture. My six year-old granddaughter knows how to keep score, and the four year-old follows right along as well.

Still, the girls have seen a lot of baseball lately, so were happy to miss an hour of the game to attend Geppeto’s Junkyard puppet show, and they loved every bit of it. Although it’s not exactly a puppet show, rather- as its creators say-  more of a theatrical troupe of performing objects—

The dogs stole the show. Two of them. They played crewmen on a whaling ship that had run out of food and were sharing a meal of bilge rat with the captain (played by a human). The scene was rigged so that the dogs had human arms, and drank out of cups and ate off of plates, and devoured the supposedly foul food– it was just so funny watching them. I laughed so hard I cried. The girls loved the mermaids best, and especially the opportunity to touch the puppets and sets after the show and learn a little bit about how they work.

My son-in-law likes Halloween almost as much as the Cubs. He walked his second grader to school in costume, and then walked his four year-old over to the pre-school. Something about that big man in his Darth Vader suit, and those little girls in their storm trooper costumes, made me cry.  Whatever that is, I know it’s pretty close to the same something that moved me to  stand and cheer after the puppet show. It’s good to live in a place where grown ups have as much fun with make believe and dress-up games as children do, don’t you think?