A few days off (away from my desk) in the garden and hanging out with friends and family is just what I needed. I’ve been a little blue with the borough stuff and Song’s death, and am relieved that his wife Amy didn’t want to do the obituary this week. It’s been a tough go for her and their three little ones, and the funeral is Monday at 3:00 at St. Luke church in Shoreline, near Seattle. If you do go, Amy says to wear “Easter best” whites and bright colors. There will be a memorial in Haines in about a month, she said, and she and the kids will be here.
Today is the last day of school, graduation and eighth grade promotion have come and gone, and this evening at 5 in Tlingit Park is the preschool graduation. (I have two granddaughters advancing to Kindergarten!) I will miss it, as we have a borough assembly budget meeting from 5-7 or so.
Speaking of the borough assembly, the recall threat made NPR this morning. (So far the petitions haven’t been turned in. They have sixty days from the day the clerk approved them, which I believe was April 12.) Melissa Block interviewed some of us a few weeks ago when it was more raw than it is now, and also before there was so much public support for the assembly. We chatted with her for about three hours on two evenings. It was great therapy for me to sit with Shane, Joanne, Dr. McCandless, and Haynes and Katie– we were practically knee to knee in the radio station boardroom and once the ice broke there was a lot of laughing and some tears, too. Still, I wondered what Melissa would glean out of it all for the few-minute Morning Edition piece. She did a good a job. I am especially glad she used the quote about no one remembering what we are fighting or even worrying about in three years. That is the truth. I don’t think half the people in town can even say what the last two actual recalls were about.
This week hasn’t felt divisive at all. The long hours of daylight help, and Haines High graduation was really nice– and so was the Uglys’ cancer travel fund fundraiser on Saturday night. More fun is on the way, too, with the 25th (really?) Beerfest starting tomorrow with several ferries bringing beer lovers from Skagway and Juneau. It’s the first big weekend of the summer and should be kind of crazy, in a good way– but be careful, and safe.
Oh, and if you think you heard gunshots out Mud Bay Rd. recently and called the police, turns out it was a humpback whale smacking her tail.
