Snow Teaser

Friday morning we woke up to a blizzard and the forecast was for up to 8 inches of snow.  Also the storm was coming from the North and not off of the Gulf of Alaska which means it was expected to stay cold.  Things were definitely looking up.

I went skiing after work and took the photo above.  There was enough snow to go classic skiing in the woods! The kids got out of school early and sledded with friends for hours out on the lawn.  Nora even taught her friend Estella how to cross country ski.

And then it turned to rain and warmed up.  By Saturday we had no more snow on our lawn and it had all turned to slush near the golf course where I cross country ski.  I am seriously wondering if the turn of events has to do with the spider I killed during Stuey's horseback riding lesson on Thursday.  Did I curse us with rain?

Now it is Sunday and it has gotten cold again.  Tonight another snow storm is supposed to roll in from the North.  But this time I am trying to keep my excitement in check.  And all spiders are safe.
Patrick

College Reception in Las Vegas

Earlier this week I (groggily) returned from my first ever National Physical Therapy Conference in Vegas. The trip ended up being great for making connections, learning new Physical Therapy  and having a fun getaway in the crazy city of Las Vegas.

ITHACA RECEPTION

At an evening reception on Tuesday night, I had my first contact with Ithaca College faculty since graduating from college 15 years ago. 

Two of my prior professors, Dr. Pagliarulo and Dr. Andrew Robinson were at the small evening gathering held for Ithaca college graduates and students. I had hopes of seeing some old college friends, but none were present. 

I walked alone into the reception with my "Zoya class of '99" nametag hoping to see a familiar face, but there were none. I made my way to get a glass of wine and a plate of fabulous cheeses, salami and bread and continued to look for familiar faces.  The awkwardness disappeared as I quickly realized that others there felt the same way, they smiled and we all looked at each others name tags for the graduation years. They didn't know anyone either. 

As we warmed up to one another, I gradually perceived this innate connection with the other Ithaca College grads that I couldn't put my finger on.  It dawned on me that I didn't  realize (until that moment) how much  sharing an alma matter was a  common denominator which made striking up conversation so easy.  

 I talked at length with a guy from Chicago who graduated a few years after me and we talked about our careers, families and reflected back on college. We shared stories about professors…and advisors. I told him the story of my advisor who would call me  into her office quarterly and scare the begeezus out of me…She'd ask, "How are you doing Zoya? Seems like this quarter has been hard for you, etc…"

She made me wonder if I would ever survive PT school. But I was so determined to finish and succeed.   

At the end of the evening, Dr. Pagliarulo arrived; he was the department chair when I was at Ithaca. Seeing him was like  putting  on a worn, familiar glove. His smile and kindness were just as real as 15 years ago. I had  lots of struggles in college with surviving the intense physical therapy program, and I always remembered Dr. P as someone who was kind and positive and rooting for me. 

That night, I felt as though I had come full circle. I couldn't help think, "My life is what it is now because these professors believed in me, taught me and guided me." It was a humbling moment of realizing where I was and who had helped me get there. 

I asked if there have been other Alaska students in the program and they said no; I am the only one. 

As the evening wrapped up and I headed back to my room, I was glad to have that long awaited moment over with; when I  connected with my Ithaca College Roots once again. 

Dr. Pagliarulo and I at the Ithaca College Reception

Nora and Stuey would've LOVED these!

meanwhile, I loved this….I enjoyed a margarita made with the infusion from jalepenos and oranges. 

The indoor "sky" at the Venetian Hotel 

Vegas skyline

 Zoya

Living on the archaeological landscape

Yesterday the kids, dogs and I went for a walk on Near Island and I learned something of interest that helps me understand what people were doing in the past at local archaeological sites.  Our first stop on the hike was an eroding archaeological site.  I explained to the kids that the red rocks coming out of the site were red because they had been in a fire.  I have excavated a few similar sites and I told the kids how they were probably smoke processing lots and lots of cod.  The rocks were heated up and then they held the heat to help the cod to dry. It was a good way to conserve firewood. Ancient peoples did not have freezers so they needed to smoke and dry the cod so that they could save it for later.

The kids duly nodded their heads, and asked me about how the people who lived here made knives from rocks.  The dogs ran off and swam in the ocean. Stuey went looking for a piece of slate to grind into an ulu knife.  My lesson was over - or so I thought.

A short while later we came upon a couple fishing from shore and they had caught some humongous cod.  One of the cod was darn near as big as Stuey.  A lightbulb went off in my head, 'ah ha, so that's why that site is located where it is - cod are easy to catch here.'  I had previously assumed that ancient Alutiiq peoples had had to kayak far offshore to catch such large cod.  Now I know that such cod can be caught from shore in late winter.

A small point to be sure, but it does highlight something I feel quite strongly about - archaeologists should live on and understand the landscape where they work.  Afterall, there is only so much one can learn from books.  This sounds obvious but most archaeologists live in a city and teach at a University and only visit 'the field' to work for a few short weeks every year - if at all.

Once at a large archaeological conference I checked out a session on Upper Paleolithic Portugal.  The archaeologists were talking about the various animals whose bones had been found in the site.  To my horror they used contemporary pictures of animals in a zoo to show what the various animals looked like.  Clearly these archaeologists had no idea what it means to chase down, kill and butcher something on their own.

Living in the environment makes all the stuff one reads in books so much easier to understand.  You know what is possible or not and you know when a theory is ridiculous.  You know what it means to live on the landscape.  Patrick

National Physical Therapy Conference-Vegas

NATIONAL CONFERENCE

15 years into my physical therapy career, I decided to give the National Conference a try. This year its in Vegas, which is such a wild, bizarre place. Oxygen bars, ridiculously  expensive food, sex, alcohol and gambling being promoted just about everywhere you look.

I heard that when conferences are held in Vegas, there is a 15% increased attendance as compared to other locations and I can understand why. For conferences, Vegas has got it down. From restraurants on every corner, lots of hotels in one location,  airport short distance from the Vegas strip...it makes travel here easy.

The National PT conference has 10,000 therapists in attendance and this mornings talk that I went to had probably 3,000 in one room. I"m used to going to small 20-30 person hands on classes, so this is a big change. The place is flooded with students. I look around and feel a bit old. At this mornings session, I sat next to a therapist who has also been practicing for 15 years and it was her first time to CSM as well.

There were 3 lecturers, a HUGE screen for powerpoint up front and a good AV system for the speakers. There were lots of videos imbedded into the powerpoints which was nice...to see the exercises being done as opposed to pictures.


SOCIAL GATHERINGS
Tonight there is a meeting of the Society of Women's Health (SOWH) at the Bourbon Room at the Venetian hotel. I'm not a bourbon fan but I imagine there will be other things to drink as well!  I'm way excited about this gathering to get a feel for the SOWH...I'm thinking of perhaps doing  a presentation next year at conference so I want to get a feel from the leaders of this group if my potential topics would be of any interest.

At 7pm is the Ithaca College Reception. I'm excited and nervous about the Ithaca College reception. Excited to have a social outing where I'll be with "my people" and to hear about what Ithaca College is up to. But nervous that I won't be hip enough or cool enough...just the same typical nerves that go along with reunions. The same type of feelings that make people not want to go to reunions at all.

I"m hoping to see some people I know there as well as old professors. I didn't attend my 10th college reunion, so this would be the first in-person get together with folks from my college days.

Because of the conference, I joined twitter (or rather, my office manager got an account going for A Balanced Approach). I'm a newbie to the twitter world and was realizing that get togethers at conference were done very much through twitter. Last night I went to a Mexican food restaurant where there was an announced get together, and no one was there. The hostess said, "oh yes...there was about 25 other therapists who came and left, saying there was a get together here". Very odd. I sat and enjoyed a quiet meal by myself-yummy mushroom fajitas.

Alas,  my first twitter-organized get together was a bust, but I"m more hopeful for tonight!



And amidst the hustle-bustle of conference, I've scheduled in lots of down time.
The down time feels good. I gave myself 5 hours today in between sessions to write on the blog, read, rest, eat lunch, rest some more, etc.  The view from the 43 floor of the hotel overlooks the aiport and downtown and just relaxing and watching the planes take off is fun! When looking at our blog, I realized that my last post was on January 18th which was forever ago. I've been writing down kid quotes left and right on the calender but just hadn't had the time to sit and write.


Zoya

Spruce Cape

Over the weekend we took a couple walks out Spruce Cape.  For the first hike we took along the little radios I use for archaeological surveys.  Basically they are really, really good 'walky talkies'.  I remember the walky talkies of my youth - you were lucky if you could talk to each other across an open field.  The kids would split up and talk to each other.  I noted that Zoya has the best walky talky of all - her cell phone.

The best part about the SpruceCape hike is the beach at the end.  Nora and Stuey found little perches on the bank and we threw sticks into the water for the dogs.  Tank can now swim pretty well and he negotiated some pretty large breaking waves.  It was doggie surfing.  Hard to believe that at the beginning of summer he could not swim at all, and it was very difficult to get him into the water.

Patrick

Crocuses in January

Nora and I investigated the garden yesterday and found crocuses coming up.  Say it 'aint so! This may well be the worst winter in 10 years. I remember in 2009/2010 we had crocuses in February, but that year we got a lot of snow in March & April.  The winter of 2002/2003 remains the worst that I remember.  We never got snow that winter.  And it could happen again this winter.

It's funny because the Lower 48 has been enjoying a glorious winter.  Lately it has been colder in Atlanta, GA than here on Kodiak.  On the news I saw that political pundits on the East Coast are decrying global warning theory based on the cold temperatures they've seen this winter.  The pundits need to come to Alaska.

Despite the lack of snow I've still managed to keep skiing.  The photos below are from the last 2 days on Pyramid.  It's pretty desperate snow.  Yesterday and today there was fog down low and the sun was out. The visuals alone made the climb up from the road worthwhile.
Patrick

My new favorite bookstore

I almost titled this post 'cabin lit', and really that's what the post is all about.  Last fall during an archaeological survey by kayak around Afognak Island Mike S and I gained an appreciation for paperback novels found in cabins. During the trip, we were weather bound next to two remote cabins,  and we shamelessly plundered their bookshelves for tent bound entertainment. 'Cabin Lit' is by definition limited.  You choose what you choose and that's what you read.  Afterall, every book there was already chosen by a prior cabin dweller and NOT YOU.  It tends to be action/adventure, romance, bra buster, sci-fi, fantasy type stuff.  But really the operative words are random and 'limited selection'.

Despite the random, limited selection, Mike and I enjoyed every book that we read. We even did book club like talk about what you read type stuff. And this got me thinking, 'how important is a big selection of books?'  Might I be better off with a more limited selection where it is easier to make a choice?  Sort of like TV channel selection in the pre cable days - no angst about choice?

Fast forward to post Christmas holidays when I go online to buy some new books.  Both Amazon and Barnes and Nobles no longer let you check out 'as a guest'.  It is all password and account driven.  Of course I'd forgotten my passwords, and after many complications I bagged the whole online thing.

And that is when I found Safeway!  I found books to buy while shopping for food. And I am happy to say that it is the ultimate version of 'cabin lit'.  There is not a huge selection, but it is bigger than it looks because each rack contains many titles - you have to flip through them by hand, each rack at a time.  But I am realizing that I don't like a lot of choices.  I have not picked a loser yet and I KNOW that I would not ordinarily have chosen many of the books I have recently purchased at Safeway.

Just this week I discovered a new series that ought to keep me entertained for years.  It is the 'Rogue Angel' series by 'Alex Archer'.  And I put quotes around Alex Archer for a reason.  On Wikapedia I learned that it is bi monthly series is put out by Harlequin and written my multiple authors (there are already like 40 titles for me to read).  It is about a female archaeologist who is the heir to Joan of Arc's sword.  What's there not to like?  The one I am reading now takes place at an archaeological conference in Madison, WI - the very place where I went to archaeological graduate school!  All about Mayan temples underwater in lakes and lots of murders etc. It's like a comic book for adults - HUGE entertainment value.

To finish, I have to add that Zoya wants me to go to the new Kodiak library.  And that makes total sense - check out books for free!  But hey, I still like Safeway.

Patrick

Time to get into rafting

Putting in at Sargent creek

Here on Kodiak it has been raining a lot lately.  And the bad part is that it has been so warm that even the tops of the mountains have been getting rain and not snow.  Right now it is 42 degrees here on Kodiak - At Waimea in Hawaii it is meant to get down to 48 degrees tonight.  There's still snow for skiing up above 1200 feet but it is pretty skimpy.  It's been a struggle to stay motivated and ski on a daily basis.

So today I tried something new.  I went river kayaking with Brent, Jeremy and Mike.  We made good use of all that melting snow.  We ran two creeks - we first did Sargent Creek and then did Virginia Creek out near White Sands beach.  Tomorrow I think I'll go again!

Patrick

Update:  Just now when I checked the temperature in Waimea, Hawaii (on the island of Kauai near where we stayed) it was 41 degrees - that is colder than it is here on Kodiak right at this moment where it is 43 degrees!  Right now there is a HUGE dip in the jetstream that is pushing cold air from Siberia down to Hawaii, and then the air is coming all warmed up back up to Alaska (and then it pushes down the 'polar vortex' towards the lower 48 where they are expecting a serious cold snap).  WEIRD.

I had some seriously bad deep fat fried, batter dipped shrimp in Waimea.

The top section at Sargent Creek

The first drop on Virginia Creek

Stuey's Camera

Stuey taking some final pictures with his camera on the way to the airport - after these pictures he left the camera in the rental car

When we left Hawaii Stuey left his camera in the rental car.  This made him very sad.  The worst part was that he lost his pictures of the beautiful sunset.  Zoya has called the rental car company - so perhaps all is not lost and we may well see the little blue Panasonic water proof camera yet again.

But it's not all bad.  He has been borrowing my camera for our 'photo safaris' into Abercrombie, and it takes panoramics and stitches them together in what stuey calls, 'the computer in the camera'.  The old Panasonic did not do this.  Stuey really, really wants my camera for his birthday, and it is not such a crazy idea.  Afterall, I did fog my camera up diving too deep underwater in Hawaii, and any camera that Stuey does get has to be water and shock proof.  So we will see.

Patrick

Finding True North with Troop #118

Today  Brownie Troop #118 found their 'True North' (as well as their magnetic norths!). The girls gazed at  the compasses which they held with their winter-gloved hands. Patrick guided the troop and  taught the group about true north, magnetic north and how to read maps on Near Island.

The Brownies pulled out their compasses and oriented their  maps correctly to learn where THEY were on the map.  The marked trail, road and topo lines were all clues. Today was the first  day working with the group on  trail navigation. (Thank you to Philip Tscherisch with Island Trails Network on obtaining the maps for us!)

We hiked on Near Island, starting at the Rotary Park trail, going out to the South End point on Near Island and then back to Rotary Park. The weather was a balmy low 40's and the sun was out-so lovely!

At the half way point we stopped for hot cocoa and some sitting time. During the course of the 2 mile walk, the girls were troopers-they jumped and ran along and caught with their friends. The group was very curious about where they were on the maps and we checked in with them several times along the way to have them guess our location so they could see if they were accurate. 

There were lots of parents along for the afternoon as well and it was fun for us to catch up! Grown up fun time hiking in the sun. 

(I"m not one to normally be boastful about my husband, but once every 10 years I think I'm allowed.

 I was so proud and thrilled to have Patrick along today as a Brownie Dad. He is so energetic about helping and teaching the girls. We came upon several people along the trail today, and he would tell the strangers so proudly, "this is a girl scout Brownie Troop, and I'm a brownie troop dad."All of us adults learned so much about compasses, trails, etc as well. Having him alongside me has made being a Brownie Troop leader that much more fun! Thank you to my rock-star Brownie-dad husband!)

Fellow Brownie leaders, Alexis and Kathy,  at the hike rest stop

Patrick teaching the girls about maps. 

Trekking along with maps in hand. 

fabulous evening light for the hike

along the beach

up to the point on near island

through the forest

snack time soon!

hot cocoa

enjoying time with friends

walking home

Zoya

My Favorite Photos from 2013

I enjoy photography, and lately I've been checking out the 'Kodiak Camera Club' Facebook page for ideas.  I highly recommend that you visit the website  (click here). There are some beautiful photographs on there.  But looking at all the photos I am also disturbed by a few trends that I see in current photography.

First of all, where are all the people?  Practically all the photographs are landscapes or animal pictures.  Perhaps this is because the website is oriented towards Kodiak photography, and the best thing about Kodiak is our landscapes and animals.  Maybe if the newspaper or wedding/party photographers put more photos on the page this would change.  

Still when I took photography classes in college it was all about people photography on the streets and 'catching the decisive moment' a la Cartier Bresson.  I like the photo I took above backstage at the Nutcracker because the graininess, contrast and mood remind me of a black and white Robert Frank photograph. Not that I'll ever come close to the real deal.  Ever see the one he took of the bored girl operating the elevator?  That is my favorite Robert Frank photograph. (click here for an awesome story about the photograph).

The other current photography trend that I find disturbing is the garish use of saturation and color shifts.    Basically people are doing too much 'photoshopping'.  I do touch up my pictures in both photoshop and iphoto but I try to return a photo to what it really looked like.  I try not to overdo it.  The photo below of an archaeologically excavated housepit with mountains and reflections behind it is an example of mine where I overdid it a bit with the photoshopping - note that the color saturation is a little over the top.  I stand by all the others - within the frame that is what it looked like.

Generally, I try to the let the composition and natural shadows, colors, reflections etc make the picture.  I think landscape photography is actually pretty easy.  Afterall, nothing is moving!  Basically, it is just up to the photographer to get the exposure and composition right.  The hardest part is getting it right before the light changes.  And light changes far more slowly than people move.

My final pet peeve is that it seems current photographers tend to emphasize technique rather than composition to get a good photo.  On the Kodiak Camera Club webpage there are numerous tripod supported night shots.  Everybody seems to be using slow shutter speeds to get cool effects.  And they certainly do achieve some spectacular images.  But my favorite images are still the ones with inherent good composition.  

I still remember my photography teacher, way back in the 1980s, who emphasized composition over everything.  He always said that while sepia or selenium toning (the 'photoshop' of 1980s black and white photography) might make a photo look interesting.  A well-toned badly composed photograph is still a bad photograph.  I really don't think anything has changed all that much.

So check out what I consider my best photographic images from the past year, and let me know what you think.  Patrick

Chirikof lupin and archaeological field camp

Kodiak's windturbines at sunrise

I took this one of surfers out at Narrow Cape from a long way away and then cropped it to create a pleasing composition

My favorite animal photo - a Chirikof Ground Squirrel

A 400 year-old Alutiiq house after archaeological excavation

View at dawn from our archaeological field camp last summer at Old harbor

Another view from the Old Harbor field camp at dawn

A blown out dandelion blossom up close

Stuey showing off no hands on an Afognak zipline

Pauls Lake sunrise and moonset