More Dog Stuff

D'Artagnan is almost 6 months old and is doing great. He is almost coming when called and is growing into his excess skin and his feet.
Lori had him on a walk a couple of days ago and let him off the leash. She said he jumped around like he hadn't ever ran free. He chased butterflys, jumped into every puddle he could find, ran after anything that looked interested, but came back when Lori called. He is a great hiking companion. If he gets ahead he will wait for you to catch up. He rarely pulls on the leash.
He is quite formitable when playing tug with one of his toys. The hardwood floor in the house are still playing havoc with him. He just can't stop quick or corner very well... but he sure tries.
Lori has worked hard on teaching him social skills and it has paid off. He loves other dogs and all people.
He is alway eager to learn tricks. We have a dog that waves to us, gives a "high 5", and will go to his bed-pad. He is even getting better at going to bed.

??Autumn??

Here is a dilemma I haven't had for 21 years... Is it really autumn?

Growing up in southern California the signs of fall were school starting and a few trees deleafing.. oh and Santa Ana winds. It was usually warmer in the fall than most of the summer. Well, moving to North Carolina then Tennessee, and finally Utah autumn took on a whole new meaning for a couple of kids from California... It got cooler...especially at night and the leaves put on a great show of color.

Here in southeast Alaska we have returned to the original problem...what tells us it is fall?
I was driving to work today(I'm in Juneau again) and noticed that many of the deciduous trees are changing color. Yet, it doesn't feel like fall.

I decided that the problem lay in contrast...

In southern Calif. the temperature is pretty constant... any day of the year is from 65 to 85 degrees be it Christmas, our anniversary, Labor day, my birthday, Lori's birthday, etc. In Tennessee and NC the temps go from the 90's every day to the 70's... in Utah it is the upper 80's to the 60's. Fall is not just seen, it is felt.

Here in Juneau or Sitka or Klawock it has been in the mid-50's for the past 6 months. We have had probably 1 or 2 days in the 70's and only a handful in the 60's. Now in the fall it is still in the mid-50's...OK, maybe the upper 40's in a few weeks. So the biggest changes we'll get for autumn are a few leaves changing (remember we have mostly fir/evergreen trees here) and more rain. Of course this year it has been exceptionally wet for summer.

Thankfully this is something that we can adapt to and in no way decreases our happiness at being here. Hey the summers can only get better from here...right?

Musical Family

OK this turned out a lot longer than I expected....

We have had music in our family since 21 June 1981... that is... at the beginning of the Harts #2 (see previous post about the Hart Hiearchy). Our musical tastes range all over... exceptions being country, hiphop, sleazy chicks, and at least for me...disco. So it could be said we are quite eclectic in our musical enjoyment. The kids have picked up on this are very varied also. Much of their music Lori and I enjoy... especially ska.
At least some musical enjoyment has been present in my family for 4 generations. My grandpa Hart played the "mouth organ"/harmonica before getting dentures made it too hard. Grandpa Minson was a saxophone player as well a little organ. GG(Grandma Minson) played organ and piano. My parents don't play any instruments, but fostered a love of music for my brothers and I through listening to music. They enjoyed musicals...movies and plays and always had the radio on. The supported us when we wanted to play trumpet(see Tijuana Brass post), clarinet, and trombone. David, John and I played together at Christmas and in school orchestras and bands. I got into choir at church and then in school my senior year. I even had 2 small parts in our musical... Sound of Music.
Church also had Road Shows for us to participate in. These were 15 minute plays which we performed at 4 locations in the same night while others rotated with us.
Marching band at Millikan High School was part of all of us. The competitions, the football games, the parades... I even got to march in the Rose Parade in 1975... that was a LONG 5.5 miles.
Lori's family was just as or more musical. Her mom sang and her dad was a really good trumpet player. Lori started playing clarinet and expanded to saxophone, tried flute and bassoon. She even was part of the pageantry during her time in the Long Beach Junior Concert Band.
Anneka has been playing cello since 4th grade(she is now 23). This talent has allowed her to play through high school and in community groups. She has taken lessons from a world class cellist and continues to play at church and with her community. The past few years she has been the principle cellist for the community production of Messiah in Logan.
Richard was taught to play saxophone by his mom and now plays alto, tenor, and baritone sax. He has also played around with the clarinet and is now teaching himself to play banjo. He has played in jazz bands, school bands and even in a short-lived ska band. He loves to listen to music as the condition of his MP3 player attests.
Meg is our violin player and has taught her cousin Michael to play. She is in love with singing and would like to sing opera. She even took voice lessons in Italy this past year. As a 15-year-old girl Meg sang in the Mozart Requiem and the Messiah in the same semester!!
Charles plays cello and in the past couple of years added bass...both string bass and electric. He attended the Sitka Fine Arts Camp this summer and played in a rock band, a jazz band and an orchestra.
All of the kids got to attend the Utah State University Music camp in Logan. They would spend a week playing 8+ hours a day and learning tons about music.
I have had the chance through a community choir in Logan (NUCS...Northern Utah Choral Society) to sing Beethoven's Chorale from the 9th symphony, Messiah, and Mozart's Requiem (twice).
Anneka, Meg and I performed with John Ribera in a community production called the Multi-Cultural Messiah. This is done at Easter time and about 2/3 of the whole piece is done. Anneka, as mentioned before, was a cellist in the orchestra, Meg sang alto, and I sang tenor.
Our home is always filled with music of some sort. Charles, Richard, Meg, and I all have MP3 players that each have over 3000 songs that we carry with us. What makes this unique is that not only is the music performed with 80 member choir, soloists, and full orchestra, but the whole thing is signed with American Sign Language, part is sung in Spanish, and visually there are 140 slides of classic paintings depicting the life of Christ. Dr. Ribera is a professor in the Communicative Disorders College at Utah State and a musician. One of his sons drew this picture of the Messiah for the program this year. As the Lord told Emma Smith in the LDS scriptures Doctrine and Covenants 25:12"For my soul delighteth in the song of the heart; yea, the song of the righteous is a prayer unto me, and it shall be answered with a blessing upon their heads."

Beaver Lake Hike Part 2

This time the Beaver Lake hike not only include the dog and I, but Lori was with us too. Today is probably the last sunny day we'll have for a while so we took a nice hike. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this subject Lori did in fact really like the trail and the scenery. Whoever maintains the trail has a row boat tied up in the lake to allow people get out on the water. We took it out for a little while and after resisting for some time D'Artagnan just had to get the oar that was splashing the water (he loves to chase water) and he went in the lake. This was his first complete immersion in water as he has only romped in it before. He was quite surprised, but didn't panic and we got him back in the boat where we were treated to a nice shower as he shook off. This is a very unique trail as it goes through not only the regular rain forest, but also muskeg (peat moss), and bogs. The bog area looked like a forest of bonsai trees.

End of Summer...Summer

We have had a great weather week...OK the past 2 1/2 days and probably tomorrow. No clouds or rain...lots of sun and even getting fairly warm (for us that is). Sunday that is all supposed to change again. I have been told by patients that this is the wettest summer on record and the worst in about 3 years. So at least it should be better next year.
One really nice benefit to the clear weather is that we can take advantage of being away from lot of light pollution and see billions of stars. You can easily see those cloudy white streaks of the Milky Way. There are so many stars it is hard to pick out constellations. The Big Dipper is on that is still easy to see though. Lori, the dog, and I went out this evening and found a bench and just sat for 30 minutes. While watching stars we saw what was probably either the International Space Station or the Space Shuttle go by.
We took advantage of the nice weather and finished painting the fence and the railing around the deck. Charles and Meg were a big help today especially. Lori also was out killing weeds.

Arial Views of Barnoff Island(Our Home)

During a work trip in mid-June I took some pictures while we flew in a twin prop 8 seater (including the pilot) from Sitka to Klawock(on Prince of Wales Island). I doubt we ever got over 5,000 feet. I could see our house after we took off, but didn't get a picture of that.
SEARHC has a clinic in Klawock, but they have no specialists. We do a 3+ day clinic there 5 or 6 times a year. I will end up with 3 visits this year. Pam will have at least 3 also. We have all the equipment we need and only have to bring the frames and dispensing items. We also do a clinic in Yakutat, but that will be a different post.
I go with one of the optometric assistants from here in Sitka. Usually it is Tina or Susie. We are put up in a nice B&B in nearby Craig. Between Craig and Klowack the population is less than 2500. The whole island probably has less than 5,000. Prince of Wales Island is the 3 largest in the US. Only Hawai'i (the Big Island) and Kodiak are bigger.
We are kept busy all day and it really helps out the locals as they would otherwise have to go to Seattle or Ketchikan for eye care.

Genealogy Part Deux

Genealogy Deux includes information on my brothers. The first part had me and Mom and Dad, but we're included for the continuity. I'll start with the baby of our family... John...
If there are no pictures.... know that I will be adding them later.

John Michael Hart
b 16 February 1961 in Long Beach, California
m 9 September 1994 to

Laurie Bean
(b 11 October 1963)
in Logan, Cache, Utah


David Lee Hart
b 22 January 1959 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
m. 1 June 1985 to

Debbie Sue Cook
(7 August 1961 in , Cook, Illinois)
in Palos Verde, Los Angeles, California

Richard William Hart,
b 26 Jan 1958 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah
m 20 June 1981 to
Lori Ann Wagner
(b 8 Aug 1962 in Long Beach, Los Angeles, Californa)
in Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California

Margaret Harriet Minson

b 26 Mar 1934 in Idaho Falls, Bonneville, Idaho,
m 21 Jun 1956 to
Richard Harold Hart
(b 30 Dec 1930 in Salt Lake City, Salt Lake, Utah)
in Manti, Sanpete, Utah

Happy Anniversary John/Laurie

My youngest brother...John... and his wife Laurie will celebrate their 12th("unless I'm wrong... and I'm never wrong"...Prince Humperdink in Princess Bride) anniversary tomorrow the 9 of September. With my only nephew and 2 of my nieces they are living still in Logan in their second house. It was really nice to have them so close when we were there. Happy Anniversary!!

Hart Hierarchy + Brothers Hart

OK for simplicity we in the 4 Hart families have settled on a system for figuring out who is talking to who.
Dick and Peggy/Dad and Mom are Hart #1 as they started this whole thing. As the first one of the sons to marry and being the eldest Lori and I get to be Hart #2. David and Debbie are Hart #3 and John and Laurie are Hart #4. Anneka and Mike don't have to worry about it since the Hart name didn't continue there.
Mom and Dad are living in Long Beach where they have been since 1960 and in the same house since 1962. I have vague memories of the duplex we rented on Euclid in Long Beach. They rented the house on Tevis for a couple of years before buying it. Dad paid off the mortage in 1994.
I won't be boring here discussing Lori and I since this whole blog is dedicated to that.
David and Debbie have lived in Washington...Seattle area for over 10 years. Currently they are in Normandy Park. Their 2 girls are Darlee and Cristina. David is a top gymnastic coach in the area and Debbie is an air traffic controller at the SeaTac airport.
John and Laurie are in Logan. We lived about 1/2 mile from them when we were there. John is a high school teacher at the local "alternative" school. He also coaches and umpires baseball as well as referees basketball. Laurie teaches voice to students mostly from Utah State University. They have 1 boy...Michael and 2 girls...Lexie and Juliette.

Wind Up Your Radios.....!!! The Doctor is IN!!

Yes, it is time for the Dr. Demento Show... In 1972 I was introduced to the good doctor by a friend I'll refer to only as Ronchardson. This intro happened to occur during a LDS Seminary trip to the southern deseret in California while following the route of the Mormon Battalion into San Diego. The silly/gross/"suggestive"/political/semi-religous nature of the song drove our teachers crazy... One in particular dubbed my friend Ronchardson and me Ronchard.
The Dr. Demento started playing comedy and novelty records from a early as 1910 in at least 1970 and soon moved to KMET radio in Los Angeles. It was a 4 hour show on Sunday evenings... 6-10, 5-9, 7-11... The time could vary from year to year. Ronchardson had access to his brother's top of the line(at the time) quad stereo with reel to reel tape deck. We would record the whole show on slow speed and come back during the week and edit what songs we liked. I still have some of those original casettes.
I was introduced to Spike Jones, Allan Sherman, Stan Freberg, Groucho Marx, Phil Silvers, Tom Lehrer, Mel Brooks, Monty Python , Weird Al to mention a few. In addition I had a place to hear more common comedy tunes from Cheech and Chong, George Carlin, David Seville, Bill Cosby, etc.
Thank goodness the morals of the time required some words to be bleeped. Some of the songs played now aren't so lucky... Ronchardson and I were always picky as to what we would and wouldn't listen to.
Lines from these songs became catch phrases in our communication... Like my family now does with lines from movies we like.
I spent many hours in my room listening to the Doctor, yet it was productive time. I did a lot of organizing and cleaning of my room in those 4 hours.
Dear Ronchardson is now a respected psychologist and lecturer and I am a humble optometrist. However, we still love a great funny/dumb recording and have both passed this strangeness to our kids.
So if you ask me if I have read the Hobbit the first thing that will pop into my mind is an image of Leonard Nimoy/Mr. Spock in a very cheesey 60's music video singing about Bilbo. If I meet someone named Sarah I will wonder if she has ever cleaned her house. Every time we clean out the frig and before anything gets dumped we always say, "we're ONLY going to throw it away!!". Just so you know... I believe that the most famous intersection in Los Angeles...or the world for that matter... is Pico and Sepulveda. I'm always careful with garden hoses and toilet seats. I didn't name any of my boys Sue. I don't want to be the 143rd fastest gun in the west. I know that the Danube is really green. I'm afraid of cockroaches in Ohio. I always bet on Beetlebaum. Being my own grandpa doesn't appeal to me. Dr. Pepper is my favorite, but Moon Pies are only OK. I am not that kind of lumberjack. My sons are not vampires. Nixon was the one. I would never buy a parrot that didn't move. I like the Beatles. I DON'T LIKE SPAM!!!! The Thing is worse than Jumanji. I will always have tests done if I have 2 bunnies. I know Who is on First. And I always try and not hurt the ones I love.
If anyone would like an explaination of any of this please let me know. However, realize by asking I will have to consider you warped and DEMENTED!!

And Don't Forget to Staaaaay Deeeemented!!!!!!!

Keep Those Old Posts in Mind

If you are new to keeping up with our life in Alaska please don't forget to check the old posts from past months.
Some of the current experiences have their roots in the past. Such as info on the dog, visitors, houses, etc.
So click on those long gone months and get the whole experience.

Coming to Visit Us

If any of you have an interest to come and visit the great wet southeast(Alaska that is)there are a few travel tips you need to know. First, you can't drive to get here. We are on an island(9th largest in the U.S.) and so if you don't fly or boat you'll have to swim.
Alaska Air is it when it comes to flying in to Sitka. The majority of flights come through Seattle, but there are a few that get here via Anchorage. You'll will probably land in Ketchikan AND will land and probably change planes in Juneau.
The Alaska Marine Highway has ferries from Bellingham, Washington(north of Seattle). It takes almost 3 full days to get here this way. The ferries have cabins for 2 or 4 or you can camp in the public lounges or even pitch a tent on the back deck(summer only). The winter rates are usually 30% off and if you bring a vehicle the drive rides free(not the room). The have a small cafeteria, but it is pretty expensive. Many bring their own food although microwave is the only heating method.
However you get here we have room to put you up and we'll feed you well. We'll even take a picture like this one of Lori and Annika when you depart so we can remember you even better.

Stuck in Juneau

Here we are(Annika and I) stuck in Juneau at the airport at 1 am instead of being in our own beds snoozing soundly. Apparently our flight that was coming from Seattle to Juneau to continue to Sitka was diverted to Anchorage due to mechanical problems. They were to change planes in Anchorage and return to Juneau. This will delay us about 4 hours. We were supposed to leave Juneau at 10:30 pm and instead it will be about 2:15 am getting us home at 2:45 am instead of 11 pm. This is not a big airport and there is no real place to stretch out and snooze except for the floor. I have tried lying down and only got about an hours rest while Annika has been reading and sitting up trying to catch some Zs. My biggest worry is that I have a full schedule of patients tomorrow starting at 8 am. We thought that the weather (heavy rain and strong winds) was a factor, but at least a couple of other planes have come and gone. Annika can at least sleep in tomorrow. Oh well, I will survive and then get a good sleep Friday night.
We actually got into Sikta at 2:30 am and got home by 3:10 am.