Envison

I don't know if that's really a word or not but I like it. Saturday our new gym with our new gym owners was closed so me and Pepe LaPiere needing some exercise decided to take a long walk through our town and do some serious envisioning.

The first thing we came across was our old house, 174 Redoubt Street. MP ramroded the deal back in 1981 and I never saw the house until we moved in, it was the start of our modest empire. Right next door to us was our friend Barb Jewel who has the most meticulously kept yard in Slowdotna, so there was some adjustment period as she got used to us, parked boats, old cars, loud music and my niece Melanie living in the back yard. But 30 years later we're best friends. The place is now a psychiatrists office so it really hasn't changed that much. That big tree is a genuine Montana Ponderosa Pine. I stood in line in the rain at the 4-H tree sale in 1982 to buy two of them, it was just a sapling and now its an impressive 40 footer and one of a kind on Reboubt Street.

While we were discussing the tree I just happened to look down the street and once again noticed what a view it is. I started envisioning that day in 1986 when I turned on the radio and heard that Mt. Redoubt had erupted. I simply put on my shoes and walked out to the street and looked to the west and yup...that baby was cooking off. So we rushed to the video store for movies, then the liquor store and Safeway for some groceries and then gathered the boys up from school and covered up the cars with tarps. Then we hunkered down for a couple days and a real Alaska adventure. I printed this picture looking east as its just so darn pretty, is there a place in the entire world with an every day view like that?

Just down from our old house we came across this sign Forrest and I got to envisoning a few things. As most of you know we have an interesting Senate race in the makings and they're both in this pic. From what I have figured we have a lawyer who is against all government benefit programs like unemployment yet has taken advantage of all and every one he could find. And, unlike us he pays his property taxes late or whenever he feels like it. Then we have a lawyer who's a sore loser that flunked the bar exam 5 times and who's daddy gave her the job. I don't know, somebody has got to win eh?

But the most envisioning thing about the signs was their location. The property belongs to a friend of mine who's campaign I worked on a few years back to get him elected to the State House. I guess maybe I just don't get it and I suppose he'd tell me that by having every ones sign out it shows he believes in the system but me I gotta be for something, somebody, a cause, the right thing in Jeff's world. It reminded me of a meeting years ago when I was president of the Guide Association. We had some money and were looking to help a candidate with a donation and endorsement hoping that some day it might help us. It was confusing because we didn't know who would win and my friend Randy Berg had the perfect solution...lets wait until they win , then endorse them. Now that's good politics.

So we walked my favorite part of town, the riverwalk and right before we got back to the car we came across this cool vintage motorhome, definitely a local. This isn't any 6 figure diesel pusher, its just one of my neighbors, the seasons over and its just us again...