Watch out for the polar bears Gray, I hear they are a might bit more ornary than the little black bears we are used to. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

And for heavens sake, measure the ice thickness before you take your sled out on it.

Wear a heated life jacket, just in case.

And no partying with the natives....unless it's a good party. <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I've my bio-dad's certificate from when he crossed the Artic Circle in the 50s. It's hanging in my bedroom.

It's awesome cool!

I've got one of those somewhere! In mmy office, I think.

but since I'm sitting in my office right now, and I have no idea where it is, you get an idea of the clutter in here...

-ol' 2long

2Long...

I'd give my left big toe to unclutter the mess in your office.

Imagine all the cool stuff in there!

I think all us Cheechakos should track GC down in the bush and help him drink his brown liquor.


GC: Better bone up on your Robert W. Service. One of my favorite 'lite' poets.

::
A bunch of the boys were whooping it up in the Malamute saloon;
The kid that handles the music-box was hitting a jag-time tune;
Back of the bar, in a solo game, sat Dangerous Dan McGrew,
And watching his luck was his light o'love, the lady that's known as Lou.

When out of the night, which was fifty below, and into the din and the glare,
There stumbled a miner fresh from the creeks, dog-dirty, and loaded for bear.
He looked like a man with a foot in the grave and scarcely the strength of a louse,
Yet he tilted a poke of dust on the bar, and he called for drinks for the house.

There was none could place the stranger's face, though we searched ourselves for a clue;
But we drank his health, and the last to drink was Dangerous Dan McGrew.

There's men that somehow just grip your eyes, and hold them hard like a spell;
And such was he, and he looked to me like a man who had lived in ******;
With a face most hair, and the dreary stare of a dog whose day is done,
As he watered the green stuff in his glass, and the drops fell one by one.

Then I got to figgering who he was, and wondering what he'd do,
And I turned my head and there watching him was the lady that's known as Lou.

His eyes went rubbering round the room, and he seemed in a kind of daze,
Till at last that old piano fell in the way of his wandering gaze.
The rag-time kid was having a drink; there was no one else on the stool,
So the stranger stumbles across the room, and flops down there like a fool.

In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;
Then he clutched the keys with his talon hands my God but that man could play.

Were you ever out in the Great Alone, when the moon was awful clear,
And the icy mountains hemmed you in with a silence you most could hear;
With only the howl of a timber wolf, and you camped there in the cold,
A half-dead thing in a stark, dead world, clean mad for the muck called gold;

While high overhead, green, yellow and red, the North Lights swept in bars? -
Then you've a hunch what the music meant, hunger and night and stars.

And hunger not of the belly kind, that's banished with bacon and beans,
But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means;
For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a roof above;
But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowned with a woman's love -

A woman dearer than all the world, and true as Heaven is true -
God! how ghastly she looks through her rouge, the lady that's known as Lou.

Then on a sudden the music changed, so soft that you scarce could hear;
But you felt that your life had been looted clean of all that it once held dear;
That someone had stolen the woman you loved; that her love was a devil's lie;
That your guts were gone, and the best for you was to crawl away and die.

'Twas the crowning cry of a heart's despair, and it thrilled you through and through -
"I guess I'll make it a spread misere", said Dangerous Dan McGrew.

The music almost died away then it burst like a pent-up flood;
And it seemed to say, "Repay, repay," and my eyes were blind with blood.
The thought came back of an ancient wrong, and it stung like a frozen lash,
And the lust awoke to kill, to kill, then the music stopped with a crash,

And the stranger turned, and his eyes they burned in a most peculiar way;
In a buckskin shirt that was glazed with dirt he sat, and I saw him sway;

Then his lips went in, in a kind of grin, and he spoke, and his voice was calm,
And "Boys," says he, "you don't know me, and none of you care a damn;
But I want to state, and my words are straight, and I'll bet my poke they're true,
That one of you is a hound of ****** and that one is Dan McGrew."

Then I ducked my head, and the lights went out, and two guns blazed in the dark,
And a woman screamed, and the lights went up, and two men lay stiff and stark.
Pitched on his head, and pumped full of lead, was Dangerous Dan McGrew,
While the man from the creeks lay clutched to the breast of the lady that's known as Lou.

These are the simple facts of the case, and I guess I ought to know.
They say that the stranger was crazed with "hooch," and I'm not denying it's so.
I'm not so wise as the lawyer guys, but strictly between us two -
The woman that kissed him and pinched his poke was the lady that's known as Lou.

Kimmy:

You've got a DEAL, so long as you leave my pair of Apple 30-inch cinema displays the he11 alone! <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

-ol' 2long

I'm going to ride a Harley all the way up the Alcan one of these days.

I swear it.

You can have GB's Harley, AP. Right after the wedding! I don't want him on it anymore.

Do you think it's fair for me to wait until after the wedding to let him know?

A simple yay or nay will suffice, no lectures please. LOL

nay!

My W and BIL and I were planning 2 hike the Pacific Crest Trail from Mexico 2 Canadia in abouts 1978, until work responsibilities and my D came along.

We saw a spot on the news this weekend, I think, about a guy who'd just finished the hike and was starting on his way back. He was engaged 2 a gal. They were going 2 get married when he got back, and hike it again for their honeymoon...

I'm nuts, but not that nuts!

-ol' 2long

Nay.

Weaver, nay. And Toolik Lake is on the tundra, more than a stone's throw from the ocean, and no doubt free of polar bears. No seals, no polar bears, is I think the rule.

The creatures I need to stay on the good side of are commonly known as "Alaskans". I told a friend I was thinking I should get in a fight while I'm up there. I could use a good fight.

And also a girlfriend. Sucks to be alone during this bleak time of year. We're finally dropping below zero later this week.

GC

What, you can't get in a good fight at work, or here on the board like the rest of us? <img src="/ubbt/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I don't want GB to get hurt on that death machine, I can't bare the thought of it. He will never give it up though, and would not hesitate to tell me which lake to go jump in if I tried to tell him to.

That hike up the Pacific coast is something I would love to do, even still at my age.

TT, how are you? I asked a while back but you didn't respond, so I think you missed it. How is your (X?)H managing lately? Or are you taking care of him?

Hi Weaver, sorry if I missed your question before. Well, he's not my ex. We are now all under one roof but not in the same bed. I was driving around picking him up from dialysis and worrying about him so, when his lease expired on his apartment last summer, I made space for him at home. He had asked to come home about a year ago but I am the world's biggest procrastinator so it took me about 5months to make my mind up.

I have no regrets. There is no way I could have pursued another relationship knowing he was sick and on his own. He is coping well with dialysis and work but sometimes the sessions bring on other complications. Today, he ended up on oxygen because the cramps were so severe he passed out.

Surprisingly, I find we are getting along fine. I definitely took him back because of a sense of duty that I couldn't shake off (catholicism??) but I am pleased he is home. We have a bloody long way to go before I would consider myself recovered, but there is a comfort in having him home.

So - no hot passion for me. For now I'm quite content with financial security for myself and the girls. I'm off to London in a few weeks for my dad's 80th and life is generally good.

Hot passion is over rated anyway. LOL TT, I am glad he is home and that you decided to help him, mainly because you being the way you are never really could have done differently, and for your girls.

Having had at different times a very exciting life, a very wild life, a very turbulent life, and a life of quiet, peaceful calm...I will now only accept the quiet, peaceful calm.

One thing I had never had was a truly committed and loving relationship, never a legal marriage and so for me it was what I truly wanted, and needed.

Money is good, being allowed to care for and for your girls to live this caring is worth more than all the hot passion in the world...for now. And it must be what you have asked for on some level, because it is what you have.

I've been wondering for awhile what you had finally decided so am glad you posted an update.

Have fun in London!

I talked my work into getting a turtle tank.

I set it up today.

We got 2 red eared sliders.

What do you think of the names Fred and Ginger?

Tony & Maria

B.J. and The Bear

Mick and Keith