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HEATHER LENDE
It rained last night and is still raining and that is a fine thing, because here in Southeast -- even the drier northern tip -- we are cloud-loving people. We get a little anxious when the sun shines too much. Also this rain is a good reason to take one more day off after the bike race and my calves are thanking me.
HEATHER LENDE
On the alpine trail through the spruce and hemlock forest, next to the full river rolling down in foamy waves before dropping over a ledge, it was dry.
HEATHER LENDE
Graduation is a good kind of craziness
I would like to report objectively on the Haines High class of 2009 graduation. But I can't, because my youngest daughter was one of the 21 students who eventually received diplomas and because, if you had asked me in December, I would have placed the odds of her wearing that white cap and gown at 50-50 -- and I am perpetually optimistic.
HEATHER LENDE
Last graduation leaves more time for the raspberries
Haines almost made the news again this week but happily dodged another disaster after a fire started by a road-building crew jumped into the brush and began to run up the hill below a neighborhood.
HEATHER LENDE
Tragedy interrupts pleasure of Southeast sun
I can't remember if the sun has been shining for 18 days or 28 days. Of course by sun shining I don't mean Arizona style, I mean southeast Alaska style, as in not raining. But even so, we have had so many bright days that I'm dizzy. It is hard to concentrate. As one high school honor student confessed, while explaining a suddenly slipping GPA, "I don't know how kids do any schoolwork in sunny places like California."
HEATHER LENDE
Courageous Klukwan elder passes into history
I learned of Mary King's death at the coffee hour after church when my friend, judge and attorney Linn Asper, asked if I was writing her obituary. I didn't know who Mary King was and he couldn't believe it. But that is how the history of Alaskan small towns works sometimes, we don't pay as much attention to our past as we should.
HEATHER LENDE
Spring makes bike ride a lot longer
On a rainy fall day I can ride my bike to town in a relatively miserable 10 minutes. But on a sunny, warm spring morning, after one of the longest winters in years, (there is still snow in shady and north facing yards) it took me about forty-five minutes to go two miles.
HEATHER LENDE
After 89 years, lively local history lesson is laid to rest
Before one of her last medevacs, my friend Isabell Katzeek was lying on the gurney as volunteers loaded her into the ambulance for the ride to the airport. She appeared frail and ill. She had suffered a heart attack. But then she suddenly sat up, looked around and said, "Now wait a damn minute, where the hell do you think we're going?"
HEATHER LENDE
Avoiding disaster while enjoying Easter fun, frolics
This year spring has been sneaking up on us like an afternoon nap. Every day, it seems, about mid-afternoon, winter lets go for an hour or two. The ice melts, the sun shines, the snowlines on roadsides, yards and beaches recede. My hens come out of their coop, fluff their feathers, scratch and cackle.
HEATHER LENDE
A dozen of us had a ski race on Saturday at the snowmachine track at Mile 25 mile Haines Highway. It had snowed all night and was still snowing when we began. The storm didn't quit until a few hours before the Blessing of the Fleet after church on Palm Sunday.
HEATHER LENDE
Nongolfing Alaskans tee it up for fun and friendship
If you want to play spring golf on Willow Lake, it helps to know Jim Huston, since he has a loader and truck with a plow on the front and a railroad rail tied to the back, as well as a garbage can full of clubs and boxes of neon-painted balls.
HEATHER LENDE
Growing up is hard, even at 49
My daughter and I are skiing out on the golf course where volunteers have set a track all winter, when she asks what I'm thinking about. It is almost sunny and very bright, the way it gets in March when spring light returns.
HEATHER LENDE
Recitation contest wows poetry fans
Mayor Bruce Botelho is reason enough for the capital to stay in Juneau. He should be declared Mayor for Life. I'm half kidding, since I don't know a thing about the man's politics, except that he stays out of the headlines and the punch lines.
HEATHER LENDE
In Southeast, it's a big hoop family
I'm still hearing the drone of the crowd and an occasional whistle after four days and nights of high school basketball games.
HEATHER LENDE
Mysteries in the sky intrigue us
My friend Joanne called Saturday night to ask if I saw what she saw in the sky.
HEATHER LENDE
We can find Mardi Gras in our hearts
Tuesday morning we were working on the logistics of another school day that revolves around a senior in high school's schedule of school, basketball practice and homework, when my husband sighed, "We should be in New Orleans. We could be on Bourbon Street listening to jazz tonight."
HEATHER LENDE
Involvement makes Haines, and the world, go 'round
There is so much to do in Haines that it is hard to choose, especially when the sun comes out and a head cold moves in. I should have been in bed, but I took a gentle ski under the bright blue sky at the golf course.
HEATHER LENDE
A dog's love is a reflection of its owner
Winston Churchill preferred pigs to dogs because, he said, pigs look at humans as equals, whereas dogs look up to us. Having raised a pig, I can say with authority that I prefer dogs, especially in the house.
HEATHER LENDE
Lights don't show what truly matters
The other night when the power went out I thought of the Emily Dickinson poem, "We grow accustomed to the dark -- When light is put away," because that is exactly what happened.
HEATHER LENDE
Hug someone you love to ease pain of writing obituary
Writing obituaries is hard on the heart. We had what may be a record of four to do for this week's Chilkat Valley News. The subjects died in a plane crash, from the effects of too much alcohol and kidney failure. We knew them all pretty well.
HEATHER LENDE
After week in Mexico, coming home has new meaning
My daughters said I had to tan before I went to Mexico. They said if I played at the beach all day and didn't, that I'd burn and then shed my skin like a lizard. Instead of wearing a sleeveless dress at dinner, I'd be plastered with Noxzema and wrapped in gauze like a mummy. Then they said that I would look even worse in a bathing suit than I thought I was going to.
READER PHOTOS
Check out local artists' photos of the artwork they'll be displaying in this year's holiday craft fairs.
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Watch time lapse video of Ziggy Zeigler and Vance Cook create a sea mammal mural on a downtown building.
READER PHOTOS
It's time for our annual Howwwwl-oween costume contest, your chance to make your Scary Scottie, Ghoulish Greyhound or Princess Pug famous.
Mimi got everyone singing together
Putting on skates not a slick idea
Holiday wishes for more than mere gifts
Lighting of the fort welcomes season of peace with cannon blast
Thankful for all the good times
Haines is not a postcard, but it's home
Saints abound, like bears in the shadows
Racial, cultural change make for better world
Ralph the Big Brother not just any Joe
Saying goodbye unmasks part of circle of life
In times of stress, sing out, help out
Local issues are the ones we follow with the most interest
Ketchikan offers dose of humor, strong coffee
Gutting a moose binds us to the land
Gentlest of farewells still hurts those left behind
Here's wishing Sarah ran with our team
Reflecting on Alaska in spotlight
Blueberries can draw us together
More sweet than sour in long run
Southeast fair warms the heart
Giving fish the gentle treatment
Eagles, keys, sharks and good karma
Close your eyes when you visit this beach
Mom's love shows at the dinner table
New citizens find the beautiful in America
Hope and mercury are on the rise
Back home with a gift of friendship