Sorry, I know all of you have missed me, but I have been off line for the past couple of days. It all started just prior to the birthday of one of granddaughters who was whining, wanting all of her family to convince her dad that he needed to convert to DSL from his old dial up Internet. Being that both of us live in small communities the provider did not have enough pairs, pears, or whatever they are called to make the connection. Being that Homer is larger than Anchor Point, they took it up themselves to shut down a DSL number in Anchor Point and give it to the new customer in Homer. Bet, you can't guess who's number was randomly selected? I was blindsided by my own son and granddaughter. Took me two days to convince the provider that I needed DSL for my radio broadcast, so I got someones line, if you know anyone in this area that has lost their DSL, I know nothing!

Lot's of new things since I last blogged. If you recall, a couple of weeks ago I reminded everyone about the large meteor shower that will thrill us on August 12th and 13th, in all that I have read, if it is clear that night it is suppose to be spectacular. But wait, hold the presses, if you wait for just two more weeks following the meteor showers, you will see something that more than likely you have never seen coming from the heavens, unless you are several hundred years old! On a lesser degree on August 26th and to a full degree on August 27th if you look into the night sky, you will see what appears to be two full moons! What you are actually seeing is that on August 27th the Planet Mars will be the brightest star. According to what I have read, it will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. At this time, Mars will come within 34.65 million miles of earth. This is suppose to occur at 12:30 am (Don't know which time zone), if you miss it, you will never have the opportunity again. The next time it occurs will be in the year of 2287.

For you avid water sippers out there that do not mind spending $1.49 for a bottle of water, something that I have always suspected has been proven correct. Aquafina, a product of Pepsi-Cola, just admitted that their pure, sparkling drinking water is taken from the city water source in whatever community that they happen to be bottling in. I love their product so much, I take a shower and shave in it everyday! Wouldn't be funny if all their bottling plants were in Mexico!

Just had a friend visiting from Arizona. She was kind enough to bring us a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream, a bottle of Captain Morgan Rum, and two bottles of wine in return for a favor we did for her some time back. Both bottles come from vineyards in Arizona under the label of the Kokopelli Winery. An American Indian name, I am sure, however not a dialect that I speak so I do not know what Kokopelli means. The ironic thing is that on the bottle it clearly states, "Wine of Arizona", however, it is produced and bottled in Demming, New Mexico. The current bottle that I am testing, as I write, is a very fine bottle of Wine-A-Rita with a vintage of what I am assuming is probably September 2006, which was a prime grape harvest. It is truly not a wine that you would want to serve your guests at a special dinner, unless it is St. Patrick's day and you are serving Corn Beef and Cabbage. The reason for this is that it is green and very sweet, however,if you have not guessed with a name like Wine-A-Rita it tastes like a Margarita with less alcohol content for those of us that do not indulge heavily into beverages. Put a little salt around the rim of your wine glass and it would be difficult to tell the difference. As a novelty wine, it is great. The good thing is that it is to sweet to the taste of the Golden Granny so I have been forced to drink the entire bottle now that it has been opened. I am now on my third glass, it is so smooooth.

Last but not least, if you ever called our home and got our answering machine, you no doubt know that we have a very long recorder for messages you might want to leave. I think my little brother is going to have a heart attack the next time he gets his cell phone bill. He called yesterday, as he was passing through Beaver, Utah. After giving us a verbal tour of community from the seat of his truck as he was speeding down the Interstate he said good bye. However, something in Beaver must have caught his attention, as for the next 15 minutes all we could hear on the recorder was this big diesel engine hammering away and a faint country western song in the background. I have no idea how long it took for him to discover that he had left his phone on, but my recorder was not about to hang up until he broke the connection. After fifteen minutes had lapsed, I quit listening and erased the message.

My wine glass needs a little more salt!

From time to time, all of us that live in this wonderful state have had problems convincing the outside world that we really are a part of the United States. Although, at times I wonder if this should not be appealed since there is a growing number of us that never had the opportunity to vote our desire. I once again came across this problem the evening past.

Laughlin, Nevada has always been one of my favorite places to do a little gambling. Primarily because it has a smaller town atmosphere and the only place where I have ever won any amount of cold hard cash. Cruising through the www last evening, I visited Laughlin just to see if any new casinos had been established and check on room rates. I discovered a new casino, looked quite nice and while reviewing that web page, http://www.avi-casino.com I discovered a drawing for a package containing two nights stay, two dinners, and cash for gambling. Normally, I do not enter such high stake gambling, but I did make an exception this particular time. After entering my name, address, and city, I went to the drop down menu to select my state. Much to my surprise, Alaska was not listed although the other 49 states were listed in alphabetical order. No problem, I will just type it in. Wrong, it would not accept that either.

Having a great desire to exercise my sense of humor, I immediately composed an e-mail to the Marketing Director of the casino. Within the body of the text, I spent a little extra time explaining the history of Alaska and that we really were one of the fifty states. All the time, thinking to myself, just to appease me and not to get any irate Alaskans after them, they would likely comp me a room for my stay for discovering the error on their web site.

This morning, I received two returns from my email. One from the Webmaster, advising me that the problem had been corrected and Alaska had been listed in the drop down menu, thanking me for letting them know. The second e-mail came from the Marketing Department, again thanking me for bringing it to their attention but no mention of any comps.

Not wanting to stir, but now that Alaska has been added to their list, wouldn't it be great if all of a sudden their drawing was flooded with hundreds of entries from Alaska? I plan on entering daily until I once again return to Laughlin.

Among us, there are those that are on a vengeance to eliminate the Pike population in local streams, lakes, and ponds in which reportedly contain trout. However, no evidence of such a specie has ever been presented to substantiate this claim by the claimants. I do suppose they may well exist or the Department of Fish and Game would not have wasted their time in publishing regulations pertaining to these lakes, streams and ponds. However, countless hours have been spent fishing and netting these bodies of waters to capture the specimens for further study in a controlled laboratory environment. The first discover revealed is that the Pike will not live in tepid chlorine water. Consequently, no further testing was conducted.

Protect Alaska's Waters, Capture A Crawfish And Feed It To A Pike!

ALL OUR LOVE,

DAD

"Tokyo Rose" was most likely the most listened to disc jockey in the history of radio. During World War II she would make propaganda announcements from Japan several times each day. Her listening audience was the American military men and women serving in the Pacific. Her show was very popular and most construed it as propaganda, however, she also had the best selection of music in comparison to the Armed forces Radio Network. If you have every watched an movie of World War II, you have no doubt also heard her broadcasts in the background. Following the war, she was tried and sentenced to prison. President Gerald Ford, who had served in the Pacific Theatre pardoned her during his Presidency. Born as American Japanese, she was forced to stay in Japan just prior to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Controversy still exists today as to whether she was supporting the American military or Japan. You can get onto the www. and find a lot of her original radio broadcasts.

The reason that "Tokyo Rose" comes to mind at this time is that the other night a friend and I was watching the movie, "Flags of Our Fathers". During the movie, I pointed out the radio broadcast of Tokyo Rose. During World War II, the Japanese wanted a way to demoralize the American forces. Psychological warfare experts developed a message they felt would work.

The demoralizing message always contained three key points:

1. Your President Is Lying to You.

2. This War Is Illegal!

3. You Cannot Win the War?

Does this sound familiar to you?

It should, because today we are being bombarded by:

Tokyo Hillary, Tokyo Harry, Tokyo Teddy, Tokyo Nancy, Tokyo Kerry, Tokyo Edwards, Tokyo Murtha, Tokyo Dean, Tokyo Jimmy Carter, etc.

They have picked up on the same demoralizing message and are broadcasting via Tokyo CNN, Tokyo ABC, Tokyo CBS, Tokyo NBC to our troops and their families. The only difference is that they claim to support our troops before they demoralize them. As "Tokyo Rose" always commented in your broadcast, she told the troops that she was on their side, too.

If You Support Our Troops, You Then Support The War On Terrorism, it is one in the same.

Just received an on site verification from Ranger Bill that Beaver, Utah has been spared from the big range fire that rampaged over the state of Utah the past few days. I do appreciate his report, especially since he was taking a load into Chicago from San Francisco and took a short cut to check out Beaver.

With the price of gas and other expenses, associated with camping, I can fully understand and appreciate the decline of the visitor count at the HITW Recreational Area this year. However, I have just come across a concept that can help eliminate these costs and still provide a very scenic and breathtaking trip to Anchor Point.

According to the Associated Press, at 2.pm. today, they released a story about a gentleman who discovered an inexpensive mode of transportation which should really excite the Plumma. His name is Kent Couch, a 47 year old gas station attendant from Bend, Oregon. Last weekend, he settled down in his lawn chair with some snacks - and a parachute. Attached to his lawn chair were 105 large helium filled balloons, his destination was Idaho.

With instruments to measure his altitude and speed, a gps device in his pocket, and four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as ballast where he could turn the spigot, release water and raise, Couch headed into the Oregon sky.

Nearly nine hours later, he came back to earth in a farmers field near Union, short of Idaho but about 193 miles from home. The flying lawn chair was videotaped by a passenger in a private aircraft that just happened to be flying by.

Anyone of you desiring to fly to Anchor Point, I will insure that the airport in Anchor Point is reserved for your landing or if you have enough ballast to make a quick dissent, I will clear the lawn at the Eagle Nest to insure you have adequate space to sit down. Who will be the first to conquer the air space between Las Anchorage and Anchor Point? I would suggest an overland route, make an attempt to fly the coast line of Cook Inlet, you may end up visiting Kodiak Island, if you are lucky!

Will be out for the most of the day, departing the Homer Harbor at 0530 on board the private vessel, CPearl skippered by Al Pyhala with Patti Pyhala acting as First Mate. The Golden Granny will be acting as Purser and I will be the lowly deckhand doing all the nasty tasks that no one else wants to do. That is all right, I have been there before!
Destination cannot be disclosed, however, for safety sake in the event that we do not return on schedule, we will be in the middle of Cook Inlet between Bluff Point and Cape Ninilchik. Purpose of the trip is an exploratory expedition in search of the primary access route that the Kenai River Late Run King Salmon utilize to gain access to the Kenai River. While most fishermen are currently satisfied in trolling along the beaches for these big Kings, we will take the step forward to discover a new fishery.
Not going into it blind, have been researching several years of biological data, tidal data and catch data from the commercial fleet. Have reviewed the majority of the Cook Inlet charts and feel fairly certain that we have discovered the channel that is utilized by the majority of this run. A standard naval operations will be conducted with a zig zag course established until we make contact with the target. After years of consideration and research, I will be very disappointed if we do not hook up with a new World's Record. In this event, you will be the second to know as soon as we talk to a lawyer in order to get our royalties arranged with the various tackle and boat manufacturers. I am going prepared, just completed the most advanced arsenal that has ever been assembled of Cook Inlet Specials, new designs and colors in the Magnum Size as well as Size 8.
Secondary purpose of this exploratory fishery is to discover the secret of Red Salmon fishing in the marine waters of Alaska. If we catch one Red Salmon on this new style of equipment and technique. we will classify the trip as a success. If not, we will enjoy a great day on the water, just the four of us on a 42 footer enjoying the peace and quiet along with a few Bing cherries, grapes, assortment of cheese, sausage and foot long sub sandwiches, life is good! To insure that we have an enjoyable day, no halibut gear will be utilized on this trip.