One un-oiled man

The situation briefs at the Houma general staff meetings for the oil spill response center contain snippets of information from the various parts of the organization which are out in the field doing work and reporting back. There is a flotilla of boats out working with boom, skimmers, transporting wildlife folks for picking up oiled and un-oiled birds, turtles, etc..., looking at beaches and making determination about what needs to be cleaned and what should be left alone. The marsh is largely going to get worse the more you walk in it, and so taking all the boom away and letting any oil which has washed ashore get flushed out by the natural action of tide and evaporation and bugs which seem to like eating it is the best solution at this point.

So the briefing today contained a report of a boat which had been tied up at a dock. The boat owner had gotten onto the dock but the boat drifted away. He jumped into the water and started swimming after the boat but apparently he realized he wasnt' going to make it, so he stopped. But then his clothes began to bog him down and he peeled them off, down to his underwear and swam back to the dock. He couldn't get out though, and was clinging to a piling when the wildlife folks came by in there boats and picked him up.

One un-oiled man in the report this morning.

Goodbye Ted, we miss you.

Houma

The spill has brought great benefits to many people. Unemployed contractors suddenly have 3-5 months of 12 hour day work, with overtime after 8 hours, often to sit idle. There is time to share pictures and stories of where life has taken them.

Like Bill from Bremerton. He was a programmer for Boeing, laid off in 2006. Found a job online in Juneau, AK. Moved to a basement apartment, as housing is a scarce commodity in Junea, while continuing to pay a mortage on a nice place just across a ferry ride from Seattle. But he can't get back. He got another job in Juneau after a while with the Coast Guard, thinking that with that experience he would be more likely to get hired on by the Navy bases in the Seattle area. That was almost four years ago, and so now he's biding his time, not really having much to return to, and not really having a meaningful contribution to make to the spill, but getting paid all the same.

It has become limbo for lots of folks. The boats idled at the docks, while awaiting the status change in the response from Level II to Level III, an artificial milestone that is achieved only with the initiation of a cascade of events starting with the bottom kill of the well. Never mind that there are 5000 feet of cement in the well casing and tubing, more than enough to permanently seal off the well, and more than the standard that has been used to seal off any other gulf well.

Only a bottom kill will do.

And so the army in limbo waits and appears busy, on Fox TV, in command posts, or doesn't even bother, but instead struggles with the internal decay that comes from taking something for nothing, without providing a service. The most hardened can rationalize this in the wrapper of a retainer, paid to be on hold.

Dr. Seus's waiting place.

Living off the land

Modern version of living off the land is to only have cell phone, no home phone. Thats why it called a land line.

Geography for Alaskans

A real Alaskan kid.

The lower 48 is down there somewhere...

Mac's Moose - 2011, age 12

Heading up the Yukon River with David Wightman and his son Koby

.308 shot from across a grass lake.

This went on till late in the evening...

We camped in another bend in the river, moved the boat closer. Not too far to pack it out.

Macs moose - Galena Alaska, age 12, 2011.