The Autumnal Excitement continues unabated. The big thrill this weekend was when I asked our entirely-too-kind pastor, Jim, to help me get firewood. This was something I hated to do as asking for help is really unpleasant for me. But Jim came with the highest qualifications, he has a truck, a chainsaw that makes mine look wimpy and above all, and he won't tell me I'm a jerk for bothering him.

My four wheeler is working again "kinda sorta," although I'm going to try to keep walking a great deal to stretch out the wheeler's operational life, get myself in better aerobic condition and of course maintain my slim, boyish figure. (See lard- definition, and donkey-synonym.)

I just spent an hour updating the template for my blog with a title logo, which has steadfastly refused to appear so far. Hmmmm.

The weather has been a pleasant surprise today, sunny with wispy clouds instead of the forecast rain. Too bad the daylight is only eight hours or so.

Those of you out there in Blogland may not understand what daylight and climate are like at various times of the year at this latitude. Well, let me expound a bit. Summer and spring are generally glorious here in Yakutat. A sunny day in June can be eighteen to twenty hours of daylight, usually with cool to comfortably warm temperatures.

But in fall one is reminded that the Tongass is a temperate rain forest. We are around 118 inches for the year right now and it is a bit of a dry year. So winter and fall must bear most of the precipitation burden. And when we do have a sunny day in December, it is a bit different than folks from the "lower 49" might envision.

In December on a sunny day go to our wonderful, sandy shore: Cannon Beach. Now at noon face the sun as it shines above the horizon. Extend your arm with the palm up like a traffic cop giving a "stop" signal. Position your hand so that the heel appears to rest on the horizon right under the sun. Your fingers will eclipse the sun. That's as high as it gets all day. It makes me ask the sun, "Why'd you bother?"

But December is Christmas time, there are lots of colorful lights to take your mind off the darkness, the rain the snow and the huge, honkin' glacier advancing and threatening to flood out large parts of the forelands, wash woodlands, salmon, the weir, slow moving tourists and a former Forest Service outhouse out to sea.

After that, (December, not the glacial cataclysm,) things start to get lighter, the days longer, the snow generally thicker, and the possibility of spring something you can believe in.

Now I come the bit that has me so excited today. I've made my blog entry and am out of excuses to put off the housework any longer. Oh well, it's time to sally forth into the debris.