Small wins

This week has been SO good, for once! On Wednesday, I finished my last night working at the pub, which was a huge relief mainly because it's been getting VERY dark at night and I hated the walk home. It's so dark on my street that even a flashlight barely cuts through the blackness, and because it's almost always raining, the dripping noises in the woods always made me think there was a bear lurking nearby. That, and the fact that I would be so exhausted from working two jobs, I'd collapse into bed at midnight with my body sore from running around for so long, and then wake up again at 6:30 or 7 to do it all over again. It was a great learning experience, though. It toughened me up, kicked my butt, and helped me earn a little extra cash this summer that I wouldn't  have had otherwise. :-)

Life from death

I want to say there is nothing serene or comforting about the Sitka woods right now. The air reeks of dead salmon, seagull feces, fungus, mushrooms, and the rotting substrate of the forest floor. The soundscape is not the usual quiet whispers of the woods, but now a cacophony of screeching, whining gulls and eagles piercing the air with their bombastic cries. Every sense is filled with the rawness and harshness of nature's less-romantic side, the side we don't want to see, the side we often choose to pretend doesn't exist.