Swimming through a sea of change...

No, I'm not swimming through a sea of change like Scrooge McDuck (although that would be very cool to try). The seas of change have brought with them:

• A basement drain pipe that someone, somehow, somewhen drilled a hole into, necessitating a need to learn how to replace drywall.
• A screwdriver that lanced itself seven inches into the rear left tire of the van, necessitating two new tires.
• A small hole in the hull of the new boat, which was put there by professional boat system installers (and, with the exception of some cosmetic work that is still to come, has been repaired).
• Lots of work on the new boat, getting it exactly the way we want it (stove installed, keel guard installed, bilge pump installed, outboard and fuel tanks installed, licensed, safety equipment equipped, etc.)
• A new design for the blog which, according to the results of a statistically insignificant survey, has the popular support of my readers (with some modifications that I'll get around to eventually).
  
• Fawn and I having an entire afternoon to ourselves, during which we went out in the boat for the first time ever!
• Fawn, the kids, and I spending the better part of a day on Lake Laberge and going for our first sail as a family.
  

Fawn and I forgot to bring the camera for the family trip, but here are a few pictures from our entire afternoon together. Sorry, but you can't see much of the actual boat. Rest assured, there will be many, many boat pictures to come.

Fawn uses a steady hand to install the keel guard.

The car and trailer, back at the boat launch.

Skipper, but not that Skipper.

Fawn emerges from the cabin.

Ouch.

Back in May, Megan over at Reflections in the Snow-Covered Hills posted about her review from Ask and Ye Shall Receive. AAYSR is a service that reviews blogs and makes suggestions for improvement.

I was curious, so I submitted my blog for a review. Yesterday, it finally happened.

With eagerness, I started reading. Inside, I started getting a feeling that can only be described as...

Ouch.

I admit, it was hard to read, but I agree with most of it.

My template was boring because, two weeks ago, for some inexplicable reason, the background photo stopped displaying in some browsers. The blog's title text didn't show properly in IE and it didn't link back to the main page (which it did in most other browsers). There was a lot of useless stuff along the sidebar. My posts stretched on forever, and I had too many posts showing on the home page. Some of my sentences are long and clunky.

The reviewer, Posol'stvo the Medved, likened my blog to looking at someone's vacation slideshow. Well, that's mostly what Michael's Meanderings is; a record of trips that I've taken and things that I've seen. In many ways, this blog has become a resource for people who are interested in that very thing.

Posol'stvo also isn't interested in reading about "other people's ailments", like our experiences dealing with my daughter's epilepsy (although there are readers who come here for that very topic). All of that is fine. The content on Posol'stvo's blog doesn't do anything for me, either.

The topics on Michael's Meanderings aren't going to change, but I think Posol'stvo brought up some excellent points about how I deliver that content. As a new reader, it must be painfully difficult to figure out what the heck has been going on here. If you're a long-time reader, you might have to scroll through a lot of "crap" to get at the subject you're interested in. In short, I can make Michael's Meanderings easier to navigate and easier to read.

I can do that by telling readers up-front what this blog is all about. I can provide better history and context. I can make it easier for readers to select the content they've come here for. I can be more selective in what I post, and I can make the content snappier and more engaging. (Sorry. I've been lazy on that front, lately. It's summer.)

All of that is good advice.

Because I care about you, dear reader, I am attempting to make some changes around here. As I do, I hope that you will provide some of your own feedback about what you like and don't like. Don't worry about hurting my feelings. If you've read Posol'stvo's review, you know I can take it.

Getting nautical...

I took a drive down to Skagway, Alaska yesterday.


View Larger Map

The road was teeming with tour buses and jeep caravans, so I knew the cruise ships were in port and that Skagway would be a busy place.

A rare patch of road without any tour buses. Photo taken near the Summit.

Cruise ship passengers flooded the streets, making Skagway look like a gold rush boom town all over again.

The patrons are packed in the hustlin', bustlin' Red Onion Saloon.

There was a bit of excitement in town when one of the WP&YR tracks got switched mid-car. The car tried to ride two sets of rails at once. A forklift was called in to get the car back on track and it resumed its journey up to the summit. I missed all of the excitement, though, because I was attending to another matter.

This one stayed on the right track.

You see, I didn't go to Skagway to learn about gold rush history or to watch throngs of tourists milling about the jewelery and trinket shops. I went to Skagway to get this:

The boat, not the van.

Why the heck did we buy a MacGregor 26M powersailer?

With two kids, but mostly because of Jade's ketogenic diet, it has become next to impossible to go on extended canoeing and hiking trips. It's just too risky if something goes wrong with Jade's food. Fawn suggested that we get a camper (we could use the 12V cooler in the car to keep Jade's food cold) but I don't enjoy that type of "camping". I wanted a way that we could get into the back country; a way that we could explore, far away from the roads.

Buying a sailboat is all part of a much bigger plan, one which many of you will be reading here for the first time.

After my attempt to get The Best Job in the World, I started thinking about all the places I'd like to go and how I could get there. I started thinking about how to share that experience with my wife and children. I started thinking about how we could afford to make a trip around the world, and I started thinking about sailing.

Then, I came up with the 7 to 10-year plan:

1. Buy a sailboat.
2. Spend a couple of years sailing the Southern Lakes, learning as much as possible.
3. Spend a couple of years sailing the West Coast, learning as much as possible.
4. See if we like it.
5. Buy a bigger boat.
6. Sail the Pacific and, maybe, the world.

Of course, there's more to the plan than that, but you get the idea. And so, a new adventure begins...

Clearing Customs at Fraser.

Meat marketing...

Decades ago, when I was a kid growing up in Saskatchewan, I remember staring out the rear passenger window of my family's station wagon, watching the city roll by. The drive downtown was never very exciting, but this time it was different. There, high above the side of the road, a blazing white rectangle of light appeared, glowing in the evening dusk. I burst out laughing. Afterward, I looked for that sign every time we drove by.



Meat marketing is big, big, big business, but I cannot think of a single meat marketing strategy that rivals the brilliance of the (tragically short-lived) "Pork. The one you love." campaign. To this day, it is the only billboard that I can actually remember. You would think that, with all the money that goes into pork and beef and poultry councils, the industry could come up with another genius campaign.

Well, I think they finally have. This afternoon, Fawn went to buy some pork tenderloin from a local grocery store and discovered this little marketing gem:

Guaranteed Reduced Quality

Ingenious! Don't you just love to eat meat with "Guaranteed Reduced Quality"? I know I do. Who wants to eat that hoity-toity good meat when you can have the guaranteed not-as-good meat?

Who says there isn't truth in advertising? Everyone wins, really. The meat producers get to sell off their sub-standard meat, and the consumers are happy that their meat is guaranteed, no matter what the guarantee is. Maple Leaf Foods could learn a lesson from this.

My faith in the meat marketing industry has been restored.

22nd Annual Yukon Stick Gambling Championships

This year's Annual Yukon Stick Gambling Championships was hosted at Minto Landing by the Selkirk First Nation. With a super location, ample-sized tent, lots of parking and camping space and excellent food, they did an excellent job hosting the event.

(If you don't know what stick gambling (also known as "handgames") is, click this link.)

Of course, I entered the event. Our team consisted of friends Joseph and Michael from the Dehcho, Waylon, a very talented player from Whitehorse, and two ringers from Pelly Crossing. Our team did well, quickly beating everyone we played; everyone, that is, but a team of elders from Tulita who defeated us twice in the double-elimination-style tournament. Still, it was fun and we got some great games in over two days of play.

When we weren't playing, I met new people, chatted with older acquaintances, relaxed, read a book I've been trying to finish for three months, cooled off down at the river, danced at the drum dance, and watched some of the matches. There is nothing quite like a round of handgames when the drums are pounding, the crowd is cheering, and the play is fast.

The drums are pounding, the crowd is cheering, and the play is fast.

Drummers from Tulita (including some of the elders who knocked us out of the competition) keep a quick pace.

Not long after I arrived at the event, what started as a faint woodsmoke smell became a thick mass of smoke. Forest fires from around the Yukon and Alaska were casting their smoky blankets over the mountains.

Decent visibility one moment...

...poor visibility due to forest fire smoke the next.

A late-afternoon sunset.

A ball of fire.

I've never been able to take a picture of the sun like this before.

It's like something from a comic book or science fiction movie. "Born under the red sun of the planet Krypton, the yellow sun of Earth endowed him with powers beyond those of mortal men!"

Speaking of science fiction, this little guy looks like he belongs in a Star Wars movie, leading a band of Ewoks.

There were a few concession stands at the even. I had to stop at one and buy a "banaana" from some enterprising youth.

It stinks when someone alters your sign and you don't have a marker to fix it.

Some enterprising youth. If you buy three bandannas, you get a water gun for free!

The Yukon Stick Gambling Championships aren't just for adults. The youth teams were fun to watch and they have a lot of skill. Playing these guys in the coming years will prove to be a real challenge. If they're already this good, what will they be like after a decade of practice?

The final youth match, John 3:16 plays the Native Princesses. Watch the video below to see who wins.

Sometimes, I am such a melon-head...

What a crazy, busy, fun couple of weeks it has been. First there was the Yukon Stick Gambling Championships (more on that in another entry, soon to come), then there was the Petitot Gathering (also more on that in another entry, soon to come).

Since it has been so long since my last post (two weeks!) I've decided that I had better post something before people start asking if I've disappeared off the face of the planet or worse. So, here is a picture of me that Tammy took at the Petitot Gathering - proof that I'm still alive and looking handsomer than ever...



(If you haven't been able to figure it out, I am holding a watermelon in front of my face; that's not my actual head. I know, I had to take a close look before I could be sure, too. I carved this melon for a watermelon carving competition.)