Hey everybody,
It has been a couple of weeks since I last typed at you, save for the couple of messages regarding my "Adventure ala Phone Service". So, I have a lengthy update for you...on with the fun...

SOLSTICE

The 21st of June marked a very special time for us up here in the Far North...the Summer Solstice. With 22 hours of daylight, and 2 hours of dusk, it leaves a lot of time for festivities, many of which I took part in.

First off, there was the Midnight Sun Festival which is held in bustling downtown Fairbanks. It was your typical street festival, with junk vendors and "really bad for you" junk food. And contests...don't forget the contests. The one that sticks out in my head was the "Freeze Your Butt Off on the Edge" Contest, put on by the local pop music radio station, playing the music
preferred by 8 out of every 9 cretins. Anyway, here is the drill. They had 5 cylinders of ice, about a foot in diameter and about 18" tall. At the bottom of each cylinder, there was an envelope frozen in the ice. Inside one of the five envelopes were two tickets to Hawaii. Not a bad deal, if you knew that the block you were trying to melt had the tickets, which you didn't know. Oh, yeah, to melt the block, you had to sit on the block. You couldn't move until you reached your envelope or you went into terminal posterior hypothermia. What some people would do just to look like an idiot. Of course, tropical breezes can go quite a way towards rehabilitating a chilled rump.

Being a scientist, I postulated that A) I would not have worn jeans like all of the morons did and B) I would have soaked my pants in salt water and would have "filled my pants" with rock salt, in order to lower the freezing temperature of the water. Incidentally, anybody who wants to know about a cool experiment involving ice and salt can ask Alicia Sigurdson ([email protected]) about a cool trick that I showed her a couple of years ago.

Anyway, later that night, after watching stupid uncomfortable people squirm around had lost its charm, we headed to Growden Memorial Field to watch the famous Midnight Sun Baseball Game, which is held every solstice. It begins at 10 PM and does not use the stadium lights. Check out www.goldpanner.com Well, this year was a bit more comfortable from a game conditions standpoint. It rained last year and got kind of chilly. It was mostly cloudy this year, but with no chance of rain.

Unfortunately, the game was really boring. It ended on a wild pitch in the bottom of the 13th. Everybody was just darn glad that they could finally go home. It was 2:05 AM. Anyway, the final score was 2-1, with the Goldpanners on top once again. The GP's are now 2-0 at games I have been to. But, either the pitching was REALLY great, or the hitting was UNBELIEVABLY bad.

Well, the final installment of the Solstice mania was the Midnight Sun Run 10k, which I decided to take part in. I walked the 6.2 miles with my neighbor, Stacy, who has a bum knee from a soccer injury. It was fun. There were something like 4000 entrants and many more who just joined in. It was won by a guy who was on vacation and ran the course in just over 31 minutes. Of course, he was a two-time All-American at Princeton. His wife got second in the women's division, but only by 7 seconds. It was a fun week.

REINVENTING THE WHEEL(s)

As most of you know, I have no car. It doesn't really bother me THAT badly, but it is starting to grind at me, especially when I see how much time I spend on the bus each week, and riding my bike to and from work. Actually, it isn't all bad, I read on the bus, and listen to music. And the bike to and from work, about 4 miles, is good exercise, but it kind of bites when the smoke is in town, from the wildfires, which I will explain in a bit.

Anyway, it is not so bad getting around Fairbanks on the bike or bus, but it makes for the anticipated inconveniences...not being able to get to the store for milk at 10 PM, etc. But I have started to search for the next vehicle to be subjected to my care. Right now, I am struggling between the $400-$800 beater that I might get lucky on vs. the decent used car or truck, which would require getting a loan, which I could afford (This job stuff is pretty cool, eh Leland?).

WILDFIRE

As everybody who was up here last summer knows, Alaska is a land of lots of vegetation, and vegetation likes to burn, especially after a dry winter. Well, about two weeks ago, a small wildfire broke out southwest of the city, about 15 miles away. For a week, it just kind of hung out down on the Tanana Flats consuming about 4,000 acres...that is until last Saturday. Saturday dawned hot and windy. By the end of the day Saturday, the fire had consumed 50,000 acres. A 1200% increase in just over a day. The thing was so powerful that it was producing giant cumulus above the burn area, from the intense convection. It was nice to see Plains-quality "thunderheads", even if they were man-made. See, the Tanana Flats fire is suspected to have been started by a helicopter when it dropped off a survey crew.

Update: Well, the fires are now considered "under control" by the BLM, thanks to the cool and humid conditions this weekend, leaving us with that wonderful stinging lingering smell...ahhhh!!!

GOINGS ON

Well, another of the better actors has left us. Last year, in fact, one year ago yesterday, the world lost Walter Matthau, one-half of the famed "Odd Couple". On Thursday, the world lost the other half, Jack Lemmon. The Odd Couple is perhaps my favorite comedy, thanks to the spectacular writing, and due to the fact that I was introduced to in in speech class in high school.
Paul Heath and I did an excerpt from "Odd Couple" in speech class. Remember that Jim?

Drum corps is starting to heat up. The Blue Devils have been on the east coast for the past week and a half doing battle with the Cadets almost every night, and BD is still undefeated. I have been able to get my fix of new drum corps, thanks to the wonderful world of piracy and digital transfer. BD's music is great, and Cadets are very cool as well. Cadets are playing "Moondance" by Van Morrison as the middle portion of their show, in between Young Person's Guideby B. Britton and Farandole by Bizet...I guess they have an underlying theme somewhere in there. Cavaliers sound just like last year, so that is boring, and Phantom Regiment is playing Concerto for Orchestra by Bartok, one of my favorites, and the song on the very first CD I ever purchased.

This week was very active on the internet bulletin boards because the Madison Scouts got beat by everybody and their dogs, actually by Bluecoats and Colts at a show in Illinois this week. You would have thought that Heartwell had frozen over. Anyway, there were tiffs, scuffles, shouting matches, and no little bit of DCI conspiracy talk on RAMD (rec.arts.marching.drumcorps newsgroup). Of course, I stayed out of it...hehehehe. No, really, I didn't call anybody any really bad names...at least not yet.

I am pleased to announce that I am going to go to a great concert tomorrow night...Bela Fleck and the Flecktones! HAHAHAHA, Leland!! This will be the second time in a year that I will see them. (I saw them open for Dave Matthews
Band in September. Yay!

Well, I leave you with the customary...

INJECTIONS D'HUMEUR

A cowboy walks into a bar and ordered a beer. His hat is made of brown wrapping paper. His shirt and vest are made of wax paper...he has chaps, and pants, and his boots were made of paper, and even his spurs are made of tissue paper. Pretty soon they arrested him for rustling.

"Thank you sir, may I have another?" Sure!

How many surrealists does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Two. One to hold the giraffe, and one to put the clocks in the bathtub.

Got to go. Anyway, have a good week. Oh, yeah, the Independence Day Holiday is this week. Happy Birthday, USA!! I couldn't think of a better place to be.

Brian "Frozen Kiester" Hartmann