lilginks

Break up is occurring here at break-neck speed. It snowed all day Saturday; over in Anchorage, they were to get 5-11 inches, quite a range. Yet on the whole, it is quite slushy here, muddy in places. It was recommended that I walk the 2.5 miles I typically bike in order to meet my ride to work. I guess that is an option, no snow shoes required. I sit here drinking from a coffee mug that says "you're only young once--but you can be immature forever" promising no?

This month, I am working in a greenhouse for some local farmers. This job requires me to know that a bacoba looks different than a lobellia (pre flowers they look alike from afar). And that Canary Bird Vine, that is not Sweat Pea, although I do believe they both climb. I was told by my boss that "everyone knows what a Sweat Pea look like;" whoops. I love plants, green things are good for the lungs...take that in any way you want; point is, I love trying to identify all the Alaskan plants during the summer, but greenhouse plants are foreign to me; it's like being inside a spaceship. "We'll be using insecticide soon; please be aware earthlings." "Gently, move the soil to place the roots inside, they do not like to push their roots through packed soil." I learn a little bit each day.

More interesting really, is how I get to work. You already know that I bike from where I live to the main road, the Talkeetna Spur Road. My boss told me that one of my co-workers was going to need to pass by my road, so I could get a ride with him. I will call him Torrence. He was called by all Talkeetna people who know him, Jim, however he asked me to call him by his real first name. No problem. I told my boss that I really appreciated her "getting me hooked up with a ride with Torrance, Yo!" She looked at me cock-chined. "Who is that?" For a moment I wondered if I was being abducted, after all it did feel like an alien spacecraft I entered every morning...the so called Greenhouse, yeah "Oh, well, he asked me to call him Torrence, not Jim." She looked at me, suddenly fear striking her dirt covered features. "Yikes, maybe he wants everyone to call him Torrence." Turns out, he does.

I made some assumptions before I met him. One, that he would have a truck in which I could throw my bike in the bed. (Poor Grammer, I apologize.) It turned out true. Secondly, I thought he would be a man who lived in a kind of isolated way. This was also true. In a year, he has come into Talkeetna town once. I like him, he puts up with me in the morning and after work when he drops me off for my uphills climb home. In the scheme of things, my abductions go well.