Living & Working in Great Places
Wonderful Surpise
A little over a week ago, the residents of KTN were given a wonderful
gift. It was a little past 5pm on Saturday night and my husband & I were driving home from doing some shopping. As we came around the corner my husband said "I just saw fireworks above Deer Mountain!". Deer Mt is the beautiful peak that towers above downtown KTN. I said "What?! NO way!" And then I was proved wrong as another explostion bloomed above the mountain. We quickly pulled over, with a bunch of other cars on the side of the road, and parked to watch the show. We only caught a few minutes, but some friends told me it went on for at least 20 minutes if not more. There had been nothing scheduled, and I had not even heard anyone talking about fireworks.
Over the next couple of days I pieced together the story. Turns out our local UPS delivery guy, with some of his friends, climbed to the top of Deer Mountain (elevation 3001'), and set off the great show. There were a few photos floating around and I have attached the one that ended up on the front page of our local newspaper, the Ketchikan Daily News. It warmed the hearts of the locals!!
Our good weather has been holding out this winter. And we have been getting snow, rather than rain.
Living in a rainforest we get so much rain, I prefer having snow in the winter. It is a nice change and makes everything pretty. While walking around town a couple days ago I snapped this photo.
At work things are getting busy. The company I work for - Allen Marine Tours in Ketchikan - keeps two employees on part-time during the slow off season months of October - January. I have mainly been working on getting 2007 wrapped up. But by mid-January we start our hiring process. In late December we started running our listing in Coolworks, and we ran local ads to attract the college students who were home on break. There is tough competition for good employees in Alaska and nationwide for the summer season. My companies goal is to have hiring mostly wrapped up no later than the end of February!! That may seem really early to some people. But by knowing who the staff will be, the managers can then turn their attention to other important parts of getting ready for the summer. And some of the other employers I have talked with in town are also trying to get people locked in already. For example, we have 40 positions to fill this summer and have already filled 18 of those. So, my best advice for folks who want to be in Alaska this summer is get those applications out right now!
Big news here is that the Alaska Marine Highway (aka "the ferry") published their summer schedule. So now folks coming up by ferry to work or vacation can make their reservations. Allen Marine runs a boat tour out to the Misty Fjords National Monument and our tour is 4.5 hours long and runs on a 78' catamaran. Our schedule is published on February 1 - and I had my first ticket sales for 2008! When the ferry schedule is out and the tours are already selling tickets - it means summer is not far away. Sort of an Alaska tour operator's version of "groundhog day".
Plans this weekend include dinner over a co-workers house tonight (we are bringing the garlic bread & salad) and tickets Saturday night for the Art's Council fundraiser "Wearable Art Show". Most of the restaurants are geared up for Super Bowl parties. Since we don't get network television we will have to visit a restaurant or friends to see the game. I am not much for football, but am always interested in seeing the new commercials!
Hope all have a great Super Bowl weekend!
Add a Comment
Get Your Next Job
Cool Works® Chat
What's New on Cool Works®
McGinnis Meadows Cattle & Guest Ranch - Full time/seasonal Ranch Hand-Mechanic
McGinnis Meadows Cattle & Guest Ranch - Chef/Cook for Cattle & Guest Ranch up in Northwest Montana
Green River Preserve - Environmental Educator/Mentor at the Green River Preserve
Yellowstone Park Service Stations - Summer Jobs
Maine Conservation Corps
© 2009 Created by Cool Works tm
You need to be a member of My CoolWorks to add comments!
Join this Ning Network