| letter from bellingham,washington... the clouds are hovering over the anchor-outs today... yet darren and john are desperate to join that motley bunch of boaties, floating free, without rent or mortgage, white picket or barbed wire fence... i met darren inside the alaska ferry building--he was squatting on a wooden bench, silvery lures from his fishing poles shivering light into my eyes... "whatcha catch?'' i asked him... "whole bunches of nothin'--we struck out, drilled a dry hole, busted--the ice machine didn't work, so we missed out on a record pink salmon season..." "just like in 'the perfect storm'..." "i was gonna buy myself a sailboat and live on it too--ah well"--darren was taking it all pretty easy, considering--"a good summer fishing season in southeast alaska can be worth $25,000 or more--i'll have to bust my butt doing construction now instead of doing what i do best..." "what's that?" "hanging out..." john came to pick his friend up--the pals were both in their 20's, strong, tall and not too concerned about lack of cash--john, who was a darker and beardless version of darren, had just finished wooden boat school in port townsend just south of here... "they taught me what they know in nine months--if a baby can get born in that long, i should be able to learn anything too--and i did--but to be honest, they're just not doing too much hiring of wooden boat guys now..." i had recently hired myself as master of an old wood boat, so i was listening carefully... "i wanna be an anchor-out too--i went sailing a 22-foot wood boat yesterday--the guy's selling it for $20,000..." "too much!" darren yelled... "yeah really--i told him i couldn't spend that much--then in the middle of the bay he said, 'are ya sure you're not interested in buying?...'" the dotcom bust has hit hard in the northwest--the clean industry of computers turns out to be clean like picked-over bones in the desert... some geek kings, like seattle bill gates, survived--other dukes and earls got out quickly enough--the rest of us took a bath and, well, got cleaned... so boatbuilding, and dreaming, is big again--the schooner lady washington, star of "pirates of the carribean," bobs contentedly next to the alaska ferry getting ready to take me to juneau and skagway--even out here, north of the california faults, land isn't as solid as it seems, water not as insubstantial... as if these profound thoughts weren't enough to flummox, it seems that george bush jr. is stalking me... he was doing a fundraiser in california when i left--two days ago, we both passed through portland, where he either talked about the healthy forest initiative or set a fire, i'm not sure which... maybe both--in mendocino this week, they found timing devices at the epicenter of a few blazes--suddenly, it's not just a whacky park ranger burning a letter from an ex--we're talking about professionals... after the native way of life was nearly extinguished, and the gold rushes petered out, logging and fishing tried to fill the void... in 2003, though, some beautiful people are tree-sitting to stop old-growth clearcuts--and the government pays fisherman to not fish... darren and john drive away into this changed world, seeming seaworthy enough to not get capsized... and my boat to alaska waits at the pier... love, jeff |
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