5/25/05 I walked outside, and found a bunch of scientists using this device to view a LARGISH pair of sunspots---that apparently came up quite quickly.  An interesting story about the gentleman in the leg brace (I'm not going to tell you his name.)  One of the others asked him what was wrong with his leg.  He blithely responded that he wouldn't know--until he got an MRI.  It must be nice to blithely respond about getting health care.  Without going into too much detail (It is not yet the time.), let's just say that the "'health' care situation" for graduate students at the University of Alaska Fairbanks is . . . quite different than that for its faculty, staff---heck even the guy that scrubs the toilets.  True, the game is designed to keep them down--heaven forfend that graduate students get recourse to the law, or *GASP* even the vaguest rudiments of political "power"--however, this "'health' care situation"---is something entirely new. . . .

      5/25/05 I thought that this one was funny.  :) I bought this foam "camping pad thingie" for Rosie.  :) (She reasonably promptly destroyed it, with much enjoyment.  :) ) It looked some much like a Conestoga wagon, that I took a picture of it:

      :)

      In fact, some old dude at checkout commented how that, "looked like one of those old-style wagons." :)

      5/30/05 Oh, NO!! It's Mr. Bill!!!!

      :)

      6/1/05 Coming home, I saw some "cloud pillars" coming down.  I was so impressed with the view, that I took a picture:

      I think it came out pretty well---given that I took it with the camera stuck out the window at about 50 m.p.h.  :) ;)

      6/1/05 It seemed like a night for impressive cloud pillars.

      6/1/05 And, when I turned around. . . .

      I found the above one a very impressive sight.  And the one above that, almost looks like some of the final scenes to "RahXephon. . . ."

      6/2/05 This one was also taken from the Fairbanks Dog Park.  Skies like this one are not terribly unusual in the arctic during summertime.  The skies not infrequently look like something that--if one saw in the [American] Mid-West--one would grab one's ankles.  :) This one, however, produced some SERIOUS lightning and thunder---CRACK-BOOM!!

      It was kind of funny---and certainly food for thought: There was one of the reasonably ubiquitous "Alaskan wild-children" who heard that, and said--and I kid you not (Pun not intended---if you can believe that.  :) )--"What was that?"  The kid had never heard thunder, before.  (!!) THAT is how rare that sort of thing is in the [Alaskan] Interior.

On to more Alaska pics.