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We usually don't have two hard winters in a row, so I don't know what happened this year. We have had a record snow fall that has been assaulting us regularly since the middle of January. It has gotten to the point that we don't know where to put all of the snow any more. The city found out long ago that we can't dump truckloads of snow in the bay. Instead of melting, the snow turns into icebergs and creates navigational hazards for incoming and outgoing vessels in the harbor. In addition to this there a problem with pollution from pretroleum products that have collected on the road. In a way it has been a culture shock, but at the same time it has been a treat. There are a lot of perfect hills for skiing and snow boarding, but until this winter we never got a prolonged period with a proper snowfall for such activities. I don't engage in either of those activities myself, but I really like a good snow and have enjoyed this unusual white winter with almost no rain for once. I met a woman at the Tanner Roundup, which is a small local fair. (It gets its name from the fact that it is held during the time of year when the tanner crab season is open for commercial fishing.) I have seen the woman around town quite a bit, she and her husband remind me of retro hippies. They are really nice people and have that serene aura of the truly content philanthropist. We started exchanging stories when she asked me if I had ever fished for a living and how long. At one time she had her own gill-netter boat and had fished for salmon down in the southeast of Alaska. One year she worked for a friend on his purse-seiner. He had hired an Iranian as his other deck hand, and the first day they went out on deck this Iranian sneered at this woman, telling her, "We treat women like dogs in Iran." Well, my acquaintance was the one running the hydraulics that day, and as they were bringing the net in over the rail, the Iranian got caught in the net and she allowed the net to drag him up to where his feet were just dangling off of the deck. The woman walked over to the Iranian, grabbed him by his shirt front and looked him straight in the eye as she said, "Now, explain that one about the dogs to me again, Camel Breath!" The Iranian blushed mightily, but gave no answer. You have to love a woman like that!
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