Jump to content

JGrayDBU

Full Members
  • Posts

    1239
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by JGrayDBU

  1. The wife went with me for the first three years, to the southwest region, then decided she had enough and is now staying with her sister.
  2. hmmm, ad looks good in Anchorage, 80/20 ground beef and Kroger ice cream at lower 48 prices. Petite sirloin steaks low enough to keep me from even making the phone call to the butcher in Eagle River. I will do a pick up order at multiple grocery stores, just in case there are more people like me. Who am I kidding, I'm an outlier for sure.
  3. I scrutinize the local Kroger's ad and if something stands out, I take it with me, because I get on the non-stop AA flight from DFW to Anchorage, and then high-tail it to a motel in Anchorage that provides freezer space. That evening is reserved for grocery shopping. I get up the next morning and get on an Alaska Airlines flight to Kotzebue, and then from Kotzebue I get on the Air Taxi to my final destination, Selawik. In January 22, I came back from Texas with a few steaks and ate my last one in April. For the majority of the steaks, I shop at Fred Meyer in Anchorage, the same company as Kroger's. One year at Christmas a colleague had a friend in Anchorage when Fred Meyer had the entire 7 pound tenderloin on sale, for $10.99 a pound, so I sent a check with my colleague, and she brought it back for me. I butchered the tenderloin to make bacon-wrapped filets. That made me a believer of tenderloin. It was lean, except for the bacon and the taste was just right. Caribou is the local animal hunted in the Arctic area and I was served a piece of that. Yuck! Serious gamey smell, not for me.
  4. That is interesting, as the North Slope District is the competition that pays about the same as my district. As I prepared to leave the Southwest Region and go north for the big $ I realized I was hearing stories about the oil money being a super-strong influence on the parents In N. Slope, which meant school was viewed as not necessary, and of course the many days in a row with 0 sunlight. Those two factors influenced me to choose the Northwest district. The pay is not 2 1/2 times as much, but it is definitely higher than Texas. I became proficient at bush orders from Anchorage in the Southwest region, but shipping was not reimbursed. The shipping charge from Anchorage to southwest region was $1.28 per pound in addition to the $35 charge to get the groceries from the grocery store to the airport in Anchorage. The charge to get groceries to my current village is about $2.08 per pound + the charge to get the groceries to the airport in Anchorage.
  5. update, this is orangecat92 with a new handle. I am now a veteran of the bush and have found the 2nd highest paying school district that happens to also have the 2nd best school calendar in the state. I leave DFW Monday July 25th-arrive in the village July 26th and am now the proud owner of a Bowie knife to fend off.....the dog. After I got bit by a dog in early January, I realized it's all about perception and people in Northwest Alaska treat their dogs like dogs, instead of family members. When I asked the tribe administrator how to get the dog's owner to help pay for a medical bill, because I got a tetanus shot at the local clinic, she told me the dog's owner was in prison. The Bowie knife I bought will be good for sending a message to owners-control your dogs. All I have to do is wear the knife on the belt and be prepared to discuss why I have the knife. Chances of me having to actually use the knife are about 1 in a 1000, imo. Re: the calendar- Veteran teachers must report by August 1, and if I teach the lucrative 2-week summer school, I arrive in Texas by the end of May. I was so ready to be back in Texas this year I turned down the summer school money, arriving at DFW May 11. I have conquered the food problem by using an old-fashioned strategy. My luggage on the way up there is two totes of dry groceries I buy from Winco in the Fort Worth area. I arrive in Anchorage, mail the dry groceries to my final destination, buy two more totes in Anchorage, buy frozen and refrigerated groceries to put in the motel fridge and freezer that will become luggage to get to the final destination near Kotzebue. I also tried something strange the most recent time, buying fresh produce in Anchorage and mailing it to the village. It worked! The only caveat is I must buy items that have not been cut up or peeled. The peeled carrots were bad. My goal is to pick items that have roots. About 5 totes of food lasts the entire fall semester, so I do not have to have any shipped groceries. Shipped groceries cost quite a bit of money for shipping except for Target and Amazon. Target is reducing the selection of groceries they will ship. Ex. I had no problem getting glass jars of Pace last fall, but that is no longer an option. My personal record low temperature is -44, but that is only walking to school, about 5 minutes. In that temp, only extras I wore were below the waist long johns, and normal for Alaska boots. Above the waist I wore 2-3 shirts, a hoodie, and a heavy coat. On my head I wore a super heavy hat that I can barely see through and ski gloves. Hands are the one area that I need something on all of the way through May 10th. When I left the area May 10 it was 28 degrees...above 0! No coat necessary. I fly to Texas to visit the wife in December and re-load on the grocery strategy. My children are adults on their own, but the dog is gone. She had to be put down the summer of 2019. Ice fishing is fun, but pickleball is more fun. Our record was probably 2 hours of pickleball in one evening. Always play in the gym. Saved more money for retirement the first year in this new place than the previous x amount of years combined. At least 5 years. For the boots, I wore the standard Muck mid-size for the warmer southwestern area and was told I needed to buy the Arctic tall version for the great northwest. We must have had a dry year, because I did not need to wear the Arctic Mucks at all last year. I wore them one day to try to break them in, and got away with wearing the mid-size boots all year long. Housing is much more difficult to work with in the great northwest. As a newbie, I had to work my way through the snow every time it snowed heavily during the school year. I would wake up to a snowfall, and try to walk unsuccessfully through the snow, fall through the snow and low crawl for about 20 yards or so. We only had about five days with snow that heavy. I got lucky in that the outgoing principal allowed me to move apartments before the end of the school year in May. When I arrive back on July 26, I get to walk into all of my stuff in totes in the new much improved apartment. All I have to do is unpack. I think I coined the phrase "These years up here are like dog years"..One year in the great northwest is like 7 any place else, including the southwestern part of the state. When I expressed the opinion that it was like 2 years in one to my outgoing principal she said "No, I've aged 15 years". She quit because the district office was stressing her out. We are breaking in 2 new administrators, one principal and one asst. principal. In my 21 years in education, I have never broken in 2 new administrators at one time in August. During the middle of the year, yes, but not at the beginning of the year. I am ready to go back and 60 degrees is very alluring right now.
  6. wow. used to have good luck with Conn's in the early 2000s. Just looked at the reviews...Stay far, far away.
  7. Hey how did your nephew get that sweet deal? I called all of the military bases, because I was visiting my Navy son here, and they all said the same thing, that because of the war games(RIMPAC) there were no vacancies. Let us know how good that MC cottage is.
  8. Am in Hawaii for a few more hours. Will make the lighthouse hike later. Hawaiian Airlines from Austin is the bomb, for the food alone. Fed us a. hot meal, b. two good snacks, and c. sandwich meal in the last half-hour before landing. All in the span of 8 hours! Wish I could say the same for American. Am flying back with 2 snacks from HNL to DFW, and then one more snack I guess from DFW to AUS. Btw, is seat guru accurate? If so, I am getting a few extra inches legroom on the way to DFW.
  9. Big family gathering yesterday in Round Rock, early celebration of my parent's 60th wedding anniversary-August 25th. Parents are doing pretty well, both can walk and talk well, just a little bit of repeating stuff. . Poke-Jo's is my dad's favorite. Normally I don't think much of them, but they came through big time yesterday. Brisket, pork ribs and sausage. Everybody agreed the pork ribs was the winner. We got the biggest container of bar-be-cue sauce ever, basically a little plastic bucket. didn't need but a tiny bit of bbq sauce.
  10. re: coaching pitchers. I caught a glimpse of the new pitching coach news and was trying to remember the names of the Houston players that drove us crazy over the years. Larry Coker was the one I saw in person, just nearly single handedly beat us in a regional. He had the famous rubber arm, and then his teammate-I couldn't think of his name and of all of a sudden it hit me, Rayner Noble? Dude was a total PITA to us....then in many years later I am thinking of Woody Williams. Was he the dude who came in from center field or shortstop to pitch against us in the super-regional? Junk ball pitcher to the extreme? Dang, if UH ever had a whole team of Cokers, Nobles and Williams they would have won the CWS, no doubt in my mind. Kind of like the old TCU comment made by DKR about the cockroaches.
  11. by Ha, the deliveries are a little expensive that come from Fred Meyer, which is the same company as Kroger's. I ordered from Fred Meyer in Anchorage, and the order arrived in about a week, which is not bad, but the delivery fee in Sept. 2021 was $2.05 per pound, compared to the delivery fee of $1.28 per pound to my previous location in Manokotak, which is much closer to Anchorage. I estimate the delivery charge to be up from that $2.05 number at least 20% now. Good news is you can order anything Fred Meyer delivers. Ice cream is a little soft, but it works. Greatland delivers groceries and I tried that as well. They charge a much smaller delivery fee, but they adjust their prices...think 3x Texas grocery prices. The local grocery store has trouble getting deliveries, possibly because of mismanagement. They don't seem to be "with it". The prices there are 3x a Texas grocery price. The two saving graces are Target and Amazon. Target is wimping out though, with their selection of dry groceries they will send going down by the day. Example, in September I was able to get Pace picante sauce delivered. Glass jars arrived just fine, and at a lower 48 grocery price. no more...won't deliver. My solution is to bring some groceries all of the way from Texas and buying groceries in Anchorage. It works for me. It is a lot of effort but it paid off. I saved more money for retirement during the 21-22 school year than the previous 3 years combined, and it's not close. A person could pay off average amount of student loans, say $28k, and have plenty left over.
  12. balk, so the guy is a little nervous? but great pitching emerges!
  13. this guy is their stud? doesn't look any good to me.
  14. re: teaching jobs, I have a line on a teaching job if your favorite SPED teacher is tired of the heat. My school above the Arctic Circle needs a secondary SPED teacher. The high temperature today is 64 degrees. Pluses are: 1. no more heat 2. easy walking commute 3. welcoming environment from teachers 4. low rent- subsidized by district 5. no utilities to pay 6. higher salary than Texas for experienced teachers, but only high 50s for inexperienced teachers 7. see a different part of the world 8. calendar is out-of-this-world good. Teachers are due to arrive end of July, and the last day with students is about May 9th. Minuses are: 1. No restaurants - person has to learn to eat his/her own cooking 2. difficult to get groceries delivered, but not impossible. You don't have to fish, but it helps. 3. cold! My personal record low walking to work was -44 degrees, but I only wore three layers of clothes below the waist and about 5 layers above the waist. The job was just posted the other day and the district accidentally submitted the wrong posting online, so as of now there is no competition if a SPED teacher is interested in trying something new.
  15. just heard the dumbest commentary ever. Dude who thinks the Domer 3rd baseman could have run to 3rd base to beat the runner to 3rd for the force out. You cannot count on your 3rd baseman to run to the bag unless you know you have an incredibly slow runner coming from 2nd. The throw to 1st was also not a bad decision, because it was a safer decision than trying to throw to home. Not a dumb decision, just a bad throw. Dumb ESPN.
  16. old man here...grew up watching tape delayed NBA finals, and vividly remember Kareem having to sit out a finals game-injury and Magic completely took over the game... In no particular order: Jerry West Magic Johnson Michael Jordan Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Shaquille O'Neal Larry Bird Hakeem S. Curry Lebron Bill Russell* *Only player in memory to win huge number of championships and then coach essentially the same team to championship shortly after.
  17. Update, the super-nice lady in San Antonio's Ro-tech who was going to help figure out this stuff has quit. Talked to a rookie, and she spilled the beans that Ro-Tech is most likely going to try to make me rent a machine for 12 months and then it will be mine. NO dice, I told her. I called my insurance company for backup and they have a rule that if the total amount goes over $500, they can recommend the machine be purchased. (I have already met my deductible for the year). The insurance company needs to see the prescription to include length of time. I called the doc's office and I have a winner I think. Dr. office lady says the prescription reads 99 months! Yea! This means it will be recommended to buy the machine, and I won't have to pay much. I should only have to pay 10% of the cost over $500. Good luck to me. I bet Ro-tech will have a hard time with that, but if I have to walk out of there with no mask and no machine, then that is what I will do.
  18. In doing research for a planned cruise I found the info. that Carnival will give the customer that owns 100 shares some extra onboard credit. Early today CCL was at 9.99, and finished at 9.90. Almost like having a dividend- invest $1000, get 5% dividend($50) each time you go on a short cruise. Or get 100$ dividend if you go on a 7 day cruise.
  19. so it appears to me that the three indexes have not been in a bear at the same time yet this year. Nasdaq 100 is bear now, and S and P 500 will be bear today or tomorrow? Dow will be last to bear, maybe tomorrow or Wednesday, or Dow might avoid a bear? When do we get the official announcement we are in recession? Am thinking that heads for more losses and the markets hit bottom sometime next year? Iow, this is not a quick in and out recession is it? This is a go deep and long 18 month recession, I am guessing. There are going to be some low hanging fruit at some point, just don't know when.
  20. Which team does a Texas st. fan want to win? UConn? game has been tied for sometime, it appears.
  21. thinking about TxState, if they win one more in Cali this weekend and then win their super -regional, they will be among a very few number of teams with 50 wins in Omaha. Will be interesting to see if Tennesse, etc advance to CWS.
×
×
  • Create New...