Skagway, Alaska

This morning I received a phone call asking me if I could come in to work early. Since I was ready to go out the door anyway I said that I would. I rushed to work expecting a mad house. It really wasn't that busy, but who am I to make that judgement?
Most days I am glad that I just punch a time clock. In previous lives I had responsibility--budgets, projections, productivity reports. Endless days and phone calls in the middle of the night. Now I just clock in and toss cards to the endless stream of poker players who wander through our room. Sometimes I need to be reminded of how much I hated my previous jobs. It makes it easy to overlook some of the crap that I deal with now. Everything is relative......

It's not often that a reader introduces themselves. Today Larry Brady caught me during a break. We chatted for a few minutes. He said that he was also trying to catch up with Linda, but that she never seemed to be working when he was in town. Linda, I guess you need to go back to work. Your public expects you to be at Bellagio.
Larry, it was nice meeting you.

****

Today I had a player bark: "Don't touch my chips".
Excuse me, your excellency. (I want to say excuse me, you pompous ass, but I won't). There are plenty of times that I need to touch "your" chips. Technically every time you put your chips into the pot in a stack over 5 chips high they should be broken down. In this case, I was simply making it easy for everyone to see what was the call portion and what was the raise. Honestly, what did you think I was going to do? Steal a freaking $5 chip?
Besides, if you would learn to cut chips it would make it easier for everyone.

****
Skagway was our second port of call. Again, the scenery was spectacular, but there really isn't much else there. Several of us took an excursion on the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad.



This railroad was built to transport people and equipment to the gold fields in the Yukon Territory. The other option was to carry about 2,000 pounds of provisions via pack animal. The railroad charged a hefty fee, but I can't imagine making that journey on foot.




We climbed for about 20 miles, up and up and up, until we crossed into Canada. At that point we turned around and headed back to sea level.




The weather thus far has been cool, rainy and gloomy. Quite a welcomed change from the 100+ degrees of Las Vegas.
The weather also complimented my mood.
What can I say? It's how I typically view the world.

It's hard to describe several hours of twilight. The farther north we sailed, the longer the days became. After sunset, it just didn't get dark for hours.
Again, this suited me just fine.
Can you guess my favorite time of the day?
In the gloaming.
I find it surreal.

Next stop, Glacier Bay