HOMER’S BEST BETS </MCC HEAD>

Story last updated at 6:02 PM on Wednesday, January 3, 2007

HOMER’S BEST BETS

Ya know how like in Star Trek when Capt. Jean Luc Picard takes the Enterprise into hyperspace and the stars streak together like you’re falling down a well filled with glitter? That’s what it’s like driving into a Kachemak Bay snow squall, except on the other side you won’t find blue skinned aliens or evil Borgs.

Photo by Michael Armstrong, Home
Ready for its close up A bald eagle sits on a driftwood log by Jean Keene's cabin on the Homer Spit as two photographers snap a picture. Keene, Homer's Eagle Lady, began feeding bald eagles late last month -- the only person allowed to feed eagles under Homer's eagle feeding ordinance. Keene asks that people stay in cars when viewing eagles near her feeding station.

Assuming you get to the other side. Holy Recliners! The other day the Betster drove across Beluga Slough and the snow had gone all Lazy Boy on the world — assuming the horizontal position. If not for the nice clean edge the snowplow heroes put along the guardrails, the Betsteroid Human Transport System would have gone into the drink.

Well, that’s life at Latitude 59 degrees and some change. Getting from Point A to Point B without winding up in Point X might as well be interstellar travel, only you don’t have all those spiffy navigation systems. If not for all-wheel drive and studded tires, we’d never get anywhere.

Maybe Ma Winter is tellin’ us to stay home — or at least slow down. We’ve got papers to put out, kids to teach, sick people to nurse and roads to plow, so heck or horizontal snow, we head out. Some of us have the sense to take January off and take on lesser worries, like how much sun lotion to put on. SPF-30 or SPF-45? Decisions, decisions. Those of us sticking it out, fear not. Even though it’s like the slowest month around, we still have plenty of fun things to do, like some of these Best Bets:

BEST FULL MOON BET: This week’s full moon should keep shining enough light to make night skiing magical — and possible. If the snow calms down, strap on the old wooden skis, put a thermos of tea in the rucksack and hit the trails. Or put on the old tennis rackets and try out the new snowshoe trail up Diamond Ridge from the Baycrest Ski Trail. See the article on Homer’s ski trails on page 1B for the wheres and hows.

BEST ART CRAWL BET: With a snowstorm, you might just be doing the art crawl for First Friday. Although not every gallery has a First Friday reception, and some are closed, enough new exhibits open this month to keep Homer’s art lovers happy. From Big City artists to your hard-working neighbors, there’s lots to see this month. Check out this month’s exhibit list on page 3B.

BEST PRAY FOR PEACE BET: With 3,000 U.S. troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis dead, the Iraq War has brought plenty of pain here and abroad. Reflect on the human cost of war and remember the dead from 4-5:30 p.m. Saturday with a candlelight vigil at WKFL Park; sponsored by Kindness Without Borders.

BEST GOOD ADVICE BET: The Homer and Central Peninsula Fish and Game Advisory Committees hold annual elections this week. The Homer committee meets at 6 p.m. Jan. 9 in the NERRS building across from Homer Air on Kachemak Drive and the Central Peninsula committee meets at 7 p.m. Jan. 10 at Ninilchik School. Drop by the meetings and put in your two cents on Board of Game proposals.

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