Talk about your shoulder season. We’re talking shoulders like the Mariner linemen: wide, strong, mean and muddy. When will it all end? When will the weather clear again, and when will a good hard cold snap shock us into winter mode?
Right. The Betster knows the old Chinese curse to beware of what you ask for, because you just might get it. Other places in the world have distinct, definable seasons. Why can’t Homer? Well, at least we’re blessed with cool things to do, like some of these Best Bets:
BEST BRING IT ON BET: The Mariner girls volleyball team fears nothing. They’re ready to take on the rest of the Kenai Peninsula’s best starting at 10 a.m. Friday in the Peninsula Challenge at the Alice Witte Gym at Homer High School. The tournament continues Saturday.
BEST OUT OF THE BLUE BET: A pro football team holds open tryouts, and a down-on-his-luck bartender goes for it — and makes the team. If it sounds like a Hollywood movie, it is. Check out “Invincible” at 6 p.m. Friday at the Homer Theatre, not just because it’s the hot movie date night, but because that show benefits the Mariner Football Booster Club.
BEST YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK BET: Over at Kasitsna Bay, scientists are doing all sorts of cool things. Want to see what they’re doing with your federal taxes? Take a free tour from 9:30 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday — first come, first on board — leaving from the harbor. Call 235-2400.
BEST DANCE DANCE BETS: Square and contra dance and bluegrass music? Wild African tribal beats? You’ll have to choose one — or shuttle between — at 7:30 p.m. Saturday. At West Homer Elementary School, the Spit City Slickers play for the monthly square and contra dance. Over at Alice’s Champagne Palace, juJuba Marimba with special guests Michael and Osha Breez bang the mallets for a night of full-bore polyrhythmic Zimbabwean music. At $6 for the square dance or $10 for marimba, you can’t get dance music any cheaper.
BEST UP IN SMOKE BET: Mavis Muller, Homer’s basket maven extraordinaire, is back at it, building a huge basket at Mariner Park on the Spit. Join her in building the basket, and then at 6 p.m. Sunday come for a potluck, followed by the burning of the basket at 8 p.m.
BEST BIG BACK YARD BET: We’ve got more wildlife refuges in Alaska than Arizona has golf courses. From 8:30 a.m.-noon the Friends of Alaska Refuges holds its annual meeting at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center.
BEST IT AIN’T OVER ’TIL IT’S OVER BET: Farmers will probably park a truck every Saturday until the snow falls, but from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. this Saturday is the final, last, this is it, no more, official Farmers’ Market on Ocean Drive.
BEST THANKS FOR THE SERVICE BET: With units getting tours extended, and families having to put off a homecoming for another few months, it’s rough for our soldiers, Marines and sailors serving overseas. The America Legion shows its appreciation this Sunday with a Veterans Family Picnic from noon-3 p.m. at the post at Mile 2.5 East End Road.
No one told The Forces Controlling Weather. After a brief week of glory, we’re back to the usual sloppy, wet and warm weather — hey, just like August. Up on the Ridge, it’s still road construction season, which is just another way of saying “summer.” Heck, even a cruise ship came to port recently.
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