Homer, Alaska - Announcements - Homer's Best Bets 04/30/08

Story last updated at 8:46 PM on Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Homer's Best Bets

Yeah, it sure might look like winter. Up on the ridge, those hillbillies can probably ski through Memorial Day with all that snow up there. Down here in town, you can use up your old credit cards scraping frost off your windshields in the morning. Don't dial down the Monitor yet and keep that wood pile stacked, because at oh-dark-hundred the old Spit Rat shack gets a tad chilly.

Of course, oh-dark-hundred keeps getting earlier and earlier, or later and later, depending on when you stumble out of the Salty Dawg. We usually expect snow to fall at dusk you know, 3 p.m. and not in blazing daylight. All but seasoned Alaskans were surprised by a late-April snowfall. The Betster keeps telling ya: the new normal is there is no normal.

Tell it to the birds, though. Although they keep arriving earlier and earlier, snow or not, our transient terns and summer sandhill cranes remind us spring is here. It may look like winter, but it sounds like spring.

Keep your ears open on the morning canine companion stroll, and every day you'll hear a new bird call. Varied thrushes, those birds that sound like old-fashioned rotary telephones, trill away. Sandhill cranes whoop it up. Snipes make that way cool sound with their dive-bomb freefall flapping of feathers. And, as usual, the Betster can't figure out the calls of those obscure little brown birds, but there they are, chirping their hearts out.

So find joy in the little things, those subtle sounds of nature. It's been a long, hard winter, a winter that doesn't want to let go. Letting go is what it's all about, though. Kick off those Sorels, put away the longjohns and unzip that down jacket. It's May Day, workers of the world, time to celebrate hey, maybe with some of these Best Bets:

BEST FISHY BUSINESS BET: Fish are free; it's the bringing them to port that you pay for. Want to become a highliner? Learn about the "Business of Fish" with a free seminar from 1-4 p.m. today at the Kachemak Bay East Campus. Call (907) 796-6045 to register.

BEST FORWARD INTO THE PAST BET: One of the coolest French films is "La Jete" by Chris Marker, the basis of "12 Monkeys." See it and other avant garde films on the big screen with the First Friday Film Series at 8 p.m. at Cinema 127, 127 East Bunnell Avenue that's Kevin Co and Kammi Matson's garage. Donation requested.

BEST STRANDED BET: Heroism, adventure and excitement. Yeah, that sounds like the plot of "Nim's Island," but it's also the big Washington, D.C. and New York City trip the Homer Middle School eighth-grade class is taking. You can help them out by going to the 6 p.m. Friday showing of "Nim's Island" at the Homer Theatre; proceeds benefit their big adventure back east.

BEST DIVING FOR DOLLARS BET: Seasoned trash picker-uppers know that junk lining our streets isn't trash, but pure gold. Sometime you find cool stuff, and if you haul in the most bags on Homer Cleanup Day on Saturday, you'll win some prizes. Everyone's a winner, though, because we'll have Homer spiffed up in time for those cruise ship passengers arriving Monday. Cleanup Day runs 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Pick up bags at the Homer Chamber of Commerce, Homer Volunteer Fire Department, Homer High School and Fritz Creek General Store.

BEST SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL NONPROFIT BET: First Friday brings lots of cool art to town, but the coolest has to be Byron Birdsall painting live and in person at the Art Shop Gallery Friday-Saturday. If you like what he paints, take a $10 chance on a raffle, with proceeds benefiting Hospice of Homer. The drawing is at 5:45 p.m. Saturday.

Hungry and thirsty after Cleanup Day? Wet your whistle and chow down with a Friends of the Homer Public Library fund-raiser at 7 p.m. Saturday at Fusion, that hip happening new fancy night club at Wasabi's. Admission is $40. Stick around after the fund-raiser and keep dancing at 10 p.m. when DJ Klever spins tunes.

BEST FLIPPIN' TASSLES BET: Homer's commencement season gets started with the big show next Wednesday, as educated as you can get in town with the Kachemak Bay Campus commencement. Watch your neighbors get college degrees and share their pride. Ceremonies start at 7 p.m., with Alaska's top lawyer, Alaska Attorney General Talis Colberg, speaking.

Homer Alaska - Announcements -