Homer’s Best Bets

September 21, 2016 4:55 pm
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Nadine Pence smiles at her 100th birthday party at the Homer Senior Center on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016. Pence's great-granddaughter - still unnamed - was born in Anchorage on her birthday. Pence was born in Ottawa, Kansas, on Sept. 20, 1916. She came to Homer in 1933. Her late husband, Edward, was a territorial police officer. She offered some advice for living a long life. "Just keep going," she said. "Don't let 'em get you down."
Nadine Pence smiles at her 100th birthday party at the Homer Senior Center on Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016. Pence's great-granddaughter - still unnamed - was born in Anchorage on her birthday. Pence was born in Ottawa, Kansas, on Sept. 20, 1916. She came to Homer in 1933. Her late husband, Edward, was a territorial police officer. She offered some advice for living a long life. "Just keep going," she said. "Don't let 'em get you down."

Almost as regular as the closure of businesses on the Spit and the last cruise ship of the season, along comes our annual big storm on a big tide. Add in a typhoon giving up its last breath in the North Pacific, and boy howdy do we have problems. It’s almost a cliché to go out on the Spit and snap photographs of waves crashing on the road as daredevils try to make it out to the Salty Dawg.

Well, that’s fall in Alaska. It’s also the time when you can count on someone getting a truck stuck in the mud at Bishop’s Beach and praying for a tow truck as the tide laps at the tires.

The Betster won’t be cocky enough to say, “Never happen to me.” On Sunday, the B. took a stroll down to the Diamond Creek beach to do a Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies CoastWalk cleanup. Sometime about 3 p.m. yours truly looked up and saw waves crashing on a point of land just ahead. Huh. That tide comes in fast.

Fortunately, the B. made a mad dash to Diamond Creek, with about 15 feet of beach to spare. This stuff happens. Let ye who has never flooded XtraTufs cast the first stone.

We live on the edge, we Homerites by the sea. We sometimes push it. We think we’re cautious and find out we might have misjudged. But here’s the thing: You can scramble up the bluff. How bad would it be to sit above the sea watching the waves crash below you on a nice sunny day? Whew.

Whew, indeed. So rain or not, enjoy this stormy September, perhaps with these Best Bets:

 

BEST ROLL ’EM BET: The 13th annual Homer Documentary Film Festival starts at 6 p.m. today with a gala opening and showing of “Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise.” Admission is $20, $15 with discounts, and includes a barbecue dinner. The festival continues Friday-next Thursday, with an awesome line-up of nice films. Passes are $60, $50 with discounts. See the Calendar, page 14, for times and films.

 

BEST EXPORT EXPERIENCE BET: What Alaska product can be shipped out of state but doesn’t carry any weight? Why, the experience of visiting Alaska, of course. Learn about how travel and tourism can be an export in a seminar from 3-4:45 p.m. Friday at the Homer Chamber of Commerce.

 

BEST READ ON BET: Editor Martha Amore is joined by Alaska writers — including Homer’s own Teresa Sundmark — for a reading of “Building Fires in the Snow,” an anthology of LGBT short fiction and poetry. The reading is 6-7 p.m. Saturday at the Homer Public Library.

 

BEST BIG IDEAS BET: It will take smart, experienced and creative people to keep this great city running. Fortunately, we have some strong candidates for Homer Mayor and Homer City Council. Meet them and hear their thoughts at two debates next week. At 5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Homer Elks Lodge, the Homer Chamber of Commerce sponsors a forum and then at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Kachemak Bay Campus, Homer journalists grill the candidates in a forum broadcast live on KBBI.

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