Earlier in the month we had a 37” snowstorm. In the midst of this I sallied forth to help get people unstuck on Timberline hill. The first couple of tows were successful, and hubris impelled me on. The Powder God smiled and turned it up a couple of notches.

Soon I had added my wife’s Forester to the ditch at the top of the hill. To this scene of whiteout carnage rode Andy Hehnlin, big plow, chains all around. He pulled a couple of the big pickups stuck right in the road and got them up onto level snow from whence they could depart. He then did a very clean extraction of a nice sedan from the depths of the ditch. We had shoveled our car out as best we could and we soon had it back on its paws in the white maelstrom. He declined my offer to pay, and I was fortunate to get back to the driveway. The Powder God hadn’t counted on Andy.

I read the recent opinion piece by Kevin Cross, Randy Sulte, and Daniel Volland regarding Anchorage's housing issues and the proposed AO 2023-103. I highly respect these members and the efforts they make and while the authors make a compelling case for the importance of small multifamily developments, I believe it's crucial to address the underlying causes of the housing crisis in our city. 

Lifelong educator, explorer, climber, musician, fine wood craftsman, and mentor David F. McGivern took his last breath on October 11, surrounded by siblings, a few friends, and his high school sweetheart and life partner Marie Dochnahl. David was a true renaissance man gifted with a profound sense of purpose and vision. While his beliefs were strongly held, he was always open to seeing the world from a different point of view—that is, once his stated position ran headlong into a spectacular crash with Reality. So, while he worked hard at pointing the way, he could laugh at himself when reality responded with, “ Well…maybe not today.”