There's a term I've heard around Fisherman's Terminal lately that I'm really begining to like..."Skookum". It's Chinook jargon that's used more commonly than I thought in the Pacific Northwest. Generally, it means first-rate, strong or solid. Check out (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skookum) for a Wikipedia explanation of the word. I think the real reason I have a growing appreciation for this word, and try to drop it into normal conversation, is because my neighbor on the dock came down for a look at the plumbing work I'm doing and said, "that's skookum man, really clean."...made my day. Every element of this project has a vertical learning curve but once I've cracekd the crux, I tend to move much quicker and more effectively through the rest, kind of like a 5.10c climbing route. Of course a craft is never mastered, but it feels good to have some things working out well. Granted, I haven't filled the tanks and pressurized the water system yet and nobody's used the head - but for now I just put one foot in front of the other and only stop to eat, sleep and drink...
2 comments:
I just read the meaning of this word yesterday, in the old book "Alaska Days With John Muir" by S. Hall Young, the Alaskan Presbyterian minister and intimate friend of Muir.
And so much of that book felt deeply familiar to me because of our strange and wonderful friendship, and our time way up high at Beyond, and I have thought a great deal about you and your boat as I read of those two men and their indigenous company, paddling the fjords, racing icebergs in the ebbing tide, chronically drenched in rain, and I miss you, miss you, miss you and our times up in the mountains.
Creation groans inside of me, the memories of what once was and will hopefully be again, either on this or the other side of glory.
G.L. You are my Skookum friend.
Love J.C-D
a 5.10c?...nice.
I'm still trying to send a 5.10. perhaps tonight!?
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