April 2026 Edition
April 2026 Edition
I came across the Polish word przedwiosnie recently. The meaning is something like "pre-spring" or the time before spring. That's a perfect word for what we experience in the north, when the calendar says it's spring officially and our friends and family in the Lower 48 are showing off their daffodils or peonies or whatever happens to be blooming in their backyard. Up here, we have to look for more subtle signs of change as we endure more days of gray or decaying snow. Sure, the days are...
When my Direct TV service quit working in March 2025, I was quite sure it was a tree problem. The technician sent to my house confirmed my thoughts. I decided to call a tree service that years earlier had removed a huge broken branch stuck high in an old birch tree, which might have fallen on any person or vehicle parked in our driveway. The guy came that afternoon to do a free estimate. During our conversation, I mentioned that it seemed strange to be inquiring about his service, when I had a...
A highlight of the spring calendar is the Alaska Folk Festival in Juneau. The festival is April 6-12. There are two main venues, the main stage at Centennial Hall, 101 Egan Drive, and the dance stage at JAHC, 350 Whittier St. The guest artist is Willi Carlisle, who recently released his fourth album... Katie Orlinski, National Geographic photographer and explorer, will speak on the University of Alaska Anchorage campus at 7 p.m. April 16 at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium. Orlinsky will share...
April 1-30 National Poetry Month April 1-30 National Jazz Appreciation Month April 1 International April Fool’s Day Evening of April 1-April 9 International Passover April 5 International Easter April 7 Anchorage Municipal Election Day. Most voters vote by mail in Anchorage for the municipal election. This is the last day you can submit your ballot. There are 12 propositions, ranging from school bonds to a new street light service area, on the ballot. Six seats on the Anchorage Assembly are...
Kevin Whitley came to Alaska from Baytown, Texas, in 1972 at the age of 9. His father was drawn to Alaska to work on the transcontinental pipeline. So, the family packed their bags and moved more than 3,000 miles away to start a new life in Alaska. The move was anything but easy. Kevin had to adjust from the hot, humid plains of East Texas to the cold, mountainous landscape of Alaska. But little by little, he adapted. He swapped his football for a hockey stick, embracing the northern lifestyle,...
This is the first in a series about people finding or rediscovering creative pursuits later in life. The reporting project is funded by a grant from the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism. If you have a suggestion of a person who has explored their artistic or creative impulses upon retirement or when other life demands lessened, email editor@seniorvoicealaska.comeditor@seniorvoicealaska.com. David Brown looks like he is headed for a day of fishing when he takes a seat in a Midtown...
John Wood, 78, holds his own with teenagers on the ski trails. At the Tour of Anchorage ski race on March 8, he earned a seventh-place finish in the 25-kilometer classic event. "Youth will be served," Wood said, a day before he left to go to Talkeetna to ski the 50-kilometer ski race known as the Oosik. "My intent was to ski within myself," Wood said. "I'm not getting any younger." Because Anchorage had received a lot of fresh snow in the 48 hours before the race, times were slower than normal...
Jacob Marunenko, better known as "Russian Jack," remains one of Anchorage's most colorful historical figures-a bootlegger, homesteader, and notorious character whose name is now attached to parks and streets throughout the city. He also was a convicted killer. Marunenko emigrated from the Ukrainian village of Parevka in the early 1900s, leaving behind a wife and two children to seek fortune in Alaska. He entered the United States in 1915 via Blaine, Washington, and by 1920 settled in the...
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Each spring in Alaska, as the snow softens and the light returns, something else begins to stir across our communities. Stories. At Alzheimer's Resource Alaska, we hear them every day. A daughter describing the first moment she realized her mother was forgetting familiar places. A husband learning how to become a caregiver after decades of partnership. A friend who simply refuses to let someone they love face dementia alone. These are the stories that bring people to Amblin'. If you have never...
With everything it takes to stay healthy-primarily making good choices about food and attitude every day-contemplating the molecules that facilitate our mind-body connection may seem academic. Hopefully, some readers will derive pleasure and awe thinking about how human cognition and physiology evolved over the millennia. This column will feature an essential triad of sophisticated chemical structures generated within our bodies, without which we would not be able to live the lives we enjoy...
Receiving home health care can be available for some Medicare recipients. To be eligible for Medicare coverage of home health services, you must be homebound. In other words, it must be difficult for you to leave your home and doing so requires significant effort. The help you need can be from another person or from medical equipment such as crutches, a walker, or a wheelchair. You are also considered homebound if your doctor believes that your health or illness could get worse if you leave...
In 1994, when I reported for the Arctic Sounder in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), I was catapulted off a freight sled on the way out to a whaling camp. My left knee swelled and was strained by insulated overalls. Because I was a cyclist, I manage for decades to avoid surgery, save for a meniscus repair (a C-shaped piece of tough, rubbery cartilage that acts as a shock absorber between the shinbone and the thighbone). I got to watch the surgery on a video screen as I requested a spinal. Hardly...
New research is showing that adults who engage in lifelong learning such as reading, writing and learning languages have a lower risk of Alzheimer's disease and slower cognitive decline. The study does not prove that lifelong learning decreases the risk of Alzheimer's. It only shows an association. The study looked at 1,939 adults and examined cognitive enrichment including access to newspapers as children and having library cards in middle age. People in the top 10% of lifetime cognitive...
Alaska Health Fairs, a nonprofit that provides education, has several health fairs coming up in April and May. You can see the full schedule and make an appointment at this link Wasilla - April 4, 9 a.m.-1 p.m., Fyzical Therapy, 650 N Shoreline Dr., Wasilla, 99654 Kodiak - April 10, 8:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Kodiak Senior Center, 302 Erskine Ave, Kodiak, 99615 Anchorage - April 15, 8 a.m.-noon, Hope Community Resources, 570 W 53rd Ave., Anchorage, 99518 Houston - April 18, 8 a.m.-noon, Houston Mid-Valley Senior Center, 1975 W. Midvalley Way,...
