This just came in from the SJ County Sheriff’s Office and the SJ DEM:

A 911 and phone service outage is well into the second day in the San Juan Islands as local residents and responders continue to cope with the challenges of the phone outage. Centurylink has reported that there is a break in the fiber optic cable between Lopez and San Juan Islands causing the service disruption. The break in the cable is limiting phone calls to the island of their origin. Residents of each island are able to call numbers on their island only. 911 emergency calls on San Juan Island are being routed to the local 911 center. In case of an emergency, residents on Lopez Island are instructed to call Lopez Fire district at 360-468-2991 from a wired phone or go to the main station at 2228 Fisherman Bay Rd. in Lopez Village. Residents on Orcas Island should call the Orcas Island Fire District at 360-376-2331 from a wired phone or go to the fire station located at 45 Lavender Lane, Eastsound.

Fire Department members are standing by at the Lopez Village and Eastsound Fire stations to answer incoming calls and initiate emergency response.

There are reports that cell phone calls to the mainland from Orcas and Lopez islands have been completed using Verizon cell phones. The break in the fiber optic cable has put Verizon cell phone towers out of service on San Juan Island, and this has caused occasional overloads on the Mt. Constitution cell tower. Most internet connectivity remains in service on Lopez and Orcas islands but most internet service is out on San Juan Island.

Centurylink is working to resolve the problem as soon as possible, and local officials expect to receive more information about repairing the break and service restoration Wednesday afternoon. In the meantime, islanders are being creative in finding ways to both spread the word about the outage and remain in contact with friends or family on the mainland.

Michelle at Islanders Bank wants you to know they are open and their ATM is working….

Islanders Bank is open during the county wide outage. Customers can conduct normal transactions and their ATM accepts all cards. To ensure your transactions are processed the same day, they will be closing at 4:00pm.

The good people at Rock Island Technology Solutions have set up some Free WiFi for people who need it. I just saw this notice on Facebook announcing it:

Rock Island has setup 2 additional hotspots at our office building. Great coverage towards the Court House side of the building.

This is a FREE service to anybody who needs it. When you connect to the ‘ROCKISLAND’ wifi signal and open a browser you will see our captive portal, just scroll down and click “login” this is the same system we used at the SJC Fair this year.

Rock Island customers also can utilize any of our other WiFi hotspots by using their RI login when prompted by the captive portal.

This note came in from CenturyLink’s public relations manager:

A fiber optic cable has been cut underwater between Lopez and San Juan Islands impacting CenturyLink services, including 911 services, throughout the islands. 911 services on San Juan Island have been rerouted to the local 911 center. In case of an emergency, residents on Lopez Island are instructed to use either their cell phones or their landlines to call Lopez Fire district at (360) 468-2991 or go to the main station at 2228 Fisherman Bay Road in Lopez Village. Residents on Orcas Island should also use either their cell phones or landlines to call the Orcas Island Fire District at (360) 376-2331 or go to the fire station located at 45 Lavender Lane, Eastsound.

Customers are able to access the Internet on all islands with the exception of San Juan Island.

Because of the nature of the damage it is difficult to estimate a time of restoral. CenturyLink is working to restore services as soon as possible.

San Juan Update guest columnist Mike Martin checks in with this report about today’s phone and internet outage:

San Juan Island’s internet and telephone service was interrupted for approximately 4 hours today, [Ed. note: Mike wrote this before we all knew the extent of the outage] forcing many islanders to work an entire morning and briefly returning to productivity levels not seen since the mid 90’s.

One driver in downtown Friday Harbor reported that turn signals were used with the suddenly free hand. In an unrelated incident, a pedestrian stated that he suddenly felt safe when crossing Spring Street as he observed drivers looking at the road instead of their mobile devices.

Elsewhere downtown people were seen greeting each other.

In other news, reports are saying that island youths sat on the same couch and watched the same TV programs as their parents while they all awaited the restoration of their phone and data services.

It wasn’t all good news though as many off island romances came to an end as texts, Instagrams and Facebook messages went unrequited.

******

And in response to Mike’s column here, an alert Update reader in Oregon has this to say:

Hi,

I read your little article a few minutes ago and had a good laugh. Thanks for brightening my day. I live in a wheat field in Eastern Oregon and we don’t get much excitement around here. Except when some jerk digs a hole for a fence post and nicks a fiber-optic. Or when a pheasant flies into an electrical wire that feeds the whole town of Heppner.
But I just wanted to say your article was top notch!

R.

Editor’s note – Just got news that the Wednesday Nov. 6 event at Brickworks has been cancelled due to illness. The tentative reschedule date is Thurs., December 5th.

Come to Brickworks for free poetry by Matt Gano and music by local musicians Nickie Davis and Forrest Marowitz! Light food will be on sale to help raise funds for more programs like this one.

Author of the collection, Suits for the Swarm, Matt Gano has performed as a feature poet for “Page Meets Stage” at the Bowery Poetry Club, lectured at The Juilliard School in NYC, and is currently an Artist-in-Residence with Seattle Arts and Lectures, Writers in the Schools.

Matt has represented Seattle at the National Poetry Slam multiple years and is a Seattle Grand-Slam champion. Matt will be teaching poetry classes at Spring Street International School this week (Nov. 4-8) as part of Skagit River Poetry Foundation’s Poets in the Schools Program.

More Information:

E-mail hjune [@] springstreet [.] org
or call 360 378-6393

Sponsored by Spring Street International School.
505 Spring Street • Friday Harbor, WA 98250 • 360 378-6393

Here’s the latest from SJ DEM (Posting this at 5:05 pm, Tuesday):

Updated info from CenturyLink is that outage is due to problem with the underwater cable between Lopez and San Juan Islands. No ETA for return of service, but this is a significant repair that will require specialized equipment and personnel to fix.

Islanders can help by spreading the word about how residents of Lopez, Orcas, and Shaw access 911:

Lopez Island: Call 468-2991
Orcas Island: Call 376-2331
Shaw Island: Call 468-2991
Remember, San Juan 911 is still operational.

Please use email and local calls (on your island) to alert your friends, family, etc. and help us get the word out.

DEM will be updating our Facebook and Twitter feeds as new information becomes available.

******
Below are posts from earlier today:

Bad news gets worse… Now I’ve just heard from a friend that the police scanner says the problem is not a post hole on Lopez as was originally thought but rather that they think the problem is off Lopez in the water somewhere.

******

Just got this note from Dave over at the SJ Dept. of Emergency Management:

There is a widespread phone service outage affecting the San Juan Islands. There is local phone service within each island, but island to island and long distance is out. The outage is affecting 911 service from Lopez, Shaw and Orcas to dispatch on Friday Harbor.

Until service is restored, residents on Lopez island can call Lopez headquarters station at 468-2991 to initiate emergency response. Orcas residents can call the Eastsound station at 376-2331 to initiate emergency response. 911 calls on San Juan island are working.

Centurylink is working on the problem which originates on the mainland and will restore service as soon as possible. In the mean time Ham radio operators and Fire Fighters are staffing the headquarters stations on Lopez and Orcas to provide communications.

Dave Halloran
San Juan DEM

******

And then this note came in as well:

Per CenturyLink, the source of the problem has been located on Center Road, Lopez, where an unknown party has apparently dug into a fiber-optic cable. They advise that a new cable is enroute from Anacortes, due to arrive on Lopez around noon; the problem is expected to be resolved at the end of the day.

Corey Harris will be at SJCT this weekend

He’s toured, recorded and performed with some of the top names in music, including BB King, Taj Mahal and the Dave Matthews Band. At the same time, he’s managed to carve out his own niche in blues.

Guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter Corey Harris shares his unique musicianship during a concert at San Juan Community Theatre on Saturday, November 9 at 7:30 p.m. Earlier in the day, at 2 p.m., Harris will share his knowledge of the blues in a free presentation on the Whittier stage, The Evolution of the Blues.

Harris began his career as a New Orleans street singer, travelling throughout the southern U.S. In his early twenties he lived in West Africa for a year, which had a profound effect on his later work. He has recorded many traditional blue songs while creating his own vision of the blues by adding influences from reggae, soul, rock and West African music. As a songwriter, he has kept one foot in tradition and the other in contemporary experimentation.

In 2007, Harris was awarded a $500,000 MacArthur Fellowship—commonly referred to as a “genius award”—proclaiming him an artist who “forges an adventurous path marked by deliberate eclecticism.”

Harris’ visit to Friday Harbor was made possible through support from the Western States Arts Foundation (WESTAF) and National Endowment for the Arts.

The Business Partner for the evening is Kings Market. Tickets are $25 for adults; $12 for student reserved, with $5 student RUSH at the door. The SJCT box office is open Tuesdays through Fridays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. or buy on-line at www.sjctheatre.org

Howard and Rebecca have sent this letter to share with you:

We, the owners of “Howard’s Sell It Again” Howard Crowell and Rebecca Hughes are sad and sorry to announce that we will be closing the store at the end of December at our current location of First & Spring Streets. Our consignment boutique sub-let from Windermere April to September of 2011 and when Windermere finished their move across the street, our store exploded into the entire space. We were on a month-to-month lease and knew the building could be rented out from under us. We not only filled the store with awesome furniture to house wares and everything in-between, we also filled a vacant retail space that brought people to shop the core of Friday Harbor and built a viable business.

Our most gracious and humble thanks for the support of all our customers, the community and to those who consigned their treasures with us over the years. We will be taking a break this winter and may open in another location next spring. It has been the most fun business that we have ever owned. Our plan is to sell everything starting this Thursday, November 7th then storing our display cases and counters because we are thinking of continuing “Sell It Again” in several different ways. Our last day will be December 23rd. Stay tuned!

We wish Gordy & Lori Peterson, the owners of the building our best with his new tenants, Home Land Security.

Missy is this week’s Pet of the Week

Meet this beautiful girl Missy! She is a 10 year old tabby patch with the most mesmerizing green eyes. She gets along well with the other cats but mostly just stays to herself. She loves when our volunteer s come in to visit her and will never turn down a chance to be loved on. She would do best in a quiet home as she is a very quiet and calm girl. Come on in and visit with this sweet girl and give her the chance to have a forever home.

I was invited along with some other members of our local media to a preview presentation at the San Juan Historical Society last week. There, we got to meet with Kevin Loftus, Don Nixon, Fred Yockers, Mary Jean Cahail and Romona Jones. They are in the process of putting together a Museum of History and Industry of Friday Harbor and San Juan Island, and it looks like it is going to be really cool. I think you’ll want to keep your eyes on this one.

Don Nixon shares design ideas for the Fishing section of the new museum.

The museum will be housed in the big barn at the back of the property which in itself is an example of how many buildings around here have evolved – the original, central part of the barn was built in 1985 to replace the original barn which burned down in the 1930’s; the south wing was added in 2005; and the north wing on the right, was added last year. The finished museum will be comprised of four main sections devoted to spotlighting four industries that have shaped the island:

• Fishing
• Farming
• Logging
• Lime

plus an Atrium area in the front for welcoming visitors and offering key artifacts and a summary of what’s in the rest of the building. This section is already nearly complete.

The Fishing section will be completed next, scheduled for late Spring of 2014 with Farming following in the Fall of 2014. Logging will come after that in the Spring of 2015 with Lime as the final phase in Fall of 2015. Continue Reading

Chef Hobbes offers up this great sounding salmon pie recipe for you to try out…

This is an awesome fish pie. Not really a pot pie because it only has a top crust, but you can make it with a bottom if you like. The crust is puff pastry which you can make or use store bought frozen dough. The trick to making a really good pot pie is making a Bechamel sauce also known as white sauce. It’s another step but this is what makes a fantastic pie.

Recipe for one 9″ pie:

1/2 pound king salmon (not farm raised!)
1 onion, chopped
1 leek, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
handful of frozen peas
salt & pepper

Bechamel sauce:

2 T butter
3 T flour
3 c whole milk
1 t sea salt
1/2 t black pepper
1 T fresh parsley, chopped
1/4 t fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped
pinch cayenne

First remove the skin and any pin bones from the salmon. Now cook the salmon any way you want, I popped mine into the oven just to get it out of the way so I had a free burner. While that’s happening make the Bechamel sauce. Melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Whisk in the flour and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, adjust the heat so the flour cooks but doesn’t brown. Whisk in the milk, lower the heat to keep the bechamel at a gentle simmer, whisking often, until the sauce has thickened and reduced to about 2 cups. This takes about 40 minutes.

While the sauce is cooking, using a heavy pan over medium heat start sauteing all the vegetables (except the peas) in a little olive oil and butter. When done, season the veggies with salt and pepper, and place them in the bottom of the pie dish, then add the cooked salmon breaking it into pieces, and add the peas.

Remove the bechamel sauce from the heat and add the herbs and seasoning and whisk. Now pour this over the veggies and salmon. Put the puff pastry on top cutting a hole in the middle to let the steam out. Place the dish on a baking sheet and pop it in a hot 375* oven for about 30-45 minutes until the crust is flaky and golden brown.

Bon Appetit! Chef Hobbes

Anniversary Open House on Saturday, November 9, 10:00 am—6:00 pm

20% off on all books in the store

It’s November and time for Griffin Bay Bookstore’s annual Open House and Sale. Bookstore owner Laura Norris and her team are celebrating 34 years of bookselling on Saturday, November 9, 10:00 am—6:00 pm with a storewide sale of 20% off on all books on the shelves. This annual sale is Laura’s way of thanking our island community for loyal support and on-going patronage, for shopping locally, and for dedication to an independent bookstore. The Open House will feature complimentary snacks from Cynthia’s of Course, and the bookstore’s signature coffee, Caffe Umbria. Continue Reading

The Animal Protection Society of Friday Harbor presents “Yappy Hour” at San Juan Island Cheese, 155 Nichols Street. Stop by and enjoy a glass of wine or your favorite beverage and some delicious appetizers – a generous portion of your bill will be donated to the animal shelter. Raffle Prizes too!
Thursday, November 7, 5:00 to 6:30 pm.

They Are Not Alone… This story was suggested by Val Curtis of Bonbon Break and let’s see if I got it straight…

A woman named Robyn posted a story on her blog about a scary evening involving her young son’s anaphylactic reaction to hazelnuts which went viral all the way to MSN which is how Val found Robyn’s blog which is why Val later asked Robyn if she could repost another one of Robyn’s stories on her blog later which got Robyn looking at Val’s blog which is how Robyn happened to see a post on Jessica Oldwyn’s blog about her great results from an MRI which got Robyn thinking about her friend Katie who has the same thing going on as Jessica which got them connecting Jessica and Katie with each other despite their being 1000 miles away from one another…

…so now Jessica and Katie are talking with each other and realizing how nearly identical their 2 separate paths have been for the past few years and they’re sharing ideas with each other that are mutually beneficial and learning and growing with one another, becoming friends and possibly helping to extend each other’s lives through this sharing of knowlege and resources…

But I probably left some parts out so if you would like to see in more detail how this all came together, check out the repost on Val’s BonBonBreak.com. Pretty awesome how this random chain of events brought Jessica and Katie together. And thank you Val for sharing!

Michael Hoeller and Sam Stewart

You may have seen Michael Hoeller and Sam Stewart at Marketplace on Wednesday afternoon. As part of their Community Projects class,  they decided to raise funds to purchase two beginner flutes for the high school band program.

If you missed that but you would like to help out – don’t fret!  They will also be selling baked goods at the High School and Middle School band concerts on Tuesday, November 5th and on Thursday, November 7th at the Community Theater.

And if that’s still not good enough for your schedule, you can simply write them a check, payable to Band Families and Friends, (with “Flutes” in the memo line) and mail it to:

Band Families and Friends Treasurer
PO Box 2025
Friday Harbor

or drop it off at the High School Band office. Your support of this program is greatly appreciated. For more information, contact Michael or Sam at
fhhsbandcp [@] gmail [.] com