Alaska Man Monday: An Alaskan Athlete, and Alaskans Stick Together

We’re in that interesting time of year now where the daylight fades fast. We’re losing an hour of daylight every ten days or so, and while that will be slowing down some, we’ll keep losing daylight until the winter solstice – at which time we’ll be enjoying about 3 ½ hours a day.

But boy, we’ll be seeing some auroras.

Moving right along: Another Alaskan athlete is in the news:

Anchorage triathlete Samantha Skold showed up and showed out at the 2025 Ironman World Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii. The 31-year-old earned a top finish in her division (30-34 years old) and first overall for amateur athletes.
Skold, stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson (JBER) as an Air Force captain, finished the Ironman World Championship in 9 hours, 34 minutes, and 59 seconds, earning her 33rd place out of 1,673 women overall.
“Last year at the World Championships, I placed fourth, and that’s kind of when I got the idea like, ‘oh, wow, I actually am pretty good at an amateur level worldwide,’ and I’m really excited to see what happens the next season,” she recalled.
“So, after September of last year, every day since then, essentially, it was just work on what I can, perfect the little things, and hopefully come out with a world title this year, and it ended up happening.”

That’s how it’s done, folks – determination, dedication, motivation.

Alaska Man score: 5 moose nuggets, and for one week, I will forgo making any Air Force jokes.

Also, some of you may have seen that western Alaska got his by some nasty flooding recently. But Alaskans stick together. As we recently reported regarding the flooding from the Pacific Typhoon Halong, hundreds of Great Land residents have lost their homes. But Alaskans are chipping in to help.

As recovery efforts are underway in Western Alaska, Alaskans are banding together to help raise supplies for those who lost everything during the devastating storm.
Major internet provider GCI is working to help those affected by the storm by hosting a supply drive to give out essential supplies the community desperately needs.
“According to the community, the essential items that are needed in these impacted areas included medical supplies like Tylenol, Ibuprofen, phone chargers,” said Megan Webb, GCI corporate communications senior director.
With winter right around the corner, items suitable for harsh weather are also needed, like blankets, jackets and headlamps. All are needed in sizes for men, women and children. With a lack of access to clean water and hygiene supplies, things like rubber gloves and baby wipes are also needed to help.
GCI has drop box locations for goods in its retail stores across Anchorage, Wasilla and Fairbanks. For anyone outside of Alaska or otherwise cannot deliver in person, there is an Amazon wish list for the desperately needed supplies created by the Bethel Community Services Foundation.

Sadly, there probably won’t be any time to rebuild before winter sets in. But we’re Alaskans. We persevere.

Alaska Man score: Another 5 moose nuggets, even though western Alaska already has plenty of those.

And, one bit of sad news: A staple of the Alaska Zoo, Grubby the Opossum, has passed away.

Grubby, Alaska Zoo’s opossum, died Saturday at approximately 3.5 years old due to complications of old age, according to a press release from Alaska Zoo.
Grubby, renamed Ophelia by zoo staff, was a Virginia Opossum that became famous in Alaska after arriving in Homer from Washington state in March 2023 as a stowaway in a shipping container. After living on the streets of Homer for a time, she was captured by the Homer Police and transferred to Alaska Zoo.
Her species is the only opossum that lives in North America, but it is not native to Alaska, increasing her popularity in the state. The average opossum lifespan in the wild is 1-2 years, meaning Grubby nearly lived double her species’ life expectancy.
“We all loved Ophelia (Grubby) and took great pride in the progress she made - transforming from a rogue little pirate into someone who would beg for treats from her favorite keeper,” Alaska Zoo Curator Sam Lavin said in the press release. “She lived a long opossum life in our care, and her absence will be deeply felt.”

RIP, Grubby. No score for this well-traveled critter, just the sad note of his passing.

Now then, let’s observe some of this past weekend’s insanity – in the cities.

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

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