Margie and Lavina go to Starbuck's and get me in trouble with Lisa; Kalib visits a firetruck for muscular dystrophy; I hear gunshot as I photograph goose decoy frozen into pond
Monday, October 19, 2009 at 4:06AM ;)
"Dad!!!!!????? Starbuck's?????!!!!! "Lisa accused. "You went to Starbuck's???"
I was innocent. Margie and Lavina had committed the sacrilege when they drove into Anchorage the other day to get the ultrasound of the new baby that now brews in Lavina's womb and, afterward, stopped at a Starbuck's. They carelessly left the evidence in the car.
Lisa was in the car with me because she came out today for about two hours and we went out to coffee together. There is no Starbuck's in Wasilla (yet) but I can assure you, even if there were, we would not have gone there.
Lisa is pretty liberal and tolerant of the foibles of her fellow human beings, but not when it comes to buying coffee from Starbuck's. This she will not tolerate.
After I made my case and told her the true story, she said something like this, "I'll bet that they told each other, 'Lisa never needs to know.'"
This evening, after the five-month pregnant Lavina returned home from her volleyball game in Anchorage, I told her how much trouble she and Margie had gotten me into.
"We didn't think Lisa would find out," Lavina said. "We told each other, 'Lisa never needs to know.'"
;)
The money Jacob is handing to Kalib is not for the tot, but for the tot to drop in the fireman's boot. But the tot does not want to take the money and drop it in the boot. Before the incident is over, Jacob, Lavina and Kalib will drop about ten dollars into the boot.
;)
After dropping the money, Jacob and Lavina check out the firetruck on display in the Carr's parking lot.
;)
It was the wheels that most impressed Kalib.
;)
After awhile, he was ready to go.
;)
This is fireman Danny, who explained that the money goes to send local children with muscular dystrophy to summer camp. They display the truck for two days each year. Last year, they raised over $10,000.
;)
After we returned home, I jumped onto my bike and took a short ride. I crunched my way through frozen puddles.
;)
As I passed the pond the kids named "Little Lake" when they were small, I saw a goose decoy, frozen into the surface. It used to be, several years ago, that each summer a number of ducks would nest around this pond and geese would drop in, too.
Soon, we would see the little ducklings following their mothers about the pond.
There were no homes near the pond, but then Red and his wife bought a piece of property on the corner of Seldon and Wards that overlapped half of it. They built a home there. Red liked the idea of ducks and geese coming to their pond and so he put duck and goose decoys into the water to attract them.
Of course, they had been coming anyway.
Red died a few years back and his wife, who has remarried, twice, began to spend her winters in Arizona. About a year ago, she put the house and property up for sale. It is still for sale.
This decoy still drifts in the pond. We have not seen ducklings in the pond for the past few years.
The water level has just dropped too low. I don't think it can support them.
Despite the ice, the weather is still warm and beautiful for this time of year. Little Lake may have frozen over, but the big lakes don't even appear to be close to doing so.
As I photographed the decoy, I heard a rifle shot that sounded to be about 200 yards away and like it came from a yard.
I didn't think too much about it, because gunshots are common around here and usually just mean someone has plunked at a target or that they just decided things were too quiet and they wanted to make a little noise.
Then I got to wondering what if, sometime, I heard a gunshot and thought it was nothing, when it was actually somebody shooting somebody else, perhaps to death. Unless someone started screaming and shouting, I would just go on about my business thinking that everything was okay.
I'm pretty certain everything was okay, today.
;)
After I left the goose decoy in the pond, I got onto the bike trail and pedaled down the shadow of a guardrail.
Reader Comments (9)
Dear Lord~ the picture of the ladder extending way up into the blue sky? With the little spot of red at the top? I thought for a second that you were going to tell me that Kalib was up there. I actually gasped out loud. Was much relieved to see him at the bottom of the ladder safely in his Daddy's arms.
Gak.
Glad you got more sense than that.
Shhhhh, we wont tell Lisa that there is a Starbucks in Wasilla,located in a certain new store located at the corner of Palmer/Wasilla and Parks. Love the shots of Kalib and the fire truck.
I believe there are TWO Starbucks in Wasilla, Bill. There is one in Fred Meyers, and another in Target. But I won't tell Lisa...
Love that Kalib, I bet he liked those shiny wheels :) Ahh, the innocence of youth... you capture it well.
Door's open and the coffee's on. Or better yet, we'll buy y'all lunch somewhere and sneak a dog in your vehicle when you're not looking. And then blog about it.
Pllt. If you get out of Arizona with just one dog in your car, it will be a miracle.
That Kalib is just precious! Reminds me of my own little magpie - now 34 - who used to make off with anything she found that was shiny...
Thanks for this evening's smile, grandpa! :-)
Debby - Kalib can be so daring that he sometimes frightens me - but that would have been a little too much.
Lisa and Suzy - Yes, you are right. My mind blanked out on those two. I believe that I have been inside Target once, maybe twice. Fred's a few more times, but not many.
Mikey - I think that you will always have an endless supply of rescued dogs to sneak into people's vehicles. My sister-in-law in Hon-Dah is forever rescuing dogs, too.
Debby - And I just might have a cat in there, too. Last time I went to Arizona, Melanie, Lisa and I "rescued" a sickly kitten. Sadly, just when I was going to deliver to a lady who had promised to care for it until it was well and could be placed, so that we could catch our plane back to Alaska, it died.
Cynthia - It always makes me smile to make someone smile. Thanks for letting me know.
Maybe you've been cocooning too much.
Wake up and smell the coffee, my man! There IS a Starbucks in your town.
1501 Parks Highway, just north of Palmer-Wasilla Hway in Fred Meyer mall.
Joe: Of course, it took an Outside author to tell me this.