Kalib makes a toast, leaving me no choice but to cheat a little bit; a brown dog named Blue goes into the post office; Pineapple Express causes the weather to turn miserably warm
Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 4:02AM 
Thanks to this guy and what he is about to do, I now have to cheat a little bit. Until I get on top of things (and I am not even close), I pledged to limit my posts to two photos a day - one of Kalib and another from out and about. So when I took this picture of Kalib, I figured that I had my one of him and that would do it.
;)
But then he wanted to make toasts all around - "to the best damned grandparents in the world," he toasted. Oh, those weren't his exact words, most of which are not spoken in adult English, but that was what he meant. The best damned grandma agreed, and so joined in the toast.
;)
So, you see, I felt it necessary to break my pledge, and post three images. I could have posted ten, easy enough, but I only posted three.
The occasion, by the way, was the opening of the new "Alaska Bagel." The three of us were very curious to try it out. Margie ordered a wrap, I ordered a bagel sandwich, we both ordered a cup of chicken gumbo soup, I ordered a root beer and, as you can see, these two ordered glasses of water. Margie and I shared with Kalib.
The soup was excellent. The sandwich was okay - the fresh bagel was excellent as was the mustard, mayo, tomatoes, onions, avacado, etc, but there was only one, very thin, slice of ham on my sandwich.
I could hardly taste the ham!
And the bill came to over $26, which is just too much to spend for a simple lunch with only one thin slice of ham, no matter how good the bagel is. So I won't be going there as often as I would have hoped.
Jacob and Lavina stopped on their way to work and bought breakfast there. Both reported breakfast to be delicious. So maybe I will give that a try, too, before I give up.
;)
I had to go to the post office and stand in a long line. This guy stood in front of me with his back toward me, so I really didn't notice that there was anything special about him - until he reached the point where he was next in line and turned towards the counters.
Suddenly, I saw that there was something very special about him, poking its head out through his unzipped jacket.
I was only able to do a short interview, maybe five seconds - just long enough to discover that the dog's name is Blue. As there is no blue to be seen in the dog, this raised some obvious questions, but before I could ask any of them, a postal worker looked at the man and the dog, motioned with his hand and said, "come forward please."
That was that.
Maybe one day I will see them again.
;)
As long as I am cheating, I might as well cheat a little more and put in two pictures from out and about. Right now, we are having the second most miserable type of weather that we get around here in the winter time. A Pineapple Express low pressure system has moved up the Pacific from Hawaii and vicinity and brought warm temperatures and strong winds.
It is awful. The temperature is 38 degrees above zero and snow is melting. I hate it.
The only winter weather that we get that is worse is when the Pineapple Express is even stronger, warmer and wetter, when the temperature rises into the 40's and rain pours from the sky.
We live on the edge of one of the great climatic battle zones of this world - the masses of super-deep, cold air that move our way from the north and west, and the warm air flows that slip up from the Pacific.
When the cold wins out, life is good. When the warm wins, it is miserable.
And, as I have noted before, this is an El Niño winter. In El Niño winters, the Pineapple Express wins the battle all too often.
In these warming times (Alaska's average wintertime temperatures are over six degrees warmer than they were just 30 years ago) the misery is only exacerbated.
Okay. Tomorrow, I try to go back to my two image scheme.
Correction: Yesterday, I confused Diane Benson's halibut with another one and erroneously stated that it was over 300 pounds. It was actually about 120 - but that's still pretty big.
Reader Comments (10)
Your "grab shots" are enchanting -- and I so enjoy your commentary. Thank you again.
As always a pleasure to read and see. Thank you for cheating today!
I dont get it! I hate how the weather has been lately... It's in the 20-30s here in Fairbanks.... And to think, really it's suppose to be -15 at the least. WHY?!?!? haha... Many Alaskans are questioning this.
Dam Right!!!
It appears El Nino is making an appearance this winter and I am as usual intrested in the anomalies that it brings to other's neighborhoods. I especially enjoy your weather observations from the climatic battle zone. Here in SoCal if a sprinkler head breaks off along the freeway all hell breaks loose, you can only imagine what happens when it really rains here. Weather included, normal or not, I find Wasilla 300 a real work of art and hope you continue the effort, keep up the good work.
Those pictures of Kalib are really cute! I also really like Blue and the owner's photo. I think there are plenty of Alaskans who should be documented such as them to find out what makes them who they are such as you are capable of! Its only a bit of a shame that you only had 5 seconds to talk with that guy. I think the photo shows an interesting story by itself, but who knows what intricacies and fascinating stories he could tell the world through a blog such as this!! Take care Bill and have fun!
Kalib is always a delight to see but he best watch out cause Blue is a real cutie too. You must keep an eye out for him in the future so you can tell us his story.
Sorry to hear you're unhappy with your weather - if it makes you feel any better we're having some of the most beautiful weather we've had in months - cool and clear. so i'll try to appreciate while you're suffering, to help balance things out. as they say round here: malama pono
thanks for the amazing pictures of Kalib - i feel like i've had the honor of knowing him most of his life because of your posts... and that chihuahua was pretty adorable too...
Grandma Nancy: Thank you - so far, I am falling so short of my goals for this blog that I get very discourage about it. Your words give me hope.
MaxMamma - I think that I am going to just have to keep cheating.
Sirraq - I always enjoy seeing you here. Hope the weather improves in Fairbanks. Sometimes, it doesn't even seem like Alaska is Alaska anymore. And then, all of a sudden, it sometimes does.
JFH - And here you are, about to take him away.
MGSoCal - I've actually been there when it has really rained - and when the temperature dropped to dropped to 40 degrees - in the daytime - and I went to the beach and it was empty, except for me and crowd of homeless people, gathered around a fire, singing and making music.
Charlie - That is exactly the kind of thing I hope to do more of in the future. It takes a little more time than I can spare right now, though. In the meantime, I can only take this little glimpses.
Rebecca - I will keep my eye out for Blue.
kalaluka - Sounds nice. I am curious as to what you consider cool - 72?
it's always a joy to see my nephew's pictures....can't wait to see him..when he comes down to arizona...we all miss him, of course lavina and jacob too...we miss jacob's tacos!