Coming home from Iditarod: big cone, little cone; instead of the promised dogs, you will find a cat (the promise is not broken, just delayed)

On the way home from the Iditarod restart in Willow, where I did indeed photograph a few dogs and people too, I got a hankering for an ice cream cone from Miller's - vanilla, dipped in chocolate. 

So I stopped and got one and this is it.

As for the big cone in the background, that is Miller's "billboard." Not so many years ago, it was declared illegal under Alaska's billboard law.

When you drive the limited highways of our beautiful state, you do not see billboards, because they are illegal. Against Alaska, they are officially deemed to be an ugly blight.

One day, someone passing by Miller's decided that the cone, which had beckoned passers by for untold centuries, was a billboard. So they were ordered to remove it.

I stopped in a bit afterward, and the guy who owns Miller's was not happy. He was angry.

The cone disappeared for just a little while after that, but then it came back, closer to the store.

I think that's how they got around the billboard law, by moving it close to the store.

I don't know for certain, that's just what I surmise.

Yes, I had planned to put dogs on this blog tonight, and instead, here is a cat, Juniper, formerly known as Deborah by Default and then, for just a little while, as Jubilee. 

And this why the dogs have to wait.

I arrived home from the Iditarod about 5:00 PM and found both of my daughters here, along with Juniper.

So, instead of downloading my pictures, editing them, preparing them and blogging them, I hung out with my daughters and the cat.

Now, it is just too late to do all that editing, preparing and placing. Thank's to the fact that we went on Daylight Savings Time today, it is even later than it is.

And I am even more tired than I am - so the dogs will have to wait another day.

As for the cat and the daughters, they wanted to go out for coffee. For Lisa, that usually means Kaladi Brothers, but they do not allow cats inside Kaladi Brothers and she did not want to leave her cherished buddy in the car, so we decided to go to a Kiosk.

We were headed to Mocha Moose, also known as "Palin Fever," but the daughters decided that we should try a kiosk that we had never been to before.

So I head toward one and they said, "not that one," because it was too close to the house.

"You need to broaden your horizons, Dad," Melanie said. 

So I picked one out that I had never been to that was many miles away but when we got there, it was closed, too.

From there, we drove past a few that we were already familiar with and then the daughters suggested that we head down Knik Road. We did. The first kiosk that we came upon was closed. Melanie was certain the next would be open. It too was closed.

She then spoke of a kiosk on a certain corner - she said that was the original kiosk, the kiosk of all kiosks and it would be open because it is always open.

So I drove there. There was a sign on the door... "We closed at 4:00 PM today. Sorry for the inconvenience," or something close to that.

Well, we tried at least five more and they were all closed, so we wound up at Mocha Moose, anyway.

As you can see, Juniper had the cash, so she bought.

She was also the source of a fair amount of contention. Lisa's boyfriend and co-caretaker of Juniper originally did not like the name. After suffering some confusion and consternation, the name "Jubilee" materialized from somewhere and so that is what she was going to be named.

Then Bryce decided that he liked the name, "Juniper," after all.

So the cat is now "Juniper."

However, Melanie now claims that she had planned all along to name her first daughter "Juniper." "I can't name my daughter Juniper if your cat is already Juniper!" she scolded. "And its your fault, Dad, for putting the story in your blog. I liked "Jubilee."

"Yeah? Well, Lavina is always calling Kalib 'Muzzy,' and it works out okay."

And that's how life is around here.

Before the trio left, Juniper got to see an adolescent moose run across the back yard. "That's her first moose," Lisa said proudly.

Of course, we don't really know that. No telling what wonders Juniper saw in the ten months of her life that transpired before she came into ours.

Come back tomorrow for some real Iditarod pictures. I am pretty sure I will post them tomorrow.

Comments

[kalaluka]

no billboards here either. we don't do daylight saving time though - we have plenty of that. Juniper is a fine name - for a fine feline. she appears to be so well-behaved in the automobile! our cats have to be inside a well-fastened container to travel on wheels - they tend to climb into the driver's hair with claws unsheathed otherwise... random trivia: did you know that gin is flavored with juniper berries? also - big congratulations on the little man's first steps - and thank you for sharing that precious moment in your family's life.

[Kelly Mitchell]

Yay for Juniper the Generous buying the coffee. Haven't been to Wasilla for a while is Mocha Moose the one with the fancy roof in Palmer or is that Purple something?