I sneak Margie out on a date, eat raw fish, drift with ravens and spot a cop and a driver-less car on the Wasilla highway
Friday, November 12, 2010 at 12:33PM 
As you know, this past Sunday afternoon I was happily working away in my office when Jobe suddenly appeared at my door, snatched Margie away from me and took her back to Anchorage to stay with him and Kalib for the week. This was because Lavina and Jacob were each traveling during different times of the week and so they needed Margie there, to care for Kalib and Jobe.
I do good alone, don't mind it, much, because as long as I have a camera, a computer or something to write with, I am never bored. I always have something to do.
More to do than I can do, in fact.
Even so, come Wednesday afternoon, I found myself longing to see Margie - to see a movie with her. We used to go to movies every week, when I would be home, but we have fallen off.
So I jumped into the car and rushed to town.
Whoever was in this car was headed into Wasilla even as I was headed out, Anchorage bound.
I snuck her out of the house. We then went to the movie, "Hereafter" and after we went out to dinner at Samurai Sushi, where we had never eaten before.
Margie doesn't care for sushi, so she ordered Teriyaki chicken. I ordered this plate of sushi and sashimi. For a moment, I was hesitant, because our bank account is once again just about tapped out - and we have an auto-withdrawal payment coming Monday that is bigger than the combination of all the funds left in all three of our bank accounts combined.
On the other hand, I had submitted an invoice the day before, which hopefully will be paid in time to cover everything, I had not been on a date with my wife in a long time and that sushi looked really good.
Here is my sushi and sashimi, as seen through my iPhone.
Oh, damn! It was good!
How do these Japanese chefs make raw fish taste so good?
If I take a fish and cut it up and eat it raw it is not going to taste like this.
These guys really know how to cut fish.
Margie's chicken teriyaki was delicious, too.
I know, because she let me sample a chopstick full.
I then drove Margie back to drop her off Jacob and Lavina's house until Saturday night. Do you remember that feeling you sometimes had when you were young and you had taken a girl you liked out on a date or maybe you were that girl and you were with a guy you liked and then the date was over and you were pulling up to her parent's house to drop her off?
That feeling of how good it felt to be with this person, how much you had enjoyed the date and now you still had the good feeling, but a little ache, too, because this girl with her parents and then go?
That was the very feeling that I had as I pulled into Jacob and Lavina's driveway with Margie beside me, after our date.
Only I wasn't taking back home to her parents.
I was taking her home to our grandkids.
Jacob had returned from his travels and Lavina would not leave on her's until the next day, so they were both home.
Kalib was watching Dragons - probably for the 10,000th time. I got between him and the screen to take a picture of him. He peered around me to the left so that he could continue to watch.
I shifted left, to try again. Kalib peered around me to the right.
I shifted to the right. He was getting a little disgusted with me.
It's okay, though. He has all the scenes memorized. And he's probably seen them ten times since then.
Jobe was hanging out with Muzzy.
Maybe Jobe will go to Arizona some day and be a bull rider.
I don't really want him to be, but it might just be in his blood, so you never know.
Then Jacob caught me and Jobe together. Jobe loves me. Jobe loves my beard. One day, I want to take him out in a canoe and catch fish with him.
Maybe by then I can learn how to cut them right and then we can sit on the bank and eat sushi and sashimi, as fresh as sushi and sashimi can be.
"Grandpa," he will say. "That was damn good raw fish. I sure hope that some day, I can grow a beard just like yours!"
So that was Wednesday. This was yesterday, back in Wasilla. I had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up some medications.
There were ravens there, waiting for me.
Wal-Mart raven.
Then, as I drove home, I saw ravens surfing the updraft, over the railroad tracks.
It was a windy day. Ravens love windy days.
I love ravens.
For those unclear about the difference between ravens and crows, they are related, but ravens are bigger. Much bigger.
Ravens make a stronger impression on you than crows do.
Sometimes a raven will say, "never more."
A crow would never say that.
Never.
While I was stopped at the light on the corner of the Parks and Palmer-Wasilla highways, I noticed a cop car pull into the left turn to my right with lights flashing. Then the cop stopped, right there in the left turn lane and got out of the car.
This seemed to me to be a very curious place to make a traffic stop. Then, as my light turned green and I had to go, I noticed that the car the cop had stopped behind did not have a driver.
It was empty - just sitting there unmanned in the left turn lane. Nor I could I see anyone just standing around, who might have once been the driver.
Just another of the usual strange sights that one gets to see just about everyday, right here in Wasilla, Alaska.
Reader Comments (5)
Awww..ur so lucky to have him like that - with just a nappy and aalll flesh popping out :D ! so u cud just eat them away.... well i don't know what Sushi is made of, being just a vegetarian... but i think I would love Jobe's cheek more than that Sushi :D
Loved the way U and Margie are soo much in love and the way you miss her and then rush to her! That's really sweet of you Unc Bill! :)
hmmm, maybe you could've asked permission to spend the nite! again i'm so amazed that tho i've never met any of you, i feel like i'm right there in your living room! oh, that sushi looked scrumptious. i'm a big fan of sushi. great idea to see a movie together. scott and i watch em all at home per my most recent blogpost.
love the pictures of your family, and i really love the dark picture with the ravens. I'm also a Raven lover .
That is one nice place of sushi! Glad you enjoyed it.
Suji - Yes, we so lucky. Sushi is fish - raw fish, cut in a certain way, wrapped around a bite of rice and then you dip it in a mix of wasabi and soy sauce. Believe it or not, that wasabi is hotter than anything I ate in India, but sitting to the side are little slices of ginger. You pop one into your mouth real quick after taking in the wasabi and it neutralizes the head in a most pleasant way.
Thanks for the nice comment about Margie, good niece Sujitha!
Ruth - Actually, Jacob suggested that I spend the night. I was going to put that in the blog, but I forgot. I had too much to do, though, to spend the night in town.
Twain - I love ravens. Sometime, over the course of a few years, I want to do a serious photo essay on them.
Michelle - Oh, yes. I continue to remember it fondly.