Four scenes from rolling coffee break: Michelle with Cali the calico kitty and the stone lion; Mormon graffiti car; fourwheeler, skateboarder
Monday, September 13, 2010 at 6:55PM 
First, let me assure those interested that I still plan to post a few stories from my trip north - in fact, I spent more time working on doing so today than I could afford. I have a huge amount of material to digest and it will take some time. I might post a series from that trip Tuesday, but I might wait until Wednesday.
In the meantime... now that I am home here in Wasilla and Margie has gone back to Anchorage to babysit Jobe, I broke away from my computer at the usual time of 4:00 PM to venture out for my rolling coffee break, as All Things Considered played on NPR.
I saw many interesting things, but the most interesting was a lady painting a rock down on Sunrise Drive. A calico cat stood by to watch her work.
So I stopped, to see what was up. This is the lady, Michelle and the 13 year-old calico cat, Cali. As Michelle explained it to me, a fellow who lives here found this rock, dragged it home, looked at it from this side and saw the face of a lion. He asked Michelle if she would paint the lion's profile onto the stone and she agreed.
If one looks closely at the other side of the rock, currently bare, one can see an eagle.
So, after she finishes the lion, Michelle plans to paint an eagle portrait on the opposite side of the rock.
Michelle puts detail into the lion's eye.
Michelle steps back to take a look.
At the post office, I saw this car, heavy with inspirational graffiti. I wondered if the car belonged to a Mormon, as Gordon B. Hinckley was the President of the Church, considered a prophet by the faithful, from March of 1995 until his death on January 27, 2008.
Plus, many of the statements written on the car, including the Shakespeare quote, were ones I often heard my own mother speak as I grew up.
Mom would never have allowed anyone to graffiti up the car, though - no matter how inspirational the words.
As to the Shakespeare quote, it always sounded pretty righteous and noble, coming from Mom's lips as I grew up, so I was kind of surprised when one day I actually sat down, read Hamlet, and saw that in the story the words were spoken by one Polonius, a devious, self-serving, self-righteous, man of many bad works. Mom would not have approved of Polonius at all, had he appeared in her life as a real character.
Rearview of the inspirational, perhaps Mormon, car.
As I drove down Church Road, I passed this man traveling by four-wheeler.
As I headed up Shrock Road from the bridge that crosses the Little Susistna River, I saw this guy coming down the hill on his skateboard.
I used to travel by this method myself.
In my dreams, I sometimes still do.
PS: as you can see, the weather is incredible. Sunny and warm. - more like one would expect in California than Alaska. It was this way in Fairbanks and even in Nuiqsut, so far above the Arctic Circle.
I wonder how long it will last?
For however long, I should cast aside all responsibility and do nothing but play.
They will appear larger and look better
Reader Comments (5)
Bill, no disrespect, but damn, you live in a very evanglical area. Nothing like where I'm at. Phew.
Michelle is doing a wonderful job and it must have been a heck of a job dragging that rock home. Interesting pictures today, never seen a car like this around here .
I worry about the warm weather everywhere , the glaziers melting etc.....we are in for some changes that's for sure. Time will tell if we can all adapt.
In rainy Southeast, weather like this ( we are having it too) means you work on outside chores from dawn til dusk because there-may-never-be-another-dry-day-ever-ever :-)
After 3 days people start to look a little haunted... because it's not the norm...
I'm thinking your "cast aside all responsibility and do nothing but play" is a much more sensible way to deal with the gift this weather is for us...
Bill--
i'm just going to copy/paste my response to your comment left on one of my blog posts today, ok? here goes:
bill--
can you see more than the first two photos on this blog (my blog)?
thank you for visiting and for the reminder.
sometimes being "mama d" is so discouraging - seeing the same kids doing the same things year in, year out w no positive change in sight.
a friend said recently "You can't fix people, you can only love them."
so true and so hard to do.
thank you,
katia
/response
i haven't the time right now but i'll keep this tab open to your blog and when i have a block of time, i'll have a look-see.
thanks again for your visit.
k.
Micelle - Yep. Life is a struggle and people deal with it however they can.
Twain - What we really need to adapt to now is ourselves. I don't believe we have really believe we have figured that one out yet.
Alaska Pi - I suppose it was always a myth, but I remember hearing that whenever a sunny day struck in Southeast, it was an automatic holiday.
katia, I have been so busy - but I definitely saw more than two photos. I will come back and tell you what I see now.