For seven years, she refused to date him when he would show up at the motel; now they have been married seven years; a temple blessing; contemplating, part 2, on hold
Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 12:17PM 
As you can see, I wound up at Family Restaurant again this morning, but for a different reason. Jobe has been vomiting again, so Margie left at about 8:30 this morning to drive into town so that she could babysit him. I figured that it might be my only chance to ride in a car today, so I had her drop me off at Family on her way. I took this image after breakfast, as I was beginning my walk home, maybe a bit less than four miles. It was a bit after 9:00 AM. This may look dark for 9:00 AM to some of you, but for us, it is amazing to see how quickly the light is coming back.
As I walked along Lucille Street a raven would come flying by, always headed south, directly over the road, every few minutes. They all looked pretty intent to reach their destinations. I figured that these were ravens who nest out in the hills near the foot of the Talkeetna Mountains, but make their living in downtown Wasilla, primarily off the food that people discard - the ravens that I see at Taco Bell, Carl's Jr., McDonald's and such.
It was morning, and these ravens were going to work.
It was garbage pick-up day in our neighborhood.
As I did not have a car and had already walked four miles, I figured that I would just skip my Metro coffee break and listen to the news in my office while I edited pictures. But about 3:30, I was overcome by a strong desire to get out of the office, so I took off on foot for Metro Cafe. It was snowing now.
Here I am, walking down Lucille Street, toward Metro. Look how heavy the traffic is! Yet, it is too early for people to be coming home from work. Why are all these folks driving down Lucille?
I arrived at Metro a little before 4:30, closing time being 5:00. Carmen invited me to look at her wedding album. They got married seven years ago, when she was 38, Scott 48. It was his third, her first. She met him when she was working at the Best Western Motel on Spenard in Anchorage. He would sometimes come and check in for the night on his way to and from the Arctic Slope oil fields and each time he did, he would ask her out.
Each time, she would say no. He would tell her that one day they would marry, she would be his wife and would have his babies. She would say, "no!" This went on for seven years. Finally, she agreed to go to a movie with him, just to put an end to all the nonsense and get him out of her life. Anyway, she was Catholic and he was not.
That one date led to the marriage. It could not take place in the Catholic church, but "God knew what he was doing when he brought us together," Carmen says.
Scott has completed all of his cancer treatment and has finally gone back to work on the Slope, where temperatures have been running in the -50 range, with -75 and even -95 windchills. Carmen says he is finding the cold a bit hard to take, given the aftereffects of his radiation and chemo treatments.
I hear that it is warming up now - into the -30's and -20's.
This is Ryder, who came to Metro Cafe with his mom, Buffy, and his Aunt Danielle. Ryder drank hot chocolate and, except for me, was the last customer to leave.
I had planned to walk home, but Nola offered me a ride. I decided that seven miles was enough to have walked today. I got into the car. Nola brushed the new snow off the window.
Nola drinks a bottle of water as she drives me home.
Okay - Part 2 of Contemplating the future of this blog will just have to wait until tomorrow. This post is long enough already.
And this one from India:
Inside one of the temples at Pattadakal - blessings are offered.
Reader Comments (5)
Carmen and Scott's pictures look wonderful. Carmen was a gorgeous bride. Happy anniversary to them
Happy Anniversary to Carmen and Scott! So nice to hear that Scott is well enough to go back to work. Great news. Thank you for the raven picture. I hope Jobe is soon better.
Cute Couple! They both look great together! Glad hez back on track..
I hope all the treatments cured Scott. Great news he is back to work. 7 miles is quite a walk.
Congrats to Scott and Carmen on seven years together and on Scott's completion of treatments!
As to the traffic on Lucille at 3:30 p.m. Dude. Elementary school pick-up. Lucille is always horribly crowded at just before 9 a.m. and just around 3:30 p.m.