How long has it been since this face has appeared in my blog? Six weeks? Something like that. And look, in this, the very first frame that I shot of him upon our reunion, he is just standing around. STANDING around. Not wobbling shakily. Standing.
As though it is no big deal at all. As though it is just something that a little kid would be expected to do.
Jobe.
Standing around.
And he walks around at will, too.
I was worried that after all this time, he might have forgotten his grampa. Remember how he loved me? How he adored me?
Has he now forgotten me?
After a brief period of study and contemplation, he walked right over and sat down on my lap. He had not forgotten.
And then he went out to play with Martigny. Martigny did not not want to play with him. Maybe it was the "woof" on his shirt that scared her away.
I'm afraid Jobe has been sick the past couple of days. Respiratory infection.
Jobe needed rest.
Still, he gets up and moves happily around. He is getting better.
Then Jacob called, to say that he and Kalib were coming home from their walk and would soon reach the nearby park. I went out to see and this is the first frame I shot, right after they came into view.
Last time I saw them, there was a still a good amount of snow here. Now the leaves have come out.
Kalib went straight for the slide. As he started down, he looked up at his dad to see what his dad would do.
His dad came sliding after...
Kalib threw some pebbles into a slide chute and then watched as they tumbled and slid back down.
Then he ran off and his dad chased after.
Soon, they were in the house, eating popsicles. When offered a variety of colors, Kalib chose the green one. Then he saw his mom pick a red one for herself and decided that the red one would be better instead.
I also had a red one.
The red ones are best.
Although the green is pretty good.
It was about 10:30 PM now. Margie's flight was scheduled to arrive at 1:38 AM. I had come in early just so I could finally see the boys, but Jobe was now asleep and the rest would soon join them.
That meant I had three hours to wait.
The prospect horrified me.
What I could I do with all that time?
I could go sit in a bar and sip root beer, wink my eyes at honkey tonk women and say stupid things as they danced and sauntered across the floor.
Instead, I laid back on the couch. I sank right into it.
I closed my eyes. The lids were so heavy, I did not feel like I could ever open them again.
I fell asleep right there. At 1:09 AM, I forced myself to get up and go. I drove to the airport and picked Margie up. Her plane had come in half-an-hour early and she was standing there waiting when I pulled up, so I stopped, she put the one bag that she had left with in the back plus the other that she had bought and filled in Arizona and jumped in.
I took off without even taking a picture.
As regular readers know, it is our tradition to go out for breakfast the morning after either one of us returns from a trip.
So this morning we went to Family Restaurant - no, not Mat-Su Valley Family Restaurant but Denali Family Restaurant, just a few miles further up the Parks Highway.
I would not have even known about this brand new restaurant had I not gone to Fairbanks to cover Katie John's graduation, but I saw it as I drove home.
If they had named it, "Mckinley Family Restaurant," I would never have tried it. I would not have walked through the door. I try never to patronize a business that bears the name, "Mckinley." I stick to "Denali."
Inside, it was very much like Mat-Su Family Restaurant. The decor was similar, the menu similar, the food similar and the plates exactly the same. Even all the staff that I could see, including the waitresses, were staff I recognized from Mat-Su Valley Family Restaurant.
So I thought maybe it was an extension, built by the same owner to compete with him/herself.
No. It wasn't. It was built by a competitor and the staff that I could see had all been hired away.
Breakfast was very good - the hash browns cooked just right and, I hate to say it, better than at Mat-Su.
I will still continue to patronize Mat-Su. It is a bit closer. And Mat-Su Valley Family Restaurant has helped me bear some extremely hard mornings. Very hard mornings. Mornings that followed nights of turmoil and grief, nights without sleep.
So I will keep going to Mat-Su Valley Family Restaurant.
But I will patronize Denali, too. Good hash browns are a big draw to me.
Margie enjoyed it, too.
It was the first time she had drank coffee in weeks, she said.
She stayed with her sister, who remains a pretty active, decent and abiding Mormon. She allows visitors to brew coffee for themselves, but Margie did not feel like brewing coffee for just one so she abstained.
Tomorrow, I will discuss a recent NPR story about the health benefits of coffee - particularly for the prostate - and will thank a generous, almost not-anonymous lady who bought me a coffee at Metro the other day.
Margie is glad to be home, but she says it feels cold here.
"I have come back to winter," she said.
This, even though the leaves are sprouting out here and it snowed three inches at her sisters house 6000 feet up in Arizona her final morning there.
Still, it was warmer there than here.
Which it ought to have been.
(warning - slideshow contains additional photos of Jobe and Kalib not seen in the actual post)