2009 in review - November: Yes, luna 1580, Patti is still with us and doing good

Thirty-two minutes left in the year. Good grief. This is like seeing your bus a block away and running to catch it.

Kalib tried Margie's glasses out. He looked very intellectual.

Charlie took my picture.

On Rex's birthday, Kalib practiced blowing candles out, so that he could be ready when his own came.

Jacob read a wild Dr. Seuss book to Kalib. Kalib then went wild.

On one walk, the moose and I enjoyed a nice little visit.

Patti has made great progress. She is with us. Her knew doctor calls her the Miracle Woman. She goes and meets with other cancer patients, to give them courage.

According to her first doctor, she is supposed to be gone now.

Doctors have helped me a great deal, but sometimes, they are not always right.

2009 in review - October: I don't have time to write a title

Forty-five minutes left in the year. I was shadow biking like crazy in October. Now, I've got to move my fingers across the keyboard like crazy, if I am to finish this review before the year ends.

I took Margie to a movie. She was moving slow, but she did it.

I shot this image of Mike and Hutch as I passed them on my bicycle.

A young Cup'ik dancer from Chevak, performing at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention.

I walked around AFN and photographed people along the way. Among them was Gar and Emily, whose wedding you just got a glimpse of in my March review. They had their new baby, Emily, with them.

Beautiful family!

One Sunday morning, we took Kalib to IHOP. He was very naughty.

Margie and Lavina went to Anchorage and stopped at Starbucks. They foolishly left the evidence in the car. Lisa found it. She was not happy. "I'll bet they said, Lisa never needs to know," Lisa told me after I proclaimed my innocence and blamed them.

Later, I told Margie and Lavina that they had been found out. One of them said that the other said, "Lisa never has to know."

Being a coffee aficionado, Lisa does not approve of Starbucks.

As the month ended, I answered and got one horrible fright.

2009 in review - September: The battle for Kalib's affections; goats, flag, Grand Opening of Metro Cafe; last berry; dogs: Patti gains against her cancer

One-hour and five minutes left in the year. I'm not even going to worry the slightest bit about typos, dropped words, extra words and such. Hell. As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, even when I look for typas, they disappar right in front of my eys, so it hardy matters.

In September, we took Kalib to the State Fair. The sisters, Sandy and Steffers, battled each other for his affections. Here is Steffers, planting a big one on him.

Goats, at the same place where the chicken crossed the road, the rooster got shot and the pet dog mauled the pet rabbit.

They claim the rabbit survived, but I had been seeing it everyday before it got mauled and I never saw it again after that.

I saw an American flag flying.

Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright cut the ribbon with Scott and Carmen at the Grand Opening of the Metro Cafe, Wasilla's finest and most fun coffee house.

Kalib picked the last blueberry of summer.

I found this old dog in the marsh, looking like it was about to die. With a little from Mrs. Shay, the dog was reunited with her owner. I tried twice to find that owner and get a picture of her reunited with the dog, but failed.

Given how old and frail the dog was, I am almost afraid to try again.

Girls running in the open category at the Palmer invitational cross country meet.

Two dogs, reflected in my mirror.

Lisa had been to the house. Kalib watches as she leaves.

Patti had found a new doctor, who would give her chemo. She also took on some naturopathic therapy. She focused her mind upon survival, upon beating her cancer - and she had made good progress. Her cancer had diminished.

2009 in review - August: Kalib, Muzzy, Royce and a magical cloud; The Spirit of Wasilla rolls through Wasilla; horses; the mushroom cover up; the Mahoney's: Patti fights for her life.

Okay. It is 10:34 PM. This year ends in one hour and 24 minutes. I took a break to have dinner, to go to DG and get a banana split, to read the NY Times editorials. Now, if I'm going to get this month-by-month review done before the year ends, I've got to fly.

Does this picture really need an explanation?

Kalib discovers clouds passing by in the sky.

You know I love the train. How thrilled I was when the engine named "The Spirit of Wasilla" rolled into sight.

Horses, running the other way.

This is Pia, who has a fine garden. When I took this picture, I asked her if she was going to enter anything in the state fair. "No," she said. That kind of thing is for younger people.

Then, when the prize winners for the state fair were announced in the Anchorage Daily News, there she was, in a picture, along with a 963 pound mushroom - the biggest entered.

Well, maybe it wasn't quite 963 pounds, but I don't have time to go back and find out the true size.

It was a mighty damn big mushroom and Pia was might sneaky.

She didn't want anybody to know until she won.

I pedaled my bike to Grotto Iona, which I had passed many times in my car, and went in and discovered a small, family graveyard. I gave myself the assignment to learn about Paul and Iona Mahoney, who are buried here. 

I haven't a chance yet, but I am in contact with their daughter and I will yet "meet" them, so you can too.

Margie, at the Alaska Native Medical Center for a checkup.

This is Patti, who loves to bike, ski, sail and be fit. Her doctor had just told her life was over, that the cancer she had could not be stopped. She had just months to live. No more treatment was necessary, she should go home and prepare to die.

Patti rebelled against that doctor and decided to fight for her life.

2009 in review - July: Kalib goes south, I go north; Margie gets injured all over again

Okay, I am hurrying along now. Wainwright: Max Akpik and his granddaughter, Cora Ann.

The Frontier Flying Service Flight from Wainwright to Barrow.

Baby Rebecca Brower, winner of the Barrow Baby contest, in the arms of her grandmother, Rebecca Brower.

These are the three who competed for this year's Miss Teen Top OF The World title: Rochelle Oyagak, Selma Khan and Freida Nageak. As you can see, they had to stand against a strong wind.

Selma, who sewed the parka that she wears in honor of her grandmother, was awarded the title. She is now a freshman at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

With some encouragment from her Aaka, four-year old Jacklyn Sceeles dashed to third place in a Barrow Fourth of July footrace.

I went on a caribou hunt with the Nageaks. That's Ernest holding the rifle. Kuuniaq is pointing towards a large herd up the rise. A rather special story came out of this hunt, a story that is hardly even hinted at in this picture. But it is in the Uiñiq that will soon be distributed. I hope to later share it here.

This is Kunuknowruk, also known as Pete Lisbourne, a treasured friend and the man who hosted me during my trip to Tikigaq, also known as Point Hope. For those of you familiar with my book, Gift of the Whale, he is the man who you saw picking murre eggs off the 900-foot cliffs of Cape Thompson, and then resting on the very edge at the very top with a cache of eggs in front of him.

Although he is not inclined to speak about it at all, Kunuknowruk is not only a Vietnam veteran, but one decorated for heroism, for risking his own life to save another when others held back.

Jimmy Nukapigak on the Kuukpik River, taking whitefish back home to his village of Nuiqsut.

Me on the jet headed back to Anchorage.

I went straight from the jet to the Moose's Tooth, where my family treated me to pizza as a late birthday celebration. When I opened the present that Jacob, Lavina, and Kalib gave me, I found an ultrasound of my next grandchild, loosely scheduled to be born on February 27.

The day after my return, Margie fell again and broke her knee for the second time. She suffered even more than before. It was very hard.

As I pedaled my bike, this kid came pedaling in the opposite direction.

Kalib and Muzzy.