I thought they were from Russia, but I was wrong; Muzzy pees on a mail box; Kalib gets into the news

I took my walk a little after noon. It was a warm and beautiful day, as you can tell by the fact that it was snowing. Snow only falls on warm days, never on cold. 

As I walked, I saw this couple walking the other way.

I have seen them before and I thought that maybe they were two of the many Russian immigrants that moved into this area after the "Ice curtain" that separated Alaska from the old Soviet Union melted.

But I wasn't certain.

So we stopped to visit. "Where did you originally come from?" I asked.

"A place very different than here," she answered.

"Russia?" I asked.

"No! No!" she answered. "Not Russia!"

She, Naziliya, or "Naza" originated in Azerbaijan; he, Leo, in Belarus - but they met in Moscow.

Eight years ago, a relative invited them to come visit in Wasilla.

"We never left," Naza said. "This is the best place - much better than Moscow."

Perhaps I would have learned more, but suddenly our conversation was disrupted when a bounding mass of fur plowed into the scene.

It was Muzzy! And he wanted all the attention. He got it. I then had to devote my full attention to getting him out of there before he loved anyone to death.

But Leo and Naza invited me to stop at their house anytime. So, sooner or later, I will do just that.

I don't mind walking with Muzzy when Jacob is along, because then Jacob does the hard stuff, but Muzzy can sometimes be too much for me to handle. Ninety-some percent of the time, he is a good dog. Although he does not want to, he will do what you tell him to do.

But sometimes... when he sees another dog... he goes nuts... he won't obey at all. He charges after that dog and there is no stopping him.

Once, before I fell off the chair and shattered my shoulder, I was walking him on a leash when a dog popped up. I shouted at him to stop, but I knew that he wasn't going to, so I gripped the handle of the leash as hard as I could and dug in my heels.

Muzzy hit the end of that leash full force and literally yanked me off my feet. I went sailing through the air and came down on my chest and tummy, still gripping the leash.

Now that I have a titanium shoulder, I can't do that again.

So I try never to take him on a walk by myself.

But Jacob is in Washington, DC. Caleb is sick. 

If I didn't walk him, no one was going to.

And he needed to walk.

He needed to pee on things.

So I took him - but I did not put him on the leash. He could yank my artificial shoulder right off - I am certain of it.

So I broke the leash law and took him unleashed - although I did carry the leash with me.

But, as anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, dogs run loose around here all the time.

Still, I felt terribly irresponsible.  On the good side, Muzzy once got smacked by a car in Anchorage and that taught him an indelible lesson about cars and traffic.

And, although you might not know from looking at these pictures, when traffic appeared, I always took note of Muzzy's position in relation to it, so that I could take action, if need be. Fortunately, he was always a safe distance away - usually out in the trees.

But I hope Caleb feels better tomorrow so he can take Muzzy walking  - and I will be very glad when Jacob gets home.

Along the way, we stopped to visit this gentleman, a friendly fellow who I sometimes come across. He was feeling very bad about his son. His son is in prison now but expects to soon be out on parole. The son and his lady - or maybe his mother, I got a little confused on this part - are trying to arrange it so that he can do his parole time in Georgia, where the lady, who may or may not be his mother, lives.

The rationale is that if the son goes to Georgia, he can get away from whatever influence it is up here that keeps getting him into trouble with the law.

The dad was not convinced. He figured he could find just as much to get into trouble over down there as up here.

"And they do harder time in Georgia," he said.

But he also mused about the possibility that maybe his son would not get out on parole, that, maybe, just before he was to be released, he would go wallop a guard or something. Then he would have to stay in prison.

"That would give him three squares, a roof, and a job," his dad explained.

Then Muzzy began to sniff in this spot.

"He smells the moose that just went through here," he said. "A cow and two calves."

Soon I saw this four-wheeler coming.

They waved, then stopped and backed up.

"You should have got a picture of us yesterday," the driver said. "We were pulling a couch with three people on it."

I am really sorry that I missed that picture, but, damnit, I just didn't know.

After the walk, I came back to my computer and stayed put until 4:00 PM, when I went out for the usual coffee break, accompanied by NPR's All Things Considered.

When I pulled up to the drive-through window, I saw these folks placing an order from inside the Metro-Cafe. The window was still closed. That's why you see those smudges on the left.

After Carmen opened the window, I conversed with them just a little bit. The man's name is Scott and one of the girls is named Maggie. I am not sure which one. And there were two more that didn't make it into the picture. Maggie could even have been one of them.

Scott named all five, but I only remember one.

When I was younger, I would have remembered all five - plus a dozen or two more, as well.

Now, I only remember Maggie.

I spent the day alone again, with the cats and Muzzy. Margie did go into town to help out, even though she did not feel that great. 

Anway, the new rug has been placed and all the painting has been done upstairs. So Lavina and Kalib came back here and they will spend every night here until Friday, to let their place air out.

Being a curious fellow who wants to know all about the world, Kalib got into his PJ's and then went straight for the newspaper - and promptly began to rip it to pieces.

Then Megan Baldino came on to anchor the evening news. He ignored her...

...and went to his mom, who gave him something good to eat.

No Kalib today - boring entry - I wouldn't even bother to drop by - but please do: I need the hits

I spent the day alone with the cats and Muzzy. Margie went into town early to help out however she could with the painting and such going on at Jacob, Lavina and Kalib's new house. Caleb was going to go in, too, but he was struck down by something that caused horrible pains in his stomach and so spent the day in bed.

So I went to Family Restaurant just before noon to buy some breakfast.

On the way home, I saw this man riding a bicycle through the sub-zero air. I haven't ridden my bike in so long. Not because its cold, but because I know if I do, sooner or later it is going to slide out from underneath me on the ice and I am going to go down.

This was not a terribly big deal in the past, but now that I have a titanium shoulder, it is. Even if I come down on ice, I don't want to fall.

Not far from the biker, I saw this man walking. All this excitement happened on Spruce Street.

And here I am, driving down Church.

Now I am on Shrock.

I then spent several hours at my computer, but at 4:00 PM, when NPR's All Things Considered Weekend Edition came on the radio, I took a coffee break. Metro Cafe is closed on Sundays, so I went to Mocha Moose.

It was then back to my computer for a couple of hours, but soon it was time for dinner. I looked for something good and simple to cook, but could find nothing.

I wanted something nutritious, so I headed to KFC, where I bought chicken, mashed potatoes and corn on the cob.

I did see the train go by. That was exciting. It's always exciting when the train goes by.

Margie came home pretty late, but then was struck with such bad tummy pains that they made her cry. She looked awful. Now she is in bed. She says she is going back into town with Lavina early in the morning to help out some more, but I don't know.

So a couple of days ago, Kalib was vomiting. He still looks weak. Then earlier today, Caleb was smitten by horrid stomach pains. Now Margie has been. Both say they are quite unlike any regular kind of upset tummy pains that they have ever experienced before.

And Jimmy, my good black cat, has been passing foul gas.

Oh, dear.

None of this portends anything good.

I pass by a lady Santa on a horse; the new house gets torn up a bit with Kalib in the middle; Jacob is named Employee of the Year by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

Today, as I was driving out of Wasilla to go to Anchorage, I saw a woman on horseback, wearing a Santa hat. It was a beautiful, wonderful day for a horseback ride, with the temperature at that moment four degrees above zero.

I continued on to Anchorage through what was another hoarfrosty day.

Someone had slid off the road.

As you can see, things are changing inside Jacob, Lavina and Kalib's new home. I told you that Lavina did not like that old rug. Kalib went about the business of taking measurements for the new one.

Kalib looks through the window as Melanie arrives to help.

Rex seals off the tracks for the track lights in preparation for tomorrow's spray painting. There was some discussion about whether those track lights should go or stay, because they do look kind of strange.

Yet, as a photographer, I could see a use for such lights.

Once again, Kalib got to feeling worn down and a bit cranky.

So Grandma took him into what I believe will be his bedroom once he gets a little older. There, she made him sweep the floor.

That cheered him right up.

He also enjoyed watching some Cars animation on Caleb's iPhone.

After that, Lavina and I headed over to the Denaina Center, where the 1800 people who work with Jacob at the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium were having their Christmas party. Jacob is still in Washington, DC, so he couldn't be there.

We came very late but still just a little bit early and so they sat us down at one of the many tables and fed us halibut and a chocolate desert that was very tasty.

At the next table, I saw this lady concentrating on her phone.

This is why Lavina and I came, even though Jacob was not here. ANTHC gave out seven Employee of the Year awards. Jacob was named Employee of the Year in engineering.

Lavina accepted his award for him. They said that Jacob gets along with everybody that he works with, and with all the people in the villages that he travels to oversee the installation of sewer projects where there has never been sewer projects before and where, what with permafrost and all, conditions can be extremely challenging.

They especially praised him for his work in the Yup'ik village of Quigillingok and said that wherever he goes, he understands the peoples and cultures and works good with them all.

They said more after that, too, but I lost it because I was trying to figure out how to photograph Lavina receiving his award.

It was kind of tough, but this what I came up with.

Lavina with Jacob's awards, outside, on the way back to the car, beneath a hoarfrosted tree. The soapstone figure with the ivory face is an Eskimo dancer.

He also got $1000 - but, as he is now a Lieutenant in the Commission Corps, that check has to be sent to the federal government and they may or may not decide to let him keep it.

If you live in Point Lay, Anchorage is like a mad rush; hoar-frost at 65 mph (maybe just a little bit faster than that); Kalib begins the day at the end

This is Thomas Nukpagigak of Point Lay, and he is musing about the madness and rush of traffic and people swarming about in Anchorage. Thomas is the whaling captain whose crew I followed in 2008 and I might have been with them again this year, if I hadn't injured my shoulder and then gone to India. The day I left the Arctic Slope for India was the same day Point Lay caught its first bowhead in 72 years.

As for today, I picked Thomas up at the Embassy Suites in Anchorage and as we drove through the streets, he commented on the insanity and rush of traffic in the city. "The people never stop," he mused. "They just keep going and going and going. Always in a hurry to get to the next place. Point Lay is nice and quiet. That's how I like it."

Some of you who live in the country down in the Lower 48 might be nodding your heads knowingly, but, unless you have been to place like Point Lay - and there is no such place in the Lower 48 - you still can't grasp it. 

Point Lay has a population of about 300 people, maybe a bit less. If you go Northeast up the coast, the nearest village is Wainwright, population about 700, well over 100 miles away. If you go southwest, the nearest village is Point Hope, also about 700 and about the same distance. No roads link the villages. You travel between them either by airplane, snowmachine, or boat - sometimes, someone still makes the journey by dog team, but not very often.

When I followed his crew whaling, we set camp out on the ice 36 miles to the northeast, as measured by GPS. When you live like that for awhile, even Barrow, with its 4500 or so people, comes to seem like a big, bustling, city and when you first get there, you long for the quiet of the camp and the village.

So Thomas and I headed to Ray's Vietnamese Restaurant. We had a good lunch together and reviewed some material I had put together. He strongly urged me to come back to Point Lay for next spring's whale hunt. I felt a great desire to do just that.

Of course, my day did not begin in Anchorage. It began in Wasilla. And here I am, in my car, leaving Wasilla at about 11:50 AM.

The air has been foggy and still for the past couple of days, so there is hoarfrost on everything.

More hoarfrost.

The Alaska Railroad bridge that spans one braid of the Knik River.

About 30 miles still to go.

A car passes me on the Glenn Highway. It was speeding, but the driver did not get caught.

Shortly after I arrived in Anchorage, just before I picked Thomas up. I wish I had more money in that place. You can count every dollar that I have there now with just three figures.

Afterward, I dropped Thomas off at Wal-Mart by Diamond Center.

From there, I headed over to the Alaska Regional Hospital, to see a friend from Wainwright who was badly injured in a snowmachine accident last month. I found him in his room, alone, asleep. I called his niece and she said, go ahead, wake him up.

So I spoke his name, but he did not wake up. I placed my hand upon his shoulder - how thin and frail it felt, and he, always such a strong and vigorous man. I gave him a gentle shake. Still, he did not wake up. So I stood there at his bedside for awhile and then left. The first time that I went to see him he was still at the Alaska Native Medical Center. I could not see him because, due to fears of swine flu, they were only allowing two members of his immediate family to visit.

The second time, he was also asleep.

I might be in town again tomorrow. If so, I will try a fourth time.

Next, I headed over to the Captain Cook Hotel, to see my Iñupiaq sister, Mary Ellen Ahmaogak, of Wainwright. I was happy to find her daughter, Krystle, there, too. I had something in my computer that I wanted both of them to review, so that's what Krystle is doing here.

And in case you wonder about the little one...

...he is the youngest of her three children - Jonathan.

Krystle, Jesse, and Jonathan. Jesse was raised in Point Hope and that is where they all live, now.

I had meant to get Mary Ellen in a picture, too, but I devoted all my photographic attention to these three and forgot.

Remember how I said I felt a great desire to return to Point Lay next whaling season? When I see or talk to or even just think of any of the Ahmaogak's, I also feel a great desire to return to Wainwright next whaling season and to go back out with Iceberg 14, which Mary Ellen now co-captains with Jason and Robert.

And then speaking of Point Hope - yeah, I feel that same desire to go out there, too.

And then just a couple of weeks ago, a captain in Barrow invited me to get out of the south, come up north and go out with him and crew next spring.

The thought felt wonderful - tough - but wonderful. That's how it is. It is always tough. It is always wonderful.

Life gets very confusing, sometimes.

Who knows what will happen, come next spring?

And here I am, on my way back home to Wasilla, crossing the Palmer Hay Flats. People in vehicles are forever smacking moose on this stretch of highway and that is why they put in these fog lights.

Here is Kalib and Caleb, back at the computer, looking at dinosaurs. This is the very first picture I took today. 

You know what it says in the Bible: the first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

Well, the last wasn't first, but the first is last.

The Bible got it part right.

Kalib golfs, vacuums, gets under the weather, goes to the doctor, reunites with Royce; Various and insundry Wasilla scenes

Ever since Kalib moved out, the house had been a quiet and empty place. After he returned, he resumed his golf game. This made life in the house much better.

And then he vacuumed the floor. It really needed it and we were grateful.

Kalib and his vacuum cleaner.

It was a foggy day. I took only a very short walk - not because of the fog, but because I left at 11:45 AM and I had a phone interview scheduled at noon.

I hated to take such a short walk. I guess I should have left earlier.

After I hung up the phone, I wanted out. Caleb was awake to watch Kalib, so I took Margie to lunch. Along the way, we passed by this guy walking the shore of Wasilla Lake.

Regularly readers will instantly recognize this as the intersection that provides an excellent view of Pioneer Peak above the maddening traffic of Wasilla's main thoroughfare. But you couldn't see the mountains today.

We ate our lunch in the car, as these ravens flirted with each other nearby.

As we ate, this was the view through the windshield. The tower rises out of the Wasilla Police Station. I was a little worried that someone might come running out of there, think we were someone else and try to arrest us, but no one did. 

The radio was on and a restaurant reviewer was talking from Cleveland. He had moved there from the East Coast, where he said he had been a food snob and had not expected to find any good food in the Midwest.

Boy, was he wrong, he said. The dining in Cleveland was the height of gourmet sophistication. Not even New York City could beat it.

I thought maybe I should start doing reviews on all the sophisticated, gourmet, dining to be had right here in Wasilla, Alaska. I could start here, in the parking lot alongside Taco Bell.

So... Taco Bell has a new item on the meno called a cheese roll, or something like that. It is a flour tortilla rolled around a glob of melted cheese. I bought one, tore it in half, gave half to Margie and ate the other myself.

"What do you think?" I asked Margie.

"It's okay," she said.

"I find it quite excellent myself," I told her. "Nice, sophisticated, piquant, gourmet taste."

She said nothing more at all.

I also had two original crunchy tacos. Indeed, they crunched very well and, after I squeezed a packet of mild and another of hot sauce into each one, had just the right touch of spice to add a decent kick to the meal.

I also had a bean burrito with green sauce.

These are superb when done right, but this one was too damn salty.

The Pepsi was just right - not too sweet but pleasantly carbonated, so that I could be assured of a little burp later, the flavor of which would remind me just how excellent the meal was - except for the bean burrito, which could have been better.

Back at the house, Margie sits with Kalib, who was once again feeling under the weather. While we had been out, Caleb had observed something that frightened him terribly, as Kalib seemed to be disoriented and frightened. Kalib had reached for Caleb where Caleb wasn't even standing. Margie called Lavina at work in Anchorage and she made a doctor appointment for Kalib here in Wasilla at 4:30, but we were advised to bring him in a bit early.

We left the house at 4:00, but stopped to go through the drive-through at Metro Cafe to get Americanos. No, I don't buy Latte's and Mochas everyday.

We continued on toward the doctor's office. As you can see, Pioneer Peak was now visible in the twilight sky.

Lavina had driven up from Anchorage and was already there to meet us.

The rest went inside, but, as I had much to do, I headed back here to my office, slightly worried but pretty confident that Kalib was okay. Lavina would bring them all home.

This is what the Talkeetna Mountains looked like as I drove home.

I passed by a fence decorated with large, candy canes wrapped in green and red lights.

Kalib was fine - but better to be safe. Here he is, reunited with his buddy, Royce.