Dinner with Diane just before PBS broadcast of For the Rights of All; Lullaby and Goodnight to Kalib; help Ann Strongheart help fight hunger

Last July, while fishing out of Homer with her Iraq war veteran and Wounded Warrior Olympic athlete son, Latseen, and grandson, Gage, Diane Benson caught a 300 pound-plus halibut. After giving us a chance to let the turkey settle down in our systems, Diane invited Margie and I over to eat part of that halibut with her and Tony Vita. Tony has been there for her and Latseen through the bitter, yet triumphant, journey through pain, recovery and politics that they have been on since Latseen lost his legs to a roadside bomb.

As to the halibut... ohhhh... it was delicious! Deep-fried and dipped in Diane's homemade tartar sauce, which just may be the best tartar sauce that I have ever tasted. We also had dried fish dipped in houligan oil, dried seawood, boiled potates and carrots, plus a mix of raw vegetables.

Afterwards, we spent a great deal of time talking about books and the writing of books and about the classes Diane has been teaching at the University of Alaska, Anchorage - in particular the class focusing on the fact that Native women face the highest incidence of rape and sexual abuse of any group in the nation and of ways to defend against it, both at an individual and societal level.

Tonight at 8:00 PM, KAKM public television will broadcast For the Rights of All: Ending Jim Crow in Alaska, the documentary filmed by Jeff Silverman in which Diane reprises her role as Alaska Native civil rights heroine Elizabeth Peratrovich that she originally created for her one-woman play, When My Spirit Raised it's Hands.

Those living in other parts of the US can check their local PBS stations to find out when the documentary will be playing in your town.

I saw it at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention. It is the most powerful work of its kind that I have yet to see. I would recommend it to all.

Scooter, the character in Diane's arms, was in rough shape when she rescued him a few months back, but now he is doing good.

Last night, I stepped into Jacob, Lavina and Kalib's temporary bedroom to give my little grandson a hug goodnight.

As he moved slowly towards sleep, the tune of Lullaby and Goodnight, played on a harp and woodwind recorder, softly played from the CD player.

It took me back to when I was about his age, in a darkened room lit by a dim light with my own late mother, as she held me and sang that same song to me. My memories of the time are dim, but of that moment strong in the sense of feeling safe, warm, and loved.

And then I remembered when Margie and I first brought Jacob home from the hospital. Mom came to the house, she took him in his arms and began to sing that same song.

I could not keep the tears out of my eyes - then or last night.

I say temporary bedroom because, yesterday, Jacob and Lavina closed on their new house in Anchorage. Very soon they will move into it.

What will Margie, Uncle Caleb and I do then?

Speaking of Native issues, the Southwest Alaska village of Nunam Iqua and other villages are facing tough times this winter, due to shortages of food and fuel. I had hoped that Ann Strongheart, who is coordinating efforts to bring aid to the village, would come to Anchorage between now and Christmas so that I might photograph and interview her, but she does not expect to come.

Anyone wishing to help can find out how to do so on her website, Anonymous Bloggers.

A nice beam of light falls upon Kalib; a dog in the road draws some honks

Kalib, just a little bit ago, sitting on the couch as a beam of light falls through the window upon him.

On my walk, I heard a car honk and then another, followed by still a third. I thought perhaps there was trouble brewing, a gang fight about to take place on Seldon Street. I turned to look, it was just this dog, out in the road, blocking traffic.

Now, I begin a new short term plan. Until I get on top of things, I am going to limit this blog to just two images a day. I was going to make it just one, but then I realized that Kalib's fan club, particularly those down in the Navajo Nation, might grow very irritated with me if that one picture did not include Kalib. Most importantly, Kalib needs to put a smile on his Grandma Mary's face everyday.

So I decided to make it two pictures - one from out and about, plus a daily Kalib.

So here you go.

Sarah runs out of gas, picks up her hockey stick; Mr. Dodd Shay blows the snow away; Rex and Kalib play with train, eat pie

As I walked today, I saw this girl, sitting still in the road on her four-wheeler, going nowhere, holding her hockey stick. I wondered why. "I ran out of gas," she told me.

I wasn't carrying any gas so I could not help her, but I could take her picture. Her name is Sarah, she is 14 years old and she plans to start playing hockey very soon. "At school?" I asked.

"I think I'm going to join a girl's league team," she answered.

Or did she say, "city league?" I'm pretty sure she said "girl's league." I suppose that I probably shouldn't quote her if I am not absolutely certain what her words were.

But then, it's not all that unusual for a blogger to get a quote a little bit wrong. I don't think that I got it wrong, I think I got it right. But I'm not 100 percent certain.

And don't worry. She had a cell phone. Her gas was coming.

A little further down the road I saw Dodd Shay blowing the snow off his driveway.

When he got to the end of his driveway, he turned around and started going back. His black dog kept coming. In fact, the dog followed me for a short distance. It wanted to keep following me, but it got worried that it was getting too far from from home, so it turned around and went back.

A white poodle awaited it. Yes, I photographed the poodle, too, but today I will make you use imagination, if you want to see it. I won't tell you if it was tall or short, or what color its collar was or if its fur was groomed or how. Use your imagination - see what kind of white poodle you can create to go with this black dog.

Snowmachine tracks cross a well-scraped road.

I needed something besides turkey, so I drove to Taco Bell and passed by Wasilla Lake. Snow blew off the lake, but it wasn't bad.

Rex returned to Anchorage from Homer, where he did lots of thinking. In the evening, he came out and, Taco Bell notwithstanding, we all did a Thanksgiving retake and ate more turkey. Afterward, Margie asked if we were ready for pie.

We weren't. I semi-dozed off on the couch to the sounds of Kalib squealing and Uncle Rex laughing (you can tell how much I got done on this task I told you about last night).

When I got up from the couch, I found the two sitting at the kitchen table, playing with the toy train engine I bought in India for about 50 cents and then brought home to Kalib.

Finally, we were ready for pie.

I take a walk on a warm, dim and snowy day

I woke up late this morning to discover that it was a warm day - right up near freezing. Soon it started to snow. This is how it looked when I took my walk, a little after 1:00 PM.

As long as it doesn't get any warmer, it will be fine. As I sit down to write this, the temperature stands at 25 degrees. The humidity is 93 percent. I want to note this, because what people always like to say about Alaska is, well, your cold is a dry cold.

And that's true. When it gets truly cold, the air is always dry, because it loses its ability to hold moisture. Moisture freezes right out of it. But when the temperatures rise to warm cold, then we get humidity, too.

Snowmachine rider and dog coming down the Wards Road hill. When I was far away, they kept going up the hill and then they would turn around and come right back down again. I had hoped they would keep it up until I drew close, so that I could get the expression on the dog's face as its legs churned and its little lungs damn near burst, but they didn't.

This was their very last trip down the hill - and this is a tight crop from a much broader horizontal image.

The view from the top of the Wards Road hill.

Now, I have a big task to which I must fully devote myself for at least the next three days, maybe longer. My entries in that time will be very simple, like this one, maybe even simpler.

This makes me a little sad, because the hits to this blog have been steadily on the increase and now I must give some of it up.

Oh, well. When I start back up again, I will hopefully be ahead of where I was the last time I had to stop and restart.

And I do have some big plans for this blog. No resources to do it, but the plans are there and the ideas as to how to go about it have been taking shape.

The resources will come from somewhere. I have no idea where, but they will come.

All I have to do is build it.

Then they will come.

Hmmmm......?

Our Thanksgiving Day, 2009

Not long after Lisa arrived for Thanksgiving, Jacob began to treat her just like he did when she was a little girl and he was a big boy.

Lisa's boyfriend Bryce, who is deeply allergic to cats and dogs, came too, of course.

Lisa and Bryce.

Needless to say, the other boyfriend, Melanie's, Charlie, showed up as well. Soon, he engaged Kalib in a game of "Peek-a-Roo." Here, he sings out, "peek-a..."

"...Roo!" That's because we sometimes call Royce, "Royce-a-Roo." Naturally, that sometimes gets shortened to just "Roo." Hence, the game of "Peek-a-Roo." 

Kalib was greatly pleased with the game.

When I get time, or just take time, I will let Grahamn Kracker post more of this game - and other cat activities from the day - on his No Cats Allowed blog.

Lavina and her feet.

Lisa and Bryce pour the punch.

Kalib comes to the table.

Setting the table. Traditionally, I am the one who cooks the turkey, but, somehow, Margie cooked two of them today. I still cut it up. See that pumpkin chiffon pie? Melanie made that from a recipe that originated with my late mother. It is the best pumpkin pie in the world.

Melanie also made some cranberry sauce out of cranberries she picked herself.

Sooooo goood!

And she made a walnut pie. Margie tells me it is excellent, but so far I have found no room for it in my tummy.

I will try it tomorrow.

As baby Kalib peeks down from a picture on the cabinet door, the feasting begins. I have no more pictures of it, because I was too busy feasting. Please note the state of Caleb's facial hair. 

Readers who have been with this blog - and especially those who visited after the excellent feast that we had last year in Anchorage at Rex and Stephanie's house - cannot help but notice that two members of the family are absent: Rex and Stephanie.

Again, I just want to give them space and not say too much, but Rex went to Homer to spend the weekend alone in a cabin contemplating life. Stephanie - well, we don't know. She no longer shares her life with us.

It is a painful and puzzling thing.

Charlie brought his guitar and gave Kalib his first-ever live concert.

Soon, under the watchful eye of Royce-a-Roo, Kalib was dancing to a tune about little fishes - a song composed just for him.

Lisa and Bryce left a bit early to go back to Anchorage to share a second Thanksgiving with Bryce's parents. A bit after that, a bunch of the rest of us crowded into the Escape and headed to Metro Cafe for a coffee break.

When we got there, Carmen told us that Lisa and Bryce had stopped on their way to town. All week long, Carmen had been telling me that the drive-through would be open from 10-7 on Thanksgiving Day, while her family would gather from all over to have dinner inside. Every day, she reminded me, and urged me to come by.

Naturally, with our bellies stuffed and us growing sleepy, such a break was essential, so we did stop by.

She prepared hot drinks for everybody, engaging us in conversation through it all. Before I could pay her, she closed the window. I thought she had forgotten, so I waved the 20 that Melanie had insisted on contributing in front of her.

Carmen opened the window just a crack, to tell us this one was on the house.

"You're a real good customer," she said.

And it was good coffee, too. It always is.

Back home, we ate the pie. Then Kalib came with the paper, looking at the Christmas ads.

So this is how it will be for the next month.

This year, I want to see if I can experience some Christmas spirit.

It was easy when I was young. Now it is hard. Despite all the promotions, Christmas tends to sneak up on me suddenly and then it is gone and I wonder if it ever happened at all.

Well, we will see.

Melanie and Charlie.

It is time for them to go, because they need to spend some Thanksgiving time with Charlie's parents. Kalib comes running to say goodbye.

Out the door they go and then they are gone. It always comes to this. Always.

I walk from the front door into the kitchen, where I find Kalib eating butter straight off the butter plate.

Kalib goes to work at 10:00 PM, beardless, but with a mustache. None of us have seen him like this before. Four of his coworkers are doing the same thing.

Maybe it is a contest, I don't know. He just needs a cowboy hat, a good pair of boots, spurs, a six-shooter and a horse. Can you imagine how sharp he would look, sitting on that horse, dressed like that, with this mustache?