Cocoon mode* - day 7: Caleb sits down to make a stand in the TV room; Kalib saturates himself in incense from India

When they were growing, all three boys slept in this room and sometimes it got pretty chaotic. In time, we enlarged the house, but soon only Caleb and the girls were still home, and then the girls became women and moved out into the world. 

After awhile, Caleb moved into the middle bedroom, which had grown with the enlargement of the house and had briefly been occupied by Rex. Not long after, we put a TV in the original room and called it, "the TV room."

In time, the room began to fill with things that we did not know what else to do with, so we put them there.

Still, Caleb found the space to go in and watch TV.

Then, after Margie got hurt this last time, we had to move a bunch of stuff from our bedroom in order to clear space to accommodate her needs and so into this room it went.

And still, Caleb holds his TV room territory.

One day, perhaps, we will figure out what to do with this stuff. 

I am not certain where he found it, but little Kalib got ahold of some packages of incense from India and then flung the scented wands around as if they were pick-up sticks. By the time I came out and discovered what was going on it was too late to stop it and Jake had just saw it as an interesting learning opportunity for Kalib and so had not interfered.

Afterwards, Kalib carried the scent around on his body and clothes. Aroma wise, being around him was kind of like being back in India. Even when we took him out driving, the aroma of India came with us.

His parents now go house-shopping at every opportunity. Soon, this house will be less chaotic than it is now, but we will have to learn to cope with it.

*Cocoon mode: Until I finish up a big project that I am working on, I am keeping this blog at bare-minimum simple. I anticipate about one month.

Cocoon mode* - day 6: I conduct a scientific experiment involving the rain, my bike, a pickup truck and a cow moose

Come noon each day that I was in India, I was quite taken by the fact that my shadow was directly beneath me. This, of course, was because the equatorial sun hung pretty-much directly overhead. Here in Alaska, even at noon in June, the sun always angles its way in, so one's shadow always falls away from him. It never appears directly beneath him.

Or so I have always believed.

Then, this morning, I was riding my bike through the rain when I looked down and saw what appeared to be my shadow, directly beneath me. I reasoned that this was because the rain-filled clouds had dispersed the sun's rays, causing them to come down upon me from all angles, as if from a big, dome-shaped lightbox, but that fewer of those dispersed rays actually struck the ground directly beneath me - hence, the shadow.

But then I got to wondering if it was a shadow that I was seeing beneath me at all. Perhaps it was just the reflection of myself and the bicycle, caused by the thin layer of water upon the pavement and it only looked like a shadow because too much of the light was being absorbed by the pavement to reflect the colors back.

I noticed that when cars and trucks drove past, I could see their reflections on the wet pavement, traveling directly beneath them.

So I was very confused. I decided that I would take a picture of a truck passing by and then study the reflection beneath it and see what I could learn.

So here is the picture. I have studied it and I have learned nothing.

Later, I took my coffee break in my car. By now, the rain had ceased. Just before I reached home, I saw this cow moose standing in someone's driveway. I decided to continue the experiment and so photographed her posing with her shadow.

I figured that once I got home and could sit down and take a good look at this picture, all my questions would be answered.

As you can see, very strange things are happening with the shadow of this moose.

I end the day in an even greater state of confusion than I began it.

*Cocoon mode: Until I finish up a big project that I am working on, I am keeping this blog at bare-minimum simple. I anticipate about one month.

Cocoon mode* - day 5: Kodiak Bear tears up cross-country race course

The other day, I received an email from Leonard Barger, who coaches the Point Hope cross-country team and basketball, too. He invited me to come and photograph them as they competed in Anchorage, yesterday, or Palmer, today. Since Palmer is only 12 miles from my house and Anchorage 50, I chose Palmer.

Given the fact that I have 96 pages for this big project that I am working on and that I have already laid out about 250 pages and have some more to add before I cut it back to the 96, you might wonder why I would throw even more into the mix.

That's just how I am.

There are no Point Hope athletes in this shot. This was the first race, the girls open, and I did a few test shots to try to figure out where I ought to be when Point Hope ran.

This is not Point Hope, either. This is Kodiak Bear Dylan Anthony, who, in less than a second, will set a new record for the 3.1 mile Palmer cross crountry course: 15:42. 

Don't worry. I got some good pictures of the Point Hope athletes, but I am saving them for my publication, even though I have no idea how to fit them in. Afterwards, of course, I plan to break that publication down into several parts and run them here, so Leonard and his athletes will yet race across this blog.

*Cocoon mode: Until I finish up a big project that I am working on, I am keeping this blog at bare-minimum simple. I anticipate about one month.

Cocoon mode* - day 4: The firewood twins, bike at the Little Su, an old van at Metro Cafe

This was actually yesterday, when I came home from my coffee break and found these two identical guys throwing split birch into our yard. It was a big surprise to me because I had not yet ordered any and I was wondering how, at $200 a cord, I was going to pay for it.

Turned out Jacob, Lavina, Caleb, and Melanie bought four cords for us. It usually takes about five - six cords to get us through the winter, but since this is going to be an El Niño winter, and the north is growing warmer, anyway, maybe four will do it.

We used to gather all of our own wood and saw it up and split it. It was great fun, but those days are gone. I had told myself that this year I would get all of our wood in June, but I didn't.

Before I got to work today, I took my bike out for a ride. I went down to the Little Su the long way, about five or six miles. I wanted to try to pedal across the Little Su through a shallow stretch, but I have never succeeded in the past and I did not want to soak my shoes, so this is as far as I went.

Margie, Lavina and Kalib all accompanied me on my coffee break. We went through the drive through at the new Metro Cafe. That is Carmen, the owner, waving. Remember the cute car and van?

Just today, this old van showed up, too. They bought it somewhere down in the Lower 48. They plan to fix it up nice, like the others. They plan to park a fleet of such vehicles.

*Cocoon mode: Until I finish up a big project that I am working on, I am keeping this blog at bare-minimum simple. I anticipate about one month.

Cocoon mode* - day 3: The American Flag unfurls above me; Margie must bear her crutches for two more months

As much as I just wanted to stay home and work, Margie had two doctor appointments in Anchorage and she needed someone to drive her and that someone was me. I figured if we could get back between 2:00 and 4:00 PM, I could still get in a full day's work, but a full day's work is not enough.

I had NPR on the radio and the discussion was all about 9/11. At first, there was talk about all the things that had been taboo after 9/11, but how the taboos are breaking down. After 9/11, for example, those talking claimed, no one dare say anything that could be interpreted in a negative light about firemen, either in discussion or art. Now, they said, you can criticize a fireman and make fun of one in a movie.

I can't personally think of any who I would want to criticize or make fun of, but I hate for any subject to be taboo.

They said it was considered terribly wrong to show anyone falling through the air, in light of all the people who chose to jump to their death rather than burn in the fire.

After I dropped Margie off at the Alaska Native Medical Center, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen came on Talk of the Nation to speak of how he still felt the need to have revenge taken against Osama bin Laden and all those responsible.

He was not a vengeful person he said, he did not believe in the death penalty, but that's what he felt. He wanted revenge then and still does now. Maybe, he said, in taking some of the actions that we took afterwards as a nation, we had acted like the bull charging the matador's red cape.

I pulled into the Dimond Mall parking lot, and saw this flag above me, unfurling in the breeze. I shot a series of pictures, each different, as it continually changed its shape. I could easily run a dozen shots or more, if I were not in cocoon mode.

I want to, too, but I guess I won't.

Poor Margie. When she first went to the hospital on July 26, they told her it would take about six weeks before she could begin to walk around normally. Of course, without being able to take a catscan right then, they misdiagnosed the severity of her injury. 

Today, the doctor told her that she must continue to use crutches and keep weight off that leg for two more months. She was not happy and neither was I. What can you do, though, but bear it?

*Cocoon mode: Until I finish up a big project that I am working on, I am keeping this blog at bare-minimum simple. I anticipate about one month.