When sleep will come

Sleep came for these three during yesterday afternoon's Kivgiq dancing.

I wonder when it will come for me?

Computers!

It would take too many words to explain. Suffice it to say that I returned to the house about 12:30 AM following the Singspiration and then faced a downloading nightmare that lasted the entire night - in fact, it isn't over yet, but today's events start in less than half-an-hour, so I've got to get going.

On my way to Kivgiq: beautician Leah Frankson trims the beast; my laptop monitor completely flips out

Not long ago, Leah Frankson, Iñupiaq of Point Hope, now living in Anchorage, posted a facebook message that she had just opened her own beauty salon business (907.720.9848). First, I admit that the idea of a beast like me ever going into a beauty shop is ludicrous indeed, but then good beauticians are also known for their skill at trimming unkempt beasts.

So I decided that henchforth when my hair needed cutting and my beard a trim, I would take both to Leah Frankson and let her do the job.

As it was now time for me to step back into the public eye, it was time to get a haircut and beard trim.

So I called Leah, made an appointment and then stopped in at her Anchorage Salon on my way to the airport. So here we are, Beauty and the Beast, for the obligatory "before" shot.

And here she is, cutting my hair.

Now she trims my beard.

Now for the obligatory "after" shot.

Now I am in Barrow, it is the night before Kivgiq and I have many neat pictures that I took on the way and after I got here. I had decided that I would go ahead, stay up late and make a good post.

As those who have been with me on my more recent travels know, the monitor on my laptop computer has been acting up

I had not turned this laptop on since early December. Tonight, when I first turned it on, it performed perfectly - for about two minutes and then it went completely nuts. Worse than ever.

Now, all I see is posterized pictures, impossible to edit and analyze, images appear and disappear, fade and brighten, change colors, go negative. I cannot really edit them, and I cannot even begin to process them.

So what I have decided to do is to give up any pretense of blogging Kivgiq as it happens at all. 

Instead, next week, when I am back home and back at my desktop, I will blog Kivgiq day by day as if it is just happening. For most of you, it will be as new as if I was doing it right now.

For those of you who know and love Kivgiq, you will be all danced out and will actually have time to sit down and take a look.

I will still post something every day - probably just one image of any thing - because it is too exasperating to try to do anything on this monitor.

I can barely even make out the words that I  am writing. At least half the time, I can't make them out at all.

My proof-reading will be even worse than normal.

So, excuses right now - Kivgiq next week.

In fact, next week I will start with an image of Leah again, after I have actually looked at all the pictures that I took of her, including these four, and I will write just a bit more about her.

As I continue to contemplate the future of this blog, I happen upon two moose, a kid exits a school bus and I prepare to fly to Barrow

I know - as moose pictures go, this one is fairly boring - but this is the moose picture that presented itself to me today as I set out on my walk, so it is the picture that I got.

And this is the kid-getting-off-the school bus picture that presented itself after I had walked about two miles and was returning home.

I must keep this post short. In just hours, I board a jet to Barrow and before I do, I've got to get a haircut, pick up my once broken but now repaired 16-35 mm lens as well as some other supplies and eat some tacos or something.

I fear that for the next week, my posts are likely to be tiny, next to nothing - which is the irony that I always face when I am in the field. I will be shooting pictures like crazy and I should get some pretty decent ones, but I will not have time to edit them, I will not have time to process them, my internet connection will be slow and I will be using my laptop, which is still malfunctioning because I have not been able to repair it, so I will not be able to post anything more than a token image or two per day.

I will do my best to post something every day. I can't promise, but I will do my best.

And for all of you who gave me suggestions regarding my contemplation about the future of this blog, be assured that I have read them all and am thinking about what you say.

I expect to return to Wasilla early next week and then to stay home for about three weeks before I head back into the field for a more extended stay.

I will continue the contemplation at that time and, before that three weeks is over, will seek to take at least one concrete step towards that future.

I've got to go now.

I am a very shy person, but I know that I am going to have to dance in front of a large audience at least a couple of times before this week is over.

I know it. There is no way out around it. I am going to have to do it.

I will try to make it fun.

Three from India: Bill, Vijay, and Melanie

Yesterday, my nephew Vijay left a comment on a recent post in which he made a request that I pull up a picture that he took of me at Mahabalipuram-Mamallapuram, the place where a temple is carved out of a rock.

So, as ridiculous as I look, I honor his request. You will note that my shirt is soaked with sweat. That is because it was 198.6 degrees F there. I am not kidding. I am not exaggerating. That's how hot it was.

And that was the coolest that it got the whole time that Melanie and I were in India.

This is Vijay himself, and Vasanthi, who is also his mom.

And here is Melanie, wandering about inside the temple cut out of a rock, the temple that was never finished.

I will not be able to post India pictures while I am in Barrow, but be certain, I will be remembering, continually.

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A boy, a dog, a pizza, a cat and a wife on Super Bowl Sunday; Durga, in the form of a beautiful woman, slayer of the buffalo demon

Yes, all who have returned from yesterday, you guessed it: I ordered our Super Bowl Sunday meal from Fat Boyz Fatery Pizza. As Fat Boyz is only 1.5 miles from the house, I decided to walk over, place my order, then walk back home, get in the car, drive back, pick it up and bring it home.

That would be a three mile walk - not as much as I want or need, but better than no walk at all.

As I walked down Seldon towards Fat Boyz, I saw this boy and this dog walking in the opposite direction, coming towards me. I decided immediately that I would not take any pictures. I would give them a sociable nod hello and just keep going.

That's because, given all that I must do before I leave for Barrow tomorrow and given the fact that I knew that, in spite of myself, I would not get much done during the Super Bowl, I wanted to keep this blog post very short.

I figured that the pizza and Margie watching the Super Bowl would be all that I could deal with.

But when I reached the kid and the dog, the boy stopped me.

"I'm exhausted!" he exclaimed.

"How come?" I asked.

"Because I just got up!" he said.

So I figured that if he was up to it, I might as well take a picture for the blog.

"What's the dogs name?" I asked, as I shot the above.

"I'm not sure," he answered. "This dog has had lots of names. I think its Smokey now."

As to his own name, the boy said it was Unknown. I showed him my blog on my iPhone and he said he recognized the folks at Far Boyz. 

I then thanked him and was about to move on, but then Smokey playfully tipped Unknown onto his back.

Smokey and Unknown. BTW - Unkown assured me that Smokey does not bite. Unknown's mother insists that he wear the muzzle when he is out walking, just to be safe.

Unknown tries to get up but Smokey licks him in the face.

Unknown again tries to rise, but Smokey puts his weight on his shoulder.

So Smokey and Unknown take a break.

Then Unknown again tries to rise, but Smokey takes him back down.

Finally, Unknown manages to get up and they start walking down the street. "That Smokey's a good dog," I tell him.

"I don't know," Unknown answered. "He had his manlys cut off a few days ago."

Then Smokey tripped him up a bit.

I was reminded of a recurring dream that comes to me in one form or another. Somehow, I fall down. I keep trying to get up, but I keep tripping and falling again. Over and over.

"Who you for, Unknown?" I shouted after them.

"Green Bay!" he shouted back. "Of course I'm for Green Bay."

I did not see them on the return, so I assume they made it home safely.

Soon, I made it to Fat Boyz. My camera was too cold to use inside, where it would just fog and ice up.

No sooner had I walked in then I was informed that, just before me, someone had placed an order because they had read about Fat Boyz on this blog.

You know, when you are a blogger, you want to make a difference in this world. You labor hours and hours upon end, reaping far, far, less than minimum wage, just hoping to make a difference. Sometimes, you wonder if it is all futile, if you are laboring in vain, your images and words slipping into the deep abyss of cyberspace, making no difference whatsover.

And then you walk into Fat Boyz pizza and find out that someone has just placed an order because of your blog.

Suddenly, you know its all worthwhile.

Suddenly, you know you and your blog are making a difference in this world.

You feel new strength, new determination to carry on.

And carry on I will.

I will!

Damnit!

I will!

As I walked home, I saw this guy walking towards me. I could have stopped him to learn his story but I decided I had enough to deal with already.

And then this airplane flew overhead and I remembered how my life once was, how I hope it will yet become again. It will yet become again.

I was not created to remain always upon the ground.

As I drew closer to home, I saw Jared, out in his yard. Jared was not going to watch the game. He had other things to do that interested him more. Jared has a snow plow and anyone can hire him to come and plow their driveway or road.

Unfortunately, of all the winters that I have ever seen here, this has been the least snowiest of all.

We have a dearth of snow.

It is terrible.

But there's lots of February still ahead, March and April, too. March can often be the snowiest month of the year.

So there's hope for Jared, yet.

As every US reader already knows and maybe some of the rest of you, too, towards the end of the first quarter, the packers put a touch down on the board and then, 28 seconds later, Nick Collins intercepted a Steeler pass and scored six more.

Unkown would get to celebrate a Packers victory. We were for the Packers, too - mostly because Green Bay is a small town. I googled the population: just over 102,000 - less than half the population of Anchorage?

Can you imagine, if Anchorage had an NFL team?

But that's not the important part of this picture.

See how the Fat Boyz pizza is already half eaten.

Today's pizza was truly super.

"Oh, this is good!" Margie said upon taking her first bite.

She offered many more praises before the game ended.

At some point in the second quarter, Chicago joined us.

She had no interest in the game whatsover.

Maybe if it had been the Bears...

From India... Durga, Slayer of the buffalo Demon:

While walking through one of the ancient Hindu temples of Pattadakal, Melanie and I met this priest, who invited us to enter a tiny, dark, alcove in which sat this idol of Durga.

I asked my friend, Kavitha, who wants to come and hike with us in the Brooks Range this summer, before returning to India to take a long trek and bike ride at 17,000 feet in the Himalayas that will finish in Tibet, if she could help me with Durga's story.

This is what she wrote:

The mythological story goes thus –

Long, long ago, there was a demon king called Mahishasura <Mahisha is Sanskrit word for buffalo and Asura = demon>. This demon had the capability to change between human and buffalo at will. He terrorized the earthling, invaded heaven defeated the gods, and drove all the Devas <Gods> out of heaven.

The gods got into a meeting to strategies against the Asura. Since he was invincible to all men, they decided to create his nemesis in the form of a woman. The Devas combined all their Shakti <energy / power> to create a beautiful woman. They named her Durga.

According to legend, Durga created an army to fight against the forces of the Mahishasura. After nine days of fighting, Mahishasura's army was destroyed; she finally killed him on the tenth day of the waxing moon. Durga is therefore called Mahishasuramardin i(literally the slayer of the buffalo demon), the destroyer of Mahishasura.

This event of victory of good over evil is celebrated in various versions in India.  It is also said that the region where Mahishasura ruled is now called Mysore.

Thank you, Kavitha (Cawitha)!

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At the recommendation of Lisa Kelly, the Ice Road Trucker, I return to Fat Boyz Pizza and find a super pie - and they are open Super Bowl Sunday; Kalib and Jobe make a surprise visit

This is not the Fat Boy, Tom, but rather the medium boy, Mike. Mike has just pulled this pizza out of the Fat Boy oven.

After we became aware that the the new mini-mini-mall that was being built on the corner of Seldon and Church Roads, where previously the only businesses were those that catered to moose, ravens, foxes, hares, bears and such - namely, nature's own smorgasboard, we were very excited to try out a pizza.

Fat Boyz Fattery Pizza would be only one-and-a-half miles from our house and in this sprawling, flung-hither-and-thither community loosely known as Wasilla, a mile-and-a-half is like being right next door.

So, on the very day that they opened, we ordered pizzas. 

Those pizzas were okay. Not super - just okay.

I like my pizza super, so I did not bother to return for awhile.

Then Lisa Kelly, the Ice Road Trucker, convinced me that I ought to give Fat Boyz another try.

She did this that day that I found her at Metro Cafe. She did it by naming Fat Boyz as one of her very favorite places in Wasilla, right alongside Metro Cafe.

I figured an ice road trucker ought to know a super pizza from an okay pizza.

I figured maybe there was just some kind of first day glitch that made that first pizza just okay and not super. I figured I should give them another try.

This is John Boy, hard at work just beyond the range of the desserts.

So, finally, thinking that Lisa Kelly should be paid attention to, I ordered another pizza - a small one. With Canadian Bacon, mushrooms, olives, onions and green peppers.

I brought it home. Margie and I ate.

And... oh, my! It was way better than ok. It was good... it was super!

Super - just right for Super Bowl Sunday.

Usually, Mike closes on Sunday, but today he is staying open.

So now we have place just one-and-a-half miles from the house to order super pizza.

This is the Fat Boy, Tom. Tom used to be the executive Chef at the Hilton Hotel in Anchorage, but decided he would rather work for himself and stay in the valley every day.

Business is doing good, he told me, so much so that he will soon open a second restaurant in "downtown Wasilla."

This is Shelbi, picking up her order of two pizzas. I had planned to order a pizza, too, to bring it home and finish off this post with pictures of Margie and I eating it. But Kalib and Jobe changed my plans.

They showed up unexpectedly at the house, with their mom and dad. Before I alerted Mom and Dad to my plans for evening pizza, Mom got dinner cooking - spaghetti and salad.

So that is what we ate instead of Fat Boyz pizza.

But that spaghetti was pretty super itself.

The salad was good, too.

And Jobe crawled quickly beneath the coffee table from one side to the other.

Margie, Kalib, Jobe and I hung out for awhile in the guest bedroom, the one that used to be Lisa's room, the one that later Jacob, Lavina and Kalib stayed in while they saved up money to buy a home of their own.

Right after I took this picture, I sat about to take one of just Jobe, as he crawled onto me.

Just as I was pressing the shutter, Kalib thrust his head between my camera and Jobe. Kalib stole the picture for himself.

They are gone, now, and they are holding a big Super Bowl party at their house in Anchorage. They invited us to come, but I leave for Barrow Tuesday and I have an impossible number of tasks to perform between now and then and I cannot take the time to drive back and forth to Anchorage and to socialize in front of the TV.

Still, it is Super Bowl Sunday and Margie and I must eat.

I wonder what we will eat?

The answer should be in tomorrow's blog - assuming that we make it through this day and into tomorrow.

I believe we will, but one never knows for certain.

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