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.

Cocoon mode* - day 2: From Monument Valley to Wasilla, with love and longing; Margie hobbles into the grocery store; Obama stands as my warrior

Lavina received some pictures in the mail from her sister, Lori, showing her two children, Sage and Jayden, in Monument Valley, where Lavina's father originated. Lori, who is on top in a hard battle against cancer, now lives in St. George, Utah, but had returned with her family to her ancestral home for a visit.

Lavina wished that she could go down, too.

Actually, when I look at this picture, I kind of want to go wander around down there a bit, myself.

Margie got out of the car and went into Carr's to do some shopping. It was the first time that she had been in a store since she fell and broke her femur at the knee on July 26.

Tonight, we ate spaghetti.

Earlier, I took a break from work to join her to watch Obama deliver his health care address. Our President made me proud - and hopeful. He laid out his plan with force and clarity and called lies lies. I have made some of my complaints about my insurance company known here and I won't bother to again, but this is a battle that he fights for me.

*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.

The last wild berry of summer - blog goes into cocoon mode

With summer on the wane, Jacob, Kalib and Muzzy walked back into the marsh and I decided to follow, for just a little ways and then to leave them behind, because I needed to move fast and stretch my muscles.

We had not gone far before Kalib insisted on walking himself. Shortly after he was put upon the ground, he darted off the trail and into the bushes. He wanted to find berries.

Dad looked around and did not see a berry. "Looks like the berries have all been picked, Shiyashi," he lamented. But then they found a blueberry, big, plump and juicy. Was it the last berry of summer?

As Kalib chomps on the blueberry, Jake searches to see if he can find one more. He did, but no more after that.

Blog now goes into cocoon mode: While I have never been able to devote the time and energy to this blog that will be required to make it into what I want it to be, I am at a point with my big project that I simply cannot afford to devote anything but the very smallest amounts of my time and mental energies toward any other tasks - including this blog.

In contemplating how to handle this, I have debated just signing off the blog for a month or so, but even though I have not given it what I want to, I have still worked too hard to do that.

So I have decided instead to put the blog into "cocoon mode," meaning that on the outside not much will happen but on the inside, things will be churning and developing as I finish my project. Hopefully, when I am done, this blog will emerge into something brighter and better, something that will take me closer to my blog goals.

This is the way it will work:

I will still keep a camera with me at all times, will continue to shoot whatever catches my eye as I move through the day and will post something, every single day that I have an internet connection, but I will limit myself to one or two pictures, from the present or past, and will give myself five minutes max to write the text.

Maybe some days I might cheat just a little bit, but not many and not much.

I am kind of sad to have to do this. After struggling with this thing seemingly in vain for a full year this past Monday, my readership remains miniscule, but keeps steadily, steadily, growing. On the average day, it is now nearly ten times what it was at the beginning of June. That is growth enough to give me some hope.

Now that the blog is in cocoon mode, my readership will certainly fall back to its earlier numbers.

For awhile, anyway. Once I finish this project and rip my way out of this cocoon, I will see what I can do with it then. In the meantime, please keep coming back to see my one or two pictures per day.