IHOP Sunday: A toddler never escapes the gaze of another toddler; Who did you vote for, Wasilla pitbull? Car search begins: The Insurance Adjuster

Kalib and Cade spot each other at IHOP. I wonder if they might be buddies one day? Not if Lavina has her way - she wants the whole family, including us, to move back to Arizona as soon as possible. Margie does, too - at least for the winter months. Me, Alaska is my home and was my home before I ever even came here. I am an Alaskan, born into exile in the state of Utah. I am an Alaskan now and I was Alaskan then. Just the thought of living anywhere else damn near kills me. 

A little bit of time in Arizona each winter will be fine - if we can figure out how to afford it. 

And then what about Margie? She has given me nearly 28 year of her life in this place, where she freezes every winter and pines for her Native southwest. Don't I owe her something for that?

But to give up Alaska?

She likes it here in the summer and says that it is fine with her if we spend our summers here. She didn't much care for this past summer, though. It was a cold summer, and it rained and rained and rained and the rain was cold.

When a Mat-Su summer turns out nice, however, it is the sweetest summer in the world. No other place that I have been can produce such a sweet summer as does this valley. Even my Arizona girl agrees on this.

We stepped out of IHOP to find two dogs in a truck. I wonder who this pitbull voted for? And how did the dog get away with it? It's against the law for dogs to vote in Alaska. And why did the pitbull vote today? The election was not today. It was November 4.

Does this pitbull sometimes wear lipstick? I don't see any on it right now.

The pitbull wanted to kill me, but I bravely stood there and photographed it with my trusty G10 pocket camera. 

The Insurance Adjuster - Joey Seibet. Okay, I must back up to last week, just before New Year's, when the insurance adjuster for Progressive came over. We are insured with State Farm, but the cops cited the poor kid who rear-ended our Taurus with his GMC truck and they didn't cite me, so Progressive had to pick up the damages.

I was wary at first, expecting a battle. I guess in part because it is my health insurance that I have been dealing the most lately, due primarily to my accident in June and that company is a horrible organization. It makes promises when you sign on and then when the time comes, gives your case to a person who gets paid very well to sit in an office to find ways to allow his company to break those promises and to make you pay, even when you can't pay.

So I was expecting a battle, but Mr. Seibert proved easy to work with and he seemed to care.

Sadly for us, our nine year-old Taurus had almost 200,000 miles of Alaska driving on it and so its market value was many thousands of dollars less than what it would have cost to repair the damages. When that happens, they total a car out at its market value and give you a check for that amount, then they take the car and sell it to the junk man.

So we got $2,833 for our old Taurus. Enough for a down payment on a new car.

Now we are engaged in the miserable process of shopping for a replacement. I hate it. And when we are done, we will be saddled with monthly car payments, something that we have not had to face for several years. And, even with 200,000 miles on it, Alaskan miles, we had babied the Taurus engine and it was running smooth and sounded fine.

So, you see, even when the insurance adjuster is a fair person, you can still come out in a much worse spot than you were in before his client smacked you in the rear.

As for Mr. Seibert, he says that being an insurance adjuster around here right now is like "trying to take a drink of water from a fire-hydrant." That's because people are continually crashing on our icy roads. Alaskans like to deride Lower 48 drivers whenever they see them sliding around on the news after a snowstorm, but the fact is, Alaskans are forever sliding off the road and crashing into things.

Mr. Seibert says that he feels good when he is able to help a family out, but sad when he can see that the insurance company's liability falls short of their needs, especially when there are small children involved and people who have been hurt.

He does not deal with fatalities or injuries that involve broken bones. These go to someone else.

While he did not mind being photographed, Mr. Siebert expressed a worry that I would freeze, given that the temperature was close to 20 below, F. Ha! Me - a genuine Arctic photographer - and look at him, how he is dressed!

And he's taking pictures, too!

January 1, 2008: Backyard moose, tots in the house, Iraq-bound Marine at KFC

In the morning (which, as I define it here, began about 11:00 AM and ended about 1:00 PM) a moose appeared in the backyard, as moose often do.

Inside, the fire in the woodstove burned hot. Babies - no, I can hardly call them babies anymore - toddlers Lafe and Kalib were happy and content.

Lafe's mother offered him a sip of soda pop from Burger King, where she and his dad had stopped on their way over to pick up their son after his overnighter here. Lafe gladly accepted.

We always cook a ham, along with potatoes, veggies, pies and such for New Year's, but, with all that has been going on lately, both Margie and I completely forgot about today's dinner. So, about 3:00 PM, we headed to KFC to get dinner there.

As we were leaving, I saw a marine, talking to a KFC employee who was taking a break. As I walked past, they suddenly hugged, to say goodbye. "I love you," the worker said. "I love you, too!" the Marine responded. I knew the moment was going to be brief, so, as quickly as I could, not realizing that my shutter speed had accidently been dialed back to 1/10th of a second, I pulled my G10 pocket camera from my jacket pocket and got off one blurry frame.

My impression was that the KFC worker had served in the military himself, for it seemed to be that kind of love - one soldier to another, one Marine to another - that had been expressed.

The Marine headed out the door toward his vehicle, where others waited for him. I stopped him before he could get there, and he was happy to pose for a snap.

Private First Class Bonty is stationed in North Carolina, is not from Alaska but has family in Wasilla and had come up on leave to visit. He departs for Iraq in two weeks.

There was much more that I wanted to ask him, of course, but Margie had taken a seat in the car and was waiting for me. He had people waiting for him.

I also wanted to go back into KFC, to talk to the worker who had hugged him, but his break was over and he had gone back to work. Plus, Margie was holding a box of hot wings that Jacob and Lavina had ordered, and we had to get it home while the food was still hot.

And this how the first day of year 2009 began for me, right here in Wasilla, Alaska.

Happy New Year! New Wasilla Dairy Queen opens to sell ice cream at 30 degrees below zero; neighborhood fireworks, cop stop

Waiting in line in the drive-through at the new Wasilla Dairy Queen.

It being New Year's Eve, I was looking for a wild time. I was driving about in our Ford Taurus with its smashed-in rear end wondering what I could do. I drove past an electronic marque that showed the temperature at 26 below* - okay, so I exaggerated just a bit in the title. Unless you think in Celsius. In Celsius, it was -32.  As I approached the Dairy Queen that has been under construction for the past couple of months, I wondered when it would open. And then I saw the sign that said "open - 24 hours a day"!

Yeah, this would be wild! I had never been to a Dairy Queen in Wasilla before! No one had! This would be great!

*This is pretty warm compared to the cold regions of Alaska, where temperatures right now are in the -40s and -50s; wouldn't be surprised to hear of some dips into the -60's.

So I hurried home to see who might want to share in this adventure with me, then returned with Margie and Lavina. We got in line at the drivethrough. We placed our order - a Butterfinger blizzard for Lavina, a Hawaiian Blizzard for Margie and a small vanilla cone dipped in chocolate for me. As you can see, whoever was in the vehicle in front of us also ordered a cone.

You could click on the picture and see it a little bigger.

I refused to accept the ice cream cone, because it had not been dipped in chocolate. The girl is looking at their electronic copy of my order to see if, in fact, I had ordered a cone dipped in chocolate. She saw that I had. She sent the cone back. It came back dipped in chocolate.

It was good, but it was exceptionally small - the smallest small cone that I have ever had. If I had realized it was going to be that small, I would have ordered a medium.

It was probably better for me that I didn't know.

As midnight approached, I was back in the house. People were tired and had already gone to bed. I was appalled by this, but that's how it was. Jacob was still up, watching football, running back and forth to take care of toddler Lafe, Kalib's friend, who is spending the night but who does not seem to sleep for more than 20 minutes at a stretch.

I could hear fireworks going off all around. So I decided to go out and get a few pictures. These are not official fireworks, just fireworks people shoot off in their yard. It is not legal to do this, but they sell fireworks just up the road in Houston and nobody cares that it is not legal, including the cops, who could not possibly arrest everybody shooting off fireworks.

So I took a short drive, and shot a few frames through the window, when I would see a rocket going up in front of me.

The car was just about out of gas, so I went and put $5.50 (at $2.45 a gallon) in, because this car will not be with us long enough for us to burn much more gas than that.

On the way back home, I saw this car pulled over, with two police cars parked behind it. 

Despite the fact it was very early New Year's morning, I will not speculate as to what cause our good Wasilla police had found to pull the car over.

Oddly enough, it was directly across the street from where I got rear-ended just before Christmas.

Kalib's first birthday, part 2: The one year-old throws an insane party

On December 26 at 3:19 AM, Alaska Standard Time, Kalib Lokaa' Dine Hess, my first grandson, turned one. About 12 hours later, he was presented with his first birthday cake. Kalib did not know that he was supposed to blow out the candle, which looked to him to be something fascinating, something that he should reach out and touch.

So his mother prepared to blow it out for him.

Of course, the party did not begin with the cake.

It began with the arrival of guests, most of whom were adults - uncles and aunts, and friends of his parents. Two other little people did come, both of whom were slightly older than Kalib.

This is party-girl Bryne, Kalib's senior by three months. Sadly, she and her parents had to go to another dinner elsewhere, so she was unable to stay to the end, but Bryne was a delight while she was here.

And this is party boy Lafe, Kalib's senior by one month. Lafe just might be the strongest baby that I have ever seen and he is a real tough guy. 

He and Kalib have been buddies practically since the day Kalib was born. I think Lafe will be a good person to have as a buddy in future years.

I hope that the two don't raise too much hell together, but that they do raise just enough. For what is the life of boys if they don't raise some hell?

Hell. That's what such a life is.

Hell.

A group picture of the three tots is needed, so Dad Jacob sets about to pose them on the front-room couch. He will face greater challenges in life, I am certain.

The three tots: Kalib, Bryne and Lafe.

Can you remember when you were very small and an adult, especially a pretty woman, smiled at you and spoke in a certain kind of voice and said something that made you feel like you were very unique and special?

That is how Sarah, Bryne's mom, is causing Kalib to feel, right here.

Cake time! Lavina blows on Kalib's behalf, lays the flame down and out it goes.

Sadly, Bryne was gone by now, leaving the cake all to the boys. Left to their natural male tendencies, they made hogs of themselves.

"That's enough sugar for you," Lafe's Mom Markie says just before yanking him prematurely from the cake. "Remember what happened the last time you ate too much sugar?"

With Lafe removed, Kalib has the cake to himself. He will be hyper not only for the remainder of the day, but on and off through the night, as well.

One only gets one first birthday party. Might as well go full hog.

The adults eat their cake (cut from a second slab that no one had wallowed in). Kalib demands more.

Something has upset Lafe. Maybe a ride in Kalib's new sled will make him feel better.

When Kalib saw Lafe riding across the floor in the sled that he had received for Christmas, he came crawling across the floor about three times faster than I had ever saw him crawl before. Until this moment, I did not realize that Kalib had such a strong sense of ownership over that sled.

Kalib opens his presents.

A present lights up; Kalib reaches for the light.

Among Kalib's new presents was a frog puppet. At first he wasn't interested, but Lafe was. Then, when Kalib saw how much Lafe liked the puppet, he became interested.

Eventually, everyone had to say goodbye. Of course, this goodbye is from much earlier, when Bryne and her parents left, but I only wanted to have one goodbye here, so I saved it for now.

My dear Melanie! When she arrived at the house, the driveway was filled with vehicles, so she decided to park at the side of the road. She did not realize that the snow plow operator had drug his blade partially over the culvert, cutting flat the snow that topped it so that the culvert looked like it was the shoulder of road.

Thus, when Melanie pulled over to park, her right wheels sank through the deception and into the culvert.

Jake had to pull her out. Kalib helped hook up the car as Muzzy supervised.

See how pretty the snow is, bunched up on the spruce branches?

A big wind would arise overnight and blow it all away.

Life, right here in Wasilla, Alaska, is like that.

Click on any photo to see a larger copy.

Christmas Day, 2008, Wasilla, Alaska - post 2: we eat, give gifts, and go to the movie

We sat down to eat our Christmas dinner about 4:00 PM. Baby Kalib was in the bedroom he shares with his parents, fast asleep.

About half-way through, we heard him cry. His mom went back to get him. Everyone was pleased to see him. See the picture of Kalib on the cabinet? I took that on the day that he was born - December 26, 2007.

Guess who's going to be the big star of tomorrow's entry?

The first gift that I grabbed from under the tree was addressed to Stephanie, from Charlie. Everyone watched as she opened it. It was ear rings. After that, the gift unwrapping became a free-for-all.

Everyone cheered when baby Kalib sat down in his new sled.

I got a new pair of snowshoes. Ever since the snow stuck in early October, I have been longing to put on my cross-country skis and head into the mountains. But the doctor told me to be patient, to wait until next year. Lately, the kids heard me talking about how I was going to get my skiis out, and go, and they thought it would be safer for me to be on snowshoes.

I have a pair, somewhere, but who knows where? Maybe one of my kids borrowed them. I don't think I am in good enough shape right now to go very far on snowshoes. But I will soon go, anyway.

After the gift-giving, we went to the 7:00 PM showing of "Marley and Me" at the Wasilla theatre. I usually avoid this theatre, because the movie rooms are very small and the tiny screens cannot hold the full image, but none of us felt like driving to Anchorage or even Eagle River, so here we went.

Baby Kalib started to cry after awhile. His Dad took him out into the hall until he quieted down, then brought him back in. Soon, he started to cry again. Dad again got up, but Margie wanted him to be able to enjoy the movie, so she got up and spent the rest of it out in the hall with baby Kalib.

This is how I found them when the movie was over.

Afterward, we returned to the house and ate pumpkin chiffon pie and raspberry goup. Melanie made the pie. It was superb! Lavina whipped up the goup. It was the best goup that I have ever eaten.

I should have taken a picture, but I was too busy eating pie and goup.

note: A click will reveal a larger copy of any photo.