A wreck at Parks & Main; another in the kitchen

Tow truck driver. He has just arrived at the scene. Locked in traffic, I drive by at a creep. I had just dropped Margie off at work and now I was headed home.

Police officer, walking towards truck driver. Looks pretty minor. Driver of car peers out sheepishly. I do not know anything about this accident other than what is in the picture. That's how it is when you drive - you get all kinds of glimpses of other people's lives: happy moments, sad, tragic, routine, mundane, and most often that is all the information about these people whose lives crossed yours that you will ever have.

The wreck in the kitchen. Kalib has discovered a new musical instrument. Oddly enough, wherever he wanders in the house these days, this is what it looks like behind him.

The street man: what his Alaska Native peoples fed me; what I gave to him

I saw him standing on the corner ahead of me as I drove toward the green light. I hoped it would stay green, but the traffic ahead of me was moving slow and when it turned yellow, I knew that I would come to stop on the corner, right beside him.

I did. He came walking toward me through the zero degree (F) air, a friendly smile on his face. I could not turn away as if he were not there, so I smiled back and rolled down the window.

"God bless you on this good day, sir!" he said.

"You too," I answered. "Where you from?"

"Mountain Village," he said. "Yukon River. It's located on the Lower Yukon."

"Yes, I know," I told him. "I've been there."

I've been in villages all over Alaska, which is different than going to villages in any other state. Mostly, you fly to these villages, as very few are on our limited road system.

The people out there have treated me good. They have put me up in their homes and they have fed me: moose, caribou, salmon, bowhead whale, beluga whale, seal, duck, goose, swan, beaver, sheefish, whitefish, crab, blueberries, salmon berries' berries of many kinds, seaweed, walrus, bighorn sheep, musk ox, mountain goat...

Food does not get better than what they feed me.

I gave the man a dollar. I don't know how he will spend it. The light turned green. I drove away.

The incident described happened in Anchorage. This is the kind of day that it was.

And here I am, a bit earlier on the Glenn Highway, passing through the East Side of Anchorage. I should replace the cracked windshield. But soon, it would be cracked again.

Passing by Merrill Field.

What it looked like when I reached downtown Anchorage.

This is why I went to Anchorage. I had something that had to be mailed today. The only Post Office that was open was the Airport Post Office. I took this picture, looking backwards, after I had been in line for over an hour. I still had quite a wait ahead of me.

I suspect that most of them were mailing Christmas gifts.

As I drive away from the airport post office.

The Marriott Hotel, with Conoco Phillips rising behind it.

And this is from earlier in the day, when a bunch of us gathered at IHOP for the usual Sunday breakfast. Tots always pick each other out of the crowd.

I took a series of pictures for you today, but this isn't one of them

I wanted to give folks who have not wintered in Alaska an idea about the lack of light, and to tell you what that does to me, so I took a few images just before 11:00 AM, when the sun was just edging up to the the southern horizon, at 3:25 PM, by which time the sun had disappeared behind the southern horizon and then again when I headed for a coffee shop at 4:45, when the sky looked as if the sun had never been in it.

But, except for those little breaks when I took those pictures, I have been furiously busy all day and into the wee hours, for even though the day that I have been living is Friday, it is now 1:53 AM Saturday.

I have been making prints and will continue tomorrow. The last print that I made is of an image I took on October 15. At the time, I intended to post it on this blog, but things can get hectic for me and they did and I did not.

So here it is.

And it happened in the evening of October 15, 2008, right here in Wasilla, Alaska.

Two miserable days yield to nice night - but with a headache; a damned strange headache

I was home alone on Sunday night and did not want to cook, so I went to Piccolino's. I was a little reluctant, because, although their food is excellent, they completely saturate it in garlic and even though I like garlic, I must eat a minimum of it these days.

"Very light on the garlic, please," I told the waitress.

My order came back saturated in garlic. I ate it anyway.

Sunday night, the wind started to blow and grew to fierce. It whistled and roared about the house all night long. In the morning, I knew that it had been a warm wind, because it was not at all cold in our bedroom and if it had been a cold wind, it would have been.

After I got up, I noticed that my tummy felt kind of queasy. I figured it was the garlic, but the queasiness persisted all day, so it must not be. It must be a bug.

As for the wind, it hit 70 and keep causing micro-power failures. Each time one struck, my screen would go white and my computer would restart.

It happened maybe 10 times.

Very annoying.

I felt too miserable to venture out into the wind until night, when I had to. Temperature was in the 20's, but damn, it felt cold anyway.

Why do I ramble like this? Who cares?

As to the photo above, I took it tonight with my brand new Canon 5D MII, set to 6400 ISO.

All these photos were shot at 6400 ISO. I am pretty damned impressed.

The only things is, I thought I had set the camera to shoot RAW, but I hadn't. So these are all jpegs. If I had put in the time and work, I could probably still work up a better color rendition, but I wish I had shot RAW.

Tomorrow.

Wal-Mart, ISO 1600. The wind has died down and it snows pleasantly.

Pickup truck.

Reserved parking.

100 percent detail clipped from the preceding picture. No processing. It is the second sign from the left. Yes, really - 6400 ISO. A whole new world of possibilities has just opened up.

Cyclist.

We pass him.

A man crosses the highway in front of Burger King. 

For you pocket camera fans, don't worry - the G9 and G10 are still going to be my carry around cameras, but what a great tool this 5D will be.

My tummy still doesn't feel very good. And I have an exceptionally strange headache. I would describe it, but when one has a headache, it is hard to describe anything.

Kalib nearly loses fingers to IHOP fan;* gas war rages

After today's Sunday breakfast at IHOP, Kalib noticed the fan spinning over Dad's head.

Dad lifted Kalib up for a better look. Kalib reached for the fan blades, which were spinning at 532 miles per-hour. "Jacob! Jacob!" everybody at the table began to scream. 

Jacob did not appreciate the implication.

*I JOKES! I JOKES!

The new Valley Country Store at the corner of Seldon and Church continues its gas war. Elsewhere in Wasilla, the usual price seems to be $2.59. Curious, though, how this sign at the corner of Seldon and Lucille had been toppled. No wind, either. It has been quite still.

Undaunted, Valley has established a new front at the corner of Church and Spruce. This is all pretty earth-shaking news and it is happening right here, in Wasilla, Alaska.