Kalib feeds the fish, waves goodbye and then he leaves to be surrendered to his parents

I didn't really settle down to sleep this morning until about 7:00 AM, so I did not get out of bed until after 11:00. When I came out, Caleb said that I had a Kalib hairdo, kind of like what you see here, on the real Kalib. Except that mine is thinner, of course.

Judging from the look of things, Kalib must have been playing indoor golf.

Margie planned to drive him into town to surrender him to his parents, so I would not have a car for the rest of the day. I would not be able to go out for my late afternoon coffee break or anything. I pulled out the oatmeal, but before I could add water to it, Margie said, "why don't you go out for breakfast? Then you at least have some kind of outing today."

So I did. And as I backed out of the driveway, Kalib came to the window.

I ate breakfast with strangers, but that was okay, because the food was truly excellent, even the hash browns. Sometimes, at Family, they turn the hashbrowns into mush with a hard, crispy coat, but today they cooked them just right. They were excellent.

On the way home, I passed by this dog.

Right after I got home, Kalib decided that he wanted to feed the fish. When they saw him coming, the fish got excited and came to greet him. The fish know that when they see Kalib, they are going to get fed.

Kalib feeds the fish.

Then it was time for him to go. He gave his grandpa a hug. It still annoys me to hear the word "grandpa" applied to me, but I sure do enjoy having a grandson.

He reached the door, turned, and waved bye-bye.

He was anxious to get going.

Uncle Caleb buckled little Kalib into this car seat.

Uncle Kalib then cleaned the headlights off. As you can see, the weather has turned dreadfully warm. It was 31 above at this moment.

Margie gets into the driver's seat, Caleb says goodbye to Kalib and then my wife drove away with my grandson.

When she returned many hours later, she informed me that Kalib and his mother were both delighted to see each other.

As I have already informed you, Margie leaves for Arizona Thursday night.

"Somehow," she told me, "I have got to find a way to spend some more time with that little boy before I leave."

What will she do? How will she do it? How is she going to bear being gone from him for almost a full month?

She has gone to Arizona a few times since Kalib was born, but he and his mother have always gone with her - or she has gone with them.

Except for a very short walk, I spent the rest of the day, into the wee hours of this morning, right here, at my computer.

Catch up* Part 6: Kalib potpourri

Okay. This will be the final day that I revisit recent pictures that I did not post when I shot them but instead waited until Thursday, November 5, after I had fallen ill. I might as well end this catch-up series with a Kalib potpourri. Here he is, on the couch.

I worry that perhaps some of my regulars will have grown weary of this journey through the recent past by now, but I know there is a group of people down in Arizona Navajo/Apache country who cannot get enough Kalib images. 

Actually, this one dates all the way back to September. Just about every day since then, Jacob has asked me if I am ever going to post it. We went out to eat at Jalepeno's, where Kalib dipped his chip in the salsa. He must have liked it, because...

...he then picked up the bowl and began to drink the salsa. He drank quite a bit, too.

Kalib with some of my fish. The little outfit that he wears has ears.

Kalib did not like it at all when the ears came up. This reminded me of the bunny-rabbit pj scene from the classic film, A Christmas Story.

Kalib and Margie.

They had been to a thrift store a short time earlier, where they bought this very noisy ambulance. Each time that he set it off, I had to look in my rearview mirror.

One day, as I drove back home from somewhere, I saw these three ahead of me. By the time this appears on my blog, more than a full week will have passed since I typed these words - I sure hope all this bare gound is now, at long last, covered in snow. I hope my project is done - at least to the client review stage.

Perhaps I am not even in Wasilla anymore. Perhaps I somewhere else.

If so, where could that be?

*Although I have scheduled this to appear Saturday, November 14, I actually made this post on Thursday, November 5. There are two reasons for this: 1: whatever bug it is that has got me down has left me unable to concentrate to the degree that I must to do my work. 2: The project that I have been working on is very nearly done, but I have never brought such a project to a close without going full-bore, night and day, on it at the end, distracted by no other tasks, including this blog.

So, before I go to bed, I am going to put up several days worth of posts from photos that I have recently taken but have not used. Then, for the next several days, I will not blog, I will stay away from the internet as much as possible and just bear down on getting this job done - but my posts will keep coming.

Addendum: One Kalib image from today:

Here is Kalib a bit after 8:00 AM, caught in my headlights as I return home from a breakfast at Family Restaurant and he gets ready to go into Anchorage with his parents to spend the day at daycare.

Last night, I had thought that I could get by without taking any more medicine for whatever it is that has been ailing me. Big mistake. I coughed and coughed, all through the night, or at least that part of the night that spent in bed.

Having got to bed about 1:00 AM, and then after going to sleep having been woken up every few minutes by my coughing, I woke up for good at 5:00 AM. I did not want to believe it and so tried mighty hard to go back to sleep, but finally gave up about 6:00 AM and got up. I then came out to my computer to make a quick check the news, various blogs and such, then went to Family.

Later in the day, we went to Anchorage to celebrate Rex's birthday. I do have pictures that I want to blog, but I am too tired right now. It is midnight. I am going to take some medicine and see if I can sleep tonight. I have been coughing all day long and have a bad sideache and my throat is very sore.

I hope it is clear to everyone that when I say this addendum image is from today, I refer to the day that I have just lived, the day that is now ending. I have this post scheduled to come up at 4:00 AM which means that you, the viewer, will not see today's addendum image until tomorrow, by which time today's image will have been taken yesterday.

Still, at the time that I write the addendum, the statement was accurate.

Even now, as accurate as the statement is, it is now inaccurate, for the clock just passed midnight, which means it is now tomorrow, but of course it is never tomorrow, it is always today. Yesterday it was today and tomorrow it will be today.

But then you know that, don't you?

Country Kalib and the fish; Juniper stops by for a visit

Kalib loves my tropical fish. He loves to feed them and his dad usually helps him. Yesterday, he came running in with me, grabbed a can of fish food before I could supervise, ripped off the lid and then the fish food was all over my floor.

Jimmy, my good black cat, jumped off his chair and chowed down. Jimmy loves fish food. He craves it above the finest cat food ever created.

It was very tough to clean up.

This particular fish is called a parrot fish. It is not a natural fish, but is bred across species. Some aquarium purists tend to get very angry about parrot fishes and to scold people who breed, buy and sell them.

I did not know any of this when I walked into a fish store about eight years ago and saw this guy swimming around in a tank.

All I knew is that he looked very cute, and pretty, too, so I bought him, brought him home and put him in a tank.

I don't care what those purists say. I love him. He is a bright and intelligent fish. He studies the world and he figures things out.

I remember when he was just a pup. I only had two tanks then - a 29 gallon and a 55 gallon. I put him in the 55 gallon and he very quickly figured out my habits and knew just when I would feed him.

One day, I sat down right in front of the tank and put my face almost to the glass. This frightened him and he scooted off to hide inside a pipe ornament.

"You silly parrot fish," I chided, "it's just me. You know me. I'm your friend. Come back out now."

When he heard that, he swam right back out and came right to me, so that we were nose to snout. He tilted his body and head ever so slightly and got a sheepish look on his face.

"Oh, yeah," he said. "It's just you. I should have known. I don't know what got into me. I thought you were an alligator. I feel so silly."

That was when I knew just how smart he really was.

Oh, good grief! I had planned to clean the tanks the very day that Margie fell. I have been sidetracked and negligent. I had better clean them and fill the water back to the top.

So I looked out into the front yard and saw a tiny cow grazing in the grass. It was the tiniest cow that I had ever seen. I was pretty certain that it was the tiniest cow that anybody had ever seen, but there it was, grazing in the grass in my front yard.

I went out to investigate. Holy cow! It was not a cow at all! It was Juniper! Lisa had come out and had brought her along.

It is about time. Juniper has not paid us a visit in far too long.

Soon, Kalib was looking for Juniper. He did not know that she was climbing a brush pile.

Then he spotted her. She spotted him.

Kalib's dad lifted him up so that he could look straight into her eyes, but that was when Juniper decided to go back down.

Soon, though, Juniper went right back up. She was happy up there, because from this perch, she could see the entire world.

Even you, because you are in the world. Whatever you were doing at this time, Juniper witnessed it.

Don't worry. She won't tell. She never tattles.

She is not a tattle cat.

You can find a more complete account of Juniper's visit on the blog of my alter-ego, Grahamn Kracker, should you be interested.