Scary Jim

It was Halloween. Jim scared the hell out of everybody.

All creeped out on Halloween

Mark, the four year-old son of Woodrow Oyagak and Sherlene Kagak, gets a little creeped out by a Halloween spider in Atqasuk. I took the picture October 12, as village recreation coordinator Arthur Bordeaux was just beginning to prepare a haunted house for this holiday.

I wanted to include a picture in Uiñiq and so I narrowed it down to two and chose the other. I didn't want this one to go to waste, so here it is.

Boo!

Where were the trick-or-treators? Halloween just ain't what it used to be... Supergirl sheds a tear

Each year, it gets a little worse. Last year, maybe a dozen trick-or-treators showed up. This year - two, both of them pretty big. The first looked to be a boy about 12 or 13 and he came with his mother. No one else could be seen on the street. Well, his mother said, it's pretty cold. That probably explains it.

Cold? The temperature was in the 20's F - and that's above zero.

Hell. When our kids were small, the streets were crawling with trick-or-treators, even on sub-zero Holloweens. Gusts of deep, white, breath would pour out through mouth, nose, and eye openings on frost-encased masks - but they were there, the trick-or-treators, not giving a damn about the weather, knocking on doors, scarfing up their candy.

Part of it just may be the new subdivisions, such as Serendipity, the ones that have destroyed the woods in which we used to frolic. These are filled with huge, expensive, homes that appear to be inhabited by rich people. Last year, we drove by Serendipity and saw a fair number of trick-or-treators on their streets, whereas ours were all but empty.

So maybe that's where the trick-or-treatos have gone - those still brave enough to venture out - to the rich people's homes.

So now we have all this damn candy left over - not only what's in this tray, but the bags that were waiting to be dumped in once these were given away.

The problem is, I will probably eat it.

As you can see, it all seems to have chocolate in it.

So I will be eating it.

No one will be able to stop me.

I had better eat it fast so that we can be rid of it and I won't be tempted by it later on.

Earlier, Melanie and Charlie had appeared and the three of us went out to get a coffee. Metro is closed on Sundays, so we wound up at the hut on the corner of Seldon and Fishhook.

I pulled up to the drivethrough window, we placed our orders and then I looked through to the car sitting at the opposite window and there I saw Superman.

I could not believe it! I had forgotten my camera. All I had was my iPhone and the lens was too wide to get close to Superman. Charlie offered to let me borrow his camera.

So I asked the barista if she would tell Superman and his mom that I would like to get a picture for my blog.

The mom said yes, but noted that there were two more in the back seat and they should be in the picture, too.

Then, two Supergirls came bounding over the seat into the front.

The problem was, I could not see all of their "super" insignias. As we were trying to figure this out, the photographer on one side of the hut and the Superman/girls on the other, the smallest Supergirl got crowded out, so that she could not be seen at all.

She began to cry. Superman and big Supergirl did what they could to comfort her.

And such was Halloween, 2010, right here in Wasilla, Alaska.

And today is the day before the big election. Today, I expect there to be many people in costume, right here on the streets of Wasilla. Later, I will go out and see what I can see.

I might add that there is great deal of debate here in Alaska as to whether people should vote their conscience or "be pragamatic" and vote not for our highest hopes but rather against our worst fears. 

I say, we should vote our conscience. This would also be pragmatic, I think, because if enough people were to step beyond their worst fears and vote their conscience, the election would turn out ok.

Cocoon mode,* day 24: "Keep out!" I am warmly welcomed; road construction disrupts Metro Cafe

On my coffee break, I turned onto a road down which I had never before driven - or at least had not driven within the last 20 years or so. I soon came upon this scene. It gave me a warm feeling of exclusion.

That was yesterday's coffee break, after I looked for Old Girl. I looked for her again today from my bike but did not find her. This is today's coffee break, which I took with Melanie, Lavina and Margie. We are at Metro Cafe. Metro has had a rough couple of weeks.

And this is why. They tore up Lucille Street right in front of Metro to remake the road. Traffic has been blocked off, sometimes partially, sometimes completely, so it has been a little harder to get to Metro, but if you are determined and willing to be grilled by a flag woman, you can get there. They are not going to get the "drive by" traffic, because no one is just driving by.

On the other hand, Margie wanted me to buy a cinnamon role today, but there were none. All the good pastries were gone. "The construction workers bought them," the barista told me.

So they have getting the construction crew business. And when the construction ends, that business will go. I hope the business that comes back in to replace it will be greater, because I really want Metro Cafe to succeed. Their coffee is excellent and they usually have a better selection of pastries than do the kiosks. Plus, they are very nice people, so I want them to hang around.

As we pulled out, this flag woman stopped us. "Don't drive onto Lucille Street," she commanded in a friendly voice, "Drive down the bike trail and out onto Spruce."

"Oh, good!" I answered. "That will be fun. Now I will take your picture."

I raised my camera. She smiled and I did.

*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.