Margie and Lavina go to Starbuck's and get me in trouble with Lisa; Kalib visits a firetruck for muscular dystrophy; I hear gunshot as I photograph goose decoy frozen into pond

"Dad!!!!!????? Starbuck's?????!!!!! "Lisa accused. "You went to Starbuck's???"

I was innocent. Margie and Lavina had committed the sacrilege when they drove into Anchorage the other day to get the ultrasound of the new baby that now brews in Lavina's womb and, afterward, stopped at a Starbuck's. They carelessly left the evidence in the car.

Lisa was in the car with me because she came out today for about two hours and we went out to coffee together. There is no Starbuck's in Wasilla (yet) but I can assure you, even if there were, we would not have gone there.

Lisa is pretty liberal and tolerant of the foibles of her fellow human beings, but not when it comes to buying coffee from Starbuck's. This she will not tolerate.

After I made my case and told her the true story, she said something like this, "I'll bet that they told each other, 'Lisa never needs to know.'"

This evening, after the five-month pregnant Lavina returned home from her volleyball game in Anchorage, I told her how much trouble she and Margie had gotten me into.

"We didn't think Lisa would find out," Lavina said. "We told each other, 'Lisa never needs to know.'"

The money Jacob is handing to Kalib is not for the tot, but for the tot to drop in the fireman's boot. But the tot does not want to take the money and drop it in the boot. Before the incident is over, Jacob, Lavina and Kalib will drop about ten dollars into the boot. 

After dropping the money, Jacob and Lavina check out the firetruck on display in the Carr's parking lot.

It was the wheels that most impressed Kalib.

After awhile, he was ready to go.

This is fireman Danny, who explained that the money goes to send local children with muscular dystrophy to summer camp. They display the truck for two days each year. Last year, they raised over $10,000.

After we returned home, I jumped onto my bike and took a short ride. I crunched my way through frozen puddles.

As I passed the pond the kids named "Little Lake" when they were small, I saw a goose decoy, frozen into the surface. It used to be, several years ago, that each summer a number of ducks would nest around this pond and geese would drop in, too. 

Soon, we would see the little ducklings following their mothers about the pond.

There were no homes near the pond, but then Red and his wife bought a piece of property on the corner of Seldon and Wards that overlapped half of it. They built a home there. Red liked the idea of ducks and geese coming to their pond and so he put duck and goose decoys into the water to attract them.

Of course, they had been coming anyway.

Red died a few years back and his wife, who has remarried, twice, began to spend her winters in Arizona. About a year ago, she put the house and property up for sale. It is still for sale. 

This decoy still drifts in the pond. We have not seen ducklings in the pond for the past few years.

The water level has just dropped too low. I don't think it can support them.

Despite the ice, the weather is still warm and beautiful for this time of year. Little Lake may have frozen over, but the big lakes don't even appear to be close to doing so.

As I photographed the decoy, I heard a rifle shot that sounded to be about 200 yards away and like it came from a yard.

I didn't think too much about it, because gunshots are common around here and usually just mean someone has plunked at a target or that they just decided things were too quiet and they wanted to make a little noise.

Then I got to wondering what if, sometime, I heard a gunshot and thought it was nothing, when it was actually somebody shooting somebody else, perhaps to death. Unless someone started screaming and shouting, I would just go on about my business thinking that everything was okay.

I'm pretty certain everything was okay, today.

After I left the goose decoy in the pond, I got onto the bike trail and pedaled down the shadow of a guardrail.

Kalib jumps up and down; a flight of fancy about the Yankees and the Cubs

I had taken Margie out to eat at Taco Bell and when we came home and turned into the driveway, we saw a strange sight through the front room window: the silhouette of Jacob as he jumped up and down.

We entered the house and saw that what he had been doing was mimicking Kalib, for Kalib had learned to jump. Now, he was busy honing his new skill.

This was really not a situation for the pocket camera, but rather the EOS 1Ds M III, but the pocket camera was in my pocket and the Ds III was not.

I thought about running into my office to grab it, but if you want to photograph a toddler jumping, you had better do it while he is jumping, which he might not be after you run to your office to get another camera.

And anyway, sometimes I just find it fun to see what I can get with the pocket camera when the situation is all wrong for it. Canon has just released two new pocket cameras - the G11 and the s90, both of which are supposed to be greatly improved in low light.

So when I get that check I mentioned last night, I am going to be really tempted to buy one. While I would not use a pocket camera when I am doing paid-for work, I love the pocket camera. Yes, when I use it I miss the super wide-angle, the big telephotos and the motor drive, but there is something that is just plain fun about using a camera with a limited lens and that you can only get a shot off every couple of seconds.

It adds challenge, I guess.

But really, Billy? For Kalib's first big jumping episode?

He shows off for his grandma, who is very pleased.

He observes as his dad demonstrates the possibilities.

Of course, I had to tell the world. So I got into the car and drove straight back to Taco Bell, got in line and soon saw this New York Yankee fan in my rear view mirror. I had no idea who he was but when I saw him pull out his cell phone I quickly punched the button on mine labeled "cell phone nearest to you" and sure enough, I got him before he could even make his call.

"Hello?" he answered, puzzled.

"Kalib jumped today," I said.

"Who the hell is Kalib?" he asked. "And who the hell are you and how the hell did you get my number?"

So I told him I was driving the red Escape that was waiting in line for tacos right in front of him and that Kalib was my grandson.

"Oh," he said. "I never would have guessed. You look too young to be a grandfather. I thought maybe you were 31. Well, congratulations then. Hey! Did you see how the Yankees cleaned up on the LA Angels of Anaheim? I think they're going to the series, I think they're going all the way. You think?"

"When I was a kid, I was a big fan of Mickey Mantle," I answered. "I wanted to go all the way, but it didn't happen. My parents kept dragging me off to church. That's why."

"Oh," he said. "I guess you really must be a grandpa, then. And what do you mean? The Yanks went all the way with Mantle! Seven times! It didn't matter if you were in church or not! The Yankees still won! God always watches over the Yankees."

"Well, I'm a Cubs fan now," I said, "and they never go all the way." He hung up.

LA Angels of Anaheim?

I called this lady and told her, too. She was so ecstatic that she began to hop around like a rabbit. I tried to photograph her hopping, but the pocket camera can be a little slow and so this is how I wound up catching her - right between hops.

CM*D29: Kalib gets naughty at IHOP, I spot a hunter on Church

We took Kalib to IHOP today and he was naughty. Very, very, naughty - the naughtiest that he had ever been during any outing that we had ever taken him on.

He even hurled a crayon that struck a lady at the next table in the back of the head.

That's how naughty he was.

We were all quite proud of him, because he was acting just like a kid in his "terrible twos." Kalib has over too months to go before he reaches his "terrible twos."

So we knew that he is above average, advancing fast. We were so proud, our chests swelled and our bellies damn near burst right through our shirts. 

Even so, we kicked him out, shooed him away from the table and sent him outside. His dad went with him. 

Soon, he was at the window, eager to come back in and raise more chaos.

If you wonder why the two glasses and Cholla sauce are on the window sill, it is because we put them there while he was still inside so that he would not knock them across the table.

Later, in the afternoon, I was driving down Church Road when I spotted a hunter on a fourwheeler.

I wonder if he got his moose?

Do you think he was naughty when he was a toddler?

*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.

Did someone drop her out here and intentionally abandon her to die? Or did she purposely head out to die alone? Or was she, perhaps, bumped out of the back of a pickup truck?

I spotted the dog ahead on the trail that leads through the marsh, looking at me. I was much further back than this. I expected it to either turn and run, or come to check me out. It did neither, but just stood there and this struck me as strange. I could see that it was a very old dog.

Jacob, Kalib and Muzzy were on the trail, a short distance behind me.

As I drew closer, I saw that the reason that it had neither fled nor approached was because it was too feeble and stiff. It growled, bared its teeth menacingly, and voided all of its urine. It was then that we knew that it was female - a very old female.

Jacob took Kalib and Muzzy on toward home. I stayed behind, to see if I could figure out how to help her. I wanted to check the tags on her collar, but, as you can see, when I would draw near, she would growl menacingly.

I did not want to get bitten.

So I put my hand on her back, just in front of her tail. She continued to growl. I spoke soothingly to her and gradually moved my hand up her back and then her neck. She quit growling, but the look of fear stayed put.

Her tags were very worn. There was a phone number on the rabies tag, but it could not be read. Her license held the number for the animal shelter. I called, but it was closed.

I did not know what to do. I tried to coax her to follow me toward the house. But she would not. I took hold of her collar and tried to lead her along, but each step that I forced out of her pained and terrified her.

I could only think of two reasons why she might be out here. Perhaps her humans did not want to deal either with taking her to the vet to be euthanized or to put her down themselves, so they had just brought her out and dumped her.

But then, sometimes, when a dog or cat is very old and knows it is going to die, it will purposefully wander off to do so in private. This is what we believe happened to Harry, the great dog of my childhood, adolescence and early adulthood.

So perhaps this is what she had done.

I walked away, wondering if I should just leave her to meet what may well have been her chosen fate.

I had not gone more than 100 yards or so when I heard the calls of ravens. I looked up and saw these two, cavorting in the sky, alert to any potential meal upon the ground. The dog could make many a fine meal for these ravens, who certainly do deserve to eat.

But I felt kind of bad about it so, as soon as I got to the house, I retrieved my reading glasses and went back to the dog. It did not help. I still could not read the phone number.

So I called Jake and told him to bring a leash. 

Then it occurred to me that the dog might belong to the people who own the marsh, the ones whose property is always being trespassed upon by four-wheeler drivers who are mental midgets and should be dispossessed of all rights to drive machines, period.

It was not their dog. Carol Shay, the lady of the house, had seen it a couple of days before, standing in the middle of Seldon, oblivious to the cars racing by it on both sides. She had tried to rescue it but its growl and bared teeth had scared her away. 

She had called the animal shelter and had told them to come and pick it up, but they had failed to do so.

Now she came with her poodle and a golden retriever and husband Dodd not far behind. They had lost an aged dog in this very marsh. It had just disappeared while they walked with it. She and her husband looked and looked, but they could never find it.

So Carol was very moved to see this old girl.

She decided to take the dog in overnight. Tomorrow, she would call the animal shelter, give them the number on the license and they could hopefully track down the dog's people. She also suggested a third possibility as to why this old dog was wandering the marsh. Perhaps she had been in the back of a pickup truck and got bumped out.

Perhaps.

I don't think so, but perhaps.

She picked it up and carried it home, her poodle close behind her.

Now, I must return to Cocoon Mode.

Cocoon mode,* day 19: On throwing stones in the presence of a big dog

I needed to take a walk, but Lavina told me that Jacob and Kalib had already left. I was way behind. In fact, they had already reached the end of the driveway. So I went into the bedroom to get my walking shoes, but I was very sleepy and the bed looked good, so I decided to lay down for a few minutes.

I was not worried about catching them.

I laid down even longer than I intended. Quite a bit longer. Twenty minutes, maybe.

Still, I quickly caught up to them and discovered that they were disturbing the tranquil waters of Little Lake.

Kalib follows his father's example.

Kalib's rock did not make it to the water. So his father tries again.

Look! The rock bounced!

When it was over, Kalib had mud on his face, plus some kind of white stuff - I don't know what.

*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.