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.

Christmas Day, Wasilla, Alaska, 2008 - post # 1: we walk

Despite all the destruction by construction that has taken place in this community in the 27 years that we have lived here, there are days when a walk in Wasilla feels just like a walk in paradise. Today, Christmas, 2008, has been such a day.

I should note that the little dog that has distracted Muzzy is the same one that mauled its owners pet bunny nearly to death, down on the corner where the chicken crossed the road, the rooster got shot and the drunken good humor lady crashed her ice cream truck.

I love this place. I can't help it. I just do.

Wasilla, Alaska, Christmas Day, 2008. "Merry Christmas!" I shouted to the three people on the snowmachine as they drove past.

"Merry Christmas!" the woman in the rear shouted back, her voice muffled by her helmet and the roar of the machine.

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

I have changed my mind...

I decided that this idea of putting this blog on hold until sometime after the New Year is nonsense. I am going to keep it going, but will attempt to discipline myself to spend a minimum amount of time on it through that time period, 15 to 30 minutes a day max. Of course, here I have reached the point where I am just starting my third sentence and I have already put more than 20 minutes into it.

Hmmm... part of this is the fault of my bloghost, Squarespace. As I have stated before, it is a buggy program, prone to misfire, and so far tonight I have had to bounce around between three windows in two separate browsers, just to get the photos placed. Some nights it works perfect, some nights it is a nightmare and cannot be brought under control no matter what I do. Tonight it seems to have fallen somewhere in between.

Okay... 25 minutes now...

I awoke very late this morning, I think because of what I went through yesterday and the night before, when I got almost no sleep, as I had to "prep" for the medical procedure referenced yesterday.

Now, I am supposed to eat a great deal of "real oats" until I clear up the damage that all these decades of an abusive diet has done to my digestive system, but after yesterday, I just had to go out for breakfast and get myself some ham and eggs.

I will eat oatmeal tomorrow.

When I walked into Family Restaurant, I saw that this man, Van Buskirk, had just sat down at a table. Sometimes, when I am out walking, he will come driving by and wave, and sometimes he stops alongside me, rolls down his window and we chat for awhile.

I was alone, so I sat down with him.

It has now been 30 minutes. I am behind schedule.

There was much from our conversation that I was going to write, but, as you can see, I am out of time.

I will note this: he served in the Pacific in World War II as part of the Army Air Corp occupation forces and then stayed in the military to make a career of it, but his heart went bad and he got drummed out. He suffered a massive heart attack and later had a few more, plus some strokes.

No one figured that he would last very long, but here he is, Van Buskirk, deep into old age, having breakfast with me at Family Restaurant. The lady showing him the love seems to be in charge of all the waitresses.

Van Buskirk picked up my ticket. I got out my wallet to at least leave the tip, but he insisted that I put it back into my pocket.

Thank you, Van Buskirk!

I should add that, after the waitress brought our food, he bowed his head and said a blessing.

It has now been 38 minutes.

After I got home, I went walking. Not far from where Van Biskirk told me he lives, I saw this secular Christmas display.

The afternoon and evening proved to be snowy and the already icy roads became dangerously slick. In Anchorage, a woman slid over the center line, smacked T-bone into my son Jacob's Tahoe and knocked him into the ditch. He did not seem to be hurt, although now he is quite stiff. Margie was at work and so, instead of working myself, I spent four hours alone with Kalib, until Jacob and Lavina finally got home.

Kalib had a great time, being alone with his youthful gramp. I enjoyed him, too, but I was left to wonder how my wife keeps up with him all day long.

During his waking hours, Kalib does not stop. I was going to describe some of his antics, but I have already exceeded my time limit by over 10 minutes.

I still must go back and put in the code that turns the opening words to every section red. If Squarespace would simply put a color button into their editor, this would be a simple task that would take seconds. I have suggested this to them a number of times, but they have some high falutin idea that they are going to force their customers to use headers correctly and they think their customers will just be lazy and ignore headers altogether if they have an option to colorize sentences, words, and letters at will.

Of course, highlighting text in the body of the blog has nothing to do with headers.

So far, they continue to refuse to add this simple feature - as well as to do many other things that would make life easier for a Squarespace blogger.

I shouldn't vent like this, but, damnit, sometimes, when you blog, and write what just comes off your fingertips as they move, you vent.

When I started this blog, I should not have leaped so fast. Now I am stuck with Squarespace - for awhile, at least. Maybe they will solve these problems and I can just stay with them.

Kalib turns on the charm for Granny B waitress; jet passes overhead; Lisa at work

It was just after noon and I had eaten nothing since last evening, as I had to do a blood draw today. After the draw, we headed toward Anchorage to see a movie and to drop Kalib off with his parents, but first I needed to eat so we stopped at Granny B's, where they serve breakfast all day.

Kalib quickly began to flirt with the waitress.

She was a pushover; she quickly succumbed to his charms.

Kalib enjoyed the attention. Breakfast was good. Afterward, we dropped Kalib off at his Dad's place of work, where they were having a Christmas party and he would meet Santa.  We then headed to the movie.

Slumdog Millionaire is what we saw. One of the characters in it was named Latika and in one scene, when she was a young girl begging on the streets of Mumbai, she reminded of a very specific young beggar girl who crossed my path in Bangalore. 

The movie got out about 3:45, so we climbed into the car to drive to see Lisa and this is what it looked like at that time.

Lisa at work at the admissions desk at the family medicine clinic of the Alaska Native Medical Center.

After we got home, I found the pictures of the girl in Bangalore and I was going to put them in this post. I decided the post had enough images, however.

So I will make a follow-up post, and put the Latika who was probably not Latika at all in that entry.

Cinnamon roll at Mocha Moose, rescue vehicle gets stuck, Kalib hurls Kleenix to the floor

I don't often go to Mocha Moose, but this afternoon I wanted a cinnamon role and they have some pretty good ones. So, at 4:00 PM, I ignored my usual places and went to Mocha Moose. Here I am, waiting in line.

The lady ahead of me gets her coffee. She did not get a cinnamon roll. I don't know why. I'm pretty certain she would have enjoyed her coffee more if she had a cinnamon roll.

Earlier in the day, about noon, when I went walking, I came upon the same van that I had found stuck Monday night and had photographed on Tuesday - the day the worried owner had told me he would come back and yank it out.

Looks like he came back all right, with help, and that help got stuck, too. You can see that they even tried to yank out the help vehicle, but had not succeeded. At least the third vehicle did not get stuck.

These kinds of exciting events take place continually right here, in Wasilla, Alaska.

Muzzy gives the scene some perspective. Actually, the van had moved a fair piece from where I found it Monday. And no one had vandalized it.

Kalib discovered Kleenix, and how fun it is to remove one, throw it on the floor and remove another. When an adult tells him to stop it, he just smiles at the defenseless sould like this, removes another tissue and hurls it onto the floor.

"Stop it, Kalib! Stop it right now!"

And here is the garden center end of Wal-Mart. I brought some blooming tulips back and replanted them in the back yard.

How pretty they looked in the snow! I tried to photograph them for you, but it was beyond my meagre abilities to do justice to such beauty and I did not succeed.