I have no time for this blog tonight, none at all - but what the hell, here it is

So here we are this morning at IHOP, Margie, Lavina, Kalib, me and our waitress. There's a pretty dramatic story behind that cup of coffee, and I thought I would tell it tonight, but I'm on deadline and haven't the time.

Someday, I will tell the story, if I don't wind up in Hell, first.

Pioneer Peak, from the stoplight immediately before the Taco Bell turnoff. No matter how crazy it gets around this place, guess what?

I can look any direction I want and Alaska is still out there.

And that feels good. I cannot tell you how good it feels.

Only Alaska feels that good.

Did you know that I love this place?

The place they call Alaska?

Damn, I love it!

A late afternoon drive on Schrock Road.

Lavina barbecues pork chops. They were damn good, scrumptious.

Muzzy invades and marks the red dog's territory. Red Dog can't do anything about it.

It's free, but I was afraid that if I took it, someone would shoot me, anyway. People are always getting shot around here for taking free TV's. Afterward, the shooter removes the "free" sign and claims he shot in defense of property.

Not a single shooter has ever been convicted.

I never take these free TV's.

That's why I'm still alive today.

Jacob turns Kalib's stroller loose on a hill.

Jacob and Lavina get into a game of "catch the stroller." It's Lavina's turn to catch.

Now it's Jacob's turn.

The game of catch is over, but the fun isn't.

Jacob, Lavina, Kalib and Muzzy.

I wonder if there was any school today?

Today as I walked through my personal nightmare, the subdivision called Serendipity, these two boys came zipping by. They turned onto a side road, then soon came zipping back.

If I had had my DSLR's, I could have followed the action, but I only took the pocket camera on my walk and it recycles too slow. So I missed the mishap, which happened immediately after I took the top picture. I did capture the aftermath. 

As you can see, they went around a corner and the sled broke where the rope was attached. The boy on the sled slid to the curb.

That's Tristan, 11, on the left, and Reed, 12, on the right. I wondered why they were out during school hours and thought about asking them, but I did not want to frighten them, so I did not.

It was the first walk that I have taken through Serendipity in a long time; I think the first time this year. It hurts me to walk in Serendipity, that's why. I knew it when it was wild, when no one called it Serendipity. I knew it when, on a day such as today, it would be just me back there, on my skis, with my late dog, Willow, or my even later dog, Scout.

I left Serendipity and headed back to the house. It was then that I discovered that someone was in the air, above me, manning the stick.

This hurts, too.

Kalib stayed with us, all day today, after being gone for several days in a row. He walked all about, as if walking was something that he had always been doing.

All day long, he was happy; happier then I have seen him since before we went to Washington DC and Margie got hurt and he went off to daycare.

All day long, Margie was happier than I have seen her, since she got hurt.

Kalib plays with Royce and Muzzy. There are two more images in this series, but I am saving them for Grahamn Kracker's No Cats Allowed Kracker Cat blog.

I had gone from my office into the bedroom to get my jacket so that I could go to a kiosk and get some coffee.

Margie came in. "There's a young person here to see you," she said.

"Who?" I asked.

"I don't know," she said. "He knocked on the door and then asked for you."

So I headed to the door expecting to see some kind of missionary or salesman but instead it was Mike. I had not seen Mike for years.

He was probably about 12 when I first met him. I was walking and he came pedaling by me on a bike. I took his picture. We became friends after that and he would often come by to watch my electric train buzz around my office.

He was a train enthusiast, and knew more about them then I did. Once, he needed a caboose, so I gave him mine.

He is 19 now and lives in Talkeetna. Something brought him to the neighborhood, so he stopped by to say hi.

He was curious about my train. Trouble is, after I broke my shoulder and got it replaced with titanium, I could not do the things necessary to keep that train running.

One day, I will make it run again.

Kalib studies a bubble.

Kalib reaches for bubbles. And who blows all these bubbles?

Why, its his Mom, Lavina. 

Kalib. These bubbles were blown last night, by the way.

Today, as I drank my coffee and ate a cinnamon roll, I drove by Iona, the place where people pray. I thought about Elvis Presley, and about the humble people that he sang about.

And this is from yesterday's coffee break. Church Road. People must pray here, too. Maybe that guy up there is praying, quietly, so no one will hear.

Curious. There are no churches on Church Road, but there are a bunch on Lucille Street.

Cell phones: I am about to get the coverage I demanded, but am surprised at what I will lose

When we first bought cell phones, I was especially pleased that now I would be able to make free calls to various dear people in distant cities and states who happen to have the same carrier. And then I discovered that the coverage in our neighborhood is so weak that, half the time when I get a call, my phone does not ring and when I try to call, the call fails. When I do connect, I typically lose the signal a minute or two into the conversation.

So I made a complaint about that. I demanded that they improve our coverage.

And now, all of a sudden, Jake, Muzzy and I discover that ATT is about to put up a new cellphone tower, just off Wards Road, on the other side of the Marsh. The tower will be about 400 yards from our back yard. We will get all the bars, all the time.

And now, when I walk up Wards Road, I will see this big, huge, ugly tower just off to the left, rising high above these spruce trees.

And when I come down Wards, I will see the tower standing to the right. I have taken many pictures on Wards. I will continue to do so. My pictures will look different, once they stand the cell tower up.

When I lodged my complaint and issued my demand, I never imagined this.

Still, I will be glad to finally have good coverage inside my house and office, right here, in Wasilla, Alaska.

Kalib, held by Caleb: A brief moment of respite

Notwithstanding the fact that this blog and a huge part of my mind and pysche has been stuck at the Inauguration of President Barack Obama for two weeks, life has continued to move on and all the while I have been taking snapshots of what I see around me.

So I am way behind. I still have more from DC that I want to include in this blog, and there are images that I have photographed since my return that I also desire to post, along with the stories behind them - such as Melanie's birthday and Frankie's goodbye, Muzzy's encounter with a moose - various things that I have seen as I have moved about and sprawled across the couch.

I will probably manage to post some of it here, but much of it will likely just slip away into the back regions of my hard drive space, perhaps never again to be seen by anybody.

And I am tired. Exhausted. Oh, God, am I exhausted! I have spent my entire career exhausting myself, pushing myself through insane 24, 36, 48 and even 50 hour plus workdays, sometimes back to back; almost never getting a good night's sleep, for I am that kind of person. I have not done anything like that, this time, but our life since we departed for Washington, D.C. on January 17 to the present has been such that it has left me exhausted, beyond recovery. it feels like.

But I don't believe it. I will recover, and I will yet do great things with this blog, the kind of things that I had in mind when I created it, but which a lack of time has so far precluded.

If some kind person out there would just send me $1 million dollars so that I could put aside all other concerns, save for this blog, Grahamn Kracker's cat blog and the canon of books that I am working on, then I would get right to it, and I would start sleeping well at night, too.

Hell. I'd settle for $100,000. 

What are you waiting for, generous people? Hop into your online bank account and transfer the money to me, right now. I will put it to good use, I promise. I will not squander more than 50 percent of it!

As to the picture above, I took it yesterday, right after Muzzy's encounter with the moose. Jacob, Muzzy and I had been out walking and we had returned home through the marsh, which is where we met two moose. There used to be three - a mom and two calves. Now there is only a mom and one calf.

Absent minded me! I had not emptied the card for my pocket camera and I was not carrying a spare, and so I filled up the SD card and missed the best part of the Muzzy-moose encounter - the part where the moose was chasing Muzzy and Muzzy was running straight towards me. I furiously pushed the shutter, but nothing happened - no image.

That was when I discovered that I had filled the SD card.

Afterward, we approached the house through the backyard, and I spotted Kalib in Caleb's arms, up against the wonderful reflection of the trees that stood behind me. 

Damnit! No space on the card! Hurriedly, I found an image to delete. But it did not free up enough space! I found another, deleted it. Still, the camera read "Memory card full."  I found a third image, deleted it, and now the camera gave me one frame to shoot.

Not knowing how long Kalib would keep his hands raised, I lifted the camera and shot that frame instantly. Kalib then lowered his hands and did not raise them again.

Jacob and I entered the house. Margie was sitting on the end of the couch, her injured leg propped up on the ottoman and her crutches nearby.

I tracked snow onto the floor and she scolded me for it - but it was a gentle scolding, as are all her scoldings, and I deserved it.

Kalib's first birthday, part 2: The one year-old throws an insane party

On December 26 at 3:19 AM, Alaska Standard Time, Kalib Lokaa' Dine Hess, my first grandson, turned one. About 12 hours later, he was presented with his first birthday cake. Kalib did not know that he was supposed to blow out the candle, which looked to him to be something fascinating, something that he should reach out and touch.

So his mother prepared to blow it out for him.

Of course, the party did not begin with the cake.

It began with the arrival of guests, most of whom were adults - uncles and aunts, and friends of his parents. Two other little people did come, both of whom were slightly older than Kalib.

This is party-girl Bryne, Kalib's senior by three months. Sadly, she and her parents had to go to another dinner elsewhere, so she was unable to stay to the end, but Bryne was a delight while she was here.

And this is party boy Lafe, Kalib's senior by one month. Lafe just might be the strongest baby that I have ever seen and he is a real tough guy. 

He and Kalib have been buddies practically since the day Kalib was born. I think Lafe will be a good person to have as a buddy in future years.

I hope that the two don't raise too much hell together, but that they do raise just enough. For what is the life of boys if they don't raise some hell?

Hell. That's what such a life is.

Hell.

A group picture of the three tots is needed, so Dad Jacob sets about to pose them on the front-room couch. He will face greater challenges in life, I am certain.

The three tots: Kalib, Bryne and Lafe.

Can you remember when you were very small and an adult, especially a pretty woman, smiled at you and spoke in a certain kind of voice and said something that made you feel like you were very unique and special?

That is how Sarah, Bryne's mom, is causing Kalib to feel, right here.

Cake time! Lavina blows on Kalib's behalf, lays the flame down and out it goes.

Sadly, Bryne was gone by now, leaving the cake all to the boys. Left to their natural male tendencies, they made hogs of themselves.

"That's enough sugar for you," Lafe's Mom Markie says just before yanking him prematurely from the cake. "Remember what happened the last time you ate too much sugar?"

With Lafe removed, Kalib has the cake to himself. He will be hyper not only for the remainder of the day, but on and off through the night, as well.

One only gets one first birthday party. Might as well go full hog.

The adults eat their cake (cut from a second slab that no one had wallowed in). Kalib demands more.

Something has upset Lafe. Maybe a ride in Kalib's new sled will make him feel better.

When Kalib saw Lafe riding across the floor in the sled that he had received for Christmas, he came crawling across the floor about three times faster than I had ever saw him crawl before. Until this moment, I did not realize that Kalib had such a strong sense of ownership over that sled.

Kalib opens his presents.

A present lights up; Kalib reaches for the light.

Among Kalib's new presents was a frog puppet. At first he wasn't interested, but Lafe was. Then, when Kalib saw how much Lafe liked the puppet, he became interested.

Eventually, everyone had to say goodbye. Of course, this goodbye is from much earlier, when Bryne and her parents left, but I only wanted to have one goodbye here, so I saved it for now.

My dear Melanie! When she arrived at the house, the driveway was filled with vehicles, so she decided to park at the side of the road. She did not realize that the snow plow operator had drug his blade partially over the culvert, cutting flat the snow that topped it so that the culvert looked like it was the shoulder of road.

Thus, when Melanie pulled over to park, her right wheels sank through the deception and into the culvert.

Jake had to pull her out. Kalib helped hook up the car as Muzzy supervised.

See how pretty the snow is, bunched up on the spruce branches?

A big wind would arise overnight and blow it all away.

Life, right here in Wasilla, Alaska, is like that.

Click on any photo to see a larger copy.