Obama stands as Grasshopper before House Republicans; Funny Face's gift certificate, elder Marine at Family, dog charges into path of oncoming cars; small view of beautiful evening

I am extremely frazzled at the moment, due to the fact that I have, once again, experienced technical difficulties with my Squarespace host tonight. Terrible technical difficulties. After preparing my photos, I first opened the program exactly one hour and 50 minutes ago and it has taken me that long just to get to this point - and I dread what might happen yet.

So I am exasperated. I just want to scream. I do not want to sit in this chair and battle Squarespace for another minute. But, I must get this blog post done. So I will proceed, although my wording might prove to be abrupt, reeking of frustration, all the way through.

Anyway - I did return to Mat-Su Valley Family Restaurant for breakfast today and, just as she said she would, Cindy had returned the gift certificate that Funny Face and her Mister had so generously purchased for me three days before Christmas.

I am quite amazed that the wrong Bill had this gift certificate all this time and did not take advantage of it, but grateful, too.

So today, my omelette came courtesy of Funny Face - and there was enough left over for another one, plus a bit more.

So thank you, Funny Face - Sally thanks you too.

When I started blogging, I never, ever, expected or even imagined that anyone would do something like this for me. It is quite amazing.

As I sat there enjoying my omelette, this man came in wearing the jacket that told of his service in the US Marines. This set off a whole train of thought that I was going to write down here tonight, but given the frazzled state that these technical difficulties have left me in, I am just going to pass.

Suffice it to say that I wanted to know more about him, to learn his story, to find out when and where he served. In fact, I decided that after I finished my breakfast, I would introduce myself. But then when the time came, he appeared so content and thoughtful, absorbed in his own consciousness, that I could not bring myself to interrupt him.

Plus, I had many things waiting for me to do, although I never did do them all.

Still, someday, I would like to learn what I can of his story.

You will recognize this dog from yesterday. It came out again. I had more that I was going to say about it, but, AUUUGGGGH!

As Charlie Brown would say.

This black lab came with it, of course, dragging a stuffed turtle with no head. It was right about here that my iPhone rang. It was Margie, calling from Arizona to tell me that there had been an explosion at Sunrise, the ski resort owned by her White Mountain Apache Tribe, and that our nephew, Uriah, had been caught in it and had been air-medivaced out to Phoenix.

She did not yet know anymore that. I walked as we talked. This was the third time that I had met this black lab in the past week. Both times before, it turned around and went home right after greeting me.

This time it continued on with me and it brought the turtle.

"Go home, dog," I said as I walked and talked to Margie.

It did not go home.

Soon we came to Seldon Street. I could see a number of cars coming from both directions. Sometimes, you look at a dog and you immediately know that this dog does not understand that if it crosses a road in traffic that a car can hit, injure and kill it.

I could see right away that this was such a dog. And there it was, trotting happily in front of me, straight toward Seldon - toward the cars that were coming from both directions.

"Dog! Dog!" I shouted, with Margie on the other end, trying to tell me how things were down in Arizona in the face of this latest bad news. "Stop! Come back here!" The dog did not stop, but trotted happily right into the path of an oncoming car.

"DOG! DOG!" Fortunately, the driver managed to brake in time. Immediately after, a car coming from the other direction did the same. I took no pictures because I was talking on the phone and shouting at the dog.

The drivers both gave me dirty looks.

The dog made it across Seldon and kept going up Brockton. I had planned to go that direction, too, but I knew that dog was going to stick with me the entire walk. I did not want to be responsible for it. It was only a couple of hundred yards from its house, so I figured it could find its way back without me - if it didn't get hit by a car in the process.

I wondered if I should try to shepherd it back, but I knew that it was just as likely to get hit by a car if I was shepherding it as if I wasn't.

It had already proven that.

So I left it to its own few wits and turned left, down Seldon, and ditched it. I hope it survived. I suspect that it did, but I don't feel that optimistic about its future, unless something changes in its daily care. Not so long ago, there was another dog that lived 100 yards from where this one does now. Once, even as its people looked on, it came running to Jacob and I and a car had to stop so hard it left rubber in the road.

Not long after, that dog was struck and killed.

As I walked on, an airplane passed by.

A raven flew overhead.

These bare trees just looked pretty to me.

Royce seems to be doing much better.

I first found Obama's appearance before the Baltimore retreat of the House Republicans online at The Mudflats. It was 66 minutes long and I did not have 66 minutes to spare, but I watched it, anyway. It was beautiful. Remember the old TV show, Kung Fu, with David Carradine as Kwai Chang Caine, or Grasshopper?

Remember how Grasshopper would calmly and quietly face the raging, fuming bullies, who would sneer and laugh and then charge in multiple at him with their guns, knives, axes, fists, whatever? Remember how, with his superior knowledge, skill and basic sense of humanity, Grasshopper would deflect or dodge every blow and weapon they threw at him and would turn their own rage and force backwards upon them until they fell before him?

And even then Grasshopper would be graceful, and would give them another chance - should they be willing to take it? Some did.

That was President Barack Obama, standing in front of the House Republicans.

As to the website taking up the other half of my screen, that is Burn Magazine, founded by master photojournalist David Alan Harvey of Magnum, both to encourage "emerging photographers" and to create a new venue for serious photography. Burn is a good place. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves photography that might not be commercial.

And, honest to God, I already had Burn onscreen when I found the Obama/House Republican get-together. I did not stage this very appropriate juxtaposition of web pages - this is just another one of those coincidences that I told you about yesterday.

On my coffee break, I saw this dog. I also heard from Margie again. Uriah has second degree burns on his face, along with several cuts, but no critical, life-threatening, injuries. Margie did not know how much of his face had been burned.

I continued on and the moon came up.

Pioneer Peak at dusk. I had to go down to 1/8 of a second to get this one. There was no traffic behind me, so I stopped in the road and held the pocket camera out the window. As soon as I saw a headlight in my rearview mirror, I took off again.

I did the same thing here. This is the best thing about living in Wasilla. Sometimes, you can get frustrated and forget, but then you are reminded - Alaska is always out there, surrounding you, embracing you, providing nurture to your soul.

I am a little frustrated by all this, though. I am satisfied with the size that vertical images appear in this blog, but sometimes I want the horizontals to be bigger, including these final three images.

Squarespace has a feature that allows a blogger to link a larger image to the small, column-width ones that you see here.  It is a process that is tedious in its operation - compared to accomplishing the same thing in say, Blogger, where it takes less than 20 percent as long (yes, I have timed it). I have pointed this, and their other many shortcomings, out to Squarespace many times and have suggested that they improve them to perform at least as well as do the same features in Blogger, which is free, whereas you must purchase Squarespace, but, damnit, after a-year-and-a-half, I am convinced that they are simply never going to.

Still, I regularly go through this aggravating process so that anyone who wants to can click on an image and bring up a larger version.

That feature is not working properly in Squarespace tonight, so the larger image is not available.  Even if you would like to look at a larger version of the final three pictures above, you can't.

Curiously, though, it worked with the omelette and the raven, but with no other image. And yes, I cleared cached, refreshed pages, closed and reopened my browser - several times - and shut down and restarted my computer. It didn't help.

Can you feel my exasperation with Squarespace? Can you? Can you feel it? I have never, ever, experienced anything else like Squarespace in the digital/computer world. In the beginning, when I first came upon these problems, I thought the situation would improve as I better learned the program and as Squarespace upgraded and improved it. I was wrong. Yet, I am so far into it, so many links lead to my Squarespace work and I have moved so far up in Google... what do I do? 

Squarespace has wasted so much of my time! They claim to want suggestions and they swear they consider all of them, but they never act on them. No, not on a single one do they act!

The support staff is, almost to an individual, courteous and they do their best to help, but at its root Squarespace is fundamentally flawed and their developers seem content to leave it this way.

Can you feel my exasperation?

I have ranted - but - if you only knew what I have been through with Squarespace!

Thos, if you read this, I am about ready to use some frequent flier miles and get you on a plane to Alaska! If you can solve some of these problems for me, it would be well worth it.

Margie and I drive into Anchorage and steal Kalib away from his parents

"I am so lonesome for Kalib," Margie said. "Let's go to Anchorage and steal him away." I had big plans for this weekend. Starting yesterday and then going all the way through Sunday, I was going to devote myself to a little proposal that I want to make, one that has the potential to make a big difference in my life. It also has the potential to take up three days of my time and then go nowhere at all.

New Year's Day, I discovered that I was simply too tired and burned out to do it. So I figured, "Ok, I'll go at it hard all day Saturday and Sunday and I can still get it done."

But when your wife announces that it is time to go to Anchorage and steal your grandson away from his parents, then you had better go steal your grandson.

So I warmed up the car and then we got in it.

So off we went, and drove out of Wasilla, headed for Anchorage to steal our grandson. Margie leaves for Arizona Thursday night and won't be back until February 2 (Melanie's birthday), and that it made it all the more urgent to her to spend some time with Kalib.

I'm going to Arizona, too, but I don't leave until the 17th. I will come back with Margie.

When we arrived in Anchorage, we learned over Margie's cellphone that Kalib had just dozed off for his afternoon nap. You can't steal a grandson when he is napping. It wouldn't be right. We wanted to visit Lisa, anyway, so she agreed to meet us at Middle Way Cafe for coffee. Melanie and Rex were both out of town.

Here's Lisa, coming to the back door of Middle Way. She will chide me after she enters; she will say that I looked ridiculous, standing there taking pictures. But, I will tell her, that's what photographers do.

Yes, she will say, but photographers stand there with big, professional-looking DSLR cameras and there I was, standing there with an itty-bitty pocket camera, looking ridiculous.

Well, I will tell  her, photographers can't worry about whether or not they look ridiculous. All photographers can worry worry about is whether or not they get the picture, whatever size their camera is.

As you can see, I got the picture.

I'm pretty sure it will win me a Nobel prize.

This, of course, is Bryce, Lisa's boyfriend. He works at Middle Way. Today, he was being a baristo.

This is Bryce's co-worker, Joel. "Okay," Joel said, "you can put me in your blog," after I told him I was going to. He will probably regret it when he sees this picture. I do have other images in which his eyes are open, but I like this one better.

I tried real hard to catch that blink and I succeeded.

You know what they say, "success breeds success."

This ought to be a successful year for me, now.

Thank you, Joel - I couldn't have done it without you.

Margie and Lisa. We bought one piece of chocolate beat cake to share. I'm not quite certain how they work beats into a chocolate cake recipe, but the result is scrumptious - when its fresh. It was stale today. Not so good. Somebody better get on the ball or I will stop buying beat cake.

Who wants stale cake, beats or not?

Lisa had much on her mind, but not for me to share here.

Bryce has some kind of technique that allows him to put designs in latte's. He put a heart in Margie's.

Soon, we said goodbye to Lisa and went over to steal Kalib. His parents let us in so we could do so, but he was still napping. They had bought him this remote-controlled train engine for Christmas, but had forgotten to buy batteries. 

Jacob had just put some in and was testing it out.

Finally, Kalib began to wake up. 

Now he is awake - sort of.

After Kalib came out, Jacob guided the train engine toward him. Kalib was leery.

He was still tired, feeling a little grumpy.

Then the three of us got in the car and drove away from his parents - back to Wasilla. Now that we had stolen their son, they have a night to themselves. They can go to a movie; whatever they want to do.

They can't make another baby, though, because they already got another one coming - February 27, for those of you don't already know.

I was going to help Kalib feed the fish after we got home, but, I came out to my office and found that Margie had beat me to it. These two were feeding the fish without me.

And then Kalib had to watch his movie, Ice Age. I am certain that he has every scene memorized by now.

After finishing all that precedes this image, I went into the house to see if these two had gone to bed yet. It is 1:00 AM, so I thought they probably would have. This is what I found.

Margie cannot carry him to bed, so, as soon as I save and close this, I will go in and do so.

Well... I went in to carry him to bed and this is what I found... Royce, the frail, aging, old-man orange cat watching over him - just as he did during all the time that Kalib lived with us.

So, forgive me for dragging this out, but I had to take one more picture, come back out here and put it in the journal.

Now, I will go in and carry him into bed.

Kalib golfs, vacuums, gets under the weather, goes to the doctor, reunites with Royce; Various and insundry Wasilla scenes

Ever since Kalib moved out, the house had been a quiet and empty place. After he returned, he resumed his golf game. This made life in the house much better.

And then he vacuumed the floor. It really needed it and we were grateful.

Kalib and his vacuum cleaner.

It was a foggy day. I took only a very short walk - not because of the fog, but because I left at 11:45 AM and I had a phone interview scheduled at noon.

I hated to take such a short walk. I guess I should have left earlier.

After I hung up the phone, I wanted out. Caleb was awake to watch Kalib, so I took Margie to lunch. Along the way, we passed by this guy walking the shore of Wasilla Lake.

Regularly readers will instantly recognize this as the intersection that provides an excellent view of Pioneer Peak above the maddening traffic of Wasilla's main thoroughfare. But you couldn't see the mountains today.

We ate our lunch in the car, as these ravens flirted with each other nearby.

As we ate, this was the view through the windshield. The tower rises out of the Wasilla Police Station. I was a little worried that someone might come running out of there, think we were someone else and try to arrest us, but no one did. 

The radio was on and a restaurant reviewer was talking from Cleveland. He had moved there from the East Coast, where he said he had been a food snob and had not expected to find any good food in the Midwest.

Boy, was he wrong, he said. The dining in Cleveland was the height of gourmet sophistication. Not even New York City could beat it.

I thought maybe I should start doing reviews on all the sophisticated, gourmet, dining to be had right here in Wasilla, Alaska. I could start here, in the parking lot alongside Taco Bell.

So... Taco Bell has a new item on the meno called a cheese roll, or something like that. It is a flour tortilla rolled around a glob of melted cheese. I bought one, tore it in half, gave half to Margie and ate the other myself.

"What do you think?" I asked Margie.

"It's okay," she said.

"I find it quite excellent myself," I told her. "Nice, sophisticated, piquant, gourmet taste."

She said nothing more at all.

I also had two original crunchy tacos. Indeed, they crunched very well and, after I squeezed a packet of mild and another of hot sauce into each one, had just the right touch of spice to add a decent kick to the meal.

I also had a bean burrito with green sauce.

These are superb when done right, but this one was too damn salty.

The Pepsi was just right - not too sweet but pleasantly carbonated, so that I could be assured of a little burp later, the flavor of which would remind me just how excellent the meal was - except for the bean burrito, which could have been better.

Back at the house, Margie sits with Kalib, who was once again feeling under the weather. While we had been out, Caleb had observed something that frightened him terribly, as Kalib seemed to be disoriented and frightened. Kalib had reached for Caleb where Caleb wasn't even standing. Margie called Lavina at work in Anchorage and she made a doctor appointment for Kalib here in Wasilla at 4:30, but we were advised to bring him in a bit early.

We left the house at 4:00, but stopped to go through the drive-through at Metro Cafe to get Americanos. No, I don't buy Latte's and Mochas everyday.

We continued on toward the doctor's office. As you can see, Pioneer Peak was now visible in the twilight sky.

Lavina had driven up from Anchorage and was already there to meet us.

The rest went inside, but, as I had much to do, I headed back here to my office, slightly worried but pretty confident that Kalib was okay. Lavina would bring them all home.

This is what the Talkeetna Mountains looked like as I drove home.

I passed by a fence decorated with large, candy canes wrapped in green and red lights.

Kalib was fine - but better to be safe. Here he is, reunited with his buddy, Royce.

Wasilla today: Three dogs act tough from the other side of the fence; Alaska awaits; car crash. Kalib moves out, part 3: Lisa amuses him with the big, red, inflatable ball

As I went walking today, these three dogs bravely threatened me from the safety of the other side of the fence.

Oh, was he angry!

"You're damn lucky there's a fence between us!" he barked.

And then I came to the muzzled dog, who bluff-charged me, then, growling, barking, ran a couple of circles around me, threatening that he would rip me to pieces, if only he wasn't wearing this muzzle!

But you know what? I don't believe any of these dogs. They just act tough, because they think they've got to. Take away the fence, take away the muzzle and they will be whimpering and wagging their tails lowly.

The good thing about living in Wasilla is that, even when you are trapped in a rut like I am right now and you are stuck in the midst of the overrun, wantonly developed, much-marred valley and town and you can't get out and do anything, all you have to do is just lift up your eyes and... there's Alaska, lifting itself up and stretching out in every direction.

Quiet, beautiful, harsh and still.

I can't tell you how good it feels - just to know Alaska is all around you.

As I neared my house, I saw that there are been an accident on the corner of Lucille and Seldon. It did not look that bad, but there was an ambulance, so I don't know.

They flagged me right through and I didn't have to wait at all. Maybe there are some people doing a lot of waiting, right now - maybe these kids, being ushered into the truck. I don't know.

Just another one of life's dramas that one passes by every day, sometimes seeing, sometimes not, not knowing how it happened, never knowing the outcome.

Now, back to Friday night, when Kalib moved out. You will recall that he was screaming and crying, but Lisa helped to cheer him up with this ball. He then followed his mother into the kitchen, but soon turned back toward Lisa and the ball.

He grabbed it and threw it to her.

As she propped herself up on the ball, he began to push his way beneath her.

He emerged with a smile on his face.

Then she lay flat on the floor and he put the ball on her ankles.

He rolled the ball up her legs.

She juggled it on her feet. You will notice a fog over Kalib. That is because as I was taking another picture of him, he reached out and smeared my lens with his finger.

Kalib turns away from his oatmeal; a snowplow roars down Seldon; I exceed my limits

Margie tries to feed Kalib some oatmeal, but he does not seem to be very hungry.

On my walk, a snowplow came grinding and banging past. We got two or three inches of new snow overnight. Further up the Susitna Valley, 30 inches fell. It's still pretty warm, but not as bad as yesterday.

As I walked on, this man zipped past me on a snowmachine. He was going a little faster than me, but I'm pretty sure that if I had put my mind, lungs and legs into it, I could have sprinted right past him.

I just didn't want to, so, as he sped by, I walked casually and nonchalantly on.

I did wave, though.

It's good to wave at strangers driving snowmachines.

You might need their help one day.

As I neared home, this dog charged me, growling and barking under its muzzle. It hit my wrist with its muzzled snout and then charged past, still growling, still barking. I wasn't worried, though. I have known this dog since it was a cute and friendly pup and it has charged me many, many, times - even without a muzzle.

It's just a show he's got to put on.

This is what Pioneer Peak looked like at 9:00 AM.

This is what Pioneer Peak looked like at 2:30 PM.

This is what the Talkeetna Mountains looked like at 10:00 AM.

Kalib drinks his juice.

Well, I see that I have exceeded my self-imposed limit of one picture each of Kalib and the outside world.

Oh well.

I got a significant amount of work done today, anyway.