I don't mind cold - in fact, I like cold (although I hate to be cold). But I was getting fed up with this weather: temperatures consistently below zero F - lately most often double digits below, but no real snow on the ground - only ice, crust and frozen earth. I was just getting tired of it.
I wanted some fresh, new, snow to cover it all up but no snow had fallen for weeks. Maybe a month or more. It's been a long time. Down south, I see lots of reports of heavy snow, but up here in the north we have a dearth of it.
And we wouldn't get any more until the temperature warmed up a bit. It never snows when it is cold.
And then... the temperature warmed up to ten degrees above zero - plenty warm enough to snow. And so it began to snow. It wasn't much of a snow, really. Just a dusting.
The ravens enjoyed it, though. Ravens always enjoy the weather, no matter what it is. Or so it seems. I've really never asked a raven about it, but whenever I see ravens, they always look like they are having fun.
I see them in all kinds of weather.
Always having fun.
Ravens enjoy life.
That's why I enjoy ravens so much.
Eagles may be more grand and spectacular, but ravens - they're the smart, clever, mischievous, happy ones.
And the Mahoney horses - they were enjoying the dusting of snow.
And then it turned into slightly more than a dusting. By morning, a few inches had accumulated. Margie took the car, and left me on foot to walk. That other car? That belongs to Caleb. It hasn't really run or gone anywhere in a couple of years or so.
Every now and then, he starts it up just to see if he can still start it up, but it has some problems. Some day, he says, he will sell it.
At 4:00 PM, I stopped at Metro Cafe. The temperature had now warmed up to 18 degrees F. Carmen and Shoshana were marveling over the warm weather and talking about how, when such temperatures first strike right after summer, they come to the window, open it and freeze, then shut it as quickly as they can. Now, 18 degrees feels warm to them. They don't even bother to close the window.
Then Carmen began to tease Shoshana about her new boyfriend. That's what she's doing here. She's teasing Shoshana. When I get a chance to blog the party they invited me to last weekend, I will introduce her boyfriend.
He is very lucky and at the party I told him so.
As Carmen teased Shoshana, I looked in my mirror and saw two of the girls who live just a short distance up the road coming for their afternoon smoothies.
As the girls drew near, Carmen continued to tease Shoshana.
Then the girls were in Metro Cafe. I'm not quite sure how it happened, but, just like that, the oldest and Carmen began to compare their finger nails.
At first, I tried to focus on Carmen's, which were bright red. I didn't realize it at the time, but I missed the focus a bit.
Still, you get the idea.
Then I tried to focus on the girl's nails, which were sort of a fluorescent lemon-lime. I didn't realize it at the time, but I missed the focus by quite a bit. Still, you get the idea.
I would have stayed longer, tried a few more shots and made sure I got the focus, but I was in the drive-through line and I did not want to make anyone coming in line behind me wait until I had my focus perfect, so I drove away with blurry images.
Some photographers aim for perfection. Me, I just want to get the idea down and to tell a story, even if imperfectly.
I hadn't gone far before I found myself stopped at a red light, right behind this car. This should all be quite legible in slide show view, but just in case anyone is having trouble reading everything at this small size, I will interpret the three signs as I understand them, beginning with the fish at lower left. The name, "Jesus" is written in the fish. This tells me that the owner of the car is a Christian.
The license tells me that the owner is "heaven bound."
And the little bumper sticker in the window tells me that the owner is going "nuckin' futs."
This one puzzles me a bit. I have never heard of either of these words, "nuckin'" or "futs."
What does this mean?
Please, someone, tell me!
I start to wander how the Mahoney horses are doing today, so I point the car in their direction. Along the way, I see many exciting and wonderful sights. Here is one of those wonderful and exciting sights.
"How you doing, Mahoney horses?" I shout out the window.
"We're doing good, Bill. How about you?" they neigh in return.
"Could be doing better," I shout back. "But I'm surviving. Don't know how or why, but I am."
"Good," the horses neigh back. "It's better to survive than not to survive."
These horses are wise.
And yet, the time always comes when each one of us, horse and human alike, does no longer survive.
Make of this contradiction what you will.
Next, I come upon a little dog, standing in the road, facing me as I drive towards it. I wonder what the dog intends to do? I slow to a modest speed.
As if I was going fast to begin with.
Why!? The dog comes charging straight at me! The dog wants to play chicken! Foolish canine! Can it not see that I am driving a hunk of steel and it is just a fragile little skin packet of bones, flesh, blood and fur?
I will win this game of chicken, easy.
But I don't win. I chicken out and brake to a complete stop.
The dog stops, too. I would call this a tie.
The dog disagrees. The dog calls this a clear win for the dog.
I'm going nuckin' futs!
Whatever that means. I don't know. I have no idea. But I'm pretty sure that it describes me right now.
And this one from India:
See the hands on this side of the bananas? They belong to my nephew, Vijay Dixit, brother of Vivek who is husband to my sister's daughter Khena and first cousin to Soundarya, which in India makes him kind of like her brother.
One afternoon, Vijay treated Melanie and I to a feast of bananas - including bananas of varieties that we never see here in the US, let alone in Alaska.
For over a year-and-a-half now, Vijay has been waiting for me to post a picture sequence on that feast.
At the beginning of this week, I told him that I would post it for certain this week.
Each day, I thought that I would do it the next day, but then the next day there would be too many images in my regular, current, series for me to post the banana series, as to do so properly I must use several images.
Today, once again, my regular post came in with too many images. I don't know why. It just happens that way. Tomorrow is the last day of the week, so I decided I would post the bananas then. Then, this morning, it occurred to me that tomorrow is a doubly significant day and I must post something else.
So I decided I would wait until Sunday - but Sunday is next week.
So, in order to somewhat keep my promise to Vijay and get at least some banana material up this week, I now post this picture of Vijay in a Chennai fruit store, looking for just the right bananas to stuff into Melanie and me.
I promise, Vijay - I will keep Sunday's Alaska material light - maybe just one image, perhaps two, no more than three, and I will post the full banana experience that you treated us to.
View images as slides
Monday, January 24, 2011 at 12:02PM 
