The days now begin to lengthen; after the colonoscopy

Oh, hell - I stated that this blog is on hold until after the New Year, but I had a colonoscopy today and I got starved, medicated, dazed, and miserable and then stuffed and miserable. I lack the energy to work on my big project. So I post two photos here.

It won't hurt anything, even if no one comes back to check.

I took this picture yesterday, Winter Solstice, mid-afternoon, somewhere between 3 & 4, going down the ramp to Wal-Mart. Now the days begin to lengthen.

Hallejuah!

Although, if my tentative travel plans hold up, for me personally, the days will yet get much shorter; in fact, daytime will soon disappear altogether, save for the hint of dawn-dusk at the hour of true noon. 

But right here in Wasilla, the short, dim, day has now begun to lengthen.

This is my physician, Dr. Natalie Beyeler, explaining what she found during the colonoscopy and the EGD. On the EGD, they run a tube with a camera attached down through your throat, Esophagus and stomach. You know where the tube goes on the colonoscopy.

Once again, I am faced with lifestyle changes. If it can be consumed and it is something that I enjoy, then I need to cut back or even eliminate it. If its bland and doesn't bring me much pleasure, then I can eat or drink all I want. No problem.

Dr. Beyeler is an excellent physician and I would recommend her to anyone.

Blog goes on hold until after New Year - Exceptions: Christmas, Kalib's one-year birthday (12/26)

I have a pretty good set of pictures from today and I want to run a series, but I just don't have the time to edit, process, place the photos and then to write. In fact, I have a huge project deadline sitting on me and until it is done, I have little time for anything else.

So, with great reluctance, I must put this blog aside for awhile.

I will come back as soon as I can (and I know that by then the 200 - 300 readers who have been stopping by on the average day will have moved on and forgotten about this blog) and when I do, I will be determined to begin working towards the larger goals that I set when I started this project.

It will take the kind of time that I have not had but I must find the way to make the time, as I have big plans and expectations for this blog.

As for the above picture of the Dearborn Farm dogs, it is not from today at all but yesterday. The good people at the Dearborn Farm were giving away free catnip for Christmas so I went and got some. Our cats have been stoned ever since.

As for these dogs, their primary job is to keep the Dearborn Farm goats safe.

I plan to return to Dearborn Farms to do some more pictures and blogging, too.

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.

The past 20 hours: three scenes from Wards Road

Jacob and Muzzy, top of Wards Road, last night's walk.

Car coming down Ward's Road, noon walk.

Van off the road, today's walk. Jacob and I first spotted this van on last night's walk. A car was coming down the hill, so I focused on this vehicle to see, if by chance, the reflection of the headlights of that car off the snow might cast enough light on this vehicle for me to take a photograph.

As I stood there, camera pointed at the disabled van, a car pulled up and stopped. Sitting at the wheel was a middle-aged lady with silver streaks in her hair and beside her, a young man - maybe late teens or early 20's, his features slender and sharp.

They looked at us with what appeared to be a mix of hostility and suspicion.

"That's my vehicle," the young man stated emphatically, "I slid off the road earlier today."

It was clear to me that he suspected that we might have some kind of evil intent towards his vehicle.

"You slid off the road, huh? That must have given you a thrill."

He assured me that it had not; that he had been calm and collected through the entire descent and that it was no big deal. He had even managed to drive the car enough to reposition it a bit so that it would be easier to haul out.

"Looks like you're a little short on manpower to pull it out right now," I noted the obvious.

"We're going to come back and get it tomorrow," he said.

"I don't think you have anything to worry about," I told him. "It should be safe. Nobody but a pedestrian could see it and there won't be many of them, maybe just us."

I wished him luck. They went there way, we went our way.

I do not blame him for being suspicious. Cars left alongside the road overnight out here often greet the next morning with their wheels and tires gone, their windows smashed, anything of value removed.

But now it is day and the car is still there, in view for all who pass by to see. Hopefully, they will yank it out of there before dark.

This time of year, if it isn't dark, it soon will be.

A wreck at Parks & Main; another in the kitchen

Tow truck driver. He has just arrived at the scene. Locked in traffic, I drive by at a creep. I had just dropped Margie off at work and now I was headed home.

Police officer, walking towards truck driver. Looks pretty minor. Driver of car peers out sheepishly. I do not know anything about this accident other than what is in the picture. That's how it is when you drive - you get all kinds of glimpses of other people's lives: happy moments, sad, tragic, routine, mundane, and most often that is all the information about these people whose lives crossed yours that you will ever have.

The wreck in the kitchen. Kalib has discovered a new musical instrument. Oddly enough, wherever he wanders in the house these days, this is what it looks like behind him.