A blustery, burnout kind of day; Kalib - just for Riana

It was a blustery, total-burnout kind of day. I couldn't work. I couldn't even take a walk. I could hardly make myself do anything. In fact, I photographed only two scenes today: this one, blowing snow seen through the windshield of our car as I drove Margie past Wasilla Lake on our way to Eagle River.

There would have been more choices in Anchorage, but Anchorage was too far. I did not want to drive all the way to Anchorage. So we chose Valley River 6 Cinema in Eagle River and drove there.

Although Gift of the Whale is out of print, I still get quarterly royalty checks and last week one came in for $79.22 - not enough to pay any bills but enough to go to a movie and buy some popcorn, so that's what we did.

Shutter Island, with Leonard DiCaprio and Ben Kingsley is what we saw and it was just the break I needed.

At first, Margie did not want to see it, because she thought it was a horror flick and she hates horror flicks. It did not look like a horror flick to me, but a 1950's cop drama and they can be fun. She decided I was probably right and it was playing at the right time so we chose it.

As it turned out it was neither a horror flick or a 1950's cop drama, but a pyschological thriller that involved a 1950's cop and a taste of horrific horror.

I won't say anymore about it than that, because I don't want to give anything away to anybody who hasn't yet seen it but still might.

Above is the second scene that I photographed today: the highway as we passed by Wasilla Lake on our return home. You can see the snow is still blowing, but more lightly than it had been three hours earlier.

These are left-overs from Friday. I am including them in here just for Riana - my ten-year old reader who keeps me from swearing all the time.

This is pretty hard on me, because I like to swear, damnit.

But for Riana, I have been cutting back.

She left a message today. She typed the word, "hell" and told me that I was busted for typing it first. She said she missed Kalib, who had been absent from this blog for a full day. 

So, Riana, here is Kalib. This is what was happening:

"Where's grandma?" Grandma asked.

Kalib pointed his butter knife at Grandma.

"Where is Grandpa?" Grandma asked. Kalib pointed the butter knife and me and actually touched me with it.

"Where is Momma?" Grandma asked. Kalib pointed his knife at Momma and touched her, just like he touched me.

I don't feel as burned out as I did this morning, but I still feel burned out.

No telling what will happen tomorrow, but, like I wrote last night, I could blog lightly all week long. Then again, something dramatic might happen.

Riana, I've got a couple of really good leftover picture stories of Kalib and his cousin Gracie that I still want to post. They both will require some editing time, but now that I know you are there and that you miss Kalib when he does not appear, it is more likely that I will actually get around to posting them before everybody grows too much older.

Jobe on the phone, a biker in the snow, along with other big vehicles; blogging with Jimmy

I can't believe it! It is now already two full weeks since Jobe was born. And I have not laid eyes upon him for 12 days. I have missed him every single one of those days - just as I have missed his big brother, Kalib. As I waited in the drivethrough at Metro today, I heard the text message tone go off in my iPhone.

It was this picture, sent by Lavina.

Jobe is growing so fast and I am missing it all. 

But, weather permitting, Margie and I plan to drive into town after we get up. We will see him again.

Finally, a little new snow. The temperatures are still warm - mid 20's today. Sadly, Laverne is going to take Gracie back to Arizona and the rez on Sunday and unless Nature gets her act together fast, when everybody asks if she froze in Alaska, Laverne will have to say it was warm the whole time she was here.

What fun will that be?

Of course, it's always warm when it snows. It can't snow when the temperature is cold. Maybe we will all get lucky and some cold weather will come just before Laverne and Gracie leaves.

My friends up on the Slope have been experiencing brutal weather lately.

That's what they tell me on Facebook. Nobody has said anything about temperatures. They have just said that it has been cold and windy. And when an Arctic Slope Iñupiat states on Facebook that it is cold and windy, you can pretty much believe its true.

Especially if they say, 

"Alapaah!"

A bit further along, I saw this school bus.

And then this snow plow.

Two nights ago, I mentioned how I was typing away with my good black cat buddy, Jimmy, sprawled across my chest. I also noted that I have had a great deal of time to practice this technique.

So tonight, I started working on my blog and, once again, there was Jimmy, sprawled across my chest, except that this time he was lying on his side.

I decided that I might as well try to photograph the scene, so that my readers will know that I do not lie or exagerate. So here I am, typing, working on this very blog post as Jimmy sprawls across my chest.

And I am taking a picture, too.

This is what is known as "multi-tasking."

Jimmy and I are good at it.

Jimmy sits up to think about things. Jimmy likes to think. He is a thinking cat. He is not quite as deep-a-thinker thinking cat as Thunder Paws was, but still, he is a thinking cat.

He thinks about many things.

He is very bright.

He is a bright cat.

A bright black cat.

He then executes a maneuver that would distract a lesser blogger, but, as you can see, I blog on, undettered. My powers of concentration amaze me.

Jimmy and I, blogging together.

Jimmy. My good black cat buddy.

What a character. What a friend.

How could I even do this blog without him?

I walk to Metro Cafe and take a few shots inside

Margie took the car and drove to Anchorage to see baby Jobe today, so I did not take my walk until 3:30. Then I headed toward Metro Cafe. As I walked through the melt on the bike and pedestrian trail that is closed to motorized vehicles, I had to step into the slush to let this guy pass.

There is a snowmachine and four-wheeler trail on the other side of the road.

On the other hand, I do have to admit that when the snow falls deep and then the snowmachines illegally come and pack down a path, it is kind of nice.

Down below, a bicycle rider chose the hazards of narrow Lucille Street over the slush of the bike trail.

Remember the cute kids who posed for a through the window study at Metro? I found one of them, Jennifer, left, plus two that were not there that day, playing in a puddle. I was walking in a big hurry so I did not stop to talk and ask questions, like, "hey, you, two! What are your names?" I just took the picture and moved on. The temperature was about 40 degrees, maybe 41 or 42.

When will we get back to winter?

As I am posting this Friday night, it is possible that by Monday, the day this post appears, we will be back into winter, but, somehow, I don't think so.

This is Melissa. She comes to Metro Cafe just about every day. "I look intense," she said, when I showed her the picture.

And this is Joshua, who planned to go church after leaving Metro.

He came walking through my town in the snow; Royce setback; an accident, a horse and a few teenagers

As I have written a few times, I keep experiencing odd coincidences. This has been going on for years now and it happened again today. When I took this picture, I had A Prairie Home Companion on the radio and a Utah Phillips song was being performed by Robin and Linda Williams:

I'm walking through your town in the snow,
I'm walking through your town in the snow,
I got no place to go, all the trains are running slow
And I'm walking through your town in the snow

I carry my home on my back,
I carry my home on my back,
But the police only frown, every time I lay it down,
And I'm walking through your town in the snow

The train track was just across the street and the Wasilla Police station just ahead. The man wasn't carrying a pack, though. He was pulling a piece of rolling luggage.

So we finally got a modest dropping of snow to coat the old stuff. Nothing to brag about - six inches, maybe. Still, I was glad.

I suspect that this fellow could have just as soon gone without it.

I wonder why he was walking through my town in the snow?

I'm afraid Royce has had a couple of bad days. Something is leaking out of him and it stinks terribly. It has almost made me barf a couple of times and has left me feeling sick to my stomach, but different than the usual way. I haven't yet figured out how to describe it. Yesterday, I gave him a bath, but it all came back and I fear it would be too hard on him to have another bath right now. I have made a warm place for him and try to keep him off the furniture, because whatever he comes in contact with stinks, too, but he managed to slip by and get onto the couch. Once he did, the damage had been done.

I did not have the heart to make him move until he was ready. 

I called the vet this morning, hoping to get him in. They could not get back to me until nearly closing time (they close early on Saturday's). I explained what was happening and they had a couple of theories, but did not see it as an emergency.

So he is scheduled to go back to the vet Monday morning at 11:00 AM.

We may have to postpone, because I think Lavina is likely to be giving birth at that time.

Two snowmachines coming down Wards.

Pickup truck on Seldon. The ISO control on my pocket camera had inadvertantly slipped to 2500. I don't care. It just gives the picture a different feel, that's all - more contrasty and grainy.

Ditto.

Minor traffic accident near the corner of the Palmer-Wasilla and Parks Highways.

Horses on Sunrise.

Through the Window Metro Study, #9701. These numbers are completely arbitrary, because I cannot remember them from one post to the next. The tall man is Nick and he used to work at Northern Air Cargo in Anchorage with Carmen. That's his son on the left, but they had already moved on when I got the ID's and his name had slipped out with him.

A group of teens caught in my rearview mirror.

I return to Wasilla and then kick about around town

It's about time this blog just kicked around Wasilla for bit. I begin in the parking lot outside Mat-Su Valley Family Restaurant, where this little American flag fluttered in the breeze from the back window of someone's car.

And this was one of many scenes inside, where the ham, eggs, hashbrowns, toast and coffee were all very tasty. Margie won't return from being snowed in down in Arizona for another full week yet. I will probably wind up here again a time or two between now and then.

In the afternoon, I took a walk with a half moon above.

I had not walked far before this dog came trotting down the street, eager to meet me. I was afraid that it would want to follow me, but it only wanted to say, "hello." Then it turned around and returned from whence it came.

This dog's name is Sampson. He was walking with a woman named Summer, and a black and white dog named Cher.

A little further along, I came upon a young man sitting on a four-wheeler going nowhere. "You're not broke down, are you?" I asked.

"No," he said. "I ran out of gas and then my battery died." Someone had gone to pick up what he needed to get going again.

"Bill is my name," I said.

"Good to meet you, I'm Eric," he said, as he extended his hand.

We shook hands.

"Good luck," I said.

Then I walked away, leaving him to sit on his machine to wait for gas and a battery.

An airplane flew overhead.

On my coffee break, I took the car to the gas station. As I was filling the tank, I heard the whistle and the clacking rumble of the train coming down the tracks.

"Damnit!" I said, because my camera was buried deep in my pocket and I did not know if I could get it out and turned on before the engines passed by.

It was a big challenge, but I did it and here is proof.

As always, when the train rumbled by, it gave me a thrill.

Then I was back in the car, and as I approached Kendall Ford, I began to pass a long truck, with a flatbed at the back. On the flatbed were two vans, both of which claimed to have fire extinguishers inside.

This is the trailer of the same truck. As you can see, it is an Alaska truck.

And this is the cab, now falling behind me.

And here I am in the parking lot outside of Pet Zoo, where I have stopped to buy Royce some good, healthy, soft, cat food. I did a self-portrait of myself, with this dog.

He must have been scraping ice. It's been so long since Wasilla has had anything but a token snowfall. Early December, maybe.

I passed these kids on their snowmachines.

I saw these people walking down Spruce Street.

Late at night, just before they closed, I drove to Dairy Queen, where a young woman named Ashleigh sold me a vanilla cone dipped in chocolate. The temperature was right about 0 degrees (-18 F); much warmer than when I made my first trip to the new Dairy Queen last January.

Then, the temperature was about -30 (-35 C). Last winter was much colder than this winter, all over Alaska. This has been a warm winter for us, even as it has been a cold winter for people down south.

Poor Margie. Snowbound and freezing in Arizona.