Christmas Day, 2008, Wasilla, Alaska - post 2: we eat, give gifts, and go to the movie

We sat down to eat our Christmas dinner about 4:00 PM. Baby Kalib was in the bedroom he shares with his parents, fast asleep.

About half-way through, we heard him cry. His mom went back to get him. Everyone was pleased to see him. See the picture of Kalib on the cabinet? I took that on the day that he was born - December 26, 2007.

Guess who's going to be the big star of tomorrow's entry?

The first gift that I grabbed from under the tree was addressed to Stephanie, from Charlie. Everyone watched as she opened it. It was ear rings. After that, the gift unwrapping became a free-for-all.

Everyone cheered when baby Kalib sat down in his new sled.

I got a new pair of snowshoes. Ever since the snow stuck in early October, I have been longing to put on my cross-country skis and head into the mountains. But the doctor told me to be patient, to wait until next year. Lately, the kids heard me talking about how I was going to get my skiis out, and go, and they thought it would be safer for me to be on snowshoes.

I have a pair, somewhere, but who knows where? Maybe one of my kids borrowed them. I don't think I am in good enough shape right now to go very far on snowshoes. But I will soon go, anyway.

After the gift-giving, we went to the 7:00 PM showing of "Marley and Me" at the Wasilla theatre. I usually avoid this theatre, because the movie rooms are very small and the tiny screens cannot hold the full image, but none of us felt like driving to Anchorage or even Eagle River, so here we went.

Baby Kalib started to cry after awhile. His Dad took him out into the hall until he quieted down, then brought him back in. Soon, he started to cry again. Dad again got up, but Margie wanted him to be able to enjoy the movie, so she got up and spent the rest of it out in the hall with baby Kalib.

This is how I found them when the movie was over.

Afterward, we returned to the house and ate pumpkin chiffon pie and raspberry goup. Melanie made the pie. It was superb! Lavina whipped up the goup. It was the best goup that I have ever eaten.

I should have taken a picture, but I was too busy eating pie and goup.

note: A click will reveal a larger copy of any photo.

Christmas Day, Wasilla, Alaska, 2008 - post # 1: we walk

Despite all the destruction by construction that has taken place in this community in the 27 years that we have lived here, there are days when a walk in Wasilla feels just like a walk in paradise. Today, Christmas, 2008, has been such a day.

I should note that the little dog that has distracted Muzzy is the same one that mauled its owners pet bunny nearly to death, down on the corner where the chicken crossed the road, the rooster got shot and the drunken good humor lady crashed her ice cream truck.

I love this place. I can't help it. I just do.

Wasilla, Alaska, Christmas Day, 2008. "Merry Christmas!" I shouted to the three people on the snowmachine as they drove past.

"Merry Christmas!" the woman in the rear shouted back, her voice muffled by her helmet and the roar of the machine.

note: A click will reveal a larger copy of any photo.

I enter the Christmas holiday in a car crash; a crabby Christmas raven named Rusty

The GMC truck that struck me. It hardly suffered a mark.

Last night, right after I wrote in here about how Jacob had been in a minor wreck in Anchorage, I climbed into the Taurus, headed toward Wal-Mart to meet Margie to do some midnight Christmas shopping and got in a minor wreck myself.

This is how it happened: As I neared the fire station on Lucille, I saw that the warning light was flashing red. This means that you are supposed to stop, as fire trucks will be racing out onto Lucille at any moment. At the same time, I saw a small fire truck, pickup-sized with all the markings, nearing the end of the driveway, less than ten feet from the road. It was partially obscured by the snow berms.

I stopped. Immediately after I did, I began to study the fire vehicle, to see what it would do. Suddenly, I heard a loud wham - the car lunged forward with a jolt and my body and head slammed hard against the seat back and headrest. Without that headrest, I would have suffered bad whiplash for sure.

I got out of the Taurus and saw this big, white, GMC pickup sitting on the road behind me. A young man, late teens or early 20's, sat in the driver's seat. There were young women riding with him.

He got out.

"Didn't you see the light flashing red?" I asked.

"No," he said, "the only thing I saw was you stop suddenly, right in the middle of the road. Why did you stop like that?"

"See the light? It's flashing red! That means you stop!" I answered.

My Taurus. It still seems to run fine, but the trunk won't close.

And so it went. I called the Wasilla police, who showed up shortly, took down all the relevant information, then sent me on my way. They kept the kid a little longer. My neck was a little sore, but not too bad. Other than that, I felt no pain and thought I was fine. I still think I am okay in the long run, but am just a little worried.

After I got home, I sat down at my computer and began to type. Soon, a very strange feeling - a combination of ache and numbness, spread through my injured arm and shoulder and into my hand. Ever since I got out of my last surgery, little things have continually happened that have brought pain and numbness to my shoulder, arm and hand but have gone away.

I can still do all my exercises, so I believe that I am okay.

And that emergency fire station vehicle that they had put the flashing red light up for? It responded to no emergency, but only wielded a snow plow. All it was doing was clearing the driveway of the afternoon and evening snow that had fallen.

So this morning, Margie and I set out to do the shopping that we had done last night. Wal-Mart was our first stop. Margie headed straight to the door, but I started following this raven as it hopped in and out through rows of parked cars. I wanted it fly, but it never did. It just kept hopping away from me.

I gave up.

"I know that individual crow by name," a woman who I found myself walking alongside of said. 

"Yea?" I bit. "What's its name?"

"Rusty," she said. "That crow is named Rusty."

"Rusty, I thought that raven was Jim," I responded. "But then I always get these ravens mixed up."

"No, that crow is Rusty," she said. "I know that crow as an individual."

We walked side by side toward the store through a few seconds of silence, then she explained.

"I knew this old lady - a real, crotchety, crabby old lady. She was so crotchety that one day I told her, 'after you die, you're going to come back as a crow and you're going to be alone.' So whenever I see a crow by itself, I call it Rusty." 

Rusty's buddies.

We bought nothing at Wal-Mart and went elsewhere to purchase our gifts. Then I took Margie home and returned to Wasilla's commercial area by myself, to get some lunch, and buy Margie a present. This is what it looked like on the Parks Highway, right by the entrance to Taco Bell, Target and a few other places.

Once there was a mall here, but they tore down the mall to make way for Target.

I bought Margie's present, or at least the frame for it, in here.

Merry Christmas!Or happy whatever holiday it is that you celebrate!

I have changed my mind...

I decided that this idea of putting this blog on hold until sometime after the New Year is nonsense. I am going to keep it going, but will attempt to discipline myself to spend a minimum amount of time on it through that time period, 15 to 30 minutes a day max. Of course, here I have reached the point where I am just starting my third sentence and I have already put more than 20 minutes into it.

Hmmm... part of this is the fault of my bloghost, Squarespace. As I have stated before, it is a buggy program, prone to misfire, and so far tonight I have had to bounce around between three windows in two separate browsers, just to get the photos placed. Some nights it works perfect, some nights it is a nightmare and cannot be brought under control no matter what I do. Tonight it seems to have fallen somewhere in between.

Okay... 25 minutes now...

I awoke very late this morning, I think because of what I went through yesterday and the night before, when I got almost no sleep, as I had to "prep" for the medical procedure referenced yesterday.

Now, I am supposed to eat a great deal of "real oats" until I clear up the damage that all these decades of an abusive diet has done to my digestive system, but after yesterday, I just had to go out for breakfast and get myself some ham and eggs.

I will eat oatmeal tomorrow.

When I walked into Family Restaurant, I saw that this man, Van Buskirk, had just sat down at a table. Sometimes, when I am out walking, he will come driving by and wave, and sometimes he stops alongside me, rolls down his window and we chat for awhile.

I was alone, so I sat down with him.

It has now been 30 minutes. I am behind schedule.

There was much from our conversation that I was going to write, but, as you can see, I am out of time.

I will note this: he served in the Pacific in World War II as part of the Army Air Corp occupation forces and then stayed in the military to make a career of it, but his heart went bad and he got drummed out. He suffered a massive heart attack and later had a few more, plus some strokes.

No one figured that he would last very long, but here he is, Van Buskirk, deep into old age, having breakfast with me at Family Restaurant. The lady showing him the love seems to be in charge of all the waitresses.

Van Buskirk picked up my ticket. I got out my wallet to at least leave the tip, but he insisted that I put it back into my pocket.

Thank you, Van Buskirk!

I should add that, after the waitress brought our food, he bowed his head and said a blessing.

It has now been 38 minutes.

After I got home, I went walking. Not far from where Van Biskirk told me he lives, I saw this secular Christmas display.

The afternoon and evening proved to be snowy and the already icy roads became dangerously slick. In Anchorage, a woman slid over the center line, smacked T-bone into my son Jacob's Tahoe and knocked him into the ditch. He did not seem to be hurt, although now he is quite stiff. Margie was at work and so, instead of working myself, I spent four hours alone with Kalib, until Jacob and Lavina finally got home.

Kalib had a great time, being alone with his youthful gramp. I enjoyed him, too, but I was left to wonder how my wife keeps up with him all day long.

During his waking hours, Kalib does not stop. I was going to describe some of his antics, but I have already exceeded my time limit by over 10 minutes.

I still must go back and put in the code that turns the opening words to every section red. If Squarespace would simply put a color button into their editor, this would be a simple task that would take seconds. I have suggested this to them a number of times, but they have some high falutin idea that they are going to force their customers to use headers correctly and they think their customers will just be lazy and ignore headers altogether if they have an option to colorize sentences, words, and letters at will.

Of course, highlighting text in the body of the blog has nothing to do with headers.

So far, they continue to refuse to add this simple feature - as well as to do many other things that would make life easier for a Squarespace blogger.

I shouldn't vent like this, but, damnit, sometimes, when you blog, and write what just comes off your fingertips as they move, you vent.

When I started this blog, I should not have leaped so fast. Now I am stuck with Squarespace - for awhile, at least. Maybe they will solve these problems and I can just stay with them.

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.