The birthday party that I missed

While the wind did not quit blowing, it eased off enough that the Alaska Airlines jet did make it into Barrow last night and so I boarded that jet and headed south, toward Anchorage.

During our Fairbanks layover, I turned on my iPhone and this picture came in as a text message from Lavina. It is from Jobe's first birthday party that took place on Saturday, February 12, as I was busy covering Kivgiq. Please take note of the places where the frosting is missing from the cake. The larger patch to the right was made by Jobe's butt when he sat on the cake and the small ones in front of that by his feet.

I am told that he did not like sitting in the cake. Both he and Kalib did enjoy eating it.

I hated to miss my grandson's first birthday party, but I so loved being at Kivgiq and I could not miss the final day. I will make it up to Jobe before the week is over.

The plane was packed leaving Barrow and did not get out until about 45 minutes late. Margie picked me up at the airport about midnight. Since breakfast, I had not eaten anything other than the two tiny pretzel and soy beans snack bags Alaska Airlines has used to replace the steaks, fish, chicken, rice, salads, fruits, cakes and all those things that they used to feed to their customers.

I was hungry, so we stopped at the McDonald's in Mountain View and we did not get home and settled down into bed until 3:30 AM. I had not slept much during Kivgiq and I had worked hard and been on the go constantly, so I wound up sleeping in today until nearly 1:00 PM.

It felt good, but I have a headache now.

Margie and I had planned to go back to Sakara Sushi this evening to celebrate our 37th anniversary, but we wound up eating a huge, afternoon breakfast at Family Restaurant and neither of us are up for a big meal tonight, so we will have to find some other way to celebrate.

I have so much work to do now - got to start putting my Kivgiq pictures into my home harddrives and then I face a huge amount of editing.

For now, though, I can't do anything.

I am wasted - no, not that way - just worn out and in need of a little downtime. 

Kivgiq is over, I missed Jobe's first birthday, the weather is getting bad, but I hope I make our anniversary

Just at quick note so that readers will know this blog is still alive and active. Murphy's Law went into overtime for me this trip and I had to deal with so many incredibe glitches that I had no time at all to post even the simplest entry the past couple of days - but, the most important thing is that I succeeded in working around every problem, with the help of friends like Marie Itta, Alex Demarbin of the Arctic Sounder and my host, Roy Ahmaogak.

So I have a huge Kivgiq take to edit and sort and will do so after I get home. As I do, I will make a series of Kivgiq posts - late, but better than they would have been had I tried to do it while Kivgiq was in progress - and it was a wonderful and magnificent Kivgiq.

I am scheduled to leave Barrow for Anchorage on tonight's flight and, as I walked across the small lagoon back to Browerville from Pepe's and took this picture, I was optimistic that would happen.

I just poked my head outside, however, and the snow was blowing so thick and heavy that I could not see across the lagoon to the main part of Barrow, so I don't know if the jet will be able to get in tonight or not.

Tomorrow is Margie and my anniversary, so I hope that jet gets in.

Yesterday was Jobe's first birthday and I missed it.

I don't want to miss this date, too.

We'll see what happens.

Now I have much sorting out to do if I am to be ready for that jet, should it come, so I have no more time for this blog today.

When sleep will come

Sleep came for these three during yesterday afternoon's Kivgiq dancing.

I wonder when it will come for me?

Computers!

It would take too many words to explain. Suffice it to say that I returned to the house about 12:30 AM following the Singspiration and then faced a downloading nightmare that lasted the entire night - in fact, it isn't over yet, but today's events start in less than half-an-hour, so I've got to get going.

On my way to Kivgiq: beautician Leah Frankson trims the beast; my laptop monitor completely flips out

Not long ago, Leah Frankson, Iñupiaq of Point Hope, now living in Anchorage, posted a facebook message that she had just opened her own beauty salon business (907.720.9848). First, I admit that the idea of a beast like me ever going into a beauty shop is ludicrous indeed, but then good beauticians are also known for their skill at trimming unkempt beasts.

So I decided that henchforth when my hair needed cutting and my beard a trim, I would take both to Leah Frankson and let her do the job.

As it was now time for me to step back into the public eye, it was time to get a haircut and beard trim.

So I called Leah, made an appointment and then stopped in at her Anchorage Salon on my way to the airport. So here we are, Beauty and the Beast, for the obligatory "before" shot.

And here she is, cutting my hair.

Now she trims my beard.

Now for the obligatory "after" shot.

Now I am in Barrow, it is the night before Kivgiq and I have many neat pictures that I took on the way and after I got here. I had decided that I would go ahead, stay up late and make a good post.

As those who have been with me on my more recent travels know, the monitor on my laptop computer has been acting up

I had not turned this laptop on since early December. Tonight, when I first turned it on, it performed perfectly - for about two minutes and then it went completely nuts. Worse than ever.

Now, all I see is posterized pictures, impossible to edit and analyze, images appear and disappear, fade and brighten, change colors, go negative. I cannot really edit them, and I cannot even begin to process them.

So what I have decided to do is to give up any pretense of blogging Kivgiq as it happens at all. 

Instead, next week, when I am back home and back at my desktop, I will blog Kivgiq day by day as if it is just happening. For most of you, it will be as new as if I was doing it right now.

For those of you who know and love Kivgiq, you will be all danced out and will actually have time to sit down and take a look.

I will still post something every day - probably just one image of any thing - because it is too exasperating to try to do anything on this monitor.

I can barely even make out the words that I  am writing. At least half the time, I can't make them out at all.

My proof-reading will be even worse than normal.

So, excuses right now - Kivgiq next week.

In fact, next week I will start with an image of Leah again, after I have actually looked at all the pictures that I took of her, including these four, and I will write just a bit more about her.

As I continue to contemplate the future of this blog, I happen upon two moose, a kid exits a school bus and I prepare to fly to Barrow

I know - as moose pictures go, this one is fairly boring - but this is the moose picture that presented itself to me today as I set out on my walk, so it is the picture that I got.

And this is the kid-getting-off-the school bus picture that presented itself after I had walked about two miles and was returning home.

I must keep this post short. In just hours, I board a jet to Barrow and before I do, I've got to get a haircut, pick up my once broken but now repaired 16-35 mm lens as well as some other supplies and eat some tacos or something.

I fear that for the next week, my posts are likely to be tiny, next to nothing - which is the irony that I always face when I am in the field. I will be shooting pictures like crazy and I should get some pretty decent ones, but I will not have time to edit them, I will not have time to process them, my internet connection will be slow and I will be using my laptop, which is still malfunctioning because I have not been able to repair it, so I will not be able to post anything more than a token image or two per day.

I will do my best to post something every day. I can't promise, but I will do my best.

And for all of you who gave me suggestions regarding my contemplation about the future of this blog, be assured that I have read them all and am thinking about what you say.

I expect to return to Wasilla early next week and then to stay home for about three weeks before I head back into the field for a more extended stay.

I will continue the contemplation at that time and, before that three weeks is over, will seek to take at least one concrete step towards that future.

I've got to go now.

I am a very shy person, but I know that I am going to have to dance in front of a large audience at least a couple of times before this week is over.

I know it. There is no way out around it. I am going to have to do it.

I will try to make it fun.

Three from India: Bill, Vijay, and Melanie

Yesterday, my nephew Vijay left a comment on a recent post in which he made a request that I pull up a picture that he took of me at Mahabalipuram-Mamallapuram, the place where a temple is carved out of a rock.

So, as ridiculous as I look, I honor his request. You will note that my shirt is soaked with sweat. That is because it was 198.6 degrees F there. I am not kidding. I am not exaggerating. That's how hot it was.

And that was the coolest that it got the whole time that Melanie and I were in India.

This is Vijay himself, and Vasanthi, who is also his mom.

And here is Melanie, wandering about inside the temple cut out of a rock, the temple that was never finished.

I will not be able to post India pictures while I am in Barrow, but be certain, I will be remembering, continually.

View images as slide show