I break my absence with quick and cute: the dog who charged a polar bear cub and then got charged by a polar bear mom; two girls and pups; a special Charlie Brown plane in Nuiqsut

See the dog on the right? That's Ivory. I took this image of Ivory and friends right here in the Arctic Slope village of Nuiqsut, where I am right now, but a few nights ago, on Cross Island, I saw Ivory charge toward a polar bear cub that had wandered about 200 feet from its mom.

Then I saw the mom charge toward Ivory. Ivory then changed his mind and came running back to us.

Yes, I photographed the scene and I will share it, although I should warn you not to get your hopes too high, as the sun had already set, the sky was overcast, I was shooting a 400 mm lens handheld at something like 1/30 of a second.

I have not yet had a chance to look at the downloanded images, but I know they will be blurred. Still, I will share them.

I will comment more then.

Rochelle with cute puppy, right here in Nuiqsut. I might note that a little earlier in the day I had taken a long walk, missing Cross Island but glad that I could walk alone without carrying a gun. On Cross Island, one either carries a gun or walks with someone who is.

Usually, a warning shot will convince the bear to leave one alone.

Rochelle and Elizabeth, right here in Nuiqsut, with puppies.

And this is Lucy Mae, with puppy. Whale shares are being divided in the background.

Rochelle, loving puppy.

Everts Air on the Nuiqsut strip. I will have more on this plane in Uiñiq magazine.

Although it started with an immense personal disappointment, this has been a wonderful and amazing trip and I have shot many, many, pictures for Uiñiq. I have not had a chance to do any editing at all, but within my larger Uiñiq take there are three or four little stories that I plan to share on this blog - and yes, the polar bears are one. And I have what I think is a wonderful little story about an Eskimo drum - and, of course, there was that very brief stop at a haunted house that sits all by itself, right on the edge of the Arctic Ocean.

Something bad has happened to my laptop. The screen image is rapidly vibrating, bouncing up and down. It is extremely annoying to look at it - just putting this blog together has given me a headache and made me dizzy! - and it is impossible to edit and process photos. I can't color balance them at all. I have no idea how the images I have placed here actually appear in terms of color, contrast and all those kind of things that photographers worry about.

I plan to be home Sunday. I may not, or I may, post again before then. It is just too aggravating to work on this malfuncting computer. I may just wait until I get back to my desktop computer.  I don't know, I don't know.

I'm not even going to attempt to proofread this, either. Words are jumping all over the page.

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One image from breakfast, three from coffee break: the resolute couple; Metro portrait; Mahoney Ranch; hitch-hiking to the State Fair

This morning, I was wise. I cooked oatmeal and ate it. But these images are from yesterday and yesterday I was foolish and did what I wanted - I got up, dressed, said good-bye to the cats and headed over to Mat-Su Valley Family Restaurant for breakfast.

As I sipped coffee and waited for my ham and eggs, this couple left the restaurant and then walked by my window, resolute to the face the day.

Somehow, the day is a little easier to face after a breakfast at Family.

Sure, today I had oatmeal and that was the right thing to do, both in terms of my economy and health.

But how am I ever going to face this day?

At the usual time, 4:00 PM, as All Things Considered came on the radio, I headed to Metro Cafe for my afternoon coffee break. It had been awhile since I had shot a Through the Metro Window study, so I shot this one:

Through the Metro Window Study, #444: Carmen, Lily, Willow and Nola.

Again, I took the long way home, the route that goes by Grotto Iona and the Mahoney Ranch. Tim Mahoney was out pitching hay. I was going to shoot the picture in the usual way, from the car as I drove on by without stopping, but I suddenly decided to stop, get out of the car, shoot a couple of frames and chat a bit.

So that's what I did. Among the stories Tim told me about was how he had once been out near Council, when he looked up the embankment that rose over him and saw a big musk-ox standing above him and above the musk ox, a red falcon observing.

As I doubled back down Church towards home, I saw this young couple hitch-hiking. I used to pick up hitch-hikers all the time, but quit because too many bad things happened to others who did. But, somehow, I knew this couple would do me no harm, so I picked them up.

They had badly overslept but were up now, headed to the State Fair in Palmer. So I drove past the turn to my house, took them two-and-a-half more miles to the Parks Highway and dropped them off there, where there would much more traffic coming by than on Church Road.

I do have my Era Aviation ticket now and I fly north early tomorrow morning.

It could be awhile before I blog again, but I can't say for sure, so please check back, anyway.

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