On the day that Mike Williams drives his dogs into Nome, a lady gives me a biscuit for Muzzy; a dog rides in a car in front of me

I checked the Anchorage Daily News Iditarod standings webpage and discovered that Mike Williams drove his dogs over the finish line in Nome today at 2:17 PM, to finish 41st overall.

Today, I had planned to post the story that I promised when I posted the images of Mike and his dogs taking off at the Willow restart. I did some work on that post, too, but then ran out of time. I plan to post it tomorrow.

In the image above, taken in the summer of 2000, Mike holds some newborn pups at his dog lot in Akiak. When I look at this picture, I wonder if any of these pups made the team when they grew up? If so, such pups would likely be retired now.

One day, I will show Mike this picture and ask him.

And this is Carly, the clerk at the new Tesoro station on the corner of Seldon and Church, 1.5 miles from the house. Jacob, Kalib, Muzzy and I had just walked there.

I went in to buy some Pepsi, while the other three waited outside. Carly spotted them and gave me the biscuit.

"Do you give biscuits to everybody who comes by with a dog?" I asked.

"Pretty much," she answered.

I guess I will have to buy gas there, sometime soon.

And this is the dog that I spotted on the road in front of me, while going down Lucille Street. Its name is Frederick(a) von Appleburger. I don't know why anyone would give a dog such a name.

And here is Kalib, who fell asleep on the walk. He stayed asleep, in his stroller, for maybe two hours after his dad brought him in.

The walk was a chilly one. It was -11 (-24 C) at the house when we got up this morning. By the walk, the temperature had warmed to above zero, but the wind was brisk.

Kalib never seemed to mind at at all.

Nasuayaaq gives Kalib his Eskimo name

I am a bit overwhelmed by this. I can hardly write about it. Margie, Lavina, Kalib and I all went to town today, where I spent some time visiting George and Maggie Ahmaogak of Barrow, in their Anchorage home. When the three of them came back to pick me up, Lavina brought Kalib in so that he could meet George and Maggie.

When they entered, Kalib reached out his hands to Maggie and went right to her. Then George stepped into his sight. He reached out to George. The whaling captain and former Mayor of the North Slope Borough scooped my little grandson up into his arms and the two laughed and smiled.

They seemed overjoyed to see each other.

And all the time, my pocket camera was in my pocket. I missed the moment.

And then George gave Kalib an Eskimo name - Nasuayaaq. His own.

He explained to Lavina that Nasuayaaq was a great whaling captain, one who always fed and took care of his community.

Kalib suddenly walks - the series

I stood by the kitchen sink. Kalib stood about three feet away, where he leaned toward the cabinet against which he supported himself with his hands. Lavina rouched in the same position that you see here, about two feet away from Kalib.

He turned toward her, removed his hands from the cabinet, took one step, right into her arms. Suddenly, all the adults present - Lavina, Margie, and me, began to shriek, squeal, laugh and applaud with joy.

Kalib had taken his first step.

It was 7:28 PM, yesterday.

I did not have my camera in hand.

I ran into my office to grab it - the 5D 2, because of them all, it does the best in low light and the light was really low. It was not there. 

I ran outside, to the car. There it was.

Fortunately, it had not yet completely chilled as I had driven recently.

As I stepped back into the house, I saw Kalib, this time in the middle of the living room, take another step into Lavina's outstretched arms.

"His second step," she said happily.

His third ended in a dive onto the cat, Royce, but I promised Grahamn Kracker that I would him put the cat diving series on his blog, No Cats Allowed.

What you see above is Lavina coaxing him to take his fourth step.

He takes it - again, right into her arms.

The two separate, and Lavina again reaches out her arms to him - but Kalib suddenly becomes bold and walks away in the opposite direction. 

Soon the two move into the kitchen. This time, when Kalib tries to walk toward her, Lavina frames him in her camera, which she has set to video.

He is a little unsure of himself and thinks mighty hard about his next step.

He takes it, gains his confidence, moves a step closer to Mom and laughs out loud.

Soon, he is in the opposite corner, by the laundry, he turns back toward her, then totters. For a moment, it seems as if he will fall.

But Kalib doesn't fall! Kalib is a walker now. Mom starts to cry (see yesterday's entry as well),

And then, suddenly, he does fall - face first. He bumps his head on the floor.

Now Kalib cries. Mom picks him up. He knows that he has everybody's attention now and enjoys the fact that everyone is pouring sympathy upon him, so he lets out the loudest, most animated cry yet.

Grandma offers him a Grahamn Kracker. Kalib stops his crying and takes it.

We had already eaten when Kalib took his first step, so we waited until tonight to take him out to dinner to celebrate. Dinner took place at Jalepeno's, about three miles from the house. The rest of us drove, but we let Kalib walk, now that he knew how.

He even beat us to the restaurant - which is understandable, because we gave him a four-hour headstart.

After dipping a chip in his quacomole, Kalib surprised us all again, but uttering his first, complete paragraph, which he launched with an exclamatory.

"Damnit, Grandpa!" he launched. "Why the hell did you make me walk? It was snowing out there. I almost got hit by a snowmachine. A moose tried to jump on me. A little girl ran out of her house and kissed me. Why, Grandpa! Why? Why the hell did you do it? Damnit. Damnit, anyway."

I felt so proud!

My little grandson, walkin' and cussin'!