Kalib and Jobe visit via pixel; a single study of the young writer, Shoshana; Carmen froze in Arizona; moose in the road; elephants in the road

I have not seen these two, Jobe and Kalib, for over a week now. Lavina is pretty good at sending pix to me over the phone. I always show them to Margie. She always likes them.

For those who might have read my entry three days ago about my dream of Jobe and the grizzly bears but who may not have read all the comments, here is the one left by Lavina:

"Wow, that intense, I got chills thinkn about it! But Jobe is of the Bear clan on his Apache side so maybe that's why they befriended him b/c he's one of them...I'll give hugs to Jobe for you."

As soon as I read this comment, I went into the house, grabbed Margie, dragged her out here into my office and had her read it.

She was startled, and pleased.

"Yes!" she of the Bear Clan said. "I didn't even think of that."

And neither did I.

That's Lavina - always in tune.

Study of the Young Writer, Shoshana - this from two or three days ago. I had not planned to do any more studies of Shoshana for maybe another week, at least a few more days, but her earrings caught my eye.

Here I am, on my way to Metro again, as this kid shoots by in the opposite direction. It is Monday, January 10. Carmen has been gone on vacation since Christmas. She is supposed to be back to work today. Will she be?

She is! Elisabeth tells her I am at the drive through window. We are all happy to see each other.

"How was Arizona?" I ask her.

"Freezing!" she answers. "Cold. It was so cold, Bill! I couldn't get warm. I was cold all the time. You must bring Margie by. I must ask her about this."

It was cold everywhere she went, she says, including Phoenix and Scottsdale.

They did not take any warm clothing with them because, after all, they were going to Arizona from Alaska.

She folds her arms and draws them tight against her body, as if she is trying to conserve the heat that she lost down in Arizona. She looks like she is about to shiver.

"It was cold, Bill," she says. "Freezing cold."

 Back out on the road, this moose crossed in front of me. I could have been forced to hit my brakes and to slide all over the place, maybe right into the moose, but I was watching out for it before it ever showed itself.

I just knew that a moose was going to pop up right around here.

I felt certain of it.

Sometimes, you just know these things.

Sometimes you don't.

Then you are more likely to hit the moose.

It happened again this morning. I got to sleep somewhere between two and three am, woke up a few times and then could not sleep a wink past 5:15. Still, I stayed in bed with the covers over my head, two cats laying on me and another tucked in close to my side until Family Restaurant opened.

Then I went, sat down, was served breakfast and all the coffee that I could drink and I drank too much. I photographed myself in the window. I noticed this morning that the amount of gray or white in my hair seems to have increased by at least four-fold over what it was just this past fall.

Maybe it was the mirror and the way the light hits it. Maybe if I look in another mirror, I will see that I have not gained all this gray, after all.

I need to get my hair cut and my beard and mustache trimmed.

Wouldn't everybody be surprised if one day I just shaved my beard and mustache completely off. They would really be surprised. Nobody has seen my like that for over a quarter century. I bet my face would be really pale, and shiny.

If I were ever to do something like that, I would grow the beard back real quick.

If I didn't, I would have to shave everyday. To me, it just makes no sense to waste time shaving every day.

And these two from India

We drove through two national parks where wild elephants hang out, and both times it was after dark. But every now and then, an elephant would appear in the headlights of our taxi.

People passing through the parks are required to stay in their cars. They cannot get out and go roam around. One can only hike in the parks with a permit.

My nephew, Ganesh, Soundarya's brother, knows how to get these permits and has promised to one day take me hiking out there, among the elephants.

When she saw the elephants, Soundarya shrieked with joy. There is more to this story, of course. There always is.

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In the Grotto Iona - a moment of peace

It is true that I am not Catholic nor any longer a follower of any religion, but during yesterday's coffee break I stopped at the Grotto Iona, built by the Mahoney's both as a place to bury their dead and as a place of prayer, open to all who seek solace. I did not pray, but I did find a feeling of peace there. I will take peace wherever I fan find it, and for however long I can hold it.

Here, you will find a larger slide of the image.

I drive into the night, teeming with rage against the rage

"I am ready for real revolution and, if need be, I am ready to invoke the Second Amendment! And I know I'm not the only one..." - Josh Fryfogle, "Editor and Writer" of Make-A-Scene: The people's Paper, published monthly right here in this valley.

"Well, it's time to defend ourselves. And you know, I'm hoping that we're not getting to Second Amendment Remedies. I hope the vote will be the cure for the Harry Reid problems." Sharron Angle, whose campaign for US Senator in Nevada failed to "cure... the Harry Reid problem".

"I was willing to fight, kill or die for this country and for the ideals that it represents and that has not changed. I took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, it had no expiration on it. I remember taking that oath as a young soldier and it said that I would swear to defend the Constitution from all enemies, both foreign and domestic and I didn’t understand that domestic thing. Never in a million years did I realize that the domestic enemies would be our greatest threat and they would come from the highest levels of government in this country, from the highest positions. Today, for me, I have no eligible President in office, I have no qualified Commander-in Chief; that’s my personal opinion." - Rick, speaking at Wasilla Tea Party Rally.

"Don't retreat. Reload!" - Sarah Palin, after placing Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the crosshairs along with 19 other members of Congress she wanted to see voted out of office.

This list could go on and on... couple it also in your mind with images that I will not bother to link to of self-righteous, angry, people showing up at political rallies packing pistols and brandishing assault rifles.

Last night, I found myself driving through the darkness, the inside of my chest burning with rage - rage against the killings and woundings that had taken place in Arizona, rage against all the rage that has sunk America's political discourse to the lowest of levels these past few years, rage against the mentality that justifies the use of language such as I have quoted above and makes it seem not only acceptable to many but laudable, even patriotic, for them to make statements that in any way seem to legitimize violence against Americans who have disagreed with them at the ballot box.

Before I continue, I must stress that I am not among those who place the blame for yesterday's shooting upon Sarah Palin. The blame is on the shooter, and anyone else who may have been involved with him. I do not know the motives or politics of the shooter. For all I know, he could be out there on the left-wing fringe as easily as on the right. Yet, when the kind of mentality voiced above sinks deep enough into the public psyche, shots will be fired and they can come from any direction: left, right, straight ahead or from behind.

What I do know is that the shooter acted in the spirit of the above quotes.

Jerard Laughner readied himself for real revolution and took the kind of action implied by the statements, "I am ready to invoke the second amendment" and "Second Amendment remedies."

He killed and stood ready to be killed in an attempt to remove from office a politician that he did not see as legitimate despite the fact that other Americans had voted her in. Among those who he killed was a nine year old girl. By his action, in one moment, he erased all of her hopes, dreams and future; he took away all that she had ever been or ever would be.

A nine-year old girl.

He did not retreat. He reloaded.

Now, does this mean that I believe that any of the people that I have quoted above actually wanted what happened yesterday to happen? That I believe they approve of it?

No.

Does it mean that I feel that all those other many Americans of prominence and politics who have made similar statements or who have simply failed to take a stand against these kind of statements out of cowardly fear of alienating a base of one sort or another, actually wanted what happened yesterday to happen? That they approve of it?

No. I don't. In fact, I am quite certain that they did not. I believe those who now say that they are horrified and appalled by what happened yesterday mean it. I trust that their condolences to the bereaved are sincere.

Yet, what they did do, for their own cynical and self-serving reasons, was to foment and stir up the kind of feelings that ultimately make such actions almost inevitable. They wrapped themselves in the American Flag - MY FLAG - even as they undermined and demeaned the highest values of that flag. They sought to gain an immediate political or financial goal at the cost of the future of our nation.

I had more that I was going to write, but the anger in me still boils. I cannot trust my own words. I do not wish to add to the rage, yet perhaps that is what I am doing.

Tavra.

This is all I have to say.

"The way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district, when people do that, they have got to realize there are consequences to that." - Arizona Congresswoman  Gabrielle Giffords

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My dream of Jobe, the momma grizzly and cub; Six studies of Chicago and the great fire; boy with tire

Chicago and the great fire - Study # 1: After eating her breakfast in the cold garage, Chicago enters the living room in search of fire and warmth.

Although it had already been going on for awhile and Jobe and I had experienced some great adventures out in the country, the dream now comes sharply into my memory only at that moment when Jobe and I walked out of the woods and into a large, grassy, meadow.

Yes, I say "walked" because in the dream Jobe had grown beyond toddler stage and was able to walk quite nicely all by himself.

As we stepped into the meadow, my eyes were on Jobe and I smiled as he ran ahead of me, until we were separated by about 50 feet. I then turned to my left and was startled to find myself looking right into the eyes of a grizzly bear, standing on all fours, perhaps five feet away from me, staring directly into my eyes.

Chicago and the great fire - Study # 2: Chicago finds fire and warmth.

About 30 or 40 feet beyond her, I could see a cub playing.

Oh, boy! The only way the situation could have been worse would have been if I or Jobe had come between the sow and her cub. Even though we hadn't and that neither of us were in a position to logically threaten the cub, I was not certain just how much logic the momma bear would apply to the situation.

Momma grizzlies are not known to be rational in such a situation. If a momma grizzly perceives a threat, real or imagined, she is going to do all in her power to kill that threat.

Chicago and the great fire - Study # 3

This momma studied me intently, as I tried to keep my eyes on her, the cub and Jobe.

"We mean no harm to you or your cub, Mamma bear," I told her.

Just then, the cub started to bound in a playful way straight towards Jobe.

When the sow saw this she charged, her legs churning hard as she bound straight toward my grandson, fast. She quickly outpaced the cub and then bore down on Jobe. I felt so helpless. I had no gun and I could not run nearly so fast as that momma grizzly could.

Chicago and the great fire - Study # 4: It is a warm fire and that makes it a great fire.

"No, bear!" I shouted out a plea. "No, bear! No, bear!"

The bear quickly reached my little grandson and then stopped right beside him. She brought her nose right to his left cheek and she sniffed. Then she nudged him, gently, almost affectionately.

Then the cub reached them.

Next thing I knew, the three - momma bear, cub and Jobe were walking away from me. They all looked quite happy together.

Chicago and the great fire - Study # 5

I did not know quite what to do. I could not just let Jobe walk off with two bears, no matter how friendly disposed to him they were, but if I were to insert myself in the scene and try to remove Jobe from it, that momma bear just might kill me - and Jobe, too.

It was a hell of a predicament, I tell you.

That's where the dream ends.

Chicago and the great fire - Study # 6: Chicago is content.

And this one from India:

Boy with bicycle tire, as photographed through the open window of a taxi-cab as we passed through his village in southern India.

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The days lengthen; Eight studies of the new moon; Jimmy wastes my time; man climbs bamboo ladder

The days are lengthening. Here I am, at 4:00 PM, driving to Metro Cafe and I can actually see and photograph this guy and his bike. True, I am shooting at ISO 6400 at a slow shutter speed, underexposed by one stop, but still, I can photograph him even though there are no lights nearby.

This would not have been the case a very short time ago.

Shoshana served me my Americano and cinnamon roll, plus I brought a banana with me. I thought about doing more "Young Writer" studies of Shoshana, but I suppose I should not do them everyday but should give her a break between shoots.

Now here I am, driving away from Metro, on Schrock, toward the Talkeetna Mountains. Before I reach them, I will turn left, to the west.

I sip my coffee. I eat my cinnamon roll. I chomp on my banana. I listen to the news on All Things Considered. The NPR lady who fired Juan Williams has now been forced to resign herself.

NPR tries to get a quote from Juan, but he won't talk to them, so they pull a very embittered sounding quote from Juan Williams on Fox News, where he has been paid $3.5 million dollars to turn around on himself and is doing a very good job of it.

As I continue on, I spot the new moon. I understand that the way one is supposed to take such photos is to find just the right spot, stop his car, get out, anchor his camera on a tripod, shoot will as low an ISO as he can get away with and a stopped down aperture.

But I want to drive, to eat my cinnamon roll and listen to the news. So I shot at 6400 ISO, slow shutter speed, wide open aperture, many of the images through a dirty windshield but some, when the angle was right, through an open window.

This pictures look much neater on my big monitor and I hate to have to reduce them to this size, but that's how it is. They will appear a bit larger in slideshow view, but nothing like on my screen.

Oh well:

New Moon, Study #1

New Moon, Study #2

New Moon, Study #3

New Moon, Study #4

New Moon, Study #5

New Moon, Study #6

New Moon, Study #7

New Moon, Study #8

Well, this battle for sleep continues. I got to sleep somewhere between 1:30 and 2:00 AM and could not sleep a wink past 5:00. I stayed in bed and tried my best until just before 6:00, when I quit trying, got up and headed to Family Restaurant.

I was almost alone there, but not quite.

It appears that the dreadful heat wave is over. It is still not cold: 6 degrees F (-15 C)  at my house, but it isn't warm, either. Maybe it will get cold, maybe it won't. I wish it would snow a bunch first, because what little we have left is not so much snow as a hard, crust of ice, but if it gets cold it won't snow, because it never snows when it is cold.

Except for mid-winter rain, cold and no snow is the worst kind of winter weather - except for ice skaters, who get to enjoy long skates on snow-free lakes and marshes.

Any, here I am, having just stepped out of Family Restaurant, ready to drive home.

After I got home, I prepared the pictures for this blog post. It was now about 9:00 AM. I suddenly felt a crash coming on. I had no choice but to go lie down for a bit. Jimmy, my good black cat, came with me. I crawled under the covers and lay on my side. He climbed on top of the covers and also lay on my side.

I decided to leave it up to him to decide when I should get up. When he decided it was time to get up off of me, I would get back out of bed. I figured this could be anywhere from from five minutes to one hour. I was kind of hoping for half an hour.

Crazy cat. He didn't move for 3.5 hours and neither did I.

All that time was lost.

Well, I will make up for it tonight, when rational people are asleep.

And this one from India:

Through the window of our taxi-cab, enroute from Bangalore to Mysore: Man climbs bamboo ladder.

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