March 20, 2003
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Playing Catch-Up
I’ve decided to deal with my blog backlog by cramming most of it into one blog. Beware of sudden topic-shifts.
The shot above was taken with the new Fuji camera, the first time I took it out on a water run. Wow, how that thing eats batteries! I feel like dragging an extension cord and the AC adapter wherever I go. *grin*
At the spring, a lot of bare ground has been showing since the weeks of rain, followed by weeks of high winds. That first shot above shows how it looked a few days ago, with glacial flows of ice from the roadside ditch covering one of the paths down to the waterhole.
It snowed here last night, so it all looks different now. If the sun comes out today, I may get some pics of the snow. Otherwise, with this overcast, it would just be the usual gloomy black and white nothing of a day, not worth recording.
Sudden cold created the flowing-water-patterned ice above, and the surface has been polished by the same winds that shaped the chaotic knobbly icicles hanging over the wavy surface. This is a closeup of the underside of the freight-pallet platform on which we stand to fill our buckets and jugs.
That’s my boy, showing off his agility and adaptability, working around some difficult conditions at the spring. The sandy slope in the foreground is a layer of sand spread over the slick icy compacted snow. Getting in and out of the waterhole wasn’t hard, but finding a place to stand to work was tricky.
It was a routine water run, except for the neighbor who showed up near the end. I don’t know her name, but from things she said about trying to get water out of Caswell Creek and falling through the ice, I can infer approximately where she lives.
While she waited for Doug to finish filling our jugs, we swapped stories. She had a funny one about her childhood, when her father came in drunk from a water run and spilled a milk-can of water. It was cold, and she and her sister skated in the hallway next day.
We’ve had some icy water spills in our house from time to time, too. Once, when the mop froze to the floor as I tried to clean up a spill, I waited, used a hammer later to break up the ice, and then picked up the spilled water with my fingers. Alaska is a great place to visit (support tourism) but YOU wouldn’t want to live here (preserve the sparse population).
Tuesday, the day after the above water run, Greyfox and I went the fifty miles to Wasilla for groceries and such. Regular readers here know how much I dislike going to town. I take antihistamines to help me with my chemical sensitivities on those trips, but it’s usually unpleasant anyway. This one wasn’t as bad as usual. Fatigue didn’t really catch up with me until I got home and got the groceries put away.
There were many signs of the recent storms farther down the valley where the winds were the strongest. One huge steel industrial building looked as if someone had used a giant can opener on it. Debris lay alongside the road and fluttered in the trees. Signs were either damaged or missing–I think the intact signs were in the minority. Some of the stores where we shopped had windows and glass doors replaced with plywood.
One of our favorite restaurants, the Windbreak Cafe, is closed now. The roof over the attached motel was damaged in the storms. A fire started in there during the night before our trip to town, and the motel was substantially damaged. The restaurant is expected to reopen soon, but the hotel portion may have to be demolished.
Iditarod update:
Links below are to stories in the Anchorage Daily News. More can be found at www.iditarod.com.
The race is over. Russ Bybee of Willow (one of the two towns between which we live) won the Red Lantern Award on Tuesday as the last musher into Nome.
At right, Tyrell Seavey is eating pasta primavera with shrimp at the Ruby checkpoint. Martin Buser dines on tenderloin steak and butter-drenched shrimp along lonely stretches of the trail. Click on Tyrell’s pic to read the story, “Musher chow gets closer look.”
Clint Warnke was named the race’s “most improved musher”. He’s a young man who once worked as a dog handler for now-retired four-time champion Doug Swingley. Clint doesn’t own a dog team. This year he ran the veterinary education team. Dee Dee Jonrowe and Charlie Boulding were named the “most inspirational” mushers. I’ll second that.
I have gotten so much response, in comments and by email, to the Tarot blog, that I am considering doing a series of Tarot readings here. I will be responding to the comments soon.
Comments (8)
it’s amazing what wind can do, isn’t it?
water freezing on the floors inside?? ok. you’re right…I do want to see Alaska someday but I don’t think I’ve got “the stuff” it would take to live there.
and yes. look at me. first? (maybe…) same day you posted…surprised????
Tarot blogs would be fun.
i l-o-v-e your photos… all of them
I would absolutely love to visit Alaska one day, but you’re right…I’d never live there, I’m not hardy enough…Beautiful pictures though:)
-M
I’d love for you to do a series of tarot readings.
Great pics! It’s been a long time since I had to do water runs, but I’m sure they were never in as adverse weather as you have. And I remember complaining. I just didn’t realize how fortunate I was, and am now.
Watch out, you’re showing your intestinal fortitude!
I really enjoyed that, Alaska being one of the few states I haven’t been to, I actually learned a lot. Very interesting and well written. I really do like your posts.
D-
I wish you blessings and abundance, Susu!