June 14, 2003

• The griz that got away…

  
  

  I had a great day in Wasilla yesterday.  Greyfox called me Thursday night and mentioned that he saw a great chair to replace the folding thing he’s been using in his cabin, sitting outside a thrift shop that had already closed for the day.  His plan was to be there at 10 AM when they reopened.  Since I was going in anyhow, we arranged to rendezvous in the thrift shop parking lot.  We had a few moments for a parking lot display of affection before the store opened, then bought some great bargains.  I rewarded myself for recently having dropped about 70 pounds and four sizes, with some “new” clothes.

  
  

  My routine has shaken out to two trips a week into the city 50 miles down the valley.  Tuesdays I go in for NA, and always make at least one or two AA meetings since I’m in town anyway.  Friday my service work takes me in for the meeting of the new women’s group I’m helping to get off the ground, and I reward myself with a few other meetings as well.  Yesterday it had been exactly three weeks since my first AA meeting.  I shared some, about my last relapse eleven years or so ago, and about my current gratitude for Greyfox’s latest relapse which led me into the program.

  
  

  It was past midnight after the last meeting of the day and a stop at the supermarket, when I dropped Greyfox at his little cabin and headed up the valley.  The sun had gone down about 11:30, while we were grocery shopping.  The sky to the north (where the sun sets and rises in summertime) was red, and each time the road curved that way, I could see Mount McKinley silhouetted against the hazy red sky.

  
  

  

  
  

  I pulled over a couple of times on the northern edge of Willow and got some undistinguished shots that included lights from cars, businesses and houses.  Then, nearer home I stopped at Kashwitna lake and got this shot with just the one lit-up house across the lake.  That’s where the camera’s batteries went dead.  I briefly considered putting in fresh batteries, but after sunset is skeeter time and the mosquitoes had been interfering with my aim and my comfort all along, so I stuck the camera back in the bag and got on up the road.

  
  

  About seven miles from home, I spotted a bear on the shoulder of the road.  I slowed the car, and it turned and started back up the driveway it had just come out of.  As I rolled slowly past the driveway, the grizzly, with a few glints of light reflecting off the fur on its back, was loping away up the drive, looking over its shoulder at me.  Even if I’d had batteries in the camera, and if the bear had been willing to stand there and pose long enough for me to get the camera out of the bag, there among the trees there probably wasn’t enough light for a good shot.  So, another one got away.

  
  

  

  • 2:32 pm
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