July 12, 2003
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Remind me not to try that again.
*shudder*
Not this– everything was fine when I pulled the car off the side of the road high on a hill overlooking the Susitna River Valley southwest of Willow on my way home from Wasilla around 1 AM today. It’s not a great moon shot. I’m getting used to the limitations of the digital camera and its zoom and the not-so-great lenses I have for it. Frankly, I miss the old SLR and long lens, but appreciate the quick results and economy of digital photography. Trade-offs. I may not like them, but I can live with them. What choice do I have?
It’s these next shots I don’t think I want to try again until skeeter season is over… and when the mosquitoes are gone, so will the fog and mist be gone for another year.
When I got close to home, I noticed that the muskegs on both sides of the highway near the spring where we get our water were foggy. I pulled off, grabbed the camera, and walked out to the edge of the marsh… and donated some blood to the next generation of skeeter bugs. More blood that I really wanted to give. In fact, I’d rather not let the littles suckers snorkel me. We know it’s just a matter of time before West Nile virus arrives here with some migratory birds. I don’t want to be one of the first Alaskans to get it. I don’t want to get it at all. Ah, well, c’est la vie.
For a look at what this scene is like on a sunny day, click here. My thrift shop expedition was a success. I spent two hours and $10 for two very tightly packed bags of stuff. When I got all the price tags off, they added up to $108, and that’s low thrift store prices. The haul included Jordache jeans for me that fit like a second skin, several jackets for Doug and me, 4 pairs of pants for him… lotsa stuff. Then, by the old when-it-rains-it-pours principle, an embarrassment of riches. Hauling out a bag of trash from the meeting room, I found a big box of discarded clothes beside the dumpster. Some fit Doug, some fit Greyfox, some fit me, and some fit another woman at the meeting. The rest will be donated to the Women’s Center for their thrift shop. And now, about 24 hours after I got up “this” morning, it’s about time to get to bed “tonight”. Temporal disorientation… sleep deprivation… nighty-nite.
Comments (11)
WOW, you really cleaned up at the thrift store. My hubby is the thrift store shopper in the family. The photos are neat too.
I love charity shops; you never know what you’re going to find.
I read that you can get this little electronic thing to clip to your clothes which emits a particular sound to repel mosquitos; have you tried that? I tend to be a little skeptical about these things until I hear they work (I’ve tried tons of insect repellent sprays that did nothing of the sort), but thouhgt I’d mention it just in case.
omg suse…..I love that second photo….the fog/mist/whatever it is……
the deep, deep blue…..no sun……
aaauuuugh!
it’s hauntingly beautiful
(mosquitoes are bugs of the damned I tell ya… Demon critters)
Thrift stores are just the BEST. And you probably got HUNDREDS of dollars of clothes. Department stores are just insane. I can’t go back.
ANG–all three of us have those electronic skeeter chasers. Ours are solar powered, and never work at night. The don’t seem to work very well in the daytime, either. If they have an effect, it isn’t on every species of mosquito. There are over thirty known species in Alaska. The ones that got me last night are some we call “little stingers”. They are fast, seem to swarm in clouds as opposed to coming singly as some of the bigger ones do, but their stinging bites don’t swell up as badly or itch as long as some do.
Greyfox’s first summer here, he collected mosquito corpses: killed them as gently and non-destructively as he could (not like the rest of us, who just slap and then do a smearing motion to make sure they don’t fly away again), and put them in a film canister. He had fun, one day, dumping the collection out and seeing how many different ones he could identify. My eyesight isn’t that good up close. He is very near-sighted, can focus millimeters from his eyeball. I’d need a microscope.
Congratulations on the clothing finds. Nothing more satisfying than when something fits like a second skin.
If there is ONE skitter per square mile, it will find me. They love me. ~sigh~
Thrift store treasures — yay!! We do the bulk of our shopping in thrift stores, that and garage sales. I hardly ever set foot in retail stores.
Bag days at thrift stores?
LOVE IT, LOVE IT, LOVE IT!!!
(The only problem is where to store it all once i get home!)
Very nice photos
Thanks for your comments – my blood type is A+
And I’d been told that skeeters in Alaska were the size of B-52′s (realized that was an exaggeration), and would carry off a small child and/or pet. Guess that doesn’t apply to all the skeeters there!
Liked the last photo best. Yes, 2nd hand clothes are the best: they don’t shrink and they don’t lose half their value the moment you walk out of the store with them. And you can afford Sax5thAve labels. Can’t beat that. Unless you normally can afford the Sax labels, anyway. I have a preference for Gucci, but only because the word is so cute. Like gucci, gucci, goo.