March 14, 2004

• Various Topics… Again

  
  

  

  
  

  That man letting his dogs get chummy with him is Jeff King, who is no longer in the lead in the Iditarod.  He was in sixth place, as of about twenty minutes ago.  One factor that might have contributed to King losing some time is that new sled design he’s using this year.  It’s smooth-running and fast, but too comfortable.  Other mushers have started referring to it as the Bark-a-lounger.  Jeff fell asleep and fell off in the middle of the night, and his dogs went on a ways without him. Now he admits he needs to add a seat belt.  It’s an amusing story in today’s Anchorage Daily News.  You can use the comfortable link above to read the details. 

  
  

  The image above is the only one in today’s blog not captured by me.  Other than a few brief captions, the text above is the only part of the blog that relates to any of the pictures.  I had some stuff to say, and some pictures to show, but they don’t really go together, so….

  
  

  Leading the race is Kjetil Backen of Norway, now in Kaltag.  Another Norwegian, Robert Sorlie, won last year, prompting Ramy Brooks’s mom Roxy to suggest we start handicapping the Norwegians.  Greyfox’s favorite musher and fellow Old Fart, Charlie Boulding, is now in third place out of Nulato on the way to Kaltag along with John Baker and Mitch Seavey.  Seven others including Rick Swenson, Ramy Brooks and Martin Buser are still in Nulato.  A pack of eight teams including top female mushers Aliy Zirkle and Dee Dee Jonrowe are out of Galena on the way to Nulato.  As predicted, it’s a fast race this year. 

  
  

  I saw from my window this morning that the sun was out, first time for a while.  We had several cloudy, snowy days in a row.  The trees had been heavily covered with snow, but it was melting fast and falling in clumps, which was what caught my attention in the first place.  In the shot at right, I captured some falling clumps, but they’re not very obvious.

  
  

  I never knew…
  there is a Willow, Oklahoma.  I’ve known about Willow, Arkansas for about fifteen years.  Over the years we’ve gotten several letters with postmarks indicating they had been misdelivered to Willow, AR before someone there noticed the Zip Code and sent them on to us through the Willow, AK post office.  We don’t live IN Willow, but the rural contract carrier who delivers our mail picks it up there.

  
  

  Today, we got a letter that had been to Willow, OK–twice–before it got here.  On the back of the envelope, one postmark says March 5th and another says March 8th.  There is none showing that it went to Willow, AR in between those dates, but I suspect that is what happened.  The address, in longhand on the front actually says “Willow, AR”, and someone has inked “K” over the “R”.  The manuscript A is round, and could easily be mistaken for an O.  I wonder if it actually might have gone to Oregon and then back to Oklahoma.  Is there a Willow in Oregon? 

  
  

  That business of having the envelope addressed to AR (Arkansas) is a first.  Countless times some clerk or customer service rep on the phone has asked for our Zip Code and then read the “Willow, AK” off their computer screen as Arkansas.  Whenever I overhear Greyfox saying, “No, it’s Alaska,” and then, “that’s okay, even the post office gets it wrong a lot,” I know it has happened again.  Postal clerks in various places have occasionally read the AK on a letter as Arkansas, ignored the Zip Code, and tossed our mail into a bag going to the Ozarks.  But not until now have we got mail that had been addressed to Willow, Arkansas, delivered to Willow, Oklahoma (twice) and then finally redirected here.  I’m thankful for the Zip Code that gets our mail to us eventually.  I just wish the clerks who sort the mail would look at it.

  
  

  When I turned around and headed back home this morning, Koji was there at the end of his chain, watching me.  As I approached, he moved off to my left and was showing a lot of interest in… something under the snow out of his reach.  He pulled and pawed and looked from me to the snow.  I scratched around and found a few bits of bark, but that didn’t seem to be what he wanted.

  
  

  

  
  

  After a while, some noise or scent or something off in the distance got his attention, and he forgot about whatever was under the snow.  Then suddenly he decided he wanted back in the house and I decided to accomodate him.

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

   

  • 12:03 am
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