March 31, 2004

• An Extraordinary Day

  My day got off to an excellent start, and I have no obvious reason, no
  excuse, for that.  I just woke up feeling good (emotionally–the
  physical stuff was about like usual) and was immediately looking
  forward happily to driving down the valley to see Greyfox and pick up
  my sponsee at the rehab center for an NA meeting later. 

  Then the phone rang.  It was Greyfox.  He said it was snowing
  and windy and he would be taking the day off to sort and price some new
  inventory he’d received, and to try and get stuff organized and stowed
  away in his little cabin in Wasilla.  He said he too was looking
  forward to our spending an afternoon together.  “This being like
  ships passing at meetings is no fun,” he said.  His plan was for
  me to pick him up and do the driving to our favorite Mexican restaurant
  and wherever else we needed and/or had time to go before I had to pick
  up my sponsee.

  I’d
  been up for an hour or two by the time he called, and I still had
  several hours before I had to leave, so I spent an easy morning
  blogging and playing Disgaea on the PS2.  When I looked outside, I
  was relieved that the one to two feet of snow that had been predicted
  for last night turned out to be only about three or four inches, and that it had stopped snowing.

   I had to fumble around in it to find the end of the extension
  cord where my block heater was plugged in, to unplug it before I
  left.  Then I had to brush all that snow off and scrape the ice
  off my windshield.  The State Troopers can give us tickets if they
  see us driving on the highways with a load of snow, letting it blow off
  on the road.   By the time I was done, my gloves were soaked
  and my fingers were numb.  Should have worn my heavy mittens, I
  suppose.

  I took off the gloves and put them on the dash to dry over the
  defroster vents.  I drove with my right hand and held the left one
  in the warm air flow from the defroster for seven miles, until the
  feeling started coming back (ouch) and then switched hands.  About
  there was where I saw two pairs of birds soaring and circling.  As
  I drew closer to them, I could see that the higher pair were bald
  eagles.  The other two, close to the treetops, were ravens. 
  My impression was that the ravens were “playing eagle”, imitating the
  big raptors’ mating flight.

  By
  the time I’d gone about fifteen miles, my hands were thawed and my
  shivering had stopped, so I stopped at Kashwitna Lake and got out to
  get this pic of the buildings on the far edge of the lake for LuckyStars.
  Marian, the resolution is not good and it’s rather distant, but maybe
  you can see the two buildings there, just to the right of the
  island.  That’s the source of that little lone light that
  intrigued you in the night-time shot I posted last summer. 
  Somebody lives out there.  It must be nice, except when it comes
  time to plow the snow from that driveway.

  Back out on the highway, about the time I got to Willow I realized that
  I unaccountably had a big silly grin on my face.  Maybe it was
  from having come out from under the clouds into some sunshine. 
  Maybe it was Chuck Mangione on the radio:  Feelin’ So Good. 
  At the edge of town I’d slowed from the 65 mph limit down to 45 in the
  construction zone, partly just because that’s good citizenship (eh?),
  and partly because the traffic fines are double in construction
  zones.  With my silly grin and my leisurely pace, I felt
  conspicuously conspicuous going through town at the head of an
  impatient caravan of would-be speeders.  Before I was all the way
  through town, two of them blew by me, a white van and then a little red
  car.  Then I saw the brake lights on the red car flash on, and
  next I saw why:  the State Trooper in the oncoming lane.  AHA!

  Nothing more notable than the ususal breathtaking scenery and normal
  traffic occurred until I was between Houston and Nancy Lake.  Then
  five or six cars ahead of me slowed to a second-gear crawl and I asked
  myself, “What’s this?” as I applied the brakes.  What it
  was:  three puppies standing at the mouth of their driveway
  watching cars go by.  I guess one of the drivers ahead of me
  thought they were going to run out in the road, but they were only
  looking at the traffic.  I think they were waiting for someone.

  I
  had intended to get a pic of Greyfox at his cabin, but I forgot that in
  the rush of greetings and the exchange of stories about what we’d been
  doing.  I also forgot about having the camera with me at the
  restaurant.  As I drove across town after our late lunch, I kept
  looking at that snowy mountain, part of the Chugach Range, on the other
  side of Wasilla.  Then I remembered the camera.  When I
  pulled in at the supermarket for my bananas and Doug’s cereal, I got
  out in the parking lot and got this shot.  I think it typifies
  Wasilla.  It is a fast growing town full of new and tawdry
  buildings. a cheap plastic jewel in that fantastic natural setting.

  My sponsee told me she is leaving the rehab ranch.  She has to
  appear in court a few hundred miles away next week, will be facing a
  mandatory jail sentence for DUI, and does not plan to go back to the
  ranch afterward.  I think her attitude is good, and I don’t think
  the ranch was doing her much good.  Tonight, she said she had
  gotten more help with her recovery out of a bag of audiotapes I’d taken
  to her than she had from the counseling and meetings she’d had at the
  ranch.  They included an audiobook of The Four Agreements, a drumming tape for shamanic journeying, a couple of guided meditations, and Dick Sutphen’s 125 Most Important Metaphysical Concepts, just
  an assortment of old favorites of mine I had lying around.  Now
  those tapes are making the rounds and a couple of other residents have
  asked her if she will leave them with them when she goes. I told her
  that was okay with me.  Her plan is to make copies of them to take
  home with her.  Tonight, I handed her Sylvia Browne’s Healing Your Body, Mind, and Soul, which had fallen out of the bag in the back seat last week.  She said that sounded like just what she needed.
  

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