May 28, 2004

• It’s Friday.

  That means yesterday was Thursday, my day to go down the valley to
  Wasilla.   I got  my one-year Narcotics Anonymous
  key-tag.  It’s neat–glows in the dark.  I was all “Wow!” (at
  my disingenuous best) over that, holding it in my cupped hands, peeking
  in at it.  Made a lot of people laugh.  What is it, I wonder,
  that makes me delight so over playing the awestruck little girl? 
  When I was a little girl, I used to try to play it cool.  Maybe
  now I’m making up for lost awe.

  After Greyfox closed his stand, I went back to the cabin with him while
  he got ready for the meeting.  I noticed a couple of Blockbuster
  boxes on a shelf and took a closer look.  He had Trainspotting,
  and I’d been wanting to see it for years.  He said he’d be happy
  to watch it again, because a lot of the dialog had escaped him due to
  the actors’ Scots brogue, so we agreed to go back to the cabin and see
  the movie after we did our grocery shopping, after our dinner, after
  the meeting.

  But before the meeting, we still had an hour and a half and he wanted
  to hit his favorite thrift shop.  I wanted to go out the highway
  almost to Palmer, to the warehouse food outlet, the only place I know
  of in the valley to get Doug’s favorite microwavable geek food,
  barbecue “rib” sandwiches.  I took a route toward Palmer that took
  me to within a block of his thrift shop, dropped him at the corner, and
  then went back and did a little thrift shopping, too, before the
  meeting.  Greyfox found some socks, a fluorescent pink cap (wants
  to be as visible as possible at his roadside stand), and a nice silk
  shirt.  I found a Pyrex lid that just fits my Corelle soup/cereal
  bowls (for microwaving), a 25 cent flower pot, and two more pieces of
  “diner” tableware for my collection:  a heavy Buffalo China bowl
  and an Anchor Hocking water tumbler.  The total was $3.50.

  The incongruity of these two old dope fiends watching that film about
  young Scottish heroin addicts after an NA meeting hit us both at the
  same time. We laughed, and he said he’d like to watch it with one of
  the other members, a man who is big on the “people, places and things”
  dogma.  That is, in AA and NA, we’re told to avoid the people,
  places and things that remind us of when we were in active addiction
  and might lead to relapse.  But it was a fine flick.  Several
  times Greyfox asked, “What did he say?”.  I’d repeat the line, in
  my own best Scots brogue.  He’d give me a dirty look, and then I’d
  translate for him.  For me, seeing the pain and chaos that others
  put themselves through for and because of drugs helps reinforce my
  abstinence.

  No more
  darkness here for us for a few months.  Last night dusk lasted
  until dawn.  The movie made me a couple of hours later getting
  home than usual, and about the time I was wondering if it would get
  dark I noticed it was starting to grow lighter.

  As I unloaded the groceries, I could hear several loons calling back
  and forth.  One near me had sort of an alto voice, and it would be
  answered in the distance by one with a higher pitch, and then one out
  on the muskeg with a slightly different cadence would answer.  I
  stood out there and let the mosquitoes have a shot at me, just for the
  joy of hearing the loons.

  This morning a shaft of sunlight was hitting the pots of pig squeak and
  I recalled that I’d said I’d take more pics as they grew and the
  flowers opened.  There they are.  As I looked at the flowers,
  I noticed some small bulbous white growths (I thought), maybe some
  parasitic cysts or something.

  On closer inspection, they turned out to be the abdomens of some really
  beautiful spiders.  They are creamy white, their legs are
  translucent gray, and each side of their abdomens has a lavender racing
  stripe about the same color as
  the flowers.  Since Bergensia is not native to this area, and
  presumably the spiders are, I’m guessing that they like to hang out in
  fireweed flowers, since they’re about the same color as these flowers.

  There are three spiders visible in the shot at right.  I guess I
  should make that, “in frame,” because they’re doing their best to be
  invisible.  Two are the big bulbous creamy ones, and the third is
  a tiny, thin and quick, dark one.  Can you find them?

  Hint:  one of the big creamy ones is near the bottom of the
  picture, right of center.  The little dark one is above it and to
  the left a bit, and the other big one is near the top of that flower
  cluster.

  Okay,
  here’s a closer look.  The easiest one to see is on the top right
  edge of the larger of the two clusters at the bottom, just above the
  stem of the smaller cluster of flowers.  See the racing
  stripe?  The little guy is on one of the flowers above the cluster
  where the big one is, behind the main stem–and I guess I cropped the
  third one out of this shot.

  That camera won’t focus closer than 18 inches away, drattit.  I
  know I’ve said it before:  gotta get the new fair-weather Fuji out
  and quit takin’ it easy with the old point and shoot Kodak.  It’s
  not just that I’m lazy and changing lenses, etc., is a hassle.  
  It’s partly an economic issue.  I need to buy a new AC power
  adapter before I can save my Fuji images to the hard drive, because the
  one that came with the camera fell apart–more than just fell apart or
  I’d put it back together.  An internal part that holds it all
  together broke.  Sales have been abysmally slow at Greyfox’s
  stand.  That money issue is another reason, besides my fatigue and
  other ME symptoms, for my cutting back to only one town trip a
  week.  We are hoping for good weather over this long weekend, and
  vigorous business.

  One last parting shot:  Koji checking his peemail.
  

  • 6:14 pm
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