June 7, 2004

• I knew better, but I did it anyway.

  The
  sun was going down.  It sets in the north near midnight this time
  of year at this latitude.  It wasn’t raining here, but it was
  raining to the northeast of here.  First, I noticed the warm
  reddish sunset light, and when I looked out the window I saw the
  rainbow.

  The problem was that that time of day is skeeter time.  They
  swarmed me, mobbed me, tried to suck me dry.  To make things more
  interesting, this latest hatch is the fast little ones that sting like
  crazy when they bite and itch even worse afterward.

  I’m not even going to try and decide if it was worth it.  I did
  it.  It’s done.  There’s no going back.  That’s a pretty
  picture, all right, but I’ve gotten better rainbow pics before. 
  The colors grew more intense after I got back in the house, but I just
  looked through the windows and took a mental picture.  You guys
  missed out.  One trip out there in those bugs is enough.

  If I’d
  been wiser, I’d have run back in the house as soon as I shot the
  rainbow, but I noticed that the wild roses were blooming….

  Now, to respond to some comments and answer some questions:

  Yes, BettyC,
  Charley’s shirt is lamé.  The background is pink with big colorful
  Chinese dragon print.  It feels deliciously silky, and women were
  touching him all evening.  He loved it.  That is not his
  usual style of attire, by the way.  Cindy talked him into buying
  it at a yard sale.

  CamelJoe wrote:

  “Hey
  susu I have some questions for you just cuz u give pretty unique
  answers. Well first off, how old are you? I know u were born in 1944,
  but i don’t feel like doing the math. U seem like a pretty cool older
  lady. Also, where do you live? Because those woodsy looking pictures
  are great. It looks like a fun place to camp. Another is, How long have
  you had xanga? and how did dyou get all these awards and people to
  comment on your site? Maybe you can get me some tips to get people to
  read. I hate just updating for like 1 person to read. Okey dokey just
  comment back soon.” -Rachel
  “O
  yeah and also, Like what kind of stuff are you into? I mean are u into
  magic or something? Mind reading? Explain that to me too.”r

  Rachel, just do the math.  It’s good practice.  I really AM a
  kewl old crone, how perceptive of you to notice.  That woodsy
  place you think would be fun to camp out in is my neighbors’ front
  yard.  This is the upper end of the Susitna Valley, about halfway
  between Willow and Talkeetna, Alaska.  A lot of people do seem to
  think this is a fun place to camp.  The road becomes clogged with
  RVs this time of year, and the campgrounds are full.  What few of
  those people understand is that this is an even more wonderful place to
  live, especially in winter after all the mosquitoes die off and the
  tourists go home.

  I have won exactly two awards with SuSu’s site.  One was given by
  ShyeWolf when I was new to Xanga, two years ago.  Part of the
  criteria for her “hot stuff” award was a site without a lot of clutter
  that slowed down the loading time.  I’m not displaying that one
  any more.  The other award, “Truth in Blogging”, I got for being
  frank and forthright.  That one is still valid.

  The first time you asked me how I get “so many” people to comment here, I think I sent you to James and MyKi_Whatzerface,
  who really do get a lot of comments.  I also told you that I
  thought the comments I leave at other people’s sites bring people over
  here to read mine.  Since you asked again, I’ve been thinking more
  about the question.  I can’t speak for others about why they read
  and comment on my site.  Maybe some of my readers will go to your
  site and give you some answers.  (Please, someone, at least go
  tell Rachel I answered her question here.  I know she’s expecting
  me to come comment on her site again.)  All I can do is tell you
  how I do
  what I do here, what my philosophy and style of blogging are.

  It’s different from yours in one big way.  I don’t care how many
  people read it.  That doesn’t mean I don’t want it to be read, nor
  that I don’t like getting comments.  I think it’s like the
  difference between loving to win and not hating to lose.  I love
  getting comments, but I don’t get discouraged or think about not
  blogging if I don’t get any comments.  I write whatever is on my
  mind.  Sometimes I am “speaking” to someone in particular or to
  the world in general, and sometimes I’m just expressing myself. 
  If I even think at all about what people’s reaction might be to what I
  write, I do not let that influence my writing.  It’s my blog; I
  can get away with that.  Before I started blogging, I used a lot
  of different bulletin boards.  I was always getting my posts
  deleted and my wrist slapped for going off-topic.  The weblog is
  my proper medium, fershure.

  
  LordPineapple,
  when you… oop!  I mean, when the Sarahs said I remind them of
  Princess Ann, I wasn’t sufficiently familiar with the Royal Family of
  England to be able to respond.  So I googled the Princess Royal
  Ann Elizabeth Alice Louise.  Well, I googled “princess ann
  england” and learned the rest.  I also learned that she bears the
  distinction of being the first member of an English Royal Family to be
  charged in court since Charles I was charged with treason.  It
  seems she’s a scofflaw, like me.

  She keeps vicious dogs, for one thing.  One of them attacked a
  small child, and one so badly savaged a dog belonging to her mum the
  Queen that it had to be euthanized.  Then there was the speeding
  ticket.  When the police officer tried to pull her over, she drove
  faster.  She claimed she thought he was there to escort her. 
  What an attitude!  I can relate.

  We have some other things in common.  We were both pregnant at
  around the same time in 1981.  Her daughter Xena–no that’s not
  right, Xena is the Warrior Princess, and Ann won’t let her Royal Mum
  lay any titles on her kids.  What is that young woman’s
  name?  Anyway, she’s just a bit younger than my son.  I
  wonder… when he meets Athina Onassis, if they don’t click, maybe we
  could fix him up with her.

  morriganshadow
  wrote about her difficulty finding bear meat for sale in Canada. 
  Shadow, in Alaska it would be illegal to sell bear meat.  Wild
  game may not be bought and sold here.  About whether or not it’s
  hard to get, that would depend on where one lives and on one’s
  lifestyle.  There is no regular hunting season for bears in this
  area, and on Kodiak Island there are very few permits issued for the
  famous Kodiak brown bears.  It is legal to kill a bear in defense
  of life or property, and then there is a bunch of paperwork to be done
  to confirm that legality.  That’s the way the bear at the party
  was obtained.

  My first taste of bear meat almost put me off it forever.  A
  couple of my friends and their daughter were besieged in their cabin in
  the autumn one year by a sow and two cubs who climbed onto their roof
  and tried to pry the roofing off to get in.  Bears in the fall are
  desperate for calories to put on fat for their hibernation.  My
  friend’s husband, after a day and a night of that, shot the
  bears.  They were garbage-eating black bears and the meat didn’t
  even smell good as it cooked.

  The bear last weekend smelled so good when Charley opened the hood on
  the grill to give me a peek, that I instantly changed my opinion of
  bear meat.  As soon as he had it sliced, I got a chunk.  Then
  I found the pot of meat that had been simmered in barbecue sauce and
  ate some more.  This time of year there is no fat on the meat, and
  that bear was a wild one that lived on berries and salmon.  My
  first taste of bear was at least twenty years ago, and there hadn’t
  been another opportunity to try any since then, so I guess you can say
  it’s not very plentiful around here.  There are bears, yes, but we
  try to avoid them.
  

  • 9:27 pm
  • 11 Comments