August 13, 2004

• There and back again….

  It has been a shitstorm of a day, and I seem to have run between the “raindrops”, so to speak.  How do I look?

  No, no, those are just freckles.

  The tone of this day’s trip down the Susitna Valley to Wasilla was set
  within the first few miles.  I rounded a curve and saw the
  flashing red and blue lights of a Trooper car.  Got a little
  closer and saw a big diesel tractor on its side on the shoulder, and
  another tractor/trailer rig upright in the ditch.  There was a
  second Trooper car parked up a side road, plus the usual stand-around
  crowd of looky-lous.  I eased on by, a little more alert and a
  trifle anxious.  Several more times today my course has brought me
  close to other people’s misfortune and/or misery, and my empathy has
  filled my consciousness with it.  I’ve been grateful all afternoon
  for the email this morning from a Starseed contact, which reminded me
  of the need to “shake off” the negative influences.  Whole lotta
  shakin’ for me today.

  As I had gone out to get in my car this afternoon, the sky had the same
  brownish look as it did last month when smoke from the wildfires was blowing our
  way, and the light had that same orange cast to it.  The huge Central Complex
  of fires in the Interior is still growing, and weather conditions don’t
  look good for the upcoming week, either.  I guess that could have been
  the source of the haze, or it could have been the volcano, but I’d heard nothing about the volcano until I got to town.

  When I pulled in at Felony Flats and parked beside the bike path across
  the drive from Greyfox’s stand, he walked over and we schmoozed a
  while.  I told him about the wreck up the road, and about the
  600-pound woman in Florida who had become one with her couch. 
  Then a customer pulled up and Greyfox went back across to the
  stand.  The young man had his back to me, and I couldn’t catch
  much of what he said, but my Old Fart is going deaf and talks pretty
  loud.  I heard him say, “Did it go off?” and “I’d heard that it
  was making noises, but not that it had gone off.”  I knew
  immediately that they were talking about one of the nearby
  volcanoes.  I looked off toward the west and wondered whether that
  colorful haze was woodsmoke or volcanic steam and ash.

  The BIGQUAKE email alerts have told me that the Pacific Ring of Fire
  has been seismically active lately.  We are on the northern edge
  of it here.  The Aleutian Island Chain is part of it, and the
  Alaska Range is simply the mainland extension of that chain. 
  Since I’ve lived here, we’ve had ashfall from eruptions about five
  times.  One winter a series of eruptions and ash plumes blowing
  our way left layers of gray and brown between the layers of white
  snow.  As soon as Greyfox’s customer left and he moseyed back over
  to talk to me, I asked him which volcano it was.  Mount Spurr, he
  said.

  We asked a few people if they’d heard any news on the volcano but no
  one had, so we decided to catch the local TV news at ten before we
  watched the video Greyfox had rented today.  We were delayed getting back
  to his cabin at Felony Flats after the meeting and caught only the weather report and a
  brief mention of “no ash.”  It wasn’t until I got home and checked
  it out online that I learned that the National Weather Service this
  morning issued an ash alert based on one pilot’s report, and then
  cancelled it when the AVO‘s
  overflights failed to confirm an eruption or ash plume.  There is,
  however, a big hole melted in the snow at the peak of Mount Spurr
  (below) and the cone has been venting steam for weeks.  Right now,
  six volcanoes in the Aleutians and on the Alaska and Kamchatka
  Peninsulas are at a yellow level of concern, quaking and venting steam,
  and Sheveluch Volcano on the Kamchatka is at orange, actively erupting.  Interesting planet, this.

  

  After Greyfox and I met back at the ranch following the meeting, as we
  were heading to La Fiesta for dinner, I dredged up the courage to ask
  the question I’ve been avoiding for a few weeks.  I’ve known that
  cold weather is closing in fast, and if I’m going to have to get up on
  the roof and fix that TV antenna wire that Doug broke when he was
  shoveling snow from the roof last winter, now would be better than
  later.  I asked Greyfox if he would be able to get by without TV
  after he moves back in here for the winter, or if I need to fix the
  antenna. 

  He said that he would
  like to catch Antiques Roadshow and some of the things he has been
  missing while he’s at work.  I reminded him how addictive TV is,
  and about the way, when we first moved in here on the electric grid
  with TV and all, we would check the schedules and watch only a few
  shows that looked good.  But then very soon we were watching more
  and more.  I said that if we fixed the thing, I’d probably start
  watching the Today Show again, and then that would segue into Martha
  Stewart, and before I know it I’d be watching the soaps that come on
  after that. 

  He went, “Ooooh, the hard stuff, eh?”  As I pulled into the
  parking lot, he said he didn’t think I had any business on the roof as
  shaky and achey as I’ve been lately, and that what it sounded like was
  that fixing the TV would be just hurting myself now to hurt myself more
  later.  I said it wouldn’t be the first time, and he said it’s not
  gonna happen this time, or something like that.  Anyway, the TV
  remains disconnected and my fantasies of a satellite dish remain in the
  same file as the ones about half a pound of methamphetamine:  the
  shitcan file where they belong as long as I’m an addict in recovery.

  That video he rented today was something we’d been planning all week,
  and the plan was contingent on his finding a copy of Kill Bill vol.2 in
  stock at Blockbuster today.  There are two Blockbuster stores in
  Wasilla, and he checked them both this morning–nada.  Another
  video store had one DVD, but his little TV/VCP at the cabin is
  VHS.   Then he swung by there again on his way to the meeting
  after dropping me at the rehab ranch to pick up my vanload of
  passengers.  He greeted me at the meeting with a big grin and, “I
  got it!”

  I’ve been wanting to see it ever since we saw vol.1 last winter. 
  Quentin Tarantino is a genius,. He didn’t just make one movie and cut
  it in two.  They both stand alone and stylistically are quite
  different from each other.  The casting was great, acting
  excellent, and the story… even the predictable parts worked because
  the logic of them added versimilitude.  I even enjoyed the
  extended cast credits at the end, which included scenes from the first
  film as well.  Afterward, Greyfox suggested that sometime in the
  coming winter after he moves back out here, we rent DVDs of both
  volumes and watch deleted scenes, director’s commentaries, etc., “until
  we’re all bleeding from the eyes.”  I seconded that with
  enthusiasm and added that I was sure Doug would concur.

  Eeek, I’ve just noticed what time it is.  How did I stay up all
  night?  Why did you let me do that?  I need my sleep. 
  Seeya.
  

  • 8:00 am
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