September 7, 2004

• I’m back.  **shy smile and blush**

  Silly me.  I’ve been avoiding Xanga for a few days, because I knew if I posted anything it would disappoint fatgirlpink,
  who is waiting to read about how I ended up being mother to Doug. 
  Today, I realized that was silly.  First of all, doing or not
  doing anything just because it might disappoint (or embarrass or
  inconvenience or disillusion) anyone, is just not my style.  Then
  there’s the fact that I still have seven years of memoirs to plow
  through before I get to Doug.  The pregnancy alone could stretch
  to three or four entries.  It was endless… almost. 

  I was (I belatedly realized) just using that as an excuse.  What
  was really going on was that I was stuck in 1974, with a bunch of
  photos and captions for them, and not enough of the real context of the
  time to make it a worthwhile memoir blog.  Then, I woke this
  morning with the missing pieces about my job search after I came back
  from the wilderness trek, which I will write down when the whirlwind
  portion of this day passes, or on some later day when I’m in the
  mood.  That “whirlwind” is Hurricane Greyfox, who is expected here
  at any moment to take care of some stuff up here such as jacking up his
  parts car (do you people Outside have “parts cars”?  It’s an
  Alaskan tradition:  junk vehicles of the same model as the car you
  drive, kept around to be cannibalized for parts when your car goes tits
  up.).  He and Doug (if Doug wakes up before the whirlwind blows
  over) will go over and get the thing blocked up to preserve the tires,
  which are in better shape than the ones Greyfox is running on
  now.

   Getting that job done before snow flies is important, just
  in case he needs to get one or more of them off there this
  winter.  There’s termination dust (new snow) on the mountains
  surrounding this valley now.   Early white traders and
  trappers in this area called it termination dust because it signalled
  them it was time to pack up their furs and float down the river before
  the river froze up.  It is frosty here right now, and Greyfox said
  they had their first frost down the valley in Wasilla a few days ago.

  Greyfox is also planning a trip to the local laundromat when he gets here today, with probably
  a shower as well.  If I hurry up and get my laundry sorted, he’ll
  do some of mine, too.  I prefer at-home showers, though, even
  though I have to fill my little camp-shower bag and shlep it down the
  hallway.  Greyfox seems to have a hard time showering in a gallon
  and a half of water, but not I.  I’ve been hauling water from the
  spring and bathing in a teacup since the early 1980s.  No
  prob.  Anyhow, I know that when he blows in here he will be in
  hustle-bustle mode (that’s something people with NPD [narcissistic
  personality disorder] do:  they have abnormal senses of
  time-pressure and go all frantic and stupid, but that’s another blog)
  and my calm will be blown away.  I think that for me the next big
  step toward spiritual perfection will be the ability to remain calm
  (and not just go obstinate and slow) when Greyfox is hustling and
  bustling around me.

  Anyhow, back to my comp-avoidance:  it’s been calling me for
  days.  I hear its little voice as I pass on my way between the
  kitchen and living room and see the SETI screen saver searching for
  patterns in radio waves from afar.  This morning, I decided it
  wouldn’t hurt
  to just sit down a moment and see if there were any more
  comments.  When I found that I had this comment on my latest blog, I knew I wanted to share it.  The background, first:  I
  woke around 4:30 AM a few days ago, with the phone ringing.  It
  was our old friend Sephiroth,
  who used to call me frequently in the middle of the night when  he
  lived down the Valley from here, and at various odd hours when he was
  in Germany after that.  He hadn’t called since he’d been in Iraq,
  and we’ve been doing all our communicating through Xanga for a
  while.  He says the phones over there always have long lines
  waiting to use them.  After we’d talked for an hour or so, he said
  he had to go do something and he’d call me back in half an hour. 
  I waited… no call.  So, here’s what he had to say, which I think
  will be of interest because it illustrates the differences in the ways
  our military personnel feel about their hosts there, and how they
  relate to them.

  Hey,
  hey, hey! Love ya’ll, but besides that… I couldn’t get back to you
  the other day, and I do so love talking to you all for as little as I
  get to do it these days. Guess I covered about everything though, and
  coming here updates me on the new stuff there, so it’s all good. I’m
  happy here but I can’t wait to get back to the real word sometime and
  have some more fun. the people here are very good people though
  overall. They are very open and generally kind, and most often treat
  you as you treat them. I mean yesterday I was assigned a group of about
  10 Iraqi’s to look after and take care of through the day while they
  inprocessed some stuff on the post. It was pretty much an all day event
  and other groups were going around too, but their caretakers were very
  harsh on them, always yelling at them, not feeding them when they were
  hungry and always telling them to wait to go to the bathroom. It was
  sunday, the one day of the week we usually have to get some rest, so
  everybody just wanted to get it over with so they could go back to
  their rooms and chill, but you know, we’re here to work with and
  cooperate with these people, not shrug them off because we want to go
  take a nap. I mean, if we’re gonna spend billions and billions to
  improve relations here, then we might as well do it when it counts. But
  anyways, I fed my group well, allowed them restroom breaks whenever
  they needed them and even found them some shade when they had to wait
  anywhere for a while, where other group leaders weren’t always
  considerate. they would say things like,well if they’re going to take
  my sunday away to babysit these guys, then I’ll give em’ hell! Wrong
  answer in my book because if we have to do it we might as well have
  fun, and I did. Can’t understand most of what they say and vice versa,
  but I’m a big fan of charades, so what if my co-workers think I’m
  daffy. And when the Iraqi’s laugh too, they have a good time. And I
  gave them cold water when others gave their guys warm water. I got
  chewed out for it because they didn’t want to give them cold water, but
  it was hot out and I was told to take care of them, so I did.

  Otherwise not much else happened since I talked to you. Most days are
  just regular work on vehicles and such. But you all take care now and
  I’ll be sure to drop a line every now and then, k?

   Cheers,

  Seph

  Posted 9/5/2004 at 6:50 PM by SefiraMoon

  ---

  So, now I must go and see how much I can get done before Greyfox blows in and blows my composure away.  Seeya.

  

  • 2:07 pm
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