March 4, 2005

• Nightbears
  and my comments on your comments

  My post-traumatic symptoms continue.  That’s not
  surprising.  It’s unsettling and unpleasant, but I’d have more
  cause for concern if I didn’t react to the recent series of upsetting
  events.  I don’t want to bury my feelings or try to sweep my fears
  under the rug.  What’s really interesting is that my unconscious
  is making me face some older and subtler fears along with the
  moose-and-bear terrors.

  In the latest dream, Doug and I were menaced by a bear and another
  mystery-animal.  I was on the riverbank and Doug and both animals
  were in the water.  I handed the shotgun to Doug when the bear
  started toward him, and he asked me which animal he should shoot. 
  Before I could answer, Doug and the shotgun disappeared under the water.

  I understand the symbolism.  It’s related to my concerns over
  Doug’s future, his addictive behavior, his mental health, independence
  and the host of other worries a mother can have when her “baby” seems
  content to put his own life on hold to hang around and take care of
  her.  It’s more food for thought, stuff for us to talk about.

  ---

  You asked….

  about Martin Buser and the Iditarod from yesterday’s blog:

  and he does want still to run?

  Posted 3/3/2005 at 12:39 PM by barney

  In the Anchorage Daily News article I linked yesterday, he left no
  doubt about his desire to race.  It was contingent upon his
  surgeon’s judgement and advice.

  Here is today’s story from our local Valley paper, The Frontiersman:

  For the
  race, he’ll sandwich three fingers into a splint, leaving the index
  finger and thumb free to dress booties on dogs that have neither.

  “Driving is no problem,” he said. “I can drive with one hand if need be.”

  Since it’s started to hurt, he may be on pain medication during the race.

  “On a scale of one to 22, this will be the 22,” he said of the pain on Wednesday.

  Buser,
  who won the Iditarod in 1992, 1994, 1997 and 2002, was quick to warn
  his competition that it’s no time for complacence. That trouble, for
  him, has a “golden lining.”

  “It always takes a major event to bring out the best in me … You better watch out.”

  …and on the weather:

  Is it cold enough for the race? I heard it was a warm winter up there.

  Posted 3/4/2005 at 7:46 AM by mezamashii

  “Cold” and “warm” are relative concepts.  Any old
  sourdough would tell you Alaska has had nothing but warm winters since
  the mid-1970s.  That wouldn’t be entirely true, because we had a
  few extremely cold periods (down to minus 55 degrees F here and minus 80 in the interior) in the late
  ‘eighties, but generally it has been getting warmer.  That’s relatively warmer, though, and it doesn’t say anything about the depth of snow pack or any other factor relevant to trail conditions.

  In recent years, warmth and scarcity of snow have caused portions of
  the race to be rerouted, but unless conditions change markedly in the
  next few weeks that won’t be necessary this year.  It is a long
  trail (1,100 miles) and I’m not familiar with conditions for the entire
  length, but for the approximately 200 miles that I am familiar with
  here in the Susitna Valley, this year the snow is deeper and
  temperatures lower than they have been in recent years.

  In response to whoever told you this was a warm winter, I’d ask,
  “where, and compared to what?”  This is our seventh winter in this
  dwelling.  Right now, the snow out there is piled deeper than I’ve
  ever seen it here (but not as deep as it was sixteen years ago when we
  lived across the highway at Elvenhurst).  This winter we’ve used
  up more firewood and paid higher electric bills than in any previous
  winter in this place, so to me it has been a relatively cold
  winter.  We had several weeks in the minus thirties, and to this
  California girl that’s not warm.  It is certainly cold enough for
  sled dogs.
  

  • 2:33 pm
  • 5 Comments