March 11, 2005

• This is getting OLD!
  
  Yesterday, my browser crashed twice, each time losing a substantial
  amount of work on a blog that I felt was worth trying to
  reconstruct.  I sorta needed to get at least part of it on here,
  because it involves the answers to questions in the trivial
  contest.  A few minutes ago, I had substantially reconstructed
  that twice-lost blog again when a momentary power outage wiped it
  out.  Here I go again, but first I gotta vent.

  It’s not just the repeated frustration of losing the cumulative work of
  hours of effort that’s getting under my skin.   I’m still
  experiencing the effects of the concussion and whiplash injury. 
  Such acute symptoms sometimes take my mind off the chronic crap, but
  more often they just compound my debility.  In other words, I’m
  still a gimp and it ain’t gettin’ any better.  Bah!  Feh…
  and meh.  Puh!  Phbbbbtttt.  *whimper*

  …and then there are the dreams.  Interesting dreams, the whole
  spectrum from those so scary and disturbing they make me glad I finally
  woke up to those so beautiful and inspiring I keep going back and
  daydreaming about them.  The one last night was much like the
  general run of the crop lately, containing transparent symbolism that
  gives me useful insight into my twisted psyche.  There was this
  guy who really wanted me, or
  wanted something I have.  Persistently he kept turning up wherever
  I went and wanted to know why I wouldn’t give him a tumble.

  He was a scruffy, grody biker, big and so scary that I wasn’t
  comfortable telling him how grody, scary and repugnant he is.  I
  just kept moving away, trying to ignore and subtly discourage him, but
  he’d follow me.  Astoundingly, nobody else around here seemed to
  object to him at all.  I was the only one who felt any
  threat.  Yeah, Dr. Jung, I know, I know… everyone in the dream
  is me.  *sigh*

  For a couple of weeks, I suspected that a bear or bears in the
  neighborhood had come out of hibernation already.  I no longer
  suspect it; I’m virtually certain of it.  A couple of decades ago,
  I’d already paid enough attention to what went on in this neighborhood
  that I could distinguish among the sounds made by our dogs to moose,
  bears, and stray dogs or foxes, etc.  It’s defiintely bears now,
  and not just Koji but all the dogs in the neighborhood are telling us
  about it.  Last night, Koji’s growling woke me and I told Doug to
  bunji the door shut.  This morning when I got up, Brunhilda, the
  .44 mag., was on the coffee table at his elbow.  He said after
  he’d secured the door, he couldn’t tell whether the sounds he was
  hearing outside were the wind or….

  ---

  TRIVIAL STUFF

  Answer #2 — two items on the list are not mandatory for mushers to
  carry:  a gun and water.  The committee doesn’t formally
  require mushers to carry firearms, but many experienced mushers carry
  them and informally recommend that rookies do.  Moose, bison and
  bears can do a lot of damage to a sled, a musher or a dog team if their
  paths happen to cross.

  While at first glance it might seem logical to carry water for your
  dogs, this is the arctic and it is winter.  A block of ice is not
  going to do the dogs much good.  The committee does require
  mushers to carry a cooker, a pot with a capacity of at least 3 gallons
  for melting snow, and gas line antifreeze (alcohol) for fuel.

  This has brought to mind a topic for trivial question #5: 

  The trail committee does not require mushers to carry a knife, but most
  of them do.  In recent years, the word has gotten around and more
  and more mushers are choosing to carry a specific type of knife
  suitable for a specific type of emergency situation in which they are
  likely to need a knife.  What type of knife is it, and/or for what kind of job/worker was the knife designed?  (FORGET IT, Greyfox.  You’re disqualified.)

  Answer #3 — FALSE.  The drug testing mentioned in the question is
  mandatory for dogs, but not for the mushers.  Mushers are subject
  to state and federal drug laws and may be subjected to urine tests for
  illegal drugs at the discretion of race officials.  
  Similarly, a musher might be disqualified or suspended for being
  intoxicated on alcohol.

  Thus far, on questions 1 through 3, wixer and maggie_mcfrenzie are tied for first place.  If
  you haven’t entered yet or have answered one or more of the questions
  incorrectly, don’t let that discourage you from competition. 
  Answers to the first three questions were readily accessible on
  iditarod.com.  From here on out, I’m working a little harder to
  come up with harder questions, so everyone still has a chance to win –
  especially since there will be multiple winners.

  ---

  Historic Iditarod Event

  Photo credits:  Bob Hallinen, Anchorage Daily News
  

  Yesterday, Rick Swenson scratched from the race.  It’s his first
  incomplete Iditarod in 3 decades of mushing.  Until now, every
  time he started the race he finished it, and usually in the
  money.  This time, he had dropped some
  sick dogs in McGrath and mushed on past Takotna, then returned to
  McGrath to sign the official scratch form.  In case you can’t make
  out the writing on the form above, it gives the reason for withdrawing
  as, “concerns for the well-being of his team.”

  

  Rick Swenson is the only person thus far to have won the Iditarod five
  times.  Up until the late 1980s he gradually built a reputation as
  a tough competitor, the man to beat.  Then Libby Riddles won and
  Susan Butcher followed that with a streak of wins.  Half the women
  in Alaska and more than a few men wore t-shirts or displayed bumper
  stickers saying, “Alaska, where men are men and women win the Iditarod
  again and again and again.”

  Rick began to present the image of a sore loser, a disgruntled and
  disillusioned male chauvinist.  Maybe his public statements were
  calculated to rattle Susan and give him an edge.  That’s not the
  impression I got, especially after rumors started getting around about
  some private statements he’d made.  He just seemed sour, bitter
  and nasty.  But he kept competing.

  Time passed.  Susan retired.  The Trail Committee imposed
  some new rules that some of the more independent, individualistic and
  cantankerous old mushers didn’t like.  Swenson announced his
  retirement.  He stayed away a while.  Then he came back, won
  some more money and set that record of five wins.  Through it all,
  there’s one lasting impression of Rick Swenson that has stayed with me
  – dog-lover.
  
  

  • 8:10 pm
  • 14 Comments