November 24, 2008

• Kevlar, Dumpster Food and Clothes, and a Snowstorm

  I drove to Wasilla yesterday, one of the necessary periodic supply runs.  We were out of kitty litter, almost out of cat food.  Doug had been out of cow’s milk for over a week and I was down to my last quart of goat’s milk.  The shopping list was long, and there were library books to be returned.

  The trip had been planned since early in the week.  One day and another were crossed off for various reasons.  Greyfox had a show on Saturday, so Sunday was the first convenient time for the whole family.  Doug would be up during the day to keep the home fires burning.  The first minor hitch was when Greyfox phoned as I was putting my hat on, to say there was a snowstorm going on at his end of the valley.

  The temperature was in the teens above zero here, so I had no doubts about my car starting.  Doug had gone out at the crack of dawn, brushing snow from my car and shoveling the bit of driveway directly behind my car.  I was tired before I got out of bed, from the fatiguing activities of the previous day, finding and gathering things I needed to take to town with me.  I had already asked an oracle whether it would be better to put the trip off, and got a clear indication that Sunday would be better than Monday.  Greyfox said since I was the one doing the driving, the decision was up to me.

  It wasn’t snowing here when I left just after full daylight, some time after nine.  The northbound lane of the highway was clear of snow from the constant traffic of weekenders coming out from Anchorage.  My lane was full of the snow blown over there by the wind of their passage, and my visibility was greatly diminished every time I met a string of them — half a dozen or so SUVs or pickups trailering snowmobiles, piled up behind, and eager to pass, somebody observing the speed limit.

  I didn’t run into snowfall until I was in Willow, halfway to Wasilla.  The traffic flow headed into town was slower than the eager oncoming Anchoraguan recreationalists.  Deepening snow on the roadway and decreased visibility from the falling snow were keeping us down to the speed limit.  The limit drops to 45 in Houston, and coming out of there, the flow of traffic didn’t rise for the rest of the way into Wasilla.  I didn’t mind.

  Greyfox was ready when I got to his cabin, standing by the car before I was done gathering his mail and stuff out of the passenger seat.  We’d agreed to have breakfast together, so our first stop was the Roadside Inn.  Over food we talked about news, politics, and recent scientific discoveries, the same sort of stuff we spend cell minutes discussing every day.

  Since I was beginning the day with leftover fatigue from the day before, and traffic and road conditions were brutal, I decided to make as few shopping stops as possible.  Greyfox went in with me at Carr’s supermarket, largely because my defroster is anemic and breathing in my car waiting for me would have fogged my windows.  It was the first time he has accompanied me when I was using the crip cart.  They call them “scooters”, I guess, but to me the word, “scooter”, conjures an image of me as a kid zipping along on a low-riding two-wheeler, propelling myself with one foot.

  We had fun together, even though I did become a little grumpy and snappish at him for walking right up in front of my vehicle, just standing there looking at me as if he expected me to go somewhere or do something.  When I heard myself snap at him, I transcended that mood and made an effort to calmly point out that he was blocking my way.  We bantered our way through the rest of our shopping with no casualties, getting some laughs out of ridiculous mini-muffin baking cups and the alphabetization of Chinese five spice. 

  After grocery shopping, we stopped at AIH, Alaska Industrial Hardware, for creosote destroyer and new protective gloves for stoking the woodstove.  I bought welders’ gloves, lined with cotton and stitched with Kevlar.  The same avid light that dawned in Greyfox’s eyes when he saw that “Kevlar” label, lit up Doug’s eyes when I got home with the new gloves.  What is it about guys and Kevlar, anyway?

  

  I was about to throw away the old gloves when I decided to get a photo documenting their condition, alongside the new gloves already smudged with soot.  The split seams are the result of the stitches, some kind of polymer I suppose, melting from the heat.  The lining in the old gloves was a knit polymer, and had also melted away in spots.  I can match the burns on my fingers to the holes in the gloves.  The new ones are soo sweeet!

  I dropped Greyfox at his cabin before going on to the big box store on the hill above his place for the rest of my shopping.  Then I stopped back at his place to pick up some dumpster food and clothing he’d collected for me, and to look through his video collection for interesting titles.  Doug had finally hooked up the DVD player that Greyfox gave us when he got his new one, so now I can watch a DVD while he plays the XBox or PS2, instead of having to interrupt play for video.

  The drive home was harrowing and exhausting.  Once again, I was going against the flow and the snowmachiners hurrying back to Anchorage were blinding me with their lights while blowing the snow from their lane into mine.  Between Houston and Willow, I went through several miles of blinding snowstorm.  When I turned off onto back roads for the last leg of the trip, there was about a foot of snow accumulated and a chaotic collection of wobbly, wavery, weaving tire ruts I had to navigate through.

  I made it home okay, of course and obviously.  I slept fitfully as always when I’m extremely fatigued.  In a day or two I will have gotten enough rest to be able to sleep well — maybe.  Doug shoveled the path to his wood chopping area yesterday.  The driveway, paths to the outhouse, compost pile, and base of the ladder to the roof, plus the roof itself and the roof of the little cabin beside the trailer, all need to be shoveled, and Doug has an RPG session scheduled this afternoon.

  I need to get suited up and out there to push some snow around.  Seeya later.  Enjoy the shots of early light I captured today.

  

  

   

  • 5:31 pm
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