The mountain, the haircut; daughter and I embibe in Devil's drink, #2 and other stories from an exquisite day in the magical Season of Light

I had a doctor appointment in Anchorage late yesterday morning, so I had to go. There were some impediments along the way - like this light, which forced me to come to a stop and then sit and wait, before I could even get out of Wasilla.

For some reason, I took no pictures during the doctor appointment. I don't know why. I set my camera down before the doctor entered the room and I just never bothered to pick it back up again.

I had not had a haircut since I had first arrived in India over three months ago and I was looking pretty shaggy. So I paid a visit to the poet, Leah Frankson, who I first met when she was a young girl living in her hometown Iñupiat village of Point Hope. She took my shagginess away. Some folks say I look ten years younger after I get a haircut and beard trim.

I don't know, but I needed it for sure.

And Leah is the best.

A bit later, I picked Melanie up at her place of work and then we went to Middle Way Cafe for coffee and a raspberry pastry, which we shared. We sat outside on the patio in the back.

The sun shone down warm upon us and it was wonderful. We wait a long, long, time, for this kind of day around here and when such a day finally comes, it is the most pleasant summer weather in all of the United States of America.

It really is. No one has nicer summer days than this.

There just tends not to be that many of them, and they soon pass, and slip into memories that one must reach out of the dark to grasp.

Such days are so good while they last - especially when a jet passes overhead as I sit there, sipping coffee, with my daughter.

I was raised to believe that coffee was the Devil's drink - not his very favorite, that being alcohol, and it wasn't that he necessarily partook of it himself, but he would try damned hard to get you to partake, to lead you astray and into the grip of coffee if he could and then maybe you would become a drunkard after that.

Thanks to my Eskimo friends, Iñupiat and others, who served me coffee when I was bitterly cold and needed to warm up, I discovered that coffee is very good and is a wonderful beverage to sit and around and sip while visiting with friends and family.

And now, more and more studies tout the health benefits of coffee.

I still a feel little guilty, now and then, when I know friends and family from my Mormon past read my posts and wonder what has happened to me... 

"How did Cousin Billy go so far astray?"

Melanie wondered if I could possibly get a picture that would show venus as a dot passing between us and the sun - an event which happened yesterday but will not happen again for over 100 years. I doubted that I could, but, without looking at the sun myself, I set both my shutter speed and aperture very high, pointed my camera at the sun and shot.

It turned out there was a thin layer of cloud between my lens and the sun.

I don't think it would have worked, anyway. The sun was just too bright for my technology.

Afternoon had now slipped into early evening. I was getting no work done at all and I decided I might as well just keep at it, so I stopped at Jacob and Lavina's to visit them and my wife, too. Lavina ordered pizza for us all. As we ate it, Kalib squirted Jobe with the hose.

Jobe loved it, too. The water coming out of the hose was cold - very, very, very, cold - but he loved it.

Lavina and Lynxton, after pizza.

Back home in Wasilla, I took my bicycle ride about 10:00 PM. About 10:30, I stopped on Church Road to shoot down this side street.

We wait so long for this time of year, these kind of days, this wonderful, beautiful, sweet light that caresses us so softly even through the midnight hours of the day. Then it is so fleeting, and gone so soon. I already miss it, even as I am in the midst of it; even as I savor it.

I have long had this fantasy that some summer I am going to make it my work just to get out there and play all summer long - to hike, to camp, to fish, to go on bike rides hundreds of miles long, long canoe treks, to surf at Yakutak. It hasn't happened yet. I can never do it. I can't do it this summer, either.

I hope it can happen maybe right after a couple of my grandsons get old enough to come out and enjoy some of it with me, before I get too old and feeble to enjoy it with them. 

As I pedaled down the Seldon bike trail towards home, I saw someone on a four wheeler driving up the bike trail coming towards me. This is illegal, dangerous to bikers, skaters and pedestrians and there is no need for it. You can see there is a separate trail for four wheelers, dirt bikes and other off-road ATV's. I prepared myself for a confrontation. But he turned to his left, at the interesection between us, and disappeared into Serendipity.

Comments

[AkMom]

Is it just me or is Mr. Lynxton going to be one BIG boy? He looks like quite the armful, lots of baby to love.

8)

[Logbook - Wasilla - Beyond]

AkMom - It's true. He has gone from the smallest at birth to being the biggest baby of all... and blessed with such a good temperament!

[twain12]

the Boys are just great...and the pure joy from a spray of water, love it :)

[Suji]

Mel looks very beautiful in that pic!