The moose gets out of bed and leaves

I am on my way home now, and as I reached the bottom of the hill I saw a moose off in the distance, in the marsh. It was too far away to get a photo with my iPhone. I could've done it with my "real" camera and a decent telephoto, but not this iPhone. So I decided to see if I could sneak in close enough to get a photo. I couldn't -I heard the moose crash off just as I found his bed. And here's his bed along with that of a few others. It looks like maybe four moose bedded down here.

A car drives up the road with its headlights on

I'm still walking. This car just came driving up Wards Street towards Sands. Pretty damn neat, huh? I wonder how much rain an iPhone can take? I'm keeping it out of the rain, basically, but to post this I must get it out in the rain for a while and the intensity of falling raindrops seems to be on the increase again.

Human decency on four wheels

I am taking a short walk in the light sprinkle that now follows the deluge of last night and most of the day up until now. Except for a brief appearance at noon by Caleb, who just moved into a new apartment with his girlfriend Mo, these are the only human beings I have seen so far today. Margie drove herself into town this morning to babysit before I even got up. I have been here without a car all day. She'll be back tonight, and then I will take her in again in the morning and drop her off so I will have a car until I leave for Barrow Thursday morning. These guys could have splashed water on me, but they didn't. Human decency still exists and it can be found driving two four wheelers through the rain and mud puddles right here, in Wasilla, Alaska.

When I was three…

Shortly before Christmas when I was three, I saw a tiny, cast iron, model of a Navy Corsair, painted navy blue and white. I badly wanted it. "No," Mom said, "it's too expensive." I brought the issue up with Dad, a veteran of the US Army Air Corps who fought in the air war over Europe and was now in the United States Air Force Reserve. "Show some respect to your mother," he scolded me. "If she says it's too expensive, then it's too expensive!" But on Christmas morning, there was that Corsair, complete with folding wings, under the tree, waiting for me. I was so damn happy.

Lisa misplaced her wallet

At two minutes after four this afternoon, just as I was pulling out of the driveway to go get coffee, I saw Lisa driving down the road towards me. I pulled back into the driveway and stopped. She pulled into the driveway, stopped, got out of her car and into mine. We drove off and got coffee together. Four hours later, after she had done her laundry and shared dinner with Margie and me, she gave each of us one hug, then climbed back into her car and drove off towards Anchorage. Fifteen minutes later, Margie summoned me from my office to come in and eat watermelon. As I stepped into the living room, I saw Lisa pulling back into the driveway. She had forgotten her wallet. We searched for it, but could not find it. Then Margie suggested that she look in our car, since she had gone out for coffee with me. She did. Her wallet was there. She came back into the house, gave Margie a hug, and then gave me a hug. That second hug sure felt good. I was glad she had forgotten her wallet.