I get a new contract, a great new project to do, a base upon which to stand; little people and dog, illness and close call; Metro Cafe is three years old

After I put up my post last Friday, I learned that

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Can you find the airplane?

I took this with my iPhone on this morning's walk. This is the only picture and these are the only words I will post this weekend.

I encounter one of my greatest post-surgery fears as I walk; grandsons and raspberries

This morning as I began my walk, I spotted this dog up ahead on Sarah's Way. It growled, it snarled, it took on a menacing posture. As regular readers know, I always walk and now walking is part of my post-surgery therapy. Since I began this therapy, I have had this fear about encountering loose, aggressive dogs - especially given all the problems I have had with my incision coming undone, then blowing apart, and then two more cases of stitching coming undone again.

Yet, I was not too worried about this dog. Dogs like this tend to act tough and blustery from a bit of distance, but when you get close, they scoot away.

I have been much more worried about the aggressively friendly dog - especially the full grown, bounding, adolescent - as opposed to the blustery, snarling dog.

About half-a-mile away, I finally encountered such a dog. I was walking down Wards when I heard the sound of paws crashing through the brush, accompanied by excited, panting, dog breaths. I turned to see it charging straight toward me - it's body vibrating, it's tail wagging, eyes shining, slobbery tongue flapping about its lower jaw.

I instantly knew it was going to try to jump on me and that when it did, it would likely slam its paws right into my wound and jab it with its nose. Indeed, this is exactly what the dog tried to do, but I fought it off with my hands and kept pushing it back.

After a couple of minutes, it calmed down enough for me to get this picture.

It then followed along, bounding back and forth alongside me, for a couple of hundred yards until I came upon two women walking in the opposite direction. The big pup then reversed course to follow them.

"Isn't this your dog?" one of the women asked.

"No," I said. "I am recovering from surgery. I can't have a dog jump on me."

So they let it accompany them for awhile.

Lavina and Jobe came to pick up Lynx. Jobe had experienced an allergic reaction to a new kind of bath soap the previous day and it had been pretty rough for him. He was doing okay now, but Lynx was not feeling so good. 

As Lavina had busied herself buckling the boys in, Margie had been plucking wild raspberries from the yard. She dropped several into Lavina's hand. By the time I could get my iPhone ready to shoot, Lavina had eaten all but these few.

Fantasy comes true: after my latest doctor visit, we eat Milano's Pizza

Yesterday afternoon, Margie drove me into town to see Dr.

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Al Adams, my first host in Arctic and Rural Alaska, has passed away

I hardly slept at all last night and so, early this

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