Melanie and her old friend, Moose Phillipia

One day when Melanie was seven, I heard a rather clattery knock up on the door. I answered it and was stunned to see a moose calf standing there."Hi!" The moose calf greeted. "I'm Phillipia, can Melanie come out and play?" This question put me in a bad spot, but I had to answer truthfully,"No!" I answered "I do not allow my daughters to play with moose!" Dejected and offended, the moose turned and walked away. Later that afternoon, when I was not looking, Melanie snuck out and she and the moose went off to play. They did this frequently and often. No matter how many times I chastised them – and I chastised them both! Today as we were returning to the house from getting coffee at Metro Cafe, Melanie suddenly shrieked , "Look! It's Phillipia!"sure enough, it was. I was very surprised. I did not know a moose could live this many years. 

Text added at 6:39 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues. Note: I did not realize that Squarespace had stripped the photo out of the original post until just now, when I finally got a chance to add the text back in, due to the fact that Squarespace will almost always fail to post both text and picture at the same time. 

A walk through a strange and unknown land

Melanie and Charlie showed up. They wanted to take us to lunch, but Charlie's car only seats two people and Margie is off gallivanting around in our car. So we took a nice walk instead, going to places where Melanie used to sometimes walk with me and her mom when she was small. There were no houses back here then, no road. Only a trail weaving through the hilly woods. And by this time of year, there was always snow. It was cold. We looked all around. None of us knew where we were. An airplane flew overhead. Look close – you will see the airplane. It is up there, in the sky - in the strange sky, over this strange and unknown land. 

Text added at 3:37 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues - day 42 and counting.

The black cat, the polar bear and the lens I bought eight months ago but just had to buy all over again for $1149

The black cat, the polar bear and the lens I bought eight months ago but just had to buy all over again for $1149. Remember how I wrote that every piece of professional equipment I took to Cross Island came back damaged? Most of it still works, but one lens failed altogether - the 24 to 105 mm I had bought last March to replace an identical one so battered up I could no longer rely on it. At Cross Island, the new lens quit communicating with my cameras and so became inoperable. If I have one indispensable lens, it is this one. The week before last, I finally sent it to the Canon repair center, hoping to get it fixed under warranty before I soon go to Barrow.

On Wednesday, Canon informed me the lens had suffered internal water damage, voiding my warranty and it would cost me $900 to get it repaired. Then it would have a very limited six-month warranty. My experience with repaired lenses has not been good. I decided it was better just to get a new lens and have a full one-year warranty. The elements in another lens, my 16-35, must be a bit out of whack because very strange things happen to the focus on any images shot through it at wide-to-mid aperture. This lens has been to the repair shop three times – most recently just before Kivgiq. Now it needs to be repaired again. It is an expensive lens.

My 100–400 got knocked out of action on the island for two days before I got it to work again, but it no longer focuses as sharply as it did when I pointed it at this Cross Island bear (image significantly cropped). I must repair or replace it.

Then there are the two Canon 5D Mark III bodies - still shooting but with cracked glass. I know salt water got into them. It is a matter of time until they go down. I am frustrated. I need a camera budget of 15 to 20 grand a year, just to stay even.

But – once I get something together on Cross Island, if you see it, you'll say it was worth it. 

Text added at 12:06 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues - 42 days and counting.

The coffee you can drink – a matter of love

You remember the old song? "When you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with...?" The same applies to coffee. When you can't drink the coffee you love, love the coffee you can drink. I picked up Margie and then we had to stop in Eagle River and here we bought Jitters coffee. We loved it, too. Tomorrow Metro Cafe, we'll love your coffee again. 

Text added at 6:49 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues.

After a period of disappointment, interruption, and frustration, a mountain looms before me

Darn! I took this early on my drive to pick up Margie and then pulled off the highway at the Knik River access exit and spent at least 15 minutes writing up a little story. It was a pretty good story, too, about the amazing series of disappointments, interruptions and frustrations I had experienced from the time I pulled up to the drive-through window at Taco Bell to that moment.

When I tapped the button to Instagram this image, the story was attached to it. But, now that I arrived back home all these hours later... the story is no longer attached to it!

And, dang! I just don't have the energy to write it all over again.

You will just have to wonder about all these disappointments, interruptions and frustrations and try to imaging what they might have been...

Oh, hell...

I can't do this to you. I will write it again. It's not like it will kill me. I hope. I sure better not have a heart attack when I reach the end of the story... If I do, it's your fault for making me write this again, after I had already written it. Here goes:

The first disappointment struck when I reached the second drive-through window at Taco Bell, the window where they hand you your food, drink, and hot sauce. The first thing the girl on the other side of the window gave me was my Pepsi. As I waited for my food, I took a sip. It was awful - just carbonated water. It didn't seem to have any syrup, flavoring or sweetener in it. When she returned to the window with my food, I gave the Pepsi back to her and asked her for another one.

She then informed me that TACO BELL WAS OUT OF PEPSI!!!

Taco Bell? Out of Pepsi? That's like a chapel out of hymn books.

Did I want something else? With great misgivings, I said, ok, root beer,  but I'm mighty disappointed. A&W has good root beer. Taco Bell doesn't. I grew up the American way and I know these things.

I accepted the root beer. As I prepared to drive away, I heard my server tell a co-server to recharge the Pepsi dispenser. I then drove a short distance and parked near GCI, facing the short breadth of grass stretched out between the parking lot and the highway. I had barely managed to smother my Nachos Bell Grande in hot and mild sauce and open the little container of jalepeno peppers when I heard a tapping on my window. I turned to look and there was a young mother with a young baby, standing in the rain. Her battery had gone dead. Could I give her a jump, please?

I did not want to give her a jump. If I did, my Nachos Bell Grande would go cold. I like my Nachos Bell Grande hot. There were hundreds of people patronizing the nearby businesses, scores wandering through the parking lot. Why did she have to choose me? But, hard-hearted as I wanted to be, I could not enjoy hot Nachos Bell Grande while a mother wandered about the parking lot pleading for kindness as her baby got drenched in the rain.

Well, I had jalepeno peppers. They would add heat to my cold Nachos Nacho's Bell Grande.

Sure enough, her battery was good and dead and it took several tries to start it. But start it we did.

I then turned my attention to my cooled-off Nachos Bell Grande and took a bite which I washed down with the root beer. The root beer was awful. I did not want to take another sip. It struck me that the coserver should have had plenty of time to recharge the Pepsi dispenser, so I drove the very short distance back to Taco Bell. A blonde lady reached the door ahead of me and held it open while the kids who were with her entered, then stood there looking a little confused as to whether or not she should continue holding it for me or go on in and join the children.

I gestured for her to go in ahead of me and she did. They then got in line, certain I would fall in behind them, but I went straight to the Pepsi machine, dumped my root beer down the drain and re filled my cup with Pepsi. As I walked back to the door, the now very-wide eyed blond lady smiled back at me in a most disapproving way. She obviously thought I had just stolen the Pepsi.

As it turned out, the Pepsi mix was not quite right and it did not taste as good as Pepsi should - but it was better than the root beer.

Next, I drove to the Wal-Mart Pharmacy. Last week after my doctor visit, she had faxed in a prescription list for me and when Wal-Mart called to tell me it was filled, they said the total price was $1305 and so many cents. Well, hell. I wasn't going to spend $1305 and so many cents on it. Plus, I had some coupons my doctor had given me. One was for Nexium and it claimed that with it I could get on a monthly supply deal for as little as $18.00 per. So I drove to Wal-Mart to see what I could sort out.

The lady on the other side of the Pharmacy window took my coupons. She asked my birthdate and I gave it to her. She entered it into her computer and soon reported that the birth date I had given her was wrong. No, I told her, I had had the same birth date all my life. It was the right date.

She looked very puzzled and consternated, so I helped her out by telling her there are other Bill Hess's around and the date she had was undoubtedly for one of them. One of them used to go in and out of jail and so brought some interesting moments into my life. Another - or maybe the same one - died once and shortly thereafter I dropped into Fort Yukon where an old friend greeted me with wide eyes and shouted, "Bill Hess, I read you were dead!" She still looked consternated, but continued to type away at the computer, for at least five minutes. It felt like 15, but time drags in such circumstances, so maybe it was only five. Maybe it was 10.

I don't know exactly. I didn't time it.

Anyway, quite a bit of time went by and then she finally picked up her phone and tried to connect with someone who could help. She then stood there silently for what felt like another 15 minutes but was probably less, waiting for someone on the other end to pick up.

Then, just as someone apparently did, she discovered she entered an extra "6" into her computer. She removed the extra "6" and suddenly everything jived. She discovered I had actually been born on my birthday, told the person who had just picked up that she didn't need any help after all and hung up the phone. That saved me about $300 right there - but not on the Nexium.

It was a ninety day supply of Nexxium and it came to a total of over $700. I figured the $18 a month coupon ought to knock it down to a total of about $54 and that would be okay. No. It didn't work that way. The $18 a month coupon brought it down to a bit over $190 a month. I told her to remove the Nexium entirely. I would continue to buy Omeprezole over the counter just as I had been doing.

My doctor had also given me a discount card that works on whatever it works on. And it did save me some money. It brought a $350 prescription that I ran out of just before I went to Cross Island at the end of August down to $223.

I had spent a lot more time at Wal-Mart than I had intended, not to mention the extra time at Taco Bell and vicinity, and now I would have to stop at Wal-Mart again on the way home with Margie to pick up the repackaged order.

As already noted, I then took this picture soon after I left Wal-Mart and afterward pulled off the road to make an Instagram of the image and write the text. And all that text disappeared. Now I have had to write it again. I am kind of afraid to click, "save." No telling what disaster this might bring on.

On the good side, I had made the earlier text on my iPhone. I typed what actually appears here on my keyboard in front of my iMac computer. It is easier and quicker to write on a keyboard than an iPhone, so I believe I have added some detail here that was not in the lost text.

Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe it's bad thing. 

I don't know.

I never know. I just stumble and bumble my way through life.

(Note - I just went to save this and ----- THE SAVE BUTTON HAS DISAPPEARED!!! Ah, the wonders of Squarespace. Guess I'll copy the text, paste it into a word document, kill this post attempt and try again. When I describe Squarespace as a nightmare, I do not joke. Squarespace is a nightmare!!!

Text added at 6:47 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues.