Another school bus, as I sit and sip my coffee at Abby's Home Cooking

Who says there can only be one daily school bus? I have finished my breakfast, but I am still at Abby's, reading the news on my iPhone, sipping coffee and watching schoolbuses pass by as the day slowly dawns. Well, at least this bus. Probably others too, if I had paid less attention to my food and more to the road.

I realize that Squarespace will probably strip the image from this post too, just as it did the last one, the one before that, the one before that and so on. But I have decided I can't let Squarespace defeat me. It can and has hampered me, slowed me down, set me back. But I can't let it defeat me. If Squarespace does strip this image, then I will just add it back in along with the previous one once I return to my office at home - pretty soon.

I just want to spend a little more time sipping on my coffee first. There are few things I love more than taking a little bit of time in the morning to pretend I have no responsibilities and I can just sit and sip coffee forever and all will be good and right in the world.

Sent from my iPhone*

*This post as been sitting picture-less for 56 minutes. Things have settled down here now. Jim is keeping his paw off the trackpad, even as he rests right next to it. Late this afternoon or early evening, I will pick Margie up in Anchorage. Little boys will be coming back to the house with us.

The Daily School Bus: Caught at an intersection in the rain at the very beginning of the day

Well here I am, at 8 AM about to enter the parking lot to have breakfast at Abby's Home Cooking. I had already begun my turn when I saw this school bus headed down Church Road past the intersection ahead. There was no traffic behind me, no traffic coming at me. I stopped, right here, not quite off the road, not quite into the parking lot and quickly tapped three frames. Hence we have the Daily School Bus at the very beginning of the day.

I am taking a chance and am posting this from Abby's Home Cooking. If Squarespace strips the picture out, I will add it back in once I return to my house and office.*

Sent from my iPhone

*This post has been sitting picture-less for an hour-and-forty-five minutes. It did not take me that long to return my office, but I had other matters to attend to. Well, it's an hour-and-forty-six minutes. Jim keeps placing one paw on my track-pad, which causes everything to stop in my computer until I remove his paw. So he has slowed me down a bit. Well, one-hour and seventeen-minutes now.

Uiñiq is trickling in to the Slope

It has taken longer than I had hoped, but Uiñiq is finally trickling into the villages of the North Slope. The US Post Office is slowly putting it into mail boxes. They have yet to deliver it to all the villages, but the process has begun. It should be done before too long - but don't be surprised if this "not too long" is still another week or maybe even two. When it comes to delivering magazine rate mail to Slope villages, the Post Office can be v--e--r--y s--l--o--w - especially to Barrow. Often Barrow is the last Slope community to receive Uiñiq in the mail.

There are copies in Barrow and because of this, I have received a number of inquiries from concerned residents wondering why they had not received theirs and asking how they could get one. I have also received some requests from former residents of the North Slope asking how they could get a copy. Former residents of the North Slope (once a part of the North Slope, always a part of the North Slope) can call Noe Texiera at 907 852-0200, request one and she will send it to you.

I would like to thank North Slope Borough Mayor Charlotte Brower for making this possible and those on her staff who worked to make it happen. I kind of hate to single anyone out, because they number too many and I will leave names out; probably some I"m not even aware of. I must thank Kathy Itta, my contract manager, and Noe, my primary liason, Richard Camillieri - Chief Advisor to the Mayor and Jack Frantz who worked closely with Richard and did what to me is the mystifying, impossible task of working through all the legalities to put the contract in order. Fred Parady has moved elsewhere in the Borough but helped initiate the process. My friend, Roy Ahmaogak, along with his father Savik and family, hosted me in Barrow.

As I wanted to follow one village through its final preparations, I began the Kivgiq 2013 season in Nuiqsut, where I was hosted by Kuukpik Corporation under the direction of Isaac Nukapigak and with the support of Joe Nukpapigak, Bernice Kaigelak, Nellie Nukapigak and all the staff, with full cooperation and assistance from the Uyaġaġviŋmiut and Kuukpikmiut dance groups, led by John Ipalook and Laura Kunaknana.

Then, of course, there were the 22 dance groups hailing from all eight villages of the North Slope Borough and beyond, from Aklavik in the Northwest Territories down to Kivilina and Nome, current home of the King Island people. Such strong spirit these dancers, singers and drummers brought! Such powerful energy! Such beauty performed with magnificent skill! What a privilege it was to be there, to witness, to participate.

Anyone who doubts the continuing power, strength, warmth, beauty and endurance of Iñupiat culture in this modern, swiftly changing and ever-threatening time need only to witness Kivgiq. Along with opportunity, the challenges this world has brought and continues to bring to the people of the Far North are numerous and great, the trials often hard and bitter, the tears many, but at the core there is laughter, strength, resilience and perseverance - manifest so beautifully in the dance.

The Daily School bus: a bus gasses up at Tesoro in warm weather; rage

I am so frustrated by what Squarespace has been putting me through that I don't want to make this post. I don't want to make any post. I don't want to blog, period! I am fed up. I want to quit blogging altogether and just go home. I do not need this kind of aggravation and drag on my life. What should be simple, was simple when I first tried and then somehow got made complicated by Squarespace, is now.. GRRRRRRRRR!!!!

Suffice it to say, the Squarespace nightmare continues.

That stated, there are two things about this picture that strike me as odd. One, that a school bus would gas up at a public station. You would think the school district would have their own gas pumps where the buses would gas up. Maybe they do. Maybe this guy unexpectedly pushed the empty mark and didn't dare take a chance on getting back to the school gas pump and so had to gas up.

If they gassed up at public stations all the time, then it seems like you would frequently see school buses at the pump, but you don't. I suppose I could make a call to the school district and find out if they have their own pumps or not, but I am a shy person and I don't want to. Plus, I have a feeling someone might let me know, soon.

Anyway, this is today's Daily School Bus. I actually haven't seen a school bus yet today. I shot this late yesterday afternoon on my coffee break, after I drove away from Metro.

The other odd thing is how warm it looks - because it is warm. 52 last time I checked. It is not supposed to be this warm here this time of year. But it is. I miss the crisp air we should be breathing now and the frozen ground upon which we should be walking. This just doesn't feel right to me. Not that it's unheard of, but more and more this kind of thing is happening to us.

And I am fed up with the far right in Congress - those who deny that what's happening with the climate is happening at all and who, while proclaiming themselves patriots, would savage and break their own nation if they can't blackmail it into abandoning the normal legislative process and bend it to the will of a mean minority that rejects science and equality for those who do not look like them or believe as they do. And I am tired of the individual from my home town who eggs them on, shouts out witty, nasty, inanities, proclaims light to be dark, dark to be light, whips up the emotions of those enraged who do not recognize or acknowledge the true source of their rage, who don't know what to do with their rage and so target it at the "other" - but really at themselves as well.

I just want to quit and go home.

Oh, wait.

I am home.

Faith has grown into a young woman and her beautiful cat has left this world

At Metro Cafe, I pulled out of the drive through and stepped inside for a change. I hadn't been in there but a minute or so when this young woman pulled up to the window. She smiled and said, "Bill Hess!" I had no idea who she was, but there was something familiar about her. "You photographed my cat," she said. I photograph a lot of cats, all over. I could not place her. Finally, I quit trying to picture the person sitting in front of me and tried instead to picture a young girl, I've been doing this for a long time. Then I remembered. About 10 years ago I did photograph her and her beautiful cat at her childhood home in Barrow. The cat has since passed on. Faith now lives in Wasilla and in August married the son of some friends of mine from Barrow. Her husband's mother contacted me before the wedding and badly wanted me to come and take pictures, but I had a job I was committed to in Nuiqsut. Offhand, I forget the name of the cat, but it occupies some space in my as of yet unpublished and still growing book about Alaska cats. Someday, you can read the name of cat in there and learn about its life and about how much Faith loved it. You will see it was a very beautiful cat, born with an internal defect and it lived much longer than it was expected to. 

 Barista Kristina - always pleasant. She has never skied before, but today she told me she now has skis and will soon be skiing.

The Squarespace nightmare continues unabated but I decided I wanted to post this picture anyway and did it completely the old fashioned, tedious, time-consuming, Squarespace 5 way, which is inefficient but still works.