We bury our little Pistol-Yero, then celebrate Mother's Day

Readers who were with me then will recall that my ornery, sweet, loving, little buddy, Pistol-Yero, died unexpectedly while I was in Jaipur, Rajasthan, India. I had wanted to bury him after I returned, but the snow was so deep, the ground so frozen and Melanie was working up north, would not be home for a month and it seemed that everybody should be here.

The snow is melted now. Melanie is back and everyone was coming out to the house Sunday. There is still a lot of frost in the upper layers of ground, but Rex is strong and so, using picaxe and shovel, he punched through it.

Muzzy and Akiak engaged in a long running contest to see who could keep the stick the longest.

In respect for the Navajo beliefs of their mother, Jobe, Kalib and Lynxton could not come near the body of Pistol-Yero and would have to stay inside for the funeral and burial.

It may be a small hole, but given the conditions of the earth here, it took a long time to dig - probably close to an hour. Charlie arrived and spelled Rex for bit. Akiak seemed to dominate the stick game.

I unwrapped Pistol-Yero, put him on a blanket that he had enjoyed in life and brushed his fur. Lisa came out as I finished and wanted to see him.

I then carried him to the back. Except for Lavina and the boys, everybody gathered around for the viewing and final pets.

Margie came out a little late, as she had been helping Lavina with the boys.

Then we headed toward the far reaches of the backyard, where, in the course of 30 years, we have buried a good many of our fur-clad family members - because that's what they are - family members.

Everyone told a favorite story about Pistol-Yero. Margie is talking here. She is saying how she always wanted to keep him off the bed and especially the pillows, but he always got on the bed and pillows anyway and she came to know that he really liked to have a nice, neat, clean bed and pillow to lie on. She also noted how Pistol had usually stayed away from her, because he always liked to hang with me and she would do things like chase him off of beds and pillows, but there were a few times when she had been sitting on the couch and he came to her and sat on her lap and let her pet him as he purred and that was special.

Melanie took her turn filling in the hole - first we did it by hand, then by shovel.

And finally, covered it with stones. Rex and Charlie had dug up this boulder during one of my forays into the house. Caleb placed it on the grave and we piled the smaller stones around it.

Lisa disappeared and then reappeared, carrying three blossoms from a Mother's Day bouquet Melanie had bought for her mom.

Rest in peace, sweet little Pistol-Yero... life is not the same around here without you. You would probably be sitting between me and my computer screen, right now, as I made a regular post about Mother's Day.

We then headed back up to the house. The boys came out and set a tire to rolling.

Kalib set the tire to rolling again as Lavina cooked. He scored a direct hit and knocked Rex down.

Kalib was very pleased, so he rolled the tire back up to the porch to see if he could down Uncle Rex again. He would succeed.

Jobe raked the house.

Corn, mushrooms and peppers were added to the grill. Soon, we would feast in celebration of Margie and Lavina; in celebration of mothers.

Brief appearance by the boys; Thomas the Train friends and the real train; yellow moose drives down Lucille; marsh moose gets spooked

I back up two nights ago, to when I dropped Margie off to babysit the grandsons through Thursday. We had tried to go to the 6:00 PM showing of The Avengers at Tikatnu Theatres, but it was sold out, so we went over to the new Olive Garden about two blocks away, but there was a huge waiting line and the lady told us we would have to wait 45 minutes to be seated. We said to hell with that and ate at PHO Saigon instead.

PHO Saigon is good, so I was not disappointed.

Then we went back to Jake and Lavina's at about 7:30 PM. Lavina and two boys greeted us as we got out of the car. 

We will see The Avengers another time.

Inside, I discovered that the love affair between Kalib, Thomas and His Friends and all things train still rages.

Pretty soon, I was on the highway, headed home. About 8:30 PM, I came upon a train. When I saw where it was, I was hopeful that I might catch the engines crossing the train trestle - a very rare and blessed sight to catch when driving randomly back and forth between Anchorage and Wasilla.

Oh, hallejuah! Praises be!

I caught the train on the trestle, crossing Knik River! But, damnit, I had my shutter speed set at 1/125, doing 70. I could have caught this rare and blessed moment in a bit crisper detail had I have bumped it up to 1/800 or something, but, oh well.

I don't really care. I'm not shooting for a tourist brochure. I'm shooting to the catch the moment, and this was it and it was glorious. To me, anyway.

Had Kalib been with me, he would have been thrilled, too.

He would have seen details in the train that I did not see.

Then I was in Wasilla, on the final stretch to the house. A yellow moose came driving in the opposite direction. I was so amazed I almost forgot to take the picture.

Come morning I took a walk. As I came home through the marsh, I spooked a moose. I apologized to the moose. I really didn't mean to spook it at all. I tried to be quiet. I tried to be stealthy. I think it heard the click of my camera. I think that is what spooked it.

I break away from my India coverage just long enough to go meet Margie, Lavina and Lynxton and spend a few brief moments with my family

On my way to Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage, I found myself behind this fellow on Fifth Avenue. It was one of those situations when I sorely wanted to remove the dirty, cracked, windshield in front of me so I could take a crystal-clear picture. But sometimes, you either get the shot through a dirty, cracked, windshield or you don't get it at all.

I was on my way to meet Margie, Lavina and Lynxton when they got off the final flight bringing them home from Phoenix.

I had wanted to meet them as they came out from the secure area, but I didn't make it in time. Jacob, Kalib and Jobe did, though.

And here they are, all of them getting off the elevator near the baggage claim area.

And here came Melanie, who had just arrived home from Kuparak on the Arctic Slope, very near to Prudhoe Bay. Lynxton was overjoyed to see her.

"How does the cool air feel?" I asked Margie. On their last day in the Phoenix area, the temperature had reached 107 degrees (42 C).

"Good!" she answered.

"How does the warm air feel feel?" I asked Melanie. During her stay at Kuparuk, temperatures had ranged from -25 (-32 C) to a warm 10 (-12 C) at the end.

"Good!" she answered.

Here, the temperature was about 50 (10 C) - just about as pleasant as it could be.

The youngest boy: Lynxton, in his Aunt Melanie's arms.

The second youngest boy: Jobe, in the arms of his mother, whom he has not seen for a week.

The oldest boy: Kalib, in no one's arms, walking about on his own two feet.

Lavina had brought Margie to Phoenix with her so that she could babysit Lynxton while Lavina attended her workshop. Now that they were home, Margie would need to spend the rest of the week, at least through Thursday, babysitting the boys in Anchorage.

So the plan was for me to drive home and spend the rest of the week alone, just as I had the previous week, and the week before that, etc.

But instead, I brought Margie home, then got up early in this morning and drove her back to town. Then I drove back alone.

Tomorrow, I will return this blog to India. Some very neat things happened between the time we got off the train in Pune and the wedding functions began, but I really need to get Sujitha and Manoj married, so I will jump ahead, straight into wedding related functions.

On Easter, Thomas gets out of hand; the boys do a typical Anchorage Easter Egg hunt

Kalib and Jobe had stayed with us since Friday and none of us had any idea of the mischief their parents had been up to while they were with us. It all had to with Thomas the Train. They had found this battery powered, ridable Thomas the Train on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago, had kept quiet about it, but had been arguing inside their own heads the whole time.

Should they get it? Or was it over the top? Spoiling their boys just a little bit too much, maybe?

Well, they got it - and boy, was it fun! At least for Kalib and his cousin Ashley. Jobe was asleep in the car.

Oh yea, cousin Julian, too. That's him falling down.

As train wrecks go, it was grand and glorious.

Now, it is still Easter Sunday and this is the second post I have put up today - even though on Friday I said I would put up no more posts until Monday, and then I would take this blog right back into India.

What was I thinking? Yes, on Monday, I will still take this blog right back into India - but what made me think I could let Easter pass without making a good morning Happy Easter post and an end of the day, kids celebrate post?

Except for Melanie, who is doing a job up on the Arctic Slope, and Caleb, who opted to stay home, watch the Masters golf tournament and do laundry, everyone came and everyone contributed. Rex and Cortney bought themselves a smoker and smoked a ham with cherry tree chips - and I swear, it was the best ham I have ever tasted.

Oh, my goodness! Was it good!

I felt bad for the pig that contributed to our Easter feast with its life, but still it was good.

I wonder why God made the Earth this way?

And does the ressurrection apply to pigs?

How could it not?

Someday, I might meet this pig. It might say, "Bill, I am not very happy with you."

I might respond, "but you nourished me and all my family, pig, and you tasted good, and we thanked you and thanked the Good Lord for you."

"Well, okay," the pig might then say. "I'm resurrected, anyway, so what the hell. Everything is fine."

"Being ressurrected is good, but I sure miss the taste of ham!" I might then add.

"BILL!!!!" the resurrected pig might then squeal.

Of course, if it turns out that reincarnation is the real deal, then I might be the pig next time, and the ham might be the man. That would be karma. Sooner or later, though, we would get it right and we would both be happy.

I photographed everybody who came for dinner, from the babies Lynxton and his beautiful cousin Arial - the youngest in the family right now - on up to Margie. But I still have a lot to do and I can't let this post get too long, so I am restricting it to the Easter activities of the children, beginning with the arrival of the big Thomas the Train.

Maybe I will squeeze a couple of the others in this week, somewhere between India posts - at least Lynxton and Arial.

Then I move to the Easter egg hunt. After his Uncle Anthony (Ants) hid the eggs in the nearby park, Kalib slid down the snow bank on his butt and then led the way to the hunt. The first Thomas picture and all the egg hunt images were done with my iPhone, by the way - not because I was following Richard Murphy's example, but because the battery on my 7D went dead.

Cousin Julian heads out in search of eggs, just ahead of Kalib and Jobe. That's Charlie's lens. He photographed the action, too, and already has images up on Facebook - including one with me.

Ashley and Kalib search for eggs at the teeter totter - finally beginning to emerge after Anchorage's snowiest winter on record - 135 inches so far, undoubtedly with more to come.

Julian searches for eggs on the slide. I thought sure he would spot and grab this one, but he didn't. So I did. And I ate it, right there on the spot.

I JOKES! I JOKES! I JOKES!

What? You think I steal candy from babies?

Crimeny. Don't take everything I say so seriously!

Ashley finds an egg. I took it away from him and ate it right there, on the spot. It was really good, but it needed pepper. At first, it needed salt, too, but I turned Ashley upside down and sprinkled his tears on the egg and that was salt enough.

Jobe with his eggs.

It was the kind of day that turns snow into water. After hoarding a good supply of eggs, Jobe wandered into a puddle.

After awhile, he got out of the puddle. Then he dropped an egg into the puddle. "Ohhhh noooo!" he said.

Jobe does not yet have a big vocabulary, but he's got "ohhhhhh noooooo!" down pretty good.

As Ants looks on, Lavina and the boys frolic in the puddle.

Another short post: Kalib witnesses a train wreck; big brother - little brother

This morning, I discovered that there had been a train wreck in the living room and Kalib had witnessed it. Or did he cause it?

A bit later - big brother, little brother.

Little brother.