Logbook entry: Transition from Wainwright to Atqasuk to Barrow to Fairbanks to Anchorage to Wasilla - footprints on the airplane window - lights dance outside the jet window - happy cat

Just before closing the door and taking his seat behind the

Click to read more ...

Technical glitch causes Loft final day delay, so I go local: the wind blows; my weekend wife; when the night lights of Wasilla outdo those of Times Square

Damn! I had stated that I would finish up my David Alan Harvey Loft Workshop series without any further breaks to update locally, but here I am, updating locally. This is because I ran into a technical glitch. I have a copy of the slideshow of all the student work that was shown the final night of the workshop and it has to be included in my next post.

I thought it would be a simple matter, because, just like there is a photo icon in my blog tools that I use to begin the process of uploading photos, there is also a video icon. I had never uploaded a video into either this or my previous blog and I thought it would be a simple matter of clicking that icon, then navigating to the video file and uploading it - just like I do with photos.

Instead, when I clicked on the icon, I got a window that instructed me to insert the code. I had absolutely no idea how to do this. I am sure it is a simple task once you understand it, and tomorrow I will understand it. But right now, I don't.

I don't feel too bad about the new delay, though. I will get it and in the meantime I can catch up locally a bit, and, while Times Square is fresh on reader's minds, prove to you that right here in Wasilla we have nighttime lights that are far more wondrous and spectacular than what you will find in Times Square.

First, I must tell you that since I last posted anything local, the wind picked up, to about 60.

I found a raven riding the wind. A very strange thing happened, temperature wise. In one place, the temperature would be - 20 F. A few blocks away, it would be +15. A few blocks beyond that, - 10. And it did the same in Anchorage. On the radio, I heard the announcer that it was -25 in this neighborhood, and 15 in that neighborhood.

When the wind quit blowing, it warmed up everywhere to about 15.

But now it is cool again; - 17 when last I checked.

I don't know what it is in the cold places of Alaska, but much colder than this, I am sure.

Here she is - my weekend wife. She is my weekend wife because she spends her weeks in town with Lynxton, Jobe and Kalib and so I am alone all week.

On Friday, Lavina brought her back to me for the weekend. Kalib came too. The first thing he wanted me to do was get Thomas out, set up the track and send him rolling around it. So I did. Just as I had hoped, the disappointment that he felt Christmas night when he had to go home and leave this wonderful gift that his Aunt Sujitha from India but now in London had given us has all gone away.

Now, when he comes, he is excited. He is eager to have his grandpa get Thomas out and when he goes, he is happy, because he knows Thomas will be waiting for him when he returns.

So, Monday I drove Margie to Anchorage, to begin her week babysitting. I found Jobe playing with Muzzy.

On the way home, I saw Denali, standing above everything. I am afraid my hoped for plan to climb Denali this May has fallen apart. Shingles just kicked the hell out of me physically. My conditioning is all gone. I was nowhere near ready physically, anyway, but had figured I could get ready.

But now I don't think it is possible. I am slowly trying to get in shape, but for whatever reason the shingles, while not so severe as when they hit, just seem to linger and linger and linger. There are days I think they are about to be gone and then they just come roaring back.

Late next month, I will join Margie in Arizona and then I will go to India for Sujitha's wedding and won't be back until late March. There is no way I could possibly get in the shape I would need to be in to climb Denali between then and May.

With Margie gone, I can hardly make myself go to bed at night. Even after I finish posting this blog, I will sit here at my computer for hours. By the time I get to sleep, it is time to get up. Instead, I sleep in. Then I get up late - noon, today. I do not want to cook oatmeal and eat it by myself. So, today, I headed to Abby's.

Shelly cooked me an excellent omelette and Abby cooked the hashbrowns. I think it was Shelly who toasted the homemade wheat bread. Afterwards, her shoulders were sore. So Andy gave her a little massage.

I listened to Obama's State of Union Address in my car. The moon was out. Just a little while ago, it would have been completely dark at this time.

Even in Barrow, the sun has come back. Two days ago.

I thought the President did a pretty good job with this speech. I could elaborate, but I'm too damn tired. It is 2:55 AM. I am going to try to get to bed a bit earlier than I have been lately.

Tonight I drove over and out onto Anderson Lake. In the wintertime, when I had my plane on skis, I used to tie it down on the lake, right about where this plane is now.

See? The lights of Times Square are something, but can they compare to this? 

A dramatic display of the Northern Lights had been forecast, but it didn't materialize - just a weak one.

Maybe tomorrow night.

I'm still a little chilled from taking this picture. I could not find my tripod head, so I decided to use the snow as a tripod. I did not want to rest my camera directly on the snow, so I covered the snow up with my jacket and put my camera on my jacket.

I spent some time at it - no jacket, no gloves, no hat, kneeling down and lying down on the snow atop the ice, the temperatue at - 10 when I started, - 12 by the time I finished up. When I would get cold, I would get back in the car for awhile. The ice was making those popping and hollow cracking expansion noises that it sometimes makes -- occasionally it sounded just like a rifle shot. It did so directly underneath me a couple of times. I knew it was too thick to crack open and drop me through, but it got my attention, anyway.

God! I love Alaska! I absolutely love it!

Damn! How could I be so fortunate as to live in this magnificent land? You've heard about God, and how he made the earth in six days and then rested on the seventh? He spent the first four of those six working days practicing on the rest of the earth, so that He could get Alaska just right. Then, on the fifth and sixth days, he took all that He had learned and then, very carefully and lovingly, shaped Alaska into the most wonderful part of all.

I will poke my head outside before I go to bed. Maybe that magnificent display of Northern Lights will finally have materialized.

If so, what will I do?

It doesn't matter. This blog post is up now.