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.

Another day spent in two places at once

Wait! "Where is Jim?" You challenge. "Isn't he always there with you, assisting you in your work, sitting between your eyes and your computer screen or upon your shoulder?" He could be on my shoulder right now and you would not know… So how can you even ask such a question? The truth is, he is curled up on his own chair, about 3 feet from mine and is taking a much needed nap. He needs lots of naps and I never deny him although sometimes he denies me my sleep. But most often, he just makes me a little more warm and a little more comfortable and able to rest a little better than I would if he were not there. But not always… but Jim is not the point of this post.

The point is to let you know I have spent most of this day sitting here in my chair in my office in my house in Wasilla, but at the same time, I have spent the day up north. Mostly in Nuiqsut, but as you can see, here I am about to land in Barrow. This is how I live when I am picture editing – in two places at once. I am not as far along as I had hoped to be by now, but I am making progress. I will get to the end product, but I am totally confused about what very few pictures to keep for publication, and which thousands to set aside to await the day when some scholar now in diapers or maybe not even born can pore over them in the future and wonder about it all.

"The guy was nuts!" He will say. "But damn! He loved his work! He loved the north! He wasn't really tough enough for the north and he was totally disheveled and unorganized, but he loved it anyway, and somehow managed to do a fair number of things and produce a good number of works - although never as much as he wanted to do or thought he would do."

At work, with Jim's able assistance

With Jim's able assistance, I sit at my computer working and that is all I want to do. I don't want to do anything else. I don't want to take pictures. I don't want to make posts. So I might not make any more today - no, I will put up at least one school bus post. This image could almost qualify because there is a converted school bus at the left edge of the picture on my screen, beneath the airplane, but I will post another. I might yet post other pictures, too. No telling how I might feel later today. One way or the other, though, I just want to stay on this and be disturbed as little as possible until I take Margie to the movie tonight.

Text added at 12:25 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues.

Thanks to the cigarette butt I almost missed this plane

I'm behind. This plane actually flew over while I was writing up the cigarette butt incident. I was afraid I was going to miss it. I struggled to get my text done as quickly as I could, then switched my phone from Instagram to camera mode and barely caught the plane before it disappeared behind the trees. 

Then, before I could blog the plane, I met the dog.

Text added at 3:54 PM

I sure hope I can find another one...

And guess what? When Jobe left he left with my Dusty. And an ice cream cone. I had given my Dusty to him – his grandma gave him the ice cream cone. He insisted she scrape the nuts off of it.