On the third anniversary of their wedding, an airplane flies overhead

Yesterday, May 9, I was out walking when this airplane flew overhead. After it disappeared, I checked the time in Bangalore, India. It was 2:40 AM, May 10. That meant it was already May 10 there - three years to the day that Soundarya Ravichandran married Anil Kumar and so became Soundarya Anil Kumar. I probably would not mention this now, but would acknowledge the date in silence here and by email, as Sujitha and I have already done, except for the fact that I just completed my Return to India series, centered around the wedding of Sujitha, of which these two were such an integral part even though they are no longer here - so I want to acknowledge the date.

Here they are, at the end of their wedding day - Soundarya and Anil on her parent's porch, at the threshold of what we all hoped would be a long and happy life together, being blessed by Bhanu, mother to Soundarya, Sujitha and Ganesh. Readers who followed the series will recognize Sujitha on the right. To the left is Amudha Chithi, sister in-law to Ravi, Soundarya and Sujitha's father, through his brother, Sridhar.

I prefer Pepsi, myself

This post makes me a bit sad. This post pushes the final entry of my India series off the front page of this blog. I guess what they say about life and time is true. Life moves on. Time does not stand still, it waits for no one.

Damnit.

And here am I, sitting here, blogging, feeling lazy and listening to Hank Williams: "On the day we met, I went astray. I started down that lone highway."

"You gonna change or I'm gonna leave..."

"This ain't right and that is wrong, you just keep nagging all the day long..."

"The way to keep a woman happy, make her do what's right is love her every morning, bawl her out at night..."

And not only that, "There's a tear in beer, 'cause I'm crying for you dear..."

"Praise the Lord, I saw the light..."

"Hear that lonesome whippoorwill, he sounds too blue to fly, that midnight train is whining low. I'm so lonesome I could cry...

"The moon just went behind the cloud to hide its face and cry..."

Damn! That guy was good!

I think I'll go drink a Pepsi now.

A breakfast Pepsi.

I jokes. It's midnight, but I'm not going to post this until breakfast time.

"Well there ain't no use of me working so hard, when I've got a woman in the bossman's yard. Yea, my bucket's got a hole in it, I can't buy no beer..."

"Why do we stay together, we always fuss and fight. You ain't never been known to be wrong and I ain't never been right..."

"I went down to the river to watch the fish swim by, got to the river so lonesome I wanted to die, Oh Lord, and then I jumped in the river but the doggone river was dry..."

Damn, that guy was good!

And here's some kids getting off a school bus:

"Why don't you love me like you used to do, how come you treat like a worn out shoe, my hair's still curly and my eyes are still blue..."

"Today I passed you on the street and my heart fell at your feet. I can't help it if I'm still in love with you..."

You got me chasing rabbits, walking on my hands and howling at the moon.... oooowwwooooo... There ain't a hounddog in this state that can hold a bone to me...."

"There's a tear in my beer because I'm crying for you dear... last night I walked the floor and the night before, you were on my lonely mind... I'm gonna keep drinking ''til I can't a move a toe, and then maybe my heart won't hurt me so..."

Damn. Playlist just ended.

Guess I'll switch to Jimmy Hendrix now:

"After all the jacks are in the boxes and the clowns have all gone to bed, you can hear happiness staggering on Down Street, footprints dressed in red.

"And the wind whispers 'Mary'....."

Damn!

That guy was good!

Can't go to bed now... not while Jimmy's singing and guitaring...

"Angel came down from heaven yesterday, she stayed just long enough to rescue me and she told me a story about the sweet love between the moon and the deep blue sea..."

"Somewhere a king has no wife and the wind, it cries...

'Mary'..."

Can't go to bed now. Not while Jimmy's guitaring and singing...

"and my angel she said unto me, today is the day for you to rise..."

"...acting funny, but I don't know why, 'scuze me while I kiss the sky! Purple haze...

...is it tomorrow, or just the end of time?"

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.

Just before Larry Aiken left the ice to go to the hospital, a bowhead whale came and looked him in the eye as if to say, "Here am I."

The night before last, I got a text from my friend, Larry Aiken of Barrow, informing me that he was back in Anchorage, where he had undergone surgery at the Alaska Native Medicial Center. Yesterday, I drove into Anchorage to take Margie back to her weekly babysitting responsibilities and to attend a meeting about an excellent upcoming project it looks like I am going to get to do.

Afterward, I dropped by the hospital to visit Larry. He showed me this picture he had drawn, and told me the story behind it. On April 27, he was out on the sea ice off Barrow where he had gone whaling with his crew, captained by George Adams, but the time had come for him to pack up and leave, as he had stomach surgery scheduled in Anchorage.

This would be the latest followup to the many surgeries he has undergone since his first treatments for esophogeal cancer in 2010. The cancer had not returned, but there had been so much damage to his stomach that much tissue had to be removed. Another crew had struck a whale, so George and some of the other crew had gone off in the motor boat to help look for it. As he soon had to leave, Larry had stayed behind. He was in the tent, getting ready to pack up and go, but first he fixed himself a cup of soup.

Then he heard another whaler who had stayed behind come to the tent door. He spoke in an excited whisper  and told Larry to come out right now, because a whale had come to his camp. Larry almost didn't believe it, because the whale had surfaced silently, without making hollow, explosive sound bowheads usually make when they first surface and blow, but he went out - and there it was, a bowhead whale, right in front of the umiak. Now, he needed to get into that umiak as quickly and quietly as possible, walk to the front, pick up the harpoon and darting gun and see if he could get in the right position to throw.

He tried to be quiet, but as he walked up the umiak to the front, the sound of his feet walking over the bottom of the umiak made much more noise than he hoped. He knew the whale could hear everything he was doing - but the whale did not dive. Instead, as he picked up the harpoon, the bowhead lifted its head above the water and then with one eye looked straight into Larry's eye.

He did not have a good shot to throw the harpoon as the head of the bowhead is framed in massive bone and a strike there will be ineffectual. For the next two full minutes, Larry told me, he and the whale maintained the basic position seen in the drawing, looking at each other the whole time. The whale studied him the whole time, looking him up and down, often making and holding eye contact.

It was, Larry told me, the most wonderful two minutes of his life.

From the time he was small, Larry had heard the elders teach that as important as hunting skill is, when it comes to the bowhead whale, skill is not enough. For a crew to take a whale, the whale must give itself. The whale chooses the worthy hunter, the worthy crew.

Now, as he connected directly with the whale through eye contact, he felt this whale was giving itself to him. After the two minutes, the whale lowered its head back into the water. Here, Larry quickly draws another sketch to show me the position the whale took when it then resurfaced in front of him.

Now, the whale was in perfect position to be struck. Not only did it hold the position, it tilted its head in such a way as to cause the vertebrae behind it to separate to allow the harpoon to sink in and the bomb that would be fired by the attached darting gun to penetrate through to a vital organ.

Larry thrust the harpoon. It sunk in. The darting gun fired. The whale disappeared below the surface of the water. He heard and felt the repercussion of the bomb as it exploded. He waited, along with the two whalers there with him. Having heard the news on the radio, George Adams and those in the power boat had turned around and were motoring their way back. As they drew near, the whale surfaced about 300 yards away from where Larry had struck it - dead - there had been no need for a second shot from a shoulder gun, there would be no need now for an assist from those in the motor boat or any other boat. The bowhead had shown Larry the spot and Larry had hit it.

Inside him, Larry knew, this whale had given itself to him.

"Thank you, Lord!" he prayed.

The 27 foot-whale was taken to nearby place of thick, flat, ice and hauled up. Even before it could be completely cut up and hauled back to Barrow, Larry boarded the Alaska Airlines jet that would take him to Anchorage. After being given his anesthetic, as Larry lay waiting to be taken under the surgeon's knife, an image appeared in his head. It was of himself, out on the ice. He saw himself raise the harpoon, just as he gestures here...

Then he went out. At about this time, up in Barrow, elder Whitlam Adams offered a prayer and blessing over the VHF radio, so all the community would know it was time to come to the George Adam's home and be fed. He told the community the whale had been harpooned by Larry Aiken, who even now was going into surgery.

Larry did not get to partake of that feast. When he finally came to, two-thirds of his stomach had been removed. Even so, the surgery had gone well. When I visited him, Larry's spirits were good. He felt optimistic. He remained enthralled by the manner in which this particular whale had come to give itself to him.

Back to Wasilla: Three kids on bikes coming down Tamar, shot through the cracked windshield of a Ford Escape

Beginning with the Fort Apache Scout back in the mid-1970's and continuing on through the most recent and perhaps last of all time Uiñiq magazine that I published in November, upon completing a major project I have always found myself completely exhausted and drained. Afterwards, I am worthless for a few days.

This Return to India series that I just completed has done the same thing to me. It has left me drained, totally exhausted, both physically and emotionally. Don't expect much from this blog for awhile. Just a picture or two a day, maybe, perhaps three - if I get really ambitious, with a little bit of nonsense written below.