Just before I jump back into and complete the Master Chef piece, here is a local, near-present, update: Grandkid and mom; Pioneer Peak; bunny rabbit; Allie pours coffee

I promised that even as I blog my Arizona/India trip, I would keep posting little local blurbs, just to keep this blog in the near present. On Monday morning, I drove Margie into Anchorage so that she could spend the week babysitting Lynxton. Jobe and Kalib are both enrolled in Day Care now.

When we arrived, this was the scene at the top of the stairs.

The view as I sipped Metro Cafe coffee from my car, Monday afternoon.

This was a tough winter and it killed hundreds of moose. I don't know how any of the dozens of bunny rabbits that proliferated last summer got through it, but, as already noted, from what I can learn, at least three did and now there are four - yesterday.

This morning, Allie, the poet who waitresses at Abby's, served me sourdough pancakes, eggs over easy, bacon and coffee. She said I looked sleepy. I said I was sleepy - always sleepy in the morning, I said sleep doesn't come easy for me. She said she loves to sleep, but thought maybe that was just because she is a teenager and teenagers love to sleep but maybe when you get older, you don't love to sleep so much.

No, I said, you always love to sleep, it's just that sleep doesn't always come easy.

She said she thought if I got a certain kind of pillow, then I would sleep good every night.

No, I said, I am just a person that sleep comes hard for - it's genetic, I told her. I sure do enjoy it when it comes, though.

She said she just got a new bed, a queen bed, and now she sleeps better than ever because she can spread out any old way she pleases. She can sleep on one part of the bed for awhile, then shift to another part. That way, she said, the bed will never sag in the middle.

Abby cooked the sourdough pancakes, eggs and bacon. Very good of course.

Within ten seconds after this posts, I will pull up my Master Chef Nephi Craig draft post and interview notes and get back to work on the story. Right now, I have about 45 pictures processed and placed in the draft post, but even though I think they all work, that is way too many so I must remove at least half of them. I have yet to write the first word. It will take me awhile yet to figure this all out, but, barring calamity, it will be up today.

Train on the floor, Super Cub over head, bunny rabbits and moose at the window, dog in car, young writer turns 21, boys leaving

Kalib and Jobe have been staying with us for a few days, because their dad was suffering some minor pain that could be major if they jumped on him. Last night, Lavina and Lynxton joined them here, allegedly to give dad even a little more space, but I suspect Mom got pretty homesick to see her two older boys.

This morning, I came out of my office and found them all intently watching something. What could it be?

I was going to run around and take a picture from the other side so that you could see their eyes all focused on Thomas as he rolled 'round his track, but when I tried, Kalib came, too, and took the controls. Then Jobe started to come. Kalib was wary, because Jobe can go into Jobezilla mode at any time and wreck Thomas and his tracks.

It worked out okay, though. Jobezilla did not wreck Thomas. Jobe brought another Thomas onto the scene.

After that, I went for a walk. Soon, I heard pistons pumping and a prop beating the air, the volume and pitch rising. I knew it was an airplane, flying low, coming towards me. I looked and sure enough, it was this Super Cub. I wanted to be up there, not down here, but I was down here.

Two ravens held a discussion in the lower reaches of the sky.

Further on, a pickup stopped beside me. The driver wanted to introduce to his new dog, Juneau. This is Juneau. Sadly, his old dog got sick and died. I have a number of photos of that dog, too, whose name slips me - but it is recorded in my old blog, Wasilla, Alaska by 300 and Then Some.

As I neared my house, I saw Dan walking. Dan lives on the corner of Sarah's Way and Seldon, where the domestic bunny rabbits that proliferated in the neighborhood last summer tended to bunk down. By the end of summer, there were many rabbits. I asked Dan if any had survived the winter. Three had, he told me, and now there was one more, so there were four.

Not long after I returned home, two of the bunny rabbits made an appearance in our driveway.

Lynxton made his appearance inside.

I stopped by Metro Cafe at the usual time. Carmen informed that today was the 21st birthday of the young writer, Shoshana. Twenty-one is still young. She will be a young writer for some time to come yet.

As I drove home, I saw this boy running alongside a hill.

Not long after I returned home, two yearling moose calves took the place of the bunny rabbits in our driveway. One of them had a stare-down with Kalib. Neither frightened the other.

Lavina and the boys had planned to stay one more night and leave tomorrow, but Kalib got lonesome for his dad, so his mom decided to take them home tonight. Caleb said goodbye to Lynxton.

The boys got buckled in...

...and then Lavina drove off with them. I do not remember precisely what the time was, but I believe it was a bit after 8:00 PM. Before I left home, Alaska still had the shortest days of anyone in the country. Now Alaska has the longest - growing steadily longer the further north you go.

India and Arizona never get really long days - although this time of year Arizona gets a longer day than India does. Still, compared to Alaska, Arizona's spring and summer days are short. Even though I have been home for a week now, come night, I am still a bit overwhelmed by the lingering light.

It doesn't help solve this persistent jet lag problem, though. If anything, it just makes me feel sleepier. And I forgot to buy Melatonin today. So I guess I will go to bed pretty soon, then sleep for two or three hours again, then wake up, groggy again, not able to sleep or fully function.

Still, I functioned better today than I did yesterday. Today was the first day that I made what felt like some significant accomplishments. So maybe, despite how I feel right now, I am making progress.

Grandsons: after an absence of more than five weeks, they reappear in the blog to play in the snow, pet Jim the cat, sit on Carmen's lap and don an India Indian suit

Margie informed me that Jobe was standing outside the door, so I opened it up to see if it was true. Sure enough, it was. More than five weeks had past since we had last seen each other. He looked at me with an expression of disbelief, a slight smile upon his face.

He held this expression for a very long time. Then I picked him up and carried him around for a bit.

I actually saw Lynxton and Kalib before I saw Jobe. I had stopped in at Metro Cafe to say "hi" to Carmen and to down an Americano. As I was sitting there, Kalib and Lynxton burst through the door, along with their parents, Jacob and Lavina. Jobe had fallen asleep and so stayed in the car where he continued to doze.

Carmen quickly scooped Lynxton from Lavina's arms and pretty much kept him for herself for the remainder of our visit. Although she had smiled and pleasantly entertained her customers throughout, this had been a bit of a trying day for her. Lynxton gave her spirit a boost.

It remains difficult for me to believe that Pistol-Yero is not going to appear at any instant and leap onto my lap, or my keyboard, or sleep by my head at night. I know he is wrapped up and in a box waiting to be buried, but still I keep expecting him to show himself.

He is not here anymore, but Jimmy is and so is Chicago.

We were going to try to bury Pistol-Yero today, but the truth is it was going to be too much of an ordeal, given the frozen earth and the depth of the snow in the cemetery where the fur-clad animal members of the family lie.

There are many places in Alaska where communities wait to bury their winter dead until after breakup. I am told that March has been a very cold month here, with sub-zero F weather (0F = -18 C) on an almost daily or at least nightly and morning basis, but it appears that the thaw is about to begin in earnest.

So we are going to wait for two or three weeks and see if it will be a little easier then.

Melanie is doing a job on the Arctic Slope and won't be home for three weeks. Hopefully, by then, it will be a little easier to make a grave out back.

A little after noon, I took a walk and Jacob, Kalib and Muzzy followed. The air was brisk when we left, the temperature still well below freezing although later in the afternoon it would go above. I did not wear a jacket, because after all my time in the heat of India and then Phoenix, I wanted to feel the cool air.

It felt wonderful!

Kalib plays in the snow.

After we returned home, Lynxton took a bath.

After he got all cleaned up, Lynx tried on his India Indian suit that his Aunt Sujitha bought for him. Everyone was quite pleased, because the colors were just right for him and he looked pretty damned handsome. Suji bought such a suit for me, too, and I wore it to her wedding... as you will see when I reach that part of my story.

So far, I have made no progress at all. 

I have some problems to solve and I am just flat-out jet-lagged and jet lag makes it difficult to solve such problems.

Jobe and Kalib are back in Anchorage and they should be going to sleep right about now. This is what they looked like when they dozed off here.

Rex came too, and so did his and Cortney's dogs.

As Jobe turns Terrible Two, his cousins (and several mostly unseen adults) gather to eat his cake and ice cream, and play in his Thomas the Train

Today was Jobe's birthday - two years old. "Terrible two." He's been practicising the Terrible Twos for awhile, his mom said.

Speaking of his mom, here she comes, carrying Lynxton into the room. Wait a minute! Something's off here. Lynxton does not swaddle in pink. Tiny as he is, last time I saw him, Lynxton was not this tiny.

Something is definitely off here.

Ha! It's not Lynxton at all! It's Ariel! Lynxton's newest cousin, born six days ago to Lavina's brother Anthony and his partner, Julie.

And look! There is another of Lynxton's cousins, Gracie, who hitchiked by herself all the way up from Shonto, Navajo Nation, just to help Jobe celebrate his second birthday. Readers who were with my old blog two years ago will recall that Gracie had hitchhiked up by herself then, too, to help Lavina care for baby Jobe and Kalib. Gracie got so attached, nothing could keep her away today.

Here's Lynxton - in his grandmother's arms.

Kalib wrestles with his cousin Gracie. To my surprise, I found Gracie's mom, Laverne, elsewhere in the house. She is going to help Gracie care for Lavina, Kalib, Jobe, Lynxton and Jacob while Margie goes off to Arizona.

This is one of the two cakes that Margie baked late last night. Then, we thought the party was going to be held at H2Oasis, Anchorage's big indoor water park. That's why I made the comment about Jobe getting wet. But Jobe was feeling not so well earlier today, so the party was moved to the house.

Margie outdid herself with this cake! Made it from scratch. It was the best cake I have eaten this year and maybe last year, too.

Jobe received a Percy the Train lamp from Margie and I. When one is two, even terrible two, there is magic in such a lamp.

Others want to hold Jobe's Percy lamp, but, being Terrible Two, he runs away with it, screaming.

His parents gave Jobe a fold-out Thomas the Train engine. For the moment, Jobe was not that interested - but his cousins and big brother were. That's Julian tumbling backwards out of Thomas.

Cousin Gracie, Kalib and Ariel's big brother, cousin Ashley in the Thomas the Train fold-out engine.

They went wild in there.

After Margie and I entered Wasilla on the way home, we found ourselves overtaking a train. I hoped we would reach the engine before we had to turn right at Lucille Street, but we didn't. Still, I'm pretty sure that it was Thomas pulling these guys.

Smiling, rough, tough, super-strong Thomas the Train rolling through Wasilla, Alaska on the day that Jobe turned Terrible Two.

Tomorrow, I return this blog to October, 1988 and the Great Gray Whale Rescue.

Kalib and Thomas derail my gray whale rescue series - 6 studies; store in planning

Lavina brought Margie home from her week of babysitting today, in time for lunch. Kalib and Lynxton came too. Being a night person, morning is the hard time of day for me and, furthermore, I had worn myself out working on the gray whale rescue blog so far and so, by the time they arrrived, I had barely managed to complete a list of non-blogging maintenance, PR and promotional tasks. I felt groggy, half brain-dead.

"Get Thomas out!" Kalib ordered upon entering the house. So I did. And there went my whole afternoon, and evening, too. I had lots of work to do to get my next gray whale post up, but sometimes a grandson and a smiling blue train engine must take precedence even over blogging a long-past gray whale rescue, so that people can know what really happened.

They left about 8:00 PM. As my gray whale blog posts have all been taking full days plus to put together, I decided just to completely bag it for today. I decided instead to do today's blog on Kalib and his train, in six serious studies. Hence:

Kalib and Thomas, Study # 46: Kalib is energized by Thomas the Train.

Kalib and Thomas, Study #6544: Kalib and his grandma swear at Thomas the Train.

"Damn you, Thomas, Damn you!" Grandma swears.

"You damn, Thomas, you damn!" Kalib follows suit. In matters of order, he still needs a little practice - but he makes me very proud.

 

Kalib and Thomas, Study #3: Kalib and his mom. Thomas swears back:

"Damnit, Kalib!" Thomas swears. "Damnit, Lavina. For Hells sake! Bells hells! Damnit! Damnit! Damnit!" So swears Thomas.

 

Kalib and Thomas, Study # 49, round, round:

Round and round, Thomas goes. Round and round, Kalib's eyes follow.

Thomas and Kalib, Study #6: Grandma in the background.

Don't be surprised if I don't post gray whales again until Monday. I am going right back to work on it, but I need to finish it soon and it is already out of control. I think maybe I will be better off if I do some better plotting and planning on the weekend - figure exactly how many more posts I want to make and then pick the pictures for them all, work out the story lines and then drop them all in in rapid sucession.

Plus, Sunday is Jobe's second birthday, so I will be going to Anchorage to eat cake and ice cream. I won't be blogging gray whales while I am busy partying with Jobe.

I plan to start a store to go with this blog. I work for love, not money, or I would not do such a blog as this in the first place. Imagine, if you can, all the long hours I put into this blog, without the hope of receiving a penny in return, but I need money just the same. If I am to build this blog to where I want it to go, I need to figure out a way to make it generate income. I had a "donate" button on the last blog and people actually did donate - not enough to justify the effort when judged by the minimum wage standard, but enough to show me that there are people who are willing to pay for what I do even when they don't have to.

Rather than just pleading for people to donate, I will make a store so people can get something for their money - to start off with, just prints. A few different people have already requested prints from the gray whale rescue series, so I think I will start there, pick a dozen or so images and then offer two sizes each - large, 13 x 19 printed on Velvet Fine Art Paper with a fairly high price tag and then smaller prints that will be more affordable.

Throughout my entire career so far, I have never sold prints - except a few to museums. I have just not wanted to. It has not felt right to me. Yet, there are a number of artists in Alaska who have made paintings and other art work off my photographs, using the same pictures I have not wanted to sell as prints. Apparently, some have made pretty good money at it. It appears to me that Uiñiq will no longer be funded and that is okay if I can find a way to live and to build this blog so that I can do the same kind of work right here. If others can copy my work into theirs and sell it as art prints, I ought to be able to make prints of it and sell those, too.

I did sell a print about 20 years ago. There was a show in Anchorage that I was invited to enter but all prints in the show had to be marked for sale. I did not want to sell the print - so I picked a price that I figured nobody would pay - $300, and let them hang it in the show. And that was the only print in the show that did sell.

I also want to make iPad books. I have a book in draft form that probably needs another week or two of work. I hope to make it my first iPad book. I had hoped to have it done before I leave February 19 for five weeks in Arizona/India, but I have been too busy. That is not going to happen.

But it is coming. It takes two subjects that are very common in picture books, but combines them in a most uncommon pairing. Even though the two subjects are common and popular too, it will be the only book of its kind in all the world. (Hint - one of the subject types just jumped onto my lap, crawled to my chest and now lies across my arms even as I type. The other subject surrounds me, extending for hundreds, even more than a thousand miles, depending on what direction I look.)

Maybe I will make a 2013 calendar, too. How about a coffee mug? Ha!

I want to stay away from advertising. Advertising uglies up a good photo blog. Those ads that suddenly pop up over what you are trying to read? They anger me. And all the little videos that when you click "play" force you to watch 30 seconds of ad, first? I hate that.

I don't believe ads would generate that much revenue for me anyway.

In fact, I don't really believe selling prints or iPad books or calendars will, either, but I've got to start trying to do something. When I met the cameraman for Big Miracle, he told me I could make some limited edition prints of my gray whale work and sell them for as much as $12,000 each. Boy - 20 prints and I could fund a good year's worth of blog work! In the Arctic and the tropics, too! I liked the idea, but I didn't believe it. It's not going to happen. So I will see what I can make happen.