Charlie's raven show; Margie returns to Alaska; Thomas and the boys; biker in the rain; sky warrior remembered

I had to go to town to pick Margie up from the airport. I had not yet had a chance to see Charlie's raven show, so, an hour before Margie's flight was scheduled to arrive, I picked Charlie and Melanie up and we headed over to the Midnight Sun Brewery to take a look and have dinner.

I remain amazed at what Charlie has done with his raven photos. Everybody who reads this blog regularly knows that I photograph ravens when I happen upon them, but Charlie has gone beyond that. Some time ago, he gave himself a mission: to photograph a raven and a stranger every day.

He has done good.

Charlie had a little placard up and in it he gave me the credit for inspiring him to take up a camera and do what he has done. That was nice. He and Melanie should now be driving south, towards Homer, where they are going to join Rex and Cortney on a boat ride to Halibut Cove and then camp out in a cabin for the rest of the week. I hope they catch lots of fish and share with us.

Rex made a kayak and they are taking it, too.

I have written a few times before about how desperate Margie gets for Arizona during the winter, how badly she wants to go back. As always, when I picked her up at the airport, she was happy - no, thrilled - to be back in Alaska.

Of course, winter is over. The sun shines. She would soon greet her grandsons.

Big Thomas was on the go.

The sun does shine - today. But not yesterday, not when I drove to town to see Charlie's ravens and pick Margie up.

Yesterday, it rained.

Dad, top row, third from left, who died on Memorial Day five years ago. May you, your fellow B-24 crew and all the others who fought alongside you for this nation, in this war and others, so many to die in the fight, never be forgotten.

Lynx at IHOP on Tudor Road in Anchorage

Doubtless, readers by the thousands of millions will be studying this picture and will be wondering why I was eating breakfast yesterday afternoon with Lynxton and his dad at IHOP on Tudor Road in Anchorage. I assure you, it was not because I was lazy and had slept in until afternoon and then decided to drive to Anchorage for breakfast with cute little Lynx.

No, I was up very early yesterday and I arrived in Anchorage very early, but was unable to eat a bite of food until afternoon. I think it likely that the answer will not only become very clear in this blog very soon, but is also likely to dominate the content of this blog for awhile, but I cannot divulge it just yet.

I can say this - everything went very well with Red Nose's heart surgery in Tucson. He went into surgery with the doctors giving him a 50 percent chance of coming out alive, but he did come out alive and in pretty good condition, considering. He has been improving since and Margie is ready to come home - hopefully tomorrrow.

That's it, for now. I doubt I will blog much this weekend. Maybe one picture a day, plus a few words of nonsense.

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.

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.