Logbook: Nuiqsut to Wasilla, via Barrow and Anchorage, entry 5: The kiss I did not get

I activated my phone and called Margie immediately after the wheels hit the tarmac at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage. She was still at the "blue house" where she had been babysitting grandkids. She arrived to pick me up right after I secured my luggage and stepped out the door. "You won't want to kiss me," she said, "I'm coming down with a bad cold." I did want to kiss her. I very much wanted to kiss her. But I didn't want to get the cold. I didn't kiss her. I'll probably get the cold anyway. I might as well have kissed her. Life is so full of missed kisses. I hate to have missed another one. 

Kalib's parents snatch him away from the lawn mower so he can learn how to go to Kindergarten

The boys' mom and dad showed up tonight to pick up Kalib and take him back to Anchorage with them. They are leaving Lynxston with us, because he is still too much for his mom to handle. She is much improved since I last saw her, but still she is very sore and on medication and Lynx is a rowdy guy. Kalib did not want to go. He wanted to stay here. He loves it here - I think in part because of our big, wild, yard which tonight he got to mow a bit of, but maybe he likes his grandma and grandpa, too. He had to go home, though, because tomorrow he starts a "Kindergarten Readiness" program.

He will learn how not to take a nap (I don't think that will be much of a challenge for Kalib. If he took any naps during this longer-than average stay with us, I was not aware of them), how to use a back pack and how to ride a school bus.

That ought to be pretty damned exciting.

They bought pizza for us all and I took a little break to help eat it. They just left. I need to get back to work. I don't want to, but if I work until midnight I can get in two more hours and 20 minutes - if I go until 1:00, three more hours and 20 minutes.

I feel lazy, though. I don't want to do anything, but visit Margie, Lynxton and Jim. But I've got to get this done, so back to work I go. Well, maybe I'll be lazy for a few minutes, anyway, go back into the house and say "hi" to Margie and Lynx. Jimmy can stay here to watch things. Or, he can follow me into the house, if he chooses.

On the day when a new heat record was set, Kalib caught his grandma in a bubble

As I sat sweltering and sweating – literally – in front of my computer, which only added to the Intense heat of late afternoon, a new heat record for Anchorage was anounced on KSKA. Now, keep in mind that during hot spells it is typically as much as 10° hotter out here in this part of the valley than in Anchorage. The record was not for the highest temperature for the date, but for the longest stretch of consecutive days with the temperature above 70. Fourteen days! Right after the announcement, I completed one of the major tasks I had to do today. I could hear Margie, Kalib and Lynxton playing in the backyard, so I went out to see what was going on. I found Kalib blowing bubbles again. I don't think I will post another picture today, I want to leave this one at the top of the stack for a while.

How do we sleep in this searing heat?

How are we supposed to get any sleep tonight – in this searing, steamy, heat?! How? How? And how did we ever live in Arizona? I remember 122°! Or maybe it was 123! And here we are melting in Alaska! Seriously, how are we going to sleep tonight?

Airplanes, my dad, me, my wife and grandsons…

Can I tell you how much I love airplanes? I can't! I can't! You know already. Or you don't know. Nothing I can say can add to or subtract from your knowledge of the subject. But why? Why did I make that bad landing and put my airplane into the black spruce of Mentasta? When will I be able to get another? And what foolishness has overcome me that I would leave my Canon 5D Mark III hanging from my shoulder and shoot this rare instant with my iPhone? Just so I can Instagram it and post it quickly to my blog? One frame shot in the time I could've got off eight? Seven megapixels when I could have had 20? A flimsy, shallow, JPEG when I could've had a deep, resonant, CR2 RAW? I will probably regret it – no I already do regret it – but either way, these boys will know what their great-grandpa did.