Three or four hours ago at the reindeer farm

We are at reindeer farm. Pumpkin day. Too hard to shoot and post. Signal weak, multiple post failures. More later. (I wrote the preceding at least three hours ago maybe four. A lot has happened since then. I am now at the gas station in Palmer, having pulled in with 1 mile to go before empty. There's still much to go in this day so we'll see how much I get posted from the reindeer farm or not, I don't know).

Well, I am home now, where I was able to copy and paste the above into this post. In less than two hours, I need to be in Chugiak, so I am not even going to worry about posting any more pictures today from our little outing in search of a Halloween pumpkin. I will make it my goal to post a selection tomorrow. I did snap a school bus image on the way home.

I will post it, but not for awhile yet, because I want this shot of Kalib and his cousins with the reindeer to remain at the top of the page for at least an hour or two, maybe three.

Text added at 4:44 PM. The Squarespace nightmare continues.

iPhone portrait of Charlie, in Melanie's absence

Charlie, on Alaska Street in a hold over snapshot in front of Vagabond Blues, last night after the Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks concert.

Dan Hicks...

...leaves the stage.

Dan Hicks scares himself and his Hot Licks catch fire

Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks.

Dan Hicks has been around for a long time and is famous for songs like, "I Scare Myself," (my favorite performance of the night) and "Canned Music," which he said he has grown tired of but performed with spirit just the same. He described his music as "Caucasian hip-hop." I would describe it as a mellow yet electric blend of acoustic blues, jazz and country -  all performed on acoustic instruments, including guitar, mandolin, violin and various hand held percussion instruments.

The Hot Licks got hot and really got the audience going. The ecstatic crowd threw chairs, tipped tables over, hurled coffee cups through all the windows and then somebody lit a match and set the place on fire. The fire quickly spread and burned down the entire community of Palmer, except for Vagabond Blues, which miraculously remained unscorched and standing.

Maybe I exaggerate a bit. Maybe none of these things happened. Maybe the audience just clapped, cheered and rose to its feet a couple of times, demanding an encore on cue from Dan himself. But Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks were on fire and it was a damn fun concert.

Melanie is in Nome so Charlie takes me to see Dan Hicks and his hot licks

Charlie called this afternoon. He had tickets to see Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks at Vagabond Blues in Palmer he had bought for himself and Melanie. Melanie is doing a complicated job in Nome and hasn't come back yet. So he asked if I wanted to go in her place. I feel kind of bad about taking my daughter's ticket, but she couldn't use it. So here I am earlier this evening with Charlie at Vagabond Blues waiting to see Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks, who had come all the way from San Francisco, California.