The teenager.

I acquired the Legal Dude's old Macbook and found a treasure trove of photos of the teenager in sundry roles...

Harry Potter & the Black Bead Armlet

The Rock Star

The Strawberry Dude

A Boy & his Dog

A Boy & his Dog (& Cat)

Universal education.

He learned in school what to look for. 

Right Brain.

Mrs. Peacock.

First ever handmade Piñata--made in art ed. 

In the dinning room.

With the butter knife.

More of life should be spent being creative.

Definitely.

Amen. 

Art Ed.

Everyone should be allowed to take an art ed. class at some time in their life.

Heck, everyone should be allowed to take art whenever they want to.

Especially the little ones.

Especially the little ones.

Let me say it one more time; especially the little ones.

A day (or a month) in photos.

Happened to flip through my photo files this afternoon.

Found a bunch of pics I meant to post back in the day.

They still amuse me.


So figured I'd post some of them as a collection of sorts--like an anthology of photos. 

They call the wind--all kinds of names.

We’ve had some wind these past four to five days.

Hurricane force winds; leaving me feeling a lot like Dorothy—or Toto.

Around midnight, I heard what sounded like Santa’s sleigh dragging across the roof.

This morning we found a 12” x 10” jagged piece of shingle on the lawn. 

It looks a lot like our shingles but we didn't see any torn or missing shingles; then again we can’t see the very tippy top of the roof.


Then again, it could have blown all the way across town from someone else's house!

The teenager said he couldn’t sleep last night.

He worried the house was going to be torn asunder.  

Can’t blame him…I’ve had the same feeling, everyday, since the winds picked up last Friday.

Saturday evening we went to hear Ira Glass (of 'This American Life' fame).

As we walked across campus, an icy blast turned everything into a sheet of ice.

Yesterday, as the gales were still gusting upwards of 50 + mph, I stepped into Safeway.

This had blown in before me…

and was slowly tumbling down the baking aisle, checking out the sea salts.

I’ve posted on a previous occasion that before moving to Laramie, my belief was that tumbleweeds "were just movie props."

Now I know better.     

And then there were none.

The Laramie Fox Theater is the only movie gig in town.

Actual Laramie Movie Theater during showtime

Actually that’s a lie. 

We have one of those old, one-screen theaters that runs artsy-fartsy flicks, second runs and old favs.  

The one-and-only time the Legal Dude and I stepped out to the movies…

First there was 1...2..3 and then...4

The only other two people in the entire theater decided to “sit in the same row.”

How can one go wrong? 

Weird. 

Or else we just have really good taste in picking seats.

Moonstruck.

The moon over Laramie hangs like a huge white orb.

I can’t get enough of her.

Even at 7 a.m.

She hangs out in the western sky...

Refusing to give in to brother sun.

 I love when she does that. 

Leaving the nest.

I have to wonder.

Did mama chick have a hard time saying goodbye?

Every chick has to leave the coop some day. 

A spell on you.

Boy, she looks pissed.

Obviously, she’s not from around here. 

Snoalloween is the norm.

Even this jack-o-lantern knows the deal and yet... 

He's smiling!

I Spy.

3 pumpkins.

Do you?

These poor dudes turn to mush after a freeze.

I know.

I had to replace them—twice. 

Adaptation.

I’ve said it before.

I love Halloween


I have the product to show it.

Unfortunately, “Mariah” and her sibs love to play havoc around my front yard.

So I’ve had to adapt. 

This year, however, I managed to get lights on the Charlie Brown tree out front. 

They lasted twenty-four hours.

The wind and the snow rode in by 2 p.m. on November 1^st

Found one of these little guys...

clear across the street. 

Can’t complain though ‘cause the lights were up and flickering on Halloween—

and all the little ghouls loved it!   

Excuse me, but do I know you?

Doppelgängers.

They’re a trick of the mind.

I see them all over the place.

I find myself in mid-greeting, with hand half-raised, ready to hail someone I think I know only to I realize “I don’t,” that they merely resemble someone from back east—sort of. 

Then there’s that vertigo-esque feeling I get when talking to someone and for just a split second I think: “Hang on a sec—how do I know you? From here—from back east?”

Weird.

Really weird!

Stop in mid-sentence kind of weirdness.

It’s doing a number on my mind, leaving me feeling a bit, well... schizophrenic.

It’s hard to explain. 

Maybe my mind—my psyche—is fighting to hang on to my former life as we’ve entered our third year here in Wyoming.

Maybe it’s an adjustment, that everyone experiences, after living in a new place for a while.

It would make for some interesting research.

Research is on my mind, a lot, these days—but that’s another post.

So if I don’t say “hi” to you one of these days, don’t be offended.

It’s because I won’t have figured out if it’s really you, or merely your doppelganger!  

Unrequited Love.

We all know the heartache of unrequited love...

that lonely empty feeling.

Wanting to cuddle next to the person of one’s affections, only to find them unwilling, unfriendly and even hostile.

It’s painful.

I thought I was through with unrequited love.

Little boys grow up, however, and become teenagers who run hot and cold. 

Today is a “running cold” day. 

I remind myself this happens to parents the world over.

As with falling in love and bearing children, one feels like they’re the first and only person to ever experience such feelings and emotions.

So it is with unrequited love. 

The heartache is yours, and yours alone.

So I’ll just keep reminding myself that folks before me have lived through, and survived, the experience.

Who knows, perhaps even my parents… 

Blog-o. 

My first and only friend during my initial months in Laramie has, alas, been neglected and forgotten as of late. 

Not intentionally.

Summer travels. 

A new laptop, with difficult to navigate photo applications.

The rollout of a new and unfamiliar blogger layout.

Friends.

Family.

The Snowies.

Vedauwoo.

The Laramie Farmer’s Market.

The start of a new semester.

Football.

All have conspired to keep me from my old friend, Blog-o.

There are memories to record, however, and photos to post of Beautiful Alaska and trendy Santa Fe. 

There is an anniversary to celebrate (belatedly) as we enter into our third year in Wyoming.

I promised myself (and my family) that I would have a life beyond “being a student” this semester.

Let's see if I can keep my word. 

Alaskan berries

While in Denali last weekend we discovered that a variety of delicious edible berries grow wild across the state.

We were admonished, however, to never ever eat the white Eskimo berries, which John Krakauer (“Into the Wild”) theorized was the culprit in the tragic death of Christopher McKandless in 1992. 

The teenager wanted to check the veracity of what we were told about the infamous “white berries” so I did a quick Google check and stumbled across an article by Iris Brooks, entitled, Alaskan Berry Magic. 

Much of what Ms. Brooks wrote in that article captures the essence of what I have experienced while in Alaska, specifically…

Ø     Alaska resonates with stillness

Ø     Named after the Aleut word “Al-yes-ka,” meaning “the great land,” [Alaska] is a wide-open expanse with subtly shifting light

Ø     Traffic lights are rare but signs about moose are common

Ø     The feeling of endless space is exhilarating

Ø     One has to be a rugged individualist to survive in a place where snow mutes the land and schools close only when weather conditions are truly risky, with temperatures plummeting to more than 50 degrees below zero.

While I have yet to experience “winter in Alaska,” the last statement reminds me of when the teenager wanted to write a letter of complaint to the superintendent of the Laramie school district when he didn’t close schools the morning we experienced negative 50 some degree temperatures. 

The teenager said it was too dangerous for kids to attend school (and no, he just wasn’t whining about having to go to school).

He said many kids walk to school (and it was too cold and dangerous), and that others couldn’t make it because their parents could not start their cars.

The teenager also told us that almost half of his classmates were absent from school that day.

I guess he's feeling lucky he doesn't live in Alaska.

Tomorrow we leave for Seward, where we will fish and take a cruise, hopefully to see whales, sea lions and a glacier.

Quirky Sight....

I take a lot of photos, most of which are lousy and many end up discarded.

Sometimes when I look at what I shot I scratch my head and wonder: What was I thinking?

Mostly though, I take photos because in my whacky little mind, something about the scene makes me laugh, wonder or ponder.

Most of the photos usually only have significance to me and leave others wondering: "What?!"

Since, however, this is my online journal, I post away--regardless of the poor quality.

Hopefully, years from now, when I look back at these posts, I will have that same sense of "quirkiness" that induced me to take the photos in the first place,

That being said...

Took me a few seconds to realize why all the fire hydrants have these four to five foot red and white stripped poles attached to the top.  Anchorage averages 79 inches of snow annually.

Can't get enough of the views of the mountains, although I haven't yet figured out which range is which.

 

I realize part of the beauty of Wyoming’s flat, open landscape—there’s nothing to get in the way of the magnificent sky and mountains in the distance.

I remember the first time I drove out to the Wal-Mart in Laramie and saw the full range of the Snowies in the distance.  I still find it breathtaking, even after nearly two years.  This view--although it may not appear so--most definitely has that vista beat.

Wish that I could see the Northern Lights. Alas, I happen to be visiting Alaska during the wrong season, which can only mean one thing: a return trip! 

Temptation...

I walked to the Safeway today to purchase some laundry detergent.

It’s a quick, thirty-minute round trip.

I need the extra exercise to work off the delicious smoked salmon, Alaska brews and other comestibles tempting me these days.

I was feeling pretty good about getting in a second trek for the day and working off more calories.

That is, until I saw the free sample sitting at the in-store Starbuck’s counter.

While it may look full-sized, it’s only 2 inches tall.

For something so small, it sure packed a punch!

Too bad I’ll be sitting for 5 to 6 hours tomorrow as we make our way to Denali.

Who came up with these drinks anyway?  They're dangerous!

I hardly ever consume them, precisely for that reason (plus they're so darn expensive!). 

Good thing, in Laramie, the only Starbucks are in the two competing grocery stores and I'm always too occupied with groceries to think about fancy coffee drinks.  

Perhaps my future walks here in Anchorage should be in the opposite direction of the Safeway!