But I'm getting off track. Today is Solstice, and I have the day off. Normally I wake up around 4:45 in the morning to get ready for work. My job is close by, but I have to be there, most days, by 5:30. Because I knew I was planning on sleeping in today, I treated myself to a DVD and a nice meal last night, and stayed up late to enjoy both. Usually I am in bed, if not already asleep, by ten o'clock. Sherlock Holmes and my halibut and chips kept me up until almost midnight. And then there were some text messages and calls from a friend at home. It was nearly 1:30 before my eyes asserted their right to close and my dreams carried me away again. And sleep in I did. Nearly 9:30 before I rolled off my futon.
Here, on days that I am not working, I am somewhat aimless. I don't really know what there is around here, and it is impractical for me to take tours right now due to financial considerations. With all the rain lately, I've been spending quite a bit of time inside, watching movies, reading books, I've even started exercising again. With the sun out, and all the time in the world, I hardly know what to do with myself. Mostly I would just take walks around town, or sit in the park and people watch. This is a small town, and as far as the populace goes, it has all the foibles and lack of privacy that that entails. But each day there are throngs of people brought in on busses to look around and eat and shop. It's like a wildlife preserve of humans. Outsiders like myself come in, due their touristy business, pay for their bag of peanuts, point at the monkeys and go home to tell stories about it. It's interesting to me to take in people's reactions to life here. The personality of the town, and its locals, is off-kilter enough to sustain the steady flow of commerce, and occasionally ropes folks in to staying or at least returning for another go 'round.
This morning I actually started to form a plan for my day. There were a few things I wanted to do, not necessarily outdoorsy things, but things I wanted to use to fill my time. For instance, the internet connection where I live is fine for email and text and photo websites, but I've been using Hulu to catch up on the television shows I like and the connection is a bit too slow for that. To remedy this, I go to the library where the wifi is speedy enough to allow me uninterrupted viewing. Since I only go there one day a week, I wind up having around three hours worth of stuff to catch up on, and today was my day. Uninspired for the longest day ever, but as a practical matter it suits me just fine. I also wanted to stop by the post office and see if I had any mail. And I definitely wanted to treat myself to a nice, big breakfast.
There are easily half a dozen places around that serve breakfast, including my place of employment, but today I tried my friend Natasha's work, and our local brew pub, Twister Creek. Because of my early hours, I don't really eat before work. Breakfast is my favorite meal, and I never have it anymore, so today I ate like a king. French toast, sausage, bacon. A tall glass of ice cold milk. It was awesome. I watched the first half of the Spain vs. Honduras World Cup match and relaxed. Afterwards, I made my way to the library and watched a bit of TV on my laptop. I'm not going to go into detail about all that, but I will take this moment to recommend the show Justified to any and everyone who reads this. It is a spectacular bit of entertainment, and features top notch writing and acting. So I spent a few hours at the library, caught up on some TV, updated my computer's software, and then headed to the Post Office. I wasn't expecting anything, but I figured I should check since I do have a PO Box now. To my surprise, there was a piece of mail from a friend back home. It was a card, and a kindness that I won't go on about for the sake of saving a shy person some embarrassment, sufficed to say that I was reminded again that I am blessed with the friendship of some of the best people on this earth. I walked out of the Post Office into a storm of cottonwood pollen. Enough of the stuff has been blowing around town to make it seem like a snow globe any time the rain stops. It piles up in the streets, against the walls of buildings and around car tires. It's as if every wish ever blown off the top of a dandelion stem made its way here. It was too nice a day to continue this line of thinking. I certainly don't think Talkeetna is where wishes come to die, but the fuzzy bastards were doing their best approximation of a seed head apocalypse. I decided my best bet was to head out of town and go for a hike in the woods, so I returned to the place Natasha took me a couple of weeks ago, the X-Y-Z lakes.
Alaska has about seventy trillion lakes, and the naming process is dodgy at best, but when I started hearing people refer to X-Y Lakes a few weeks ago I just assumed they had literally run out of names. Turns out no one I have asked so far knows why these particular lakes have these names, or even which lake is which, but it's a nice little area to walk around. There is also a Question Lake, as well as an Answer Creek, so it seems the entirety of existential rumination is covered by the local parks system. In any case, the trail I took is about three miles, and well maintained. The only thing you have to be mindful of is local wildlife. Natasha and I didn't see any bears or moose the last time we walked it, and I figure that enough people use the trail regularly that I'm a fair bet make it around without incident. Here are a few pictures of my hike. I'm sorry if some are low-quality, as I took them with the 5 mp camera on my phone with no real zoom to speak of and whatever cheapo lens Samsung put in the thing.
Could be X, Y, or Z...
only the Shadow knows.
The people rowing were coming towards me and as they passed they asked if they could buy some pot. I was actually a bit disappointed that I couldn't help, even though I have never smoked in my life.
Uprooted.
A bench by the lake.
Uprooted II. What can I say? Obvious does not diminish appropriate.
I wish there was a zoom on this camera, you can see the range a bit in the distance.
You would also have seen the creek better in this shot.
I wanted to feel the temperature of the water. Hope I don't get Beaver Fever...
from the Beaver dam you can just make out on the other side.
Not a bad place to spend the longest day of your life.
Without the sunrise and sunset, without time to measure against, all of life blends together. Our lives need some manner of delineation so we can process things in an organized fashion. Here in the land of the midnight sun, my days have become something of a blur. I am constantly checking the calendar on my phone or laptop, or asking co-workers what day it is. My concept of the passage of time is dulled, as all of my resources for organizing the chaos of my life have been turned inward. I am now measuring the passage of time in shifts at work vs. days off. In sets of push-ups or laps around the lake. In letters and emails, or even in text messages which inform me that things outside this place go on without me, and life is ever forward. The length of one day, stacked up against a lifetime of precious moments with people I love, is relatively insignificant. But although I spent most of my longest day alone, it didn't seem to pass me by too fast at all. Think of your days, and think of those you love. And take your time.
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