Things That Go Bump In The Alaskan Night

I was just getting ready to crawl into bed, when my phone started sending a series of pings  "Someone is at your doorbell"  "Someone is at your doorbell"  "Someone is at your doorbell"  OK, OK...I get it, the snow shovelling people are strangely nocturnal.  Or it could be a burglar.  My doorbell cam batteries are dangerously low in this cold weather so I will just go peek.  When I flicked on the outside light I was met with this.

Yup, so, the good news is that despite the brown fur and a bit of hump, the ears are all wrong for a grizzly.

There is quite literally a moose on the loose on my doorstep.  

The moose, it seems, is also nocturnal and most likely to turn up around midnight.  My best guess is the snow shovellers put down some salt when they were by earlier.  I noticed the ice on the step was melting and they had not come back, so I shovelled the loose stuff up and tossed it on that snow berm, which the moose was happily sucking on here...so am guessing they must have put some salt down.  Moose need salt and it's hard for them to come by in the winter.  A few days ago someone posted on facebook that 4 moose were surrounding a vehicle licking all the salt off of it.

So I watched my moose burglar for a while.  It's a pretty big creature, and the deadbolt suddenly looks very small.  I couldn't help but think of the character "Moos-a-taur", the bloodthirsty undead murdering moose villain from a local indie film.  I comforted myself that moose don't have thumbs (as you can tell by the little cloven hooves), and probably don't like stairs.

But as you can see, this is no Moose-a-taur.  This is a very sweet, probably quite young moose, most likely a calf that was born near here and is in his/her second season and pops up from the river trail in an area that has his/her mom used to bring them outrunning the bears.  It's never a good idea to get too close to a moose, and moose know it's never a good idea to get too close to a human.  But my guess is this one knows there is a boundary where the humans start and the bears usually end, and has it as part of its territory.  Was glad to see the little cutie move on out to a safer, wooded area.

Hey, let me in.

Not sure if this is the way the moose came or went, but I am grateful the mooseberries were deposited by the treeline instead of my front step.  Never a dull moment up here.

 

Where Do Words Go?

 Words are a funny thing.  I find them rolling around in my head all day, and too often, long into the night.  Where do words go?  Well, these days since I have been a bit of an Alaska hermit, and negligent on writing, they have stuck with me, and gone on little day hikes like these.  There's something wonderful about blue skies, the crunch of snow underfoot, and being alone with all of my words.

But in the far too distant past, I used to love to sit down and write.  Those words would roll out of my mind, off my fingertips, and into a quick blog or post...clearing up a little more headspace for me.    There are lots of words in conversations, so many of which get lost.  I kind of like the relative permanence of print.  Writing (or typing) stamps a deeper mark in my memory than chatting.  I initially started the blog as a way to keep friends from afar up to date on the latest shenanigans and create a tour book of my new locale to help plan their visits.  This past week a friend reached out stumbled across some words -- or shall I say the words found their way to them -- just when they needed them.  Those words from that far away day were needed again, thousands of miles and several years away for someone else.  I have to admit i kind of liked that.  It's one of the reasons I decided to sit down and write a post.

One of the other reasons was watching another friend, who started posted a quick video each week that he calls "Thursday's thought" (shout out to you Chris).  It started out with him building a habit, and I realized how much I was enjoying seeing that familiar face and hearing that familiar voice.  And rather recently, his videos have lengthened, the words are flowing longer, and the frequency is almost daily. His thoughts are becoming a storybook for those who want to join in.  It made those words inside my head begin gnawing for freedom.

Lastly, and it seems to be a theme, I have recently heard from several old friends.  At the root of many of the reconnections is a common theme.  The words.  The conversation starts out with "I remembered" a story, a tale, a long walk with words that would stand out what seems to be a lifetime later, some mine, some theirs.  Words that weaved connections long ago that tie us together.  The comfort of old friends and old words has been a wonderful gift this week.

So words, it seems, can go anywhere.  They may take a solo journey and never be heard or seen, or they might stick in a heart, or mind, or soul.  They can travel miles, years, inspire, change, or heal.  Words, it seems, might go just about anywhere.