Please Enjoy the Cookies

Days Walking - 50

Hoo Haa, Da Big Fiddy!

I got places to go, got people to see - The penitentiary ain't the place for me - I'm warning you to, not tempt me - I'll run up and squeeze it, put a whole in ya (whole in ya)

Hmn.

This is the true story of eight strangers, picked to walk the earth like Cain and have their lives blogged, and find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting REAL.
The Real Pilgrimage!

Er.

POL - We Know Drama.

Ok, so that's out of my system now.

Kwame's sister Janet did not relapse into substance abuse, which is good and bad. If you're out your damn mind on crack, that gives you
a bit of reasoning why you blew off The U.S. Military.

The USAF don't appreciate that.
There's no word yet on what her punishment will be, admin tends to take their time with that sort of thing. She's ok and hopefully they won't go too hard on her. I don't want to air any dirty laundry, but let's just say Janet had no good reason to be Absent WithOut Leave.

Kwame's more pissed at than hurt at the moment. I would feel the same way if a sibling acted up like that. Sometimes a sibling just needs a good 'whack!' from their loved ones.

Isn't that right, sibling.

So we were back underway today, and made decent progress.
We weren't really feeling it - the go go go attitude of a few days ago has faded into blah.

The Vow of Silence has ended, I lasted 7 Full Days and I'm proud of myself. I discovered that it's very typical for me to 'wait to talk' instead of listen carefully, and I'll work on that.

I also discovered that talking isn't very necessary, for the most part. If you cut down what you say out loud to the minimum, you're less likely to annoy your fellow man.

And in true Silent Bob fashion, what few things you will say have more impact. You shoulda seen their faces when I spoke up.

Sadly, my first words after a full week of silence were:
"Can I have a bite of that?"

(It was the last piece of corned-beef jerky)

It's nice to be back to dictating the posts to voicemail, instead of typing them. Dictating free's up precious cranking time for surfing my peeps! All right Marina, you know the drill. Start a new paragraph every sentence, every other word in italics, and lots of exclamation points for spice.

Wow The Pope died. He seemed like a nice little guy. He hung on for a long while, he was looking bad these last couple of years. I'll always remember him fondly from his guest appearances on Night Court. Now there's a Pope with a sense of humor. That's what I'm talking about.

Kevin, thanks for taking the time to provide such a sage comment! I have to admit, I resorted to an online dictionary for the definition of 'teleological' - my mental vocabulary usually takes care of me, but it was lacking today. Thanks for learning me a new word. Your input and insight are valuable! I'm interested to know the title of the film you mentioned, with the Walking of Japan?

I understand completely about your friend who moved to the tropical forest of Latin America. Some troubles are environment, and some are inside you. It does become obvious pretty quickly which problems you're carrying inside.

I took the additional day of rest yesterday as an opportunity for some alone time. I went off from the camp a few hundred yards and planted myself behind my mostly-emptied pack and considered the white world.

The wind is always blowing. It should be a character of its own in my blog. It would be like 'You'll never guess what Wind did today'. Hmn, the last thing I described the wind doing was blowing a bag away while my knickers burned. Bags blow away all the time, I don't feel compelled to describe it daily.

The wind blows pretty constantly, and has a powerful effect on our morale. You should see the smiles of relief when the wind dies down for a few minutes. We're not being blasted by ice crystals or assaulted by the wind chill - It's -9°F without the wind, and plummets to nigh -30° with the wind.

It doesn't snow as often as you might think. There is often snow in the air, but it's not falling from clouds, it's just being blown around. Could be 100 year old snow, looking for a drift to call home. Average precipitation for Deadhorse is about 4 inches a year. Los Angeles gets far more precip than that. So this is a desert.

Visibility ranges greatly. Sometimes it seems as if you can see for thirty miles in crystal clarity, with impossibly sharp colors (it looks unreal, like some high definition digital image for a video game.) - - Anyone who has been to Crater Lake in Oregon knows the impossible colors that I'm referring to.

Then the visibility will take a dump and everything is washed with a white haze. The world is murky and washed out, like an ancient, blurred VHS tape. You watch, uncertain, this familiar-but-not (hey we still have that end table) footage of yourself learning to walk and so damn happy about it. Unsettling.

Ack is a very interesting land. It would be a good place to raise kids,
I think. They would grow up knowing what weather is (unlike Los Angeles, where when it sprinkles with rain People Die) and how to drive in rain/snow/sleet, etc.

These Ackian Children would appreciate nature, the outdoors, and have a healthy respect for predators. In the same way that kids who grow up in Florida are accustomed to the idea that a gator might get them, their doggie, or their friends. "Timmy won't be at school today, or ever again, as he was eaten by an alligator. Please enjoy the cookies."

On the day when civilization crumbles, and we revert to the stone age, I'd rather be in Ack than LA. At least the drinking water in Ack isn't piped in from three states away. You could actually live off the land here.

On the other hand, some of the Ackians I've spoken to have a kind
of guilt about their prosperity. Sure, they work hard, they bust their asses in extreme conditions, they are hardy and hearty.

(Ackians are the Russians of the U.S. - it's like "Ve know the suffering. You Amerikaans are veak capeetaleest dogs." and it's true).

The Ackians acknowledge their toughness and prosperity, but there's also this underlying guilt. It's all built on mineral wealth. Metals and petroleum. Oil Money. Environmental Rape Money. Groping violation of Mother Earth, Upskirt and Foul. Dirty Money. One guy (Theo!! Hugs!) in Barrow described it as like being Married to the Mob.

Of course, there's also a lot of other exports, like seafood and plastics and hey, mushrooms to consider too.

I don't know how many Ackians feel the 'Married Mob' way, but I can see both sides of the coin.

Litany Webb, signing off

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