ALASKA ROLLERCOASTER
I have more from Louann in Alaska but I want to report the Lou is still in pain but walking a little ways every day. Friday night she had a severe stomach pain, but finally took a prescription pain pill and was able to sleep that night. You always worry about strange pains.

Here is Louann's latest email:

Hello, Everybody,
This last week has been a crazy, rollercoaster weekhere in beautiful but remote Twin Hills. I have beento explore the old landlocked ship that I have stared at for hours during my stay here. I have learned to operate a snogo (snowmobile). I have also driven it across the frozen Togiak Bay by myself which even someof the native women have not done by themselves. Both adventures were definitely high points of my living here in the bush.

Then early Friday morning around 5:00 am, I heard noises in the school building but didn't think much about it. The custodian is often in and out of the building at odd hours. I did notice that he was unusally noisy. I heard him break something. I also heard alot of thumping around and water running.....but still I wasn't alarmed.

I had been up since 4:30 am and was in the process of having a cup of coffee. When I thought I heard some unusual motion outside my apartment door, I stood still and listened for a few seconds, because along with the noise outside my door, I was still hearing noises made elsewhere in the building. So I thought maybe I was imagining the noise outside my door. However, I then heard the knob rattle slightly. So I moved to place a dining chair under the knob, and I noticed the doorjam moving back and forth. Someone was jimming the lock!

I yelled out in a voice that I didn't recognize, "Who's out there and go away!" Then I heard a body scrambling down the stairs and out some door. Finally, I heard complete quiet.....thank goodness!

There is no law enforcement in Twin Hills. I called the other teacher and his wife, but they did not hear the phone. I called one aide and had the wrong number for her. Then I called another, and she didn't hear the phone. John Sharp our custodian and head of the tribal council was out of the village. My last resort was to call our cook and her boyfriend. He was acting as the substitute custodian while John was away, so I knew that they had a key. They came and checked out the school with me, but we didn't find anything out of the ordinary. Gladys, our cook, stayed with me until Rod got to school. Later when Rod, the other teacher came over, he found that the glass case that held expensive items like ivory carvings, native crafts and a walrus tusk had been broken into and the tusk taken. He also saw that someone had moved a chair to get to a file cabinet/safe that we no longer use as a safe.

I emailed the superintendent about the incident and to tell him that I hoped something could be done immediately to secure the building. Very quickly our maintenance man from Togiak came over to check things out. He found that they had come in a back door through the kitchen. He then installed two slide bolts on my apartment door. The back door was repaired, and a heavy duty brace was installed to hopefully prevent this from happening again. I have gotten the numbers of several other people I could have called in the village, and now have those posted next to my phone.
I now know what channels to use on the VHF in case of an emergency. Rod and Barbara have placed a phone in their bedroom. So things are much more secure than they were Friday morning.

I am safe and O.K. However, it has shifted something in me. I do feel differently. I am not going to make any decisions on what I am going to do about next year until some time has passed and this is not so fresh. If I did what I feel like today, I would be on the next plane out tomorrow. However, I know that with time, I will begin to feel like myself again. If I don't, then I may have to make different plans. I have been told that this has never happened in this district before. I have had emails from people in Aleknagik (where I am suppose to move) with encouraging words. I just don't know, yet. Time will tell.

See why I said that it has been a rollercoaster? I'm just waiting to zoom back up to the top again. Again, this is not to worry anybody. I am O.K.....I promise......a little traumatized maybe, but O.K. It is warming up so quickly that my snogoing days maybe over for this season. I am so-o-o-o-o glad that I did what I did when I had the opportunity.

I wish you could have all been here to witness "Miss Louann"crossing that bay like I knew what I was doing. ThenI had to find my way through the village to my destination. I'm telling you...it was quite a thrill!
I love you all,
Louann

MORE FROM LOUANN IN ALASKA

I got the following email 3/22 from Louann Bates who is back in Alaska teaching after her Christmas break.

Hello, Friends and Family,

Yes, I'm still here. It is still cold and beautiful.....actually, right now, it is a world of ice. Since the last time I've written, I have had the experience of flying in the small bush planes in a snow storm and in an ice storm. After the ice storm, the pilot said that he was very glad to be on the ground. If we had been in the smaller plane, a Cherokee, we would have had to turn back. I say all that to say, that the adventure continues.

I am learning to trust in a major way out here. I am 90% sure that I will return for one more year. However......I am moving to a different village, Aleknagik. The school is larger, the scenery is totally different, and the village is accessible by road to Dillingham. Well, I have to cross a lake, and then I can drive thirty miles to Dillingham. The school is located on a point overlooking a gorgeous lake and is surrounded by mountains and trees as opposed to being surrounded by the tundra here in Twin Hills. It, too, will be a challenge, but at least there will be more people and more of an opportunity to get out and do things. I feel like the effort and the expense it took to get to Alaska, deserves at least one more year. But just know that I may change my mind again between now and May....who knows?????

I am going to attach some recent pictures of the kids. The little girl and the dog are Sylvia and Buddy. Buddy brings her to school everyday, and she thanks him every morning before leaving him at the door. She says that he protects her from the monsters that grab at her feet on her way to school. Remember that they come to school when it is still dark. One morning, she asked me if I heard Buddy barking, She went on to say that he is the school bell.....he tells the kids when to come to school with his barking. That whole story of Buddy and Sylvia is one of those special stories that I will never forget.

I am looking forward to the ice melting and the berry bushes bearing fruit. I think some of them will before I leave for the summer. I have 57 sleeps left before the end of school. April is our month for administering state and district tests, so it will go by very fast.

Before I leave you, I want to thank you once again for your wonderful support. The only way I will ever be able to show you my full appreciation is by passing your love and goodness on to someone else which I have had the opportunity to do many times. Hugs to everyone. The kids and I have enjoyed the goodies, the treats, the books, the crayons, the drawing pads, the magazines.......just everything.

Thank you! I love and miss you all, Louann

P.S. I sent one picture of Twin Hills nestled between our "twin hills" and the picture of the lake is where the new school and village are located. That is the lake that I rode over in a snowgo across what is now ice to visit the school.....another new experience for me that is just everyday reality out here.

LOU IS ANOTHER FELLOW
In addition to being a Fellow of the Texas State Historical Society, last night Lou received her certificate for being named a Fellow of the Texas Folklore Society. Their website doesn't list all of the Fellows of the Society but Lou is either #12 or 13 in the 99 years of the society's life. This is where I wish I were more computer agile and I would post photos, videos and sound bites from the meeting. Ken Davis read the presentation and did an excellent job. Kathy, Keith, Valerie and Vanessa all came to the dinner and they let us all sit at the front table with Lou. The entertainment was a Celtic group from the TT music faculty playing authentic Irish instruments and singing a number of Irish ancient songs.

I failed to mention in the last post about Lee Haile helping me carry our bags to the room when we came in. Lee and Karen Haile have been bringing their two daughters to the TFS meetings for over 12 years. The daughters have become nationally known story tellers appearing all around the nation. This last year they each made trips to Europe. One spent several weeks in Great Britain visiting England, Ireland and Scotland. The other spent weeks in Italy with a choral group who sang for the Pope.

We also visited with Dawn Cox, a long time friend and widow of Sid Cox who was an English prof at A&M who hired Sylvia Grider and was active in TFS. Dawn is 83 and still lives alone and takes care of a small cow and calf herd in the Hill country. She is bent over more than Lou and said she is four inches shorter than she was. We enjoyed the last paper of the session. James Ward Lee is always irrelevant and unorganized but a great stand up comic. He holds nothing sacred and covered the literary scene from Elliot Hubbard to Walden Pond and J. Frank Dobie. His talk was on Sages, Pundits and Spinners and he holds most of what is taught in literature as Spinners.

Lou also spent some quality time with her editor at TT Press, Judith Keeling, who told her to start sending each chapter of her memoir and start soon. We ate breakfast this morning with Judith, her boss, Noel Parsons, Lucy West and Meredith ? (whose name I should remember). She teaches at UTEP and is a Mexican native who is naturalized US.

After the meeting we ate lunch with the family at Olive Garden because it is close to Val's birthday and that is her favorite restaurant.

Lou got through the meeting with some difficulty and had to take pain pills to make it, but really enjoyed talking to all of her old friends. The TFS is a real family event and Lou is well known. In her acceptance comments she reminded the society the last time they met in Lubbock she was president, Ken Davis was VP and arranged the program and Elmer Kelton gave his famous talk on fiction writers are liars and theives because they are creating fiction and steal stories from anyone. Elmer has always been a member of TFS and always has a notebook during the paper sessions because folklore makes up a lot of his novels.

It has been an interesting day. The drive back had thin clouds that helped keep the sun out of our eyes and tonight rain is falling West of here and heading our way. Also as of right now the Aggies are ahead of UCLA. Lou has gone to bed totally worn out.

DOCTOR'S REPORT
Yesterday the rain gauge had a total of 3.4" for the two days. We drove to Fort Worth and had lunch with Mary Kathryn at Hedarys restaurant. They have a luncheon buffet and we enjoyed all of it. We got in the doctor's examing room at 1:26 but Dr. Siadati didn't come in until 2:15. He examined the surgery site and said his only advice for Lou was to try water aerobics for exercise to take the strain off of her back. We asked what he would recommend to build up bone density and he said that should be handled by her primary physician. We got a letter from our primary, Dr. B. J. Estes stating that he was retiring in April so we will have a new physician to consult with on bone buildup. B. J. was our age and his retirement was not unexpected.

Today we went through Abilene to get our dirty car washed and ate lunch at the Town Crier restaurant. I had teriyaki chicken and we had enough left over for our evening snack. We are at the Texas Folklore Society meeting in Lubbock where Lou will be the special honoree at the dinner tomorrow night. We got here at 3:45 and Lou spent all afternoon visiting with all of her long time TFS friends. Fran Vick with her son and daughter-in-law were the first we met then Margaret Waring, Chris Waring, Bob Compton, James Ward Lee, James and Mary Harris (Mary is now a dean at College of the Southwest Jim is Lea County Museum director) Elmer and Ann Kelton, Jack and Elizabeth Duncan who brought Charles Linck with them, Sarah Greene, the Chesnuts, and a bunch of others came by to make Lou's day.

Lou is planning on going to the Hootenanny that is starting now, but don't know if she can tear herself away from the Dallas Mavericks playing the Celtics. Tomorrow she plans to meet with her TT editor, Judith Keeling about the memoir she is beginning to work on again. Also our daughter, her husband and two granddaughters will be here tomorrow at least for the dinner and maybe some of the sessions.

RAIN
When you pray for rain, you appreciate God's blessing when it comes. Last night we avoided the tornados and hail and about 2 a.m. we started getting some nice rain. This morning we had 2.6" in the guage and it is still raining. By 6 p.m. we had 3.0". And more rain is promised for tonight. Tomorrow we head for Fort Worth and will meet Mary Kathryn for lunch at Hedarys, if they are open then make Lou's 1:45 appointment with Dr. Siadati and maybe he can help her control her back pain. It is getting some better, but still a problem. She didn't sleep well last night. Maybe it will be better tonight.

She was cool this morning so I built a fire in the fireplace using the wood Jim brought from Sue's.

Thursday we go to Lubbock for the Texas Folklore Society meeting where Lou will be honored as one of the few Fellows of the society. Kathy, Keith, Valerie, Vanessa and Jon-Marc plan to come to the dinner Friday night. Several members have contacted us about being there. I hope Lou makes it without too much pain.

MORE PEACH BLOOMS

Our south peach tree broke out in blooms today. The north tree doesn't seem to be hurt by the two nights when the temperature got to 27 degrees. Now the south tree that is a different kind of peach is blooming. It is always a couple of weeks behind the N tree. It has two peaches, one is a large free-stone and the other a small later ripening peach. Strange tree. Both of them were transplanted from trees that came up in some construction sand that was used by the grandkids as a play box when we built the house.



I have been asked to post something everyday on this blog, but I think there should be something to be said. Lou has been walking every day to the cross fence and I have been saving gas by walking to get the mail after I walked with Lou before breakfast. (This morning I baked a couple of biscuits, poached eggs and heated some sausage patties.)



I might comment on a philosophical observation on aging. A couple of years ago I thought my body had completely shut down. I was unable to lift my arms high enough to fill the deer feeders or put the metal bird feeder on the hook. I couldn't even vacuum the house and that is when we first hired help that we have enjoyed and keep till now. About a year ago my right leg quit working and stopped me from walking my two miles each morning. As I have observed before aches and pains come and go. At this point in time they have gone. I am feeling better than I have for a couple of years. I can use my arms and walk without hurting. Lou says that is the way arthritis works. It comes and goes and nothing you eat or pills you take have any effect on the cycle. She may be right but I still take glucosamine just in case it helps.



For our nature report, this morning when we walked we always check the pond and for the first time since last fall we saw goldfish. They were in a school and hungry. We didn't see any large fish. But we have a lot of two to three inch long fish. The water temperature must be coming up. We were observing the changes in nature since we came here. For 15 or 20 years we had a pair of owls up on Halsell Hill and one year about four years ago had some screech owls in a bird box on the upper porch. But now we don't have any owls anywhere. We also don't have any mice for them to eat. We also haven't seen any rabbits this year. We do have our momma fox in the back yard. We see deer occasionally. The other day we had a big buck with a doe walk through. And of course Dotty had the run-in with the skunk, but I haven't seen him since.



We have had a bunch of wildfires north of us the last couple of days. But nothing close. We could see the smoke in the north. Most of the fires were north of I-20 but there was one fire between Clyde and Baird. They got it out fairly quick. I called my brother, Walt, who lives north of Atlanta. He said they have had large rain fall but no damage. Were still under a tornado watch all day. He said the rain has helped fill the reservoirs and they have lifted the watering ban.



I finished working on income taxes and for the first time in years I have to pay some so I am not in a hurry to mail it. I shouldn't have cashed out one of the small IRAs that I had, but I am trying to simplify my financial affairs as I consider I might not be here forever. However I have hope. Today we heard that Paul Patterson died yesterday, but he was almost 99. Seems a good goal to shoot for.

WALKING FOR EXERCISE
Lou got back on the trail this morning and walked to the cross fence while I walked down the highway to the corner. Don't know how far, but estimate I got at least a mile and a quarter. Her hair is beginning to show some growth and hopefully the chemo is leaving so that she has a little more energy. She does a little better every day, but still hurts when she moves.

We have both been having gut-wrenching problems with AOL. It keeps going off and on and has been a royal pain for the last two days. This afternoon it is being a little more stable. Maybe they have fixed it. I hate to think about going to a new email format. I am used to AOL and the microsoft internet mail is a real pain, but I am setting up a screen name with Hughes.net and will set one up for Lou when I finish this income tax mess. Still working on that and got a little more done today.

I spent yesterday on the phone with AOL tech support instead of getting anything done. I did get a haircut and make my first appearance at Kiwanis so the day wasn't a total loss.

GRAND WEEKEND
This was a grand weekend because we were blessed with our first grandson, Jim Wilcox and his wife, Mandi, and our first granddaughter, Valerie Wilcox. Their mom sent a small icebox full of food that the women cooked for us. Because of their work schedules they didn't come in until Saturday so we had a great meal at noon of breaded pork chops, scalloped potatoes, and for dessert an interesting brownie combined with Trix candy bars that Kathy had read about when she was here last weekend. She likes to try out new recipes on me, and I love it. She also sent some new tea that she found that had chocolate in it. So I got my chocolate fix this weekend.

For Sunday lunch we had chicken spaghetti, corn casserole and squash along with Kathy's left over ice cream for dessert that Lou likes. I had more of the brownies and am getting fat. Jim has just started a new career where he has always wanted to be working as a mechanic with a fellow Christian who shares his values. Their plans are to develop an expanded automobile repair shop system as fast as they can grow by hiring good people to work with them. Jim says he loves this job. His partner is an evangelical Catholic and they share their love for God. They are planning to build a race car that will have Bible verses and an evangelical message on the sides. I thought that was an interesting evangelical approach.

They left our great grandsons with Mandi's mother and we missed them but we enjoyed getting their help. Jim took a sledge hammer to my busted tail gate and got it operating. He tried to fire up my chain saw. It started but the chain clutch didn't work so he took it home to work on it. All three of them took my pickup to Cross Plains to Sue's house and picked up some really old firewood, so that we can manage the Easter cold spell that should be just around the corner but hasn't shown up on the predictions yet. Right now a thunderstorm is coming through and I can hear the rain on the chimney. The TV is running a severe thunderstorm warning for Callahan county. We have been hearing thunder.

I will get off before the satellite is blanked out.

SKI HALSELL HILL
Today we drove to Abilene and as we drove back into the hills you could still see the snow and it looked like ski slopes. The little snow that Abilene got was all gone, but it still lingers on Halsell Hill.
This a snowy day. At 9:30 this morning I drove to the mail box in a combination rain and sleet. A few snow flakes. In another hour the snow was really coming down and by afternoon we had a couple of inches on the ground. I was supposed the go to CP to work on the Kiwanis Pancake Supper but Lou insisted that I call and cancel. They said that they were considering canceling the whole thing. I remember last winter when I tried to drive down my snowy drive and couldn't get back up the road. I had to be pulled out by my neighbor. This time I sat by the fire and burned up all of my firewood. Sue called and offered firewood that she has had for years and hasn't used since they quit using their fireplace. I may try to go by tomorrow and pick some up. We also need to go to Abilene to pick up Evista refill for Lou. She hasn't decided if she will go. She is feeling some better, but still has constant back pain. I think the chemo is finally getting out of her system and she looks better.

After working all week on my taxes I found out today that TurboTax will import my last year's TaxCut information. Of course I will lose all that I have input, but it shouldn't take long to reimport from Quicken and get it finally finished. I hope.

SNOW ON PEACH BLOOMS
Yesterday was 80 degrees then the norther came through and I built a fire this morning. It was raining and we had 1.5" in the rain guages. The rain quit while I went to town to take care of church business, bought feed and groceries and thought as I brought the sacks in that in all the Mondays that I have brought groceries from the garage to the house I can't remember carrying them during the rain. We ate late and took a nap at 2. At 3 the phone rang and I looked out to see snow flakes falling. It snowed till 5 and coated the trees and grass. Melted when it hit the walks or porch. Got a little more moisture, but not enough to write about.

Lou is feeling a little better, but took a pain pill to sleep tonight. She keeps complaining about her ribs collapsing. They must have gotten pushed around in the surgery. She is thinking about what she will put into the memoir that she has decided to rewrite. She watched the first half of the Mavs vs. Jazz tonight. The Mavs are closing the huge gap they had in the first half.

I finally got back to working on my income tax but the TurboTax online hung up trying to incorporate Quicken data. Maybe tomorrow it will work.

PEACHES ARE BLOOMING
There were too many days in February. Lou and I walked to the pond yesterday and she remarked that leaves were coming out on the rose that I had pruned. I remarked that the peaches will be blooming any day and looked up and one peach tree had a branch with blossoms. It has been so warm for so long that they think that Spring is here. We should have a hard freeze in a couple of weeks.

Both of our children will be here this weekend so I should have a fridge full of food by Monday. Keith is helping get all the tractors and mowers ready for Spring. So far the grass hasn't turned green, but if we get some rain that will change.