Yes, I know it has been quiet here for a few days. Those of you who may also visit Deirdre Dares (Gwynn and Deirdre's shared site about their books) know that Amber Quill is closing their doors the end of March and so Deirdre has been working down through her long back list to try to drum up a few more sales before all those titles are out of print. Hmm, when an e-book is gone is it still out of print? Anyway, no longer available! Gwynn had four books there also.
Then I've been wrapped up as teh winter seld dog racing season gets revved up. January is a month of shorter races, mostly 2-300 miles and most are qualifiers for the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest, the two big ones. There is a lot of excitement as most of these races now have web sites, Facebook pages and trackers to let fans follow the action.
There have also been two less joyful things effecting mushers. Last weekend one of the two sons of renowned musher Martin Buser was nearly killed in a terrible auto accident in Seattle. He is still in critical ICU condition and undergoing many surgeries to put him back together. It was nearly a Humpty Dumpty situation. Of course Martin, his wife Kathy and the other son, Rohn, who is also a musher, flew to Seattle and are camping at the hospital while this crisis goes on. Since I met them all in August 2014, I am honestly concerned and feeling their pain at least a little bit. I doubt Martin will be racing any more this year.
Then my special heroine and friend, Deedee Jonrowe, is struggling to get the finances together to actually run the Iditarod this year. As you know she lost everything except her truck and dogs in the terrible wildfire last June. Then she lost her primary sponsor when Shell Oil, due to environmental protests and collapsing oil prices, pulled out of Alaska completely. Trying to reassemble all the gear required and pay for the food and supplies, transportation for the dogs and so forth is a very costly matter--especially while you are trying to rebuild your home and replace all your possessions and household goods. She has a go fund me site--Deedeetonome and I have pitched in all I could.
Martin and Deedee are such icons and fixtures--both with over thirty Iditarod completions, Deedee with several second place finishes and Martin with four wins. It would just not be the same if neither of them are there! I know everyone is shocked and concerned, at least all the sled dog racing fans, of which I am a very avid one!
Those two issues have pretty well occupied my time, energy and attention for several days. Meanwhile the weather here is bouncing like a kid on a Pogo stick and we hardly know what we will see and feel when we get up each day. That tends to sap one's vitality and keep the minor ailments like allergies and arthritis feeling worse than usual. On the warm days it is spring fever time--I just want to sit and soak up the sun. And on the others, I would like to pull the covers over my head and make like a bear.
So cut me a bit of slack and I will be back with my usual chatter very soon. In the process of cleaning out a big batch of my files, I found the hard copies of some essays I wrote a long time ago. They are not in a computer or even on a disk (yeah, they are that old or older!) that I know of so I will have to retype them before I can share--but I will, and soon. A couple are worth it, I think.
Meanwhile maybe spare a prayer for Nikolai Buser and a few dollars for Deedee's 33rd big race if you can.
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