Today was October 1. We are now well into fall, with winter at her heels. The trees now have bare patches, again providing views of the distant mountains and our neighbor’s cabins. Today I was walking towards my friend Becky’s Alaska State Fair garden office, and I looked up and I saw a large number of geese, heading south.

Maybe because of the wind, or maybe because they are early on in their journey and figuring out placement, they were very rag tag, forming one V and then dissolving into other, less discernable patterns.

Getting ready to head south

I waved to them and wished them the best in their travels, and I told them to return in the spring. They may not have heard me, but the goodwill energy was there. They will pick up on this, for sure.

This year, more so than any other year, I was glad to see them arrive in the spring and am sad to see them depart. I so wish that I was going with them. Instead, I who am being left behind, am preparing for a lengthy winter. It’s supposed to snow again tomorrow. What snow fell a week ago actually stuck.

I am trying to think of this winter as being fortuitous, which is a much needed time for reflection and contemplation. So far, I have not yet been successful. What mostly comes to mind is this: the days are getting shorter and will continue to get shorter for close to another two months. And it’s getting colder and will continue to get colder for another four to five months.

If I had a place to stay in New Mexico, and had the money to air freight the horses, I would pack my bags and head south. I’d then meet up with my good friends the geese. However, this is not going to happen. I am for all intense practical purposes, stuck here.

It’s odd how what we do is seasonally dependent – in the spring we plant, in the summer we weed, in the fall we harvest, and in the winter we push snow around.

I could use a break from it all. I might be able to get out of here for a while, but right now Alaska is number one in the nation in Covid cases. This was predictable, given all the right wing nuts that inhabit this state. Yes, many of us saw this coming.

At the senior center, the administration put a sign up saying that someone at table # 5 (all the dining tables have number placards) tested positive for Covid. I do wonder if they’ll soon close the place down.

One fellow was wearing a beige shirt with geese on it. He told me that he wears it in the spring when the geese return, and in the fall when the geese leave. I thought, just another reminder of what’s ahead.

I wonder if the geese have good and bad flying days. I will just continue to wish them all the best.

Next: 272. 10/2/21: Where did that Dispatch Go?