If asked which I prefer, the heat or the cold, I’d say cold. I can deal with the cold by putting my Refrigirware Suit on – this insulates me. I could not deal with the heat by taking off layers. I would also have to stay put and would not be able to go outside for very long. I just can’t imagine, say, 115˚ F temperatures. It’s so hot then that dogs that are let outside burn their feet.

I think that because it’s so unbelievably warm down south, that more people are heading north. Seems like the Mat-Su Valley is getting more and more crowded. They can’t go farther north. For many, the recent windstorms and now the cold spell must have been like a slap upside the head.

Yesterday, my friend Becky, the Head gardener at the Alaska State Fair, and I were sitting at the back table of the former banquet room of the historic Eagle Hotel. There I had a direct view as to what was going on outside the window, in the parking lot. I saw a woman get out of her car – she was not at all dressed for the weather, and it being windy, looked pretty uncomfortable. She lit a cigarette.

I mentioned this to Becky who was not paying any attention, and she said, “We all make our choices.” Her very astute statement, of course, gave me reason to pause. She was right. I didn’t have cause to pass judgement upon this woman – she was creating her own reality.

I wonder, though, will we be seeing fewer and fewer of this type of behavior, as people do an about turn and head back south? Well, they may take their bad habits with them.

As humans, we don’t get much time on this planet, at the very most 100 years. This isn’t very long at all. We make our mark and then go, some far too early in their lives and some too far late.

Some of us are more intent on making a mark than others. I personally can’t imagine not wanting to make a mark. I don’t think that Pete wants to make a mark. I do. We have all the documentation that our good friend Bill Fuller produced in the 80 plus years of his life. His journals, photos, and letters are in my writer’s cabin. The question is, who might be his biographer? He was expecting someone to do this.

I don’t think it’s going to be me. I have other projects that are now a priority. I should find someone in his family to take these items. This I can put on the list. But writing a book, I cannot do this. And again, I think that he expected that someone, maybe me, maybe his neighbor Sean McQuire, was going to do this. If we don’t do this, we will of course be doing him a disservice.

It’s as important to find a biographer as it is to find someone for your stuff. This with the proviso that anyone can go, any time.

Next: 4. 1/4/26: It Seems to Me