And sealing wax and kings …

At 4:30 a.m. there he was, the Solitary Man, hiking up the hill toward town. Whatever could drive someone out at that time of the morning, at least someone who had no obligation to be somewhere? I remember though, once you get into the mentality, in my case the Bush at the East Pole, time is measured in seasons, not minutes and you end up doing things at odd hours because the time of day doesn’t mean much except for light and dark. Big dinner at 3 a.m., reading a book in bed at noon. It just doesn’t matter. There’s an-all night supermarket in the town so maybe just an ice cream craving. I have done that. Funny thing about ice cream and Alaska. Alaskans consume more per capita than any other state. But, I could never keep any at the cabin because it just wasn’t cold enough outside. On the Mondays I went to town for mail, my second stop was always for ice cream. One day, it was around zero, I bought one of those chocolate covered ice creams on a stick. I didn’t want to take off all my gear so I sat outside and read a paper while I ate it. I must have gotten very involved in the newspaper because I didn’t hear anybody approach. Then I heard clicking sounds and a different language. I looked up and people in a small group of Oriental tourists were taking pictures of me. Crazy Alaskan, eating ice cream outdoors in zero-degree weather. Kind of like a Solitary Man walking in the rain at 4:30 in the morning.