Merry Christmoose

December 27, 2008

Today is a bit of odds and ends that I wanted to post but had not gotten around to it.

We had a moose that wandered around downtown Anchorage the last couple of years that seemed to be a fixture in Town Park and other locations who was named Buzzwinkle. He became ‘Almost Famous’ due to one adventure of ambling down the street and squeezed into the courtyard at Bernie's Bungalow Tavern where he settled in for a feast of crab apples and eventually assumed a disoriented stance, staring into space and snorting steam.

I first wrote about him here: 11-28-07 and later upon his death here: 4-06-07. His personality and the care free lifestyle are sorely missed this year and I meant to post his picture once again wishing everyone a Merry Christmoose so without further ado . . .

*Pictures by Eric Hill, Anchorage Daily News

We received about eight inches of snow on Christmas Day and with it another year of seeing Moose that day hanging around the neighborhood. I do not know why that seems to be important to me these last few years but for some reason it is and something I look forward to.

We talked with my daughter in Florida who was enjoying a nice 75 degree Christmas day when now after so many years being away from the South seems odd to think of anything other than a ‘white Christmas’ now.

Saturday breakfast dawned with only my friend Charlie showing up as Scott slept in and a few others were wrapped up in family or other things this weekend. We spent some quality time discussing many things as usual but this week it seemed to focus on friendship, how we both are quite different both politically and in life experiences but have such an enjoyable bond sharing our differences and learning from each other. It was nice going back to a time when it was only one or two people and the conversations were not lost when three or more would be going on at the same time.

I left around 10:30 am as the sun was up but not yet over the mountaintops. It cast its red/pink glow across the landscape which is such a bonus to see. I came over one small hill and could see “Sleeping Lady” across the inlet and Denali (Mt. McKinley) 200 miles to the north of Anchorage aglow in the early morning red and the faint sparkle reflected off the snow. It is a nice way to start off the morning and as I drove home on the back roads I saw several moose that have been driven out of the mountains now with all of the deep snow. They head back into the city where it is easier to walk on snow plowed streets to forage their food. There are about 1800 moose that wander the city every winter making it sometimes difficult to navigate the streets or your yard as they linger between meals.