This year, commuting back and forth between Circle and Fairbanks each week, it has made sense to move as little as possible each way each week. And so I have duplicate sets of everything in both places for convenience. What I do carry back and forth is my backpack that I carry everywhere I go, and a green Coleman cooler – not to keep things cool, but to keep them safe, and dry, and not frozen. In this cooler I carry my weekly rations of food from home, the satellite phone, books and notebooks, my camera, and other odds and ends I may want in both places. And so it has been all year that when I come home, the green cooler comes home with me, and when I leave, the cooler leaves as well. So when Toby came out with this random bit of conversation, I just chalked it up to good observations.

Toby: D’you live in Cirrrr-cle?

Me: Yes, Toby. Kind of.

Toby: With your bo-ox?

Me, chuckling: Yes, Toby.

Toby: And your camm-ra?

Me: Yes, Toby.

Yes, I live in Circle with my box and my camera. But unfortunately, without my Toby.