Stupid weather

Now it's back up to 60 degrees... after I unpacked all of my winter clothes, packed up all of my summer clothes, and mentally prepared myself for snow to be falling rather quickly. On the flip side of things, I don't have to wear layers. But all the leaves fell off the trees and now everything is really ugly, so it needs to snow so it will be pretty again. That's all I have to say about that.

Snow

It snowed... in september... today after church. I thought the little snow flakes were dust or maybe even pollen (at least until I remembered it was hovering around freezing) and then I realized that it was snow! It was kind of exciting I admit. Secretly, I like snow until christmas anyway (or whenever I am snowboarding). I am a little leery about snow in september though. Thankfully I don't think it's anywhere near sticking... at least not for another week or so. I don't think I can handle snow boots in september. That would be a bit much.

Fairbanks, AK

Well, one marriage and one move later, I am now living even closer to the North Pole. I have relocated to the stunningly beautiful-ish town of Fairbanks, Alaska! So in case you are wondering... here are some fun facts about Fairbanks (according to Wikipedia)

1. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior of Alaska
2. Fairbanks is the second largest city in Alaska after Anchorage
3. In 2008, the city population was 35,132 people while the entire metropolitan areas population was 97,970 (I have no idea what the metropolitan area even means)
4. It is home to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which is the oldest college in Alaska.
5. It was founded in 1901 by Captain E.T. Barnette while he was trying to set up a trading post
6. It is classified as having a Sub-Arctic Climate. Meaning it has long bitter winters (yay), and short (yay) warm (YAYYAYAYAYAY) summers.
7. The Snowpack is usually established by October 18th and stays until May
8.The Highest recorded temperature in Fairbanks was 99 degrees F, and the lowest was -66 degrees F
9. At the winter solstice Fairbanks receives 3 hours and 43 minutes of sunlight.
10. At the summer solstice Fairbanks receives 21 hours and 49 minutes of direct sunlight.



So there you go... some interesting things for me to look forward to. Like frigid winter temperatures, and darkness... Should make for some interesting adventures. Did I mention you can see Russia from my house? :P

I Guess Summer's Come and Gone

June 21st was the summer equinox, which if you don't know is the longest day of the year. In most places Outside, it marks the beginning of summer officially. Unofficially memorial day marks the beginning of summer, but that's irrelevant to this post. So, ever since the winter equinox, we in Alaska have steadily been gaining light. Every day was a little brighter and a little longer and warmed your heart a little more because you knew the sun was coming back. It made getting up easier and the day seem cheerier and frankly I loved it. (Also I don't have trouble sleeping when it's light outside so I didn't even care about that.)

But now, it is past the summer Equinox. So instead of gaining light, we are losing a little bit of light each day, and I'm not going to lie, this depresses me. I feel a little bit like a tiny bit of my soul is dying each day. I'm not sure why this is. After all, I survived last winter relatively intact. Maybe it's because I will be spending this winter further north than I did last winter... which means it will be colder and darker. I don't know. But I do know that I feel like summer is already over and I might as well just pull out the parka and the boots right now because whats the point?! I'm sure I'll get over it. In the mean time I will continue to mourn for the sun that is still very much around all the time.

Just when they arrive...

Well... the last three weeks here have been like spring. Ice and snow melting... temps in the 30s and even 40s, so I finally finally finally gave in to buying something I have wanted for a long time, but never felt justified in purchasing. RAIN BOOTS!!!

Here, they are called Breakup Boots, because this time of year when the ice and snow begin to melt is called Breakup. Basically the whole of Alaska turns into one giant puddle of water, ice, slush, and GIANT potholes. And when I say giant, I mean GIANT!!! There is one on my road that is so bad, someone put up a construction warning folding blocker thingy with reflectors in front of it so no one accidentally kills their car in the middle of the night. I accidentally hit it a few days back and was pretty sure I tore the engine right out from underneith my car. Of course, my car is pretty low to the ground. It's at times like that when I realize why so many people in Alaska drive trucks... I actually have a list... 1. You blind people with your headlights in winter, instead of being blinded yourself. 2. You are more likely to total the moose instead of having the moose total you. 3. It may be possible for your truck to drive itself out of the ditch. 4. You can carry tons of things in the bed of the truck, like your snow machine or wood or various other manly and Alaskan things. 5. You can attach a winch or a snow plow to the front of your truck which comes in vary handy if you run across either a person stuck in a ditch or excessive amounts of snow in your driveway (which let me tell you, happens A LOT). If we ever own our own property of like five or six acres, I am buying a truck with low four wheel drive and sticking a plow with fog lights and possibly extra high beams on it. But I digress... I was talking about my breakup boots...

So, this is a bit early in the year for real spring, and so I was hesitant to order the boots because I was so sure that the minute I got them it would act like winter again. And without a bunch of insulation in them, even though they would keep my feet dry they wouldn't keep them warm. But day after day it stayed warm (warm being 35 or higher) and the snow kept melting, so I gave in and ordered a really cute pair off of Target (or really amazon.com... and in case you are wondering, the nearest Target is in Anchorage which is three hours away. I wasn't driving up there just for a pair of shoes.) They were very cute, and I couldn't wait for them to come. Of course they arrive on the day I work a twelve and then go hang out at my future sister-in-laws for the evening. (my mail goes to my future in-laws house). But whatever, I determined to pick them up the next day. And as my luck would have it, I wake up the next day to SNOWFALL and COLDER TEMPERATURES!!!! Alaska strikes again. So I haven't really had the opportunity to wear my new boots yet. But hopefully I will soon because the weather men promise that it will be back up in the mid to high thirties on monday and tuesday. Now if only it would STAY spring, then I think I would be a ball of happiness!!! (However I am assured by more than one person that we won't really know for sure if it's spring until the end of April.)

Yes, Even the Weather can be evil and deceptive...

So... I have reached a decision. Either the groundhog lied or the weather is playing awful tricks on me. Let me explain better. It is the middle of February. It is still winter by all rights. We are still like a month away from the equinox. The groundhog said there would be six more weeks of winter. Everywhere in the lower 48 (heehee I sound so Alaskan now), there is all kinds of stormy winter weather. Yet somehow, somehow on the peninsula the weather has decided that it is spring. Here is how I know...

1. The temperature has been staying about freezing and rather close to Forty for a couple of weeks now.
2. This has led to the melting of snow and ice... all day and all night my roof goes drip drip drip as the snow that has been there all winter slowly melts. Today I saw road lines on a couple of roads that I drove on, as well as some brown (under a thin layer of ice) on the dirt roads I was driving on.
3.There are real birds (aka birds that do not stay the winter) back chirping and singing in the trees (the winter birds do not chirp or sing seeing as they are all ravens and birds of prey).
4. I saw some bushes with small flower buds on them.

Now you may be rejoicing with me that spring has come early to the frozen north. Except this means there are only two options that this early spring can develop into. And to be honest, I don't like either option. So, let me further explain...

option A: This is a false spring. Meaning that in another week or so, winter will come back in full force with lots of snow and below freezing temperatures, making the roads icey, the birds sad, and the buds die. This will mean having to wear winter gear again... plugging my car in again... and letting it run for a while before I drive in it again.

option B: This really is the start of spring. Now at first this one seems better. But since this is February and not April, this means we are still three months away from warm temperatures, no snow, and green. If this really is the start of spring, it's going to develop slowly. It's going to take FOREVER and I'm going to sink in depression waiting for it to really be spring. It'll get ugly and brown and I'll feel like I'm back in Missouri again.

Of course there is no option C... so if God, and the weather, and the groundhog are taking my opinion into consideration, I would like to have which ever option makes May come faster. Because I miss the green, and the warm, and the lots of day light, and the hiking, and the camping, and the being outside and not having to wear waterproof, (fake) fur lined boots....

Speaking of which, I'm thinking about getting some rain boots. But that is neither here, nor there.

Well it finally happened...

I drove my car into a ditch and got it stuck in the snow....

I must admit that I have been scared of doing this every time my car slipped a little on the ice. But up until now, I had been successful in avoiding doing that. So I suppose I was overdue. Here's how it went.

It was getting late on in the afternoon and I decided to head over to my future in-laws house for dinner and general hanging out. The day before it had been hovering right above freezing and had rained off and on all day. Since then, the temperature had dropped by roughly ten degrees. (Oh the other thing to remember is that I had ran out of windshield wiper fluid and the rain had made dirt run all over my windshield, I had forgotten about this). I came outside and started my car. It was a little hard to see through the windshield because of being dirty and a little bit frosty. But since my in-laws only lived five minutes away, I didn't think anything of it. I didn't wait for my car to heat up, there by defrosting, I simply drove off. And what a foolish mistake that was. I had gotten halfway down the road when my windshield fogged up, and I lost the visibility I had left. I didn't want to drive into the ditch, so I drove closer to the center of the road (since I didn't want to stop in the middle of the road... looking back, that would have been smarter.) I wound up instead in the ditch on the other side of the road, missing someones driveway by two feet.

I'll sum up what happened next rather quickly. I called my brother-in-law. He came, shovel in hand, and spent the next 45 minutes to an hour digging out the snow from under it. But we still could not get it unstuck. Then another neighbor stopped, and said that he knew someone with a winch on his truck that could come help us pull the car out. We went over to his house to wait for winch man. 45 minutes later, Winch Man showed up. I knew then that I would be no help, so I walked back to my brother-in-laws truck to wait out of the cold. On my way there, I slipped on the ice and bruised my knee and hurt my hand. Stupid Ice. They winched it first from the back, and then pulled it clean free in the front. So twoish hours after I foolishly slipped into ditch, I was free.

All I can say is, from now on, I'll be careful to have a clean windshield, wait for my car to heat up, and remember that icy roads are slippery. That's another Alaskan initiation down.

P.s. that's not my car, but that's kind of what my car looked like stuck in the ditch.

Ice Ice Baby

Some times, in Alaska, when the temperature drops low enough (say under 20 degrees F) a kind of frost forms all over your car. From what I can tell, there is no moisture in the air that first clings to the windows and then turns to ice. It simply develops. Very strange and very annoying.

Today I had to drop off some late time sheets at work, and as usual I was running late. The office would be closing in twenty minutes and I was supposed to be meeting my future sister-in-law at Fred Meyer. So I gathered everything up, swept my damp hair up into a bun, and ran out the door. And much to my chagrin I find that my windshield, back window, and drivers side window are completely covered in this dumb frost stuff. Now normally I would start my car, take three minutes and scrape it all off so that I can see where I am going. However, when my fiance was in town (he normally lives nine hours north), he was using the car and took out my ice scraper and left it in his parents garage. I've been meaning to stop by and pick it up, but I keep forgetting. So here I am, needing to get over to the office, which means I don't have time to scrape the windshield with a credit card. (Which is apparently a great trick in 30 below weather when the INSIDE of your windows get frosted over.) So what I do is this... I start my car, and back out of the driveway. Then I shift into first, turn on my defroster as high as I can, and lean over in a hunched position. This way I can see out of the tiny line at the bottom where there isn't any frost.

I drive like this all the way over to the office. Which is really only five minutes away, but if you have ever driven in alaska in the winter, five minutes can be a dangerous thing. First off, the more rural roads are white because they are covered in compacted snow and ice which blends well with the frost covering your windows. Second, there are crazy trucks who think they are invincible and snowmachiners doing crazy things on the side of the road. And third, a moose may decide to cross the road in front of you and if you are focusing too much on not accidentally driving into the other lane of traffic (and/or the ditch) because you can't really see through the windshield... it might be hard to spot them.

By the time I got to the office, my car had heated up enough that half of my windshield was defrosted. I ran in, took care of my stuff, came back out all ready to head to Freddies when I remembered something. I needed to pick up the disk with the pictures I needed to print out at freddies on it. The disk was at my fiance's parents house. So I leap in my car, finally able to sit up properly and see, drive over to his parents, race inside, grab the disk, jump back into my car, zoom down the road toward the store, get half way there and remember.... CRAP!!! The ice scrapper!!! So lets hope there isn't any frost on my windshield in the morning. I don't want to have to deal with that crap before I go to work.

Why I Started This Blog

You may be wondering, why is a girl who didn't see snow until she was 12 living in Alaska? At least, you might be if you knew that I didn't see snow until I was 12. I grew up in Southern California, in a town that, according to Wikipedia, has 300 sunny days a year. As a kid, I believed anything below 70 was cold, and at 60 I would pull out the parka. But this past May I moved up to Alaska in an attempt to grow up a little before I married my own Alaskan man. Before this winter I didn't know what snow tires were. I didn't know what a block heater was. I didn't know about starting your car half an hour before you leave. I didn't know how to drive in snow. This blog is about me learning how to survive in Alaska. The Goal: To completely assimilate into Alaskan society so that no one believes I lived most of my life in Southern California. We'll see how it goes.