We live in a land of ice and snow...

Ice and snow are big in Anchorage news this week - here is the rundown!

To answer for everyone the question we have gotten from a lot of our friends and family members in the lower 48...No, we have not been to see Snowzilla. We did not want to add the the apparently terrible traffic snarls it is causing. ;) Also - and this is the important thing to remember - it is just a really big snowman. If we happen to be in that area, we will probably drive past, but we did not really want to go out of our way for it. If we do go past though, we'll post a picture here.

The follow up for that story possibly did not get to the national news is that the next day a group of snowman picketers showed up outside City Hall with little picket signs protesting the city's oppression of their big snowman brother! http://www.adn.com/snowzilla/ for the many chapters of the saga.

The background, and of course there had to be one, is that the builder of Snowzilla has been in a tangle with his neighbors and the city about a bunch of junk he has in his yard, so this is just another chapter in that story. Crazy town!

This afternoon we went downtown to the same town square where the Christmas tree lighting (of earlier post fame) took place. Today our object was an ice sculpture competition! The carvers have been at work since Friday, and the judging takes place roughly a half an hour from now, so we got to see things when they were pretty well along. There were 6 or 7 competitors, and all were doing some really beautiful things.

This is a bunch of fish sort of emanating from a wave that the artist says is to emphasize the importance of fish to Alaska.

Somewhat predictably, there are a few bear-based art works. (Incidentally, a bear attack Discovery channel special that was filmed near here is total malarky. Again, see http://www.adn.com/ for the full details)

This one is a city scape that I read is a street scene from the 1964 earthquake. Yes, that is an iron on top of the middle building. Eventually there will be cars falling into a crack in the street! (This is in the statue.)

Then to warm up, we went and had lunch at Humpy's ( yes, more culture!) where another amazing thing happened. We saw a football game that was actually interesting!

Let me provide a little backstory. I hate football. It is extremely boring to me, and consequently I have never watched a football game for longer than it took me to run through the room where it was playing on TV. Now, I have no problem with other people liking football - many of my loved ones are really into the sport, and it seems to give many other people great joy - it just isn't for me. The only exception is that I vote (yes, I know that is not the term) for the Ravens. This is purely because I like Poe. I have never seen a Ravens game, have no idea who's on the team or what their win-loss ratio is. I just like the idea of a literarily inspired football team. A friend and former coworker and I liked the idea of the Ravens so much that we came up with a whole marketing campaign for their team. Here is our concept. The mascot should be an Edgar Allen Poe with a great big bobbly head, the cheerleaders should be Victorian-y goth girls, and fans should be given fake ravens on sticks to wave around instead of big foam #1 fingers. We even came up with a cheer. Ready? Here is is..."When shall our opponents score? Quoth the Ravens 'Never More'!" I would actually watch a game if they did things like that.
Anyway. One sector of Humpy's has an array of big screen TVs playing what looked to me like a bunch of different games. We did not want to sit there, but there weren't any seats in the other part. The game we wound up watching was the Eagles vs. the Cowboys. Those of you who follow football will probably know the game I am referring to. Neither Art nor I know much about football, and even we could tell the Cowboys were sucking out loud - they were so bad it was comical. By the second time the Eagles got possession of the ball from the Cowboys and ran right down the field, we were screaming and laughing along with the rest of the crowd. I was actually sorry when we had finished lunch and needed to relinquish our seats. The experience will probably not make me a football fan, but I was encouraged to see an interesting moment happening right there while I was watching.

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Art festivals + Coldness = Good times!

As the year winds down, everyone gets less and less inclined to do much of anything at work. I guess that is not specific to Alaska, though :) As I am pretty new to my job, I don't have a lot of time to take off yet. Also, I am saving up time for Fur Rondy in late February (about which more in a later post) and a visit from my parents in Spring sometime. But almost everyone else is off, so I am kind of rattling around the place alone. It's pretty quiet, but fortunately I have some projects that I can work on better in peace.
However, Anchorage has a lot going on, some of which I hope to get to do. Going on right now is something called the FREEZE arts festival. As near as I can figure, it is basically an artistic celebration of being cold. It features things like ice sculpture installations and "beach parties" in the snow. It sounds like a HokeFest to me, so naturally I am looking forward to it a great deal. Also, I enjoy both art and being cold, so there you go - good times all around.
At the beginning of December, Anchorage has a film festival, which I and everyone at my job were all excited about. And then none of us went. It wasn't well publicized, and when I finally got a look at the movie list, it all looked pretty dire. Not dire like "dark and moody" - I am a David Lynch fan, so that doesn't bother me. I mean dire like "not very interesting". Longtime residents assured me that usually it is much better than that, and the movies are usually much better. I will be interested next year to see if they say the same thing.

Worrying Wildlife Development

Well, the wild animals to watch out for have undergone a slight, seasonal changing-of-the-guard. Moose are still wandering around, but the bears have apparently formed a WWF tag-team like alliance with coyotes. (Bears are now hibernating. I don't know where the coyotes were all summer, other than not on the headlines. Possibly at the beach.) I direct interested readers to this story http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/wildlife/story/626826.html written by ADN writer James Halpin.
I will wait while you read. ... Back now? Good.
Worrying part #1 "Rambunctious coyotes growing increasingly bold at the Hilltop Ski Area, including one that snatched a pair of ski googgles from a fallen boy, have prompted the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to go after them this week with rubber slugs and cracker shells." Think about this for a minute. This is not scary in the sense you might expect. The coyote did not go after the fallen kid, which is where Wildlife Attack stories normally wind up. The coyote stole the kid's ski goggles. Why? What the hell does a coyote want with ski goggles? Is he building a coyote robot up there? Was he driven to this life of crime by a tragic unemployability and/or lack of pockets? Is he fetching supplies for a coyote-training evil genius that lives secluded in an Arctic fastness? Does the wind make the coyote's eyes water, particularly when he straps on his jet-skis to chase after a roadrunner? The more I think about this, the more it freaks me out.
( Side note to my Mom and other kind-hearted persons - they are not going to kill or hurt the animals, just try to scare them away from humans.)
Worrying part #2, a bit further on in the story:

"After sightings that began about a week and a half ago, ski patrol director Jessie Oliver, a three-year veteran at the area, saw a coyote Monday chewing on some fencing as a roughly 12-year-old boy fell on his way down, dropping his ski goggles.
"The coyote walked within 2 feet of him and he turned around and saw it and was like, 'Oh no,' " Oliver said. The boy started crawling away and, while his back was turned, the coyote crept up from behind, snatched his goggles and skirted off. Oliver, who was maybe 100 feet away when the drama unfolded, decided to pursue the thief into the Spencer Loop cross-country trail.
"It kept setting them down, so I would go to go pick them up, and then it would rush back and grab them and take them farther," she said. "It seemed to be more playing around."
The coyote, dubbed "Friendly" by employees, finally took off into the woods, goggles still in his jaws, she said.

The coyote was actually luring her into the woods. Again, why? What'd you say girl? Timmy fell into a well? Let's go save him!

Seriously, though. What does the coyote want with a ski patrol director? Is he really a ski instructor who angered a local witch, and he needs her to kiss him to turn him back again? All I can say is if he tries to lure you into a glowing portal, just say no.

Newbie mistake #3

Long-time Alaskans, known to one another as sourdoughs, have a loosely-defined list of newbie (or cheechako) mistakes. When you tell a sourdough, especially older coworkers, about some goofy thing you just did, they just shake their heads, call you a cheechako, and if they are in a kindly mood then make sure you haven't sustained permanent damage.
The first cheechako mistake I made involved a surprise swim in a glacial river (of earlier post fame), and the second was the far less colorful wearing of garments of inappropriate weight for the weather. The third, again a colorful one, took place late last week. Early in the morning, we heard a really loud clatter. Arising to see what was the matter, we grabbed home defense items that we had to hand. For me, this was a heavy book (I know! but it was really early and my thinking was not extremely clear at this point) and for Art it was a can of bear repellent(powerful pepper spray).
As we made our way into the spare room, I heard a tiny little hiss, lasting maybe half a second. I had time to say "No, was that..." and then the wave of pain washed over us. Coughing, sneezing, weeping, we staggered into the most distant part of our little apartment. After a few moments, we realized things weren't going to improve unless we let the bad air out and some good air in. We staggered back through the apartment, opening the two openable windows and turning on the kitchen and bathroom fans while swabbing tears and mucus from our faces. Since it was one of those well-below freezing mornings, we soon added shivering to our spasmodic performance. To make a long story a little shorter, we took turns venturing into the Ground Zero room to see if it was tolerable, as we still had to get dressed for work, and our clothes are stored in there. Eventually the air exchanged to the point where we could get dressed and go about our days. However, there are still things in this room that make our skin burn.
I was kind of determined to keep this particular adventure to myself, but as I showed up to work looking all weepy and bereft, I wound up having to explain. After they got done laughing, my coworkers kindly made sure I hadn't sustained any permanent damage. Then they told me similar tales - apparently people have mishaps with their bear spray pretty often. Usually they freeze in cars and crack, rendering them undrivable, so I guess it could have been worse. They also told me a few of the other dumb rookie mistakes I will probably make before I graduate to sourdough. So that's something to look forward to!
As an upside, as soon as the misery dies down a little, pepper spray smells absolutely delicious - sort of a very piquant paprika scent. But I don't recommend garnishing your house with it.

Havin' a cold wave

Not a lot of really exciting stuff to report on right now. Work is very crazy for me right now - a big project was culminating, and tomorrow I get to see if all is well and calms down, or if it gets super-crazy. Super-crazy would be a bad thing. Should be interesting. Art's work is getting very busy too, which we sure aren't complaining about!
Other than that, the big news is that it's very cold. I know! Who would have imagined? Cold in Alaska? Will wonders never cease! But seriously, it's been hovering around the zero mark for a few days now. We have started keeping the car plugged in overnight now - you can get block heaters installed in your car, and most parking places have electrical outlets on them. So you just plug your car in and it stays warmish and that prevents problems. Well, cold related ones, anyway.
Another thing people do up here is you can get remote start devices installed in your car - according to my coworkers, this is a popular thing for spouses to give each other ! This allows you to start your car from inside the house, which on 0 degree days is a very good thing. It's kind of freaky if you out in the parking lot, scraping off your car (which believe me - you are) and suddenly cars are roaring to life all around you. You start thinking to yourself "I'm pretty sure there was that one Stephen King story that started this way... If I hear Highway to Hell, I'm running." It's kind of disconcerting, is all I'm saying.

Not much doing...

As the title implies, nothing much exciting doing. So here are some brief updates on common topics for this blog:

• Daylight - fading fast! The sun rose this morning at 10 am and set at 3:44. We are getting close to the shortest day of the year (December 21, for those of you playing along at home).
• A few distant moose sightings, but no bear as they are mostly hibernating.
• Having a heat wave! It got slightly above the freezing mark several days in the past week or so!
• Seasonal shift in Anchorage Daily News common headlines (Of earlier post fame - News of the New!). Alaska Politician in Trouble is still quite popular. However, Animal Atrocity has switched to Avalanch Disaster, and Man Catches Big Fish has changed to Heartwarming Tale of Adversity Overcome. I look forward to the coming of warmer weather to see if they change back again. I bet they will.
• Christmas is coming. Our cards, of earlier post fame, are all sent out. Our gifts are all bought, and with a few exceptions, shipped out. What decorating we're doing (not much) is done. So it's all over except the panicky last minute gifts that will need to be bought after people with whom I have previously agreed not to exchange gifts suddenly show up with something, saying "Oh, I saw it and it's just you! I had to!" At that point, there's nothing you can do except try to keep the horror off your face and say something like "Oh, I left yours at home!" Damn you, agreement breaking gift givers, damn you!

Other than that, I am buried in geekery. I just bought a recipe management program (I know! But I have a lot of recipes. A lot. And they need more management than I can bring them manually.) About which, more in a later post. Also, just ordered a digital scrapbooking program that I am eager to start using. Of course it will need to show up first, but I am pretty excited at the possibilities. So there will be exciting news about that later, too.

I know. I can't wait either!

A Wad of Culture

This afternoon we attended the Ballet. ! The Nutcracker, specifically, choreographed by George Ballanchine and staged by a welter of performance groups and sponsoring organizations. I don't know who is ultimately responsible for this performance, but the Anchorage Concert Association, the Anchorage Symphony Orchestra, the Alaska Dance Theatre and the Oregon Ballet Theatre are all somehow involved.
I should start by saying that I have never been to a ballet before and was mainly curious, especially about this one as it is a cultural signifier. So this was by way of an experiment for both me and Art.
The Performing Arts Center, conveniently located downtown, is a lovely building, well-suited for its purpose and pleasant inside as well. Also, the facade has a nifty light-show kind of thing going on around the top which I quite like when I'm outside it, so I was well-disposed toward the building even before I went inside. It was snowing like all hell today, so we left early and got there about an hour before the auditorium doors opened. This was good because it gave us a chance to survey the crowd for weirdness, which is a highly rewarding activity in these parts. I had been told that you do not have to dress up for cultural events in Anchorage, and this is very true. It is equally true that you can do so if you want. Some people were very dressed up indeed, and some people were quite casual - to the point of sweatpants and flannel shirts. Some people compromised by wearing dress clothes and snow boots. This was the route I took. It had the effect of making me feel dressy, but with warm dry feet. The lady who sat next to Art wore jeans and a sweater and knitted during the show.
The sets and staging were quite good and the special effects were well done, I thought. The first act was mostly pretty slow, and the "dancing" mainly consisted of little kids running from side to side of the stage. They did fine, but still, it was little kids running around. One adult male dancer showed up for a brief appearance, causing my first surprise of the show.
Those of you who have seen a ballet probably know what I am talking about, but for those of you who don't... The male dancers need longer jackets, or possibly some padding, or something of that nature. Not much is left to the imagination, if you get my drift. To be brutally specific, I am fairly sure I could see the one guy's eurethra. It is true they are wearing tights, but their personal regions are not concealed by much more than the equivalent of a coat of paint. It is true that I am an adult and did not see anything that surprised me, but on the other hand, seeing it in this particular context surprised me a great deal. The knitting lady next to Art kept putting down her needles and saying "Oh my." Art kept saying "Package for you!" and I had to resist the urge to cover the eyes of every kid in my vicinity. "Why not just not look?" a sensible person would ask. Can't be done, is why. Can. Not. Be. Done. They're just...there, you know? Considering that this is a show for which I would estimate 50% of the audience is tiny little girls in their party dresses and snow boots, I think a bit more clothing in the shorts region might be in order for the guys. That's all I'm saying.
Anyway, things picked up a bit in the second act, with mostly grown-ups dancing, and most of the dancers being women, who had all their personal regions concealed. I don't know enough about ballet to describe what exactly was going on, but there was a lot of impressive leaping and some difficult-looking tiptoe-work. All in all, I quite enjoyed it, and Art said it was not that bad.
Then we finished off our afternoon of culture with dinner at Humpy's, about which more in the Eating Alaska blog. [Art's Commentary: The plot of The Nutcracker can be summed up thus; A small girl's fantasy about romance, war and candy] [ Also, we got about a foot of snow w/o the forecast ever being more than 'snow-shower'. Back in PA, we might not get a foot in a whole winter]

Getting Anchorage Lit

Friday night we attended Anchorage's Christmas Tree Lighting event. It started off slowly, but built into a fever dream weirdness event, as though the planners had been slowly working their way through a bottle of absinthe or laudanum, or some other Romantic-era crazy juice.

As the crowd gathered, The Salvation Army handed out free hot chocolate and cookies, and AT&T (which was sponsoring the event) handed out swag and propaganda. We got a pretty calendar and a key chain! Folks in Xmas tree hats wandered around handing out the cookies. Also, some personnel dressed as random Holiday characters (drummer boys, Dickensian Moms, Sugar-plum Fairy girls, etc) handed out candy canes. Several of the girls wore long underwear instead of tights under their fairy skirts, which is maybe a little tacky, but eminently sensible. Also working the crowd were several girls wearing Miss Alaska banners and crowns - they were handing out programs. There was no indication if they were Miss Alaskas from year past, or what. Art speculated that maybe they have started allotting Miss America contestants by square footage, kind of like you get House representatives by population. If so, we get a lot of shots at it. The Miss Alaskas were dressed with varying levels of formality, with the least formal wearing snow boots, jeans, a jackets, her sash and crown, and a metric ton of makeup. The most formal wore sash and crown, mt of makeup, high heels and sparkly formal getup. Another interesting feature of the crowd was how many people were stupidly dressed - and I don't mean fashion-wise. I mean no jackets in 10 degree weather. I mean strappy sandals over bare feet in about 6 inches of snow. Art and I started nudging each other every time one of these people shivered by, and we were soon joined by the family on our right, who also enjoyed pointing out all the idiots.

The event itself started out pretty slow, with various guys introducing other guys, all of them congratulating each other on civic achievements. It was about this time that I noticed something about Anchorage crowds - when it is time to applaud, many people instead choose to go "Woooooo!" as though Aerosmith had suddenly turned up. Possibly because if you clap with gloves on it doesn't make much sound, and it is too cold to take off your glove.

Anyway, eventually they got to the entertainment. First up was a grade school chorus, who sang some Christmas songs and accompanied themselves with grade school percussion in the form of maracas. These were necessary to do some salsa versions of old standards. Because Alaska has a long tradition of salsa Christmas songs. I guess. Anyway, the kids were cute and functioned on appropriate grade level. Next, a very brave Jr High girl got up and sang some pop versions of a few songs. Why she did this I have no idea - possibly it was a form of community service. She did fine as well.

Then things got weird. A drama group from a local high school ( I can feel your eyes rolling from here, as were mine) staged The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. The dramatis personnae were:

• a quartet of Readers, who were evidently the good kids and therefore did not have to dress up in costumes


• The Tree, played by a girl in a tree costume (Why? I have no idea)


• Cindy Lou Who, played by a girl in pajamas and deely-bobbers


• Max, played by a girl in a big poufy dog costume, and


• The Grinch, played by a kid in normal clothes but painted all green, as though he was the Incredible Hulk in chillin' mode, wearing sweat pants and sneakers and headed out to the mall.

The action of the play consisted mostly of the Readers reading and the other kids miming the actions the Readers were reading about. Occasionally though, the action would stop for the kids to sing one of the songs from the cartoon version of the story.

Finally, at very long last, Santa and a trophy elf-wife came down Candy-Cane Lane! Their sleigh was pulled by a team of actual reindeer, which were being wrangled by a group of Sergeants from the local Army base, Fort Richardson. The Sergeants were part of an official group, the name of which I did not catch.

(I should mention that this event was semi-connected to a party the Mayor's wife had given for military families, which may have been why the sergeants got roped into this.) Anyway, the Sergeants gave did a great job, and got a nice round of whoops.

Then, very finally, after a countdown, Santa pressed the button, and the tree was lit. It was a weird but fun kind of time.

Welcome to the Christmoose Season!

We started our Thanksgiving weekend on a pretty relaxed note. No gatherings or big meals - just a festival of snacks and also hanging around time. We were hoping to find a Godzilla or Twilight Zone marathon on tv to waste all our time on, but no luck. So we wound up watching all of season 4 of The Office via Netflix on demand, which was entertaining. We also did some house stuff, but not too much, as did not want to strain ourselves.
Friday started off slow as well. After getting up at the crack of dawn (OK, 10:30) as we did some more house stuff, but in a gradual way, so as not to strain ourselves. As we were going downtown anyway for a civic event in the evening, we decided to go a couple of hours early and do some shopping. We did not even think about the fact that this technically made us "Black Friday" shoppers, as we did not have the Black Friday spirit when we set out. It did not dawn on me until we were entering the downtown area that we were driving into a potential maelstrom of chaos and despair. However, we still easily got a spot in the parking deck, although we were forced to go to an upper deck. We took the opportunity to have lunch at a local institution, the White Spot, for more of which see my food blog. Then we hit the Mall, bracing ourselves for the onslought.
It was not that bad. It was maybe a little more crowded than usual, but there were none of the swirling, hate-filled crowds you see on Black Friday newscasts. Anyway, we did what shopping we could in the mall, then went to the Museum, which was holding a craft show and book expo.
Craft shows in Museums are serious affairs, with serious handmade usuable-art-style objects. The arty craft show could not fill our remaining shopping needs, so we went the upper level, which was holding the Read Alaska! book expo and meet-the-author event. The books were either kids' books about Ollie the Otter and Shishlak the Seal and that sort of thing, or grim nonfiction. I am generally a non-fiction reader, but these were all first person narratives about bear-attack survival or histories of B-17's in Alaska or a survey of snowmachining paths in the Kenai Peninsula. There was also a bare smattering of Alaska based mystery novels. I might have even wanted some of these books, but each table had a desparate-eyed author standing there, pushing their books at everyone. Let me offer a word of advice to any small-press authors out there. Don't sell your book in person! You will never be able to summon the detachment necessary to let people examine your book without feeling uncomfortable. Under these circumstances, a potential buyer cannot possibly pick up your book and give it an honest assessment. You are looking right at them. They get very uncomfortable. And I am not the only one who feels this way. Art and I were part of a swiftly moving stream of people who ran the author gauntlet, all of us keeping three rules in mind:1) never make eye contact, 2) never stop moving, and 3) do not talk about Fight Club. I broke the eye-contact rule (this has always been a tough one for me, which is why crazy people always talk to me out of the thousands of people available on any given street), and had to be rescued from the author, who was assailing me with her sales pitch. "It sounds really interesting" Art said, carefully not looking into her eyes "We are taking your card so we remember to come back for a copy." Then he grabbed my arm and hustled me away. I feel a first person author-harassment survival book coming on.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our best wishes to everyone for a Happy Thanksgiving!

Card Games

It's Christmas Card time! (I like to get it out of the way early.) Christmas card time is never easy, but - like hitting yourself with a hammer - it feels so good when it's over.
The first dilemma of Xmas Card Time is who we're going to send cards to. Family, of course. But who else? Neighbors? Previous neighbors from the last house? What about the house before that? Coworkers? Former coworkers? People you haven't talked to in years but for whom you still retain generally positive feelings? As is generally the case, that works itself out in particulars as opposed to the general categories. This is more complicated for me than it probably should be - I'd like to like everyone, but not everyone is likable.
The second dilemma is whether or not to write and include a newsletter. I generally don't. Anybody who actually cares what is going on in my life already knows, and why waste the time and energy on the others? On the other hand, this has been an eventful year. Really, really eventful. Again, though, everyone who cares already knows this, as well as quite few people who don't. I generally enjoy other people's, but that doesn't mean they'd enjoy mine. On the balance, we probably won't do a newsletter.
Third and most fraught, picking out cards. For years now, I have been hampered in card choosing by the variety of charities who send us their packets of hideous cards. Right around the beginning of November, just when I am starting to shop around a bit and plan what kind of cards I would like to buy, we get roughly a metric ton of cards in the mail. This would be fine if they were even a little attractive, but sadly they are not. They are always smarmy, featuring winsome children and/or winsome woodland creatures, or country-style snowpersons, or some other denizen of Darlingland. I hate them with a fiery passion, yet I am compelled to use them. How can I justify wasting good money on cards when these perfectly good ones are right here? I can't, so I am stuck handing the wretched things out. Why not give them to old folks homes or some other organization that could use them, a reasonable person would ask. Because they don't want them either, is why. I tried palming them off, and could not find a taker. I suppose I could throw them away, but decades of environmental awareness training will not let me do this either. This year I was extra-excited by the possibilities, as we had moved and I believed the charities would not find us in time. I was wrong.
Fourth, timing. I generally like to get them signed and addressed and in the mail on Thanksgiving weekend. This gets it comfortably out of the way, and also lets me be first in something. This year I was punked by my mother-in-law, who sent us hers last week just to get me. Next year she gets hers by Halloween! My first impulse was to send her 2009 card right after New Years' Eve, but that is premature. Halloween should do fine - also this gives us room to move if the early-card-sending war escalates. This year I got most of them addressed this weekend, and am sending them out Monday. My seasonal instinct is all messed up by the short days. Also, the mail will take probably an extra week, so from the recipients' perspective, not much will have changed. They will still get a smarmy, newsletter-free card shortly after Thanksgiving. Enjoy!

Ted Stevens

If you have been following AK politics recently, the continuing drama of Ted Stevens cannot have escaped your attention. I don't know how visible all of this has been to Outsiders ( what Alaskans call everyone else, particularly in the US, but also in the whole rest of the world), but it has been constantly in the public view here.
I don't know enough about the circumstances to be able to guess whether the charges against him were probably true or probably false, but I do know this. Everyone with even the slightest sense of proportion - and I do mean everyone - agrees that he has done a great deal for Alaska. There is a reason why, when you fly into Anchorage, the Ted Stevens International Airport is where you will land. Inumerable hospitals, schools, and public institutions exist because of his ability to bring home the bacon, and he is well-loved for it. Old people love him, young people love him, cats love him. Extreme left Democrats I work with love the man.
Anyway, he has conceded his Senate race to Mark Begich, now serving as Anchorage's mayor. (Current speculation is that people voted for Begich to get him the hell away from Anchorage.) Prior to the current excitement, he (Stevens) has had quite an interesting life. I urge interested parties to visit http://www.adn.com to view their pictorial history of his life and career. It starts with his service as a Flying Tiger in China during WWII, continues on through the years to today. Say what you will about the man, anyone whose political career can survive the shame of 70's hair like that will be back.

Dark and cold

The year is winding down, now, but it sure is going quick! Although it is cold and the days are short, I can't quite believe we are only a week out from Thanksgiving and a month from Christmas.
The sun rose today at 9:17 am and set at 4:13 pm - it's surprising how quickly you get used to it. For one thing, it's giving me the chance to see sunrises, which I don't get up early enough to see if I can help it!
The cold is getting sharper as well - yesterday when we went out, the trees were coated with a sparking white coat of frost. It stayed frosted all through today, and is quite pretty, especially against the dark sky. Bright spots wherever I look!

Darkness...Overcoming me!

Or maybe not.
As advertised, the days are considerably darker now, as we are rapidly approaching the shortest day of the year. (OK, it's a month off, but it sure seems close now.) The sun rose this morning at 9:07 a.m. and is setting as I write this at 4:30 p.m. This has some interesting emotional effects. Most notably, short days like this are the source of SAD (seasonal affective disorder) which makes people go crazy and kill themselves. In order to combat this, full spectrum lights are helpful, as well as some other measures. Starting about a month ago, we started seeing signs all over the place advertising "We have SAD lights!" In the day or two before I put two and two together, I kept thinking "Why would anyone want sad lights? What would make them sad? Do they have little frowny faces on them or something?" Then the light (Ha!) went on.
It is a bit weird in some ways. The department I work in has one big office with great big windows, and I get to work at 8 while it is still very dark, and it is a couple of hours until we have daylight. In some ways this is nice - the other morning a beautiful full moon was visible from our window all morning. Then after you work for a while, it starts getting dark, which makes you start sort of winding down for the day. Then you realize it's around 3:30. Sigh.
People at work are constantly giving me little hints on Dealing with the Darkness. I expect to be shown an after-school-special on the subject any day now. I am really fine with it, personally. It actually makes the inside seem so much cosier to me. I have always liked winter, and it's kind of nice to drink a cup of tea or hot chocolate and look out the window - you can actually see how cold it is outside - it's like the air is sharp or something. Everyone I say this to, however, says "Just wait until February! Then you won't like it!" I think I still will, but we'll see.
From the scads of advice Art and I have been given, here are the ones that seem reasonable:

• Don't drink when you are depressed, but go ahead and have a drink if you are in a good mood.
• Take up an outdoor sport such as cross-country skiing or snowshoeing.
• Get out and socialize, don't just hang around your house or you will wind up divorced.

We are currently considering how to apply this advice to our daily lives. I think I'll start with #1.

The Little Museums That Could - Sort Of

This past weekend we went to two more of Anchorage's fine meccas of entertainment - The Anchorage Museum of Natural History, and the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. I will just go ahead and get the funnier one out of the way.

The Natural History museum reminded me of nothing so much as an old-school scout house. Readers of a certain age (and possibly from the northeast) will know exactly what I mean. The place was kind of jury-rigged together out of plywood and duct tape, the walls festooned with art that was clearly some Jr. High class's art/science Comes Alive! project.

...like this. I swear this is hanging on their wall. I could not ascertain from the display when the Saurians were supposed to have settled in the greater Anchorage area, but judging from the moons, they were either here for many, many months, or they arrived by some sort of swirly time tunnel.

No, seriously. Most of their displays were more like this...

A lot of the labels were misspelled, and many of them were handwritten on torn-up squares of notebook paper. To return to my earlier scout-house analogy, there were the cases of dusty bones, a display of minerals, posters illustrating things like "Insects of Alaska", and the persistent, mysterious smell of mildewed canvas. Their mission was supposed to have been illustrating Alaska's natural history, which in some instances they did very well. For example, their models of volcanos and maps of the Pacific's Ring of Fire were pretty well done. However, there was a considerable amount of mission creep-most of it not for the better. Some examples of this problem include our old friends the Reptoids and a section of things concerning Haunted Alaska, which by anyone's definition is more the Unnatural history of Alaska. I found it deeply charming, but not really a credible source of Natural History information. All in all, this would be a great place to take impressionable young children you would like to confuse or upset - a niece or nephew, perhaps. Another bonus is that things are just sort of sitting out on display with little context or information, so you can amuse yourself by making up extravagant lies about them!

...like this: It is a well-known fact that bears steal money from banks and eat crackers from tins.

It is a bargain at $5 for adult entry, so it has that going for it as well.

Just Plane Folks
By contrast, the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum is actually pretty good. It is a bit garage band-y as well, but they are doing well for a plucky underdog style establishment. Alaska does have quite a bit of aviation heritage, so there is that going for it as well. Quite a lot of interior and otherwise rural Alaska can be reached only by small planes (or foot or dogsled-you choose!), and sometimes only by float planes. So quite a lot of people and items make their way around the state by air.

Alaska being as independent as it is, quite a lot of colorful folk tend to make their way here - usually the exact same kind of people who wind up flying for a living. Also, there has been a lot of military aviation based out of Alaska, including a few units with extremely comical unit patches. So that made me very happy indeed.

Here is an inevitable diorama - this time of a crashed plane. [Art's commentary: In a happy coincidence, an awful lot of Alaska's aviation history involves crashed planes! This is not the only crashed-plane diorama.]

Information is well laid out, though, and in addition to informational placards, pictures and some memorabilia items, the place is absolutely rife with salvaged old planes.

...some of which make you appreciate how crazy and/or brave the people who flew these things really were. This picture is from one of the hangar/worksheds out back, where restoration work is ongoing on a number of planes. You are allowed to just sort of poke around, which is nice. Also, it was not crowded, and I have the impression it never really is. When we went into the one shed where serious restoration work was going on, one of the volunteers and his dog took us around a bit and showed us some neat stuff about the planes there.

For instance, this 737, donated by Alaska Airlines, has some modifications to it so that it can land on dirt runways, which is so it can go to some of the bigger interior villages! We would not have seen the modifications without his help, so it was nice to get some guidance. [Art's Commentary: The picture on the tail is a native guy in a hood and NOT Bob Marley, as I had previously thought]

If you are at all alive to the romance of aviation, particularly in its older, wilder days, the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum is for you.

Whew!

Glad that's over! I refer, of course, to the recent election. At last! Our long national nightmare (the protracted campaign) has ended. So, no matter if your party won or lost, as least we can all draw together as a nation, and look forward to almost three blessed years of no presidential campaigning.
I personally was really hoping up until the end that my boy Bob Barr would pull it out, but alas, no. Next time!
But anyway, on to my actual subject. Voting here in Alaska was an interesting event in a lot of ways. And then of course extremely mundane in others.
First, thanks to the news media being completely out of control, in past years they were calling the election sometimes by noon east coast time. So we were assuming that CNN would have decided for us who the next president would be before we here in Alaska (4 hours behind east coast time) were even awake. But that didn't happen. Possibly a more alert person knows why they were restraining themselves this year, but it was a welcome change. It was noontime Alaska time before they started calling it. So it was different on a national scale, but not so much for me personally.
Second, they give you an "I Voted" sticker, which is quite pretty. We saved ours for the scrapbook :) . We never got stickers in Pennsylvania.
Third, the method of voting, which I am aware is quite different everywhere you go. We just filled in dots on paper ballots with #2 pencils. This was a little primitive, but pretty foolproof. We always used to laugh about the old ballot machines in Pa, which were clunky old mechanical ones. I have a sneaking fondness for them, though, and seriously considered buying one when they (PA state) got rid of them (the voting machines) to usher in the new touchscreen voting machines. Art talked me down from this purchase plan, however, which was probably a good thing. It would have been absolute hell to move, I can tell you that much.
Also, the big voting center is in the basement of the building where Art works, and they were packed with people voting early for a few weeks before the election. Alaska is one of the states that allows early voting at a few select locations for quite a while before the actual election day. I guess this makes sense - a lot of people live in the rural villages and don't come to town too often, so it makes sense that they vote when they can. (I could be wrong about this - Alaskans may just like to get it over with and out of the way.) I gather there are a few other states that allow this as well, but it was news to me.
Other than that though, it was any old election day. TV and radio pundits making earnest pronouncements, people at work going on about their side and speculating about how if the other side won the entire country was going straight to hell. Then when you actually go to vote, you stand in line, then there's the search for your name by the bored voting station volunteers, the few minutes of actual voting, and then the brief rush of virtuous pride when you have done your civic duty. And then there's the sticker.

Halloween - Alaska Style

Halloween is my favorite holiday by far, so I was very glad in early September when I saw all the spooky stuff appearing in the stores. I know a lot of places don't really do Halloween in any serious way - in many ways it is an east coast thing. And I don't know if they do much in the villages, but Anchorage certainly likes the holiday.

As you might expect, there is not as much outdoor stuff, but there was a reasonable sprinkling of haunted attractions indoor in empty mall stores and so on. It is hard to enjoy a hayride or cornmaze in 20 degree weather. If people get turned around and stay too long, later visitors will see some actual gruesomeness! Kids here do actual trick-or-treating, but it is in shorter bursts than in PA. People at work were talking about their kids costumes - joking about dressing them up as skiers or Michelin men, which does not seem like a bad idea. And as always, there are Alaska twists - you have to watch what you do with your jack-o-lantern. Moose find pumpkins tasty, and it is not unknown to find moose standing on your porch eating them. The paper had an article last week advising people, once Halloween is over, to put their pumpkins in areas away from roads and travelled areas for moose to enjoy!

It's freakin' freezing up here!

As the weather gets colder and the days get shorter, it is interesting to see how the locals adapt. Mostly, they put on a sweater.
Really, that's about it - it hovers around the freezing mark for most of the day, but people continue to ride bikes all around town, start road construction work and run their outdoor kiosk businesses like it was a balmy August day of 60 degrees.
It is something to see the bikers - mostly they bundle up like slightly more fashionable Michelin men, with the comical addition of flashing lights attached to their helmets (Like modern-day propeller beanies) and other various parts of their bikes and their gear. But there they are, riding off to their various destinations in the dark of the morning and the dark of the evening... I am told you can get studded snow tires for bicycles, but possibly the person telling me that was teasing. I am notoriously gullible about things like that - I believed for an entire month that the second Van Halen lineup was going to be called Van Hagar. (Well, it sounded reasonable!) Anyway, this is all fine now that the flurries we have been getting aren't really accumulating, but it will be interesting to see what they do when it really starts snowing - as a rule, Anchorage doesn't shovel its walks and it's illegal to ride bikes in the street. Although, as I believe I've mentioned before, people basically do what they want regardless of petty impediments like laws.
Also, the kiosks. You would not believe how many coffee shacks and hot dog stands and BBQ sheds and God knows what else are situated around this city. There is a stunningly excellent Greek kiosk up the street from my work - Zorba's- no, I am not making this up. I expected these places to start shutting down when the average temperature dropped, but not so much. There they are, working away in the dark of the early morning and the dark of the evening. I would have thought the workers would be freezing in there, after all they can't be that well insulated, and they are constantly opening and closing the little windows. Then you look in, and the place is staffed by a stick-thin girl who is fortified against the cold with a sweater.
As for the road construction, well, when Art started his job, he was told Alaska has two seasons - winter and construction. As it is turning out so far this year, there's just construction. People at work have been bitterly complaining, because now they have to watch out for moose and construction workers far past when they feel this should be the case. Well, they could always just ride their bikes.

We got some wild, wild life

Another moose sighting today! This one was maybe 100 feet from our apartment building. We were going out to do our grocery shopping, pulled out from our parking lot and ..."Moose!" There he was, walking along the road like he was heading for the health club down the block. We watched him meander down the street, then went on our way too. Sadly I did not think to get a picture.
I just recently read an interesting article in Alaska magazine (yes, there really is such a thing, and people really do read it) the gist of which is that moose are not really that scary. This was news to me, and I approached it with some skepticism. However, the facts back the author up. Up here, you get warned of the dangers of moose with some regularity. There are warning signs in all the parks, brochures in the tourism centers, all warning about the hazards of moose and what you can do to protect yourself (get behind a tree - they can't get at you because their horns get in the way, apparently.) For all this, guess how many people have been killed by moose in the past 30 years? 2! I will grant you, it sucks for those 2 people, but still, that's not bad odds. Also, this figure does not include traffic fatalities, but only cases where people were actually attacked in person by a moose.
I had actually been wondering about this, because for the past few months I have been seeing occasional stories on www.adn.com ( that is the Anchorage Daily News site) concerning some person who went up to a moose and petted it or rode it around town or some such nonsense. And you know what? Although that person's dumbness is universally remarked upon, that person never got hurt. Now, that's not to say you should be cavalier* around them (the moose). A moose is a big dumb animal that could lay a real hurt upon you. According to the pamphlets, it's not the horns you need to worry about, but rather the hooves, which are sharp and with which they can kick the bejesus out of you.
(* Art's Commentary: Ironically, we drive a chevy 'cavalier')
All of these elaborate warning have started reminding me of something. When we lived in Pa., Art and I had a minor hobby of going to commercial caves - Lost River Cavern, Crystal Cave, Indian Echo - we saw almost every one in Pa and a good percentage of the ones in Va. as well. And in almost all of those caves, the tour guide would tell you that if you touched the living part of the cave at all (the living part is where flowstone is actively creating new parts of the cave), the place where you touched it would be dead and no new flowstone would form at all and you could get fined by the federal government. Then a little later, they would tell you how the ignorant tourists of an earlier age - like about 40 years ago - would touch all over the cave and break off stalagtites and stalacmites and take them home for souvenirs. And they'd show you how much new stuff had formed over the broken bit since then. So clearly they were lying (if touching the cave kills it, why had new stuff formed over where it had clearly been touched...you see what I'm saying). And when I first figured this out, I was kind of resentful. But then I could see it. The two alternatives to their benevolent lie were: 1) let people do whatever they want, in which case they break off all the pretty bits and soon the cave is ruined and no one will come, and 2) try to enforce this impossible rule where they can touch - just touch! not break off bits - some parts of the cave, but not other parts... In which case, the tour guides, who are surely not paid enough to deal with this nonsense, will have to watch up to 30 people at once, which they will in no way be able to do, and people will do whatever they want, meaning they will break off all the pretty bits, and, well, see #1.
My point is, the moose warnings are like that. The real truth is that they are wild animals, and their motivations and actions are complicated. For the most part you are fine around them, but there are rules and signs to learn, and trying to explain is too much bother. And the Fish and Wildlife people do not want to go through the hassle of explaining moose to people, only to have them ignore all the complicated stuff after "Moose are fine unless..." All that will lead to is dead and maimed people and moose that will have to be put down because yahoos were nagging them until they finally flipped out.
Now that I think about it...Moose are scary and dangerous! Stay away from them! And I'm telling myself that, too.

Daylight hours

Today the sun rose at around 9 am and set at about 6:30 pm. I'm hoping for a clear morning tomorrow - meteor shower!

Alaska - the Whatever state

I'm going to pause in my accounting of our day to day adventures here in Alaska to make a few general observations.

1) Alaska is the most multicutural place I have ever been in my life. People from everywhere wind up here - I don't know quite why, but they do. On my last flight in, I was sitting between a guy from Samoa and a Russian lady. They both live here now, and both gave me advice about good places to eat. People move here from all over the world, as well as all over the US. This leads to ...
2) Pretty much anything goes here. As long as you are not hurting anyone else, you can do what you want. Really, pretty much anything is fine. Have whatever opinions you want, say what you want, just be ready to have someone who may not agree say what they want to say. You can pretty much wear anything you want, do what you want with your hair - both of which are good things for me, as I tend to not be the most fashion conscious person around. People routinely wear fur here, which would at least get you hissed at in the northeast, but which is totally fine here. Make whatever domestic arrangements you want - I have heard of just about every arrangement imaginable between consenting adults here, and no one bats an eye.

Whether you thing these are good things or bad things, that's just how it is here. I have to say, I kind of like it!

Thrilling Adventure!

OK, not really.

In the past week, our two activities of note were to:

a) get our library cards, and

b) go to the museum....

Read this thrilling tale of derring-do only if your heart can take it! A nurse will be stationed in the lobby to help those overcome with fright!

Anyway, Anchorage has a somewhat far-flung library system, with quite a few branches through the city and reaching into a few neighboring towns. We went to the main branch, mostly because it is near Art's job. Inside it is a nice building with a good selection of books and other assorted media. Outside, it is notable for two works of art. First is a statue of Henry Seward that looks as though he is falling...

and also a pink-lit ice scupture/structure in memory of breast cancer victims...

But now we are library-card carrying members of the community, which is more of a thrill than it probably should be.

Sunday afternoon we went to the Anchorage museum to see a display of pictures and artefacts from the Japanese occupation of Attu and the island's subsequent liberation, and of the group that did the liberating - Castner's Cutthroats!

This is the kind of display they have. It is not a big show, but it is pretty interesting. They have a video of an interview with some surviving veterans from the group, pictures from the time, items that either belonged to the guys or were recovered from the island years later. And, inevitably for the Anchorage Museum, an elaborate diorama...

All in all, a good display about an interesting bunch of guys!

Daylight hours 10/14

Today the sun rose at 8:43 a.m. and set at 6:47 p.m. That means it is dark for roughly an hour after I get to work, and stays light for about 2 hours after the workday. ( And yes, it does all revolve around me!) Fortunately there is snow on the ground, which has a high albedo, so there's still something to see by in the morning!

Getting a bead on art

Ha! It's a pun! You'll wish I hadn't written that in a minute.

Saturday I went back to the Anchorage Museum to see a bead art exhibit. OK, not that good a pun, but it was pretty interesting art. The bead art, which is from artists all over the nation, consisted of extremely elaborate jewelry, extremely elaborate purses or bags, extremely elaborate scupltures, and a few beadloomed straightforward pictures-also extremely elaborate. All were painstaking in their elaborateness, and even the things I didn't personally like were interesting to look at.
Also on exhibit right at the moment is a display of photos and artefacts from when the Japanese invaded the Aleutian islands. Don't worry, we drove them back off again! I plan to use this exhibit to lure Art to the museum with me - he is a WWII buff, so it will probably work. Also, we got an annual membership, so hopefully we will be visiting often.

Daylight Hours

Today the sun rose at 8:25 am and set at 7:09 pm - the days are getting shorter fast!

Gearing up

Winter is finally here, and I had to do something I absolutely hate to do. I had to shop for clothing.
Now that you've stopped laughing, really. I hate clothes shopping, and especially coat shopping, because they are all what I consider to be too damn expensive. However, Art always talks me into it. (He takes such good care of me!) This year was especially bad, because I had not shopped for a coat in years - my last winter coat just basically fell apart at the end of last year. I mean, really fell apart - the seams gave out, there was no lining in the pockets which basically rendered them slits in the sides of the coat, there was no lining in the coat itself... So I finally had to throw it away, though I fought it for a while and speculated about trying to stitch the bits back together, but eventually I had to let it go into the light. And I liked that coat. It was a big ankle-length black wool coat with a big collar and piping around the cuffs. Art called it my Russian Sub Commander's coat, and he called me Comrade Jane every time I wore it. But it was toasty warm, so I didn't care - there are worse things to dress like than Russian Sub commanders! So I went, grumbling and protesting through the aisles of Burlington Coat Factory, at length finding something I liked. Now I look like a sherpa. It's a gray ankle length coat with a fake fur lining and a big hood. Well, there are worse things to dress like than a sherpa. I guess.

Next came the boot dilemma. My argument was that I already had boots. And I do, but when I finally looked at them with an honest evaluation of their winter-worthiness, I had to admit they had some faults. Namely, I bought them entirely because of their piratical air, and not really because they were waterproof or warm, or indeed had any kind of reliable sole. No, I bought them because they are the kind of boots you wear to make people walk the plank. Which is fun, but will not protect you from frostbite. It's funny how the threat of consistent below 0 weather makes you reevaluate your winter gear. For example, I regularly went without gloves all winter in PA, because it just never got that cold. I'm not even considering that option here. So, anyway, I finally found a pair of boots that look cute as well as being actually warm for winter (Skechers, although I am not a name-brand hound, they do have well-constructed cute shoes) and ordered them. And only several days too late! Our first snow that stuck was, of course, the day I ordered the boots. Nothing like cold wet feet to remind you what an idiot you've been.

Target!

The new Target stores opened here in Anchorage and also in Wasilla today.

That sounds very matter-of-fact, but words can not convey the frenzy this fact has occasioned. Seriously. Target made the news when they decided to come up here, and every step of the process since has been in the news. Progress on the buildings, when and where and how many people they were hiring, what sort of things they were going to stock... All the subjects of feverish speculation and breathless reportage in the Anchorage Daily News.

Now don't get me wrong, I like Target myself - they have decently designed stuff at reasonable prices. What's not to like? But seriously, people are going crazy up here. Here's an example. The stores were supposed to open Saturday, and people were already planning their expeditions and writing lists and so on. Then came the surprise! They had a VIP opening last night and really opened today! This morning! Emails and text messages and phone calls were zinging around the office when I came in today. My whole department (which, to be fair, is 4 women) got talking about it, and we got so excited my boss called for a group bonding activity, and we all went over there to check it out. No kidding. We left for about 2 hours in the middle of the day to go to the new store. My boss drove. ( We all clocked out, though.) Now I love Target even more!

P.S. And we were not alone! There was a 1/2 mile long line to park and the store itself was completely mobbed. It would not surprise me to find that this was Target's biggest opening ever. When we left, a newscrew from the local TV station was trying to find someone to interview, but people just kept refusing, saying they had called in sick or skipped out of work to come!

Scrapping to Save Second Base

Well, yesterday was the scrapping "marathon", which went very well! After we got up at the crack of dawn (OK, 9 am), Art dropped me off at the Providence Cancer Center. The event was set up in the downstairs lobby area, which had all of its normal furniture moved out and lots of tables and chair set up for the scrappin' hordes that descended upon the center. I don't have an exact count of people who attended, but I would say it was a couple of hundred ladies of all ages, including a few baby ladies who came with their moms and grandmas. My friends from work saved me a place at their table, which was really nice. They were with a group of their friends who all do Creative Memories scrapbooking including their dealer, Heather Hale (sp?). Although I enjoy scrapbooking, I do not take it to nearly the level of some of my table-mates. They were all matting their photos and doing all these fancy things with papers and templates... It was really quite impressive, and they were very generous about sharing their expertise. I generally do what I would consider "modified scrapbooking". I crop my photos and use some special papers, but the techniques I use the most are journaling (a.k.a. writing things down) and embellishment with stickers and other stuff. Maybe some day I will get more into it, but today is not that day. Despite the fact that I do not own a brand-name scrapping item, and indeed would not know one if it bit me, they were all very nice and tried not to hold it against me. At least not too much.

There were lots of activities throughout the day, including door prize drawings, a silent auction, and a few other games of chance that you could pay to play, mostly we all just scrapbooked. The group also sponsored an art-supply drop off, where you could drop off art supplies for cancer patients and their families, and had little kits to make cards for cancer patients. I won 2 door prizes (!) and had a lot of fun playing a few of the other games of chance, though I did not win any of them. But that is OK, as I was at the lucky table - everyone at my table won at least one door prize, which was strange but cool. Also, one lady I was sitting next to won the prize for the most donations raised (she brought in $1,300!). She also won the same thing last year - she is a cancer survivor, and is very passionate about cancer prevention and research, so this is a big thing for her. Hearing her story was very moving, and a good reminder for me about why doing this kind of thing is important.

Snow!

Well, it's snowing! For the past week, people have been saying it would, but I did not believe them. Then this afternoon, shortly after noon, I looked out the window and there it was. We don't have any accumulation, at least not at the lower elevation, but people on the mountainsides have an inch or two. In October!

Yeah!

Wild Life

The last couple of days have been really low-key. We spent most of the weekend in and working on the apartment. Friday afternoon at work something neat happened...

My boss, who sits next to the window of our office, said "Moose!" I grabbed the camera out of my purse, where it permanently lives now, and got this picture. The moose was in fact two of them - a mother and a youngster.

After a while they crossed the road and went into the yard of the building next to ours. Since there is a chain link fence, it was safe enough for me to go outside for a minute or two to snap a few pictures!

They are not graceful animals, but rather are appealing like cows are appealing - big doofy animals famous for tangling their antlers up in children's swingsets and so on. Still, it was pretty neat to see them just wandering around.

Saturday we went back out to Potter's Marsh, as I had heard reports that trumpeter swans are passing through. There weren't any there when we went, but it was a nice walk on the boardwalks anyway. So that's about as exciting as it got this weekend.

Also, for those who felt disenfranchised, the favorite season poll is back up! Vote now - don't lose your voice!

Do do do do do do...

It's just another day.
And that's a good thing. We're finally settling in and settling down, and getting into a routine (more or less). Settled on a grocery store, settled on basic apartment organization...that sort of thing.

It is getting progressively colder, down to the 30's at night, and last week brought termination dust on the mountain tops. (Snow that signals termination of summer) We're at roughly 12 hours of daylight now - the sun rose this morning at 7:45 and sets tonight at 7:56. Of course it's hard to tell...it's basically cloudy all the time.

Another neat thing I have going on is I am going to be doing Crop For a Cure, which is a scrapbooking "marathon" to raise funds for cancer research. I am in strict training, and am now able to sit around for hours at a time, and also cut and glue things for quite a while before I have to take a breather. ;) People keep calling it a marathon, and I have to forcibly restrain myself from giggling. If there are snacks provided, this event will be about the farthest thing from a traditional marathon as it is possible to get, but the point is that it is a fundraiser for a good cause. So I guess I'll try real hard to keep the giggles to myself. I was going to go by myself, but some ladies from work told me I can sit with them, so that will be nice - it's a bit more comfortable when you are not alone at these things.

The best thing, though, is getting settled in our apartment. At our last house, we had a tiki room all set up-bamboo chairs, twinkle lights, tiki junk everywhere, water feature... I know, but it was so relaxing! So we brought all our stuff up along with us, but were just not able to organize things to our satisfaction. Finally, though, we made some decisions and the decorating is falling into place. Our tiki room is back! I know, huge news, but it is nice for us. It's like our relaxatron is back up and running!

Fall falling

This morning we took advantage of a sunny break in the weather and drove up to Flattop (of earlier post fame) again, this time to take in the autumn scenery. The view did not disappoint!

If you are reading the blog, you are familiar with the view too - a picture of one of the scenic vistas available from Flattop is the opening picture of this page. From this area in Chugach State Park, you have a breathtaking view of the mountains, Turnagain Arm, Cook Inlet,

Fire Island in the Inlet, Anchorage, and a good portion of MatSu valley. On a clear day, you can see almost forever.

This wasn't that clear of a day, but it was pretty good. Here is the fall version of the main picture on this page. We can see our house from here!

Here you see the mountain shrubs and grasses taking on their fall colors.

In the opposite direction from Anchorage and the sea, here are the mountains that surround us. The snow on the mountain tops (of earlier post fame) wasn't there this time last week. Just Thursday we started seeing snow, and last night it got down to 38 (F) with rain, so that explains why there's more today!

Because sometimes the little things are as beautiful as the grand things.

So we enjoyed the sights - took pictures for awhile, then just sort of slowly rotated 360 degrees, trying to take it all in. Then it got cold, and we had errands to run, so we left.

About half an hour later, a deep cloud cover rolled in and we couldn't see the mountains at all; then it started to rain, which has continued up until this point. Which kind of figured, because we had grocery shopping to do. However, this demonstrates the Anchorage addage - if you don't like the weather, wait a minute.

This sort of randomness in the weather leads to a kind of spontenaity which is new to us, but which we find we are enjoying. Outdoor stuff and the scenery are really why you come here - at least to a certain extent - so knowing that if you have fine weather it may not last, you tend to say "to heck with the cleaning, let's go for a hike!" and off you go. There are plenty of rainy days - let the dishes wait.

Alaskan Sights

Fall is falling here in Anchorage! Besides the leaves starting to turn, there is also snow on the peaks of the mountains. I took this picture on our way home from work (we carpool - Art was driving) attempting to show the mountains with the beautiful colors going up the slopes and the snow on the peaks. It was a little cloudy, but you get the idea.


We are told there are about two weeks of autumn, so this will be the weekend to catch the foliage. Of course, there is always next year if we miss it. ;)





Another cool sight we caught earlier this week...

The black thing in that driveway is a bear! I was on my way to a gathering of work-friends, and this guy just sort of trotted past - Art managed to get the camera on and snap this picture. When I got to the party, I told my hostess - who lives on this block - and she just shrugged and said "Oh, yes, he runs through the yard all the time."

Well, I thought it was exciting.

PFD weekend!

Well, this past weekend was PFD weekend, and everyone is still in a very good mood. PFD stands for Permanent Fund Dividend, and it is the source of the famous money you get just for living in Alaska. People plan for this all year round, so this weekend many dreams finally came true. People use it to pay for vacations, college, home renovations...well, basically anthing you use money for. Everyone I work with has been talking about it for the past two weeks - they all have been planning for months, but some were still deciding what to do with their money.

We had the dumb luck to be out on a random shopping jaunt this past weekend, out in the midst of the PFD shopping hordes, and somehow we lived to tell the tale! We mainly wanted to check out some stores that we were told were pretty cool - most of which were pretty good, some of which weren't. Now, Anchorage is not that busy of a town, not compared to most places on the east coast. But last Saturday, everyplace we went was mobbed! I think every rural resident of the state drove in to town to spend the PFD.

There is a fairly strict set of requirements to qualify to get the PFD, and we don't qualify. We probably also won't next year either. But that's OK - it's for semi-long term residents and we'll get there eventually. (PS Unless we won't. Today's stock market nonsense supposedly really whacked the Permanent Fund a good one. Well, a year is a looooong time in finance - let alone two years. We'll see.)

Nature Ahoy!

Last Sunday we went on a series of mini-adventures that added up to a pretty cool day. We started out at the crack of dawn (OK, 10 am) and set out to the south of Anchorage. For those of you playing along at home, we followed the Seward Highway south to the Turnagain Arm. It was a cold gray day, with the sky intermittantly spitting rain at us - not too much, just enough to spot my glasses and make seeing difficult.

Our first stop was Beluga Point, a scenic overlook by the Turnagain Arm where you can pull off the road. It is a pretty popular spot for watching aquatic life. We stood there for a while and were not having any luck. Just as the wind and rain were getting to be too much and we were about to pack it in, an older couple in an RV cruised through the pull-off, telling everyone they had just been about 2 miles up the road and there were whales all over the place. We looked at one another and ran directly to the car, or as we called if for the next hour or so, the whalemobile. A few minutes later found us two miles up the road, squinting through the steadily worsening conditions trying to see some whales. A guy a few feet away spotted us for newbies and filled us in on what to look out for. We had been looking for those spectacular leaps out of the water like you see in the nature documentaries...that's not what you will see at this location. Instead you see a quiet little bump of white whale back as they briefly surface. Sometime a short waterspout. They are a bit easier to spot than you might think as they tend to hang in a consistent area for a while. The stranger and Art and I spent a happy half hour sharing watching duties on the four whales in our immediate viewing area, calling out to each other when one of them surfaced. We were later told these are Minke whales.

One of the many nice things about Alaska is that there is almost always someone around like that...someone who is happy to help you discover the wonders of the place. Every time we have been lost or confused or missing out on something, someone always very kindly helps us out.

Anyway, after some whale watching, Art and I went on to our next destination, Indian Valley Gold Mine. I had been hoping for either a good historical experience or a heaping helping of hoke, and sadly, got neither. It started out promising on the hoke front, as there were scary mountain-folk photo ops and miner statues all over the yard, and we were greeted by an authentic eccentric lady in a funny hat. However, it went somewhat downhill from there. Our admittedly modest $1 entrance fees entitled us to poke around two smallish sheds full of authentic settler junk, much of which looked like what we hauled out of my grandfather's garage-barn after he passed on. No comical story or guidance enlivened our "tour" of the grounds. Also, the original mine is in view, but pretty much blocked off from access. I have clocked quite a few hours in the tourist-trap commercial caves (and a few mines) of eastern and central PA, as well as central Virginia. I have a deep love for that particular kind of hokum, and this place was a sad disappointment. To have a cavern dangled in front of me like that and then be denied...I feel the sting of it still. I have the urge to buy the place from the owners - a little showmanship and thought could turn the place into a figurative - as well as literal-gold mine. Anyway, disappointment turned back to interest as we finally got around to what we had come there for - panning for gold! We bought some dirt (salted with minerals) from the owner, took possession of our pans, and got our lessons in gold panning. The lady expertly showed us how to dip water into the dirt-filled pans and swirl everything around until the dirt washed away and the interesting stuff came out. The gold in our dirt was in tiny little flecks, but it was surely there. We also had bits of amethyst, garnet, and other interesting minerals. It turned out to be quite relaxing and also quite interesting.

Then we stopped at the trail head for McHugh(?) trail and walked around a bit, enjoying the scenery and the bear-aware signage. After that, it was off to the last major stop for the day - Potter's Marsh!

Potter's Marsh was artificially created marshland, inundated when the railroad was built. Since then it has evolved into a great resource for bird and wildlife watchers. The neatest thing about it is that there are long boardwalks built over the marsh, so you can see quite a bit of it up close without a)disturbing the nature or b)getting your shoes all icked up. So it is very popular. I am told it is well worth going back to at different times of the year, as of course different things are happening. Anyway, we walked the whole length of both boardwalks, and saw lots of birds, none of which I have the faintest idea what they were. ( I can reliably identify magpies and ravens here in Alaska. In all fairness, I didn't know more than 5 or 6 in PA either.) The most interesting thing were the salmon, which were coming in to spawn. As it is late in their season, there were all kinds, not just one kind like you would ordinarily see. I had previously thought that spawning was something salmon did a couple of times, but as it turns out, they do it at the end of their lives, and die after they do so. So more than a few of them are in pretty bad shape as they come in to spawn, and these are pretty rough looking. So it's kind of poignant, but interesting to see.

Governor Sarah

Well, so...Sarah Palin. Last Friday, the reaction was pretty polarized here in Anchorage. Reaction was, as you might imagine, split pretty much along party lines, but not entirely. There are republicans who don't like her because she did go up against their party to fight corruption, and to die-hard republican "the party is always right" folks, that's not cool. There are democrats who like her because they know her and say she's good folks, or they like that she fought her party and it wasn't their party. Then of course, there are republicans who like her because she's a republican and democrats who don't like her for the same reason. So Friday, everyone was pretty elated or angry, according to their opinion.

Then the weekend happened.

Early this week, people had kind of mellowed in their opinion, at least on the "dislike" side. A lot of people who had been really upset on Friday settled down to "It wouldn't end the world if she got in." Also, there is the fact that there could be someone who-everyone agrees on this point-is honest and likeable in the national spotlight putting in a good word for Alaska. The state does tend to get overlooked by a good portion of the nation, Ice Road Truckers and Deadliest Catch aside. Also, there aren't any prima donna stories going around about her. Everyone who knows her agrees she's a nice person, and that does count for something. The story about her daughter...well, that kind of is what it is, and I'm glad that everyone has agreed to leave it be.

Jane gets a Job

Well, I finally got a job! It is with a local non-profit, it's a good job in one of my fields (I tend to be a Jane-of-all-trades) and I'm working with very nice folks. I have been there about a week, and it seems to be working out OK, so I'm pretty happy about that. In addition to all that, it is right on one of the many bus routes that goes right by my apartment, so I can do that and skip driving... I'm reducing my carbon footprint! So Yeah!

Carnival Pleasures

We finally got out to Palmer today to the Alaska State Fair, and we're glad we did!

Acting on advice from locals, we got up at the crack of dawn (OK, 8 a.m.) and headed out there. It is a measure of how minimally complicated the road system is in Alaska in general that we were able to set out with only the vaguest notion of the direction we were heading and get right to where we needed to go with absolutely no hitches at all. We just headed north and eventually there was a sign, and then right there we were!

(Art's Commentary: We're used to the east coast roadnet, where you need to know about 20 major highways and many more minor ones to get around. Plus they have confusing numbers or names, like 22, 222, 100, 309, I-78, 76, 476, the blue route, the beltway, the turnpike the schulkill expressway, etc.............. Alaska has just 3 and they're numbered 1, 2 &3.)

Anyway, if you have ever been to a state fair, as we have, there were not too many surprises. There were a lot of food stands, face painting, silly hats for sale, and humorous hair treatments (huge purple mohawks, that sort of thing). There were also vendors of everything from opinions (both major political parties, various religious groups) to jewelry to crap (ShamWow!) Also present and accounted for were the lame musical acts and carnival rides. Overlaying it all, though, is the Alaskaness of everything. Moose and salmon images everywhere - from the quilts in the needlework display to the directional signs.

Also, a surprisingly immediate bounty of McCain PALIN gear. I will write more about this event in a near future post, but I will say this. We were walking behind a mom and her two little girls, and the mom told the daughters "Look, that word is 'Palin'! You know her, she is our governor!" And the little girls squealed like Hannah Montanna had just appeared in front of them and handed them branded gear "Governor Sarah! Governor Sarah! Is she here??? Where is Governor Sarah! We love her!!!" So, though there are some doubters, among the little girl crowd, Governor Sarah is possibly the coolest public official in the history of the planet.

We had gotten so many recommendations for good things to eat that we decided right away to take a "grazing" approach to eating by getting small portions of everything and sharing. We did not eat one of everything at the fair, but we did get through a pretty good percentage. For my review of the Fair Food, check out Eating Alaska, my food blog. :)http://alaskafood.blogspot.com/

In addition to eating, we experienced many of the other carnival pleasures on offer. We looked at all of the craft and homemaker exhibits, which was more interesting than it probably sounds. My mom quilts, so we took pictures of the interesting or funny ones for her. I myself do embroidery, so I was checking out that exhibit - I think I will enter next year! We also saw some of the famous giant vegetables, which like many famous things are pretty good, but not as good as they are hyped up as. But still...big pumpkin!

Continuing on with the produce theme, a marketing board is promoting Alaska Grown, which, as you might expect, urges you to buy and use Alaska Grown produce. I wandered over to their stand, as I agree with using local produce as much as possible, to see what their story was. An extremely nice man gave me a button and a bumper sticker, and urged me to purchase produce from Alaska. I agree that I would. We chatted a bit, and then I spotted a recipe booklet. I said "OOOOO! Recipes!" He pressed one into my hands, took a brief moment to extoll Alaska Grown potatoes, which are superior to any other in all the world, and then said to Art "Sir, you'll thank her for stopping here!" I could almost not stand it. But they do look like pretty good recipes, so what the hell.

We also saw an EXTREME TRICK DOG SHOW! Which was not all that extreme, but was very cute. The dogs mostly caught frisbees and jumped real high and other amazing feats. But who doesn't love puppy dogs? Also, the show rescued all these dogs out of pounds, so that was very nice to see. And they seemed very happy, in the fashion of dogs who get a lot of attention and affection.

We went through a haunted maze, which was actually pretty good. Usually, these things are poorly thought out and badly run, and I have been known to stop in the middle of going through a haunted attraction and tell the people staffing them that they are really more annoying than scary and what they could do to be more frightening. I have given impromptu seminars on the subject. This may be the reason that Art generally doesn't want to go through haunted attraction with me. But, you know, if I'm paying you $20 to scare me, scare me. Don't just wear a Planet of the Apes mask and scream at me - because that just makes me want to smack you.

But anyway. Another thing adding to the Fair-y goodness was the absolutely perfect, beautiful weather. We brought an umbrella, because it has been very rainy this whole summer, but there was not a threatening cloud in the sky the whole day. It was in the 70s and balmy all day long, which was a pleasant surprise. Although we did get to do most of what we wanted to do, we were thwarted in a couple of things. We tried to go on the Ferris wheel, but the line was way too long. Also, we tried to see the Lumber jack show, but we were unable to get seats, and since we had been standing or walking around for 5 straight hours by that time, a place to sit was pretty much necessary. So that was a no-go as well. However, I am pretty confident that we will probably go on without too many regrets... until we catch them next year!