Well at least THAT'S over with

Just more or less finished our move to our new house. For those of you playing along at home, following our year in an apartment, we found a great house here in Anchorage, bought it with a minimum of travail and are settled for good.

These, of course, are famous last words. A good percentage of the time when we buy a house I think "This is the house they're going to carry me out of in a pine box." But then the taxes are get outrageous or the neighborhood goes to heck or something, and we're off again. However, at risk of feeling pretty silly in a few years, I think this is the house we're going to settle in.

I hope so anyway. As my last post may have indicated, I am pretty sick of moving. I don't know what I resented more, my own book-owning habit, or the need to get several thousand cardboard boxes to haul them across town. As it turns out, you don't really need to box everything up. You can simply haul it out in armloads and pack loose items in the back of your car. You will look like a rube, or an Oaky fleeing the approaching dustbowl, but if you don't care about that, you are free to proceed as you see fit. And we don't care, so we largely took the box-free approach.

Anyway, the house. It is a good size for two people who like to have a little room and a lot of books. It has a tiki room-compatible space, which is important. It has a washer and drier, which matters more than I would ever have thought it would - I just spent the last year fighting like a savage for the use of my apartment complex's 2 washers and driers. Best of all, here is the view out of our living/tiki/dining room windows...

and that's one of the reasons we moved to Alaska!

One more time

Boxes...surrounding me...cardboard...tape...
no escape
The Horror!

What goes around comes around

Especially when that thing is called "moving day".
Well, here we are, around a year from when this crazy adventure started. And, as at that point, we are in the process of moving. And, as at that point, I am hating to move. Fortunately, this move will be of a much smaller magnitude - across town rather than across the continent.
But still, there's the finding boxes and the putting things in boxes and the change of address cards...
AAAAIIIIIIIEEEEE
Ok. I'm better now.
So this is an opportune time to look back and evaluate the year. What have we learned, how do we feel about our decision to move here, what would we say to others contemplating the same move?
Well, we've learned not to step into a really dangerous looking "stream" of glacier runoff water. We have learned that polar bears are not as cute and cuddly as people think they are. We have learned that shipping to Alaska is ungodly expensive. We have learned that in this past year we have only really scratched the surface of Alaska, and there is a lifetime's worth of new things to see and do here. We have learned a lot more about geology now that it is so much more in action in the world immediately around us.
How do we feel about our decision? Pretty darn good. About halfway through the year we began to lament that we had signed a year lease on our apartment - we were ready to make the move permanent. The one thing that is hanging over our heads is that the PA house has still not sold. It is a considerable burden, but we are managing it. We'll be a lot happier if ( no, WHEN) it sells.
What advice would we give others planning to make this same move? Well, other people should probably do a bit more research than we did. Possibly come up here to visit and actually see the place before packing up all their stuff and moving here. If you are a real sunshine fan, the winters might get to you. Residents of the south might have a harder time with it than we did. We are happy with being here, but we have seen a lot of people going after just a year or so. Some of those are military families, who move wherever they are posted, but some come up here for other reasons, then just don't like it. Although we didn't heed this advice, look before you leap.
But Alaska really is a wonderful place - come here, you won't be sorry!
Now I guess I really should go pack some boxes.

The Tide is High...no, Wait, it's low

Every once in a while, something happens to remind me that that big bunch of water surrounding my new home city is, in fact, the ocean. Now, I am aware of this fact on an intellectual level. But really, it's just one of those things I am kind of getting used to. Since we're on an inlet, and I can see the other side of that inlet, it kind of fits in my mental landscape like just a big river or something.
However, the gulls have returned to Anchorage with a vengeance. We didn't see them at all this fall or winter (at least I didn't), and now they are all over the place, as ubiquitous as ravens and magpies. It was news to me that they-the seagulls-are migratory, but I guess they are. They are kind of neat to see, although I am told they fight my beloved ravens for territory. I guess there aren't enough discarded french fries in this town for the both of them. Or something. (I say that because I usually see these majestic creatures either in dumpsters or in fast food parking lots going after discarded food.) Every time I see one or hear them, I think "Now what in the heck is seagull doing this far from...Oh, yeah. That's the ocean right over there!" I have thought it enough in the past couple of weeks, though, that it's starting to sink in.
The other thing that recently happened is that I acquired a tide chart book. I did not intentionally acquire this item, it just sort of happened. As I was checking out at the liquor store in Fred Meyer's, right there at the cash register was a big stack of tide chart booklets! They were free, and since I am a sucker for free things to read, I absent mindedly picked one up. They kid working the register, sensing my nautical soul, then tried to sell me a bottle of Sailor Jerry's, which I declined. Anyway, the tide charts. Although I was aware of the existence of such things, I had never seen one before. It took a little while until I figured out what the little fish symbols were and why some figures were in blue and so forth. However, with a little study and a few hints from more seasoned Anchorites (Anchorigians?) I am pretty confident that I have it figured out now. Now that I have one, I am seeing the darn things all over the place. Were they always around and I just didn't see them, or are the new ones out for this year? Well, now I know, so I guess there you have it. The most exciting aspect of this new discovery is that now we have a reasonable chance of catching a bore tide, which is a much-talked-about event up here. A bore tide, as near as I can figure it, is a tide with such a big difference between the high tide and the low tide that there is a big picturesque wave when it happens. How big and how pictureque, I don't yet know. As soon as I catch one, I'll report back - stay tuned!

New Nickname for Jane

There's a bit of backstory involved in this one. My(Jane's) brother has a podcast radio show called Bunch of Dorks. In the past, he and his fellow dorks have struggled to come up with a radio nickname for me, so as to not reveal my secret identity. They have come up with a few I didn't like, and a few that were too awkward for them to say when they were drunk (which is sometimes the case when they are doing their show). So, in an effort to come up with a name that will work for both me and them, they have posted a quiz on their show blog and are asking for votes. http://www.bunchofdorks.com/ Mow is my brother, for those of you playing along at home.
I should point out that the option to say you are just looking for Internet Porn is not one I support, but you should vote your conscience!
While you are there, if you enjoy offbeat humor, stick around and listen to a show or two! Be aware that the Bunch of Dorks podcasts contain some adult content and language. It's not Tarantino level, but I wouldn't listen with any little kids or nuns or other sensitive persons within earshot.

Anchorage Cleans Up

I saw something today that I had never seen before in my life. Anchorage actually washes their sidewalks (via heavy equipment, true, but still)!
As I wrote earlier, we are in the time of year known as "the breakup". The snow melts and all the ick it was hiding becomes visible, and all the grit that got spread on the roads is all just laying there, looking grim. The general citizenry does a lot to clean this up on their own, and businesses clean up their parking lots and sidewalks and so. We have seen a LOT of this tidy-up activity going on. Our apartment complex had guys in to rake all the leaves and sticks and stuff from the yards, my work had guys cleaning up the sidewalks and drives, and Art's company does a clean-up day where the whole company spends half a day picking up along a road somewhere in town. So there seems to be a fair amount of civic pride involved in the clean up effort.
However, the sidewalk cleanup was on an entirely different level than this. First a big truck drove down the street spraying water on the sidewalks. Then came the sweepers. I don't really know what these things are called, but I suspect they are the same things that are used in winter to clear snow off the sidewalks. They look kind of like a forklift or a mini-steamroller. However, in this instance, instead of a solid roller out in front, it had a wire brush in the same roller shape. The brush was sweeping off the dirt, but it also seemed to be sweeping up debris as it went! A couple of us walked up the street for coffee a little later, and it looked much nicer.
It is really interesting to see this sort of civic effort to keep the city looking nice. None of the cities we lived in in PA would have expended city funds for this kind of effort, although they surely could have. It takes streets that look kind of grimy and grim to looking much brighter and spring-ier. Looking good, Anchorage!

Moose Encounters

Well, we have been seeing a LOT of moose around lately. I understand from long-timers that this is the baby-having time in the moose year. The little newborns are supposed to be something to see, so we're keeping a lookout!

The first sighting was from my work - incidentally the same location where I had my first moose sighting, so that's one full circle made as my first year here comes to a close!

This is the youngster of the Momma and Kid duo that we see relatively often hanging around where I work. He meandered around and snacked on some foliage for awhile. Then he came to rest at the spot on the road where the smokers at work have to go stand to smoke. He stood there for quite awhile, peacefully hanging out and the smokers were starting to worry because they needed to go smoke. No one wanted to approach the little guy because Momma was somewhere around. Finally our biggest, loudest smoker went outside and yelled at him to "Git on back to Momma!" and he (the moose) ran away. Which is nothing to be ashamed of - we all run away when this particular person yells. :)

The next sighting came a couple of days later. Art and I were out with a coworker and her husband to hear a lecture on the Expanded Mind at UAA (!), and when we came out of the library...

This one was hanging around outside, again snacking on foliage. We kept a respectful distance, but didn't hang around too long - she was standing between us and and some post-lecture pie! We waited a few minutes, and she wandered across the sidewalk to get a drink, after which we judged it safe to cross. She kept an eye on us as we went past, but we didn't make any sudden moves or do anything that we thought might upset a large ruminant. And everything turned out fine.

You really do want to pet them and give them names and leave food out in your yard so they keep coming around. Oh, I don't do any of those thing, and I won't, because it would be wildly irresponsible. Also, I'm not trying to anthropomorphize them or pretend they are anything other than large, wild animals that are not to be trifled with. But the neat thing about moose is that they really don't seem to want naything other than lots of plant matter to eat and to be left alone. I suppose the best thing we can do for them is not harsh their mellow.

Earthquake!

Well, as those of you playing along from out of state may or may not know, this past Tuesday we had an earthquake! It was 4.6 or 4.7 (news reports varied) and originated roughly between here and Wasilla. I had felt slight shakes before a couple of times, but this was much more considerable in force.
It hit while we were at work, and shook us around pretty good. Later, I heard from a few people that they were scared, but I and everyone in my office found it kind of exhilarating. A second after we stopped shaking, one coworker actually let out an Anchorage cheer (Woooo!). This was kind of interesting to experience. I remember a couple of years ago, when I was still in Pa and my cousin Amie was living here (her husband is in the Army). I read on CNN that they had had an earthquake - I think it was a 2 or 3 pointer - and I sent her a panicky email checking on their safety. She responded with polite puzzlement, then said something along the lines of "Oh, yeah. I think I did feel a little shake."
When you have no experience with this type of phenomenon, you have no concept of what it really is like. At that point, I heard 3 point earthquake and pictured my loved ones trapped in the rubble of their home, bleeding into the phone as they tried desparately to get through to Emergency Services. When you are here, and you have the experience, you think to yourself. OK, 4.7. Woop!

Breaking up is hard to get through

Well, this is the time of year known informally as The Breakup. This is because of the general warming trend going on, which causes the ice and snow that has been building up since last October to...yes, you guessed it!... break up.
To put it bluntly, it is not a very pretty time of year. The fresh clean coat of snow we have been seeing every day is not appearing anymore. Or at least its gotten infrequent. That means all the cinders and dirt, as well as all the general garbage that's been buring under all that clean sparkly snow is starting to show. As is the fact that our apartment building neighbors have not been taking their dogs all the way to the dog peeing area that is fenced off at the end of the common area. Instead they have been just walking right off the front stoop and letting them pee away. They were counting on the yellow snow to get covered up, but not anymore! So that's kind of icky.
Now, on the plus side, we have well over 13 hours of daylight now, and it is regularly over 32F. That may not sound like much, and relatively speaking it isn't. But we are starting to walk around with just hoodies or sweaters on, and we are plenty warm. It's all what you get used to. After my brother and sister-in-law and parents moved to Florida, they would come back to PA in the height of summer and be shivering and freezing. And we'd be like "What? It's 70!" and they would say "I'm freezing! I need a sweater!"and so on. And then I'd go to Florida and be prostrate from the heat. "I'm dying!" I would say, "It's like being on the surface of the sun, only with 150% humidity! It's so hot!" and they would say "What? It's 103. This is nothing!" and so on. So anyway, I guess my point is, we're acclimated pretty well to local temperatures. It got up to the mid 30's, and I thought "what a nice balmy day!"
Also on the plus side, the inches-thick layers of ice are breaking up and melting away, so you are driving on actual asphalt some of the time, which is a welcome development.

New in the news

We haven't been doing much exciting, just going on with daily life - so here are some general Alaskan updates:

-Mt. Redoubt has been quiet this week in general. Apparently it is building up another lava dome, which will probably collapse and start another round of ash-spewing eruptions. The last time this happened, it went on for around 6 months. There's nothing saying that will happen this time, but that's what happened last time. For the most part, everyone just sort of gets on with their lives. Last Saturday, for example, there was light ashfall on Anchorage. How did the population deal with it? A lot of people went to the carwash the next day. A couple of people kept masks or their scarves over their faces if they were out walking around.

- Art and I went to see (and more to the point, hear) Chuck Klosterman speak at the University of Alaska Anchorage. I was a bit nervous about going to see him, though, because Art has not enjoyed his work overly much and also because whenever I actually see a famous person being themselves, they are always horrible people. I have never been in any kind of proximity to a public figure and liked them at all at the end of the experience. For the most part, I can't even watch them being interviewed. However, Chuck did a great job, and I actually like him more now than I did before I heard him speak. Art likes him better now, too. Anyway, the reason I am bringing this up is that he (CK) was commenting on getting to Anchorage, and said "I have never had plans of mine affected by, you know, pumice."

-Ted Stevens is exonerated! It turns out there was an interview with a star witness against him who had an earlier interview that totally contradicted everything he said in court. Somehow the prosecution sort of, I guess, forgot they had that, and the defense never got it. Details and play by play available, as always, on ADN. I'm glad Ted is cleared, and I hope we vote him back in next time. For those of you playing along at home, he was a very senior senator, and the state of Alaska lost a LOT of pull when he was railroaded out of office. Lying Feds!

-Spring is not here yet, but it's sure starting to look like it. We have something over 13 hours of daylight now. You can see patches of pavement poking through the deep layers of ice in parking lots. Now, I have been warned that this is not spring. In fact, this promise of spring is what suposedly pushed people over the edge. I personally feel fine - another month or so of winter is fine with me. We'll see how I feel this time next year, but I feel fine now!

And it just keeps going!

So now that Mt. Slacker has decided to blow, it just won't stop. Those of you who have been around volcanoes for any length of time probably find this absolutely normal. But for those of us who grew up with the Volcano as a concept, a distant mystical thing, it is all kind of unexpected. The way it seems from a distance, a volcano is either extinct or active, and if its active it quietly builds up pressure for a while (length of time can vary), and then it erupts. Then FEMA comes in and Tommy Lee Jones fixes everything, and then it's all calm again until the next cycle starts up again. And maybe some volcanoes do work that way. But not this one.
This one had rising and falling levels of seismic activity for months now (or earlier post fame). And apparently that's not unusual. Longtime Alaskans tell me the local volcanoes usually act this way. From the earliest signs to the actual eruption is often many long, roller coaster-y months. And then it just keeps on going. It erupted this morning, it erupted 2 or 3 times yesterday, and so on back through the week, starting with 5 eruptions Sunday night into Monday. Sorry, just went to AVO's website to try to fact check (it happens occasionally) and it turns out it erupted twice today - my mistake. This makes a total of a dozen eruptions this week. Anyway, around midweek I sent out messages to let loved ones know we were still fine and not having any problems, and none of them knew the thing was still erupting! And in all fairness, if we didn't live right here, we wouldn't have either. It's pretty low key, considering that it's a pretty awesome force of nature style event. Basically, the results have been:
1) the activity is melting the glacier(s?) on the volcano, which is causing lahars and pretty bad flooding near the volcano itself, which may or may not have damaged an oil terminal nearby.
2)It is messing up air travel pretty bad. Although most of the ash is not falling to the ground, it is hanging up in the air and causing all the airlines to cancel or postpone flights.

None of that is particularly telegenic, which is why it isn't all over the news outside. Well, as we Alaskan say, Whatever, volcano.

Mt Redoubt - Kind of a disappointment

So if you read the news, you may have heard that our old friend Mt Slacker finally erupted. Of course if you blinked, you may well have missed it. This is because it was pretty underwhelming as far as volcanic eruptions go. Oh, it blew a bunch of ash and steam impressively high into the atmosphere, and some places to the north got some ash, and some planes got cancelled, but that was pretty much it. It even happened at night, so as far as I know, no one even got good pictures of it. Other than some flights getting cancelled, most people in Anchorage never even missed a beat.
This was damn disappointing. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm really glad no one got hurt and there wasn't any major property damage. But I was hoping to get to see an eruption and possibly get a day off work. But no such luck on either count. There were even some pretty spectacular pictures of the volcano that erupted underwater elsewhere on our burnin' Ring of Fire, but not our volcano. Let me reiterate that - the other volcano erupted UNDER WATER. Under THE OCEAN. And still it looked cooler than our volcano. Because you could see it.
Sigh.
After the months of buildup and stern warnings and safety directives from the Red Cross and the Volcano Observatory and FEMA, it finally erupts, and ... then the next day the local newspaper has a little column on it, which is quickly superceded by news about the AAU's women's basketball team and a reflection on the 20th anniversary of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It was such an anticlimax that on Monday afternoon, I got a text message from my parents asking if I was all right, and it took me 10 minutes of puzzled frowning at my phone to get why they were asking me that. Now I understand the "Whatever" attitude that long-term Alaskans have when talking about their eruptions! And they do literally say that. You say to them, "Oh my God! That volcano is really unstable! It's going to erupt!" and they look at you for a minute, and then say, "Whatever." It was pretty amazing to me a week ago, but now I too say "Whatever."
However, I know it is unfair of me to whine. When you're dealing with volcanos, it's better to have too little excitement than to have too much!

Fur Rondy - What Have We Learned

Well, now that we are a week out from the dizzying madness of Fur Rondy, it is time for a look back. What have we learned? How has it changed us? More to the point, are we going to do this again next year, and if so, what are we going to do differently. Those who do not make notes about history are doomed to repeat it. Or something.
Anyway, we definitely had a good time, and agree that it will definitely be part of our calendar next year. That said - we will be skipping some of the things we did this year, and making more of an effort to get to some things we missed this year. Also - and I must point out that I was warned about this - we will probably not take the whole week off again. When I told people we were doing that, they looked at me like I was crazy and said something along the lines of "The whole week?! You don't need the whole week for Rondy!" At the time I thought, well, we're new! We haven't been here forever! You don't know! Those people were right. There really wasn't so much to do during the week between the weekends. Now, on a personal level, we were really ready for a week off. But it didn't need to be Rondy week.

What will we make a point of getting to next year?

• Snowshoe softball. We missed the various games for an array of reasons, and now I'm sorry we didn't make the effort. It is famed as quite the hootenanny, and next year we'll make it!
• Gold Rush days. This involved various comical reenactments of the gold rush days of Alaska. There are all kinds of colorful stories about this time, and reenactors are always comedy gold.

What will we pass on next year?

• The carnival. This is a novelty for the kids, and while the weirdness of it is absolutely enchanting -been there and done that.
• Meet the World in Anchorage. Again, this is pretty much for the kids. I'm glad we went once - it was really eye opening to see what a widely multi-cultural place we live it. It made me strangely proud to be here and part of this melting pot. But again - been there, done that.

What have we learned?

• Timing is more important that most people think it is.
• People running around with reindeers is absolutely hilarious, if you can stand the boredom between heats.
• Start times are kind of flexible around here.

There are a few things we wish the Rondy organizers would do a little differently next year. Maybe spread things out a bit more. Have a few organized activities during the week. But maybe it is perfect the way it is. It was a lot of fun, and we had a blast. We laughed, we cried, it became a part of us. But it sure was cold to do so much standing around!

Picture Votes

OK, we will be leaving the picture of Anchorage in place. Thanks to those of you who voted for sharing your opinion!

Iditarod End!

Well, the Iditarod ended yesterday around noon Alaska time - it was a little later than the odds makers initially supposed. There has been a bit of interesting weather along the trail. Lance Mackey achieved his three-peat and handily won the race. With this victory, he achieves what only a few others have ever done. Add that to the fact that people who know the man have told me he is a genuinely nice man and a real Cinderella story, and you have sports story gold! Again, I point interested parties toward ADN's coverage - the know details and stats I don't have the first idea of. But for the moderately interested, the above summary should give you enough information. Amaze your friends!

Random updates

The hours of daylight are pretty long now, pretty close to the 12 hour mark. So the "long dark" is pretty safely behind us! It continues to warm up (relatively) and has been hovering around the balmy 32 F mark for the past couple of days. We have been throwing open the windows for a half hour or so both here at home and at work, just to get the "fresh spring air" in and let a little of the winter funk out. Of course, this is a bit deceiving, and is apparently a part of why people just kind of snap around this time of year sometimes. It feels like spring is on its way, and indeed it is...but not any time too soon. We can expect pretty good piles of snow throughout March and April, and sometimes even into May. So this isn't spring yet! We really aren't minding, though. We are pretty well acclimated, I think. I was walking around outside today a couple of times with my coat hanging open, and didn't feel cold at all.
Also, saw a moose at work again yesterday - and everyone in the room stopped and came to the window to watch him! They're really kind of cute, in a goofy way.

Iditarod update

Well, as near as I can tell it, there are three drop-outs at this point in the race, and the leaders of the pack are coming up to about the halfway point between Willow and Nome. There haven't been any wild surprises this year so far, but there's plenty of time for that to change! Keep checking ADN for updates - the coverage they have is phenomenal!

New in the News

The Iditarod is, of course, the big news today, with progress reports coming in steadily from the checkpoints. Lance Mackey, a two time winner looking for a three-peat, is currently in the lead, but that is generally conceded not to mean much at this point. This thing is around 1,100 miles long. For a comprehensive look at the situation, sports fans would be well-advised to check out ADN's coverage. I have to say, I don't generally read Craig Medred's column - he covers sports and/or nature or something along those lines. However, he is writing some really beautiful columns on this race - informational and yet also inspirational at times. Check it out!


At work today we were talking about who had gone to see the start of the race, and where we had gone to see it. One coworker had the best story, hands down. She and her husband flew up in a private plane to Willow to watch the real start, and in fact flew over the trail for a bit following the teams after they left the starting line. I was instantly envious! She also reported seeing people with snowmobiles sort of following along with the action as well. Maybe next year!

First, a Question

Art and I have been debating changing the picture at the top of the blog. On the one hand, it is a beautiful view, but on the other hand, it's been up there for quite a while. Use the Poll on the right to register your opinion!

Iditarod pictures!

We chose to avoid all the hoopla of the starting line downtown, and from the report in ADN, we're glad we did. We kind of used up all our tolerance for packed crowds over the last week. The vantage point we did have was great! We got to see about 10 teams go by - there were generally only 5 minutes or so between teams.

We do not know enough about the race to know who all these driver are - I meant to cross reference to the leader board on ADN, but it's been a kind of busy day. I may get around to it in the next day or so, and if so, I'll update this page.

And here they go! After this stretch, the drivers rode a pedestrian bridge over Tudor Road, giving casual drivers-by a chance to see them on their way.

The real actual start of the race is tomorrow at 2 pm at Willow, a bit north of here. I was looking at CNN this afternoon, and was interested to see no mention of the Iditarod at all. It's a funny contrast, because the news here is basically all about it. I am finding it strangely compelling - I didn't expect it to be so interesting, but it really is. All the drivers are fascinating people, as you might expect, and there are countless background stories - how supplies get to the teams on the route, the training routine, the gear, and all the other nuances you wouldn't think about unless you were here where it is so prevalent. If you have an interest, use the links for the Iditarod and ADN to get your fix. :)

Iditarod start!

We just got back in from watching part of the Iditarod start! We decided to avoid the madness downtown and instead drove about a mile up the road to where the path passes by the Alaska Native Medical Center. There was a surprising amount of crowd, but it was not unbearable. We stood on a hill above the trail and watched the teams come by - first you would see them through the trees, then they would come into the clear and run past. The run through Anchorage is just the ceremonial start, and the teams are pulling not only the drivers, but also the handlers and Iditariders - people who pay for a ride with the competitors. So they are going a bit slower than they would really, but that makes for better picture taking!
We will post photos later, as I am going to help staff a Bone Marrow registry drive at the Providence Cancer Center, and Art is going to one last Rondy event. He is going to see a display of military vehicles, and will get pictures of those too. So that's something to look forward to!

Iditarod Fever!

Well, the last great race start tomorrow, and as you might imagine, it's a pretty big deal up here. I recall hearing about this in years past, and it was always this distant (literally and figuratively) thing that was notable only in its craziness. Not here though, it is everywhere! My scrapbooking dealer even has a March contest called the I-Did-A-Page. I expect the Anchorage Daily News to have virtually no other news for the next couple of weeks. Which is fine - it is a pretty big deal! We plan to watch the ceremonial start tomorrow, though not necessarily from downtown. They run throughout Anchorage, and in fact pass pretty close to our place.
Tomorrow is just the ceremonial start. The real start is in Willow on Sunday. We won't be physically watching it, but we will be following it. To the right are some links to help you follow it as well. You'll be glad you did!

Fur Rondy: Day III

Running of the Reindeer!

As I said yesterday - the Running of the Reindeer is very much like the Running of the Bulls... except different. This is a new event for the Rondy, now in its second year. In spite of all the joking around, no one was hurt last year and I don't believe anyone was this year, either. Which is a little surprising when you watch it. The reindeer and their handlers came from a nearby reindeer farm, from which they had been transported in trucks. They seemed a little skittish around all the noise and the people, which I guess is not that surprising. The race itself was run on 4th Avenue, which had a couple blocks closed off for the event.

Comedy and announcing were provided by local radio personalities from station KWHL, who were extremely amusing. They kept the energy levels up during the wait for things to get started and in between heats - not an easy thing to do with the temperature out (extremely cold) and the crowd level (I would estimate the entire populations of the city was there). One announcer, whose decision to wear what looked like a red velour suit and no other protective gear provided a good percentage of the waiting time humor, put on the best show. Apparently they get the reindeers to run by having males doing the running and putting a female that is in season at the point the males are running to. 'Nuff said. There were five heats, aka sets of people running with the reindeer.

First up was the celebrity heat, which include local personalities mostly. The two national figures running in this heat were Bill Oefelein and Colleen Shipman, who you may know as the other two people involved in the astronaut love triangle. Apparently he is from here, and has moved back. After the first heat one of the reindeer provided some extra excitement by not following the plan - he kind of broke loose from the pack and started running all over the enclosed street. The handlers spent some time wrangling him back to the far end, which didn't make a lot of sense as they then just had to wrangle him back to the start line again. Crazy announcer made a lot of hay of this part of the event, screaming "Oh My God!" and "I just wet my pants!" every time the runaway reindeer dodged or ran in a new direction. As I read this, it doesn't sound that funny, but at the time it was absolutely hilarious.

The second heat was the men, which was an absolutely huge group, most of whom were in costume. After that were women, then couples, then groups. A lot of people were dressed as Santa, which makes a certain kind of sense. Other costumes ranged from superheroes to the Easter Bunny, to a group of cavemen. This last bunch looked more like Picts by the time they got to run, because they weren't wearing a lot, and it was freezing out. I have not ever seen people actually turn blue before, so that was kind of interesting.


As you can see, there were so many guys running, the reindeer were kind of few and far between in comparison! After the second heat, we got too cold, and also we felt we had witnessed the general gist of the event, so we left. All in all, a good time was had by us, and everyone else also seemed to have fun. We will definitely be back next year, and if you can make it at all, you should too!

Rondy: Day II

On Saturday we woke up at the crack of dawn (OK, 8:30) and caught the bus into town to start our day with the Rondy Parade!

The parade was an Alaskan classic - it started about 45 minutes after the scheduled time, and the Rondy volunteers trying to keep the waiting crowd from dancing in the street did not know which direction the parade would be coming from. Everyone was looking down the street both ways, asking each other which way it would be coming. Attention spans wore out pretty quickly, and people started dancing in the street to the 80's music blasting over the PA system. We were standing a couple yards from the reviewing stand, so we could hear the announcer, who admitted right up front that groups and floats would be arriving out of order and not in a timely fashion. When it did arrive though, it was nothing but comedy gold! The group pictured above is a bunch of people wearing various Imperial uniforms (Yes, that would be in the Star Wars sense) . We don't know why. There were also non-crazy things. For example, there was a considerable military presence, which makes sense considering the Army and Air Force bases that are right next to Anchorage. There were also 18 (we have photographic proof!) beauty queens - all in fur coats and riding and waving from convertibles or military vehicles. We have no idea where they all come from - different and competing pagents, they started alloting Miss America contestants by square miles, just random women who bought themselves sashes and crowns? No idea whatsoever, but it's fun to wonder!
After that we went to the Anchorage Museum, to experience the Bridgebuilders "Meet the World In Anchorage" festival. This was quite the hootenanny itself. Every ethnic group that has any kind of presence in Anchorage had a table and a presentation on its culture and language and so on. Some were extremely elaborate, such as the Korean table, which had posters about their culture and their alphabet, models of houses and ships typical of their land and a calligrapher on hand who would write things out for you. On the other hand, the Hawaiian table had a couple of leis on it. More than a few of the groups also fielded performance groups who did dances and that sort of thing. We only saw a few groups, but they were pretty good! You got a "Passport" at the door, which you were supposed to take around to all the tables and get stamped after you had heard their story and/or learned something. We did not do this, because most of the people getting them stamped were school kids - it had the look of a project they had to go through for credit from their social studies classes. It was really interesting seeing all the different kinds of people who live here - also the Bridgebuilders is a pretty cool group! They seek to promote cross-cultural understanding and other good stuff.

Next up for us was the Outhouse Races. Again a late start and a certain amount of charming confusion dominated the event. I know this sounds like pointless complaining, but it was COLD out. People all around us, clearly long-time residents, were complaining about how long it was taking. Why do I think they were long time residents? More on that later. However, that minor cavil aside, it was a lot of fun!

Anyway, the Outhouse race is exactly what it sounds like. Groups build outhouse shaped devices, only with 2 x 4's attached for pushing handles. They line up with one person in them and a group pushing, and then mahem ensues. The course is short, and involves a turn-around to ensure maximum chaos. These things are not that sturdily constructed, and are not too easy to steer, so you can imagine the results.

The groups got to write their own introductions - one example is the number 2 group, named the Number 2s. We also had the Sitka Skidmarks, and more along those lines. If that kind of humor appeals to you - and Art's family specializes in it - you will find this event a stone riot and I urge you to attend next year if at all possible. If you don't find that sort of thing funny, you probably couldn't be persuaded to stand in below-freezing weather and get snowed on to attend such an event for any consideration whatsoever.

We finished out the day with a wonderful display of fireworks. We watched from the top of a nearby parking garage, which gave us a spectacular view.

In tomorrow's post: Running of the Reindeer! If you are unfamiliar with this event, it is much like the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, only instead of bulls and drunk Spaniards, it is reindeer and drunk Alaskans. Also, it is much, much colder.

Ready to Rondy!

This past weekend we attended the Anchorage Fur Rondevous, the winter extravaganza of hoke, and we're glad we did!

Friday started off slow - we attended the first day of the Rondy dog sled races. If you have never experienced a dog-sled race, it really is something. The first thing that is interesting is that they are racing by time, not all lined up and racing against each other to a finish line. So each musher (driver) is introduced by the announcer, and then they go. Then the next team comes up to the start line, and so on. The second thing is that that many dogs all hanging around waiting to run can create quite a din. (If this picture had audio attached to it, you would be deaf right now.)The third thing is that those dogs want to run! There are teams of guys holding them back, and they (the dogs) bark and jump like you wouldn't believe, just waiting to get running. This is why they can't be lined up next to each other. Once you see one team lined up and waiting to go, you can't even imagine the amount of chaos two of them next to each other would be.

And then they're off!

And then, about an hour or so later, they're back! They are generally quieter, and their tongues are hanging out, but they stil have enough energy to bounce around after they come to a stop. The races went right down 4th street, which is part of the center of downtown. The Rondy committee and the city trucked in snow (yes, really) and groomed the track, which made its way around several other streets and looped around all over Anchorage.

Standing in the center of a city, surrounded by stoplights and skyscrapers and coffee shops, and watching dogsled teams mushing by was probably one of the top ten moments of my life. I love this crazy city!

In tomorrow's posting: parade, festival of many cultures, and outhouse races!

Vacation - All I Ever Wanted

Yeah! We're off work for a week! What do we have planned? What will we do?
Well, part of it is just being off work. I have not had a vacation since around this time last year. Art had off from work between Christmas and New Year's, but I just had the holidays themselves off. So just being able to stay up late if we want and sleep late and just kind of get slow starts to the days will be a break in itself. However, in addition, we have a few other plans...
What will they be? Tune in to find out!

House Hunting

Art and I have been spending all our free time lately on the house hunt. In our life together so far, we have bought 3 houses so far and sold 2 (praying for the third to sell!), so certain aspects of this house hunt are very familiar. We kind of have it down to a science, and don't bother worrying about a lot of the stuff we were concerned with when we got the first one. However, that was all in PA. This is in Alaska, so as in most things, its a little different.
First, a mass answer to all the emails and calls we have gotten from loved ones - no, we are not going to be getting an igloo. Also, even with all the ice technology advances they have made what with all these new "ice hotels" that are so popular nowadays, we are not getting an ice-duplex or even an ice-townhouse. We are looking in the popular non-melting building material category of housing. Smart alecks! ;)
One thing that is very different here is that everything is pretty new. This is a big switch from the east coast, where you cannot swing a cat without hitting a colonial-era house. It often seemed as though roughly 75% of the housing stock in the Lehigh Valley was constructed around the Revolutionary War era. Not so here. The oldest houses you see are from the late 60's and early 70's, and even that's rare. The big quake of 1964 destroyed most buildings older than that. There has really only been any kind of housing boom here in very recent times, so almost everything is pretty new.
Also, there are very few builders in Anchorage, so if you are in a development, if you have seen one house, you have basically seen them all. This means other than individual houses, which can be surprising in a lot of ways, there is not much variety of style. Oh, there might be a couple of different floor plans, but there isn't going to be a big variety of options to choose from. In a way, this simplifies the search. Once you have looked in a given development, you can kind of assume that any others there will be pretty much the same.
Other than that, it is probably similar to looking for a house anywhere. You have to make your trade offs in what features matter to you and what you are willing to let go of to fit in a price range. But even there, you have to factor in the fact of where you are living. Now, we like to cook on a grill and eat out doors when it is nice out. So we are looking for a place with a place where that is possible. However, how important is that given that it is winter for 6 months out of the year? We would really like a place with a view of the mountains. Enough to live in an otherwise dicey neighborhood? and so on down the line.
We think we might have found our place, and are in negotiations to see if that works out for us. If not, more tales from the dark side await. So that's something to look forward to!

How Dry I Am

One thing you learn in a winter that is this cold for this long is how very much it sucks all the moisture out of you. Anchorage is drying on the skin even in the summer, and by this point in the year it is as dry as...well, as an extremely dry thing.
I happened to look at my hands about midafternoon, and they actually startled me. The last time I saw hands that scaly and horrifying they were attached to Boris Karloff and he was using them to pull himself out of a grave. Everyone at work has Family size lotion dispensers on their desks, and people wander around the office all day wringing their hands like Lady MacBeth -except trying to rub lotion in, not mourning their evil deed. At least in most cases. I halfway wonder if you can get lotion tubs put into houses so you can just lay in moisturizer and soak in it.

Aiiiiiieeeeeee!!!!!!!

Ok, I just have to vent. This is not a story about living in Alaska. This is a story about moving to Alaska and having a house for sale still on the other side of the country. Our house in Breinigsville (near Allentown for those of you playing along at home) is still for sale. It has been for sale since May, which is extremely galling. Anyway, early this afternoon, we got a call from our real estate agent in Pa, which initially made us happy because we were hoping there was an offer. But no. What she was calling about was that people had been in our house for a showing and one of them was almost overcome by gas fumes and they called the fire department. The people are OK - thank God. As you can imagine, this caused a significant amount of despair on our parts. We took turns making calls and having mini-nervous breakdowns, with the person currently having the least amount of despair manning the phone.
Here is the thing about this sort of situation happening on the other side of the country on a Sunday and three time zones away - there's not a lot you can do. Also, we were getting conflicting reports of what was happening. Art's parents were just there that morning checking on things for us, which they frequently do, and they did not notice anything wrong. Our agent was not on the scene, being away for the weekend, and was relaying things third hand, so she was not able to be that much direct help. Art talked to the fire chief who had been in the house, who said that yes, the house had been full of gas and they had shut off the pilot lights and ventilated the house and closed the valves on the propane tanks. This rang some alarm bells because we had turned off all the pilot lights in the stove when we left in May, and the furnace does not have a pilot light. Art's parents were dispatched back over to the house, where they found the house still at 54 degrees, the stove lid propped up, and no other disarray. We tried to call a propane company, but could not get anyone to help us out today. We thought about calling the office of the development our house is in, but as they have not been of the slightest use so far, are still wondering if we want to waste our breath on them any more. I called my parents, mostly just for sympathy, which they provided - Thanks Mom and Dad!
So now the plan is to have the heating system taken care of - which means throwing more money down this particular pit, but that is a treat for tomorrow. We have exhausted our options of what we can do about the situation for today. So there you go. Alaska is great, but moving sucks!

It's Just another day...

Well, nothing wildly exciting to write about. It continues to be cold, but not nearly as harsh as before. We are back up to about 8 hours of daylight, so that "long dark" thing - not so much. Last weekend we took a short jaunt to a couple of our favorite siteseeing spots in the area just to see how it looks in the winter. Here are a few of the things we saw...

This is from Beluga point, where we saw whales late this summer. No whales now! This lookout is on the Turnagain Arm, and is just a short drive south of Anchorage. The tide was going out when we were there, which was cool to watch. The entire body of water is choked with ice, and the part in the middle was just drifting back out to sea. There were some flat floes of ice, and some big jaggedy ice boulders, that look like the result of being tumbled back and forth with the tides for some time. If you stood and watched for a bit, you could see how fast it was flowing and how much mass of water was moving through. It was pretty good.!

Then we went back to our old favorite, Flat Top, of top of this page fame.

I have a sort of photography project in mind to take some of the same shots in the different seasons or at different times of day and frame them together. I know! But it keeps me out of trouble...as much as anything can.

In other news...

I haven't been writing as regularly because we started shopping for a house, which is fun and exciting, but takes up a certain amount of time. The only hitch is that our old house has not sold yet, but we are sure we want to settle here, so we're going for it!
Alaska continues to throw all kinds of excitement at us; here is a sample:
The volcano (Mt. Slacker) continues to rumble, revving up the activity just long enough to get everybody excited again and then dying down.
The Iron Dog competition, which is a big snow machine ( snowmobile for those from the northest) race, is going on right now. The state's First Dude is participating, as I believe he often does. Occasionally you see a truck driving around with a sticker that says "Proud Wife of an Iron Dogger" and we joke that maybe it's Governor Sarah's truck! :)
A group of schoolkids have proposed the malamute as the Alaska State Dog. Despite some grumbly and/or humorous commentary from various columnists, no serious opposition to the measure is expected. So that's something to look forward to!
The countdown to the Iditarod continues, and I'm excited to see the start of that.
So that's the news in brief. Stay tuned!

Day 37 of Volcano Watch...

So the volcano hasn't blown yet. And yes, I know it hasn't really been 37 days. It just feels like it has. Reactions at the tardiness range from relief to annoyance. Also, estimates of potential danger are ranging from "horrible death with post-death zombification" to "a couple milimeters of ash - just settle down". I think most of us though, are kind of thinking "erupt or get off the pot, volcano!" Seriously - it is a slacker, Gen X kind of volcano. It shows lot of potential, but it is lazy and will probably ultimately accomplish nothing.
Since the most reliable estimates are that the worst that's going to happen is a slight inconvenience, it is nice because you don't have to feel bad for wanting there to be a natural disaster. Everyone I have talked to thinks it will be kind of interesting, as do I. It's also fun having the potential there. It's kind of neat to say "We'll see you Saturday afternoon - unless the volcano blows!" That's something you don't get to say in PA - that's for sure. Also, everyone has a timeframe that would work for them. Like," Well, I'm going to the movies with my friend tonight, so the volcano can go anytime after 10:30". Which is kind of funny. I'll have my people call the volcano's people, we'll plan!
Another interesting thing is all the stuff you don't consider if you have never been through any of this before. One lady I work with runs a dogsled as a hobby and consequently has a lot of dogs, which live in kennels in her yard. She needs to think about precautions for the dogs in case the volcano erupts - as the dogs are outside, and breathing the ash is really not a good thing. You shouldn't run computers, since the cooling fans will draw the ash in and screw up your computer. Same with cars, etc. Commercial buildings, because they need to have a ventilation system, can't be open - the fans will draw in ash, which...well, see above.
There have been a few other things going on here in AK, which I will be writing about again soon. Unless the volcano erupts!

Volcano Photo

Thanks to Feathers for the great link, titled Volcano Photo in the links box. Her comment, a source of much good information, is attached to the previous post, and the link she provided takes you to a great photo taken this summer...well, the article with the photo gives all the details.
Thanks, Feathers!

We live on...a burning ring of fire

Well, we are getting a taste of the famous geology action associated with this area. Saturday morning a 5.7 (I think) earthquake rattled this area of Alaska. We felt a very light, short shaking where we are, but people on the western edge of Anchorage had a bit of damage. I'm told this is because our apartment is on bedrock, and the western edge is on sediment. (Thanks to friends and family who inquired after us! )
Shortly after the quake, one of our local volcanos started acting up a little. This may or may not mean there will be an eruption. For more details, see the ADN story here . Now, this is an interesting dilemma for a newbie. Not being from around here, I have no way of knowing if this is one of those things the authorities have to mention even if they don't really think anything's going to happen, or if the understated nature of the alert is just a factor of the typical Alaskan lack of concern for danger. I should point out that the volcano in question, Mt. Redoubt, is 100 miles away and across the Cook Inlet, so even if it goes up in a spectacular fashion, there won't be rivers of lava chasing screaming civilians down the streets of Anchorage. There will almost certainly be wads of ash, which is trouble. If we take no other lessons from the fate of Pompeii, we can certainly hold onto that one. Most of the warnings, in fact stem around precautions to take against ash. Although no one is hysterically swarming the stores, we couldn't find any respirators (on the emergency supplies list) at Sears today. I don't know that that means anything, but there it is.
This led us to reminiscing about other emergency precautions sent out by authorities in other parts of the country. In eastern Pennsylvania, for example, if a blizzard is coming, people stock up on bread, eggs, and milk. We will fight the awesome power of nature with French Toast! Although to be fair, I don't believe that is in response to an official announcement from the state. In Florida, people stock up on Clorox. Hit with a hurricane? May as well clean! ( No, seriously. I know it is to sterilize drinking water.) Last summer I was in California for work, and there were pretty severe wildfires nearby, to the point where the air was brown and everyone coughed the whole time. The locals responded by shrugging and declaring themselves "bummed". In some cases, they also had an extra glass of wine with dinner, because, hey. You know?
So I am stocking up on wine. Because, hey. You know?

Feel the Rage!

With the Rage City Rollergirls!

Just when I was wondering what I would find next in this crazy town, the answer presented itself - Women's Roller Derby! I found out that Anchorage (Get it? Ancho-"Rage"? Ha!) has a newly formed League. Having a long-standing ironic affection for the sport - mostly based on a liking for the Jim Croce song which I share with my Dad, I absolutely could not wait to see a bout.

We could not get to the first bout (Mistletoe Mayham in December), but we finally got there last night. This would be the FREEZE For All bout, which I am guessing is in someway affiliated with the FREEZE festival of art and coldness of earlier post fame. We got there a little after 6 (the ad on their site says "Doors open at 6, wheels roll at 7). I did not really know what to expect crowd-wise, but the place was packed! I don't know how many actual people were jammed in there, but I would estimate it at 75% of the population of the state, and possibly some of Canada. There are a LOT of derby fans here. Interestingly, they spanned the range of age and types. For every kid with tattoos all over ever visible inch, there were nicely dressed middle aged ladies out in groups.

Fortunately, they (the skaters) did a little demo of how it works and how points are scored and what the positions are and so forth, which was extremely helpful for those of us who know nothing about it except for Jim Croce's affection for one of the sport's royalty. If you are interested, follow the link to their site and go to Roller Derby FAQ to learn what the faqs is. Then they introduced the players for the two teams - the Dirty Polli's (sic) and the Sockeye Sally's (also sic). They all have great names like Kim Kong and Sarah Impale 'Em and that sort of thing. The refs also are personalities - HitHer Harter, apparently an accountant in real life; and Mr Furious, married to Mrs Furious, a skater for the Polli's; and a few others. The Polli's also have a mascot named Ken B. Bribed, who handed out fake money, kissed babies, and generally carried on. The main announcer was Max Powers, who did a great job keeping up the play-by-play when there was action and patter when there was not. Curly Shrew, the color commentator, did not have much to say, and kind of reminded me of the color commentator from "Major League". Although I got the idea this was not her normal role, so fair enough. If you are getting the idea this is a lot like Pro Wrestling, you are not far off. It is a bit more free-wheeling (Ha!), though. There's a lot of bombast and showwomanship going on to amp up the fun level, which would be pretty high anyway. The announcer had to keep reminding everyone to "Make some noise! These ladies are working hard!" Then we would let out our Anchorage cheers of earlier post fame (Which go like this...WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!) Honestly though, I was really engrossed in the action. And I am aware of how that sounds, but it's true. For one thing, rather than having standard uniforms, each rollergirl is apparently responsible for her own costume, so they are all over the map in look although they each use their team colors. This lets you see at a glance who each one is, which added to fun for us. "That Killa Magilla really goes like a bat" one of us might say. Or, for example "12 Gauge really cleared through that pack". And we actually did say things like that.

All that said, there were still a few things in the show that could use a little work. There were a few rough edges in the flow of the evening. Although the Dirty Polli's had a pretty finished shtick, the Sockeye Sally's need a little more pizzaz. The League needs a venue with more and better seating. However, this is their first season and only their second show ever. If the attendance continues on like it did last night, they should be able to do something about the venue next season. As for the other stuff, I believe it will come in time. For a new organization, they have done an impressive job, and they put on a hell of a show. Their next bout is February 28, and I plan to be ready to rumble! How about you?

Rollerderby - it's the All-American Sport!

Weathercoaster!

...and it's cold again. However, now we're back to the much more reasonable "right around freezing" range. Here in Anchorage we are hovering around 32 F, sometimes a little higher, which is not good for driving as mentioned in earlier posts. So how is crazy weather balancing out? On the negative side, all the FREEZE installations as well as the ice sculptures of earlier post fame are all gone. On the positive side, last week's balmy 40s felt like a little vacation - like getting to go somewhere sunny for a little while. Also on this front, we went to Michael's (craft store, for those of you playing along at home) and the whole front of the store was filled with silk flowers. It felt like spring.
Now, I know it isn't. And it won't be for a good couple of months, but it was pretty anyway. Now I'm ready to get back to winter. There are lots of fun things coming up - Fur Rondy, which is a sort of winter festival and marks the start of the Iditarod, is at the end of February. We are meaning to get to one or two of the other sled-dog races, which I will be posting about here, and a bunch of other treat. So that's something to look forward to!

Weathergirl Aboveground Update

Well, the weather continues to be weirdly warm. Right now it is 47 F, which is 34 degrees warmer than Allentown Pa, and only 8 degrees cooler than Florida, where members of my family (who enjoy taunting me about the weather) live. They can still taunt me about how there are no Rita's Ice Cream stands up here, however. :)
Anyway, this has caused vehicular havoc. The side roads are mainly ice with water running over them. Tragically, the FREEZE art in the park melted before I could go look at it again. However, I think I will get another crack at it next year - it was generally well received. I still don't know about the ice heads on poles, though.

We're Havin' a Heat Wave

A tropical heatwave!
And just like that - it's toasty warm! I believe the freezing air that spent a couple of weeks with us so recently is visiting the lower 48. So now, ironically, Pennsylvania is colder than it is here in Anchorage! Yesterday we were all saying how after the cold "snap", 15 degrees felt so nice and warm. Then this morning, it was above freezing! Weird for this time of year, and actually a hazard. See, up to this morning, everything was frozen down good and solid, and everything was sanded and gravelled so it wasn't too slick to drive or walk. However, when you have a layer of water on top of the ice... Well, the schools were closed and the police were asking people to stay at home and avoid non-essential travel.
Now, everything shuts down in PA pretty much every time it might snow, but I don't believe that has happened here yet. Anyway, if the schools closed every time it snowed, the kids wouldn't get any book-larnin' at all. So people just kind of deal with everything. Oh, when it gets supercold people may cut short out some of their outside activities, but by and large people just go about their business.
The next climactic excitement on the schedule is high (like 100 miles and hour high) winds in parts of the area tonight. If anything dramatic happens, I'll let you know!

FREEZE!

And we did.

Despite the cold, we went downtown yesterday to experience the art project that is FREEZE. Not much was finished. The installations were supposed to be opened to the public - which I foolishly took to mean they would be done and ready to go. And indeed some of them were.

This installation, for example, was finished, and served the purpose of making you feel coldness and winter. As we walked down the crevasse between the walls of snow, we joked that the they should have put lines marking out "January" "February" and things like "Is it ever going to be warm?" on the walls. It really did recreate the feeling of trudging through a long, cold winter.

Other installations were done, but incomprehensible. The snowball thing, for example. What snowballs are traditionally good for, of course, is throwing at people or things. Is that what we were supposed to do with these snowballs? If so, I bet the ones with the LEDs in them would really hurt. So probably not. Although a lot of people were talking about throwing them, no one did while I was there. Also, this installation. Those are ice in the form of human heads. On poles. One tries to sense the artists' intent. Winter is a cruel despot? Secretly a test to see if you are a sociopath? I understand they also light up at night, which must be quite an eerie thing to see.

I apologize in advance to the angry art fans (Hi dance belt guy!) - I am making light of what was surely a big undertaking. Visit the page here http://freezeproject.org/alaska/installations/ to see the plans and what they were really thinking.

Then there were other installations that were just not finished, like the catapult, which was a shame. Who doesn't like catapults? Also, the big block of ice with the cars in it, which appeared to be mostly finished but experiencing technical difficulties. The kids sure loved it though. For some reason, the ice was covered with little kids trying to see through to the cars.

The first thing we saw upon entering the exhibit area was the long ice table thing lined up toward where the sun was shining when Alaska became a state, or something like that. It was this installation that needed the 99 people with candles (of earlier post fame). As it turned out, I didn't need to sign up. I was shanghai'd into performance art! Well, maybe that is a strong term. We were walking by, and a sort of bossy lady held out a candle to me, and said "We need a few more people to be part of this. Here." Damn my automatic eye-contact! I said "Sure" and took the candle, then stood there. Pretty much everyone else clustered around the art was as confused as I was, except for one drunk or rowdy lady who kept yelling "Come On! " It's possible she was part of the artistic experience. In my own private world, I am pretending that she was. I think she symbolized Alaska's desire to be part of the US. Drunk and/or rowdy, yes, but generally positive and "in the moment". Anyway, at some point the crowd found out that the dark stuff in the middle of the table had ethanol in it, and we were warned not to get the candles near it when we lit them. As soon as we were told that, everyone immediately wanted to throw lit matches on the table. I am still astounded that no one did. I am sure in the planning stages this whole thing was organized and the candles got lit in a picturesque way. What actually happened was that were all extremely cold, and getting dangerously bored, so everyone started just lighting their candles. Why? Because when the candles got lit, then we could leave. Then we all looked around and tried to find someone to tell us what to do with the things. There did not appear to be anyone in charge, so we had no idea. Some people stuck their candles in nearby snow piles. Some people walked away with them. I put mine out and tried to find the artist to give it back, kind of like you find your host and thank them before leaving a party. Could not find anyone, but there was a pile of candles near the far end, so I chucked mine on the pile and went my way.

Our big complaint was that there was no place to warm up. We would have stayed longer, but it was FREEZing out, and I could no longer feel my toes in spite of vigorous layering. All in all though, a good time was had by us, and we plan to go back later and see if some of the kinks are shaken out a bit. Once again, say FREEZE!

Moose sightings!

We've seen quite a few more moose lately, possibly because the cold has really set in, possibly just because of luck. Last night on our way home there were two walking down the street, but we could not stop for pictures because there was a bit of traffic. "Damn the luck!" we said.

However, when Art dropped me off this morning, two moose were just sort of hanging out in front of my workplace...

The snow isn't that deep, they are laying down! (Although this photo would be great to use to fool kids of the future - "Oh the snow got so deep in the winter of '09 that it was up to the moose's bellies! They couldn't even walk, just sort of swim along! And we had to walk uphill to work - both ways!" They wouldn't believe it, though. ) They kind of hung out there for a few hours, and everyone kept going to the windows to look at them. They are great big animals, and pretty peaceable seeming. We would be standing there looking, and they would just kind of turn their heads every once in a while to check out what was going on, and look at us for awhile, then turn back around. Finally, they got enough of the attention, stood up, stretched and wandered off. On their way out, though, they posed picturesquely under the company logo sign hanging on the side of our building! They stayed long enough that several of the braver souls ran out there and got some pictures Yes, we are a real Alaskan outfit - moose go out of their way to provide us with promo pics!

Meanwhile, on the other side of midtown, when Art got to work, there was one hanging out across the street from his work. He took a picture from a window.

He is a little harder to make out, but he's just in from of the tree. Apparently he had some kind of ninja-moose stealth skills or possibly a Romulan cloaking device, as several of Art's coworkers walked right past the thing - within two feet in one case - and never even noticed it. Ghost moose - there may be one right in the room with you!

Or Maybe Not

OK, so the 50th anniversary of statehood. We didn't go. Why? It was -15 F which is very, very cold. And we're lazy. Going by the pictures in the paper, it was pretty nice, but way too cold. According to the weather people, the cold snap we're in right now is among the top 5 for length and coldness in Anchorage. Of course, people from the Interior - where it gets much, much colder - are laughing at us and thinking we're sissies. I guess it's all realtive.
In other coldness news, we aren't the only ones who stayed inside. The US Cross Country Championship is being held here in Anchorage, and they even stayed inside on Saturday and Sunday! When it's too cold for skiers, it's too cold. Apparently the rule say they don't race if it's under 4F or -4F (I forget which, but we didn't see either of those temperatures here all weekend). Also, when I got to work, everyone there had skipped out on everything this weekend too. So I don't have a thrilling firework story to tell you. But, now you know - sometimes it isn't that much tougher in Alaska.

What do we have to be proud of?

Right now, Alaska is kicking off celebrations for two things - we're old and we're cold. (Say it loud and say it proud!)

Allow me to explain.

I. We're Old.

Alaska is in the process of turning 50 - as a state. Obviously, it has been an inhabited area for quite a bit longer, and has existed as a physical and geological entity for even longer . However, 50 years ago today (January 3), it finally and officially became a state. The celebration started before I moved here this past summer, and will probably continue on for quite a bit longer than that. Becoming a state was apparently a lengthy and emotion-fraught ordeal as near as I can tell, so long time residents are pretty excited about it. Except, of course, for the ones who want to secede. The territory had tried for some time to become a state, only to have their application denied several times. Eventually though, it worked out. Congress voted yes in the summer of 1958, and Ike signed the bill into law on 1/3/59. As you can probably tell from the above, I have read many, many articles on the subject in the past few months, but at least I know what all the fuss is about. Although it's interesting to note that if Alaska was a person, he or she wouldn't be eligible for a senior citizen discount. Still though, it's a round number, so let the bells ring out!

The big hootenanny starts tomorrow. Apparently an Alaska stamp is being released tomorrow, then someone is going to light a bonfire, then there's going to be all kinds of carrying on downtown and elsewhere, and then more fireworks. This town loves to have explosions in their town square. I look forward to next month's Valentines Day fireworks :) Of course, this is one of the many things I love about Alaska! Right now we are planning on going to the fireworks tomorrow, but cold may forestall us.

II. We're Cold

The Freeze Arts festival (of earlier post fame) is seriously getting underway about now. Over the next week, teams of artists will be creating "installations" in a park, which will be unveiled to the public next weekend. I plan on going and dragging Art. The organization putting on Freeze was advertising for volunteers to do various things, including "99 people to hold candles as part of an exhibit" that sounded semi-entertaining until I thought about it for more than a minute, then it sounded less so. I will support this art by going to look at it, and trying not to make too much fun. If possible.

How cold is it?

Cold enough that moisture just floating around in the air freezes fast to everything - like trees. Anyway, with any luck at all, there's more ice sculptures and fireworks in my immediate future, and therefor in yours too, gentle reader!

Happy 2009

Happy healthy New Year to everyone!

We had a pretty quiet New Year's Eve. Originally we had planned to go downtown for Anchorage's celebration (theme - Fire and Ice), but it was -15 F, so we decided not to go. I was kind of bummed out, but it was way too cold. At work yesterday a lot of my co-workers were talking about their plans, and a lot of us had planned to go downtown, but everyone agreed it was not going to be fun. I had brought it up, kind of hoping they would have advice on keeping warm, and they did. "Stay home" was basically their advice. Judging from the pictures in the paper today, most people took that advice.
The reason this kind of bummed me out was that I was really looking forward to fireworks. We had them on the 4th of July, but they were kind of lame. It doesn't really get dark at that time of year, so they were kind of lackluster. Up here, winter is the time for good fireworks. And I LOVE fireworks. Love them to pieces, so I was really looking forward to some decorative explosives. However, not willing to lose extremeties for them. Oh well. Maybe there will be some at Fur Rondy!