Art and Jane Move to Alaska

Well at least THAT'S over with

2009-05-20T21:30:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-13T21:38:00.000-07:00

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

What goes around comes around

2009-05-06T20:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-01T20:34:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-29T23:17:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-22T19:42:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-04-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-06T22:37:00.001-07:00

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

2009-04-02T20:40:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-27T19:25:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-24T18:56:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-19T22:08:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

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

Iditarod End!

2009-03-19T21:58:00.001-07:00

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

2009-03-12T17:19:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-09T18:14:00.000-07:00

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

2009-03-09T18:09:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-07T22:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-03-07T12:47:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-03-06T10:36:00.000-08:00

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

2009-03-05T21:32:00.001-08:00

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

2009-03-04T18:31:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-03-03T16:10:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-26T20:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-20T17:55:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-18T21:17:00.000-08:00

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!!!!!!!

2009-02-15T15:35:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-02-13T20:31:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-02-10T21:07:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-02-03T20:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-28T23:08:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-25T21:07:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

...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

2009-01-17T10:46:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-14T20:52:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-11T14:59:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-06T22:25:00.001-08:00

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

2009-01-05T20:15:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-01-02T19:31:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-01T21:30:00.001-08:00

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!

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

2008-12-28T17:19:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-25T17:49:00.001-08:00

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

Art festivals + Coldness = Good times!

2008-12-23T20:09:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-18T19:41:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-17T21:28:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T19:36:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-12-08T22:10:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-30T20:55:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-30T19:32:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-30T18:59:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-11-26T21:13:00.000-08:00

Our best wishes to everyone for a Happy Thanksgiving!

Card Games

2008-11-23T15:18:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-20T22:41:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-19T20:56:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-15T17:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-12T20:12:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-07T22:34:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-02T17:06:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-10-29T21:20:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-25T22:22:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-22T20:40:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-20T18:45:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-08T21:47:00.000-07:00

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

Gearing up

2008-10-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-08T21:05:00.000-07:00

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

2008-10-05T19:18:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-10-03T18:15:00.001-07:00

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

2008-09-29T19:56:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-09-23T18:17:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-20T19:10:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-19T19:14:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-16T20:52:00.001-07:00

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!

2008-09-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-03T21:35:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-03T21:32:00.001-07:00

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

2008-08-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

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!

As promised, art

2008-08-25T22:19:00.000-07:00

Shorter, cooler days

2008-08-25T22:07:00.000-07:00

Not much doing with us. The Alaska State Fair is going on right now and we intended to go, but the weekend got a little hectic, so we wound up doing mostly house stuff, which is OK too. We will make it to the Fair next weekend, barring the unforseen. The main news is that we are moving more into fall - the days are shorter by a LOT. After getting used to the light nights, it is interesting how much normal evening times make use subconsciously hunker down for winter. Although it is only the end of August, we find ourselves saying things like "Make sure you have plenty to read" and "Make sure you are stocked up on hobby supplies" and "What kind of light bulbs keep you from going crazy and killing yourself? Let's make sure we have some of those!" Also, it is cooling down noticably. Although it was cool anyway, compared to most spots in the lower 48, the temperature is lower than it was over the "height" of summer.
I associate cool weather with fall, which is my favorite season. Saturday morning we went out early to do our grocery shopping and it was nippy enough that I needed a light jacket. It was so cool that I found myself thinking that I better start keeping an eye out (but not literally!) for those Halloween recipe and idea booklets that come out every fall. Then I reminded myself that it was still August. The funniest thing is that there was one out! So I guess the Taste of Home people like to jump the Halloween gun too...

New in the News!

2008-08-21T22:50:00.000-07:00

We have a new game we play every morning. It's call "Guess the Headline" and it goes like this: before turning on the computer, we guess which of the following three headlines will be the lead on www.adn.com (The Anchorage Daily News).

1. Wildlife atrocity! (Bear attacks person, moose attacks person, wolf attacks person, animal control officers kill one of the above.)
2. Person catches big fish!
3. Alaska politician involved in scandal! (Palin in trouble, Stevens in trouble, someone else in trouble).

Because it's always one of those three. If you chose 1 or 3, you can get bonus points by picking the correct option within the category.
We are considering adding a bonus round by guessing which of the following is still a major, but not leading story:

a) Something to do with oil
b) Something to do with mining
c) Something to do with a 5K run or bike race.
It's fun! Try it for a week and you'll see!
But I kid Anchorage - it's nice to live in a place where a person catching a big fish has a reasonable chance of being the main headline, at least until Stevens gets hit with a fresh indictment.

More excitement than was strictly necessary

2008-08-16T19:40:00.000-07:00

Saturday contained an adventure that kind of got out of hand - but more about that later.

Our adventure started with a drive to Seward to go to the Sea Life Center, which was pretty good. It is a smallish aquarium, as these things go, but it does its job very well. They focus on the sea life of the Bering Sea and the Kenai peninsula - salmon and harbor seals and so on. It was pretty interesting, and had a lot of good informative displays - a series of aquariums showing what plants and animals were living at the various depths of the sea and that sort of thing. The stars of the show are what are sometimes referred to as the charismatic megafauna - the sea lions and harbor seals - and the seabirds, such as puffins. One of the main missions of the center is rescue and rehabilitation, so there is something of a rotating cast on hand. When we were there, one sea lion and one harbor seal inhabited each of the big indoor/outdoor tanks within the facility itself. There were quite a few harbor seals outdoors in hospital tanks, and you could watch these swimming around as well, but not as closely as the indoor ones. If you are in Seward, or anywhere near it, definitely include the Sea Life center in your plans!

On our way home, we stopped at Exit Glacier. Here is where things got interesting. Art had heard from people at work that you could walk up to this glacier and touch it, but that we would have to cross a few streams. It's a little cold, they said, but no big deal. So we set out to see the glacier. I should explain that I had my purse with me, which I realized later was pretty stupid, but I never trust to leave it in the car. Anyway, it was a beautiful sunny day, and the walk was pretty nice. It ranged between nice smooth trails to steeper climbs up steep, jagged slopes. We kept trying to get to the Toe of the Glacier, which is where you can touch it. At the Edge of the Glacier point, you can look at it, but there is a heavily posted rope fence, a ranger, and a ravine between you and the glacier, so there is no getting into contact at that point. So, back to the paths leading to the Toe of the Glacier. At every point, we were confronted with some pretty deep, swiftly moving, COLD streams between us and the point we were going for. Then a couple came back across the water and rocks. They were wet about halfway up their legs, but pretty psyched about making it to the glacier and back. That decided it - we set off. The first step in the water was pretty cold, but you get numb really fast. We made it across 3 streams OK, we were wet about halfway up our legs and with the cold wind coming off the glacier it was pretty chilly but bearable. Then we got to the last stream. It was deeper and faster than the others, but we couldn't see any other way that was obviously any better. Art crossed first and got wet up to his waist, then slipped and got about half his torso wet before he got to the other side. He told me to wait while he went to see if there were any other streams to cross, and also if this was going to be worth it. He disappeared around an outcropping of rock, and I walked back and forth on my side of the stream, trying to see if any point was clearly safer than any other. It all looked about the same, so I decided to go ahead and set off. I made it about 3/4 of the way across, and then I went down. The current pulled me down and under and rolled me few yards down the stream, bouncing me off a few rocks on the way. I managed to surface and pull my way onto shore. Now I was extremely cold, totally soaked, hurt, and felt stupid besides - which I assuredly was. I was gasping for breath as I tried to wring water out of my jacket and tip the gallon or so of water out of my purse. The purse my cell phone and mp3 player were in. (I know! But it was supposed to be an easy walk over some streams! No big deal!) I checked for injuries - a bunch of places hurt, but there was no obvious blood and I hadn't hit my head and all my limbs and fingers and toes worked, so I decided to go on to the damn glacier. Art met me about halfway and immediately began expressing sympathy, probably because I was still gasping and was dripping and shivering. Did I mention glacier water is cold? Because it is. But anyway, we got to the glacier, and it was pretty cool. Literally and figuratively. Basically, the first impression is - dirty ice. Which it is, but it's important to remember it's primordial dirty ice. That dirt was frozen in that ice in the time of the dinosaurs! Or something like that. [Art's Commentary; on closer inspection of the glacial ice, I would describe it as fist-sized ice cubes packed together by the millions. They were so closely compacted that some had shattered like glass. I thought; "if they would hose this thing off and clean it up, it would be spectacular"]

So anyway, we went and touched the glacier - quite a bit actually, because I really needed to get full value out of this little adventure. Just when we were realizing it was about time to go, and that we were going to have to go through all of that again, which I was not looking forward to, a guy hove into view between two boulders. He was dry! He had found a path between two ravines, he said, and would be glad to guide us out. He even took our picture by the glacier, and I am sorry I did not have the presence of mind to ask if he would like us to take his. However, he had already been looking around, he said, and was ready to lead us out. He guided us out a path we never would have found, which we were probably not supposed to be on in the first place, but we did not care at that point, as it saved us from going through the water again. If ever I have received help directly and personally from God, it was that guy. He got us back onto a path and then took off. We needed to stop for a bit, because we were learning something else about glacier melt. It has lots of silt and little rocks in it, and where the water goes, those particles go. I had little rocks in my shoes, in my hair, in my bra, in my pants pockets... Just then I had a bunch in my shoes that need to be shaken out, so I stopped and did that. I shook out a bunch more from everywhere else when we got home, and am saving them in my scrapbook. :) We sogged out to our car, turned the heater on full blast, and shivered our way home. Only an hour or so later, I was able to laugh about it - if somewhat feebly and through chattering teeth. On the plus side, we got to touch the glacier! Last night, as I catalogued my extensive new collection of big purple bruises and wondered if our cell phones and my mp3 player were dead, I wasn't sure the benefit outweighed the costs. However, this morning, as our electronics were only a little worse for wear, and I am not nearly as banged up or dead as I could have been, it all seems to balance out. (Hint - for those of you goofy enough to do something like this - don't. If you do though, dry out your devices thoroughly before turning them back on. I don't guarantee it will work, but you have a better shot.) Now, let me stop and assure you, gentle reader, that I am fully aware of how wrong all of this could have gone, and how dumb we were to have gone into this so very unprepared.

So what have I learned? Several things. First, the Sea Life center is a good cause and a good time all rolled in to one, and deserves all the support it can muster. Second, glaciers are very dirty, so you should think about that before purchasing bottled water advertising its "glacial purity". Third, when people 15-20 years younger than you and in much, much better shape, who moreover are properly equipped for the adventure at hand say something is "a little tough, but definitely doable" you should understand that that means for them. That means, come back next season after you have worked out a little and obtained proper equipment. Or maybe just watch a show about it on the Discovery channel. Message received, lesson learned. On the plus side, though, we got to touch the glacier!

Opa!

2008-08-15T22:40:00.000-07:00

Friday evening, we stopped by Anchorage's Greek -yes, Greek - Festival! It is a fundraiser for Anchorage's Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church, and it is quite the hootenanny. We went for the food, and stayed for the dancing.

Dinner
There was a wide variety of really, really good Greek/Mediterranean food, as you might expect. There were gyros, souvlaki, and a bunch of different dinner options like moussaka and spanakopita. The best though, was the dessert tent. If you like Greek pastry - and we do - this was nirvana. Only relatively high prices kept us from getting one of everything. We had the best baklava we have every had, and some really good Greek coffee.

Dancing
Two groups of church youth - the little ones are the Stars of the North and the older ones are the Northern Lights - did a variety of Greek dances, and there was traditional Greek music as well. The little ones were absolutely adorable, and seemed to having more fun with it than kids normally do with this sort of thing. The older kids were pretty good, with some absolutely outstanding dancers. The boys got the majority of the glory and got to do all the best moves. This may well explain the fact that this is the only folk dancing program I've seen where the boys wildly outnumber the girls. All the girls get to do is dress up in about 15 layers of clothing and do a little bit of back and forth foot work. They are like the backup singers of Greek folk dancing, so I can see why they wouldn't be too motivated to participate. Of all the older kid dancers, you could tell about 1/3 of them were really, really into this stuff, and the other 2/3 were there because their parents made them do it. But it had tremendous entertainment value, nevertheless. Also, live folk music was perpetrated against the crowd.

Other available activities included a tour of the church, and shopping. A guided tour was available at certain times, but we were not there at one of those times, so we just poked around some. It is a beautiful church with a lot of ornate art. There is a Christian bookstore with lots of books and gift shopping options. You can also shop in the Agora, which featured stuff imported from Greece, souvenir t-shirts, and assorted other Greek stuff. Most prominently for sale is their church cookbook, an impressive bunch of recipes. According to their program, this is the 15th annual festival, and I hope they have many more!

Dad is home!

2008-08-11T21:41:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Dad is well enough that Mom could take him home! He is not completely OK yet, but feeling much much better and happy to be home. So keep him in your prayers still, and thanks for all the positive thoughts!

Parking and Driving

2008-08-11T16:49:00.001-07:00

Sunday we explored a few of Anchorage's many, many parks. First up was Earthquake park, which features a nice walk and an overgrown view of places that were severly disrupted by the big 1964 earthquake, as well as a somewhat overgrown outlook over Cook Inlet and toward Anchorage's downtown and midtown. The park is situated near the Airport, so it is around the inlet's curve from the main body of the city, while still being in Anchorage. The location also makes it ideal for plane watching, as both large passenger and cargo jets as well as small planes line up for landing over this area. The area is very wooded and intersects with the Tony Knowles Coastal trail. In the current climate of roughly one bear attack per day, it also kind of creeped us out. However, there was a lot of activity on the trail, so we put the odds at a reasonable level that we probably wouldn't see any bears.

The second park we went to is just a bit up the road, and I'm actually not sure it really is a park. It is more of a scenic overlook on the edge of a seriously decaying cliff. The warning signs are not kidding...it looks like the bluff is falling away at a pretty steady pace. We stayed well back, but the view of the inlet was incredible. There was a parking lot, a "You are here" type sign, and a small sign that said "Airport Park", but for some reason it didn't look much like a park. More like an official scenic outlook. But that is fine, as the outlook was indeed scenic, and it was a very clear day.

The third park we visited was the Arnold L. Muldoon park, which was basically a path through the woods. It was much quieter than the other two parks we visited, making the woods even creepier, though there is much less underbrush in this forest, making for better visibility. If you like quiet walks in wooded area, this would be the one to go for of the three we visited on this outing. Although this is not an official feature of the park, our walk was enhanced by a series of things some person or persons had thrown away along the trail. Most mysterious of all were pages from a book which I believe was called The Honeymoon. It looked very much like someone had ripped out all the pages and then strewn them in big wads along the path. So we occupied ourselves making up stories about what had led to this literary eviceration.

Anchorage has, as I previously mentioned, many many parks strewn liberally throughout the city. One I lobbied hard to visit is Russian Jack park, but we did not get there on this outing. Next time! I am mainly curious who Russian Jack was (if he is a specific person) or if this is a name that all Russians in the area were called for some reason, or what. Also, why is the park named that. I count on finding an informative plaque at the park to solve this mystery for me!

Salmon Adventure II and Miscellaneous Stuff

2008-08-10T22:32:00.001-07:00

Saturday we spent the afternoon wandering around downtown again, and saw the rest of the Salmon on Parade. We had about 13 more to see, and time was running out! It was a cold, rainy day, but that wasn't so bad as it thinned out the crowds pretty well. We did get to see all of the salmon except 1. Doh! We actually went to the place where it was supposed to be (according to the map) and it wasn't there...so we're counting it as a win. We were there, it wasn't. Still, we got to see a lot of the city, which I'm sure was part of the organizers' point in posting the pieces all over downtown. So we spent some time exploring and saw a lot of Anchorage on the way.

While on our urban adventures, we started noticing more and more art around the city. Some of it is good, some of it is bad, some of it is quite comical. Now, I'm aware that our opinions on art are just that - opinions. And any city that takes the bold step of sponsoring public art is taking a big risk. There will be mockery, no matter what is out there. One man's laughable mess is another man's bold statement on humanity and consumption. Or something. But anyway, the point of all this is, we have another quest. Occasionally, I will post pictures of Anchorage's art, without comment, and you can see for yourself what you think. So there's something to look forward to!

Also, Anchorage has a Planet Walk! Yeah! So we will do that one day when we are bored. But with the stuff we have to do here in our new home state, that will probably be sometime next year.

So Far Away

2008-08-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

My Dad has been having a medical problem - a pretty serious one, so keep him in your prayers! We think he's out of the woods, but not enough so he can go home yet. He is well enough to argue, though, so he's definitely on the mend!

I know, intellectually, that we are far away from the lower 48, and particularly from Florida, where the rest of my family lives now. However, cell phones and skype mostly erase the distance - the only constant reminder is the 4 hour time difference. Something like this, though, is a reminder of how far away we are.

Real life sets in

2008-08-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

Jane here. (Actually, it is usually me writing, so assume it's always Jane unless Art specifically says it's him.)
Well, after a few months of being here a week at a time while I finished out my obligations at my now-previous employer, I am now here in Anchorage full time. I am also unemployed. So my job hunt begins. I have been looking for about a week now and have a few leads, but no offers. However, I took a day out last week to wander around midtown, which gave me a chance to meet Art for lunch and look around the stores and so on, which was pretty useful. I am also getting the chance to clean the apartment really well, which I plan to do any day now. Right now I'm...um...sending out resumes. But mainly what I'm doing is sending out resumes.

What's with these career sites on company webpages that have you first upload your resume, and then enter in all the same information field by extremely tedious field? Why can't they just read the darn resume you just sent in. I do dearly love the CareerBuilder quick apply feature - just click in the check boxes and apply to a bunch of jobs with one fell swoop! I also enjoy emailing my resume. I know I'll have to fill out the applications eventually if I get called for an interview, but to fill it out once online and then again in person is just insult to injury.

By and large, the jobs are just like jobs anywhere - or at least like they were in Pa. No dogsledding or whale-blubber processing jobs. At least not that I've seen in the paper!

Northern Adventure!

2008-08-03T20:07:00.000-07:00

Well, today we finally broke free from Anchorage's gravitational pull. Not that there's anything wrong with Anchorage! We really love our new city, and there's lots to see and do still. But if we want to see anything elsewhere, we need to do it soon or wait until spring. You can travel during winter, but its sketchy, and we don't want to make the newby mistake of underestimating the hazards of the weather.

Anyway, our initial plan was to head north to the Independence Mine, which is an old gold mine that is now a state park. We were hoping to make it in time for the geology tour and the regular tour if at all possible. There were some other attractions up that way that we might see if there was time, but the mine was the big thing. Well, we drove north, enjoying the scenery and the comical signs along the way. Then things started to look weird. We were following Mapquests directions to get to the park, but we weren't seeing any signs for the mine. We make the final turn and ... nothing. No mine. A few houses and a road that just ends.

OK, well we passed the Iditerod Headquarters a little way back. That was one of the other things we wanted to see, and also maybe they would know how we could get to the mine. I can wholeheartedly recommend the Iditerod Headquarters if you are interesting in dogsled racing. The Reddingtons (son and grandsons of the famous Joe Reddington) are the mushers who take care of the dogs and run the rides for people. For $10 you can ride in a wheeled cart pulled by a dog team. You can also pet the dogs and interact with them - they are very good with people and very well-trained. In addition to the dogs themselves, there is also a "museum" with memorabilia and a movie about the Iditerod. Also, as you might expect, there is a well-stocked gift shop with Iditerod, sled dog, and Alaska memorabilia. They were also able to direct us to the Independence mine.

We started driving. We had already missed the geology tour, which was a severe blow. But there was a slim chance we might make the last guided tour. We drove. And drove. And drove. We decided to just skip it for today, thinking that without a guide, it wasn't going to be as good. Also, we are only about an hour away from our house here, so we will go back another time. We turned around, and decided to stop at the Eklutna village.

This is only a little way north of Anchorage, and bills itself as the oldest continously inhabited native village. There was no one around, and a sign urged us to drop $5 each in an offering box, which we did. The Russian Orthodox church and the gift shack were locked up, and a few minutes of wandering around did not raise any personnel. Basically, it is a native graveyard. The main interest of it is the spirit houses above the graves. Also, interestingly, there are a few modern adaptations such as a spirit house that looks like a doll's house, and also a mix of Russian Orthodox crosses and Russian language markers. If you are interested in cemetaries and interestingly different graveyards, this is definitely a good place to visit!

AK DMV II This time it's tiresome!

2008-08-02T21:06:00.000-07:00

Yes, so my little chess game with the Alaska DMV continued this week. After getting a copy of my state-issued birth certificate (as opposed to the hospital issued one that has done for everybody else in the country), I went back yesterday to take my test. This time I had every damn document I could find, including grade school report cards, pictures of our apartment...everything. So the lady barely glances at the documents and directs me to a computer to take my test. And I fail. I could scarcely believe the questions I was getting. How many consecutive hours in jail must first time DUI violators serve? How many molecules are in a square foot of asphalt? (Ok, that last one is an exaggeration.) She tells me I can come back the next day and I leave. As I walk across the parking lot, I think to myself "Cry or get mad?" And just like that, I am suffused with rage. So I rampaged around midtown Anchorage for the next hour or two, waiting to meet Art for lunch. It's things like this that make me vote libertarian. I totally support anarchy if it means I never have to spend another minute in line at a DMV again.

I spent the rest of the day alternating between rage and self-pity, and then finally took the practical step of studying the manual again. When I read through before, I kind of ignored things like "Consequences of DUI" and so forth. I don't drink and drive because I can't even stand to think about the possibility of hurting someone else. Also, I don't want to be dead or hurt myself. Therefore, drinking - even one! - and then driving, is not something I even consider. It's not that I don't drink - it's just I either do it at home or rely on Art, who is not much of a drinker, to drive me home. So I basically figured, what the hell do I care how much time idiots spend in jail? Well, the DMV doesn't see it that way. So this time, I gritted my teeth and learned how many consecutive hours first time DMV violators must spend in jail and all the other detail stuff I had kind of skipped over when I went through the first time.

So we got up early (well, 8) this morning and went back in so I could try it again. The whole way in I was thinking about what I would do if I couldn't get a license. We are right on 3 different bus routes. Maybe I can get a job on a bus route. Maybe I can get a job in Art's building. We only have one car anyway. Maybe I can just be a recluse. I would save a lot of money in office clothes... But I go in anyway. And of course there's a hassle. Today's hangup is the paperwork. Our marriage license says "license" and not certificate, and therefore is not proof that we actually got married. Although it is. It was filed with the state and everything. Look! There's a seal! So I offer mild protest to desk lady, who is quickly becoming the bane of my existence. I point out that the desk lady was fine with it yesterday. She disappears into the back to check with a supervisor. I am about to go postal when she comes back and announces I am allowed to proceed. I go to the computer and...I ace it! 16 right, none wrong. Guess that book learnin' is good for something anyway! After that there is the relatively painless process of answering a bunch of questions, taking the eye test, and hanging around while another desk lady creates my record and fills us in on where the good Mexican restaurants are in the area. After a quick half hour of that, there's just the horrible picture and we're gone, off to continue our day. And just like that, I am a validated contributing member of society again.

Hard to port

2008-07-28T13:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon we went on a tour of the Port of Anchorage, which was a good deal more interesting than it probably sounds. Until sometime in August, the port is giving bus tours of its facility and the expansion it is currently undertaking. The tours are available on Sundays from 11:00 am - 3:00 pm. with a bus leaving the departure point every 30 minutes. Our group was a mix of locals and tourists, and it was surprisingly popular, considering what it is. You get on the bus with a guide who works for the harbor and who tells you what you are driving past. I won't give anything away, so as not to spoil the ending. :) However, a surprising lot of stuff flows through this port, and the statistics will give you some things to think about. If you are inclined to think about that sort of thing...

The highlight of the tour is a stop at the operations (I think) building, where you will be offered a hot dog cooked by the director of the port, a nifty little presentation, and a view of port operations. We stood on the building roof, watching a crane operator lifting shipping containers off a barge and loading them onto trucks with breathtaking precision. It was, no kidding, really fascinating. Also, the drivers that drive the containers away have personalized their vehicles with flags - some have pirate flags, one had a diver's flag - that sort of thing. So we had fun tracking which drivers were coming and going. They were also giving awaycoloring books concerning the harbor, which we looked at for our godson, who was born in Alaska. They were lame, though. But hey, they're free! We didn't take one anyway. After enjoying the splendor of the loading/unloading operation, you get back on the bus and go back to the starting point. All in all, it is maybe 1/2 hour to an hour tour.

A few words of advice - it is a closed and secured port. This means, among other things, that they will check your photo ID - we saw people getting turned away who did not have any. You will not be allowed to take photographs. You will not be wandering around unsupervised. That said, if you have any interest in this sort of thing, it is well worth the time.

Air Travel - getting there is NOT half the fun.

2008-07-26T14:16:00.000-07:00

Jane here.

Well, I'm finally home again from my last work trip. I was finishing out a job for my soon-to-be previous employer which I have done. Thank God! Air travel, which used to range from fun to only mildly trying, has gotten absolutley hideous. Now in addition to the security measures (which I understand the purpose of but which are dreary and time-consuming and kind of humiliating for everyone involved) and the inevitable delays and cancellations, you can count on your flight being jammed to the rafters. In order to make each flight pay, the airlines have to fill every damn seat. This leads to the overselling of each flight, which the agents won't tell you that you're a standby, so that you have that excitement to look forward to on top of everything else. Also, since their extremely wise move of charging for each bag, every passenger seems to be trying to drag their every possession onto the plane with them, starting storage space wars that have to be seen to be believed. Now, I understand that airlines are businesses, and I understand that between fuel prices and the regulatory environment, they are hard pressed. But holy cats! There has to be some better way to handle all this stuff.
Part of the blame has to be put on the passengers - to all of you who will be getting on a plane at any point ever, I say this..."Be part of the solution and NOT part of the problem." Since so many people who travel seem to have been raised by wolves and therefore are not acquainted with some basic manners, here are Jane's rules for getting along on a plane.

1. Just check your damn bag. Check it. It will get there. Just pay the $15. Stop trying to jam a case the size of a refrigerator under the seat. It won't fit, so just grow up and check it.
2. When the steward/ess/es tell you to get to your seat and get out of the aisle so everyone else can proceed, just do it. You, personally, are the reason we will be getting out late. Sit down and shut up.
3. When it is time to turn off electronic devices, that means you too. Everyone staring at you while you finish your stupid coversation is not thinking what a powerful, successful person you are. We are thinking what a jerk you are and how much we hate you.
4. Unless you are a six foot tall person who is actually going to sleep, do not recline the seat. Yes, of course you can, but if you choose to, it means you are a selfish jerk. Personal space on a plane is extremely limited, and you are taking a significant amount of someone else's. This rule is suspended for a redeye, where EVERYONE is basically going to recline the seat.

There are probably more rules, but this is what I have now.
But as for me, I'm through. I'm home now, and I'm staying home. Sorry for the rant/diversion - I'm just really tired, and more than a little annoyed. Next post - more about Alaska!

2008-07-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

Hi All, Art here. Long -time-no-blog. Things have been busy here since our stuff arrived from PA. There's alot of organizing, putting away and getting reaquainted. Also there is some re-evaluating going on. Some things that you haven't seen in 2-months make you wonder; why did we pay to ship THIS here?
The weather here has been cool and VERY rainy. I'm told it's unusual for summer and that the rainy season is Aug/Sept. I think at this point its been cloudy for about 2 weeks. That said, it's over 90 & humid in PA so I'm not minding the coolness. The locals, who look forward all winter to the short summer, are getting kinda bitter about it. The Joke is; "I did summer in Alaska......both days!"
So, with Jane being away, I'm spending my time indoors, setting up the apartment as best I can in my 'guy' way. Almost everything made it here and very little was damaged. A few words about our moving team:
The originator in PA, L&J Movers in Reading, were very disappointing. Their cost/weight estimate was way off which cost us hundreds of extra-$$. Then they neglected to pay the transfer company in WA, which delayed delivery.
The Transfer guys in WA, Worldpack, put a hold on our delivery which is perfectly understandable. My beef with them is that they didn't contact me to inform me that L&J hadn't payed them! When I finally called them, it was a simple matter to call L&J and demand action.
The delivery agent here in Anchorage, Alison's Relocation, was mostly OK. The delivery guys were very good. Thanks again Rob & Sam! The company though, I would describe as unresponsive. They did only one time return a phone call from me. Guys, is it so much trouble to pick up the phone?...
Anyway, we are almost all the way here. Jane is off in FL again on another 2-week work trip. Once she finds a job up here, we'll be Alaskans in toto......
I'm missing you, Jane!

DMV - hell no matter what state you are in...

2008-07-12T19:49:00.000-07:00

Jane here.
So we went to the DMV today to get our Alaska licenses. We got up at the crack of dawn - not really, about 7 a.m. - to go to the DMV. Art had been advised by his coworkers that you really need to get the DMV immediately when it opens or else you will be there all day. So off we went, aiming to be there a bit before 9. We were, but it turns out it doesn't open until 10. So we goofed around for a while, went to Barnes and Noble to book shop, etc. When we got back, the parking lot had about 5 or 6 vehicles in it, and it was about 9:45. One guy showed up in a taxi and made his way to the door, which opened the floodgates. Then everyone had to get in line. We wound up as numbers 5 and 6, which was pretty good. A shouting lady told us what to do: fill out your form, come over the the info desk and I will give you the written test, then you go to the waiting area and sit until one of the stations (work desks) calls your number. I told Art "I know why this state has so many unlicensed drivers...this is too complicated already!" As the chaos of the initial rush settled down, we filled out our forms and went with our ID documents to the lady who would give us the written tests. Then it all went to hell. Art's documents were fine, so he was allowed to proceed. I, on the other hand, had only my social security card, my driver's license from PA, my hospital-issued birth certificate and proof of address. Nothing doing - I need a state-issued birth certificate. Well, I don't have one. I will have to see what I have to do to get that now, but it's going to be fun, that much I know for sure. Anyway, Art passed the written test - he said it was hard, though we had been through the practice test online a couple of times. However, the waiting part was not as horrendous as it could have been. Because we got there early, he was able to go almost right away to the next stop, which was a lady at a station. So after a while of that, then he got his picture taken, and then waited some more for the license to print. And then we were free!

Then we had some lunch at the Moose's Tooth brew pub and pizzaria, which was excellent. After that we went to Title Wave bookstore. There are a couple of these bookstores in Anchorage, and they are excellent! The have a broad variety of books, both new and used, as well as some music (not a huge selection) and movies. Also, they have a lot of neat gift and toys - Anne Taintor stuff, Archie McPhee toys, etc. But the best part is the books - they have a lot of both fiction and non-fiction and a big section of Alaskiana. I always find something interesting there, and it's a fun store. After that, we went back to the Alaska Botanical Garden. We had been there before and really liked it. About a month had passed since we were there, and it was neat to see how much some of the plants had grown, and which flowers are in bloom now.

So anyway, I'm counting the day as a semi-success. Art got his license, and since he is working in Anchorage and I am still coming and going for my job, if one of us had to get their license ASAP it was him. At least I got some pizza and book shopping in the day, and I guess that's something!

50 years young

2008-07-10T12:07:00.001-07:00

One thing the casual observer may not know - this is the 50th anniversary of statehood for Alaska. I certainly had no idea up until a month or so ago. Last week when I came home from a business trip, I was making my way through the airport to the baggage claim with my fellow passengers, when we passed under a banner announcing some 50th anniversary celebration. A father and his young son were behind me, and the boy asked his father about the sign. The father replied “Oh, no. That must be old and it’s here as art or they forgot to take it down. Alaska’s much older than that.” They then launched into a debate about whether the sign could have meant that Alaska was the 50th state. I couldn’t help myself, and turned around to set them straight. “Oh, no.” I said, “Alaska is the 49th state, and got voted in by congress as a state in ‘59, which then got signed into law in early ‘59.” I didn’t remember exact dates, but I did at least refrain from asking the kid if he knew what the 50th state was (Hawaii, for those of you playing along at home). I am a very new Alaskan, but a proud and reasonably well-informed one.

Bears vs. Gangstas - which would win?

2008-07-09T19:22:00.000-07:00

Last week when I was out of state for work, the customer with whom I was working asked how I was doing in getting used to Alaska. We talked a bit about the climate (love it!) and the geography (varied and interesting) and so forth. One of the things I mentioned was how much nature mingles with the city. What I told her specifically was that the local paper and its website has a prominent, running feature concerning bears - where they have been seen in the city, how you should handle yourself around them, and so on.

Now, we live in Anchorage, the largest city in the state, but there are lots of wide-open spaces all over the town. Moose are often wandering around the streets near where we live. It is not unusual for Art to see some of them hanging out by the highway "Like they are waiting for a bus" as he puts it. I grew up in a very rural area outside of Allentown, PA, so wilderness is not strange to me. But this is surprising - it is much wilder than the wildest places I have been on the East Coast.

Just a few days ago, a girl participating in an all-night bike race was attacked and mauled by a bear. This is not all that unusual of an occurrance. I was telling this client about this, and she said, somewhat wistfully, "That's the kind of scary news you want to hear." I questioned her on this, and she followed up with "Around here, people get shot by gang members."

She has a point. I think I prefer the bears.