Spooky Little Swine

Looking at the national weather map, I notice it's still in the 70's around much of the nation. But we've got 20's at night and 30's, maybe 40 degrees during the day.

It's also pretty dark much of the day. We're getting 9 hours of daylight each day at this point. The sun comes up just after 9am and sets just after 6pm. We lose another hour every 10 days. Our low number of daylight hours will be 5 hours around Christmas (and the winter solstice).

In more celebratory news... Tess and I helped out at Alicia's daycare Fall Carnival yesterday. All the kids dressed up in costumes. Alicia is dressing up as Piglet this year.

They had a costume parade, played games, ate yummy cupcakes and got their faces painted. It was a fun afternoon.


Today, Tess is volunteering at the "Trick or Treat Town" event in Anchorage which is a fundraiser for the children's museum called the Imaginarium. She's joined the Key Club at school this year, and this is one of their community service activities.

Alicia and I will be going to the event as participants. We're not sure exactly what it is, but we bought tickets for $6 each. So we'll see. I imagine there'll be candy involved... so Alicia will be pleased about that!

Snow's Back!

We got our first decent snow today. The world is white, the roads are slick! I seriously need my studded tires swapped on to the van... I'm headed in to the tire shop on Monday when I have the day off. There's no hope of having them put on over the weekend. Everybody and their cousin will be lining up by 7am...

Anyway, there was a jack-knifed tractor trailer on the Glenn Highway tonight. That's the ONE road out of Anchorage to the north. So I sat in standstill traffic for 1.5 hours while 4 lanes of traffic tried to squeeze through the one open lane available.

Thankfully there was one lane open. Sometimes the whole road is blocked and there's no alternative. You just have to sit there for hours until the accident is cleared and pray you don't run out of gas and freeze to death. As it was, I was an hour late picking up Alicia from the daycare, but still arrived 30 minutes before the daycare closed... So all's well that ends well.

Did I mention that I've been ill? I'm on the mend now. I just have laryngitis and a touch of bronchitis at this point... I'm desperately trying to recover my voice as I have a semi-important presentation to make tomorrow morning.



On a parting note... What's wrong with this picture?

Port Alsworth

So I met a girl the other day from Port Alsworth. I was sitting next to her at a training session. She works for the National Parks Service. Nice girl...

Port Alsworth is on Lake Clark on the other side of the Alaska Range. There are no roads there. The only way to get there is via small plane (or LONG dogsled trip in the winter). In the winter, the population shrinks to about 100 or less. Many of the adult men work as pilots. Lake Clark is very large and makes a great water or ice airfield, depending on the time of year.

The village of Port Alsworth was mentioned in that book I read recently called "One Man's Wilderness". It was from Port Alsworth that the "one man" received supplies and mail via his pilot friend, Babe (a fella), who lived there.

Anyway, I asked the girl I met to tell me about life in Port Alsworth. I'm pretty sure she's an Alaska Native. She grew up near a lake south of Lake Clark, so is very familiar with the area and lifestyle. She graduated from a school with a total enrollment of 60 kids in grades k-12.

Many of the folks in that region live a "subsistence" lifestyle, which means they live off the land, for the most part. During the non-summer months, fresh fruits and veggies are a little more difficult to get. Many people have them flown in from Costco or some other vendor on a monthly basis. She's been a member of an organic farm co-op in Washington state which ships boxes of whatever the current harvest is to a drop point in Anchorage once a month. The boxes meant for Port Alsworth are then picked up by one of it's pilot residents and flown to the village.

They keep pretty busy during the winter months with many church activities and community gatherings. They also like to do a lot of snowmachining. However, last year it was really cold, but they didn't have a lot of snow. No snow in these areas during the winter is pretty confining as far as travel is concerned. This goes for most of Alaska off the road system. If there's no snow, you can't run your snowmachine or your dog team. Many places in Alaska are only accessible in the winter when the wet, marshy areas are frozen and can be traveled over using snowmachines or dogsleds... A lack of snow is a big problem.

Donald Turns 17

Donald turned 17 on Monday. Stephen whipped up some french toast that morning. We went out to dinner in Wasilla at the Trout House that evening and returned home for some Whopper Ice Cream Pie and presents afterwards.

On the Saturday before his birthday, Donald and some friends went "neon bowling" from 10-midnight after he got off work at Taco Bell.

Grin and Bear It

Stephen picked up our new grizzly buddy yesterday on his way home from Talkeetna. He looks really nice! We're going to keep him in the garage over the winter next to the door. He and Alicia are about the same size.

Last night was the fall Choir Concert. Both Tess and Donald are in choir this year. I think Tess is a little to the right of this photo so not visible. I'm not sure where Donald is. The kid I thought was him turned out to be someone else... They are singing Disney's Circle of Life in this photo.

Aging

Tess in 1997 and 10 years later...

My how time does fly. (sigh)

Ride

After church, we went to the Bear Tooth Pub & Theatre to watch Ratatouille and have some yummy Mexican food.

Then, Stephen and Tess took a spin down to Portage at the far end of the Turnagain Arm. Alicia May and I followed in the van. Stephen just got a new leather jacket and wanted to get at least one more good ride in before the season is over. He said the jacket made a world of difference in keeping him warm. Tess already had a leather jacket.

The scenery around the Turnagain Arm was beautiful with lots of autumn colors and snow on the mountains. The temps were in the upper 30s - lower 40s.

After the ride, we stopped at the Peanut Farm in Anchorage for dinner. It was a good day.

Taking a Licking

Alicia May assisted with the baking of brownies last night...

I had to remove her shirt so she could most effectively provide assistance without completely ruining her clothing. She's developed a habit of wiping her face on her sleeve when necessary. Makes a mom proud, I tell you.

You might also notice in this photo that she woke up that morning with her first case of pink eye... But not to worry, she's being medicated and should be good to go for her preschool on Monday. [There was a sign at her school on Friday saying pink eye had been detected so to keep an eye on your own kid's eyes...]

We are in the process of clearing out half of the garage so I can park the minivan in there once snow flies. A chance of snow showers has been in the forecast this weekend, but we've seen none of it thus far. However, the temps have dropped to freezing overnight. Daytime highs are in the 40s and 50s I'd say.

On top of that, it's getting darker. The sun doesn't come up till I should already be at work... Not helpful!

$1654.00

Every Alaskan who lived in Alaska from 1/1/06-12/31/06 and still lives here received a check for $1654.00 yesterday. It's called the Permanent Fund Dividend and is linked to the State's oil revenues.

And when I say EVERY Alaskan, I mean ALL of them. Age 1-120. We, of course, arrived in Alaska in July of '06. So we have to wait until next year's distribution... Sigh. On the plus side, we will get 5 PFD checks when we do get them. For those of you without fresh batteries in your mental calculator... that would have been $8270 this year! Double Sigh.

P. U.

Guess who got her FIRST DIPLOMA! Our little graduate... We are SO PROUD! She is now an official alumna of Potty University. :o)

Stephen has a copy of her diploma hanging by his desk at the office.

Next thing you know, she'll be getting her PhD in Finger Paints. Dr. Pookaboos. It has a nice ring to it.

Welcoming October

We had a pleasant weekend. Stephen and I (and Alicia May) did some nice yard saling on Saturday. That season is winding down. But we got some good stuff.

Yesterday, the girls and I went into Anchorage after church to do some clothes shopping, attend a meeting at the Loussac Library and go out to eat at the Golden Corral.

This week, I'm in training all week. October will be a busy month for me. I have 4 training classes for myself (all multiple days) and I have 3 trainings to develop and offer by the end of the month...

The trees seem to be more beautiful this fall than they were last year. I don't recall seeing much other than yellow and evergreen last year. This year's display includes a lot of orange in varying shades.

It's the 1st of October already and we're gearing up for the round of holidays. Alicia May is all excited to be Piglet for Halloween this year. I get to be Winnie-the-Pooh. :o)