Nights grow longer each passing day (how’s that for an opening?). We had less than 6 hours of sunlight today. It is rather odd to look out your window at 9:30am and just start to see the sky growing lighter. We had a warm up over the weekend. Today it was 30 degrees. Some of the snow on the streets actually got sloppy.
Because of the time difference between here and the lower 48, football starts at 9:00am on Sundays and goes almost non-stop until 7:30pm. It's GREAT. Unfortunately, we rarely see Monday night football because by the time we remember it is on, it is over half over. Oh well. Speaking of football - congrats to Kansas State for going to the Texas Bowl in Houston. Oh to have been there one more year! I hope all of you Texas residents take advantage of the event and go cheer the Wildcats to victory!
Squirt is doing fine. His stitches came out on Saturday and the bruising is almost gone. Now all he has to do is grow the lost fur back. It is too cold outside to run around without a coat. The snow is actually tall enough that when he scurries through the paths shoveled for him, he can just see over the top of the walls. If/When we get more snow, all we will see is the top of his head. (Once I am home during sunny hours, I will take a picture and post it.) He occasionally tries to step off into the deep snow and then quickly turns around opting for the path. I noticed this morning fresh tracks to our yard which disappeared once in our yard. Squirt isn’t the only one who uses the paths. We also have to be careful he doesn’t fall off of the deck into a snow bank. He did a couple of times this weekend and couldn’t get back up on the deck. Even after all of the trials and tribulations, he still loves the cooler weather and running through the powdery stuff!
On to new experiences…as I have mentioned before, the garbage goes out the morning before collection so the bears don’t get into it. This time of year however, bear sightings and problems are rare as they are supposed to be hibernating. (I think there are one or two bears that don’t get the message and don’t go to sleep. Luckily, they aren’t in our neighborhood.) Who thought birds would cause the same type of problem?
When we came home last Wednesday for lunch the garbage was still out for pick up and on several of the bags were ravens. Not little black crows or black birds but huge ravens. Ravens are normally about 2 feet long with a four-foot wingspan and from all appearances they like garbage. There were these big black birds ripping open trash bags. Little bits of black plastic going everywhere from one master ripper and the other four watching - waiting for the stinky rotten morsels to come unwrapped. They are also quite brave. We actually stopped and watched them for a few minutes…too bad the camera was in the back of the 4-runner out of reach. Maybe this Wednesday we can get a picture of the sneaky scavengers (must remember to move camera).
On to other adventures…every year Alaskans and tourists participate in combat salmon fishing. This occurs when fly-fishing in a stream with 5000 other people, shoulder to shoulder and if you take a break, you lose your spot. We didn’t combat fish this weekend – we combat shopped. This weekend was the Native Alaskan Christmas bazaar. If my neighbor hadn’t mentioned it, I would have missed it. There was one tiny ad in the paper under bazaars and nothing stood out about it except they didn’t take credit cards. It was from 10 am to 3pm and happens once a year. I thought if we went early in the day (just after sunrise at 10 or so) the crowds would be smaller. Silly – me. The busiest time is from 10 to 10:30am when approximately 2000 people try to get in a conference room sized for 120 people to get the best stuff. I heard people started lining up at 9am and waited in the cold for an hour for the doors to open. While all of this GREATLY tried my patience (all of you knowing patience is one of my strong points), I have to admit, there was some really cool stuff there. The beadwork and basketwork was incredible and we bought some items we will enjoy adding to our eclectic art collection. We will enjoy them even more once the memory fades of the struggles to get them :)
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