Miscellaneous Wanderings

I just realized it has been a week since I said anything. (As many of you know) that’s a long time for me to be quiet. Of course, last weekend was the Superbowl extravaganza and the rest of the week I have been working late. Hopefully it will be back to normal now. This is part of the view from the porch at sunset. Too bad those houses are in the way...

One of the nice things about Alaska is live sporting events start earlier. Back in Texas, we would have settled down for the Superbowl about 5pm with the conclusion after 9 or 10pm. Weekend’s over – no more time to do anything. If we had friends over, it would have meant stay up late or come home from work on Monday to a mess to clean up. Here, kickoff was at 2:25pm. Perfect! We had a couple of friends over, lots of snacks and junk food (Robert and I are still eating leftovers) and the game was done by 7:30pm. Not too late - plenty of time to clean up – no continued mess the next day. Bonus points for being able to keep all drinks on the back porch without the requirement to purchase ice to keep it cool. Over the course of the afternoon the water actually froze in the bottles.

Over the last two weeks, we have been experiencing a little mini “break-up”. We had ice jams south of here on the river causing serious flooding, lots of snow melting, working on the driveway to get rid of ice, etc. In fact, some of Squirt’s groomed trails in the yard actually had grass showing. I found out this also means every car in the city is the same color. Dirt black. I had to clean the headlights no less than three times this week for any hope of illumination. Of course, when did I remember I had to clean them? When I was driving and it was dark on the road and my lights were on. Because everything is so gritty I would just pull into the filling station and use the windshield wipers they provide. I felt bad the second and third times though as I really didn’t need gas (and didn’t buy any). I did it late at night and early in the morning when no attendants were there. Please - bring back white snow to cover up the muck because even though P. Phil didn’t see his shadow, winter isn’t over yet.

Speaking of break up – building codes here allow for 40 pounds per square foot (or something like that) of weight (snow) on roofs. Prior to mini break up, people were having problems with ice dams and leaking roofs. There are businesses specializing in roof shoveling and they are busy. Well, we had to have our propane tanks for the grill filled (yes – we still grill out even when it is below freezing). The gentleman who filled the tank was very talkative. As with all strangers, talk turned to weather, snow and problems generated by having lots of snow on area roofs. One of his enterprising and creative neighbors took his snow thrower up on the roof and was removing snow. Just like snow on the mountains, when it finally breaks free (avalanche) all of it goes at once. Unfortunately, it happened with this gentleman and he fell breaking both legs. (I think I will use this as a safety tip in a staff meeting!)

Something else the warm temperatures brought out were the bears at the zoo. One of the local stations had some great videos of them sitting outside of their den and boy were they groggy. It looked like they had some whopping hangovers. People watching them were talking and pointing and trying to get their attention and they basically rolled over and totally ignored the interruptions. They definitely aren’t ready to get up. It has cooled off and it is snowing again. I hope they go back for a second winter nap. I haven’t checked how wild bears compare to zoo bears….are they out and about now or is it still too early?

Squirt’s limo still isn’t in the shop. Everything moves so slowly. I just hope we have the car back before the real breakup starts!