Happy Halloween,
I suppose that greeting might be a clue that this is October 31st. With the hour time change daylight came a bit after 9am today instead of after 10am like yesterday. Of course "sunrise" yesterday was around 11:15. The overcast weather continues and we have been having snow off and on now for the last two weeks. Two of those days the wind was in the 20-30 mph range with blowing pellets of ice which is always a treat when you're on a 4 wheeler riding against the wind while crouched below the level of the windshield which itself is opaque with ice. The northern lights have not appeared for the last few weeks but other than that winter is here to stay. Yesterday the temp was 8 degrees when we got up and it climbed into the low teens. This morning? Right on zero as I type. When I look out the living room window where we have a light up rubber pumpkin and a string of purple bat lights hanging, I am struck by the contrast of the traditional fall decorations where you think of multicolored leaves blowing in the wind, and the sight of a now mostly white landscape and three foot icicles hanging in front of the decorations. The back bays are totally frozen over now and the sound in front of town has open water from Front Street out to about 500 yards where the ice begins and continues as far as the eye can see. Friday there was a herd of caribou seen moving across the frozen areas in front of town. Behind our apartment on Swan Lake the locals have been braving the thin ice about 20 yards from shore to do what they do every fall and fish for the small Tom Cod, a delicacy frozen whole and often eaten raw with seal oil. One thing I may have mentioned before but I don't remember is that if we leave our clothes in the dryer over night, they are almost literally freezing cold especially when the wind blows. Even though there is a one way flap on the vent hose it still backs up into the dryer. The kids were out of school the end of last week for some reason or another and they are enjoying the ice and snow. Two of them were going in and out of the drifts by the apartment with their 4 wheeler until they got so stuck it took them a half hour to extricate themselves. Two others were pulling an inner tube behind their 4-wheeler with another kid hanging on for dear life while grinning from ear to ear. Yea, they do get damaged every now and then but remember they have on some very padded clothing to protect them from the cold. It serves as a kind of body armor too.
Today is Halloween, the culmination of a big weekend for this town. Friday night the school had a festival and last night there was a teen dance until I believe 9pm followed by an adult dance and costume contest at the Lions Hall. The kids will be out in force tonight even with the colder weather. The folks here take the cold in stride and most welcome the winter because while a lot of folks have 4 wheelers or a vehicle, almost everyone has a snowmachine. As I have said before when the land freezes and is covered in it's winter coat, it all becomes a highway for anyone with a snowmachine. One down side to the frequent snowfall is that if the water freezes then a thick layer of snow settles on it before it gets too thick, the snow insulates the ice and it can prevent the ice from thickening to a safe point. The roads have all iced over in town making the walking treacherous and Patty has taken her obligatory annual dive onto the ice with nothing hurt but her pride thank goodness. The good part is all the potholes are filled in now and will be until the summer thaw. Speaking of cold Cathy told me she was at work Friday and as required she washed her hands before picking up a baby. She said as she was reaching for the child, she realized her hands were cold from the washing and she hesitated while commenting on her cold hands. She said the mother, without missing a beat stated, "It’s ok, she's an Eskimo". Let’s see, I was talking about Halloween wasn't I? We had an open house last night and had a few folks over. Hey, any excuse is a good reason for a good feed. We made a big pot of gumbo-chicken, sausage, and okra of course as shrimp is over ten dollars a pound and blue crab just does not exist. (We can get frozen okra at the store-only $3.19 for a 16oz bag.) We even had pumpkin pie from the two pumpkins we bought and transported home on our snow covered 4 wheelers. I forgot how much the first one cost but the second one was on sale for .88 cents a pound! Let’s see, prices..... A loaf of Oro-wheat bread is $4.89, a 16oz can of tomatoes, $1.89, a half gallon carton of Minute Maid orange juice is just below $8, a green bell pepper right now is $1.99, the quart jar of sweet pickles we bought for the party (generic brand) was $7.89, a big bag of Tortia chips for dipping is around $7, tomatoes are 3.99 a pound... That's enough for now. We pulled out our ice chest last night, filled it with snow, and iced down the $8.99 a 12 pack soft drinks we bought-I said that's enough! We had a good time and the best part is there are plenty of leftovers today.
You can tell that the holiday season is approaching as for the last couple of weeks folks have been in the hospital selling their handiwork from fur hats and boots, to ivory bracelets, to hand sewn otikluks, and even a homemade harpoon complete with a brass detachable point hooked to about a 12 inch steel shaft, which was embedded in a 4 foot wooden handle to which was attached a coil of nylon rope. If anyone of you out there need a harpoon I could probably get you a good deal!
The PFD's just came out last week. For those not in the know this is the Personal Fund Dividend check that the state mails every year to every eligible resident of the state from birth up. See Alaska not only does not have a state income tax, but due to oil revenues the state pays it's residents. We still do not qualify as the requirement is that you reside in the state for one year January 1st through December 31st in order to be eligible for the next PFD. We will get one next year. This year's was just under $1000 per resident no matter the age or length of residency. When they come out of course businesses put on all kinds of sales to get their share of the windfall. This is why you see a lot of new machines this time of year that in a few months will be up for sale. Anyway, Alaska Airlines also puts on a sale and we have already purchased tickets for us to go to Anchorage for Thanksgiving, again in March for the Iditarod, which if you want a bit of trivia traverses the same distance if you traveled from New York to Miami, and tickets to Anchorage in August for the Alaska state fair. We also bought round trip tickets to Kodiak Island while we are in Anchorage in February to check out jobs and real-estate as we are talking about possibly going there when we leave here. Oh, we even bought tickets for Christy and Mike, here male significant other to come up here in April. Now it was a bit of expense but when you realize that Alaska Air has a monopoly on getting anyone from here to Anchorage at the usual $3-$400 per roundtrip ticket it was a significant savings as roundtrip to Anchorage was $198 per with one change of flying dates free. No, we are not planning on traveling to the lower 48 anytime soon, there's just too much to do and see here. Time for more trivia-the state of Alaska to give you an idea if laid over the continental US would reach from Minnesota to Texas north to south, and from Florida to California east to west when you take into consideration the Aleutian Islands. We are possibly planning on going to Europe in August with Patty's sister and her Husband. If we do, we'll just use the tickets we already have for August to get us to Anchorage and then buy tickets from there as it is a major European hub.
Well that's enough for now. I did take an intermission in writing this and it is now 4:30pm and the temp has climbed to 8 degrees. It has been snowing off and on all day but we did go to the store to get our weekly Sunday paper. Hope you folks are enjoying the fall weather where you are. It's time to open the doors for the kids that will brave the cold to satisfy their sweet tooth's. Who says the Eskimo won't adopt the ways of the white man. Diabetes and tooth decay are alive and well in the Arctic.
The Sam's
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Last updated:
08/29/05