"Happy New Year" is I believe
the appropriate term for this time of year, (Not again! Would someone please
take away his fingers?)
Well I hope you folks in the south enjoyed your first white Christmas in
over 50 years. I also hope none of you played bumper cars as is so often the
case when ice suddenly appears in the tropics. That bit of Christmas wish
fulfillment was courtesy of an "arctic cold front". So, "you're welcome". The
only problem is for you to get your winter coating, we got a shellacking. I
mentioned in my last letter that they were predicting blizzard conditions
starting Christmas eve and lasting through Christmas day. I also mentioned our
plans for cooking Christmas eve, going to midnight mass where Cathy was playing,
and going to Esther's place for Christmas dinner. None of that happened the way
we planned.
First, Saturday was overcast and cold. It was around 18-20 below zero with
the wind blowing in the 20-25 mph range. We had been considering buying a used
snowmachine from a Pharmacist who was relocating and we decided to go ahead and
buy it Saturday. We wanted to pick it up Saturday because we thought we might
need it to go to midnight mass due to the predicted weather conditions. We met
the pharmacist at her apartment after a darned cold ride on our snowmachine and
after cranking enough to break a good sweat under layers of clothing, we got the
new machine running. I forgot to mention it took a bit to get our machine
running at first too. As I have said, nothing likes to work when it gets that
cold. Face it, snowmachines and 4 wheelers were built with weekend warriors in
mind, not the hard day to day use they get here nor were they designed to
operate in this extreme cold. Before taking off on our machine I had to put oil
in the reservoir as it is a 2 cycle machine. I had my spare oil in the small
compartment under the seat and when I poured (bad choice of words), when I
squeezed it out of the bottle, it came our perfectly formed like the opening of
the bottle. It looked like a green sausage coming out.
Off on a tangent wasn't I?
We took both machines, (and the pharmacist) to the post office to pick up
our mail. I have to repeat it was a darned cold ride. It's one thing to ride in
18 below weather and a totally different thing to ride when it's 18 below with a
stiff wind blowing and a wind chill of minus 40-50. The only thing that I
usually have problems with is my face. The intense cold is extremely painful on
any exposed skin and though we do the best we can to leave no skin uncovered,
sometimes it just doesn't work. Our goggles frosted over on the inside to the
point the ice had to be scraped off to see. At that point I usually just take
them off (I'm not noted for my intelligence and I figure freezing is a way of
preserving all the brain cells I have left anyway). When we arrived at the post
office I did not have the key to our box because I took the snowmachine keys and
the post office key is on the ring with my 4 wheeler key. Patty didn't have her
key because she wasn't driving and, "he has his". This is another one of those
"women" moments. Like the other day when we went to the party and came home.
She had to wait for me to open the door because she didn't have her electronic
key. Since we were just going to a party, she didn't want to carry her purse.
I politely reminded her that even though the vehicle was a 4 wheeler, she is
supposed to carry her drivers license as long as it is operated in town. The
license that resides in her wallet next to her electronic key.
You know, on January 10th we will be married 29 years. I suppose we are
both getting crotchety like the older married couples on TV. (The only
difference is I get to vent because I write about it. I also make sure I send
the letter out before giving Patty a copy to read.)
Did it again, left the main path and went down a side road...........We had
to drop the pharmacist at her place so we could head back across the back bay to
get the key to the post office box. I'm in full grouch mode now as all I want
to do is get where it's warm. We need to stop at the store so lets do that on
the way home. Patty looked at me as we were dropping off the pharmacist and
said, "we have to get inside for a while". "Why?" I grouch. "Because you have
a big white patch on your right cheek!" "Oh, that's where it was hurting like
h... a little while ago". I can feel a heavy coat of ice in my mustache and
beard and when I look at Patty I can see ice on her eyelashes. Back we painfully
go across the back bay to the apartment. There we huddle inside for a while
watching to see if the blood will return to my face. It does (still feels a bit
numb though) and back out we go. We get our mail, then fight the last minute
crowds at the grocery. As we were shopping the one radio station in town was
playing over the loudspeaker. The representative here for the Northwest Arctic
Borough (that would be parish to you folks in Louisiana) was warning of the
coming blizzard and lethal wind chills predicted for that night and Christmas.
I don't know about you but when I hear the term "lethal" or "deadly", my ears
perk up and I pay attention. (Must be all the years of risk taking in boats and
so forth when I was younger and my years of ER experience looking at the results
of stupidity.) After the again painful ride home we took both machines and nosed
them up to the building and covered them in anticipation of the coming tempest.
When we took off all the layers once inside the apartment, we were both soaked
from exertion so we laid the cold weather gear across the table to dry. The
baklavas and masks were frozen stiff with the moisture from our breath. I have
to mention here that after changing into dry clothes and looking out the window
at the blowing snow, we stood at the window incredulously watching as a jogger
went past the window. At what point does a healthy activity become unhealthy?
Boy, what stamina that unknown man has! And, in my opinion, what few brain cells
too! (Course maybe he's trying to preserve what brain cells he has left, just
like me. Shoot, for that matter, I can't even say with certainty it was a guy.
When dressed from head to toe it's really hard to tell unless the parka is pink
or they swish as they go by.)
That evening the winds
kept getting stronger and we called to see if Cathy was still going to play at
mass. She said she was still going but by that time Patty and I had had more
than enough. No amount of Cathy's pleading, wheedling, crying, or cajoling
would change our minds. We stayed put in the warmth and safety of our
apartment. So?! We're getting a bit wimpy as well grouchy as we get older!
Christmas morning we awoke to the roaring of the wind and upon looking out,
we could see no more than about 20-30 feet. The predicted blizzard had arrived
with a vengeance. After a few calls we all decided to postpone the Christmas
celebration until Sunday (it did take a bit of work convincing Esther though).
We settled in with some hot coffee and had omelets for breakfast. We lazed the
day away watching Christmas specials on TV while the building rocked and we
listened to the wind. Cathy called from her house which is towards the end of
town and told us she was having power surges and had burned out some circuit
breakers. She was there with Randy, her fiancé Gary's brother. Gary had worked
the night before and his relief could not make it in to work so he couldn't
leave. Cathy and Randy could not keep the heat running and because of the surges
shut off most of the electricity in the house. It finally reached a point as it
got colder inside where they made the decision to walk across town to Esther's
place. They walked about a half mile at the height of the blizzard passing
drifts 15-20 feet high. The only good thing is the temps had warmed to 20
degrees above zero. It usually warms up but remains below freezing whenever
there is a storm. I found out about them being out in the whiteout thankfully
after they had arrived safely at Esther's. I would have had a fit and been
worried sick had I known what they were going to do. Esther and other locals
will tell you that as kids they went to school in that type of weather. To
which I respond, "that's why this area has the highest accidental death rate in
the country"! One other hazard out there is they do plow the roads during
blizzards. I haven't got a clue how they know where to put those huge plow
blades but they do. I have also been told stories of cars, snowmachines, and 4
wheelers being caught in drifts and buried. One of my Environmental Service
techs told me how he literally had to crawl in some drifts to get to the
Christmas dinner he was invited to. (This man is 68 years old and had bypass
surgery in 2000!) I did have to laugh later though as Cathy related her woes.
Randy is 17 and Cathy said they reached a point where they looked at each other
across the stove where they sat huddled trying to ward off the encroaching cold
in the dwindling light and Randy said, "what do we do now"? Cathy admitted at
that point she said "I don't know, I want my mommy"!
The wind just went away around 7pm. I was sitting in front of the computer
and I realized I could not hear the wind anymore and when I looked out, I was
greeted with a winter wonderland, perfectly sculpted, undisturbed by even a
breeze, . The snow in our parking lot was around 4 feet deep and although it
surrounded a truck and someone else's snowmachine, by some miracle it did not
cover any of the vehicles. The moon was peaking through the clouds and it was
beautiful out there.
The next morning when I got up I could see water on the back bay and Swan
Lake. There was plenty of overflow out there (water on top of the ice usually
caused by the high tide flowing up over the shore edges of the ice or through a
pressure ridge which is a break and upheaval in the surface of the ice). I no
sooner got dressed than the fire department radio we keep in the apartment
announced a call for the ambulance for an individual who tried to cross the
overflow and got stuck. I arrived just in time to see a snowmachine go past
pulling a sled with a bundled up individual as cargo and a man riding the
runners on back of the sled. They were taking the hapless individual to the
hospital. Of course before the day was out there were a number of folks who did
a repeat of this foolish act. I rode over to the fire hall for some fresh
coffee and decided to pull my 4 wheeler into the building to get some of the ice
off it. I broke out a hose in the warm bay and started to hose off the ice.
When I removed the seat the snow was like after the last blizzard, once again it
was packed around everything. (I believe I mentioned in my last letter about
the ice in our dryer. What I did not make clear was that the ice was actually
snow blown up the hose through the vent and into the dryer.) I left the 4
wheeler at the hall to dry out and returned latter with Patty's machine for a
repeat performance. That Sunday evening we did have the belated Christmas
dinner at Cathy's future mother in law's place and I have to say Esther had
enough food to feed an army. The only local fare were the cranberries in the
Jell-O dish she made. No caribou, moose, fish, Muktuk, or seal, hooray! While
we were there a call came in from a friend stating there were herring on top of
the ice in front of town. They had been washed up by the overflow and people
were out there picking them up.
There is some question here about the unusual amount of overflow being
possibly caused by the earthquake in Sri Lanka and the resultant tsunami's. It
is really unusual for that much water to be on top of the thick ice.
Life returns to as normal as it gets here. The snow has been plowed into
mounds that on many streets flank both sides of the road to upwards of 15 feet.
In other places it has been pushed up into mountains even higher than that. All
around town the accumulated and plowed snow resembles huge mounds of powdered
sugar. As plow drivers catch up, these mounds will be pushed out onto the frozen
sound and back bays by the huge front end loaders riding out onto the ice.
There the snow will await the spring thaw to join the currents flowing past
Kotzebue and the Christmas blizzard will then be only a memory.
Carlo
For problems or questions regarding this web contact
carlo@samsicles.net
Last updated:
08/29/05