Friday, November 18, 2005
Winter Sports
It has long been a tradition at University of Alaska hockey games to throw fish heads onto the ice after the Seawolves score their first goal. Officials are trying to discourage the practice since it takes several minutes to sweep the ice and clean up the carnage. At many of the other ice hockey games fans are urged to throw stuffed toys onto the ice as Christmas presents for the needy. Good thing that they are not collecting canned goods for the hungry. Residents of Anchorage love basketball and have their goals in their driveways. The goals have a water tank at the bottom for stability. Problems arise when the goals are not moved and the water freezes. It prevents snowplows from their appointed rounds. The owners call the city and ask for help and get the cold shoulder. The question is who would want to play basketball in this subarctic weather? The other spectator sport here is watching drivers on ice. Yesterday the garbage truck skidded several hundred feet sideways back down our hill—right past our driveway. Quite a sight to behold! On the down side: we now have stranded garbage. On the up side: we still have some fish heads for our first hockey game here in town.
It has long been a tradition at University of Alaska hockey games to throw fish heads onto the ice after the Seawolves score their first goal. Officials are trying to discourage the practice since it takes several minutes to sweep the ice and clean up the carnage. At many of the other ice hockey games fans are urged to throw stuffed toys onto the ice as Christmas presents for the needy. Good thing that they are not collecting canned goods for the hungry. Residents of Anchorage love basketball and have their goals in their driveways. The goals have a water tank at the bottom for stability. Problems arise when the goals are not moved and the water freezes. It prevents snowplows from their appointed rounds. The owners call the city and ask for help and get the cold shoulder. The question is who would want to play basketball in this subarctic weather? The other spectator sport here is watching drivers on ice. Yesterday the garbage truck skidded several hundred feet sideways back down our hill—right past our driveway. Quite a sight to behold! On the down side: we now have stranded garbage. On the up side: we still have some fish heads for our first hockey game here in town.
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Winter supplies
Yesterday we took our dogsled (SUV) and went into town to get ourselves outfitted for the winter. Mindful of the Royal Mounted Police regulations about food supplies during the Klondike gold rush we made no effort to skimp on food and other necessities. Since our winter would last for about three months we decided to get only ¼ of the food mandate—about 1000 pounds for the two of us. We found our way to the biggest outfitter in town (Costco) and set right to work. First we picked up ten pounds of Starbucks roasted coffee (no need to deprive oneself of the real necessities of life) and two hundred pounds of flour—enough to make lots of heaping stacks of pancakes plus a two pound bag of yeast (the label says fast rising but I don’t think it took into account the wintry weather here). One Paul Bunyon size jar of honey—for the pancakes. Next two boxes of eggs—ten dozen each. Fifty pounds of bacon and one thirty pound ham. Two ten pound packages of dry milk and four packs of oatmeal and honey nut Cheerios (52 pounds total). Fifty pounds of Texas Ruby Red grapefruit and a hundred pounds of sugar and two pounds of salt (thank goodness we are on a low-salt diet). A couple of jars of Cashews—no beef jerky for the two of us since we have to worry about our dentures. A couple of cylinders of propane and bread machine. We finally got everything loaded on our trusted dogsled and headed back to our little abode. Now I know you are thinking that is all breakfast food. What about the other meals? There is one thing you need to remember. There is so little daylight here, once you eat breakfast it is time to go to bed.
Yesterday we took our dogsled (SUV) and went into town to get ourselves outfitted for the winter. Mindful of the Royal Mounted Police regulations about food supplies during the Klondike gold rush we made no effort to skimp on food and other necessities. Since our winter would last for about three months we decided to get only ¼ of the food mandate—about 1000 pounds for the two of us. We found our way to the biggest outfitter in town (Costco) and set right to work. First we picked up ten pounds of Starbucks roasted coffee (no need to deprive oneself of the real necessities of life) and two hundred pounds of flour—enough to make lots of heaping stacks of pancakes plus a two pound bag of yeast (the label says fast rising but I don’t think it took into account the wintry weather here). One Paul Bunyon size jar of honey—for the pancakes. Next two boxes of eggs—ten dozen each. Fifty pounds of bacon and one thirty pound ham. Two ten pound packages of dry milk and four packs of oatmeal and honey nut Cheerios (52 pounds total). Fifty pounds of Texas Ruby Red grapefruit and a hundred pounds of sugar and two pounds of salt (thank goodness we are on a low-salt diet). A couple of jars of Cashews—no beef jerky for the two of us since we have to worry about our dentures. A couple of cylinders of propane and bread machine. We finally got everything loaded on our trusted dogsled and headed back to our little abode. Now I know you are thinking that is all breakfast food. What about the other meals? There is one thing you need to remember. There is so little daylight here, once you eat breakfast it is time to go to bed.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Monday, November 14, 2005
Frost had crystallized on the plane’s windows and the body of the plane felt cold and somewhat clammy to the touch as we began our final approach. As the pilot made final preparations for Alaska Air jet’s landing at Ted Stevens Airport in Anchorage, one of the flight attendants proceeded to debrief us. “The temperature in Anchorage is….cold. Let’s just leave it at that.” A nice ominous warning! As we exited the plane via the ramp, I felt the cold already biting my flesh. As we drove out of the airport our headlights spotlighted a light coat of ice on the road and a thing dusting of snow along the roadway. And then in the headlights the official greeting—“Welcome to Anchorage.” As we drove to our home away from home—more bad news. A four point quake had briefly rattled the city about 2:30 in the afternoon. Talk about a friendly reception!
The Anchorage Daily News had two interesting pieces of news in its Sunday edition. REI was sponsoring a winter biking in the snow course and wanted to make readers aware of the Susitna 100 and the Little Su 50k billed as a “trek across frozen Alaska “ scheduled each February. Second nugget of news was that there would be a driver’s workshop with a unique defensive driving twist—Avalanche awareness. Mid-morning we trudged up to Chugach State Park where an official sign announced that the park was closed to snow mobiles due to insufficient snow. At least we can rest in peace for one more night.
The Anchorage Daily News had two interesting pieces of news in its Sunday edition. REI was sponsoring a winter biking in the snow course and wanted to make readers aware of the Susitna 100 and the Little Su 50k billed as a “trek across frozen Alaska “ scheduled each February. Second nugget of news was that there would be a driver’s workshop with a unique defensive driving twist—Avalanche awareness. Mid-morning we trudged up to Chugach State Park where an official sign announced that the park was closed to snow mobiles due to insufficient snow. At least we can rest in peace for one more night.
