Wintery Weather

Sunrise 8:36 a.m.   Sunset  6:18 p.m.

It's true, we've been having wintery weather.  The kind that makes your toes wish for a pair of warm, fuzzy slippers when you skitter to the rest room in the middle of the night.  The kind that brings a lovely green glow the sky and the most amazing moons I've ever seen.  Though, you won't have known it today.  

Today we had overcast skies, but I didn't mind because the air warmed to a lovely 37 degrees.  I even wore short sleeves, with no coat, because frankly, I get darn tired of wearing a coat by spring time in Alaska.  So I was a rebel, and went without.  Dear God, please don't let me get sick.

I would have taken some pics of the auroras and the moon, but I've been busy.  Readying the house, the pets, and the suitcases for our trip.  Where are we going?  I'll tell you in a minute.  We have an awesome house/pet sitter.  For us, it's the best of both worlds, and worth every penny.  He takes care of the house, keeps the home fires burning, literally, and keeps the pets happy, fed, played with, and anxiety free.  Which in turn, leaves us anxiety free.  See?  No complaints.

Brent and I are off to Minnesota.  They've been having lovely weather and I certainly hope that they keep it around.  As you can tell by today's short sleeves, I am sooooo not ready for winter.  Let me tell you what I am ready for.  Laughter with friends, family, the ones that have known me for so many years that I can't remember when they weren't there.  Mom, Dad, family, family, family, hometown football games, Grandma and Grandpa.  SHOPPING!  Sorry, we have very little shopping here.  Can you tell?  Ha!  Familiar places, familiar faces, my nephews and my darling niece.  My Savannah girl, whom I miss so dearly that I have tears just hoping that she won't be shy, I need a Savannah hug.  She was only 3 when I left.  Shannon.  And more shopping!  

We've been loving our life in Alaska.  And truthfully, it hasn't really hit me how much I've been missing certain people from my "old" life.  Sometimes it feels like years ago, which technically it was, but let's not split hairs here people, other days it feels like we were just packing up that little aluminum trailer and hitting the not-so-dusty trail.  I had no idea how much I'd love it here, or how much my life would change.  How much I'd change.  

So, I'm signing off.  I'll check in when I can, but really, I make no guarantees.  I'm going to savor every moment.  Happy autumn!!!

Long Weekend

Hello, Hello! The photo above is a photo of the Alaska Range. We took a drive on Friday afternoon as Brent is off early on Fridays. Since it had been a fairly long week for both of us we took a little drive to just get me out of the house. Phew. The Alaska Range was beautiful both Friday and Saturday due to clear skies.

Since I was driving on Friday Brent was in charge of the camera. We "caught" this large moose on film, but as you can see the image is a little blurry. I guess the moose was a little too quick for us!

This, my friends, is Donnelly Dome. It lies about 23 miles from Delta Junction, and Brent was telling me how pretty it was so we had to drive out past Ft. Greely to see it. He was right. It's pretty majestic, and I'm looking forward to seeing it in the summer. As you can tell we had a nice time taking in the scenery.

Saturday a.m. we had planned a huge trip to Fairbanks. I was super excited to FINALLY get out of this house for more than an hour or two. Brent was also planning to take me out to a nice seafood dinner to celebrate Valentine's Day. Yeah, that didn't happen.

We got up uber early. 5:15 a.m. to get on the road and get our shop on. Brent went out to start the vehicle and look everything over only to find that our tensioner bearing was out. Needless to say, no going anywhere. Our serpentine belt was smoking. That is not a good thing.

I dare say that this was the first time I had my "we'll never live rural again" pity party. It was challenging. We called two auto parts stores here in town. Neither had the part in stock. Of course. Then we called an auto rental place in town to rent a vehicle to drive to Fairbanks to pick up the part, and of course, nothing was available. So, here we sat. For the foreseeable future.

Brent called Napa back to order the part as they could have it here sooner. This time he spoke with the owner/manager who was a super nice guy that told him he would look for a bearing for him if he couldn't find the part in stock. We were told to call back later. Brent came in to look up exactly how to fix the issue. He downloaded a video and immediately crashed our computer. Grrr. It was not looking up to be a good day.

It turned out the My Hero down at Napa was able to get the part in on the truck that day, and despite the fact that the store closes at 3 p.m. on Saturday, he stuck around until after 4 p.m. so that we could get the part. So, we begged a ride off the neighbors next door, and got the part. Brent fixed the car in about 10 minutes and saved the day!!! Yay!

Valentine's Day was salvaged. Phew! We drove into town to the IGA picked up some salmon, steak and fixings and I came home and fixed us a dinner to not be forgotten. We added in some scallops and brownies, a little wine, and the day turned out pretty well, considering what it could have been.

Sunday a.m. went got up a bit later as I didn't sleep much. 3 hours total. We headed for Fairbanks, and straight to Lowe's. We hit up Walmart, Fred Meyer, Mattress Ranch, and Safeway as well. It was a very, very expensive weekend, but well worth the trip.

You would have loved the salesman at the Mattress Ranch. Uff da. You drive up to a warehouse painted to resemble a barn with animals painted all over it. It's really quite difficult to miss. As I walk in Tony Little's offspring is ready and waiting to push anything and everything down my throat. While I would have loved the $2500 bed he was trying really hard to sell me, I settled for the cheaper version closer to the front of the store. The sale didn't stop even as he was ringing me up, mattress pads, pillows, this and that. No thanks. NO THANKS.

We rushed home and the first thing I did was vacuum. Vacuum, and vacuum and vacuum some more. Awwww. You take so many little things for granted when you start over at zero. So Sunday and Monday we just worked around the house, Brent had Monday off for President's Day, and plugged away.

Today (Tuesday) I worked for hours with Dell trying to get this computer fixed. I seriously was contemplating just buying a new one, but we did get it fixed and it's working yet again. Thank goodness. Unfortunately I haven't had much time to play, update the blog, as I have been busy putting away all my stuff.

Ches and I had a little visitor today. We didn't have any big visitors like my friend over at Moose Nugget. But we had a little squirrel, a rather percocious fellow, who was causing quite a ruckus running up and down the porch, the supports, and I suspect he was trying to gnaw through the mesh and access my eaves. I did get a couple of pictures of him and our trip on Sunday but I can't find my USB cable for that camera, so that's my goal for tomorrow.

Have a happy day!