Cold-Hard-Fact #2

There is a reason they call it frost bite.

Okay, so as I write this our weather is -43 F with a slight easterly breeze of 5 mph. That gives us a windchill of 63 degrees below zero. School was canceled (for students) on Monday because of similar temperatures and today seems to be shaping up the same way.

I always have mixed feelings about canceling school because of low temperatures. We do live in the Arctic, after all. Can we really afford to give up on educating children every time it's really cold? I am one of those teachers who hates to see kids lose momentum and missing a day here or there can definitely lead to a stall. Moments in school are precious and my fingers often have to be pried away from time on task.

On the other hand, I absolutely understand the need for caution. The potential for frost bite, especially with children who aren't particularly mindful of such things, is a real danger. On several occasions I have developed blisters on my fingertips (like the one in the photo) even while wearing gloves! Thankfully, the blisters have healed quickly leaving little more than peeling skin to attest to my pain. Not a big deal compared to some of the injuries I've seen lately.

Forty below seems to be the magic number (click the link for Clare's excellent description).  It's the only common point on the Fahrenheit and Celsius scales.  Barring the escalating effects of wind, forty below is forty below whether you live in Alaska, Canada, Siberia, or even Antarctica.  It's like the Bermuda Triangle of the thermometer.   Once that threshold is reached or crossed, strange things begin to happen to both man and machine.  

A few years ago, the insurance company that covers our school district vehicles declared that it would not continue coverage if the vehicles were used while temperatures were -40 or colder.  So, on the coldest days of the year, vehicles are placed in heated garages, planes don't fly, and if someone feels the need to get out, it's their skin...quite literally.

Meanwhile, dedicated faculty and staff haunt the corridors of an empty school, secretly thankful for the windfall of extra time for getting work done.  And my sister, who lives down around Fairbanks, is out getting video of her own kids experimenting with bubbles at 40 below.  I thought some of you might enjoy seeing one of the weird and wonderful effects of extreme cold.

Changes

Boxes in, boxes out, boxes emptied, boxes filled...my life is a jumble of cardboard at the moment. Lots of changes are in the works. I won't bore everyone with all the details, but a few of the highlights include: my sister and her family moving into my house, me moving out and into district housing, switching from teaching elementary to secondary grades, and a whole new faculty & administration at school. Whew!

Another change has been especially difficult to talk about. And I've put off blogging about it for several weeks. Over the summer, I decided to allow my dog, Precious, to be adopted. It's something that I'd been thinking about for a while, but had been reluctant to actually follow through with because Precious is....well....precious!

The problem is that the Arctic is a seriously confining place during the winter months and Precious doesn't do confinement very well. She practically climbed the walls all last winter which led to some destructive behavior. Over the summer I decided that either I'd need to find a home where she'd be cared for and have the opportunity to get regular exercise or I'd have to buy a treadmill and hope she'd be willing to try it. I was leaning toward the treadmill when I heard there was a couple in Fairbanks interested in adopting her. They took her for a "test drive" while I was on vacation. When I got back to Alaska, I met them at their home and found that Precious was happy and healthy and having lots of fun...

...exactly the kind of place Precious needs to be.



So, it's done. Precious lives in Fairbanks now in a great home with two wonderful new parents who are ready, willing, and able to make sure she goes to bed tired every day. That's a good thing and on some level I am very happy about it. Of course, I am completely grateful to have found a loving family with whom Precious will enjoy her life rather than experience frustration eight months of the year. But the thought of life here without her quirky little personality and hilarious antics...just makes me sad.

I'll have to revisit this photo often to remind myself that it was the right thing to do.

Off Slope: Hotter Than Habaneros

After six years in the Arctic, I've become rather spoiled by summer temperatures in the fifties and rush hour traffic involving fewer than ten vehicles. So, for me, the Dallas/Ft. Worth metro area, with its population of 6.1 million, seems like one big tangled confusion of concrete baking in the relentless Texas sun....way too hot!

Thankfully, my aunt's backyard is something of an oasis. The sound of the waterfall cascading into her pool and the chirps and tweets of wild birds flitting in and out of the trees was a calming and restful backdrop for quiet conversations with family that I don't see nearly often enough. It was wonderful.

Then we took walk on the wild side. Well...a drive, actually. The day before I had to leave for my conference in North Carolina, we drove a few hours southwest of Dallas to Fossil Rim Wildlife Center. We had a great time wandering the paths of the 1500 acre park, stopping now and then to feed a variety of species (mostly grazing animals) that enthusiastically met our vehicle. Sometimes their enthusiasm was a little intense. There were nervous moments...like when a zebra shoved his whole head into the open front passenger window....or when a deer drooled all over the driver's side window. Not a happy moment for my aunt. But, I caught a lot of it on video, so even the awkward moments will be funny...someday.

My nephew had a pair of toy binoculars that seemed to work pretty well. The sunroof was a great feature for touring in a park like Fossil Rim. I saw several people feeding giraffes from their sunroofs which made it a lot easier for the animal to reach the pellets. The pellets, by the way, are purchased from the park. Each vehicle is limited to one bag.

Some of the animals were absolutely comical and extremely persistent about being fed.



This emu just cracked me up! He almost looks like a cartoon character, don't you think?

Dallas was my first stop outside of Alaska. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I've been checking Atqasuk's temperature and weather cam photo almost daily. I guess a part of me still wants to be there...riding four-wheelers on the tundra, fishing in the ice-cold river, or roasting marshmallows on the beach (in the sunshine) at 3 a.m. I don't have to close my eyes to imagine the sounds of the birds or the sweet scent of labrador tea carried by almost constant wind. The summer solstice has come and gone. Sunlight decreases daily. By the time I get home in August the flowers will be gone and berries will be ripening. Summer is short in the Arctic and missing it is definitely a trade-off. But I guess you can't feel homesick unless there's a place that feels like home. For me, that was a good thing to learn.

Off Slope: At My Sister's House

Insects on fingers...



and blossoms on benches.



Babies in windows...



and fast, awesome pitches.



Fragrant wild roses that grace us in spring.



These are a few of my favorite things!

More About...The Ride to Santa's House

Well, the little video that I posted a few days ago was supposed to highlight all the photos that I took on my bike ride with my niece outside of Fairbanks, but the program I used dropped quite a few of the images. Animoto is a really cool service that allows visitors to create a video without actually having video! Neat, huh?

You begin by uploading up to fifteen photos. Then you make a music choice. The rest is up to Animoto. The program analyzes the composition of your photos as well as the tempo and style of your musical choice. Then it combines those features into one, distinctive, thirty-second presentation. Once your video is created, you have the option of remixing the elements for a completely different finished product using the same photos and music. The motto at Animoto is "never the same video twice."

Unfortunately, my musical selection and photos appear not to have been overly compatible because Animoto used only ten of the fifteen photos that I uploaded. Hmm. The final product was cute, but not very informative. So I thought I'd share some images the old-fashioned way...if you can call digital photos, uploaded to a blog, hosted on an internet site, transmitted by a satellite which is orbiting the Earth...old-fashioned.

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Taking a bike ride was originally my nephew's idea. Without even being asked, he very responsibly checked all the bike tires for sufficient air pressure and raised his sister's bicycle seat, giving her a little more leg extension on the bike she appears to be outgrowing. Unfortunately, some people didn't get to come along...



Unlike the North Slope with its knee-high, earth-colored vegetation, the Fairbanks area is well below the tree line and very green at many levels. My sister's house sits at the end of a driveway lined with Spruce...very rustic and cozy.



Temperatures were in the 50's that day, perfect for being outside, while remnants of break-up still lingered here and there.



By the time we reached the bike path that runs along the highway, my nephew realized that one of his tires was leaking. He returned home to change the tire and agreed to meet us at a nearby convenience store. He arrived a while later minus the bike. The tire couldn't be replaced or repaired, so my niece and I continued on without him. He didn't wasn't overly disappointed. An afternoon on the four-wheeler seemed to be a fair exchange.



We passed hoards of people fishing, further testiment to the wonderful weather that day. This waterway (my niece called it a slough) is probably a tributary of the Chena River.



Okay, why would I include a photo of an old bus? Actually, it represents a great Alaskan truth...almost anything can be reused...and reused...and reused! All across the state, you will see buildings, equipment, and vehicles that are being used, or reused, in ways that may not have been originally imagined by the manufacturers. This old bus is serving its second (or third or fourth) purpose as a storage space. It might just as easily have been converted into a camper or even a house! It's difficult to find anything odd in Alaska, because oddities are practically the norm.



With a name like North Pole, there are certain expectations to live up to and a local fast-food restaurant appears have wholeheartedly embraced that image.




Hey! Is that Santa's bright, shiny, red sleigh parked outside the Santa Claus House?



No, that's probably Santa's sleigh parked closer to the door. I guess the other one belongs to someone who was very good last year.



The Santa Claus House is, quite appropriately, a gift shop...an Alaskan-sized gift shop. Inside, some of the walls are lined with a very special wallpaper. Keeping up with the mail ensures that Santa's helpers are extremely busy, year-round.



From beginning to end, we rode about twenty-five miles, a reasonable practice run for the bike trip that I'll be taking this summer. It was a very relaxing day, although (after riding an ill-fitting bike for several hours) my niece may not entirely agree.

The Ride to Santa's House

This was a fun way to spend a day!