Long and overdue... by long, I mean long!

I finally have gotten back to my blog and decided to fill everyone in on the last month or so of hecticness... so, here it goes. I left Fairbanks in the middle of December to head home for the holidays. It felt a bit weird as I stepped on the plane wednesday morning, only ecause it was my first time going back to the bay area in over nine months. I had gotten into the swing of things in the Golden Heart city and didn't know what to expect when I was bombarded with thousands more people surrounding me at all times. As I stepped off the plane in San Francisco, I was immediately hit with a heat wave. Okay, not a heat wave for anyone in the bay area this winter, but going from twenty below to forty and fifty above was a nice change. For the week a nd a half that I was home, I realized that the quaint and silent town of Fairbanks had become much more appealing to me than I had thought it would. I am used to fifty five miles per hour speed limits on the expressways, no traffic what so ever, and snow piles everywhere along side the roads. One of the first nights I was in town, I was in downtown San Francisco and was completely enamored once again with how warm it felt even at forty degrees and how many people are around you at all times. We have just close to forty thousand people in Fairbanks, I am pretty sure I saw that many people just in Union Square. One nice thing that I discovered about the winters in Walnut Creek, was the ability to go outside at any point in the day and go for a run or just enjoy the pleasant outdoors, without freezing to death or worrying about cold exposure to the skin. As time inched closer to Christmas, I realized that it had felt so long since I had celebrated the holiday, due to the fact that, last year I had spent it in a hotel room by myself. This year it was nice to be around family and enjoy the holidays like they were meant to be. While my time came to a close back home, I was grateful to have spent the holidays with family and friends, get a fresh new breath of air before I headed back to the last frontier, but also realized that I was ready to head back to the far north and continue with my daily duties. It was good to be home, but I missed the secluded town of Fairbanks.
And although I missed Fairbanks, it didn't seem to miss me much, because as I hopped off the plane around ten o'clock (Alaska Standard Time), it was forty seven degrees below zero and the luggage door on the plane had been frozen shut. I waited about forty minutes to finally get my last piece of luggage back and was then contacted by my rommate that his car was having trouble starting and that I should take a cab home. Now, I know what most of you are thinking, how much did he have to pay for a cab from the airport?!?! It cost me less than twenty bucks including tip to get home, I know, pretty nice. Cabs start at the flat rate of only $1 here and are much cheaper than SF, and my house is only about ten minutes maximum from the house. Back to the weather... I thought forty seven below was bad for this time of year, but that was only the beginning. I picked up my girlfriend from the airport only two days later... fifty below zero... and we found that her heating pipes had frozen. This means that all the pipes along the floor boards used for heating had frozen... the furnace was broken beyond repair, all sinks and toilet bowls were practically ice cubes, and the internal temperature was around freezing and you could see your breath inside. At least someone else had a just as good welcome home present. That week became more hectic for some other reasons... but that's for later blogs. But what I can write about now is how after her pipes froze at her house... Rachelle moved into her grandpaents house that was all insulated up for Winter... because they will be gone until May. We called the house the bat cave, because you could not see outside at any point during the day... and it was deathly silent... to add to all the drama, her grandparents pipes froze as well within the week, making it just dandy. Throughout the first week of being home temperatures never got better than forty five below... and the Fairbanks citizens were caught a bit off guard. Although we are used to the cold... nobody was used to the idea of these temperatures staying so low for such a consistent amount of time... almost two weeks when it was all said and done and some record lows for this time of year, we still have February to look forward to.
After the freezing temperatures passed... we got a heat wave of about forty five degrees for five days and now we're starting to dip back down to below zero. Well, I hope this wasn't too long for everybody to keep up, and I shortened it quite a bit so it was easily readable in one sitting. I will be posting more frequently now and hope that everyone gets the chance to see. Stay warm and enjoy the new year!!!

Morning Musings

Mornings in the winter in Fairbanks are much different than any morning I have ever experienced. First, you must get used to the darkness that lingers until almost lunchtime. If you were to look outside at three in the morning and at eight in the morning, you would see no difference. But with my amazing dawn simulator( a nightlight that dims to represent sunset and brightens in the morning before your alarm goes off, to represent the sunrise), things get a bit easier as you get used to them.
As we inch closer to December 21, Winter Solstice, Fairbanks is losing about seven minutes a day of sunlight. That means within ten days we lose over an hour of our sunlight, making it easier to know when lunchtime is (when the sun comes up). By the time Winter Solstice actually does come around, we will only see about three and a half hours of sunlight a day, from about eleven to around two thirty, YIKES!!!
While many take showers to wake them up, or drink coffee to get a nice buzz in the morning, my wake up medicine is the frigid cold that I step out into every day to start the car. If it snowed the night before, I brush all the snow off and make sure the windshield wipers aren't stuck and that my keyhole hasn't frozen over. If I know it is going to be an extremely cold night, twenty five to forty below (or worse), then I have to get up about twenty minutes earlier so that the car is nice and warm and functions properly.
There is an elementary school just two blocks away from where I live and every morning I pass it on my way to work. Like most schools, there is a crosswalk guy who stands out on the corner, assuring that each child crosses safely. This is another job I would not want to have. No matter what the temperature is, this guy is always out helping the public. He makes my day a little bit better every time I pass through because he does a nice bow, one foot behind the other, taking his cap off and graciously crossing it over his chest. For someone who has to stand outside in the winter cold all morning, I commend him.
One of the hardest parts about the morning drive is making sure I don't slip off the road with all the snow and ice built up on the concrete. You must give yourself ample amount of time to move into a lane or cross an intersection, as well as room between yourself and other cars. An immediate stop by anyone can create a huge pile-up or just a slippery confusion for all involved. When turning corners you must take your time and make sure a bike tire doesn't catch a small curb and your backside goes flying out behind you. But, sometimes I let the curb hit my tire and have a little fun pretending I can actually drift. I know mom, not safe.

Weather

It has never been easy to move from a place like California to the tundra of Alaska, but this place really does grow on you after a while. As winter has already fallen upon the Interior, it is sometimes hard to remember what it is like in other spots of the world. A normal day lately in Fairbanks has been between about zero and ten degrees above. Last week, as we all woke up for our dreaded Monday morning, Fairbanks residents got a cold surprise of about twenty degrees below zero. Although twenty below is cold, I find it funny how people here react to the situation. For myself, all it was was a switch from my normal down jacket to my Carharrt. For others, it was just one more layer on top and maybe a warmer pair of socks. That same Monday I was watching Monday night football and in Buffalo it was just above twenty degrees and people within the stadium looked as though they were going to die if it got any colder. I looked at my roommate and we both laughed about how big of wimps these people were and that twenty above would be nice at this time. Then it hit me, 'Did I really say that?', Did I really just say that twenty above would be nice weather. Yes, and if you haven't endured the cold here you would never understand. The last two days it has been just above zero, and after the cold snap we felt, that weather has felt so warm. I found myself driving the other day with my window down thinking that the cold air feels great. I come home in three weeks and I really wonder what its going to be like to be thrown into fifty something degree weather. Shorts and t-shirts, here I come!!!!

(I rambled quite a bit in this one. Pardon my grammar mistakes.)

Thankful

At many times throughout the year we are reminded why we are thankful for certain people, blessings in our life, and the many things we get to enjoy that many others do not. But, as I began to think the other day about what I was most thankful for, I could not come up with any specific thing. It boggled my mind that I was not able to think of one single thing that I was truly thankful for, but that all changed when I entered the Fairbanks Rescue Mission this afternoon for a Thanksgiving preview story, as well as the hundreds of individuals lined up at the church just down the road looking for boxes of supplies for a sufficient Thanksgiving dinner.
Yes, I'm thankful for many different things within my life but I think the one thing I am most thankful for is the love and care that so many people have shown this thanksgiving. It will be exactly one year from tomorrow that I made my journey to the last frontier to chase a job that I had worked so hard for. I am thankful for those so many people that have taken me under their wing while being in such an unfamiliar place and made it feel like home. I am thankful for the memories that I have been able to share with those around me and the many memories that still hold strong in my mind from the past. I am thankful to have a family that cares to know what I am doing everyday and that I am financially stable and able to enjoy the many things that consume my everyday life. I am just plain thankful that I am cared for by so many people and that I am able to care for them in the same way.
It will be my first thanksgiving away from my family, but also the first thanksgiving that I get to enjoy with many of the new friends that have come into my life. My family will always be the first to come to mind when I think of Thanksgiving and things that I am thankful for, but as I sit down and enjoy a delicious home cooked meal, I can't be anymore thankful for the past year and all the experiences that I have endured and the many blessings that I have received. Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Never would have thought

A lot of my time here in Fairbanks consists of me driving around town for different stories or interviews, which gives me a lot of time to spend people watching and observing from afar. One thing I noticed the other day was a job that I really would not like in Fairbanks during the winter, Parking Enforcement. Even though this town sees temperatures of fifty below zero during the winter, the parking enforcement officers are always out and ready to give tickets. As many of us dread the walk from our heated cars to the heated buildings we work in, parking enforcement officers are walking all around town throughout the day monitoring parking spots and giving tickets. If you catch them at the end of their route, you can usually notice the amount of moisture icicles that have formed on the hood of their jackets and the cold ice that has accumulated on their face cover as they breathe in and out while they walk. Yes, they walk, they do not have little "meter maid" cars like many of us are used to seeing, they make their trips walking throughout the downtown area. It definitely makes me appreciate a warm car every time I see them.
Another thing that I never thought about before I got here was the use of a cemetery. In many parts of the world, cemetery's can be used year round, not here in Fairbanks. Because of the freezing cold temperatures and the amount of snow that falls so early in the year, cemetery's are shut down at a certain point and then re-open once the ground is considered reasonable to dig. No, people here don't send the fallen out to sea on large pieces of broken ice ( the same notion of no, we don't all live in igloos). I find it quite interesting that they can just close cemetery's for more than half a year and then just re-open for other parts of the year. Strange, at least to me.
And one last observance, except this one is more of a question of logic. Many residents of the Fairbanks area are called Natives. These are the people who have rooted pasts within the Alaskan Interior for hundreds of years and still call Fairbanks home. Unfortunately, many of them live off of the states money and their ancestral savings from their tribe. Okay, back to my point- Ravens within the Interior are some of the biggest you will ever see in your life, these things are just plain massive. Natives believe that all of their ancestors are the Ravens that roam the town and the state for that matter. But I wonder, why believe your ancestors are Ravens? These are the same birds that spend entire winters freezing to death in the sub zero temperatures and picking through peoples trash. When I think about my deceased relatives, I really don't want to subject them to being trash pickers that have to survive these temperatures and being one of the most hated animals within an entire town. I find it odd that one large group would selectively choose this animal to represent their relatives who have passed.
Well, that's all for now from the Last Frontier. Hope everyone is staying warm!

Election Season

I know many of my critics have been waiting for another blog, aka mom and grandma, but I am now finally able to post again. For the past months election season in Alaska has been quite the up and down roller coaster. With Gov. Sarah Palin being announced as McCain's running mate, Stevens going to trial and being convicted, and Don Young, "Poor Don Young", also being investigated... this has been quite the political scene so far in Alaska. As it came closer and closer for voters to make their decision for 2008... it has only made my job and daily duties even more stressful. I have been at sign wavings at 7:30 in the morning just to catch candidates with their volunteers, I have been to more political rallies than I ever thought I would attend in my life, I have talked to a convicted felon that the people still continue to support for Senate (Ted Stevens, as if you didn't know), and I was at Election Central all night last night until one in the morning. As election season has almost come to a close, I can finally take a big sigh of relief. Although I enjoy hearing the different sides of issues all day long and the political jargon that many candidates try and use to mix up your thoughts, and Joe Paskvans mother endorsing all his commercials("I'm Joe's mother, and I approve this message")... I can finally say that I am quite glad Election 2008 is over with. It's been real... It's been fun... But it hasn't been real fun.

Watch your step

When I woke up this morning, I first noticed the immense amount of snow outside my window and that it was coming down pretty hard. I looked on the net for what the temperature was (So I know what to wear, of course boots) and noticed that we are in the midst of a storm advisory. When i think of storm advisory, I think of wind and rain. Nope, this is a snow blizzard storm advisory, up to ten inches of possible snow and decreasing temperatures(possible ten below tonight). But there's one thing you have to be most careful of when it snows this hard, and that's the ground that you are walking on. As snow begins to accumulate and gets smashed down day after day, it becomes frozen solid ice. The streets are like hockey rinks, the sidewalks like greased pavement, and take nothing more than a half step at all times. As I pulled out of the parking lot I watched as a man and woman crossed the road with coffee in hand. The women was taking her time, while the man walked as though he was perfectly fine. As you may have guessed, two seconds later the man slipped, his feet flew up in the air, and he was on his back in the middle of the street with hot coffee all over him. Although I felt sorry for him, because I know how much that hurts, I couldn't help but laugh. I didn't feel too bad, because the woman he was with laughed as well, shaking her finger at him while he still was on his back. I made fun of them before I got here, but I definitely have to thank my mom for getting me the first pair of shoe spikes that have saved me from being the idiot in the middle of the street many times.