Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

Autumn is so fleeting here. Only a week ago, we had two or three trees in the back yard which were bright with yellow. Now all of our birch and cottonwood have changed to gold and yellow. And just as quickly, the leaves started falling. Our lawn is littered with leaves, but they look beautiful against the green grass. I’m going to wager that in less than two weeks, our trees will be bare.  Here in interior Alaska, it seems you say goodbye to summer and fall at just about the same time.

I’ve been trying to cram in as much as I can in these last remaining weeks (days?) before the s— comes. I won’t type the “s” word because I don’t want to encourage it to arrive too quickly!

I mentioned a few entries ago that I signed up for this year’s Middle Eastern Dance class. We had our first class this past Monday. It was wonderful! The new studio (Space For Movement Studio) is really nice.  It’s located downtown in the old Elbow Room, so it’s a bit further of a drive for me, but I like the feel of the studio. I also love the lighting in the studio. It’s much softer so we all look gorgeous. *grin*  The class is 1.5 hours, and it was a heck of a workout. Much more fun than aerobics, with all the benefits.  If you live local and want to do something fun this winter, come on out on Monday evenings from 6-7:30pm. You can find out more about the class on Souzana’s website at www.souzanadance.com.  Age nor experience matter. It’s all for fun and it’s a great reason to get out of the house.

I took Sedona walking at Creamers Field yesterday. I saw some geese still hanging around, but the cranes are long gone.  Sedona and I walked the Boreal Forest Trail. We came across several large groups of elementary school children (field trips?) who were learning about the trees and the leaf changes of autumn. I was amazed at how golden the trees along the trail are already.

After walking at Creamers Field with Sedona yesterday afternoon (about 1.25 miles), I met up with my friend Hannah and we walked the bike trail near our homes. We ended up walking 4.25 miles - a little more than I originally planned, but good for us nonetheless. Today, I’m pretty achy. Between the dancing on Monday, and the walking on Tuesday, Motrin was on the agenda for today. I plan to keep it up though, at least until the weather puts an end to it.

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Changing the tone of this journal entry, I want to gripe a little bit. I feel I must write about the frustration that I  - and so many other Alaskans - feel, when it comes to the price of shipping goods to Alaska.

I’ve been doing more and more portrait shoots over the past year or so. In the summer months,  I have the natural light of the sun to illuminate my subject. The rest of the year, I either schedule my portrait shoots during the brief hours of daylight, or I use a fill flash.  It’s much more challenging - and limiting - to photograph people without using a good lighting setup.

I recently found a good studio lighting starter kit online, offered by a vendor that I have always used when purchasing camera equipment, lenses, etc. This vendor offers free shipping on this particular item - to anyone in the contiguous United States.  If you live in Alaska or Hawaii, free shipping is not available. One of the options in that case is UPS ground.

I was appalled to discover that the cost to ship a 10lb parcel to Alaska from NY using UPS Ground was $52.00.  The starter kit only costs $119.00, so you can understand why this would bug me.  I went to the UPS site and researched the shipping costs, and I discovered that although it costs $52.00 to ship that parcel from NY to AK, if I were to ship the same parcel from AK to NY, the cost is only $22.00!  A $30.00 difference for the same distance, and the same method of shipping - all because the package is coming TO Alaska.

I emailed UPS and wanted to know why there was such a wide difference in cost, considering the distance is the same, the weight of the parcel is the same, and the only difference is origination/destination being reversed.  I received a ‘canned’ response from some clerk stating that parcels coming TO Alaska or Hawaii are in a different zone than parcels coming FROM Alaska or Hawaii. Why is this? Why are we penalized for living in Alaska by vendors, and shipping companies? We ARE part of the US, we spend American money, and we happen to do a lot of shopping online because we can’t get everything we need up here.

Many people I know have parcels shipped to their families in the Lower 48 (for free, as offered by the company) and then have the parcels sent directly from family members to Alaska using USPS parcel post, etc. but why should we have to do that? Why can’t shipping companies - particularly UPS - do the ethical thing and charge us the same price they’d charge us if we were sending the parcel to NY?  I’m so disgusted by this practice of gouging us!

And for those of you who didn’t know… the cost to ship a package from the east coast to WA state (via the postal service) is the same as the cost to ship that same parcel to Alaska. While the USPS classifies AK and WA as being in the same zone (when shipping from the East Coast), countless vendors in the Lower 48 still unethically penalize a buyer in Alaska or Hawaii and charge a premium to ship - even when using the USPS. Those businesses don’t get my hard-earned money and never will.

I also sent an email to the vendor who’s selling the lighting kit - offering to pay the DIFFERENCE between their free shipping to WA state from NY and what it would cost to ship it to AK. I haven’t heard back from them yet. If they’re not willing to do it, I may have to resort to having the item shipped to my brother, or my kids, and send them the money to send it to me using the USPS. Unless I find another vendor who won’t penalize me for having an AK address. Wish me luck on that. :/

Until next time….