Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

Steve and I had a lovely Thanksgiving dinner today - just the two of us. Everything I prepared turned out delicious. I feel like I spent hours preparing for this meal, and dinner was over in about 45 minutes. We have plenty of leftovers to carry Steve through his next week of work, which is perfect.

Today I want to give thanks for an amazing beautiful day. In addition to good food and good company, it truly was a beautiful day in Alaska.

I was still up a little after midnight, and as always, the last thing I did before turning off all the lights and heading up to bed - was look to the night sky through the sliding glass doors. I thought I saw a tinge of green in the sky, but it was very faint. The phone rang and it was Steve. He called me to tell me that the forecast was calling for moderate activity, and he was seeing some pale green streaks in the sky. I got my camera ready, pulled on my coat and gloves, and stepped out onto our back deck.

I saw a bright green glow begin low on the horizon behind the spruce trees bordering our property. It quickly worked it’s way higher into the starlit sky, sometimes shooting like pillars straight up into the blackness. And then, in about ten minutes, it was all over. The pale lights came back, but the bright colors never did return. I’m glad I happened to be out there at the right time.

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It’s not Thanksgiving Day here in Alaska yet (only 8pm), but it is on the east coast, even though most of you are probably sleeping. Or maybe not. Maybe you’re finalizing preparations for tomorrow’s dinner, like I was doing all day.

I baked the pumpkin pie already, and the turkey is thawing. Since I only have to cook a breast, it should only take a few hours tomorrow. Steve’s at work and will be sleeping until dinner, so I’m planning  dinner for around 3pm. It’s just the two of us, and that’s OK.  It might be a small, intimate dinner, but that won’t stop us from giving thanks for all of the blessings in our lives.

I think I’ll do my daily gratitudes because there is a lot of good news in my gratitudes and I’m excited about sharing that news.

NOVEMBER GRATITUDE

November 23rd: Today I am so thankful for a stress test that was totally NORMAL! No flutters, no palpitations, no skipped beats, nada. I know I’m obviously out of shape because I reached my MAX target rate (190 beats) in about two minutes. In other words, I was panting like a running dog at a 3.0 walk. It’s not bad though… the doctor (who was about 13 years old :P) told me that “for my age” I’m quite average with my fitness level. Thank goodness I never had to jog.. that would have been ugly.

However, because the stress test didn’t show any abnormalities, and I’ve had palpitations even when I don’t overexert (although nothing showed up today), he’s recommended a halter monitor that I’ll wear for 24 hours to monitor my heart. Unfortunately, there are only three at the hospital, so it’s sort of like going to the library. I have to wait for one to come back before I can be hooked up.

November 24th: Today I am thankful for an airline employee who spent 30 minutes on the phone with me getting me the best price for RT tickets to Atlanta, using our free companion fare ticket and some airline miles. This means that Steve and I are booked for our trip to visit Kayla and her family in North Carolina!!!

I would have never been able to do it via the website, as it involved booking each direction separately and applying the discounts, etc that way. Because of his patience, and my perfect timing, Steve and I got the last two first class seats both coming and going! YAY! Considering it’s a non-stop flight from Seattle to Atlanta, our lower extremities are going to be so happy for comfy seating and legroom!  We’ll be renting a car in Atlanta and driving to where Kayla lives in Harmony.  We were going to book a short flight between ATL and Charlotte, but we’d rather have flexibility with our schedule. We also prefer road-tripping, and want to enjoy the scenery.

November 25th: Today I am thankful that my husband is employed, and works hard enough to enable me to purchase tickets to Wisconsin to VISIT MY KIDS!!!! Steve can’t go because of his work schedule, but I’m going to be flying to Madison to see the kids in January! I am so incredibly excited! It’s been a year since I’ve seen them, and I miss them a lot. When I called to tell them I was coming, it was so nice to hear the excitement in their voices too. It really warms my heart to know that they miss me as much as I miss them.  I look forward to cooking for them (how funny that I hate to cook, but I enjoy cooking for my kids), spending time with them, going out to dinner with them, and having a lovely time just hanging out.

With all this travel ahead: Vegas in December, Madison in January, and North Carolina in February, winter will pass by quickly. I don’t want to miss it totally though… I do love the winter landscape, the dogsled races, the Ice Art Championships, the northern lights and all the other great things about winter in Alaska.  But having short ‘escapes’ over the long winter will definitely keep everything wonderful and exciting.

Speaking of winter landscapes.. I took Sedona with me for errands the other day. We stopped for a walk along the Chena River on the bike/walking path behind the Carlson Center. The river there isn’t frozen, and steam comes off it when the sun shines. There are ducks (mallards) who winter over here in Fairbanks. They move up and down the thawed part of the river, and are kept fed by locals. I’ve seen straw or hay thrown down for them too, and I’m assuming it’s bedding material, but I don’t know enough about ducks to be sure.

These ducks were quite friendly and approached us as soon as we showed up. They probably thought we had food for them.

The hoarfrost on the trees was amazingly beautiful! I love the colors of winter when the sky is blue.

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The deep freeze is here. I classify the deep freeze as anything colder than -25F.  As I type this, it’s -30F according to Weather Underground. However, the good news is that a warm up is coming! And by warm, I mean temperatures above zero. In fact, they are predicting that Thanksgiving Day will find us as warm as 10 above! Now 10 above might not seem very warm to you, but it sure is a big difference from -30F. Your nose hairs don’t freeze at 10 above. I can go outside without wearing three layers of clothing. In fact, if I’m just running errands and going from car to building, I can get away with doing that with only a lightweight fleece jacket at 10F above. Bring on the heatwave! *grin*

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I woke to a very comical sight a few mornings ago.  It’s not the first time I woke up to find my feline furkid Airborne in a state of intoxication, after raiding the pantry and finding the catnip.  But it is the first time that I was able to photograph her in her guilty, but oh so blissful state.  She is a naughty cat!

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