Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

Happy November! Where did October go?! Hard to believe that we’re heading into the holiday time of the year, with Thanksgiving soon approaching, and Christmas on its heels.

Over the last several years, I’ve been designating November as a month for gratitude.  A friend of mine started the tradition in her own blog, and I thought it was an excellent idea. I’ve found that there are days when I really have to dig deep to find something to write about. I suppose on those days I make it more of a chore than it has to be, as there are so many little things to be grateful for. It doesn’t always have to be something BIG. I’ve been writing down my thoughts each day, so that I could share them here. My plan is to continue to give thanks for something each day.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1st

Today, I am so thankful for the view I have from the windows of my home. As I sit here typing on my laptop, I am looking directly out the big picture window in our family room. The window is 4′x4′ and is the perfect frame for the slender birch and cottonwood trees in the side yard. There are also a sprinkling of spruce in that direction, but most are spindly. The birch and cottonwood form a natural privacy fence between our house and the neighbors.

Right now, the boughs of the spruce are spotted with snow. Some of the smaller birch saplings are already leaning with the weight of snow. As more snow comes, they will continue to lean, until the upward tips bend completely to the ground. It’s amazing to watch them bend without breaking. The squirrels use them as a super highway to the higher branches when that happens.

From my kitchen window - a smaller 30″x30″ - which is located above the kitchen sink, I can look out into the back yard. This is where I am usually standing when I see the snowshoe hares hop through the yard. It’s from this window where I saw the fox the other day. I love having a window over the kitchen sink.

In my kitchen window, I have a red stained glass piece hanging. I made the piece in a beginners class back in 2004. In the winter, when the sun is low in the sky, the morning light shines through the glass and duplicates it on the floor. Light is so precious in the winter up here. Colored light is a delight for the senses in a black and white world.

Our sliding glass doors also look out on our back yard, as does the big picture window in the bedroom. From those large expanses of glass, I can watch the aurora dance in the sky without going out in the cold. I can watch moose wander through my yard. I can watch the sky turn pink and orange during our long winter sunrises and sunsets.

I love these ‘windows on the world’. I love having enough glass to bring the outside in. But most of all I love what I see through them.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2nd

Today I am thankful for the long distances that online journaling can reach, and the friends that are made along the way.

Over the years, I’ve met at many people through this journal. Most live locally, but some are readers who have been able to make the trip to Alaska. This is probably my favorite part about journaling, as I love to meet new people, and I especially love to hear about their adventures in Alaska. It’s great to hear the excitement in their voices when they talk about the landscapes they’ve seen, or the activities they’ve experienced, or the wildlife encounters they’ve had. It reminds me of a time when I was still very new to AK and seeing things for the first time.

Today, I met the lovely Pella.  Pella traveled to AK to view the polar bears in Barrow with a local friend. She has been reading my journal for a little while, so she contacted me about meeting up for coffee or lunch while she was in town.  I was thrilled to meet a *new* friend in person. We had lunch at The Cookie Jar, and chatted for several hours. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I spent with her, and I do hope that we can get together again the next time she comes for a visit. (Thank you, Pella, for a wonderful lunch, and great conversation! I hope you had a safe an uneventful trip home. It was a pleasure to meet you and I look forward to doing it again someday!)

The internet has really enriched my life, by allowing me to forge friendships with people who live thousands of miles away. For this I am extremely grateful.

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 3rd

Today I am thankful for dance. I’m not an excellent dancer, but my body is healthy enough that I can move it. Although my knees and my back ache after a good night in belly dance class, it’s worth it, because I always leave the class feeling good about the workout.

When I was younger (before Steve), I went dancing nearly every weekend with a couple of friends I worked with. I’d hit the local dance club on a Friday or Saturday evening (or both!) for a few hours.  I loved moving my body on the dance floor, absorbing the music and just going with the beat. Sometimes I stayed till the wee hours of the morning - dancing and socializing, but most of the time I’d only go for several hours and be home before midnight. It was my aerobics workout each week, and it was a heck of a lot more fun than going to a gym.

Now, I’m older, and less flexible, and I get winded a little more easily, but I still love to dance. My ability was never the caliber of a ballerina; I was never very graceful. I never possessed the great agility of a street dancer, because I can’t isolate and control my muscles and joints the way they do. I’m not a dancer you’d notice on the dance floor and say “Wow.. look at her dance!” I’ve always danced just for me.

When I close my eyes, I’m a good dancer. It’s good I close my eyes. *grin*

Yesterday, while driving, a song came on the radio that I haven’t heard in years. It was one of my favorite songs to dance to back in my dance club days. Driving down the road, I sang along at the top of my lungs, while I moved my hips and swayed in my seat. Lots of fabulous memories came flooding back.

When’s the last time you danced?

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4th

Today I am thankful for early morning sunshine that makes ‘fairy dust’ glitter on top of the snow. I’m also thankful for the crunch, crunch, crunch, of snow beneath my boots. I love that sound on a quiet morning.

I’m also thankful for neighbors who wave when they drive by and I’m out walking Sedona. I love my friendly neighborhood.

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2010 ALASKA CALENDAR

I’ve made two large shipments of calendars to those of you who placed an order. I’ve received emails from several of you telling me that you’ve already received your calendar. The mail from AK to the Lower 48 has been moving pretty efficiently, I’m happy to say. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for mail coming in the other direction.

It seems that there has been a problem with checks that some of you mailed out during the third week of October. They haven’t gotten to me yet, while checks mailed out later have.  I’ve been in contact with several of you in regards to this issue. When/if these checks arrive, I will email you.  I wish I knew what to tell you. I never know from one day to the next how service is going to be coming through the North Pole PO.  It is because of this irregular service, that I drive almost 20 miles roundtrip to the PO near the Fairbanks Airport, to ship your orders. It’s worth it to me to use extra time and gas to ensure my packages get to the Lower 48 in a timely fashion.

If you have any questions about your order, please don’t hesitate to email me directly.  For all of you who have already received your order, I hope that you get great enjoyment from it in 2010. Thank you all!

OUT AND ABOUT

I’ve been busy running errands over the past week, and I’ve made sure to stop along the way to snap some photos. Since Daylight Savings Time went into effect, the days seem so much shorter. By 5pm, the sun is just about below the horizon already. I don’t like it at all. I don’t see the sense of having DST here in AK, when we already have so much darkness in winter. Give me daylight in the afternoon, when it counts!

Here are some of the things I’ve stopped to enjoy, in the midst of busy-ness:

Sunset on the Chena River, Downtown Fairbanks:

Ducks Paddling into the Sunset, Chena River:

Duck Prints in the Snow:

Bike Rack:

Courthouse Reflections:

Birdhouse, Pioneer Park:

Red Cabin, Pioneer Park:

Flags in Snow:

Totem, Pioneer Park:

Gray Logs and Coca Cola:

Frost on Window:

Pink Heart (Selective Coloring):

Trees against the Moon:

November Hunter’s Moon:

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Starting tomorrow, Steve is off for seven days. I’m happy that his week off coincides with my First Friday. It will be good to have his company at the Dance Studio. On Saturday night, we plan to attend a dance performance by the very talented ladies of Cold Fusion. It’s called Voodoo Moon and will be held at the Empress Theater in downtown Fairbanks. Seating is limited. The show starts at 7:30pm.

Sunday, I may take a drive to Denali Park with my friend Lori. The road is still open to mile 15 (Savage River) and this could be our very last chance to get into the park past the Park Ranger office, before winter snow closes the road until spring.  We’re going to play it by ear, as we both have a very full weekend. Steve will no doubt be watching football, so he’ll be thrilled to have the big TV all to himself.

The morning temperature has been below zero, but we’re still warming up to about 15 or 20F above in the afternoon. I know that doesn’t sound like ‘warming up’ to some of you in the banana belt, but it sure does make a difference to us.

Until next time….