Living in Alaska - Life in the Last Frontier

Sorry for my absence. So much has happened since I wrote last.

I photographed a wedding on Saturday. It was held at the local Masonic Lodge, and was a nice gathering of folks. The bride’s gown was sewed for her by her grandmother, as was the flower girl’s dress.  The reception was a potluck buffet, and music during the ceremony was provided by a friend of the couple, who played his guitar. At the reception, a laptop streamed music through speakers.

I love weddings like this… informal, and yet formal. Planned on a budget; utilizing the talents of friends and family to make it a beautiful occasion.  It reminded me a lot of my and Steve’s wedding, in that family and close friends did what they could to make the day personal and memorable.  I’m still working on the photos, but will share a few when they’re ready.

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Last night, on the way to dance class with my friend Carmen, I had a car accident. The roads are still very slick - especially since the weather has warmed up.  I didn’t even see the car coming through the intersection, just as I was entering it.  All I remember is seeing the car directly in front of me, slamming on my brakes, sliding into the intersection, cutting my wheels to try to steer away from the car, and hitting the other car on the passenger side door.

No one was hurt, thank God, but I was pretty shaken up. I have been driving since I was 16 and this was my very first accident.  My car hit the other car at an angle (thank God again!) so my front corner panel and driver’s side of the bumper took the brunt of the impact. Of course, fiberglass bumpers don’t hold up very well, but cutting my wheel prevented the front of my car from crushing inward and damaging the engine compartment - and perhaps us.

My grill is intact, as are my headlights. And I was able to drive the car home. The accident occurred on a residential street, so I was only going about 20mph - and even less than that when we collided.  My airbags didn’t even deploy.

We called an officer to the scene as the other car’s passenger side door was pretty much crushed.  Thank God there was no one riding in that seat, or they would have been injured for sure! After seeing the damage to that car (a Nissan Versa), despite the low rate of speed - I would never buy that model car. It crumpled like cardboard!

The officer had to write me a ticket for failure to exercise caution - which is the least severe citation when there’s a fender bender without injury.  I don’t know what I could  have done to prevent the accident, with the intersection being so icy.  Now I’ve got 2 points on my license and a $160 fine. Not to mention the repairs to my car which is going to be $1000 out of pocket, as that is what our deductible is.

We’ve always kept our deductible high to save on our premiums, and because we’ve never had accidents. *knocks wood*  We’ve saved much more than that $1000 in premium reductions over the years, so I’m not too upset about it. I’ll put it on my Alaska Airline Visa card and earn miles for it.  My only worry at this point is the damage to the other car, and whether they go after my insurance company to pay for the repairs. That will increase my premiums.

Oh well, I’m just so thankful that no one was hurt. Cars can be fixed much more easily than people.

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Steve had surgery today to remove excess bone growth in his shoulder joint, which was causing the muscle (or tendon?) to fray when it moved against the bone. This became very painful as time passed. Steve had the other shoulder operated on just before retiring from the army back in 2007, and knew that he had to have this shoulder fixed eventually.  He also had his elbow worked on (the other elbow was done in 2007 as well). The surgeon drilled holes through the bone in his elbow, which will promote new bone growth.

The surgery took a little longer than an hour, but Steve took a while to wake up and get his land legs back, so we were at the hospital for almost 5 hours.  He came home with pain medication, an ice pack, and wearing a sling.  He’s off for the next 7 days (his usual days off) so at least he’ll be able to rest and recuperate without having to take sick leave. Hopefully, the healing process won’t take too long.  He’ll be starting physical therapy next week.  As long as his arm is strong enough to cast a fishing rod this summer, he’ll be happy.

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Good news! My eldest son Chris is coming for a visit in March! He’ll be here from March 15-27th, which is the most perfect time to visit AK during the winter months. While he’s here, I’m going to take him to the Ice Park to see the sculptures, downtown for the North American Championship Races (sled dogs), and out to Chatanika for Chatanika Days (outhouse races, etc.). I also plan to take him to the Museum of the North, and maybe for a scenic drive down to Paxson (a little further than where I went with Lori) to look for migrating caribou. The icing on the cake would be some aurora activity. I really would love for him to see the lights dancing overhead. I should talk to my friend Georganne about taking him out for a sled ride. He’d love that!

Before he comes, I have a lot of work to do in our home office. I’m converting it to a photography room, where I can store my photo stuff (mats, frames, etc), and have a table for framing and matting. I’ll use the computer for photo editing, but we don’t really need a home office anymore. Both Steve and I use our laptops exclusively.  This way I’ll also be able to get the guest room in order again. Right now it’s holding stuff we’ve moved out of the office, so that I can paint in that room and perhaps install a wood laminate floor.  So much to do!

Sorry for the lack of photos in this entry. I did snap a few photos of the birds feeding, but that’s about it. Maybe I’ll get out this weekend if the weather is nice. Perhaps I’ll take Raven (and my camera) down to Chena Lakes for a nice walk.

Until next time…

It’s 42 below zero outside my front door. Brrrr! It would be a good day for a “boiling water into snow” experiment, but I think I’d rather stay inside where it’s warm. There’s a layer of ice fog hanging over town, creating a misty view from my windows. It looks cold out there!

When I wrote last, I was planning a road trip with my friend Lori. I wasn’t feeling safe about driving my car 320 miles in 34 below zero temps, so Lori offered to drive instead. She has a jeep, which performs much better in the cold than my car does.

I packed a bag with emergency gear: arctic boots, extra socks, gloves and mittens, snow pants, a hat, several energy bars, and water. I wore my heavy parka and several layers of fleece, as well as long underwear.  Many miles of the Richardson Hwy are deserted - even more so in the winter months.

As we left North Pole behind, the temperature gauge in Lori’s car was reading -34F. Brrrrr! Fortunately, it warmed up as we headed south on the Richardson Highway. By the time we reached the Delta area, it was a balmy -14F. Even further down the road I think we saw -4F, but the wind was really starting to pick up. It may have been -4F on the temperature gauge, but the windchill made it feel like -50F. I am so thankful to live in the Fairbanks area, where the wind is pretty much nonexistent. It was brutal down there. I felt like I was being stabbed by a million needles, standing out in the wind to take photos.

We hoped for a beautiful sunrise, but there were low hanging clouds in the Salcha area, which obscured most of the sky and the mountains. The range was visible from the first overlook, however, a little further down the road, the sky was dark with clouds again. Then they lifted as the sun came over the mountains.

We decided to take a side trip to Bolio Lake.  I love the view of the lake when you approach. The road is higher in elevation, so you get to look down on the lake and get the full effect of the mountains behind it. This time of year, the lake is quite frozen (3 feet thick, from what I’ve heard), and there are a couple of ice fishing shacks on the ice. You can rent these shacks and try your hand at ice fishing (arctic grayling, rainbow trout).

In the photo below, you can see two ice fishing shacks on the frozen lake. It just so happens that my online friend Hayley (her blog is linked in my Blogroll list), was in one of those ice houses with her husband and daughter. I do hope to meet her in person soon.

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I was planning on attending the Annamaet Challenge Series Race today, with my friend Denise. Unfortunately, the race was postponed due to cold. The temperature cut-off is 25 below. When I woke this morning at 7am, it was 28 below outside my front door. I called NOAA, as that’s where the organizers get the current temperature reading, and the temp at 8am was -27F. I’m disappointed, but hope to go next Sunday. I haven’t been to see the dogs run at all this winter.

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The night before last, I was up late - as I usually am when Steve is on day shift.  He goes to bed so early, and I don’t like to disturb him, so I usually end up sitting up until the wee hours, or catching a little sleep on the sofa. I go to bed when he goes to work at 4am.

I was keeping an eye on the aurora web cam and the photos were showing faint green light in sky, with slender and brighter green bands low on the horizon. Because we have trees around our house, I can’t see the lights from my driveway or the road unless they’re higher up in the sky.

Suddenly, the camera showed that the bright bands had moved higher in the sky, so I put my camera on the tripod, and bundled up for the short trek down my driveway. The moon was fairly bright, so I didn’t have much hope of seeing anything.

About five minutes later, I saw a green band come over the trees.  I shot some long exposures (about 13-15 seconds). Long exposures make the aurora look a lot brighter than it appears to the naked eye, but it’s still so pretty:

These next two photos are a more accurate representation of the brightness of the lights:

And then, as quickly as they appeared, they were gone.  Good thing though, because my fingers were burning with the pain of the cold (-20F) - even with gloves on!

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Tomorrow I have plans to go on a road trip with my friend Lori. I’d love to drive down to Black Rapids (about 130 miles one way), or even as far as Gulkana Glacier (about 160 miles), but with the extreme cold, and the fact that my car does not like it when it’s colder than 10 below, I’m a little nervous about making that drive. Once you get through Delta, there’s not much in the way of civilization.  Of course I’d be prepared with emergency gear, but the thought of breaking down doesn’t give me any warm and fuzzies.  We’ll see what the temperature gauge is reading tomorrow and decide then.

Enjoy what’s left of your weekend!