2/1/2008

Found out today that my truck will be delivered to me on Monday the 4th.  However, I am going to have it delivered right to a tire shop.  The tires that are on it have 50,000+ miles on them and everyone is telling us to get studded tires anyway.

2/2/2008

Spent most of the day coordinating removal of the rental furniture that Bentley rented for us.  The house looked like a furniture warehouse before they came.  All of our furniture is here and the rental furniture was tucked away on any open floor space we could find.

2/3/2008

Excellent message at church today.  Pastor John Hunn spoke from Psalm 19 and used that passage to illustrate that God wants to reveal himself to us and in fact He has revealed himself to us.  He reveals himself to us everyday simply by making the sun appear.  We are left to decide to be glad and to rejoice in it, or to "keep looking for a sign" of God's love.

2/4/2008

My truck was delivered off of the ship yesterday.  It looks like it made it ok without any damage however, it will not start.  It did start and idled for about 10 minutes and then it stalled.  Now it will not start.  I had it delivered to the dealership where we bought Rhonda's car because I knew that it needed new tires.  Good thing, because if it were delivered home, it would have had to be towed.  The mechanic at the dealership thinks that the diesel fuel gelled because of the temperature.  The highs have been in the single digits and lows (and most of the day and night) have been below zero for about a week.

So ... I will wait to hear what the problem is.  Hopefully they can just bring it inside and warm it up and then get some fuel additive in there to get things flowing again.

2/5/2008

Rhonda and I did three miles on the treadmill today at the gym.  Wow ... it's been a long time since I did that kind of exercise.  I burned over 400 calories ... now I can have a nice twinkie to relax me before bedtime :-)

Andrew came out of school today telling us that his tongue hurt.  He was sticking it out of his mouth a little and he could not talk very well.  We asked him what happened and he said, "I touched a metal pole with my tongue at recess."  Well ... it was in the single digits at recess.  Guess what ... it immediately froze to the pole and he ripped it off of the metal pole leaving part of his tongue behind.  Why would you put your tongue on a metal pole in any climate?????  And ... why would you put your tongue on a metal pole when the temperature has been below 10 for over a week??????  Andrew is still thinking about the answers to those questions.

2/6/2008

Watched Danny compete in the speech meet today at school.  He did a great job reciting ":Chicken Little" in front of both fourth grade classes.

Found out today that I may be taking a trip up the Greater Prudhoe Bay oil fields (referred to as the North Slope) for work over the weekend of February 15th.  The North Slope is inside the Arctic Circle!  I fly out of Anchorage on a BP chartered aircraft and stay in corporate barracks up on the slope.

2/11/2008

About 6 inches of snow fell overnight.  We have not had snow in over a week.  It has been very strange since we have pretty much had snow every day since we arrived.  It stopped around 10:00 am today.  It started back up again around 2:00.  We are supposed to get another 8 inches overnight tonight and then 3 inches on Wednesday.  Along with the snow there is a warming trend.  No more below zero temps for a while.  We are back into the 10 to 20 range and then we are supposed to get up into the 20s next week.

On Saturday I got studded snow tires installed on my truck and today, I got them installed on Rhonda's car.  Those of you who were around PA in the 70s and before may remember the studded tires that we used to have back then.  The studs looked like rivets sticking out of the tire.  The new studded tires are very different.  The studs are very small and almost look like nails sticking out of the tire.

2/12/2008

11 years for Rhonda and I today

2/14/2008

Andrew and Danny both had "sledding parties" today at school.  Rhonda was outside with tem all day.  She made hot chocolate and served it to Danny's class in the morning while they were sledding and then also went to Andrew's sledding party in the afternoon. 

2/16/2008

Went to the Awana sledding party today.  Spent about 90 minutes outside sledding with the kids.  It was 16 degrees and the wind was blowing a little (probably about 10 Mph).  When we got back to the truck, Danny and Andrew both had bright red cheeks, but Andrew had two pure white spots in the middle of both cheeks.  We took him to an urgent care facility and they said that he had mild frostbite.  They said that it was nothing to worry about and they said that we should treat it like a burn.  Cold compresses and lotion tomorrow since the skin will dry out.

2/19/2008

We have been having very strange weather over the past couple of days.  It has actually been in the 40s.  Very, very unusual for Alaska.  The result is that the almost 2 feet of snow that we got last week is almost gone.  More importantly, our gravel road that leads to our house has become a snowy, icy, muddy mess.  I was coming home from a work-related dinner tonight and I had a very difficult time getting up our road.  I actually thought that I might have to walk the last half mile.  The truck just could not get any traction while trying to ascend the hill with that mess on the road.  This was the first time in my life that I actually HAD to use 4 wheel drive low.  Without that capability, I would not have made it.  It is supposed to get back down into the 20s later this week.

2/21/2008

Interesting traffic report this morning.  Heard the standard 2 to 3 minutes of vehicle traffic news, and then they finished up the traffic news with a report of a "panicked moose" in the downtown area.

2/22/2008

Andrew sustained a scary injury today at the gym.  He was climbing on a rock wall.  He was about 4 feet off the ground when he fell backwards.  As he was falling he hit his spine on one of the "rocks" on the wall.  He fell to the ground and could not move for about 10 minutes.  We called the emergency room and they told us to test him for some stuff (movement, feeling, etc ...).  Based on the fact that his responses were all OK, they said that it was just a bad bruise.

2/23/2008

Went to the Fur Rondy (www.furrondy.net) today in downtown anchorage.  It was fun to see the dog sled races.  The kids even got to ride on a sled (see the picture page).  We were walking down a sidewalk and Rhonda saw a woman who looked familiar to her.  It turned out to be a friend from elementary school in Perkasie!!!  She is up here with her husband who was transferred.

2/24/2008

Back downtown today to see the snow sculptures which are part of the Fur Rondy carnival (see the picture page). 

Andrew's back is doing well.  He is pretty much moving around normally now.  He does have a nasty bruise and some abrasions.

Also forgot to mention something last week.  I forget what day it was, but a moose fell to his death off the side of the mountain close to where we live.  Was there foul play involved??? Was the moose late on his mortgage payments and credit card bills and decided to try to collect on life insurance for his family???

2/29/2008

Had some one on one time with Andrew tonight.  I asked him what he likes about Alaska.  He said that he likes that we are always together as a family.  He also said he likes going to his school here in Alaska.  Then I asked him what he does not like about Alaska.  He said he does not like the moose and the bears.