1/2/2009

Today makes one year in Anchorage. It has been quite a year!  We laughed, we cried, we played, we worked, we adventured... but most of all ... we missed!  We missed our families and our friends tremendously.

1/3/2009

Today makes 50 years old for the state of Alaska. WOW!  There is a state that is only 7 years older than me!  That sort of smacks ya right in the face.

1/4/2009

He we are ready to start year two.  Tomorrow is Monday the 5th.  The kids are ready to go back to school (maybe ... Andrew is still feeling the effects of a virus), I am ready to go back to work, and Rhonda is ready to get back to her duties as Mom, Wife, Room Mom, Auction Chairperson, etc ... She has the toughest job(s)!

We had a great visit to PA over the past two weeks and, yes, we are already looking forward to our visit during the summer.

It has been very cold here in Alaska.  It has been below zero since December 28th. We are not expected to get above zero again until Wednesday when there is a forecasted high of 2 degrees.

1/5/2009

It was so cold today that while I was at school waiting to pick up Danny with the truck idling, the engine temperature was actually going down!  I was sitting there and the heat was getting cooler and cooler.  I looked down at the engine temperature gauge and the engine temperature was going down. I assumed that I had a problem with the engine thermostat, or something, but when I began driving, the temperature went back up.  So, when the temperature is around -10, my truck engine at idle will actually cool off!

1/7/2009

I was surprised to learn that the kids are still going out for recess in the cold weather.  It has been below zero since December 28th. Rhonda heard from the woman who monitors the playground that the rule is that they stay in if it gets lower than 10 below zero.  She told Rhonda that on Monday, three kids in 5th grade came in with frostbite.  It is a different world up here.  They were inside today because it was 14 below zero.

This cold spell has been big news up here.  Fairbanks has been experiencing temperatures around 50 below.  They said that the kids in Fairbanks go outside for recess all the way down to 20 below zero.

1/9/2009

We took Danny to his basketball tryout tonight.  It was not really a tryout ... it was a skills assessment to see how to evenly divide up the boys into teams.  This is Danny's first experience on an organized basketball team.  He really enjoyed it and I am excited for him to have a good season.

Still below zero.  The weather forecasts have been saying that tomorrow will be above zero.   The forecasts have been saying that since Tuesday. Still below zero though.

1/15/2009

We are have been experiencing really bad weather over the past few days.  I am not talking about cold snowy weather.  I am talking about warm, windy, rainy, and icy weather.  The sub zero temperatures that we had at the end of last year and first week or so of this year are gone.  On Tuesday, we started a warming trend that now has us up to the high thirties.  When it warms up like that we get winds ... high winds.  Wind gusts are predicted to be as high 105 mph.

In addition to the wind, all the snow that we usually get is now rain.  When rain falls on the ground that has been cooled from the below zero temperatures, the rain immediately freezes.  The streets, parking lots, and sidewalks are coated in thick solid ice.

Since we live up on the side of a mountain, the ice presents a little more of a challenge for us than it does for most of the residents of Anchorage.  I was ready to leave for work yesterday and I went out to the garage and got in the truck and opened the garage door.  As soon as I opened the door, I could see that my neighbor's truck slid off of his driveway and was somehow stuck at the top of the hill that borders his driveway.  I guess the deep snow on the side of the driveway is what kept it from rolling over down the hill.  As soon as I saw that, I closed the garage door and went back in the house and worked from home.

The funny thing is that I was just reviewing journal entries from January of 2008.  I saw that we had almost the same exact weather problems last January.  It was not as bad in 2008 as it is now, but it is the same problem.

We did not have one school cancelation last year.  So far, we have had three this year.  We had a cancellation in the fall when we had really bad wind and most of the city lost power.  And they cancelled school yesterday and again today because of the ice.

1/18/2009

The weather still continues to be crazy!  Friday, Saturday, and so far today has been in the low to mid forties!  Almost all of the snow has melted.  That is unheard of for January.  There are always a few days of warm weather in the middle of January or February, but not this warm and not for this long.  Last year when we had a little warming trend in January, we had the icy conditions, but only a little bit of the snow melted.  I can actually see my entire lawn.

We got a call on Friday morning telling us that school was cancelled again for the third day in a row.  The woman joked that if it is 45 below zero, school goes on with no problem, but get up to 45 above zero, and school is cancelled.  The ice finally started to break up yesterday, so it is OK now, but up until yesterday, the ice was really dangerous.

We have one more day of warm weather forecasted (today) and then we go back to normal Alaska weather.  It has been an interesting few weeks.  We were experiencing the coldest weather that Alaska has ever seen.  It was even in the news in the lower 48.  We went from that right into the warmest weather that we have ever experienced in the winter months.

GO E A G L E S!!!

1/25/2009

We experienced a pretty significant earthquake on Saturday morning.  I was standing in the kitchen when I heard a rumble and I heard the windows creaking.  That is usually what happens when we have severe wind gusts up on the mountain where we live.  But, there was no wind on Saturday morning and I thought it was odd that a wind gust would just appear out of no where.  I looked outside and sure enough .... no wind.  Just then, I felt the floor shaking and I could feel the counter than I was leaning against move back and forth.  Everything in the house was making noise from being shaken.  It was really weird.  It turns out that it was a 5.73 earthquake about 165 miles southwest of Anchorage in the middle of Cook inlet.  That is a big one.  No damage in our house, and I have not heard of any damage anywhere else.  I guess the fact that it was in the ocean made it not too destructive.

Danny had his first basketball game yesterday.  He is learning fast and he really enjoys it.  I have never been a basketball fan, but now it is fun to watch since Danny is out there playing.  Danny's team won 38 to 19.  I found myself even watching basketball highlights on ESPN last night.

Andrew had a hockey game way out in Wasilla (Palin's home town) tonight.  It was a really good game.  Back and forth scoring, but Andrew's team came out on top 3 to 2.

1/28/2009

The news says that we are likely to experience a volcano eruption in the next few days.  Mt. Redoubt is about 100 miles from Anchorage and has been showing growing seismic activity over the past week.  In addition to the "grumbling", there is also an increasing amount of gases coming from the mountain.  All of these signs, according to the media means that it will likely erupt soon.

It could turn out to be nothing, or it could turn out to be a pretty significant event.  If there is a lot of ash and if that reaches Anchorage it could shut the city down for several days.  There could be power loss, the airport could shut down, and it may be difficult, or even impossible to drive.

Obviously, these are all worst case possibilities, but it is possible.  It is likely to erupt and whatever does come out of the mountain is likely to come to Anchorage since Anchorage is upwind of the mountain.  So the questions are, will it really erupt?  And, if it does, how big will it be?

The problem is that the ash gets everywhere.  It prevents the planes from being able to fly.  It will clog up auto engines and boat engines.  So, if there is no transportation, there is no food.  We do not make or grow very much of our own food.  Everything is shipped or flown up from Seattle.

So ... it could be ugly.  We will see ......