Ode to the Winter Solstice

The shortest day of the year has finally arrived! Given, I won't see it, because I haven't seen daylight since the 11th due to midnights, but the thought that it is here is enough.

Sunrise this morning is at 10:15 and sunset is at 3:43. I know, a whopping five and a half hours of "daylight". Sam... When you read this, I apologize for always stealing your pictures, but they're just always too good.

Sam took this picture today at about 1:30 in the afternoon. So for those of you who always ask about the daylight situation, here is about how high the sun gets in the sky (solar elevation is about 5 degrees). Without further ado:



I reckon all of this goes without saying that I currently have the best tan I've ever had in my entire life! In all honesty, sometimes when I look in the mirror after sleeping all day, with bags under my eyes... I briefly confuse my appearance with one of a zombie (slightly kidding)!

Another cool picture that I'll get to in a second is once again of the alaska range as seen from town. I love the fact that, when it's clear (and it often isn't), you can see just about for ever. These mountains are well over a hundred miles away, but are so crisp. The other night, I had just woken up (sometime around 4) and was driving up to the grocery store (Fred Meyer, whoever you are, your grocery stores are freaking genius!). I noticed this pink area on the horizon... and it happened to be Denali (Mt. McKinley) still pink in the light of sunset, although the sun had set quite a bit ago in Anchorage. I guess that's about the only benefit of sticking your neck up into the atmosphere 20,000 ft. + up.

So anyway, here's a picture looking toward the Alaskan Range and over a frozen Cook Inlet.



I tell ya, I really am starting to think ducks and geese are smarter than I give them credit for. While we've been up here in sub-freezing temperatures for the past several months, some of those fowl were soaking up 70 degrees and sun late last week in NC. Oh the envy.

Well, that's enough for now.... I should be getting back to work!

Distance

The distance between here and north carolina is deceiving. You get on a plane, you stay on it for a long time... you get here. I had often thought, pre departure, of the funny things I would think of when leaving. Oddly enough, when it came time to take off at RDU I was very excited. As we took off I started thinking of all the goodbyes... and a few stand out.

Dad's face when I drove away from Rucker Johns (speaking of which holy crap i miss those honey drizzled croissants)
saying goodbye after eating at 42nd street with the fellas (speaking of which holy crap i miss that seafood bisque and softshells)
When i said bye to Mom the morning I left
Standing with Cameron outside the terminal neither of us willing to really walk away and make it final

But I was in good spirits throughout the flight. The funny part came when we started to descend into Anchorage itself. Save for a light here or there throughout the flight from Seattle to ANC there were no real cities to speak of. Then you start to descend and see this little speck of civilization nestled between the mountains and Cook Inlet. At that moment, looking at how isolated the city was, I had a mini panic attack. I'm talking legitimate panic attack.

In hindsight it's pretty funny. There's plenty of city here. Plenty of people, plenty of traffic. Plenty of stores and restaurants (save Bojangles, Chick-fil-A, Trader Joes to my utter dismay).

The deception of the distance comes after being here for almost three months already (where does the time go?). That plane ride seems so far away in my memory. I think it's a saving grace for me. With the internet and cell phones, everyone seems like they're just out of reach. I had a video chat with Cameron before work last night (and Megan and Merit). It's crazy... i'm sitting there in real time talking to my best bud who's 3500 miles away.

The distance got me to thinking...exactly how far away is 3500 miles? Physically, it's hard to truly understand. So the following is a list of places that are closer to Anchorage than eastern North Carolina... as well as a list of places closer to eastern North Carolina than to Anchorage.

Note: some of these aren't exact... but when you start talking 3500 miles whats a hundred miles?

So without further ado... places I'm closer to than y'all:

Russia (somewhere around 700 miles. That's closer than RDU to Chicago)
North Korea
South Korea
Japan
Bejing, China
Mongolia
Finland
Norway
Sweden
Iceland

Places y'all are closer to than ANC:
Portugal
Spain
Africa (very close at least)
Ireland
Brazil
Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru
Greenland

Those are some "faraway" places. If there's anything that's true, now more than ever, it's that the world is a small place though. I was fishing a couple of weeks ago and happened to start talking to an older gentleman. Of all places, he was from Goldsboro. I told him I appreciated hearing his accent. Just as I would expect, he said "I don't have an accent". Amen.

Since I don't have any sweet pictures I took myself to post, I'll post one Sam took yesterday morning from up on the Hillside (mountainside as far as I'm concerned). There has been freezing fog around for days, and this is what it looks like from 2500 ft. with the taller buildings downtown peaking through:

So I've Been Thinking...

Of warm places and sunshine. Before I get to that though, let me share a couple of things. Sam sent me the post-harvest picture of me and my shrew. It is a picture that reminds me visually of how ridiculous I am at times:



People in the office had commented on the shrew problem, and I encountered this fellow on a few occasions throughout the night. Sam saw the little fella over near his desk, so I hopped over with a stapler, pulled him out by his tail... and the rest is history.

As I mentioned in the earlier post... the moon has been freaking incredible! Full, bright.. and what do you know, we have clear skies. We've also had a lot of freezing fog, so basically everything is coated in hoarfrost. It's a site to behold. Seeing as Sam is the resident photographer around here, I refer you to his blog (linked at right) to check out some awesome pictures he took the other night.

Unfortunately, with the clear skies, it has become much much colder. At the office we dropped down to -1 the other night, but the eastern part of town has seen readings down near -5 to -10 degrees. Thankfully I have good long underwear... and I wear it all the time... even at work. They make fun of me. My Carolina blood runs thin though, what can I say?

With the cold weather, and snow, and general darkness I have been thinking a lot about warm places. It's funny the memories and images that come to mind. Summers out at Hatteras. This beautiful beach in St. Maarten. Hanging out at Pine Knoll Shores in the sun all day... a day with no wind. When the water's emerald green, and beautifully refreshing. You get so much sun, that by the end of the day you have that crispy feeling... and when we all go to the dock on the sound in the evening to watch the sunset, you get chills a little bit.

City Beach in Perth, when it was hotter than crap, but the water was so cold. Waikiki. That time a few summers ago when Justin, Dave, Liz, and I went out on the boat in the afternoon to hang out and fish. We got in the middle of this thunderstorm... but it felt so good to be soaking wet and we were all just laughing. And we started driving towards the AB bridge and there was this rainbow stretching right in front of us across the sound. It was like we were in the rainbow.

The Barta Billfish tournament this past summer with Dad and Wade, when you start heading down sea and lose the wind. And the deck just turns reflects all that heat and it gets so freaking hot that you feel nauseous.

The first summer down at the beach when Cameron, John, and I went down to the sandbags at the point at Bogue Inlet and kept catching stupid lizardfish. Standing in waist deep, crystal clear water, throwing those lizardfish at John because they freaked him out so much.

Or earlier this year down in Islamorada, sitting on the docks at Bud and Mary's with dad seeing what the charter boats had caught. It was so warm, so sunny. The sky was so blue.

The list goes on, but those are the ones that always come to mind. The point is... all these things seem so far away... and I reckon they are. But man, they are a must have when it's negative one billion outside and your nostrils freeze everytime you breathe.

I guess my point is, I wouldn't trade any of those experiences for anything in the world!

A Resolution.... and I tamed the shrew

Recently my humor-laden father posted a comment on my friend Sam's blog () that he wished his "offspring" would post on a more regular basis.

Coincidentally that happened to be very close to when I made my previous post. But tonight it got me to thinking (as there is plenty of thinking-time during a midnight shift):

Is it better to be a little-yet-often blogger, or a ton-yet-not often poster? I will try the former for a while. I have gotten a lot of random texts, phone calls, emails, etc. inquiring about my blog. I guess since i don't keep track of how many hits I get, I had no clue how many people read it!

So here I am, resolute, to post all sorts of stuff....often.

I will leave with an experience I had tonight. I'm not sure if yall heard, but the moon was about as close as it gets to the Earth today. It also coincided with a full moon. Pair the bright full moon with a beautiful snowpack, and a crisp clear evening, and the results were fantastic.

I naturally have no pictures of this occurrence, but Sam did manage to step outside and take some nice pictures. I'm sure these will be on his blog at some point in the near future.

Also, we had a shrew problem in the office. A shrew is like a mouse, except smaller... and apparently "stupider". I killed said shrew, and there's a post battle picture floating around somewhere... I'll see if i can get my hand on it.

The Dark Days

Sorry for my lack of updates! Among the things I've learned about myself in the past several months, is the fact that I am terrible at blogging. Alas, here I am to fill yall in on the recent goings on in AK.

Since my last post, I went to dinner at a friend and coworker's house (Andy B). Him and his wife cooked up some delicious food (although he insisted the chicken was dry, I thought it was delish). They also have the two cutest twin girls I have ever seen. Seriously the cutest little babies ever. Not only was this evening my first shared meal with fellow humans in almost two months, but the little girls both gave me goodnight hugs (my first hugs in two months). Silly fact, I know, but after you've been hanging out alone for 2 months, it's the little things that count!

So the Saturday before turkey day mom flew up here, and we spent the week together. It was a very nice week. Lots of good food and a lot of snow! Something clicked when she got here, and it was like it just wouldn't quit snowing. I also got Maddy spayed, and luckily mom was around to help out with that....which I am very grateful for, so thanks again Mom!

We did some cross country skiing, some driving around on the Kenai Peninsula... generally just hung out and took it easy though.
Here's a quick pic of yours truly when we were cross country skiing at this resort town Girdwood:



On the way back into town we stopped to take a quick pic of the Turnagain Arm (Cook Inlet). It was beautiful because the tide was out, snow on the mountains, and sea ice had been just left in the inlet until the tide came back in again. Here's a view with Mom in it:




Since Mom has left I have been working quite a bit. Usually I go through periods when I have three or four days off, but so far have only have two days off at a time. Pair that with trying to get on a midnight shift schedule, and nothing too exciting has been going on.

So, back to the title of the post, the winter solstice is rapidly approaching. As a result, we are down to about 5 and a half hours of daylight every day. The sun now rises after 10, and sets around 330. Even when it's "daylight", the sun is very low in the sky. the best way I've been able to describe it to people, is basically at its highest point, the sun looks like it does at home about 15 minutes before the sun sets.

I tell you, I don't mind the darkness. I've got other things to worry about, especially since I have no control over the situation. What does strike me is the lack of a truly sunny day here though. It's like you see the sun, and it's like seeing an old friend after a while away from each other. I actually giggle when I see it. I want to ask it something like "Hey man, how have you been? Haven't seen you in a while.... It's so great to see you. So I figure you were over in NC a couple hours ago. I bet they saw you. Did they take you for granted? I don't take you for granted, sun, I just want you to know." Then before I know it it's gone again, hidden behind the clouds. But man those minutes where the sun is out, you can't paint a prettier picture if you tried. Soft light, reds, and oranges. It's sort of like a perpetual sunset.

Moving on, I'm on midnights through Christmas Day (coincidentally when Dad gets here!). So I reckon Christmas will be a reason to celebrate for a number of reasons. Essentially this means I will likely not see daylight for over 2 weeks! Pretty crazy, but the sun will be around again soon enough.

The weather continues to be cold. I looked at some climate data and figured out the last time I felt something out of the 40s was over two months ago. We've had a fair amount of snow recently. I still like snow, but had no idea there were so many types of it.

I'll leave yall with a picture of what the roads typically look like around here. We recently had a bad bout with some freezing rain though... in that case the roads looked literally like an ice skating rink. It was as if the whole city had been zamboni'd. No thanks!