"Facts" About Alaska

Now that we've been here 7 months, I've been compiling a few things that I've learned about Alaska. I looked back at the post I wrote last December when we first found out this would be our base, and I had to laugh at some of the things I had "learned" then. What I've learned since then is that you truly have to live here to understand.

1. IT IS COLD. It's so cold...How cold is it? It's so cold that my pinky finger froze to the shopping cart that I grabbed outside the Commissary. I got about 30 feet into the building before I started wondering why my finger felt like it was on fire. It's a very dry cold (we've had a humidifier running constantly all week), and thank goodness it hasn't been windy. When the high temperature is 9, and the low is -6, you don't need to add wind. Is it sad that I'm looking forward to more snow because it gets slightly warmer? I don't want to hear anyone who is enjoying 50 degree weather back home complain that it is getting colder.

2. You get used to the darkness. We're losing about 4 minutes of light every day, but that's only going to go on for another month. By this time in January, we'll be back to the amount of sunlight we have now, which is almost 7 hours, so it's not too big of a deal.

3. You also get used to the wildlife. One day we were driving out of the gate, and I looked over and saw two eagles take off out of the trees. At first I simply thought, "Oh, there are some eagles," as if this was just a ho-hum daily occurrence. Then I snapped out of it and pointed them out to Anthony. How cool is it to see something like that when you're driving to Target?

3. Driving in the snow is interesting. I guess that would be the word. In Indiana, as soon as there is snow and ice in the forecast, the salt trucks are out covering the roads. In Alaska, salt can't be used because for several reasons. Once again, it's just too blasted cold to do anything, since salt lowers the melting point, but not enough to do anything up here. Also, it would probably attract a lot of wildlife since the roads would be one giant salt lick for them. Instead the trucks drop gravel, which helps a little. This does not help in finding lanes that are now covered in snow and ice. And there are no reflectors, so mostly it's up to you to decide if it's one, two, or three lanes.

4. For some reason, the radio stations seem to be stuck in the early 90's. I know it's hard to ship things up here, but I didn't think new music was included in that. In one hour I heard "Fly" by Sugar Ray, "Semi-Charmed Life" by Third Eye Blind, "Get the Party Started" by Pink, and "Push" by Matchbox Twenty. Most parents and children have a generation gap in music, but it's nice to know that the boys and I will be able to share a love of the music from my high school years.

5. Commercials can, and are, often made in home basements. Our favorite is the one below from The Mattress Ranch. This is also the most professional one. Many of the other commercials are for restaurants we don't have here. If I have to see Sonic advertising Cherry Limeades (yum!) one more time, I'm going to have a meltdown. Enjoy this jingle. It always gets stuck in my head!