Friday, February 20, 2009

Wind

Hi all. Did you know there is a web site for every thing. There is even one or two or three, etc on jokes about Alaska. Here is a sample on what Alaskans consider computer terms mean.

Alaskan Computer Terms

Log on: Make the wood stove hotter.
Log off: Don't add no more wood.
Monitor: Keep an eye on that wood stove.
Download: Getting the firewood off the truck.
Floppy Disk: What you get from trying to carry too much firewood.
Ram: The thing that splits the firewood.
Hard Drive: Getting home in the winter.
Prompt: "Throw another log on the fire".
Window: What to shut when it's cold outside.
Screen: What to shut during mosquito season.
Byte: What mosquitoes do.
Bit: What the mosquitoes did.

The web site for more of these is here http://www.greatlandofalaska.com/humor/jokes.html

Well this week we got snow and it warmed up. Right now at my place we have received about 5 inches of snow and it is 27 degrees. Did go for a ride Monday, what I used to call presidents day till our current president stepped in ( look at the votes on my poll), to Chena Hot Springs Road, and tomorrow may go for a 60 mile ride to Tanana flats, close to Ester. Remind me to talk about that later

I have mentioned that we don't have much wind here in North Pole or Fairbanks. The highest I have seen it is about 10 miles per hour. We had a little this week and it blew the snow out of the trees causing a near white out condition here.

No wind has its positives and negatives-

Positives- no wind chill. So when it is a -50 it is a -50 and not -50 with -80 wind chill. This is a benefit cause you can dress for the cold. Put your layers on and you dont have to contend with the wind biting through your clothes.

Also you don't have to worry to much about wind storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, typhoons etc.

Negatives- Our second summer here there were a lot of forest fires in Alaska. Since Alaska is so large they let the fires burn unless it is endangering a structure. There were so many the smoke came into our area and with no wind, it was like a fog. We couldn't see the river from our house it was so dense. A lot of health concerns at that time.

In the winter it is just as bad. We have emission controls on our vehicles. they have to be inspected when you renew your license plates, every two years. If you don't drive your vehicle during the winter, you need a special stamp. I don't drive the vett for obvious reasons and have a stamp exempting me from emission controls. The dude at the DMV had a sense of humor, wanted to ensure I wasn't going to put a snow plow on the vett. A good read on our condition here is found here

In fact it is so bad here in the winter some people need to go outside ( lower 48), for health concerns. There is talk by the politicians in Fairbanks of banning burning of wood stoves. Hmmmm does that mean they will ban forest fires too?