Break Up is on The Way

Last week was great. The wife and I went to the Badger Den on Friday, and we didn't even wear coats!!! It was about 38 degrees, and a lot warmer than a -55. We had dinner with our friends who we chat with on a Yahoo group called. Interested in this group the address is http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Alaska-Living/

The group is for "For those who live in Alaska, want to live in Alaska, used to live in Alaska, or just want to feel a connection to The Alaskan Dream." It is quite a chatty group discussing any thing from how to move to Alaska or how to make tea, Hmm

I got this today off the group. I think the author ment that if you can relate to five of these items you are an Alaskan. Funny thing I can relate to all except five. And there was one I thought of that was left off. " Going out side does not mean going into the garden"

You can relate to 5 or more of this things...

1. Your idea of a traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a motor home on the
highway.
2. "Vacation" means going to Anchorage for the weekend.
3. You measure distance in hours.
4. You know several people who have hit moose more than once.
5. You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day.
6. You use a down comforter in the summer.
7. Your grandparents drive at 65 mph through 13 feet of snow during a raging
blizzard, without flinching.
8. You see people wearing hunting clothes at social events.
9. You install security lights on your house and garage, and leave both
unlocked.
10. You think of the major food groups as: deer meat, beer, fish, and
berries.
11. You carry jumper cables in your car, and your girlfriend knows how to
use them.
12. There are 7 empty cars running in the parking lot at the grocery store
at any given time.
13. You know what Bunny Boots are.
14. Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with
snow.
15. You think sexy lingerie is tube socks and flannel pajamas.
16. You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and
construction.
17. It takes you 3 hours to go to the store for one item, even when you're
in a rush, because you have to stop and talk to everyone in town.
18. You didn't know what the word "county" meant, and we were never taught
about "area codes"... 907 is all you had to know
19. You think bald eagles aren't that great
20. You know to go to Best Buy a month after a CD release because that’s
when it will FINALLY arrive in Alaska
21. You wish seagulls came with a mute button
22. You can go to McDonalds and order off the $1.50 menu which they feel is
equivalent to the $0.99 menu
23. You were appalled by the "Carrs-Safeway" merge a few years ago
24. You have to have a raven cage around your trash to keep them out
25. You go to school, work, or both in the dark and come out in the dark
26. 30 degrees is shorts weather
27. -10 is a bit nippy
28. Buses leaving school are delayed because a bear is in the parking lot
29. You tell people you live in an igloo for kicks
30. You don’t swim in natural bodies of water for fear of swimmers itch or
beaver fever...or leeches
31. Having a moose in your front yard is a legitimate excuse for being late
to school
32. There is nothing like Matanuska Maid...who cares about Meadowgold,
Dairyland and Viva!!
33. You only go to the fair for turkey legs and a husky burger
34. You refer to the continental US as the "lower 48"
35. You get an attitude when you have to pay tax in the lower 48
36. There is 4 feet of snow the night before school and you STILL have to go

37. If you don’t like the weather wait for 5 minutes and then go back out
outside.
38. You sleep through an earthquake like nothing ever happened; the only way
you know is because the clock fell off the wall
39. Salmon isn’t a delicacy, it's a staple
40. Halibut is beer battered rather than cooked some fancy way
41. 70 degrees is equivalent to 90 degrees in the lower 48
42. You know who "Sleeping Lady" is
43. During the winter you rarely use your freezer
44. You think $4 for a loaf of bread is cheap
45. A "cookout" is not all the time outside because it’s entirely too cold
for all of that
46. You don't sleep in the summer because it’s too short to miss a minute of
it
47. Half your friends own a sled (snow machine) and you think people that
call them snow mobiles are idiots
48. You have been chased or know someone who has been chased by a moose at
least once.
49. You’ve seen the northern lights, and you know why they are such a "big
deal"
50. You know its all about the snow, DUH.
51. You know that Cattle Company has the best potato soup there is.
52. Your bedroom windows are covered in aluminum foil or black blankets.
53. You know the two speed limits in Alaska: the ‘get outta my way limit’
and ‘taking cover limit’
54. You only watch the news when they announce the amount of the year’s
dividend
55. Your school classes were never canceled because of ice
56. You have to start your car at least an hour before you leave so most of
the ice and snow will melt off by the time you leave
57. You wear flips flops all year without getting sick
58. You've never seen cotton or tobacco growing, but your neighbor has a 30
acre pot field
59. You literally can’t leave the house without seeing some one you know.
60. You know the term "studs" isn’t referring to hot guys.
61. You have to ski in gym class
62. You know who "Binki" was, made fun of that stupid Australian tourist,
and was so sad when he died.
63. You expect to see a moose crossing Tudor every time you drive down.
64. You give up and tell people in the lower 48 that you DO live in an igloo
and you DO have a pet polar bear named Mishka when they refuse to believe
otherwise.
65. You call someone without a crack in there windshield a tourist
66. You remember what Showboats was and you’re little sad it's gone.
67. When you go to the lower 48 you wonder where everybody's block heater
cable is
68. You've been to the Peanut Farm for a drink but refuse to tell anyone..
ever
69. Combat fishing isn't a joke, it's a religion.
70. You've seen a 2-month old moose get hit by a full-size van at 65 MPH,
then get up and run off
71. Two words "Korn Fritters"
72. Your parents taking you trick-or-treating involves riding door-to-door
in the car
73. You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit

I also received this email from my friend Dean in Kotzebue
"

Check this out...the caribou was found frozen in place by DEC personnel on a site inspection on the North Slope. That is some cold weather.... temps were down in the -40s F and wind chills to -70 to -80.

Caribou froze standing still at -80 with wind chill in Kuparuk AK"

Last week I mentioned Service Areas for road commissioners. Well we also have Service Areas for Fire Commissioners. These areas are larger than the road commissioners areas. Guess what happens if you don't belong to a fire area service area, If your home is burning, the fire department will respond up the the boundry and then stop.

Houses have burned on the boundry of a service area and the fire department has stopped at the boundry and watched the home burn because it was not in a service area. Sounds tough, but if you think about it, those who dont liive in a service area dont pay taxes that the rest of us do

SPRING

We are getting indications that spring is rapidly approaching. Not only are the days getting longer, sun rises at 7:03 AM and sets at 8:46 PM, gaining close to 7 minutes of day light a day, but the following is also evidence of spring coming:

1. People have started their gardens indoors. You visit peopl

es homes and you see little containers by widows with various tomato plants, pepper plants, etc emerging.

2. The Nenana Ice Classic is over and the bets are in for when the Nenana River is going to break up. This site is a little out dated, I paid 3.50 for my ticket, not two dollars.

3. The borough has completed “winging” the roads. Couldn’t find anything on this on the web. But got the term from a man who did this at one time. The process is to basically plow the roads and get as much of the ice and snow off the pavement as possible. So when the snow and ice start to melt during the spring days, and then freezes at night, very little ice wil

l form on the paved road ways.

Notice, I was very particular about saying paved roads. They don’t do this on dirt or gravel roads. We live on a dirt road that was made back in the early 70s. Way before there was any regulations on road construction. I heard that a man took a cat, plowed the trees under the earth and called it a road.

Now after this winging, when we go out to the paved portion of the road, there is about a 6 inch cliff, where our road meets the pavement, that we have to travel over.

4. With the warm weather, people are going out in shirt

sleeves and shorts. Even though it is still below freezing, compared to a -55, 20 degrees is warm.

5. Warm weather allows people to go out and snow machine, ski, etc. to enjoy the snow before it starts to melt.

I mentioned our road system here. When I moved here I became what is called service area manager for the Pleasure land service area. What this is, is volunteers who are responsible for maintaining the roads. Ie, ensuring the roads are plowed when needed, road is grated, etc. Basically just ensure the road is maintained.

Not to bad for a volunteer job. I did that for three years and the only time I was active is when another subdivision, not yet a service area, wanted to merge with us. It was a new subdivision which had not yet formed its own service area, because of not many homes were there yet. S

o no one was maintaining the roads, but they were better than ours because they were built to code, that was issued in the late 80s. Our roads were grandfathered and did not have to meet the new codes.

So because of this the roads in that subdivision were not cleared of snow. The school district told the residents that unless the roads were plowed, the school buses would not go down the road to pick up or drop off the children. This made some residents upset, so they paid to get the road cleared themselves, and started looking at how to fix this problem. They were told to merge with our service area.

In order to do that, both divisions had to vote and each had to approve the merger. A vote was taken, our service area approved it, more money in our coffers, and the subdivision, did not approve it. The reason they didn’t approve it is a group of homes in the sub division found out their roads would not be maintained, even though they would be taxed. So they banded together and voted it down.

In this case I helped inform the residents of our service area the p

ros and cons of merging.

Another issue I had to resolve, was when we came home from Dawson, going down Feliz, I went across a speed bump that a resident had taken upon themselves to install. It was basically a lot of gravel formed to make a speed bump across the road. I was amazed. When I got home, I had a message on my phone from the maker of the speed bump saying she did it.

The reason she did it was to stop a teenager from speeding down the road at 40 miles an hour. Well by the time I got up with her, state troopers had come to her house and made her remove it. But she was thinking of me, she claims she left enough room so my corvette wouldn’t have to go over the bump।

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