Long Bones

This is me and my Blue cat after the boiler had been fixed but before it got warm.

This is the back yard at my office downtown. We finally finally finally got some snow! I woke up this morning in the winter dark but instead of black pouring in from the window, or maybe a sliver of silver moonlight, the entire sky was sulfuric orange!

Ugly I know, but a sign of one specific thing: SNOW!!!

And it’s about bloody time! We got maybe an inch today, but an inch is enough when it covers the flaws a post-fall Fairbanks. My poor little phone can’t take pictures nice enough to describe it.

One problem.

Every winter the first snow fall becomes a sort of Winter Driving 101 course, and even if you (me) happen have decent winter driving skills, there is always a good chance the people around you don’t!

I’ve never yet been in an accident but I’ve had a couple of really close calls. Once I ran out of momentum going up Ballaine hill (very steep, but very straight on the side I was going up) and ended up going into a slide. Went 180 and ended up facing straight ahead…in the wrong direction. So I went back down the hill and took the long way home.

Today was nothing so dramatic. I lost control of my car for a bit on Farmer’s loop, well, lost control is a bit strong. I was going into a slide but I didn’t change directions or fishtail or anything. Actually I’m rather proud of how I controlled losing control.

Later though there was a very near miss, could have been a multi-car pile-up. I was on the steese heading in towards town and some truck speeds ahead of me in the right lane. Not too surprised, my lane was going under the speed limit. But a few seconds later he fishtails out of control, a state truck in front of him has stopped abruptly. The car in front of me swings wide. I had to brake rapidly without sliding. Thank goodness its a busy road and was pretty clear, I was able to stop in time. But if the fast truck had hit the state truck, or the car in front of me had hit him, or heck if the guy behind me wasn’t giving me enough room……..

We get a lot of accidents.

Snowflakes in the sky? Not quite as catchy as “smoke on the water/fire in the sky” and honestly a lie as even though it looks like it should be snowing, it isn’t. Our weird warm spell isn’t quite over, but unseasonably warm is now around 30. I have never ever had a winter in Fairbanks that there wasn’t snow for this long. Last year we had snow in September. September!! And frankly, after the leaves fall the banks are ugly until the snow comes down. So please please please let it snow!

I wouldn’t exactly call this an indian summer – it isn’t particularly summery here. But I’ll be damned if it isn’t above freezing and not even thinking about snowing. It is crazy nice. I seriously have never seen Fairbanks this warm and pretty this late in the year. Keep up the good work, global warming!

Shondar and I went on a small (3 mile) hike on Saturday and I really liked this scene in person…too bad my camera is an iphone!

Ballaine Lake

The weather says we might get snow tonight. Last year we had snow in late September too. Not quite sure how I feel about this…