Groundhog Day isn't such a big deal up here, for obvious reasons. We gained 5 minutes and 21 seconds of daylight today. We now have nearly eight hours of daylight! Ya-hoo!
The cold weather pattern finally broke, just as everyone was getting really cranky. My choir students were practically comatose last week. We had a Chinook wind for a couple of days and it warmed up to 38 and things (like the ice- and hard snow-packed roads) started to melt but it cooled off to 20.
"Big Miracle", the story of the rescue of three grey whales trapped in the ice in Barrow in 1988, opens this weekend to good reviews. It stars Drew Barrymore, John Krasinski, and Ted Danson. The real story is in the Anchorage Daily News today. http://www.adn.com/2012/02/02/2297759/1988-barrow-whale-rescue-the-real.html
The uplifting thing about this family movie is it brought the Inupiaq community, Greenpeace, Arco, Soviets, the military, local musicians, ice fishermen from MN, and a chainsaw distributor together for the rescue mission.
One of the most dangerous section of the Iditarod sled dog race was dropped. The mileage is the same, race officials are careful to point out. The area known as The Steps, which contains steep switchbacks will be bypassed.
We have gotten so much snow today, Anchorage drivers are being told to stay off the roads so plows can get to work. It is eerily silent out there.
The Anchorage Daily News gardening expert, Jeff Lowenfels is getting desperate requests for green things growing from his readers. His suggestion is to start sweet peas. I speculate we still have the tough months of February and March and possibly April too to get through before it warms up some. There is so much snow in the back yard it is going to be a pond when it melts and there is no place for the water to go. There is no grass back there, only carpets of stellaria media. It takes a big imagination to picture a green and lush back yard just now.
Alaskan Superbowl food suggestions in the paper include fresh cod ($5.99/lb), oysters (10.95/12), Manila clams (6.95/lb), and rockfish (10.99/lb). I think we are just going to have the usual standard fare of wings, maybe chili, the lad wants chicken quesadillas, and deviled eggs. I think we have a bag of frozen shrimp too. I am still not feeling up to snuff, so we want convenience, although everything is home-made and not processed.
Bush teaching was evaluated and found wanting recently. Despite the curriculum changes in an effort to accommodate all Native youth and the ongoing progress made in educating and keeping potential staff, notably by Bering Straits School District, the challenges continue.
The Olive Garden has finally opened a branch here in Anchorage! I was told by the manager's husband not to go til April 'when all the bugs had been worked out'. Later I found out from colleagues equally excited by the appearance of the chain, 'they' had built to Lower 48 standards instead of AK. Pipes froze, then burst, and they had a big mess.
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