Warmest -10 I've Ever Felt

Well I haven't done too much blogging recently. Today is a "warm" day. We are up to -10 F. Yesterday it was 30 degrees colder. The difference is really noticeable.

Two nights ago there was some pretty spectacular space weather.

Also, I haven't put too many photos up so here are a few for your viewing pleasure.


This is the North Pole.


This is the Alaska Pipeline. I was watching this thing on the tv that said it expands 4 feet for every mile of line when the oil starts flowing through it.


These are some Alaska trees in the morning.


Here are two Alaska moose.


These are domes on top of the science center.


The North Pole has an RV park.


This is a CASCADES2 team meeting. We make a lot of plans and then group up and change the plans.

Let me just tell you guys that it has been quite the day here at Poker Flat. This morning was mostly uneventful, which inspired me to compose a new blog post. Well, I didn't get to the point of posting it, since it takes a bit of time to upload these photos. After lunch Steve and I decided we needed to get some sledding in. I went down the sled run twice on the tube and twice on the sled. Our run is pretty bumpy, so the sled is kind of painful. Also, on my second tube run I had slightly grazed a tree, so I kind of have a scratch on my head and the tube is popped. And on my second sled run I had my sled attached to Steve's tube to act as a rudder of sorts, so that he wouldn't be going down the hill backwards. It started working nicely. Then I started gaining speed. The tube allows some control of speed, but the sled really does not. When I was alongside Steve we knew we were in trouble. I think he said, "I thought you were supposed to be driving?!?!" Shortly afterwards I bailed out.

Then I got back to the assembly building and was just in time to look at a few charts while they turned our instruments on briefly. The charts looked funny, but it could be explained, so I guess that is all okay. Then I put some air in the car tires in an attempt to make the "low air" light go out on the dash, but it didn't work. That's okay though, because I felt pretty good about myself to be putting air in my tires even though there are plenty of dudes around here who would have done it for me.

All in all a busy and fun day. I think there is still a lot of work to do though. I'm going to do some knitting though. The way I see it is once it hits 6pm I've already worked (disregard above note about sledding all afternoon) a full day.

Highlights

I don't have my pictures uploaded yet because my camera battery died, but I am working on charging it now. We are currently reading a weather forecast for the next few days and it is hilarious. This is why.

"THE UPPER LEVEL LOW WILL THEN RESIDE RIGHT SMACK IN THE
MIDDLE OF THE STATE."

"THERE IS NO DOUBT THAT IT WILL BE A VERY GOOD COLD SPELL
THAT IS NOT ONLY LIKELY TO RIVAL THE ONE PREVIOUSLY FELT IN THE
MONTH BUT LIKELY TO SURPASS IT IN TERMS OF EXTREME LOWS. THERE IS
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT SUGGESTS MOVEMENT OF THE COLD AIR OUT OF
THE AREA FOR A MINIMUM OF A WEEK."

"THE LOW LYING TYPICAL COLD AREAS THAT WILL BE CLOUD FREE WILL
LIKELY SEE TEMPERATURES IN THE 60S BELOW...OR COLDER IF THE
CURRENT MODELS MAINTAIN THE TREND. THIS WILL BE A VERY INTENSE
DEEP COLD."

It is a good thing we got our sledding in today before the cold weather rolls in. The hill doesn't look very steep from the bottom but once you get to the top it is a little frightening. Mostly it is frightening because the hill is covered in small trees. We are using the giant inner tubes and the only way you have to slow down is to drop your butt through the hole into the snow. On my first run I did this a lot because I'm kind of a pansie like that. For my second and final run Hanna and I decided to go on one tube together. There was speculation that this would slow us down and we would get stuck fairly quickly. This was not the case. We flew down the hill in an uncontrollable way, because two butts didn't fit in the center of the inner tube to slow us down in the snow. Also, we spend the entire run spinning around or going backwards. If we were about to hit a tree we never would have seen it coming. Eventually we got to the end of the sled run that had been carved out and we were both flipped off the tube into the snow. All of the above was amazingly fun. I didn't have my camera but the other four were all taking photos, and Steve even has video, so I'll try to get some of that in here eventually.

Oh and we saw three moose today. I didn't get pictures of those guys either, but I think Erik and Steve did. I am good for nothing lately.