I can't decide what I hate more: Packing or Unpacking.
We'll start with packing. I hate packing. Mostly because I'm not one for change, but also because I have no patience for it. I just want it all to magically PACK and be done. The two MAJOR moves I did over the past two years, I haven't done much packing because I simply SUCK at packing. I know what you're thinking: How hard can it be to put things in boxes? Well, for me it is hard. Do not ask me why, but it is. When I went to Scotland, my mother packed my bag for me. (I had packed it first but it was horrible, so she re did it, like she did each time I went off to college. You'd think I'd learn. I am made of fail when it comes to packing.) When I left Scotland, my friend J packed my whole life into two suitcases. I had packed it into two suitcases, and maybe ten boxes and there was still stuff everywhere. So, I suck at packing. When we left the dirt hole, we had like five people helping us pack up, and they are all almost professionals because they move so often. When I left home before coming to Alaska, my mother once again aided me in packing. Because I asked. And this time I paid attention and managed to keep myself packed.
Unpacking sucks for various reasons I have concluded. First, everything arrives and is in boxes, so your whole house is covered in boxes. Next, because you suck at packing (as did the movers who re-packed the boxes from the storage unit) nothing is in order. Actually, we were pretty good at packing the boxes in order of the important things, like kitchen stuffs. However, the movers repacked EVERYTHING and there was no rhyme or reason to their packing methods. I color coordinate my clothing in closet, so I packed it in the order. Today, I got to the boxes of clothing...not in any order and there were SCRAP BOOKING SUPPLIES mixed in with it. I know I packed those in the SCRAP BOOKING BOX. They unpacked my scrap booking BOX! As well as my fabric box. I am so pissed, but that isn't why I hate unpacking. I hate unpacking because I simply want it to be done. I want to move onto the more exciting aspects of moving: decorating. I want to paint, I want to get things moving, but you can't do anything till every random item is unpacked. And let me tell you, every random item was packed for us. Even the crap thrown into garbage bags, which I figured we'd just throw out.
In other news, I will be donating a TON of clothing. I have at least three years worth of stuff that we broght with us from our first move to the Dirt Hole (Dirt Hole had no where to donate stuff...can you believe that?) plus the stuff I bought in the dirt hole that I do not want/won't fit my fat butt. God, I thought I had a lot of clothes in Chicago with me, but I had a lot of stuff in storage. Mostly summer stuff, so I am getting rid of it. In all honesty, I did not wear most of it in the Dirt Hole, so why would I wear it in the Tundra I now live in?
I won't, so off it goes!
I guess that is one positive thing of unpacking. You realize all the stuff you can live without.
27 March 2010
22 March 2010
A Slow Alaskan Night
Tonight Pilot boy is working, so Basil Bea and I were on our own. Nothing remotely exciting happened and at 10.30 I find myself wide awake and bored. Basil Bea all ready went to bed. So, I opened a Twitter account (@IrelandScott). That only took up maybe ten minutes of my life.
So I turned on iTunes and fired up Doctor Who. A throw back to the winter days when Doctor Who ate my life and that was all I did: watch Doctor Who. It is highly addictive. I blame my mother. She gets me addicted to science fiction shows. First Star Trek: The Next Generation, then Stargate and now Doctor Who. Though, the only one who ate me alive was Doctor Who, but for that I blame the glasses and the suit. Oh, and the hair. I'm a sucker for crazy guy hair.
The weather here is pretty much remained the same since it "got warm." The snow has begun to melt away, revealing layers of compacted snow. It is like looking at rock formations. Layers and layers of varying shades of dirty snow. The whole place has reverted into a dirty, rocky mess. The roads are in varying states of disarray due to the rocks all over the road. Pebbles really, all over the place. Some parking lots are fine, void of pebbles while some are full of pebbles. Others have neither and are just icy sheets of mess. That is how the flat parking lot is. There is still at least five inches of ice on the parking lot. There are holes where one can see the actual parking lot. Pilot Boy and I had a bet on what the parking lot was made out of. Its asphalt. We were both wrong. He thought it was just rocks, while I figured it was paved with concrete.
I am pretty sure Basil Bea's days of snow swimming are numbered. She really sinks through now, except at night when the melting snow freezes. She actually broke through a muddle tonight. Man, that was funny. She was so surprised.
So I turned on iTunes and fired up Doctor Who. A throw back to the winter days when Doctor Who ate my life and that was all I did: watch Doctor Who. It is highly addictive. I blame my mother. She gets me addicted to science fiction shows. First Star Trek: The Next Generation, then Stargate and now Doctor Who. Though, the only one who ate me alive was Doctor Who, but for that I blame the glasses and the suit. Oh, and the hair. I'm a sucker for crazy guy hair.
The weather here is pretty much remained the same since it "got warm." The snow has begun to melt away, revealing layers of compacted snow. It is like looking at rock formations. Layers and layers of varying shades of dirty snow. The whole place has reverted into a dirty, rocky mess. The roads are in varying states of disarray due to the rocks all over the road. Pebbles really, all over the place. Some parking lots are fine, void of pebbles while some are full of pebbles. Others have neither and are just icy sheets of mess. That is how the flat parking lot is. There is still at least five inches of ice on the parking lot. There are holes where one can see the actual parking lot. Pilot Boy and I had a bet on what the parking lot was made out of. Its asphalt. We were both wrong. He thought it was just rocks, while I figured it was paved with concrete.
I am pretty sure Basil Bea's days of snow swimming are numbered. She really sinks through now, except at night when the melting snow freezes. She actually broke through a muddle tonight. Man, that was funny. She was so surprised.
11 March 2010
Blizzard conditions
I grew up in the Midwest. I lived most of my 26 years in the Midwest, some maybe 20 miles from Lake Michigan. Every winter it snowed, usually after Christmas. No one freaked out, and usually nothing was closed. Growing up, school was maybe canceled due to snow maybe once. School was more likely to be canceled due to cold than snow. I went to college in Wisconsin. We had some big snow storms and some really freezing days. Nothing was ever canceled school wide. Sometimes a professor got stuck, thus they could not show up, but the school itself never shut down due to snow or cold. Or anything for that matter.
My first winter married, we were living in St. Louis. EVERY time it snowed even a tiny bit, they whole area FREAKED OUT. Schools closed, business closed, I got sent home from work twice due to snow. Once, I sat waiting for the others to show up for almost an hour before anyone showed up, and I was late that day. (not due to weather, but due to the fact we only had one car and I had to take the train from the base, and my husband didn't seem to think we'd have to leave early because everyone would be freaking out.) The weather St. Louis had that did freak me out, rain and thunder, no one seemed to notice. I was worried the whole area was going to flood and float away, or the building was going to fall down due to the thunder and lighting, but no one noticed. Snow they freaked out about, but lighting they didn't seem to notice.
This past year I lived in the Dirt Hole. It never snowed. It rained maybe four times whilst we were there, and both times the rain created flooding, as there is no where for rain to go in the Dirt Hole. The first major rain storm, it rained for five hours straight and the back yard was a lake, the front road was a river and my driveway was a waterfall. The spring didn't bring many storms, but the few we had, were not that impressive, compared to the spring storms we had in St. Louis.
Since we've arrived in Alaska, they have had all forms of weather. It was 40 degrees the week we arrived, spring came early! Then, it snowed. And snowed. And some some more. My husband and I didn't think much of it till we watched the weather and they were FREAKING OUT. They were SURPRISED it snowed. They kept saying, from the radio people to the news people, this was the worst snow storm this season. Pilot Boy and I exchanged looked and though, "They think this is bad?"
What makes it bad is the fact they do not salt the roads and I am not sure how they snow plow things here, but most of the roads (even the well traveled roads) seem to be covered in snow. Packed down snow, which almost always turns to ice. Since we have arrived here, we've had two major storms. The first one, we went out in thinking it wasn't so bad. I saw more cars on the side of the road than I had ever seen. I kept thinking, don't people in Alaska know how to drive in snow? Why are they all driving off the side of the road?
It must happen often, as they all seemed to have orange tape to tie onto their cars.
The second storm happened while my husband was going to work, and one side of base was on a two hour delay. The side of base he worked on just said road conditions were red. This translated to show up at ten if you wanted and then go home at one. He didn't go in, as what he had to do that day, no one showed up period. It was like St. Louis all over again. Only this storm of snow was at least ten times worse than the stuff they got in St. Louis and we were in Alaska, so we figured like Minnesota , they'd know how to handle snow.
We're thinking they really don't. Or they just get so tired of it by this point in time, they forget how to deal with it.
The past two days, since the storm ended, its been FREEZING. Single digits cold. Plug your car in cold, the sort of cold we thought we would have driving up here. They do not seem to be phased by that sort of thing. Just snow.
My first winter married, we were living in St. Louis. EVERY time it snowed even a tiny bit, they whole area FREAKED OUT. Schools closed, business closed, I got sent home from work twice due to snow. Once, I sat waiting for the others to show up for almost an hour before anyone showed up, and I was late that day. (not due to weather, but due to the fact we only had one car and I had to take the train from the base, and my husband didn't seem to think we'd have to leave early because everyone would be freaking out.) The weather St. Louis had that did freak me out, rain and thunder, no one seemed to notice. I was worried the whole area was going to flood and float away, or the building was going to fall down due to the thunder and lighting, but no one noticed. Snow they freaked out about, but lighting they didn't seem to notice.
This past year I lived in the Dirt Hole. It never snowed. It rained maybe four times whilst we were there, and both times the rain created flooding, as there is no where for rain to go in the Dirt Hole. The first major rain storm, it rained for five hours straight and the back yard was a lake, the front road was a river and my driveway was a waterfall. The spring didn't bring many storms, but the few we had, were not that impressive, compared to the spring storms we had in St. Louis.
Since we've arrived in Alaska, they have had all forms of weather. It was 40 degrees the week we arrived, spring came early! Then, it snowed. And snowed. And some some more. My husband and I didn't think much of it till we watched the weather and they were FREAKING OUT. They were SURPRISED it snowed. They kept saying, from the radio people to the news people, this was the worst snow storm this season. Pilot Boy and I exchanged looked and though, "They think this is bad?"
What makes it bad is the fact they do not salt the roads and I am not sure how they snow plow things here, but most of the roads (even the well traveled roads) seem to be covered in snow. Packed down snow, which almost always turns to ice. Since we have arrived here, we've had two major storms. The first one, we went out in thinking it wasn't so bad. I saw more cars on the side of the road than I had ever seen. I kept thinking, don't people in Alaska know how to drive in snow? Why are they all driving off the side of the road?
It must happen often, as they all seemed to have orange tape to tie onto their cars.
The second storm happened while my husband was going to work, and one side of base was on a two hour delay. The side of base he worked on just said road conditions were red. This translated to show up at ten if you wanted and then go home at one. He didn't go in, as what he had to do that day, no one showed up period. It was like St. Louis all over again. Only this storm of snow was at least ten times worse than the stuff they got in St. Louis and we were in Alaska, so we figured like Minnesota , they'd know how to handle snow.
We're thinking they really don't. Or they just get so tired of it by this point in time, they forget how to deal with it.
The past two days, since the storm ended, its been FREEZING. Single digits cold. Plug your car in cold, the sort of cold we thought we would have driving up here. They do not seem to be phased by that sort of thing. Just snow.
08 March 2010
freaking fanstastic
On Saturday morning, Pilot Boy and I got up earlier than we wished in order to eat, dress and be bundled up in order to go see the Iditarod. Having never been to a dog race before (of any kind) I did not really know what to expect. I did though, expect the race to be all the dog sleds taking off at relatively the same moment. Like they do at most races. I expected to see dogs running by me, barking and shouting.
I got the barking.
I got the shouting.
But there were no mass of dogs running around.
They do a "ceremony" start on Saturday, the real start of the race the next day at someplace called Willow Lake. This is due to something about permits to run along the highway out of town. Or something. Anyways, so the dogs run around town just for show. And they do not run at the same time, they run every five minutes, so it takes like four hours to get all the sleds "started."
Pilot Boy and I got to the race track (which was piles of trucked in snow packed down in the street) about an hour before the actual start. We got pretty close to the start point and moved into a spot right along the fence. I remained relativly excited till about 20 minutes before when the a boy showed up and made a comment about being cold.
"I'm cold, so I only want to see the first three start. You know they wait like five minutes between sleds," he told the woman he was with.
I looked at Pilot Boy and was like, "I can't feel my toes."
Wearing warm socks (SmartWool, ski socks) and Bog boots do not keep your feet warm. In the least. They might be rated for below freezing, but my feet, since leaving Chicago, have ALWAYS been cold when I go out for extended periods in them. By the time the "race" started, I could not feel my fingers in my super duper gloves. Why pay so much money for super gloves and after an hour you can't feel your fingers? I was warm everywhere else simply standing around except in the fingers and toes. So the long johns work.
The race finally began after much fanfare I could not see, but I could hear. Then, the dogs began running by. Every five minutes. We stayed for the first two and before the third one appeared, I was like, "I can't feel my fingers or toes any more. And this is sort of boring."
Pilot Boy agreed, so after seeing a Scots man run by in a kilt (I bet he was a lot colder than I was in that kilt), we headed back to the car. As we walked along the track, we saw a few more sleds go by and got to stand right next to the track after we got off 4th Ave. That was pretty cool, much cooler than standing right near the start point.
We finally made it to the car and tried to get warm before heading to the store for some food. We spent a lot of time waiting for Chinese food from Carrs (oddly, pretty good), then came back to our home for the time being. Basil Dog was over joyed to see us and we actually got to watch the last hour of the Iditarod race on TV. While it was cool to say I went, I think next year I might just remain home in a cozy shell to watch the start on TV.
It snowed all day yesterday. And it is snowing now. I talked to my dad yesterday back in Chicago, and he said the snow back there was melting and also an icy mess. I think, after seeing snow since October, snow might be getting old by now, but for me, I still like the snow. I like the cold, I only wish I had more clothes. lol!
I got the barking.
I got the shouting.
But there were no mass of dogs running around.
They do a "ceremony" start on Saturday, the real start of the race the next day at someplace called Willow Lake. This is due to something about permits to run along the highway out of town. Or something. Anyways, so the dogs run around town just for show. And they do not run at the same time, they run every five minutes, so it takes like four hours to get all the sleds "started."
Pilot Boy and I got to the race track (which was piles of trucked in snow packed down in the street) about an hour before the actual start. We got pretty close to the start point and moved into a spot right along the fence. I remained relativly excited till about 20 minutes before when the a boy showed up and made a comment about being cold.
"I'm cold, so I only want to see the first three start. You know they wait like five minutes between sleds," he told the woman he was with.
I looked at Pilot Boy and was like, "I can't feel my toes."
Wearing warm socks (SmartWool, ski socks) and Bog boots do not keep your feet warm. In the least. They might be rated for below freezing, but my feet, since leaving Chicago, have ALWAYS been cold when I go out for extended periods in them. By the time the "race" started, I could not feel my fingers in my super duper gloves. Why pay so much money for super gloves and after an hour you can't feel your fingers? I was warm everywhere else simply standing around except in the fingers and toes. So the long johns work.
The race finally began after much fanfare I could not see, but I could hear. Then, the dogs began running by. Every five minutes. We stayed for the first two and before the third one appeared, I was like, "I can't feel my fingers or toes any more. And this is sort of boring."
Pilot Boy agreed, so after seeing a Scots man run by in a kilt (I bet he was a lot colder than I was in that kilt), we headed back to the car. As we walked along the track, we saw a few more sleds go by and got to stand right next to the track after we got off 4th Ave. That was pretty cool, much cooler than standing right near the start point.
We finally made it to the car and tried to get warm before heading to the store for some food. We spent a lot of time waiting for Chinese food from Carrs (oddly, pretty good), then came back to our home for the time being. Basil Dog was over joyed to see us and we actually got to watch the last hour of the Iditarod race on TV. While it was cool to say I went, I think next year I might just remain home in a cozy shell to watch the start on TV.
It snowed all day yesterday. And it is snowing now. I talked to my dad yesterday back in Chicago, and he said the snow back there was melting and also an icy mess. I think, after seeing snow since October, snow might be getting old by now, but for me, I still like the snow. I like the cold, I only wish I had more clothes. lol!
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