weather

Slip-slidin’ away.

by

thThe smart money would have been on skipping the movie. Instead, I found myself in the car with DF, creeping toward the Century 16 on roads as glazed as a fresh Krispy Kreme. Freezing rain had been falling for about an hour – maddening, really, since the temperature at our house was 22 degrees. Shouldn’t that have been snow?

Blame the “blast of mid-winter moisture (that) blew north from the tropics,” according to The Anchorage Daily News. My friend Linda B. and I were determined to see “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” on Friday morning and that’s what we did.

It helped that DF is the calmest driver I know, and that Linda B. shrugs off all crappy weather with, “Hey, it’s Alaska.”

He dropped me off on his way to work and she and I enjoyed the film (even though I hadn’t seen the first one I was able to follow along). When we left the theater it was snowing sideways, so we crept carefully over to the Table 6 restaurant and had lunch.

Then came the slippery part.

Read more

Giveaway: Two $10 Starbucks cards.

by

th-1Seems that we finished our vacation just in time, escaping the Lower 48 barely ahead of a serious heat wave. (And I thought it was hot while we were there…!) Sorry for all of you whose feet are sticking to the softened asphalt.

This week’s giveaway won’t make the hot weather go away, but it’ll help you cope: I’m selecting two winners to receive $10 Starbucks gift cards. I’m not a coffee fan myself, but I understand the iced variety is quite cooling.

Coffee isn’t the only option, of course.

Read more

Breaking up is hard to do.

by

The light is coming back. Sunrise today was at 6:37 a.m. and the sun will set at 9:23 p.m. Both times are deceptive, however: It’s bright before the sun comes up and after it goes down.

On Friday DF and I went to the Alaska Dance Theatre recital. Even though it was past 9:30 as we walked back to the car, there was daylight to spare. The better to see icy spots in the street and snow piles in parking lots.

Read more

A disenchanted April.

by

thEarly this month it seemed that breakup — local parlance for “spring” — was marching right along. The days were warm (high 30s-low 40s) and the nights were chilly (teens and 20s). Between actual melt and sublimation, we’d gotten glimpses of roads and even bits of sidewalk here and there.

Several dumps of snow later, I remembered just how big a tease breakup can be. Sort of like a stripper who never shows you all the good stuff at once, and who covers up with both fans and the stage curtain just when you’re getting all worked up.

Read more

Cold is relative.

by

th-1As in, my relatives are never cold. Specifically, my great-nephews are never cold. I was visiting them on a 10-below-zero night when a friend called to say that Jupiter was quite visible in the night sky.

The boys stampeded out the front door – in their PJs – and stayed out there for at least five minutes, looking. At least they put on their boots.

I used to be that kind of badass. But I find I’ve lost my happy thoughts after 11 years Outside – which is how Alaskans describe Everyplace That Isn’t Alaska. (It gets the upper-case even in the newspapers.)

Read more

Sweet smells for summer.

by
2008 08 07 – 9079 – St Petersburg – Hermitage – Bathing Aphrodite and Eros © by thisisbossi

Much of the country has been baking in higher-than-normal summer temps. Stinking hot, in meteorological terms.

Days like those call for tepid showers or long, cool soaks. This week’s giveaway will help you along. They will also help you not to stink.

Read more

Snow days.

by

Yesterday it snowed in Seattle. This happens rarely enough that folks panic when the first flake hits the ground. Buses run less often. The stores sell out of milk and ice melt. Driving becomes an adventure on Seattle’s famously sloping roadways. (I swear it really is possible to walk through the snow uphill both ways.)

On Saturday I’m heading up to Anchorage, Alaska for a month in the frozen north. Which today happens to be the glazed-over north: Freezing rain on top of snow turned streets into skating rinks and hilly streets into luge runs.

The thought made me cringe, which in turn made me realize I’ve become a total weenie after nine years of Lower 48 living.

When I moved from Alaska to Chicago in 2001, I actually missed winter. Ice and all.

Read more