What is -50 like?

Many people have commented about how they can not imagine -50.  Well I can honestly say, you just have to feel it to understand.  But I am going to try to give you an idea of the havoc -50 creates.  

My sliding glass door in my kitchen.  Ice builds up inside when the temps outside drop below -30

My window in my living room.  As you can see I will have to repair all the drywall around my windows come spring.

• -20 and below, the inside of your nose freezes as soon as you go outside.
• Breathing, especially for me, is hard.  Everyone around you is hacking and coughing all the time.
• You have to start your car 30 minutes before you want to leave to give it time to warm up and be drivable.
• I have a heated garage, but at -50, within minutes of leaving my house my car becomes very difficult to drive.  The power steering becomes stiff, the brakes become stiff and you can feel everything freezing up on your car. Driving down the road, you pass tons of disabled vehicles on the side of the road, that's if they didn't freeze up over night and were actually able to start.
• Any exposed skin starts to tingle, hurt and turn red within minutes of being outside.
• Even with heavy gloves on, my finger tips were burning and going numb trying to pump gas.
• If you don't wear gloves, be prepared to have you hand/fingers freeze to the gas pump and door handles and then have to rip if off, leaving behind a painful burn.
• Buying gas if fun, since most of the pumps won't work or the card readers are too cold to read your card.   
• If you try to pour out water or any other liquid, it will freeze before it hits the ground.

I could go on with lots of other things that don't work or are impossible to do, but you get the idea. So now I will leave you with a video shot just the other day by a guy in North Pole.  All the places he is driving are the places I drive, and I tried to get gas at the same gas station on that day, but the pump wouldn't work! lol  Ice Fog sucks!

It's been a year in AK

This past week I have been really sick with a high fever.  In my fever induced hazed, I totally missed our one year anniversary in Alaska.  We got off the plane and had our first experience with -40 at 2am on January 16, 2011.  My first thought was "holy shit, what have I gotten myself into?"

The first two months were rough, trying to live out of a hotel and not having any luck finding a rental property.  Once we bought the house and were able to settle down, we started to get into the swing of things.  It's been hard adjusting to a new place, hell, a new life, on my own.  Alaska is like no where else I have every lived, and it's not just the weather that sets it apart.  It truly is like living in another country.  Living in Germany was easier.  I think the hardest part for me here was having to admit the military community has changed a lot over the years and it is not as it was when we lived overseas or anywhere else.  Once I got over that disappointment and made an effort to make my own life and friends outside of the Army, things greatly improved.

I am extremely grateful for the friends I have made here, Speedway for giving me a place to relax and unwind, and for everything I have learned so far.  I look forward to the next few years here and if Jason has his way, retirement here.  I'm in a good place in my life.