I hate school drop off lanes!

Just once I would like to take my daughter to school and not leave in a foul mood, having yelled out several not so nice names in my car.  We have lived many places and our kids have gone to many schools, but this car pool lane takes the cake.  The car pool lane is for dropping off and picking up students ONLY!!!

Do Not:

• Pull up to the curb and leave you car.  If you need to walk you child inside, talk to their teacher, go to the office or go pee, park in the parking lot!!
• Pull up to the curb and sit for 15 minutes while you eat your breakfast.
• Light up a cigarette and proceed to smoke with all your windows rolled up and your kids STILL in the car.
• Pull up next to a car, jump out, lean in their window and proceed to gossip forever, successfully blocking both lanes so traffic is at a stand still.
• Put a movie into your car's DVD player and proceed to nap while your kids watch their morning cartoons.
• Cut me off as I am trying to leave, only to stop and let every other car pull out in front of you.

Please learn the proper way to use a school car pool lane.  Remember, many of us have not had a full cup of coffee yet and this can be very dangerous to your health!

Sunrise in Alaska

One of the things I love about living in Alaska is it is beautiful.  We are gaining more daylight each day and now I get to see the sunrise when I am coming home from dropping the kids off at school.

Also, the Yukon Quest started last Saturday. The Yukon Quest is a 1000mile dog sled race between Fairbanks Alaska and Whitehorse, Yukon.  The Yukon Quest Trail follows historical Gold Rush and Mail Delivery dog sled routes from the turn of the 20th Century.  While I did not make it to the start of the race, a good friend sent me a picture.  I plan to go next year when our whole family is together again.

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.

Consumer Deception

I went to Office Max today to get boxes, bubble wrap and Christmas printer paper.  While I was there I saw a sign advertising the Kindle Fire tablet in stock.  I walked over to the display and after a few minutes of playing with it, knew I wanted one.  My parents sent me birthday/Christmas money and I figured this was a great gift to spend my money on.  There were two purchase tickets to take to the register and a sign saying "Free $15 gift card with purchase of the Kindle Fire." 

I grabbed a ticket, picked out a protective cover and skipped (yes, skipped as I was quite giddy over my new toy) to check out.  I stood in line FOREVER behind a woman trying to buy a blue folder with no SKU.  After waiting many, many long minutes for her price check and singing country songs in my head, I finally get to the register.

I had the lady the purchase ticket and she looks at me and says "oh, we don't have these in stock.  They have to be ordered and will take at least 15 days to come in. We will call you when it arrives, but since it has to be ordered it is not eligible for the gift card."   Um, excuse me?  This is a blatant example of consumer deception.  If you KNOW they are not in stock, do not put out purchase tickets.  If you KNOW they have to be ordered and are not eligible for the gift card, don't advertise it that way. 

I am super angry.  I told her I did not want it.  As I was walking out of the store, she actually put the purchase ticket back by the display!  Are you kidding me?!  I know it probably won't do any good, but I am writing a complaint email to their headquarters.  This is fraudulent advertising and I plan to let them know exactly what I think of their store.

Santa knows when you are naughty!

I went to the Santa Claus House to finish up some of my Christmas shopping.  There is a display of beautiful Ne'Qwa Art ornaments.  Ne'Qwa Art is reverse painting on the inside of glass.  They are all hand done and expensive.

 

The ornaments on display are in a 3 sided glass case, all hanging from individual stands, with a sign, in plain site that reads "PLEASE ASK FOR ASSISTANCE!"

Now,  remember, I am at Santa's HOUSE!  In North Pole!  

A lady a few feet from me is looking at the ornaments.  She reaches in to grab an ornament towards the back and picks it up, along with its stand and starts to bring it toward her.  Can you guess what happens next?  That's right.  She bangs it into two other ornaments and all you hear if the breaking of glass.  All I could do was stare in horror, knowing the ones she just broke were the bigger ones and all were over $100 a piece.

Then, she proceeds to put it back and push things around while telling her husband to block the view and then move away quickly.  

Seriously?  You just broke 3 pieces of expensive merchandise because you could not follow directions and now you think you are going to hide it!  What the hell!  Santa is watching!!!!!!!!!!!! And so were his "elves" who quickly ran over and informed her she would be paying for those ornaments!

Santa knows when you are naughty! Don't try to put one past Santa in his own crib! I bet she is getting coal for Christmas!