At Long Last

After hearing a number of complaints about my lack of posting, I offer you the following thoughts (absent any photos, because I still keep forgetting the camera cord . . . hence, the delay in posts):

Light and Dark. Headlights are a necessity for the drive to work or meetings in the morning, as it is still pitch black and not a hint of a sunrise until about 9 a.m. The sky stays light (relatively) until about 7 p.m., although the sunset is creeping earlier and earlier with each passing day. For some inane reason (even more inane than the rest of the States), Alaska follows daylight savings time (THERE IS NOT THAT MUCH DAYLIGHT TO SAVE, PEOPLE!) so the rush hour drive (if you can call it that) soon will be dark as well.

Bye-Bye Fall. The leaves are mostly gone (90% turned gold; 10% just fell off) and it has been dipping down in the 20s with some regularity. The mountains surrounding the city (town?) are snow-covered now, and I've had to scrape ice off the windshield twice already (with kudos to the handy Alaska Department of Transportation ice scraper that Greg and I picked up at the State Fair, along with complimentary plastic rain parkas and a map measuring device). I've been putting it off but it's time to bite the bullet and get an engine block heater installed on the CR-V (my parking space at the apartment has a plug-in) (no kidding), put some studded snow tires on that baby, and if I'm feeling chilled at the time, a remote starter too. My secretary warns that some days it is so cold that you need to start your car two or three times during the workday to make sure it will start up when you are ready to go home (really, though, I mean, if it's that cold, who is going to go to work in the first place?). I am thanking my lucky stars for the seat heaters, which seemed like a frivolous luxury in Maryland but which I'm fairly certain will become a bun-warming necessity in Anchorage.

I'll get some pics up as soon as I can - expect snowy scenes.