Hello!
I know it's been quite some time since anyone has heard boo from me about Alaska- apologies for that. So, here's the latest in all its glory. Chris and I are comfortably settled in to our yucky little apartment and urgently in need of a better place to live. Aside from the near constant noise from the flushing toilets of our neighbors above who do not wish to work and are supported by the state, we now have a homeless lady sleeping in the storage area next to our unit. I think Dave, the building manager put new deadbolts on the doors yesterday but this will likely not have any impact. Oddly enough, she was back last night (post lock installation) and took up residence in the laundry room along with a boyfriend of sort. I think she used to live up on the third floor (endearingly "the Ghetto"), but was evicted for drug dealing. Needless to say, the recent holiday vandalism to the exterior window, borrage of noise, faulty appliances, strange/seedy people and regular visits from the Anchorage Police Department have spurred us on to seriously look for new digs. It seems we traded our less expensive, gorgeous home with vaulted ceilings, marbled floors, ponds with waterfalls and greenhouse for an overpriced, windowless basement at the end of the plumbing line. Yikes!
We do have some nice neighbors even if they are a little odd. At the very least Brian, who is far from normal and shows up regularly to be fed, is overall a fairly harmless person. Recently, neighbor Brian, has figured out that I'm not a very accommodating person and that I have no trouble eating in front of him without offering to feed him nightly. In light of this revelation, he has now started to bring his own raw food for me to prepare for him (and us too), rather than simply expecting handouts from us. This is actually not such a bad arrangement since he works at a local seafood distributor (a major cause for some of his less pleasant body odors) and has access to some of Alaska's finest assortment of king crab, giant scallops, caribou, moose and other incredible local foods that would otherwise not be affordable to us on a regular basis. So for now, I don't mind and I cook A LOT, which is something most of you know is not something I am particularly excited about on a day-to-day basis.
Also, I have virtually no social interaction outside work and the gym, so company (invited or not) is often welcome... at least in small doses. Brian, for all his quirkiness, has little tact and not a stitch of awareness as to the appropriateness of his language, let alone the effects his language might one day have on his personal safety. I for one, have had to verbally put him in his place more than once. Outside of being like an odd sitcom character, he's also kind of like one of those "mini" dogs that get big dog syndrome and inevitably bark at the wrong person. While I find him amusing and somewhat humorous, I worry that he'll find himself in a world of pain some day after naming the wrong woman a "snow-cow" out loud. Up here, such a woman might squish him easily (he's smaller and skinnier than I am).
Beyond the world of Brian, we are doing well. I started working at a local wholesale book publisher and distributor as their Art Director/Sr. Graphic Designer. It's quite the lofty title considering I'm the only graphic designer. It pays nearly double my Boise income and my office has huge windows with a view of downtown and the inlet. The building is in a terrible area, however, and I tell time by looking down at the street to see the line of people walking to the liquor store near by. Every morning, moose allowing, there is a stream of people walking to the liquor store (open at 10:30 am) in need of their daily medicine. For the most part, they don't bother anyone and just want a quiet place to drink or to get out of the cold.
Chris has taken a new job with a company back in Boise, but will work from home here in Anchorage, taking occasional trips to Boise. This job also pays significantly more and will afford us the ability to find a better place to live here, while allowing me to get back to flying. We now have the opportunity to actually live the lifestyle we had envisioned when we decided to move up here. We've both decided that there are many things we really love about this state, the local people and the odd assortment of weather it provides. We've had days when the high just couldn't make it above zero followed by days in the 20's. Now, when we have temperatures above 9, we comment how warm it feels and strip off a layer or two of clothing.
We run into moose regularly and the night before last, when we walked the dogs, Lax attempted to go toe-to-toe with a very large mama moose who was quite unimpressed with him. She could have trampled him to death, but mercifully she decided to walk away while we were frantically hollering for the Lax to come back and leave the moose alone. Well, we ran into 2 other moose within a quarter of a mile of the first moose, and Lax firmly leashed up for this run-in, could only bark and tug at his leash. Zev on the other hand, is more in awe of the moose than Lax. He doesn't want to kill the moose like his fat cohort, Lax, but rather he barks once or twice in acknowledgement and then quickly hides behind me or Chris. For what it's worth, I'm not much of shield for him since he out weighs me, but his intent is clear. He seems to understand that in a world where he is generally considered "large," that these creatures are true giants and to be respected. He'd rather make friends with the moose than to feel the swift kick of it's hoof. If the coast is clear of moose and the dogs get a rare moment off leash, they play. They both adore the snow and scoop it up with their noses and plow through it. Digging snow tunnels is a new favorite activity and we've found that we need to be extra careful to not lose Zev in the snow since he's naturally camouflauged for it.
We've also taken up regular snowshoeing trips around the area and have repeatedly been awestruck by the surrounding beauty. We see nesting pairs of bald eagles in trees unafraid of anything, moose lumbering along in front of the coffee shops stopping traffic and incredible indigo evening skies where the blue hue cast by the setting sun almost seems to vibrate against the silhouettes of snow covered trees. We've never seen any blue quite like it and realize these are the real reasons we came here. When it snows, the cloud cover brightens things up and the city lights bounce off the cloud bases making it bright enough to read outside without a flashlight. When it's clear (and very cold), those frosty little crystals I wrote about before reappear and at night, they glow in the moonlight. Yes, those are the reason's we are here and with more day light each day, the anticipation of spring keeps us in a good mood.
Our anniversary is coming up in a couple of weeks and Linda, Chris's mother, is coming up for her dose of winter. I have reservations for a cabin up in Hatcher Pass, a couple hours north of Anchorage. There is an old gold mine museum up there in addition to miles of trails, nearby glaciers and a very good chance of seeing the auroras (clouds willing). We are looking forward to playing in the snow and getting out of Anchorage for a bit.
On the Boise end of things, we have officially taken our house off the market and decided to hang on to it until we decide where we’d like to go next. For now, we’ve found a young family to rent our home for 6 months with a month to month option after that. They have 2 young children and a dog and seem to be fairly responsible. We voiced our concerns about children and water and wrote an addendum to the lease to cover ourselves just in case their little one crawls out the back door and goes for an unintentional swim off the deck. They were very excited at the prospect of moving into a house with all the toys we have, so hopefully they’ll care for them in kind. Neither of us has met them in person, but when Chris goes down to Boise in February, he’ll stop by to meet them and see how things are going. I hope we can be good "landlords". We certainly have our fair share of experience as renters with bad landlords and at least know what NOT to do. So for now, that’s the latest!
Please, keep in touch & I look forward to hearing from you….
Vered
(…and Zev too)
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