Holiday break!

Yesterday was my last day at work until the New Year!! Whoop whoop!

My ankle is healing nicely. I can now rotate it and it doesn't really hurt too much going down stairs.

The weather is staying mild. We've been in the upper -teens and low -20s for the last few weeks. Just yesterday and today we're dipping into the mid -20's with wind chills around mid to upper -30s. The way I tell it's time for big parka is when the bridge of my nose hurts on the ride to or from work. That's my temperature gauge. Very scientific.

Tomorrow, Jonathan arrives and I am super excited. One of my coworkers said he'd loan me some wolf or dog (can't remember) mitts for Jonathan to use if we go out on the land. A former coworker is still talking about us getting out around the island so I'm excited. However, I have learned that snowmobiles are finicky and they break all the time...at least up here....or the predominant brand is total crap. Not sure which yet. My friend told me that on his street in the housing units just surrounding him, there is a total of 7 machines. One of which is currently running!!! So, when someone says, "are you gonna buy a snowmobile" I hear, "are you going to set yourself up for incredible frustration and anger at an inanimate object that is going to break on you in -30?" My response is, "No thanks". Maybe if I had a garage or something... My boss is leaving for meetings in early January and asked me to watch his dogs. He said that I could use his machines during that time, but that he needed to make sure I could start the snowmobile in the cold. The push start won't work in the cold and the back up pull cord flywheel freezes making pulling it extremely difficult. Sounds delightful. The thought of yanking on a cord that extends 18inches before it snaps back while yanking your shoulder out of socket (again, in very cold temps) sounds just delightful.

In our housing units, the front entryway and back laundry room/sealift room do not have heat under their floors. I know this because the moment you step into one of those areas, the floor is freezing! I don't know how they heat the floors of the units. But, the units themselves are raised off the ground supported on metal struts. I believe this is because of the permafrost. Thus, all of our pipes are elevated off the ground. I have no idea how they insulate them enough to not freeze all the time. I was told my pipes will freeze, but if I'm lucky it won't happen too often and it will only happen when temps dip below -40.

I have also realized that the internet environment we live in now is predicated on large data availability and fast connections. Think back to the websites of 1996 if you will. They were usually a single page...of text only. Now, we have flash, we have pics, we have pop ups. And shopping. Whew shopping. First you search, then the results populate and they consist of pictures of the product. To learn more, you must click the picture. More pictures and details load. Then, you decide if you want it. If so, you put it in your Shopping Cart. The website wants you to know you put it in your cart so it shows you the cart. Then, you can go back to shopping if you want and repeat the process all over again. Now, transport yourself back to that 1996 web and think about the TIME it takes to load all those thumbnails...those interactive shopping widgets....those pop ups telling me about their latest clearance deal....then, my god, DON'T TAKE ME TO THE CART!!! It takes SO LONG to load the cart, then start all over again. I apologize in advance to my family. They will likely get whatever the first item is that loads. Good luck everybody!! lololol.

I'm including some pics of the airport this week. I thought that it needed more exposure. When you look at it, it seems small and inadequate, but when you think about the fact that a town of 1500-2000 has an airport like this, it's pretty substantial! I mean, there aren't many towns this size that i know of that have two airlines servicing them and runways with lights/services.

We had our holiday party at work this week too. We ordered 4 pizzas from the hotel in town that makes pizzas. Four pizzas = $120. Not too bad I guess. And, the manager cooked an Arctic Char. The fish du jour up here. They can be quite delicious.

Happy Holidays everyone!!Read more