Mom's visit, part 2

So, after we got saved by two random guys, I told mom we owed the karma gods. We saw a lot of cars stuck that day, for the record, but almost everyone was well on their way to freedom.  Except for this one guy one the way home from dinner.  We just walked across the street to Henry's (one of 5 restaurants in all of Kodiak), and on our way back we could hear this guy most definitely stuck in the ice.  I open my car, grab my new shovel, some ice melt, and get to work.  Hey, I've gotten stuck twice now, I know what to do!  After a bit of shoveling, a bit of sprinkling, and a little pushing later, voila!  The car was free.  The karma gods had been repaid.

Honestly though, I wish they had remembered that when everything just iced over and stayed that way for the rest of the week.  Because then we got the joy of moving me into my new place (YAY!) on the ice.  Which sucks because you have to talk down a hill to get to my door.  My poor mom. At least she stayed upright.  I told her we just needed a sled then we could slide the stuff down.  I thought it was a great idea personally.  She vetoed it, but I think she just didn't want to be stuck on top of Ice Mountain all by herself.

Ice Mountain is the new name I have given the hill I live on.  It fits.  It's been above freezing for almost two weeks and Ice Mountain is the only thing still frozen solid.  Yeah, try getting out of a car onto that.  It's unfun.

The movers came on Friday and I was so excited to have my bed and all the rest of my stuff back!  It's been around 18 months, which is a long time to have not slept on your own bed.  But the best part of the whole day was when the moving truck got stuck on the ice.  No snow shovel in the world or amount of ice melt was going to save them.  Ooops.  I felt bad for laughing, but I felt much better about getting stuck in the snow!

Sunday I had to put my mom back on a plane.  I really hated that part.  I feel like half my life is putting loved ones on planes and saying goodbye.  If there was one thing I could change about military life, that would be it.

But this time it was almost worth it.  Because watching my mom live through an Alaska winter, even if it was only a week, was priceless.  Now I know how looked to everyone else here.  "Look LOOK!  The mail truck has snow chains!  I've never seen snow chains!"  "Is that a snow plow?"  Yes mom.  "Oh that's so cool!  I've never seen a snow plow."  Yep, everyone should witness this at least once.

Included are some pictures from that week. Enjoy!

Current Events part 3, CGC Healy

One final news item on the agenda (for now).  The Cutter Healy.

Oh come on, you saw that coming didn't you?  I mean, how could I, a Coastie in Alaska, not write about my shipmates who made sure a city in Alaska got gas?  Not the kind you get after eating beans either, but I'm sure after Mexican night on the cutter that's what happens.

Anywho, in case you lived under some giant rock, the Cutter Healy broke through a lot of ice to get the tanker Renda to Nome, AK.  Because they were running out of gasoline.  I mean, in a town were gas is $7 a gallon, who would want it, anyway?  In case you missed it, that's how we get heat up here.  And in case you are completely clueless, Alaska is freakin' cold. I would know.

That's here, last week.  Nome is hovering around -40 right now.  Sucks to be them.  Yeah, I'd want my damned gas too.

The Healy is also the USCGs only working icebreaker.  Which, for some reason the government has seen as exceptable.  But now, America wants to drill for oil in Artic Circle.  I would just like to ask- how are you going to get there, since, uh, you know, there's only 1 working icebreaker?  And uh, who is going to save you when another BP oil spill happens?  Oh, you didn't think that far ahead did you?  Well, I'm glad Admiral Papp did, and he's been telling you this for a while, but no one listens to the Coast Guard.  We don't exist.  Most people don't even know we are military.  And we go to war too.  And we get shot at.  And we've died.  But hey, we just sit around and look cool for Al Roker on TV right?

Alright, enough of that rant. My mom comes up here tomorrow! I am so excited.  Thing is, she's seen snow twice in her life.  Oh, I am sure I will have some funny stories to tell after this week.  Should be entertaining to say the least!

Blizzard #2

Ok, ok, my bad.   I was gone for another week.  I have no real excuse other than I was exhausted and wanted to sleep a lot.  On Friday, we got another blizzard.  It dumped a couple feet of snow overnight, but it was very powdery, so the snow drifts could be quite high.  It was about 3 feet in a lot of places on base.  For a while, it was ok even though it snowed maybe another foot.  Then Tuesday it stopped snowing and started raining.  While it was nice and melted a lot of the snow, we now have a lot of ice everywhere.  Tuesday night when I left work it was like an ice rink everywhere.  It's still snowing, which is a blessing and a curse.  Things aren't as slippery now, but it's hard to see the ice and it can still take you by surprise.

This same storm system moved through Cordova.  In the past few weeks, they have gotten 18 feet of snow.  The National Guard has had to dig them out.  Here, the combination of snow and rain has sunk many boats in the harbor.  Oops.  Since I have no personal funny stories (yet) here are some pictures I've taken of the frozen bay.

Black ice and slush

I'd like to take a few moments and talk about two weather conditions I have experienced in Kodiak so far and have not discussed - black ice and slush.

I know black ice.  In Florida.  It's what happens when it hasn't rained in a while so oil collects on the roads and when it rains just a bit, well, oil floats and then so does your car.  It isn't pretty.  But the stuff I am talking about is actual ice.  It's a very thin layer of ice that forms and can be hard if not impossible to see on the road.  Lucky for me, driving on this black ice is the same as the stuff I am used to, so no problems there.

Walking is another story.  I slip and slide but thankfully have not fallen due to it yet.  In fact, I almost ate it walking to my car this morning.  But I think I'm starting to master this walking stuff.  And by master I mean I walk on the grass because there is no thin sheet of ice there.  Just crunchy frost.  HA! I win!  On a side note, the ground does freeze.  I pointed this out to the fiancé while he was here and said something along the lines of "Well, at least it's not the tundra."  He kindly pointed out that frozen ground was the definition of tundra, even if its not that way all year.  So I live in the tundra now.  Great.
 

The next item is slush.  Like, when the snow melts or it snowed that morning but is now raining.  So you get 3 or 4 inches of what looks like a slush puppie on the ground.  Not even the good quality slurpee stuff, but the other kind.
 

At least I don't slip and slid on that, but getting around becomes a challenge because you need boots high enough.  Hey look my snow boots work well for that!  Alright I'm in business.  But seriously.  This stuff is usually pretty dirty and nasty.  It has killed all appeal for drinks of the semi-frozen sort.  At least its good for the diet.

Week Hiatus

Sorry about the week hiatus.  Ok, so I’m not really all that sorry.  The male-half came up to visit me.  Oh, and I can now call him my fiancé instead of my male-half.  How exciting! I met this great guy who loves me, even though I am apparently a butthead and a crabby patty at times (yes, those are his own words).  And I have never been happier.

Not much else to update on here in Alaska.  It’s been above freezing for a while, and most of the ice has melted.  Gotta be careful for the odd patch of it here and there though.  If the sun would come up, it would have helped things along, but no.  No sun for me.  Right now, the sun comes up just before 10am, and sets just after 4pm.  But because of the mountains, we really only get about 4 hours of sun.  And the sun maybe gets about 40 degrees off the horizon.  So while it’s great light for photos, it very strange for me, and you get thrown off really easily as to what time it really is.  Since I am going to nights for the next few weeks for my job, I won’t be seeing any sun for a while.  Yay for tanning beds.  They really do help give you that happy boost.  I think I’m addicted.  Hopefully, I won’t get too addicted and tan too much.  I don’t want leather skin by the time I’m 30.  That’s not a good look.

My watch section

So I can't go much further in my blog without talking about my watch section. They make up the majority of the people I know on this island so far, and while they laugh relentlessly as me, they have also been a huge source of help.

It's warmed up here the past few days - to 40 whole degrees.  I never thought I would call 40 degrees warm, but there you have it.  Tuesday night though, it got warm, then got below freezing.  Remember that whole car getting stuck thing?  Well, I saw it happening again as the time came to leave work.  But I severely underestimated the amount of completely solid ice there was outside.

I just needed to get rid of my car and use ice skates.  It was icy like that.  And I had to drive home.  I was a bit nervous, but my supervisor was nice enough to agree to follow me home.  Because, well, I have decided I don't want to die and get eaten by bears.  Too much stuff to do.

But first I had to get to my car.  One of my shipmates told me she likes to pretend she's ice skating.  That was actually somewhat helpful.  So instead of the teeny tiny baby steps I had been taking, I was trying, not so gracefully, to glide across the ice.  Another shipmate pointed out it was easier to walk in the snow.  I had figured that out already, but there was no snow in front of me.  What awful time to give that advice.  And of course, my entire section was laughing behind me.  Assholes.

So after skating all the way to my car in my uniform and boots, I got to my car without falling.  I even got home safe and sound without the slightest bit of sliding on the ice.  I even had a shipmate from the section make sure I made it inside.  As I tried to step up on the curb without busting my face open, I hear this snickering.

"I'm sorry, I don't want to laugh.  But you look like a penguin."

...................

Go ahead, let that imagine sink in.  It's like a cross between an actual penguin in blue clothes and Bert dancing in Mary Poppins.

I have decided that it can mean only one thing: I have adapted.  I am now a cold-weather bird.

The male-half

 Ok, so now that I'm caught up, I'd like to take a minute to tell you about my boyfriend.  Not in a disgusting lovey-dovey way (because even though I could, you don't want to read it), just more of an appreciative way.  See, he's the only person in this whole mess that hasn't laughed at me or tell me I was going to die up here (I already knew that, I didn't need everyone telling me).  He is from Minnesota (insert obligatory "Go Twins!" here because he loves baseball and doesn't give a damn if you think they suck - he's no fairweather fan) so he's been around this winter thing many times.  In fact, mid-west winters may be some of the worst in the US so I trust his judgement.  Mostly because I have none of my own.  I stand there looking lost and confused 95% of the time.  Add in cold and I am lost 150% of the time. Yes, I am perfectly aware that you can't have 150% of the time, it's called a hyperbole and I use them for dramatic effect.  Or as my mom would say, because I am a drama queen.  I am not a drama queen, I just am very expressive of my feelings. 

Anyway, back to the topic at hand.  I figured I would be proactive before I got up here, so I went online shopping for a winter coat. After about 3 days I decided I was hopelessly lost and asked said-named-bf to help me.  He knew exactly what I should get, a jacket with a removable fleece shell.  He even picked out the color because clearly I was on brain overload at the time and was unable to think for myself.

As soon as I got here, he also informed me I needed a flashlight, an emergency blanket, some kitty litter and some toilet paper. Someone else told me, I think his dad, that I needed a metal cup. Here is about how our conversation went:

"What's the kitty litter for?"
"So when you get stuck in the snow you can get out.  Put some under your tires and it gives some traction."

Refer to "Part 4" to see how well I heeded this advice.  More on this later...

"What is the cup for?"
"Because you have to melt the snow first before you drink it because if you just eat it, your body somethingsomethingsomthing."

I don't remember but I got the drift.

"What's the flashlight for"
"When it gets dark."

That should have been obvious but again, lost and confused 150% of the time when it comes to this subject. 

Well, I knew what the TP and blanket were for so I stopped the stupid questions.  At least for that day.  But since then I have literally turned to him for everything.  I mean, my mother is also a Floridian who thinks anything below 70 is freezing cold and my dad has lived in Florida since around 1970.  Clearly I was not getting any practical help from either of them.  So from which snow cleets should I get to do I really need those $16 wool socks that lady sold me? I asked the bf.  He's been helpful and wonderful and I wouldn't have gotten this far without him. But then came the day I got stuck on the ice.  He's not in Alaska at the moment, so I could only recount my story afterwards.

Him: "You used salt?"
Me: "Yeah, the black stuff in the barrels on base.  That's what they told me to use and it worked!"
"Why didn't you use kitty litter?"
"I didn't have any"
"I told you to get some."
"Yeah, but the salt totally worked just fine and now I have a whole bag in my car so I'm good to go."
"Babe, salt is going to corrode your car.  And it doesn't work when it gets really cold out.  You should put some kitty litter in your car."
"Yeah, but the salt..."
"I know what I'm talking about here"

This went on for a few more minutes before one of us changed the subject.  Honestly, who wants to fight about kitty litter?  Not me.

Which is why I now have some in my car.

Part 4 - The storm

Bering Sea storms are common in the winter.  It’s a part of living in the region.  But forecasters were saying this storm was going to be bad.  It was still too early in the season they said, and that was why this one was going to be so bad.  So bad in fact, some coastal regions of Western Alaska were being evacuated because of storm surge.  I was mentally prepared for my job to get more difficult, maybe some distress calls, some difficulty communicating, but I never thought about what would happen when that storm hit Kodiak.  At first, it just was snowing.  And it kept snowing for days.  I had to go shovel it a couple of times, but nothing we did could keep up.  It just kept coming down.  Plows couldn’t keep up, and the piles that they had cleared from the roads were much taller than I was.  We had maybe a foot a snow fall in the first few days.  Not much by anyone else’s standards, but then the wind hit.

50 mile per hour winds.  This was a hurricane in Alaska.  I had been warned these winds would get bad, but what I wasn't expecting was for them to blow all the snow away overnight.  Drifts of snow that were much higher, it was all just gone.  And it was in the teens.  Even the pilots wouldn’t fly in this weather.  And if there’s one thing I’ve learned about Coast Guard pilots is those people are crazy.  So if they refuse to go out, I know it must be bad.  But it got sunny again, and warmed up a few degrees and I thought the worst was over.  No, apparently that was just a break in the storm.

Then it snowed for days a second time.  Not so much wind this time, so it wasn’t so bad.  It was in the high twenties, so it would have been a nice time to go play in the snow, only I was working.  Of course. Then I came home after a long weekend and I saw what I knew would be bad.  My car’s thermometer said it was 34 degrees out.  This lesson I did learn in Cape May.  Snow melts then refreezes into ice.  Never in my life did I pray that it would get colder, and fast.  Before this got worse.  But pray I did. 

The next day, it was sunny and in the low twenties.  Sure enough, I was right. Ice everywhere.  I had yet to find a pair of ice cleats in my size so I was just going to have learn to navigate this stuff the hard way.  Sometime around noon, I realized I was starving and I decided to brave the roads and go get some sushi.  This should have been a simple task.  Only as soon as I tried to back out of my parking spot, I realized I was not going anywhere anytime soon.  I was stuck.  I got out, no snow behind me keeping me in, so I kept looking.  Sure enough, my front tires were sitting on ice.  And I have a front-wheel drive only vehicle.   After about 45 minutes of trying to get my car to move, I knew I was truly stuck and I needed some help.  Thank God for salt and being stuck on a CG base because I was out in no time.

Only I forgot the sushi place was closed on Monday.  So I settled for pho and pad thai instead.  I now also have ice and a small shovel in my car.  You know, just in case.  And it was a good thing too, because the next day we had white out conditions and it was 4 degrees, wind chill of -25.  But I wasn’t dumb enough to go out in this.  I knew one thing for sure: the snow was kicking my Florida ass.

My first 10 weeks, part 3 - snow

It's November 1st.  I had just gotten qualified as a watchstander.  I had gone into work for a short day.  Imagine my surprise when I look at the security cameras (there are no windows) and see snow!  Real, fluffy snow!  When I leave, it's stopped but over everything is an inch thick blanket of untouched lovely snow.  I could hardly contain my excitement.  I drove back to base as fast as I dared.  Once I got back, I parked, threw open the door and just started some odd combination of dancing and kicking snow up off the ground.  I made a snowball.  I threw handfuls in the air.  SNOW!  This was FUN!
 
Seeing as how I had been up for about 36 hours at that point, I decided I would sleep first, then go play.  I was very surprised when I woke up and saw that this lovely white fluffy was now all brown and dirty.  The plow had cleared it all away!  No more playing in the snow today, but I knew there would be more days to come.  I also needed snow boots, so I took care of that the next day.
 
Then it happened.  Lots of snow.  And by lots I mean 3 inches.  And I had to drive to work in it while it was still coming down.  Alright, it was now or never.  My car was covered in snow though.  But I had my handy dandy broom ice scraper thing so I knew it was going to be ok!
 
Note to self: wipe the snow off the door first or a giant pile of it will fall in your car.
 
But I got the snow off and was off to work.  I drove slow, I was doing good.  This snow thing wasn't all that bad.
 
Second note to self: your car does not turn as well in the snow.
 
That should have been obvious looking back, but it wasn't.
 
I hit a snow bank.
 
Clearly I am ok because I'm still here.  I didn't even damage my car.  But I learned a very important lesson.
 
I also learned that when a car drives in the snow, it compresses it and makes ice.
 
Ice is slippery.
 
I fell on my ass.
 
For those of you keeping track: Snow 3, Amanda 0.  And on its way was what forecasters had been calling "the storm of the century."