it's just water...from the sky

I've been traveling! I've taken two trips, one (aborted unfortunately due to some unforeseen circumstances) to the Alaska mainland, and then one to Washington DC for training. DC is only about 3 hours from where Chris and Dante are still living, so I got to see them on Chris's day off (Wednesday) and then spent the weekend with them. I returned on Monday (my 49th birthday) and am getting back in the swing of things.

I found I kind of missed DC and was really happy to spend some time there. I went to college there, and lived in the area for about 15 years, so I have a lot of memories of the place. I felt a little wistful with having moved so far away at first.

It was funny though. On Tuesday a big storm blew through the area and everybody was going on about all the rain. I found I didn't mind it a bit, although I did get pretty wet Tuesday night walking back to my hotel from the class. By the time my plane landed in Juneau the following Monday night, I was really glad to be back in the soft, cool wetness, and I've been happy as a clam since, even though yesterday I had a sore throat (probably from being so tired), and I'm still pretty out of it today (though the sore throat is gone). I'll probably be fine by tomorrow.

 I do miss Chris and Dante terribly. We've been paying bills and stuff and so we haven't really been able to put any money away for them to make the move out here, which means they'll probably have to wait till our tax refund hits. That's not too far off from the original plan, but I wish some sort of miracle would occur that would allow them to move out here sooner. We'll manage; we have to. But it kind of sucks.

Here, have a gratuitous picture of some Alaskan mountains on the way to Anchorage!

news flash: it's gorgeous

Wow, it's been a while. I didn't have anything really new to talk about. I've been making some new friends, and I've joined Weight Watchers, but nothing really blog-worthy.

When I got here, it was "high summer", but the temps were mostly in the mid-fifties during the day, which I take it is cool even for Juneau. During the latter part of July and much of August, the temps reached the mid 60's to low 70's, but it didn't get any warmer than that (which suits me fine). As of now, it's back to mid-50's to very low 60's during the day, with mid to low 40's at night, which again suits me.

Right at the moment, our days are about as long as they are on the mainland, give or take a few minutes. I'm not sure when I'm really going to notice that we have a lot lesslight, but I'm sure I will definitely notice it. I'm not sure how much it will matter, and I do have a SAD lamp, so I should be okay.

I confess I haven't been going out a lot or doing "Alaska" things because I'm saving a lot of that stuff for when Chris and Dante move up here (although even so, they'll have to wait for summer to come again to do some of them). I've been trying to take some decent pictures, but I need to edit them. My laptop hard drive died, and I'm waiting for the replacement to come in, and then perhaps I'll post some pictures. Even a crappy day here often yields some gorgeous scenery.

I did drive "out the road" (i.e. to the end of Glacier Highway) the other day with a friend and saw some GORGEOUS views. I didn't take any pictures, though, so I will have to do it again. The road is in bad repair up towards the end (they are widening it) and so it might take me a while. But if I ever question what I'm doing here, that's a drive I can take to remind myself.