I spent last week doing my day job and more unpacking in the afternoons. I'm was on call so was pretty well stuck at home except for a couple of hours out to take the garbage to the dump and pick up some packages from the post office. JW had to go to WA for four days for a leadership workshop - the company sent a whole bunch of people down for that. It gave JW an opportunity to get better acquainted with people he works with.
A weekly chore here will be to go to the dump (actually a transfer station with about 25 large garbage bins and 3 extra large bins for construction garbage and appliances) since as I mentioned before, there is no garbage service in Fairbanks except for businesses. The transfer stations are hopping places. At one end, there is a covered area where you can put anything that you no longer want but might be useful to someone else. Last Saturday, we took our old king size mattress and boxsprings and it was almost snatched up as soon as we unloaded it - except the guy wanted a queen and not a king.
2 weeks ago the high temps were in the low 80's. Then it dropped a little and today it hasn't reached 60. Plus it's not a "dry" cold. It is damp but we need the rain to help put out some of the fires burning around here. The newspaper reported last weekend that there were 80 fires burning in Alaska. The last few days just because I've had a chance to relax a little, I'm able to notice a little more of my surroundings.
The house is surrounded by birch trees - a few black pine mixed in and now we're seeing there are loads of wild roses blooming, a few ferns and the fireweed is starting to come up. I did pick up a few plants to put in two of the planters - decided not to go overboard this year, need to plan a little more. I bought two perennial flowers - one that I've never seen before and a "pincushion" - I had planted a "pincushion" flower in the rock garden in Montana and it came up every year, bloomed all summer and had multiplied - a nice light purple shade of flower.
I also couldn't resist buying a new "Dudley" bush - Little Princess Spirea actually. It was about 1/2 the cost of the bush I bought last summer at this time to plant and it looked nice and healthy. I'll have to let it grow in the container for a bit as I'm not sure yet where I want to plant it - kind of thinking out my office window but will need to get consensus from the lawn mower dude. Plus I'm thinking that it is going to be at least Monday before I find time to do any more yard work.
And I bought a little ficus tree - it's only 12" tall and has curley leaves - it is so cute. And, I've been told that plants will make it through the winter even without shining a glow light on them through the darker months.
Today I finally became an official Alaskan. I made the dreaded trek to the dmv to get my driver's license and registration on my truck. I passed the test - woo hoo - I hate taking those things and know that I'm always going to fail the section on dui - I had 3 questions on that and I only got 1 right - aaaaa. I had been warned about all the paperwork I would need to get my license - birth certificate with raised seal, marriage license, social security card, proof i'd been here 30 days, proof of my current address - I took a brown envelope filled with all kind of paperwork - however, with m y passport the only other thing they needed was my ss card and proof of my address - one telephone bill. My picture turned out absolutely horrid. It's rainy today so my hair is just limp and stringy - nothing I can do about that. Hopefully I won't have to be showing my picture around too much - or at all.
About 1 1/2 hours after I walked in the door, I walked out with my new truck title, my license plates, my new driver's license and my state id. I'm all prepared now to scoop up the resident discounts and free ice cream cones at Pike's Landing.
2 weeks from today and I'll be on a plane heading south. It hasn't been much warmer at Alexshuman's home than it has been herre. Today I'm just cold and ready to sit under a nice warm sun.
So now that I can finally view blogs again I can keep track of your escapades. Can't wait to see you, even in our 1000 degree heat. Love ya
ReplyDeleteDon't wish too much for the sun. You'll regret that once you get down to Az.. Hasn't been bad here. Kind of chilly, actually. This evening I even turned on my heater, but it's supposed to warm up and be lovely by the time you get here.
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