Come Back Polar Vortex??

A friend posted on her facebook page:  "Come Back Polar Vortex".  Apparently she thinks that the warmer weather up here was caused by the polar vortex sending plunging temperatures to the lower 48.  Which is not true, we were just lucky to have a high pressure system overhead to bless us with temps above 0.  And now that it has moved on we're back in the negative.

On Saturday, Jan 11, John jumped on the treadmill in the morning and I packed a couple of boxes, then made blueberry pancakes for breakfast.  I always dump the juice from a can of blueberries into a pan, add a cup of sugar and boil it for a bit to turn it into syrup.  Saturday, I boiled it a little long.  The syrup was delicious but when it cooled, I found I had blueberry jelly - yummy.

Next on the list was more packing while John shoveled snow.  Then we hauled another 18 packed boxes/totes to the garage since we are clearing out this house to get it cleaned and on the market by the end of February.  Temps were around 30 below so it was a great day to make a pot of clam chowder (manhattan style of course).  Then we headed into town to pick up a few home repair items and some groceries.

 

The sun was about 1 finger up (according to John) on the horizon at 10:45 when we were driving to Fairbanks.

 We had to make our weekly stop at the transfer station to drop off the garbage.

Then east on the Johannsen expressway to Lowe's - don't forget to pick up propane. (The smoke below was a lot more pink than it shows in the picture.)

 By 12:30 we were back home with enough groceries and cat food to get us through the week.  And we were both ready for a big bowl of nice hot clam chowder and an afternoon to waste - which is exactly what we did.  Then a dinner of more clam chowder, a movie on netflix and off to bed.

Sunday morning, we had more pancakes for breakfast since one can of blueberries made more pancakes than we can eat in one morning.  Then after packing one more box, I jumped on the treadmill for 50 minutes of sweating.  It felt so good that I have got to make sure I prioritize that on my daily to do list.

It was about 35 below outside.  Church meetings start at 11 this year.  I left home at 10:30 knowing that because of the temperatures we would only have Sacrament and Relief Society.  I really miss the autostart in my vehicle as when I got out of meetings, my Toy car was really really frozen.

The skies were so blue.  It made me think that it was a lot warmer than it really was.

I had to stop and take a few pictures on the way home.  It was kind of funny that the snow was down low and the top of the hill looked totally free of snow.  

The little grinchy trees (black spruce growing in perma-frost) look so cute covered with snow.

 I drove by the Vellata as I had noticed these large icicles hanging from the roof - where the sun never shines.

 

 

 Then up Goldpointe Drive to home.

The one thing I do like about my Toy "car" is that it drives nicer up the hills than the F150 did.

Another weekend came and went and soon, we'll be on the red eye to Montana to try to find our new spot.

And John's been singing:
"Turn me loose, set me free
Somewhere in the middle of Montana"

He is so ready to be out of here.