New duds, my office and ice on the bay

Samara and I went to the post office today on lunch, and there were two packages for me. The first was from my mother, via Land's End. It's a parka, good to like -15 degree weather. That's good enough for me. Thanks mom!

The second package was my new boots. Well, new to me, anyway. These are Army surplus cold weather boots. They're the black version, which are rated to -10 degrees. The white ones, rated to -60 degrees, aren't really necessary for the weather I hope to be seeing. These are neat boots because they're rubber inside and out, with a insulation layer sandwiched in between. They'll keep your feet warm, and if you get water in them, you just dump out the boots, put on a new pair of socks and you're warm again. No need to dry the boots! Plus, they only cost me $30 plus shipping, which was way cheaper than the $120 that they go for at the hardware store here.

Here I am with my new green parka and boots.

I've taken to wearing my boots when I leave the house, in the car, and into work, and then changing into a pair of sneakers there. I don't really need to wear shoes at home, and it's nice to have comfortable footwear at work, but in between is where I really need boots. These new boots sure beat the worn-out pair I was using before.

I thought while I was at it, I'd take a few pictures of my office so you can see where I work. First up is a glance out of my window, into the courthouse parking lot. There's a few extra cars out there because we have a jury trial going on this week. The fence in the distance to the right is a basketball court. The road curves around it to the left, and if you turn just before the building you can see in the center of the picture, you're in the driveway for SAFE, where Samara works.

The road would be that gravel-colored smudge you can see just behind the trucks in our snow-covered parking area.

And here we have a couple of nice pictures of my office. There's the desk where I can stare out the window into the parking lot, as nice folks reporting for jury duty stare in at me.

Oh, and in this picture, you can see my giant map of Alaska behind my desk.

After I got home this evening, I took a picture of the bay across my neighbor's yard, so you can see all the ice and snow floating in the water.

And here's a nice shot of our Canyonero, which has gotten a little dirty from all the gravel roads. It's parked in front of our apartment, which is the bottom two windows in this picture. The doorway there leads into the hallway of the building (otherwise known to Alaskans as an "arctic entry").

And that's it for today. Samara is working late, and my oven timer just dinged to let me know the frozen pizza is cooked!