Deliveries

Our Canyonero is not starting still. But the folks of Dillingham are nice people. Someone Samara met at the knitting group she went to turned out to live next door to us. She picked us up and took us to work Thursday and Friday. It was a nice thing to do, considering the wind chill temperatures have been averaging 15 to 20F below.

On lunch today, I went to the post office. I only found one yellow card in our PO box indicating that we'd gotten a package, so I hoped that it was the radiator hose heater. When the lady brought my packages from the back, it turned out to be two boxes from Sierra Trading Company and the heater. It was good thing that the boxes from Sierra Trading weren't heavy, because I had to walk all the way back to the apartment with them.

So now I have a radiator hose heater that's the right size for my radiator hose. I was very excited about that. I tried to install it after work tonight, but I ran out of light and the hose clamp at the radiator outlet is extremely hard to get to. Tomorrow, I'll get it installed and hopefully get the Canyonero started.

The Sierra Trading boxes were even more exciting. My new snowshoes are awesome. I tried them out right away in our backyard, and they were really effective. I can do some real winter hiking now. I might have to order another pair for Samara, since they were so cheap. I also got my Asolo hiking boots. They're comfortable, warm, and have great ankle support. Samara got some snowpants--women's XL. When she tried them on, they didn't fit at all. That was really frustrating, but when she tried on the ones I have from REI, those fit her. They're a men's large. So I tried on hers, and they just barely fit me--they're comfortable, but tight around my waist. I have no idea what they were thinking if I'm supposed to be the size of an extra large woman. These snowpants are clearly not sized right. But the upside is that Samara has a pair that fit, and so do I. They're just opposite of the pairs we ordered for ourselves. Samara also got some winter hiking boots, and gloves. And we both got balaclavas. We'll be plenty warm when we go out.

We stayed in tonight to relax, and at some point, there was a lot of noise that sounded like a kid crying or something. Samara got up to check it out and I didn't pay much attention. She came back inside to get her boots and said that our neighbor Tiffany had fallen and hurt herself. So I threw on some shoes and came outside as well. It turned out that Tiffany had fallen on our front steps, and when she put her hand out to catch herself, she broke her wrist. She was still on the ground, having trouble standing back up. Samara, Mara and I helped her up, and we put her in Mara's boyfriend's truck. They took her to the hospital. A few hours later, Tiffany knocked on our door to thank us for helping. She had a nurse with her. Tiffany said she'd broken her wrist completely and the bone was offset. She had it in a sling and said they'd given her a shot of demerol. The nurse is staying with her tonight and then she's flying to Anchorage tomorrow. A life flight out of here to Anchorage costs like $14,000 from what I've heard, so if you can wait until morning, it's much cheaper to buy the $300 fare to Anchorage on one of the three daily flights. I just can't imagine the pain she must be in. I've broken far more than my share of bones, and the only time I've had a fracture that went completely through the bone and was offset was when I broke my femur. That's the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. I guess the femur is probably worse because the muscles of the thigh contract and the femur is the only bone holding them extended. At least with the wrist, you have a second bone to keep the muscles from pulling your bone too far over itself. But still, that's got to be excruciating. It's no wonder that Tiffany seemed to be going into shock already when we helped her off the ground.

I'm vowing right now to do everything I can to keep from having a traumatic injury in Dillingham. No fractures for me, thanks.

On a more pleasant note, Anthony returned from Anchorage today. I sent him with an order for 7.62x54R, since the local hardware store is almost out of ammo for my rifle. I had called around, and boxes of ammo in Anchorage were priced like the lower 48--$15 for a box of 20 rounds instead of $27. I figured now was the time to stock up. Well, Anthony really came through. He found a shop that had Russian surplus ammo for $5 per 20. So he bought me 200 rounds for $50, which means he still has $40 left over from the $90 I sent him with to buy ammo. I had only expected to get 120 rounds for my money.

To recap: new snow gear, lots of ammo, a soon-to-be-running car, and a vow never to break a bone in rural Alaska. That's the news, folks.