Vroom, vroom!

What's the solution when the temperatures are in the negative and your car just won't start?

Wait for it to get warmer. Monday was 20F instead of -20F, and on lunch, Anthony helped me jumpstart the Canyonero. After a while, it sputtered to life, no thanks to the many functional and nonfunctional heating devices I've tried on it. (On another note, it's strange how quickly you adjust to winter temperatures. I walked out of the house into freezing 20 degree weather and remarked aloud, "Wow it's warm today." Anthony and Samara both agreed with me.)

Anyway, so the Canyonero started. Of course, it ran pretty crappy and what looked like gasoline was leaking from the muffler, probably from flooding the engine repeatedly in our attempts to get it to light off. As I drove it back over to work, I barely had any oil pressure, and it just didn't want to stay running. That made me pretty nervous, and I was feeling pretty blue over the entire episode.

Then I decided to make a trip to NAPA to buy oil, an oil filter and some spark plugs to do a tune-up. The Canyonero was running like its old self again. I'm relieved.

I also had a nice conversation with a gentlemen in Tennessee about the radiator hose heater that wasn't working. He's sending a new one out in the mail. Anthony's works great, so we're both confident that a functional hose heater will keep the car warm enough to start in the colder weather. So I have more car work on my plate, but I'm once again optimistic that it will all start to come together in a way that leaves me with a functioning vehicle, even when the temperatures drop again.

Oh, I also want to give a shout-out to Barbara, Ann's mom. She's been posting comments on our blog lately. It's always nice to know that people are reading, so if someone amuses you, go ahead and post a comment. We like to hear from all our friends and family.

More good news today: Samara has been booked for a training in Anchorage at the end of this month. I knew the court system wasn't going to be sending me anywhere out of Dillingham, but Samara kept holding out hope that SAFE would send her for a conference or training in Anchorage some day. Apparently that day has come. This is a big deal for us here in Dillingham. Anchorage, which is on the road system, has Lower 48-esque prices on all sorts of goods. People go there to shop and stock up on anything they need. You can get all kinds of good things in Anchorage that wouldn't be available in Dillingham. It should be a good time for Samara. I'll make her take the camera and snap photos of all the fast food restaurants, malls, and moose wandering the streets.

Fish tacos for dinner

Aaron mentioned yesterday morning that he wanted some fried fish tacos. We were given some fish by a friend after Christmas. I was very happy that the fish included both salmon and halibut, because salmon doesn't fry very well and I just don't care for it. But the halibut is pretty good and when its hot, you can't even taste the fish flavor.

So I found a recipe that I liked Baja Fried-Fish Tacos and with that I made a mango salsa, fiesta cabbage salad and cilantro lime cream sauce. Our vegetarian friends even ate the tacos. I was impressed. Not only is this the 3rd time I've ever made fish, but it is the first time I've ever deep fried it. My favorite part was the cilantro lime sauce.

I would have gotten pictures, but my camera batteries died the other day. Where in the world does one buy AA lithium batteries in the Alaskan bush? I am hoping the grocery store, but we'll see.

In more news, the car still isn't starting. Aaron added another heating device to the car. One of these days our car will get started, but it doesn't seem like today is the day. But the good news is we are having a heatwave. Google weather says it's currently 16 degrees with a high of 21.

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.

Another Day of Walking in the Cold

I'm sure many of you have felt cold wind that makes your eyes tear up.

But how many of you have had your tears freeze to your face?

Weather dot com tells me that it's only -11F this morning, but that it feels like -30F. I believe you, weather dot com. I believe you.

Even with snow pants, hooded sweatshirt, parka, warm hat and nomex face mask, I got cold on the walk to work this morning. The car wouldn't start at lunch yesterday, when the temperatures had gotten a bit above zero. But I have good news! The radiator hose heater I ordered is on its way. And the forecast for next week is highs near 15 to 25F. That's much warmer.

Hell, in Alaska, that's practically sweater weather.

Bitter Cold

Oh, weather dot com, you cad!

You know it's going to be a good day when your forecast reads thus: "Bitterly cold. Plentiful sunshine. High around 0F."

Over the weekend, Anthony and I had a very successful work day in Saramay's heated garage. We both installed battery blankets. He installed a radiator hose heater, and I installed a silicone hot pad on the bottom of my oil pan. All these things plug in overnight so that your car will start in the morning.

My car wouldn't start this morning. Of course, it was like -19F, according to Google. It's warmed up to about -8F right now, so on lunch, I'll probably go home and try to start it again.

I thought I'd be all set when I bought a nice recirculating tank-style coolant heater for the Canyonero. The problem is that there's no way to get access to the right hoses to install the damn thing. Silly man, just get a freeze plug block heater, you say? Well, there's no access to my freeze plugs. I can just barely see the side of the block around the engine mounts, alternator, exhaust manifolds and all the four-wheel drive crap. It's just too crowded to get at the side of the block.

So, that leaves the radiator hose-style heater. It'd probably work great, but I didn't want to do it if I didn't have to. Anthony bought the one that they had at NAPA, so I'll try to order one soon.

Oh, I also had a little magnetic stick-on block heater thing, but the cord cracked in the "bitter" cold and now the wires are exposed.

Samara was definitely not happy this morning when we both had to walk to work in the negative temperatures. That long underwear sure is coming in handy now.

I guess if I'm looking for a silver lining, it's that we haven't had the temperatures they've had in Anchorage. -35F? No thanks. That's 67 degrees below freezing, you know.

Update:

I went home on lunch, and according to various sources, the temperature is now between 0F and 12F. (I don't know where the 12F came from--it sure doesn't feel like 12F.) Anyway, the car started fine. I'm ordering a radiator hose heater as I type this.

New Year Post

It's a new year. You might be wondering how we celebrated the new year here in Alaska. It involves fondue and sparkling white zinfandel. Erin and Anthony came over and helped us celebrate by playing video games and watching the ball drop.

First, some fondue pictures.

This is Erin trying to find the crusty cheese at the bottom of the fondue pot.

And this is Aaron and Anthony posing with fondue.

Erin then did some Wii bowling.

Aaron is frightened by Anthony's dominating Wii bowling technique.

Anthony was a real bowler once, you know. Had his own shoes and everything. That doesn't always translate into video game bowling skills, unfortunately.

At midnight, Alaska time, we all had ourselves a toast of sparkling wine.

We stayed up until about 2 or 3 in the morning watching the movie Serenity. Well, Anthony fell asleep a little, but they were still here until late.

On Sunday, I woke up at the crack of noon. Then Samara made a good breakfast of fried potatoes and onions. We called Erin and Anthony, and Erin and Samara went grocery shopping, while Anthony sat on our floor and worked on his homemade snowshoes.

I'm hopeful that they'll work, since they look pretty cool. Me? I went the lazy route and ordered some discount snowshoes from Sierra Trading. I also ordered some hiking boots that were on sale, and Samara has boots, snowpants, and gloves on the way. We should all be ready for a winter hike soon.

We've heard from a number of folks around the new year, and it sounds like everyone is doing well. You can't ask for more than pleasant news from all your loved ones around the new year.

So, again, Happy New Year, everyone.

Happy New Year

Happy 2009, everyone!