2006

OK, time to update my Blog. I haven’t written anything during this calendar year at all, so we’ll pick up at the beginning of the 2006 calendar year.

The number of hours of darkness in Anchorage in January and February got to me. I didn’t really realize what it was at first. I started sleeping until noon on Saturdays and Sundays. I didn’t feel depressed, but just didn’t have energy or enthusiasm for anything. In February I figured out it must be the darkness and I looked locally for a SAD light.

What is a SAD (SAD = Seasonal Affective Disorder) light, you ask? Seasonal affective disorder is a cyclic, seasonal condition, which means signs and symptoms are present only during a particular season and then go away. Most of the time, the signs and symptoms of SAD appear during the winter and recede during the spring and summer. Some of the symptoms are loss of energy, increased sleep and sleepiness, loss of interest in activities and difficulty concentrating. I don’t seem to have a problem in the summer when it’s light for most of the night. It is true that I have to make myself go to bed at 10:00pm in the summer because I don’t feel like going to sleep, but I have a blackout shade in my bedroom and so once I go to bed I actually sleep without a problem.

Anyway, I found a SAD light online that was less expensive that buying one locally and it helps. I also keep more lights on in the house in the evenings when I get home from work so it’s brighter and more cheerful. Anchorage encourages putting Christmas lights up at the end of October and keeping them on throughout winter, and I’ve done that too. They are on a timer so they are on when I get home from work and it’s so nice to drive up to my house and see them. It’s cozy and cheerful. My neighbors put them up and keep them on too. So the evening after Halloween, the Christmas lights are on.

People at work told me that I should plan a trip “outside” (meaning outside Alaska) once or twice during winter. Well, I just got to Alaska in July 2005 and I didn’t really want to get on an airplane and go anywhere, so I didn’t plan any trips. I knew I had a business meeting in Las Vegas at the end of April, so I figured I would be OK until that trip. Wrong. So this winter I will plan a trip or two “outside.”

So how did I fare for my first time living in a winter climate since 1989? I did OK I think. I had started dating several people in the fall. By December I was dating just one guy: Ken. He helped me a lot with winterizing. He took me to REI, showed me all the new-type winter fabrics, and helped me pick out what I’d need. I relearned layering, layering layering. I’ve always loved to ice skate, and I bought brand new ice skates and Ken went with me to Westchester Lagoon to skate. There are a lot of places in town to skate, but that’s my favorite spot. There are burn barrels out and on weekend nights they are burning and it’s pretty. We planned lots of things to do on weekends and he kept me busy and warm all winter. I learned that it is wise to take your car through the car wash after work on your way home so you can put the car in your garage so the doors won’t freeze shut !! I learned this the hard way of course.


In April I had a business meeting in Las Vegas, so Ken and I took a few vacation days too and had a grand time. The meetings were at the MGM Grand, so we stayed there. I’d only been to Vegas one other time for a couple of days, and I hadn’t seen all the casinos so we walked and walked and walked and went through as many as we could. We went to the Cirque du Soleil show called KA too. It had just opened up. We had front row center seats and sometimes the performers were flying right over our heads. Ken spent time boning up on playing Black Jack while I attended my meetings. He played all day one day but the next day he only played an hour. He ended up losing money overall, but he had a great time and learned more about how to play black jack. I think I spent about $20 on gambling total.


In July my friend Donna Matonis came to visit. Donna and I first met in 1981 when I went to Cairo to work on the Shoubrah El Kheima power plant project. Donna was the Accounting Manager on that project, and we traveled a lot while we worked on that project and we’ve met various places since then too. . She’s planning on coming back next summer and we’ll take some time and rent a motor home when she’s here and do some traveling around Alaska.


Ollie and Janice Schwausch visited Alaska this summer too. Ken and I met them for dinner here in Anchorage at the end of their trip around Alaska. I worked with Ollie at Shell in Houston, and I hadn’t seen Ollie since I left Texas in January 2001.


At the end of July and first week of August, Ken and I took some vacation and flew to Chicago. Ken is from LaGrange and he actually went to the same high school as my mom and my aunt. His brother has a big all-day pig roast party the first weekend of August every year, so we went to that. We also drove up through Wisconsin and into the Upper Peninsula (U.P.) of Michigan where Ken was first stationed in the Air Force. There are only so many roads in Alaska, and it was nice to get out on open roads and drive. Most of the lower 48 was in heat wave mode during our trip, so we had lots of heat and sun. We were lucky, though, because when we were in the Chicago area and at the pig roast, the temperatures were very pleasant and there was not much humidity either. The car we rented had a great air conditioner, so we were very comfortable during the driving time.

It rained a lot in Anchorage all during the summer this year, so I admit that I did not get in nearly as much bicycle riding as I’d hoped. We had a lot of projects this year, either at my house or Ken’s house, so we spent a lot of Home Depot time together in lieu of biking this year. The past several years the summers in Alaska have been warm and not so rainy. I arrived in July 2005 and last summer was great, and I bought a bike and we biked a lot. So I guess Anchorage was due some rain, but I was disappointed. I’m hoping the summer of 2007 will be better for biking. If not, now that I’m getting more acclimated to the climate here, I’ll put on a rain parka and we’ll go out riding anyway. We are planning more weekend trips for biking.

In November I had a brief business trip to Calgary for meetings. It was an enjoyable trip, but I didn’t have time to visit my great aunt and cousins who live about an hour north of Calgary. I will be traveling a little bit more for work beginning in 2007, so I will get back to Calgary again and will try to stay over a weekend so I can visit them.

I’m writing this Blog update on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Ken and I went out to dinner at one of the nicest restaurants in Anchorage for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was great and the best part was there was no clean up afterwards. We’ve been relaxing over the 4-day weekend and catching up on a few things that have been on the “to do” lists for awhile. I cleaned out my bedroom closet. We started working on Christmas cards. I haven’t sent Christmas cards out since before I went to Iraq, so I’m long overdue. And as part of that, I thought I could spare people a long Christmas letter if I updated this Blog.

Next month, in mid December, Ken and I are going to San Luis Obispo for Rachael’s graduation from Cal Poly. We’ll spend 4 days in San Luis Obispo, and we’re looking forward to some sunshine and warm weather while we’re there. Linda, Robbie, Jonathan and Linda’s parents from Michigan will all be there, and it will be so nice to see everyone.

In February I may have some business travel out of Alaska, so maybe that will suffice for another trip “outside” this winter to get out of the darkness. But maybe I’ll take 4-5 days off the first week of February to go someplace warm and sunny and just relax. That was the time last year that the darkness really hit me.

You may think that 2006 wasn’t a very exciting year for me. I did not change jobs again. I did not move again. I actually finished unpacking every single box from the move. Little Bit (my cat) turned 15 years old this year, and she's still with me. 2006 was a wonderul year for me. I love living in Anchorage and I love my job. I met Ken last fall and our relationship is going great. I haven’t been this happy in quite some time.



So I hope your 2006 brought you what you needed and wanted.

Ken and I wish you all the best in 2007.