Almost Christmas

There is something wonderful about living in a place where we have our own town reindeer, Star, who enjoys community events!

This is from the Anchorage Daily News, 23 Dec 2009.

"Albert Whitehead and Star the reindeer wait for the light to cross 5th Avenue on their way to the Hilton Hotel for the Anchorage East Rotary Kid's Christmas party on Wednesday December 23, 2009."

February 2008 through December 2009

Picking up where I left off, I’ll share some of what I’ve been doing since my last entry on this Blog. It’s been excessively long since I wrote here.

February 2008

In addition to starting a new job, I joined a group to study for SPHR (Senior Professional in HR) certification exam in June 2008. It’s a difficult exam and with working full time, I started early to give myself more than enough time to get through the materials.

May 2008

My right heel had been bothering me for more than a year, and I’d been going to an orthopedic doctor for the problem. (I’d had a similar problem with my left heel when I lived in Houston, and had surgery on that left foot then.) The doctor and I were trying to avoid surgery. The last option before surgery was a cortisone shot, and it didn’t relieve the pain. It made the pain worse. And the shot itself was absolute hell. So it was time to decide on surgery. I wanted to have the surgery far enough in advance so I’d be out of the after-surgery boot before the snow arrived. Surgery was scheduled for the end of July.

I ordered a new 2009 Subaru Forester. I’d been talking to my brother, Rob, about whether or not he wanted to buy my 2003 Subaru I’d bought used when I first moved to Anchorage. I still have my little convertible but it can’t leave the garage in the winter as it has no traction at all. Too dangerous to drive in winter. The new Subaru would arrive in 2-3 months.

Rob had been without a job for a few months. He was hired by a company that has a contract to maintain the housing for the Air Force base here in town. It’s a steady year-‘round job with benefits and he won’t have to travel to and from the Slope. It’s hard to ‘have a life’ when you’re up on the Slope every other couple of weeks or more.

June 2008

One Saturday in June I flew to Kaktovic, Alaska, with several ASRC people for an annual meeting in the village there. It was a quick day trip in a small private plane, and it was my first visit to an Alaska native village. http://www.kaktovik.com/ourland.html

On 24 June I took the SPHR exam, and passed it! What a relief. By the time I finished taking the online exam at a testing center here in Anchorage, I honestly didn’t know whether or not I’d passed it. For the first time in months, I wouldn’t have to study on weekends!

July 2008

I went to Barrow, Alaska for a few days for work this month. It was wonderful to meet the ASRC employees there and see the home ASRC office. I didn’t see any whales, but had a great time and have some fun photos from the trip.

At the end of July, I had foot surgery. For at least 3 weeks or more I would not be able to put weight on that foot. I moved the guest bed down into the dining room, put a small table on wheels next to the bed for my laptop computer. I could use crutches to hobble to the bathroom off the living room. Ken came over every morning to get breakfast for me and set me up with an ice chest with lunch in it for the day. He came back after work to feed me dinner and set me up again for the night. I could work when not sleeping. The first week was tough, but I built up calluses and muscles in my arms using the crutches. Since the shower is upstairs, I’d sit on the stairs and pull myself up because I didn’t trust using the crutches on the stairs! After 3 weeks of working from home, Ken would take me to work and pick me up. I’d take taxis to my follow-up doctor appointments. I was on crutches for a long time. It was a long haul, but eventually I walked in regular shoes just before the first snow fell in early October!

Under my cast was a boot that hooked up to a machine that circulated ice water through the boot under the cast. Icy cold and painful, but it helped the swelling so it would heal faster.

August 2008

Started working with a few people in a study group to study for the GPHR (Global Professional in Human Resources) certification exam. Since I’d spent much of the year so far studying, I thought I should keep going and take the Global exam before I lost the study habits I’d built up. This exam would be in December, so again, I was giving myself plenty of time.

September 2008

The new Subaru Forester arrived. Ken drove it for me since I was still on crutches and couldn’t drive. It’s slightly larger than the 2003 one I had, which makes it more comfortable. It’s an automatic but it has the ability to be driven like a stick shift, which is what I do in winter with slippery roads. I love the heated seats! I had an auto-start put on it so I can start it while I’m on the 8th floor at work, looking out the window at the car, and it’s warmed up by the time I get downstairs to the parking lot.

October 2008

First snow on 6 October, but they were big fluffy flakes that didn’t last long. This was the earliest snow since I moved here. The next day it snowed a bit more. On 16 October, there were several man-moose playing in the snowstorm in our back yards. Those of us who have backyards facing the greenbelt behind us don’t have fences, and I love it that way.

November 2008

Ken and I celebrated Thanksgiving by going to dinner at Simon and Seafort’s restaurant downtown Anchorage. We’d gone there for dinner last Thanksgiving too and enjoyed it. We didn’t overeat and we didn’t have a big mess in the kitchen to clean up. We decided this would be a “new” tradition for us!

December 2008

Passed the GPHR exam on 23 December. It was a great Christmas present for myself.

January 2009

Volunteered/Elected to be Government Affairs/Legislative Director for ASHRM, the Anchorage chapter of SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management).

Volunteered/Elected to be Government Affairs/Legislative Director for the Alaska SHRM State Council. (It’s the same position for both organizations.)

March 2009

I attended the SHRM Annual Legislative Conference in Washington, DC. ASHRM and the Alaska SHRM State Council paid for airfare and hotel costs for the trip. Because I’m on the Alaska SHRM State Council, registration for the conference was waived.

I loved the conference; it was energizing. There is so much new legislation expected in the next few years, and it was interesting and exciting to learn about what is expected that will impact HR and business. The group of us from Alaska had a chance to meet Senator Lisa Murkowski as well as Representative Don Young and his wife. Begich was testifying that day and wasn’t available at all. We never did receive the photo with Don Young, but the photo with Lisa is included here.

My long-time friend Jane Howard picked me up when I arrived at Dulles and I stayed with Jane and Neil for a few days. They both still work for Bechtel although Neil did try retiring for a while before he was talked back into returning to work.

Flowers were poking up out of the ground and compared to Anchorage, the world was so green there! After the conference, I stayed a couple more days, and I also went to ASRC’s Maryland office for part of a day and met with a couple of people there. It was nice to meet some of the people I had been talking to by phone. I drove to the ASRC office, but I didn’t get on the road until 10am and I started back home at 3pm. Still hit bumper-to-bumper traffic, and I am thankful we don’t have traffic in Anchorage!

I didn’t get a chance to see long-time friends Marilyn and Nigel and their kids on this trip; there just wasn’t enough time. I hope to attend the conference next year, and I will plan to get together if they have time. I’m sure I won’t recognize their daughters by now.

April 2009

ASHRM’s monthly meeting topic this month was legislative issues, and EFCA (Employee Free Choice Act) was a hot topic at this time. I invited the Alaska President of the Alaska AFL-CIO and the AFL-CIO National Membership leader, who was in town that day, to participate in the legislative panel we had at our meeting. They are both exceptional speakers, and I felt fortunate they agreed to participate. We had several lawyers and a couple of senior HR leaders from Anchorage along with the Union leaders. Any discussion about union and non-union points of view is apt to be a bit heated, but everyone remained respectful while at the same time engaging in an energizing and spirited dialogue.

May 2009

At the end of May, my older brother and his wife, Bill and Marian, and Ken and I made an emergency trip to Soap Lake, Washington to visit my Aunt Jeanette. She is 93 years old and still lives by herself in her home in Soap Lake, Washington. She’d fallen off her yard scooter while working in her garden and she was in a bad way so we all made a quick trip. She decided she needed to go into an assisted living facility. But during the course of the week Ken and I were there and the subsequent few months Bill and Marian, who are retired, stayed with her, she refused to move to assisted living. She did get Meals on Wheels set up and Marian’s good cooking helped her gain back some strength she’d lost as she hadn’t been eating very much when by herself. So she’s still living by herself in Washington and we just hope she keeps going strong.

June 2009

In early June, I transferred from the ASRC Corporate HR group into Petro Star Inc. (PSI), one of the ASRC subsidiaries. Their HR Director, who had started with PSI almost 24 years ago, retired, and I took her spot. It’s a great group of people and I really enjoy it.

We don’t get a whole lot of popular entertainers up here. OK, yes, Elton John did come to Anchorage in April 2008, though we didn’t go to his show, but he was the biggest name to ever come to Anchorage so far. Comedian Jeff Dunham was in Anchorage for one show this month, and we got tickets and enjoyed his show.

This summer was by far the most beautiful warm and sunny summer in Alaska since I’ve lived here. I think it actually was the best summer in about ten years or more. Last summer I hardly could use the convertible with the top down since it rained so much and was so cool all summer. This year was a great year to have a convertible! Now I’m spoiled and I’m going to want all the summers to be like this one, which will not happen I’m sure.

July 2009

Petro Star has operations in Fairbanks, and this month I got a chance to go up for a few days and see what we have. We have a small refinery in North Pole. In Fairbanks, we have Sourdough Fuel gas stations with convenience stores in them, and we also have some heating oil and lubricant sales. Fairbanks had a very bad fire season in the outlying areas this year, and the first day and a half I was there it was difficult to breathe. On the 2nd day it rained very lightly and that cleared the air for the rest of my trip. It was warm and sunny and one of our stores is outside of town a ways, sort of at the start of the haul road. (If any of you watch Alaska Ice Road Truckers, maybe you’ll know what I mean!) The fireweed was in full bloom everywhere and it was spectacular. It reminded me a bit of fields of lavender in France. I found the photo here on the Internet; I didn’t take it. But that’s how it looked along the roadside.

August 2009

Little Bit (my cat who is 18 years old) woke me up one night this month when she tumbled off the bed on the floor. She was walking crooked and seemed as if she had lost her balance and ability to walk a straight line. She couldn’t jump up onto the bed. When trying to jump down off the bed, she’d fall off. It was about 4:00am. I thought she might be having a mild stroke and as soon as her vet’s office opened, Ken and I were there with her. The vet agreed that it was either a mild stroke or a brain tumor. Of the two choices, a mild stroke would probably be the better choice as cats usually recover completely. Within a couple of days she was pretty much back to normal. The only lingering thing I notice is that her balance is not as good as it used to be; it’s just slightly off. Overall, she’s been doing well since then and has actually been eating better. She was never a big eater, so it’s nice to see her eating a bit more. She has a slight kidney malfunction that she’s had for a few years now, but fortunately, it doesn’t seem to be progressing much. So I’m hoping that this mild stroke was a one-time thing and she’ll be find now for quite a few more years.

We signed Baku, Ken’s dog, up for 6 weeks of dog training classes. Ken and he did pretty well. Most of the other dogs were young. Baku is about six years old and has a good disposition and is kind of laid-back, but it would be nice if he learned a few commands better. Ken admits he’s not very consistent when training, so the classes were as much for Ken as for Baku!

Ken took advantage of the Cash for Clunkers program on the very last Saturday it was available. He’d been looking since the program began, but at 6’ 6” tall, he can’t fit in a lot of the lower-priced vehicles. We’d just about given up when we went back to the Subaru dealer where I got my new car last year. He can drive my Subaru Forester, but it wouldn’t be comfortable for driving all the time. The dealer had one Tribeca, in a very classy looking dark smoke gray color, and quite a few people who were trying to buy a car before the program ended were looking at it. But Ken got it. I’m sooooooooooooo glad his old Dodge truck with 4-wheel drive is gone and he has a nice comfortable and safe all-wheel drive Subaru. His truck guzzled gas like crazy and “basic” is too nice a word to describe how plain it was. He’s thrilled with the Tribeca and everyday he says something about how much he loves driving it. And I’m glad he has something that doesn’t take 30 minutes before the heater works.

October 2009

At the end of October, Rob (my brother) broke his leg at work. He thought it was his ankle that he’d hurt, but it turns out he fractured a bone in his leg. He’s had the cast on for 6 weeks. He goes back to the doctor 14 December and he’s hoping he’ll be able to walk then. He’s getting workers compensation so he’s not without some income. Ken’s been getting groceries for him and both Ken and I have gone over most weekends to pack up all his trash from his trashcans in bathrooms and kitchen and Ken takes it out to his community trash bins. Rob bought a condo a few months ago, taking advantage of the $8,000 incentive for first time buyers. The trash bin is a long walk toward the back of the complex, and there’s no way he can make that hike with crutches. He is anxious to get back to work as it’s pretty boring sitting and not being able to do anything at all.

I’ve been working long hours at work (I know, what else is new?!). The HR Generalist in my group is out on maternity leave. We have a new HR Assistant taking the payroll duties over in the meantime, so that’s handled well. But she hasn’t any time to help me so while Jennifer is out on leave, I’m buried. I hope to have a part-time temp come in this week to help until mid January when Jennifer returns.

Ken rented out his house to a long-time friend of his this month, making it possible for Ken and Baku (his dog) to move in with me. Little Bit, the cat, doesn’t like Baku, but she tolerates him. She was raised part time with my mom’s little dog, but Baku is a big dog and wants to play. She pretty much stays upstairs except to eat and visit us when we’re downstairs eating or watching TV, and the dog stays downstairs. But since she is eighteen years old, she sleeps a lot. She misses the sunshine in the winter too! The dog sheds buckets of fur and Ken is vacuuming the downstairs every couple of days. (We have a Dyson – it’s a ‘power tool’ you know!) I had the carpet replaced over the summer with hard wood so it’s much easier to vacuum up the dog hair. All in all everyone, including Ken and I, are adjusting well.

November 2009

Ken and I celebrated Thanksgiving again this year by having dinner at Simon & Seafort’s restaurant in town. And it was just as good as we remembered from last year !

December 2009

And all of a sudden we're speeding toward the end of this year.


We had our Petro Star company Christmas party the first Saturday evening in December in a private room at the downtown Hilton, and it was wonderful. Ken actually bought a sports coat, nice pants and a new shirt. One of the people at work set up his photography equipment to take photos of us by the Christmas tree, and I’m glad to see that all my chins were with me that evening!

Ken hasn’t been bicycling to and from work since he got his new Subaru Tribeca, because he loves driving it too much, but he’s planning to start to ride to and from work on his bicycle again this week. Unless we get new snow. When it snows, it takes a couple of days for the sidewalks and bike baths to be plowed.

I’m still working long hours this month. But hey, at least I’ve updated my Blog which was way overdue. Embarrassingly overdue. I’ve got my SAD light at work so every morning I have it shining on me for several hours. The shortest day of the year will be here soon, and everyone thinks that it heralds the start of winter. I view it as the start of spring since the days will start getting longer. By the end of January, I’ll be able to tell that there’s more daylight and by mid February I’ll begin to stop needing so much more sleep on weekends ! I’m hoping we have a lot of sunny days this winter to combat the darkness. We’ve had our white icicle Christmas lights up since just before Halloween, and they’re cheerful and bright when I drive in the driveway after work every night !

Every year I say I’m going to go “outside” (meaning out of Alaska) in January – go to Vegas for a couple of days to get sunshine. But I haven’t gone. Winter really is beautiful here and air travel is not easy or much fun anymore. The planes are crammed full and there’s no leg room … and there are few good discounts to fly in or out of Alaska.

I think I will start going for tanning sessions weekly for about 10 minutes. Yes, you Californians reading this are thinking, ‘oh, that’s so not healthy.’ But up here the doctors recommend it since we don’t get enough sunshine, and here it’s healthy. Funny how perspective changes!

Looking forward to 2010, I’m hoping to attend the SHRM Employment Law and Legislative Conference again. It will be held March 17 – 19 this year.

At the end of May, Ken and I are going to my nephew Jonathan’s college graduation from Sonoma State. Can you say “California Wine”?  Ken wants to take his bicycle along on this trip and do some riding. I’d like to stay overnight in San Francisco for a night or two and rediscover what real Chinese food is supposed to taste like. I plan to introduce Ken to dim sum at Yank Sing, which I’m pretty sure he’ll hate, but then I’ll just have to eat his portion too!

At the end of May 2011, my niece Rachael is getting married in the Palm Springs area, and that’s marked off on our calendars and we’re looking forward to that even though it’s still a long way off.

If you’re out there in social network land, I’m on Facebook, Linked In and Twitter; though I honestly don’t see the point of Twitter ! But I spend so much time on the computer at work that when I get home the last thing I want to do is sit down in front of a computer. But I do check it all a couple times a week.

Have a wonderful holiday season and HAPPY NEW YEAR.

2008

Hello. It’s the middle of February, and this is my first 2008 Blog update.

Ken’s 50th birthday was last Wednesday. Rob’s 51st birthday was yesterday. Mine is coming up toward the end of this month, so we’re knee-deep in angel-food birthday cakes this month!!

I was planning a trip to the SF Bay Area right about now, but I’ve postponed it for a short time. In my 2007 Blog entry, I mentioned that VECO had been purchased by CH2M HILL. I did go to Denver in January of this year with several of my HR team from Anchorage. The meetings went well and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone. I was energized and excited about the changes we’d be making in the HR organization in Anchorage. But there were some overall organization changes in Anchorage that I found made moving forward difficult for me. I resigned toward the end of January to pursue other opportunities and worked through Friday 8 February.

I was looking forward to taking some extended time off. I moved to Anchorage from Baghdad and jumped right into the new job without taking any time off. And since spring last year I’ve been working long hours since CH2M HILL began the due diligence to acquire VECO. I was really exhausted and burned out. But this past week, my first week off, I received and accepted a job offer from ASRC (Arctic Slope Regional Corporation) in Anchorage. Website: http://www.asrc.com/home/home.asp
The position is at an equivalent seniority and salary level, and I’m excited about it. There are some consultants who begin about two weeks of meetings on Tuesday 19 February. It will be important for me to participate in these meetings, so I’m starting work. But I have an agreement to take some extended time off soon, and I am still planning to take my trip to California.

The cell phone I had belonged to CH2M HILL, and I returned it when I left the company. So delete the cell phone number you had for me. I’ll get a new cell phone soon, but don’t have a number yet. Alaska has it’s own time zone which is one-hour earlier than California. If you’re confused, here is a good website link for time zones: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/results.html?query=Anchorage

This is my third winter in Anchorage, and this one is the coldest and has had the most snow so far. Though it’s been cold in February, the sun has been out a bit more and so I haven’t minded it too much. The first ten days of February, we had lows from -5 degrees F. down to -15 degrees F. Ten days of really cold weather. It’s snowed just about all day for the last three days but our temperatures warmed up to 27 degrees F. today and during the next ten days we’re supposed to go up to 32 degrees F. It’s a heat wave ! (smile)

The weekly class to study for the HR certification started last week. I had started the class last January but dropped it because I was working too many hours to study effectively. So I’m starting it again. The class goes through June.

My brother’s been off work since the middle of January due to a slowdown in the Construction group. He’s still employed, just not getting paid right now. He’s hoping that he starts work again soon. I talked to him today about painting walls and changing out the countertop in my small half bath off the living room. It has dark wallpaper and a small sink with white countertop. I’d like it to be painted a lighter color and maybe some small glass iridescent tiles would be pretty. We’ll head out to Home Depot and Lowe’s in the next week to look around and see what might make sense. I don’t want to spend a lot of money, but would like to brighten the small bathroom up quite a bit. Sitting around watching it snow outside will make you begin to think about home-improvement projects!

Well, that’s about it for what’s going on this year so far. More later as the year unfolds.

2007

Thanks to all of you who keep e-mailing me and reminding me that I’m way behind with my Blog. It’s nice to know you want to catch up. Once again, this year I’ve neglected to write often and now I find myself trying to catch up at the end of the year.

In January, I enrolled in an online HR class to study for the senior level HR certification test that I thought I would try to take in June. The class met once a week online from January through April. I didn’t take the exam in June because of the additional hours I was putting in at work, but more about that below.

In February, I officially got older !

Last day of March my brother, Rob, arrived. The company he worked for in California had declining work. He was driving all over the San Francisco Bay Area to do kitchen refacing and gas prices were rising while work declined. He gave notice to his job and the place he rented and moved to Anchorage. In April, he started working for VECO, the same company where I work. He works for the Construction group at remote locations in Alaska so he works rotational assignments in camp locations. That means the jobsite provides “a hot and a cot.” He gets a room, sometimes shared, and all meals provided. He works about 12 hours a day, goes to sleep and gets up and does it all again. The first time he was out for about 6 weeks and he was home for about 2 weeks. The next time he was out for about 8 weeks and then home for a few weeks. He’s hardly been ‘home’ here in Anchorage, but he’s been able to save up some money and since he was broke when he got here, his primary goal for this year was to work and save up some money.

Again this spring, the geese returned and I think the same 2 geese as last year made my back yard their home. I have what I call a bog behind my house, and the geeze love it because it's got little ponds for them. Last year Ken named my 2 geese "Do Little" and "Do Less." I'm looking forward to them again next spring.

In May, Ken and I took a long weekend trip to Homer. Long long ago, when I worked at Bechtel I knew some employees who were working in Alaska and they showed me pictures of Homer. And Homer has been on my list of places to see ever since. It is stunningly beautiful there. We were there before the tourists arrived for the summer. It was still a bit cool and not all of the summer shops were open but they were in the process of being unlocked and cleaned out in preparation for the summer. We stayed at Lands End Resort and had a great weekend. There were bald eagles landing right at the water’s edge to eat fish with people walking a few feet away from them. Took a 2-hour small boat tour (the boat captain and the 2 of us) around the area. Also drove all around town and up into the housing areas with great views overlooking all the mountains.

In May, we learned that VECO, where my brother and I work, would be sold. VECO was a family-owned private engineering/construction company, and here in Alaska it’s a pretty good-sized company. CH2M HILL is a Denver based company that has been around for a long time and is employee-owned. They were expanding into the Energy market, so they wanted the company and all the employees. Overall, it was a really good match with VECO. The due diligence started and I was working way more hours than I wanted to, but it was all very interesting. The sale closed in September, and now I’m a CH2M HILL employee. Except for a small corporate group, all of us are basically in our same jobs doing the same work we did before the sale. With all the work changes I’ve done, this was my first experience at being “acquired.”

In June, we rented a small RV, and I finally got a chance to see a bit of Alaska. It was still a bit early for the majority of tourists to hit the state, and we didn’t have any trouble at all finding RV parks nor did we find crowds anywhere. At the start, we drove to Whittier, which is slightly south of Anchorage, and caught a fast ferry to Valdez. The fast ferry is a catamaran style ship that can do 40-plus knots and only took three hours to get to Valdez. Normally it takes eight hours on the un-fast ferry. It was a very nice ship and a great ride. We spent the night in Valdez, and the next day headed to Tok. From there we went on up to Chena Hot Springs near Fairbanks, then down to Fairbanks where we had our most memorable moment of the trip.

We were stopped at a red light and were rear ended by a ditzy 20-something woman who was flirting with some boys in the median strip and not paying attention to the road. Our RV suffered almost no damage, thanks to our well-placed spare tire on the back bumper. The pickup that hit us, however, suffered some serious damage that collapsed the whole front grill including the radiator. No one was hurt and the police were called and found the woman did not even have a license and this was the second time she crashed her boyfriend’s truck. How nice! Not to mention that the insurance card she gave to the police was bogus and so far the process server hasn’t been able to find her so it’s doubtful that we’ll be able to collect $500 from here that we can’t collect from insurance.

After this minor distraction, we headed for Denali Park and spent two nights there. We managed to get a bus going into the park and took an eight-hour tour of the mountain. We saw a few sheep, and a couple of bears sleeping, but nothing up close and personal. The scenery is well worth the trip. Coming back to Anchorage, we ran into some heavy smoke from wildfires in the valley. We decided if the smoke wasn't too bad, we would stop and spend one more night in the RV just North of Wasilla. Overall, it was a pleasant trip, and we learned a lot about RVing and saw a lot of real nice RV's.

Jan Vreim, Donna Matonis and her friend Annette Reed visited in July. Jan flew up from South Dakota while Donna and Annette had been on an Alaskan cruise first and then stayed on at my house. They did some sightseeing while I worked, but we did take a one-day floatplane on a day trip to Redoubt Bay to view bears eating salmon in the streams. It was a rather cold overcast day at Redoubt Bay, so we didn’t see as many bears as we’d hoped. It was my first view of what is called “combat” fishing. A lot of small boats full of people “parked” in rows in the water near the shore fishing for salmon. They were blocking and preventing us from getting very close to the bears coming to the shore to fish, and a couple of the boats were so close I thought a bear would simply walk onto the boat and get some of their salmon ! The floatplane trip was really neat though.

My first halibut-fishing trip in Alaska took place in July. Gary Hunt and Bob Arquilla, two of the CH2M HILL HR guys from Denver, were in town. We got up about 2:30am and drove to Seward. It was a beautiful clear sunny day, though a bit cool. We went out on a small 6 person boat all day fishing for halibut and cod, had dinner in Seward and drove back to Anchorage. I’ll spare you to part about how I had to use the port-a-potty below deck and how I can’t go below deck without getting seasick. And poor Bob is fine as long as the boat is moving, but when the boat stops Bob turns a pretty horrible shade of green, and he was green all day while we were out there. It takes a couple of hours by boat to get out to where the halibut are, so once you are out there, you are out there all day. While we had dinner, our fish were vacuum packed. We brought ice chests, packed all the fish in the ice chests with ice, and headed home. After dinner and getting our fish, we were about 30 minutes outside Seward when Gary and Bob’s rental car got a flat tire. Bob called AAA and we had someone from Seward come change the tire. This delayed us and we got back to Anchorage late. There had been a fatal motorcycle accident between Girdwood and Anchorage and the traffic was still backed up bumper to bumper by the time we got to Girdwood at about midnight. We got back to Gary and Bob’s hotel about 2:00am. Ken picked me up there, and I was one tired fisherwoman I tell you !

In September, I had my house painted. Not a big deal really, but I had the trim color changed and I really like it. I was fortunate and had it painted while the weather was good.

In October, I received my first PFD check from the State of Alaska. I had to be a resident for a full calendar year before being eligible. Since I moved to Alaska in July 2005, that meant I wasn't eligible until I'd lived here the entire 2006 calendar year. The PFD for 2006 pays out in October 2007. Here’s a bit of a history lesson that explains what the PFD is:

Alaska Permanent Fund
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Alaska Permanent Fund is a constitutionally established Fund, managed by a semi-independent corporation, established by Alaska in 1976. Shortly after the oil from Alaska’s North Slope began flowing to market through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, the Permanent Fund was created by an amendment to the constitution of the U.S. state of Alaska to be an investment for at least 25% of proceeds from some minerals [such as oil and gas] sale or royalties. The Fund does not include property taxes either on oil company property nor income tax from oil corporations, so the minimum 25% deposit is really more like 11% if those sources were also considered. The Alaska Permanent Fund sets aside a share certain oil revenues to continue benefiting current and all future generations of Alaskans. Many citizens also believed that the legislature too quickly and too inefficiently spent the $900 million bonus the state got in 1969 after leasing out the oil fields. This belief spurred a desire to put some oil revenues out of direct political control.

The Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation manages the assets of both the Permanent Fund and other state investments, but spending Fund income is up to the Legislature. The Corporation is to manage for maximum prudent return, and not--as some Alaskans at first wanted--as a development bank for in-state projects. The Fund grew from an initial investment of $734,000 in 1977 to the current sum of approximately forty billion dollars as of July 13, 2007. Some growth was due to good management, some to inflationary re-investment, and some via legislative decisions to deposit extra income during boom years. Each year, the fund's realized earnings are split between inflation-proofing, operating expenses, and the annual Permanent Fund Dividend.

In November, Ken and I started thinking about the various holiday craft shows we wanted to attend. There are quite a few different events at the schools and churches in town in addition to one at the Sullivan Arena and also the Egan Convention Center in town. We enjoy going to a few of them but neither of us are big shoppers. There are some amazing photography and craft items made in Alaska, and it’s always fun to see what’s new.

In November after Thanksgiving I went to the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor for a few days for a CH2M HILL training class. I worked at the University of Michigan from June 1971 to August 1974 after I graduated from Milan High School which is about 20 miles away from Ann Arbor. It was a quick trip, and when I got back to Anchorage the first week of December, Ken and I took a week off. Except for an occasional day off here and there all year, I worked and by November, I was exhausted and I needed some rest.

For Christmas we’ll get a 4-day weekend and we’re planning on taking it easy and just enjoying the time off.

Looking ahead to January, I’ll be taking a trip to Denver with some of the people in my HR Department to work on some of the 2008 transition issues and to meet with various HR and other people in the Denver office.

I’m looking forward to the trip and I’m hoping for lots of sunshine since December and January are the darkest months in Alaska. I have a bit of a hard time with the darkness. Most people look at December 22 as the beginning of winter. Not me. It’s really the beginning of spring, I think, because the days start getting longer. By the end of January, I can tell there’s more daylight and I begin to snap out of the winter slump. I’m planning on stopping to see my 91-year old aunt in Soap Lake, Washington on my way back to Anchorage after the meetings in Denver.

Ken and I (and Little Bit who is 16 years old now) wish you Happy Holidays and all the best for 2008. And yes, I will try to do better about keeping this Blog current !

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.

Merry Christmas

VECO has a children's Christmas party every year for the children of VECO employees. This is a picture of the Santa with one of the kids. The Santa is one of the law partners in the law firm that VECO uses. Where else but in Alaska would a lawyer play Santa? And look -- he looks just like Santa. He has kids coming up to him year 'round even when he's not dressed up in a red suit -- that's how Santa-like he is.

November & December 2005 - Winter Pictures

30 November - 1 December. We had hoar frost and the trees became wrapped in ice. Everything was spectacularly beautiful. I've got several great pictures of it. It's not like this all winter here. It lasts for a short time and then the temperature warms up a bit and the ice is gone. But it is certainly beautiful while it lasts. It's so beautiful that it looks fake. Or that Hallmark brought one of those Christmas cards to life in front of my eyes. Or that Disneyland created the trees in front of me.



This picture was taken in Kenai. I went to our Kenai office on 1 December and it was a bit more sunny than Anchorage that day, and the iced trees look great with a little sun on them.



27 November .... There's a moose and her calf who visit the neighbor's yard frequently because they like to eat their bushes. I came home from grocery shopping on a Sunday morning, and they were having brunch. These are the pictures.

1st Trip to the North Slope - November 2005

1-4 November 2005. Took my first trip to the North Slope. It was Benefits Open Enrollment time and several people in my group go up to the Slope annually to meet with employees. It was a perfect opportunity for me to go and meet employees and see where our employees work and live while there. It was a good trip, and I enjoyed it. It felt, in some ways, like I was back on Project in the IZ. Meals provided at specific times in the lunch rooms, housed in a small room with a single bed and a shared bathroom, work is 7 days a week for about 12 hours a day. The picture of me shows the Pipeline behind me. We saw musk ox, caribou and a red fox during this trip. Couldn't get a picture of the fox because it moved too fast. The musk ox were too far away for the pictures to come out well. But there's a decent picture of the caribou.

First Snow 2005 & Halloween 2005

30 October 2005. We had our first snow in Anchorage the day before Halloween. Not too much fell on the ground, but it was pretty. Trick or Treaters still came around easily the next day. I had quite a few ghosts and goblins show up on Halloween; I went through several bags of candy.

I've included a picture taken from my front porch of the neighborhood and the mountains with the first snow. I've also added a picture of my front porch on Halloween night.

Colorado Visit - October 2005

2 October 2005. I went on a business trip to VECO's office in Englewood, Colorado. I left Anchorage early so I could spend the weekend with friends Stephanie and Stuart in Loveland. It had been about 3 years we think since my last visit. The color on the trees in Colorado was just beginning. The temperature was in the sunny 90's while I was there. They had friends over to dinner, we went to an all day art exhibit with various artists in downtown Loveland. I was able to take a nap in their backyard hammock.

Kenai Fjord & Fox Island & Glacier

I'm writing this chapter in December 2005. I'm way behind on my Blog and I'm going to try and catch up.

6 and 7 August 2005 I took a weekend trip. I took a train trip from Anchorage to Seward on Saturday morning. Traveled by boat to Fox Island where I spent the afternoon and evening. The boats that take people around the area and out to the glacier all stop at Fox Island to give passengers lunch. There are 8 cabins on the island where you can stay overnight.

I met several people on the boat and we all hung out together that evening and on the cruise the next day. One of the people wanted to kayak and his wife didn't want to go, so he and I went kayaking that evening. It's the first time I've been kayaking. The water was mirror-smooth and it was awesome. I really enjoyed it. The weather was warm and sunny. I hadn't worn enough sun screen. Somehow my brain didn't think I could get too much sun in Alaska; wrong !

The following morning we took an all day boat to the glacier. It was a gorgeous day with lots of sun. We ran into an area thick with fog, but we passed through it. The glacier was amazing. You can hear the glacier as well as see it. You can hear the creaking and the cracking of the ice within it, and then you can hear pieces of it breaking off and crashing into the water. Little pieces of ice float in the water ... and you feel a bit like you are on an ice cube floating in someone's big drink! LOL. Words cannot describe the glacier; it is something you have to see and hear yourself to really appreciate.