I Mean Winter, Damn It!

The weather stopped playing Mr. Nice Guy this weekend. I am actually not all that sure how nice it has been, if you must know the truth. It has actually been kind of crappy, or at least pretty cold. On the other hand, there have been some beautifully sunny days.

Saturday, the teeth came out. The temperature fell to -20, and the windchill fell to -40. Of course, this was the day that we needed to get to Bethel to pick up necessary cooking supplies for my bride's cooking class. We went to the BIA building to unearth our snowmachine, which has been in storage since the break. No dice there. It did not want to start, which as of this writing remains an unsolved mystery.

No problem-the school has its own machine, and we were on school business. It is, however, set up a little differently than ours, which proved to be a bit of a challenge for both of us in different ways through the afternoon. Off we went. As cold as it was, the conditions were tolerable because we were all bundled up. After our penultimate stop, we had trouble getting the thing started again, so I sat on the seat outside Swanson's grocery store while I left it running.

The sun was setting as we headed down to Napaskiak, with me trying to see without my glasses as I picked my way along the rutted track. Even though my sweetie told me that she was worried about the route that I was taking, she was forced to admit that I got us back in one piece. I ran the machine back to the storage building while she unloaded the groceries from the sled. It was all kind of exhilarating, despite the problems that the afternoon threw in our way. We worked together and got it done.

Over the night, the wind began to climb in speed. Every time I got up to go to the bathroom, I could hear the windows shaking. By morning, the winds were gusting over 50 mph, and the windchill was somewhere between -50 and -65. We had been invited back to Bethel for football watching, but the four of us that were supposed to travel decided that we were way too chicken to venture up the river in that mess. No football parties today...

Eric and I ended up venturing down to Joe's, with brownies and chili provided by our spouses, who were likely just glad to get rid of us. It was a pleasant way to spend a few hours with friends, something that can be in short supply out here, with all of us so busy.

The weekend is over, and it is time to return to the work of getting kids to learn. Tomorrow will mark our first weigh-in for our little contest. I will be interested to see what result the first week has produced. I think that we may be joined in this contest soon.