Cold Dark Night

It's beautiful but chilly these days in Anchorage. One of my goals for this first winter in Alaska is to track my responses to living in such an "extreme" climate.

In many ways, Anchorage is not all that extreme. The Weather Channel this morning was predicting a whole lot more snow for Washington and Oregon than we're going to get here anytime soon.

Anchorage isn't any colder than Saginaw County, Michigan, my last place of residence, and actually gets less snow.

Two things are different, though.

First of all, winter starts much, much earlier. It's only the 3rd of November, and it looks outside like it would in December or January "back home." The trees are bare, the sky is winter-blue, and a light coating of frost or snow covers almost everything. We watched "Scooter" Libbey get arraigned this morning in Washington, DC, and the footage looked strangely dated because the sunlight looked warm, the trees were still green, and no one was wearing a winter coat.

Second, the darkness does not creep up on us here--it runs toward us at full tilt. This is the first time I've lived in a place where they keep such close tabs on the number of daylight hours. Today's Anchorage Daily News reports that the sun rose today at 8:35 a.m., and will set at 4:49 p.m.

There is a plus side, however. Those crisp, dark winter skies are perfect for stargazing--and aurora watching. The ADN also reports aurora conditions, which tonight should be moderate. This means that, "Weather permitting, moderate displays will be visible overhead from Barrow to Fairbanks and visible low on the northern horizon from as far south as Anchorage, Juneau, and Whitehorse, Canada."

Maybe we'll bundle up tonight and head north into the cold darkness for Alaska's brilliant night spectacle.

Rosa Louise

Yesterday it fogged. Usually, fog is such a passive form of weather that it doesn't graduate from noun to verb. Yesterday's fog covered everything in silver-white frostiness. It was beautiful.

Today I learned that Rosa Parks and I shared a middle name, "Louise," which means "warrior." We share, also, the Flower Warrior name pattern. I inherited the pattern from my grandmother, Violet Louise.

I wonder how many other Flower Warriors there are out there? Jasmine Louise? Lily Louise? Daisy Louise?

Fred & Frank Hook Up

Why does bad news follow good news so closely?

Saturday's ADN reported that "the Alaska Supreme Court on Friday ruled it is unconstitutional to deny benefits to the same-sex partners of public employees, a major victory for gay rights advocates in one of the first states to pass a constitutional ban on homosexual marriage."

One of the headlines on the front page of today's ADN tells us that "Resistance to decision on gay benefits is growing."

The story that follows the headline tells us that State Senator Fred Dyson (R-Eagle River) and Governor Frank Murkowski (R) are seriously considering efforts to amend the constitution to prohibit anything that even smells like honoring the commitments that GLBT Alaskans make to each other.

I did like the Democrats' response, however. Senate Minority Leader Johnny Ellis (D-Anchorage) released a one-sentence statement through the Democrats' press office that said, "We'll be happy to listen to Sen. Dyson explain why health benefits for a handful of Alaskans creates a constitutional crisis."

I'm just waiting for a news story about a secret Walmart memo outlining a covert plan to hire predominantly single people without dependents, since they are cheaper, more dependable employees.

No need to subsidize benefits for family members. No sick children forcing the employer to comply with the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

Imagine the cost savings!