November 4, 2007

The in-between-time is here. It is dark until much more. It is cold. The mountains are getting snow, but we have had little down low. Outdoor activities haven’t been all that inviting.

Kris is winning the race to a new job. She got her job offer this week. She will start her new job on November 19. I am expecting to hear about my opportunity next week. As is typical in Alaska, one of the required signatures was from someone who was out hunting. I am pretty sure I am getting the job, but people are pretty careful with information. This is different than my previous experiences where nothing was kept secret. I still have a chance of winning the race to a new job as I could probably have an earlier official starting date.

Last weekend was pretty laid back. I did get the studded tires put on the vehicles. This constant switching back and forth every six months finally got to me. I broke down and bought wheels for both vehicles. It will take a couple years to pay off financially, but it wasn’t a simple cost analysis. Every change over requires me to drive to one of the tire places. Usually I stop 3 or 4 times before finding a time that has a reasonable wait. Then I wait for at least an hour while they change tires. Multiply that times two vehicles and two times a year. While it takes me about half an hour to change wheels on a vehicle, I am still saving a few hours of my time. I also gain a little more choice over when to make the change. As an added bonus, I think the cheap black steel wheels I bought look pretty cool on both vehicles. Kris thinks her car looks like random car parts, but what does she know about cool cars?

We went to a Halloween party on Saturday. We spent $9 on our costumes, green makeup and antennae. We went as aliens.

We got out for a walk on Sunday. We went down the green belt a ways. We walked around Taku lake. We didn’t see much happening, just a couple ducks. The trail was icy and there were few people out and about. I was disappointed that we didn’t see any moose. When we got back from our walk, Kris saw a couple moose go running by our window. It is good to know they are still in the neighborhood.

This weekend was a little more active. We went shopping on Saturday and both bought new ski jackets. My old one was about a million years old so it was time. Then we headed down to Girdwood to pick up our season passes. We walked and drove around a little to see if we could tell what changes had been made at the resort. Then we ate dinner at our favorite restaurant in Girdwood.

We went cross country skiing today. We skied over 5 miles along the power lines up on the hillside. The wind was howling, blowing in our face as we headed up the valley. The wind made a nice assist on the return which was lightly downhill anyway. The wind was strong enough to keep me moving at a slow pace through a few long stretches. Still it was a workout and I am tired.

We saw some moose. One was huge with a huge set of antlers. We watched him for about 15 minutes before Kris got too cold standing there in the wind. I stayed warm moving around trying to get a better angle for pictures.