March 30, 2009

We all need to be reminded of our insignificance once in awhile. A volcano erupting 100 miles away can help.

We didn’t go skiing yesterday as the conditions at the resort sounded horrible and we weren’t sure if the ashfall was a potential threat to the car. We made the right choice since the resort had to shut down the upper chair lift due to high winds. Since they were running the slalom on the lower mountain, the skiing options were going to be limited.

Instead of skiing, we hung around the house most of the day. By early afternoon, I had to get out. We decided to go for a walk. We just walked along the greenbelt, a route we would normally do on cross country skis. The traction compound placed by the volcano on the packed snow of the trail would have made that a pointless effort. We walked up and down the greenbelt for a total of over three miles. While a little ash on the snow in front of the condo should register in its significance, walking around gave me a real sense of the scope. Had I taken a handful of ash and threw it on the snow, I could have covered a small area to about the same light coverage that was on the snow. When you walk around, you begin to realize how many handfuls of ash were deposited all over town at a location over a hundred miles away from the source.

These volcanic eruptions are incredible in scope. The huge mountain fills with a plume that widens and climbs to many miles. The heat melts the glacier and remaining winter snow into floods miles wide that rush down the Drift River valley. It is awesome, yet merely registers as a nuisance here in Anchorage thus far. Things could still get worse. Or maybe the mountain will just stop.

Today I caught a glimpse of the volcano. The skies cleared enough for me to briefly make out the mountain on the horizon from my office. I noticed a significant steam plume and pulled up the webcam to get a better view. At that time, a stream of black ash was pouring out of the mountain, although not rising to the levels that were directly visible from my vantage point. I kept hoping for clearing skies, but the midmorning glimpses quickly vanished behind our continually cloudy weather.

We did get rid of the gray snow this morning with about three inches of fresh snow overnight. Even though it mostly melted throughout the day, it was nice to get things freshened up. Even without the volcano, things are getting dirty looking as the snow cover melts away to uncover the brownness underneath.

Today I learned a little more about my annual increase and bonus. The increase appears to be over 8%, a pretty decent increase in a down economy. With every significant increase comes the reassurance that you have been seriously underpaid previously. I think this is the story of my career. I have been paid more than adequately by my own standards, but always less than my peers. Maybe someday I will know what it is like to be overpaid, but I suspect that experience comes with a target on your back, especially in a down economy. The bonus equation is shaping up very nicely. The three multipliers are all greater than 1. One of them is a 1.3! One of them is still unknown, but since that is the one that is determined by my own personal performance, the personal performance that earned me an 8% increase, I am comfortable that it will also be greater than 1. This means that my bonus will be significantly greater than the target amount included in my offer letter. So that is all good news. Of course if the price of oil doesn’t recover, next year won’t be so kind.