Recollections of My First Visit to Fairbanks

10 December 2012
7:15 PM

Sunrise at	10:44 AM	in direction	153°	South-southeast
Sunset at	2:44 PM	in direction	207°	South-southwest

Duration of day: 3 hours, 59 minutes (3 minutes, 24 seconds shorter than yesterday)

12/9, 9:22 AM - Overcast

The sun, if it is not overcast and snowing like it is today, is above the horizon for less than 4 hours now.  Civil Twilight started today at 9:22 AM and ended at 4:06 PM.  Two hours, 40 minutes of twilight, plus nearly 4 hours of sunlight makes for nearly 7 hours of usable light.  That is the trick of living here .. looking at what light really is about, not thinking about sunrise and sunset and what defines easy living.  But dang, it is still weird to me to be parking the car at 8:30 AM in the morning in full darkness.

It has snowed lightly, but steadily for over a day now.  It looks like nothing, but the accumulation in our driveway attests to persistence in small gains can make an impact.  With the snow came warmer temperatures.  Walking at noon today, my route took me along Yukon Drive on the sidewalk south of the Museum of the North building.  The temperature, midday cloud cover, and snow nudged awake a memory of the first time I walked that way in March, 2000, my first trip to Alaska.

12/11, 1:46 PM - Snowing

Teresa, my daughter, moved up to Alaska in January of 2000.  That spring she wanted me to come and I did.  I was intimidated by all the snow and cold.  When I first arrived, the temperatures were not severe, probably between -10F and 10F.  At that time, I was used to those types of temperatures in Colorado for short periods of time, so I didn't consider it as severely cold, but neither did I think of it as an ideal temperature to be outside.  So, I essentially shuttled from building to building.  I visited the museum; I hung around Teresa's desk in the graduate student trailer; I did not know Vera yet, but Marilyn Walker was still here and as their house guest I visited with her and her former husband Skip.  I became restive, hiding from the winter.

Before the week was up, my daughter told me I needed to get outside.  That was the way you dealt with the cold here.  You didn't lurk indoors afraid to face life.  Outside I went, heading toward lower campus from the Arctic Health Building, walking east along Yukon Drive.  That year, snow had not been removed from that section of the sidewalk and had accumulated so I walked across packed snow.  At the end of that walk, a glimmer of satisfaction lingered.  I had met the north on its own terms for the first time.  By the time I left, toward the end of March, temperatures were considerably warmer, warm enough that sun could heat the concrete of the sidewalk and it was evaporating, leaving patches free of snow.

Today, 12 years later, I am still walking along Yukon Drive, still taking my daughter's advice to get out and greet the winter.