Turn and face the strange....

Ch-Ch-Changes!! David Bowie is indeed a wise man. Today is Ocotober 8th, 2006 and it marks the first day of snowfall here in Chefornak. This event has erased all bets that fall would somehow elude winter and head in to an abnormally early spring. However, it is known by the meteorologists and local experts alike that tomorrow or the day after will find the temperatures approximating the balmy 40 degree seasonal average. Today stands to serve as a reminder that the northerly winds have not forgotten us and has helped me to solidify my knowledge of which way North is.

For some time now I have found it difficult to orient myself. North is not easy to discern here as there are no north/south or east/west roads with which to deduce one's location. Nor does it help that the rising and setting of the sun appears to occur in the same location. Nevertheless, I became intimately aware of the direction we call North or "insta-freeze" as I now refer to it. I assure you it matters not who you are or how long your ancestors have been removed from the land. The instant one of these blasts of winds strikes your face you will know that it could have come from no other place than the polar ice cap.

However, as drastic as it may be,this is not the only change taking place. When I first arrived in Alaska, the sun did not set until after midnight and rose roughly 5 hours later. I sit here now, writing to you all at 8:50pm Alaska time and it is as dark as it will be tomorrow morning at 8:50am. The autumnal equinox has passed and now the effects of less than 12 hours of daylight are becoming more readily apparent. Knowing when to sleep and when to wake is a confusing enough task as it is without mother nature's added deceptive play.