Alaska Odds and Ends

(by Leslie)

In our last post, I promised one more episode—a variety of items we meant to blog about but never got around to doing. So here is a final mish-mash of things we did/saw during our four months in Fairbanks.

One thing we learned during our stay is just how dog-centered the culture is up in the 49^th state—a very good thing, indeed. In addition to mushing, Alaskans enjoy a variety of other dog-oriented sports and events. One of these is the Freight Pull, where dogs compete as to how much weight they can pull on a cart from a stand-still. Here is one of the light-weight class dogs:

And here’s the heavy-weight class. The rule is, no touching the dog and no bribing with treats. But other forms of encouragement are allowed:

The dogs have to be at least 25 pounds to compete, so Ziggy is ineligible. Which is too bad, because I know she’d rock her weight class (under 15 pounds) if it existed!

We also attended a combined dog obedience and conformation show. Here are the winners of one of the beginner-class obedience competitions:

And here you can see some pre-conformation show primping:

 some folks just can't follow directions

Another popular sport in Fairbanks is curling, which Robin and I learned to love during the last Olympics. We were lucky enough to get to see a tournament at the local club, which had a full bar and viewing area for the convenience of spectators:

 the cardboard boxes stacked between the sheets

(playing lanes) are full of beer

During the four months we spent in Fairbanks, many of the Stryker Brigade soldiers returned home after their stint in Afghanistan. To celebrate their return—as well as to honor the other soldiers at the two military bases in Fairbanks—the city hosted a parade. (Of course this meant the soldiers had to march some ten miles so they could be cheered by the local civilians, probably not how they would have preferred to spend a Saturday.) Wanting to take part in all the local culture, Robin and Ziggy and I attended the event.

Ziggy did not at all like the loud noises:

Here are some of the other spectators:

Even the workers from the electrical plant along the parade route came out to cheer on the soldiers:

Other activities we did included visiting the local Large Animal Research Station (a part of the university) during the spring open house with baby musk ox and caribou:

And going on the Riverboat Discovery cruise down the Chena River, which included a visit to a replica of an Athabascan fish camp. Here, one of the gals working there models a parka with a wolf-skin ruff:

Finally, a few shots of Denali (aka Mount McKinley). Here it is from inside the National Park:

And here is the view we had of the mountain flying home, when our plane was detoured to the north-west because of military exercises outside of Anchorage. Wow!

This officially ends our Fairbanks Dreaming blog. Check our other blogs (Leslie’s here, and Robin’s here) for further updates about what’s going on in our lives.

Thoughts on the Cold

Robin and I have been back in Santa Cruz for almost two weeks, but I have yet to finish a quarter of the tasks I have set out for myself on returning. Part of the reason is that there are myriad things to do when you come home after an absence of four months. And part of the reason is that the day after we returned home, I came down with a god-awful cold.

But this post isn't about that kind of cold. It's about the brrrrr! kind. Robin wrote this draft a while back, but never finished it, and has now moved on to new projects. But after reading it, I thought it should see the light of day, unfinished though it is. So here are some of Robin's thoughts about The Cold:

A Good Inclination

(by Leslie)

We’ve been in Fairbanks almost four months now, and the summer solstice—as well as our return to California—is nigh. So what you all are no doubt wondering is, what’s it been like, having the midnight sun?

Before I answer that question, a few words about this phenomenon—the midnight sun. Right now, the sun is setting at about 12:30 a.m. and rising at about 3:00 a.m. We therefore technically have some 21.5 hours of sun per day. But in reality, we have 24 hours of light per day, because when the sun does set, it merely dips a few degrees below the horizon, not resulting in much change in light. In fact, we now no longer have any “civil twilight” (the brightest of the three classes of twilight)—it’s all just plain old “sunlight.”

One could read a book outdoors at midnight if one so desired. (Though the mosquitoes would likely prevent one from having this particular desire. More about that later.) Here’s a photo I took the other night a little after midnight:

 it was actually lighter than this suggests;

I had to under-expose the photo to show the color of the sky

The Battle over the Little Green Men (Updated)

by Robin; photos by Leslie

We walk every day on a loop road near our house called Charlijo.  It's got a huge meadow, so it is a change-up from the forest that surrounds us.  It's a lovely walk, with views of the Alaska range and lots of sun.

The only negative is that this one house has these ugly little green plastic men placed on the road to encourage driving slowly (for the children and pets they don't seem to have).  It's a dirt road.  People drive slowly here naturally.  But, these people really want to make damn sure they do.

Here they are! Aren't they amazingly ugly?

Many days on our walks, the little green men were laying on the ground.  Since it is a fairly windless area, it looked like someone probably intentionally hit them or pushed them down. So they would go down, then up, then down, then up.  We found the battle amusing and, frankly, were hoping someone just stole the things.  (I swear we haven't touched them.)

(added 5/23: Leslie saw the wind knock one down, so now we know that any gust could do it.  Therefore, it could be an entirely natural phenomenon.) 

One day we showed up and the people had scattered rocks around the little men as some sort of discouragement.  Do you think that will stop the wind?

So here are the rocks...even farther out in the road than the men are.

Frankly, the rocks really, really made me want to sneak out in the dead of night and steal those suckers.  But, alas, there is no dead of night in Alaska in May.  Maybe someone will do them in during the dark of winter? I can only hope so for the others who live on that road.

(Update May 27: The little green men, it turns out, are creating problems in other neighborhoods like this one. Thanks, Larry, for the link!  And, in chatting with a neighbor about them, they said the owners claim that someone was driving too fast in the neighborhood and rocks were being kicked up on their lawn.  The problem with that becomes this:  why do you put more and bigger rocks for the offending driver to hurl your way? )

No one would get away with these things in Santa Cruz, that is for sure.

Alaskans are such liars

More than one person told me that they hated April due to the breakup, during which mud and slush allegedly fill the landscape. They said that, really, there was no spring--just this horrible period between winter and summer. If you google "breakup Fairbanks," you will find this sort of quote:

"Browns and grays dominate the landscape, the snow that stays around is dirty, and mud reigns."

"Wee-Hoo! Breakup! Mud, slush, and bbq!"

"April is a month of waiting, as winter sports come to an end and summer activities are blocked by melt and mud."

"We like our break ups long, slow, and hard in Alaska.  Usually at least 4 weeks, longer if we can drag it out."

"...the resultant sea of mud is called breakup."

Give me a break!

Announcing some updates

We have updated three posts.  First, we updated the post about the Nenana Ice Classic with the winner's information.  It's a great story, particularly for those who love science.

Next, we keep meeting people (i.e. celebrities or quasi-celebrities)!  So we updated that post, too.

And lastly, I updated the post about the Alaskan preposition with photos (by Leslie of course) to illustrate.

The last of the snow

There isn't much snow left, but Ziggy takes full advantage of what there is. 

Celebrating Alaska’s Bounty

(by Leslie)
 

When I saw an ad in the Fairbanks paper for the end-of-the-year dinner presented by the UAF Culinary Arts Department students, I quickly called up to get reservations for Robin and me. Having gone through the culinary arts program at Cabrillo College in Aptos, California, I know what a great deal these sorts of dinners are.

This $100-a-plate meal, the ad said, was called “Celebrating Alaska’s Bounty,” and would consist of eight courses, using wherever possible sustainable, locally sourced ingredients. And, I learned when I called, it would include wine-pairings as well.

table setting, with the amuse bouche

deviled picked egg with bairdi (aka snow) crab

The Prepositions of Alaska (updated May 15th with photos)

Text my Robin; photos by Leslie

Fairbank folks mark the change of the seasons by a series of two-word catch phrases, each using a preposition. I find these rather enchanting, given we have no such thing in California.

We have just experienced breakup.

Our street the day it began breaking up with Leslie's sis Laura in the background

Even More Aurora!

(by Leslie)

You may have read that there was a significant solar storm last week, which resulted in some pretty spectacular auroras in the northern latitudes. Unless you were too far north, that is. Because here in Fairbanks we only have about one hour of darkness these days—or I should say twilight, since it doesn’t really get completely dark anymore. As a result, though I stayed up from midnight to three the night of the solar activity (watching the first season of Julia Child’s The French Chef to pass the time), I saw nary a glow.

Mooseburgers, Reindeer, and Pie—Oh, My!

 
(by Leslie)

I realize I’ve been amiss in my failure to write about the food up here. On the whole, Robin and I have been eating the same as we do anywhere—lots of stir-fry; salads; roasted chicken, vegetables and taters; Mexican; Thai curry. We haven’t gone out to eat much, but that’s not because of any lack of good restaurants—there are plenty. We’ve just been lazy homebodies for the most part.

Gotta love this temperature trend

I threw together this graph because a picture is worth a 1000 words... (I=Robin)

Spring Melancholy

by Robin; photos by Leslie

Note:  This blog was actually written for, and first published in, another blog called Articism. The blogger, Allison, is a Lit Grad student at UCSC and was our one-time housesitter.  She asked me if I could send some photos and impressions of Fairbanks from a Californian's point of view, and this is the result. Her folks still live here, and we have been enjoying spending time with her mom, Jane.

---

I have spent very little time around snow in my life. I have always lived in, essentially, snowless areas and I have rarely vacationed to snowy areas. This has been by choice, of course. I crave warmth and have not been attracted to those areas likely to snow nor to the things, like skiing, that one does in the snow.

One exception to that was a trip we—myself and my partner Leslie—took to Alaska in March of 2000. We wanted to see the aurora borealis, and there is no escaping the need to go to an area of snow and cold for that. So, we headed to Fairbanks and ended up rather enchanted with the place. The aurora was spectacular, but so too were the ice sculptures, and the dog mushing. And the people we met were extremely warm and welcoming. It was so completely different than anything we had ever experienced and, beyond being too cold sometimes due to inadequate footwear, we loved the place and vowed to return.

Our plan was to stay long enough to experience the change from winter to summer.

Weather Report - April 15th.

First, I just want to acknowledge that today is the 100th anniversary of the Titanic sinking.  This blog writer summed up its significance:

This was a turning point for mankind’s relationship with technology; it was the moment at which we recognized that “modern advances” were—would continue to be—a double-edged sword. Technology was (by definition) a powerful tool that could hurt us as well as harm us. This insight was available to anyone who was truly paying attention during the Edwardian Era, but it grabbed headlines after the Titanic sank, taking 1,514 people with her. 

I have no easy way to link the above with my weather report below, so I won't try.

I just want you to know that it isn't winter here anymore!

World Ice Art Championships, Part 4

(by Leslie)

Probably the biggest draw to the annual Ice Art Championships—at least in number of visitors—is not the sculptures, but the Kids’ Park. Parents buy season tickets for the family and bring the kids over and over again to amuse themselves in this play area made entirely of ice. There’s a skating rink, complete with skates and hockey sticks and pucks to borrow:

the reference is to the Ice Dogs,

the Fairbanks minor league hockey team

Guest Dream Blog April 7

Note:  The day I decided to stop doing the dream journal, my brother Russ sent in this dream.  Dreamlife is still open for guest dreams and, who knows, Leslie or I might throw one in now and then, too.

Type:  Chaotic Action
People:  My in-laws, Luna, Senator Evans and his wife Nancy, and lots of strangers
Featured:  A wedding with a big dog walk

I was in a church for a wedding, not sure whose wedding.  But we were having the reception at our house, which looked nothing like our house, and I left before the vows to finish preparations.  One of the first guests to arrive were my in-laws driving their red Cadillac sports convertible and towing a trailer with a wedding present.  They tipped the trailer over as they backed it into a hill and the present broke.  Then guests arrived and wouldn't listen to my parking directions.  They were every which way, not packed at all efficiently.  I decided to take Luna and other dogs at the reception on a walk.  We visited three (or four) houses along the way, all very estate-like.  At the first there was a magnificent carved climbing toy in which the dogs treed a cat.  When I went to help the cat, it became clear the cat was already treed by a mountain lion staring down at all the dogs.  We left.

On the Death of Dreamlife

by Robin

You know, it's been fun to pay attention to my dreams but what has happened is that it made me realize I don't want to "lucid dream".  I did like the one flying episode, but I do that on occasion anyway.  Instead, I prefer to see the stuff my brain does without trying to interject some sort of control in the process. 

And Leslie wants her sleep.

The People You Meet in Fairbanks! (updated by Robin - see bottom)

 (by Leslie)

Although the greater Fairbanks area has a population of around 100,000, one wouldn’t expect to meet a whole lot of celebrities here. I mean, for example, it wasn’t all that surprising when I saw Lou Reed dining at Matsuhisa in Los Angeles several years back, and seeing Joe Montana shopping with his wife (actually, he was waiting outside while she went in to shop) in lower Manhattan was exciting, but not anything shocking.

But I sure didn’t expect it in Fairbanks.

Dreamlife April 4 - Robin

Type: everyday life
People:  Bill of Big Love
Featured: Life is a jigsaw puzzle

I was helping Bill (of Big Love, but he only had one wife and three girls) measure a room for a full-sized bed for his oldest girl.  The three kids had been in the same room and a room opened up.  The trouble was the bed was either going to block a door or be against a wall heater (therefore a fire hazard).  We found a "Jr. full" which was a couple of inches shorter and Bill thought he could create something to put between the heater and the bed.  They were going out to buy it.

But then I realized I had made all that up and that it was actually a jigsaw puzzle of the scene of a bedroom with a bed near a heater. Huh.

Dreamlife April 3 - Robin

Type: work
People: Renee Fleming
Featured: I ruin Renee Fleming's aria

I was backstage at the opera and my responsibility was keeping the floor clean.  Someone spilled something and I was cleaning it up around various people's feet.  It was the very end of an opera—I'm guessing Strauss because it sounded like him—and she was singing the final notes, which were sung very softly.  I made a clunk sound and a guy got really mad at me for ruining that final note.  (I truly don't think the audience heard the clunk, but maybe they did.)  I kept cleaning because it was my responsibility, and someone might have hurt themselves if they slipped.

The Spirit of Alaska

(by Robin, but Leslie shares the sentiment.)

When we first got here, our hosts were showing us the TV set-up and mentioned that they only get a few channels in that they live in a bad reception area. They said that they used to get more stations, but a couple had gone on the fritz. One was ABC, which aired the Academy Awards this year. We didn't get to see it because of that problem. Total bummer. Alas, we just accepted our fate.

Not Jimmy and Vicki Tohill! 

Dreamlife April 2 - Robin

Type: Travel, stress
People: Leslie (she seems to always be in my dreams!)
Featuring: An Indian motel in Hollywood and piano competition/ sleep-worry stress

Leslie and I were in LA for the piano competition as I was going to play in the next day. I forgot to get reservations at a hotel, so I called a couple of good places I knew about.  They laughed at me for trying to get a hotel room at the last minute.  So Leslie and I got into the car and drove into Hollywood where we figured we could easily find a motel room.  At this point, it was midnight.  I had to get up at 5 a.m.  I was stressing about the fact I wasn't going to get a lot of sleep before my big day.

Dreamlife April 2—Leslie

Dream One:

Type: being in class
People: no one I recognize
Featured: ceramic figures of Wotan made by my mom

I’m in a class and we’ve been assigned to do projects. I’ve chosen Odin, the Norse head-god, and am going to talk about the different versions of this myth, including the German version, Wotan. But I realize I can’t do the drawings well enough for the project. So I decide to use some ceramic figures my mom made of Wotan. I tell the class about the mythology chart I made for English class in the ninth grade.

Dreamlife April 1 - Robin

Type: Travel
People: Leslie
Featured: a giraffe, tiger and a meeting of Republicans

Leslie and I are going out on a tour to look for zebras with a guide.  I am not sure what country we are in but it isn't the USA. It only takes a few minutes in the country, and there is a giraffe and a tiger in view.  I think that is pretty impressive, but our guide is only interested in zebras so we drive on.  He says that he is going to check with some villagers to see if they know where the zebras were.  We walk in to a room and it is a meeting of Republicans.

Dreamlife March 31 - Robin

First Dream

Type: I'm just watching
People: Richard Strauss, Patricia Racette
Featured: Strauss is a jerk

Strauss was rehearsing with full orchestra a piece he written for two women's voices.  One of the singers was Patricia Racette.  I didn't know the other.  Patricia had a problem at one point and asked to do it over (though the orchestra played over her request.)  Strauss gave her a mean look and continued.  Later at the end he said, "You don't stop the music; I do."

The Breakup (updated-winner's info at this post's end )

(by Robin--though this should be obvious to anyone who knows her)

As I have already mentioned in an earlier post, the breakup is just another name for spring here in Fairbanks. It refers, of course, to the breakup of the rivers, but also the breakup of snow-turned-ice all around. The most storied river breakup in Alaska is on the Nenana river. It isn't because it is the longest river (that is the Yukon) or the most spectacular, but because people gamble on when it will happen and have been doing so since 1917.  It's called the Nenana Ice Classic.  It's a thing. A very cute thing.

Dreamlife March 30—Leslie

Dream 1:

Type: reminiscing
People: my mom
Featured: memorabilia and orange sherbet

My mom and I are looking at a long bulletin board covered with memorabilia from a party—Deedee and Pabah’s (my grandparents’) 50th wedding anniversary, I think. We’re at my parents’ house in Santa Monica, in the dining room. Mom shows me the table which had been set up for the celebration, and we’re reminiscing about it. She shows me where the punch bowl made of ice was, in the fireplace. “Oh yeah,” I say. “The punch had orange sherbet in it, right?”

Dreamlife March 30 - Robin

Type:  Food
People: Leslie and a bunch of nameless others
Featured: me cooking

I was responsible for making a big dinner for a number of our friends.  I didn't do any of the prep, actually.  My job was to fry it all up for dinner.  I was using a number of electric skillets and everything was being done at the same time.  I was frying mash potatoes, breaded peppers, ahi, chicken fried-steak and eggs.  I was horrible at doing it efficiently and was worried that things would be over-cooked (particularly the ahi).  Leslie was there but talking and not helping.  I don't think I asked for her help, but I did wonder how I got stuck doing this job.  I served people one at a time and they began eating as they received the food.  They all seemed to like it.  Each person got some reading material with their meal.  The reading material, too, had been fried, lightly.

World Ice Art Championships, Part 3

(by Leslie)

Robin and I have been back to the Fairbanks Ice Park several times since I last wrote about it.

Dreamlife March 28—Laura Karst (Guest Blogger)

Type: Atmospheric conditions (? or just weird)
People: Doug
Featured: Aurora Borealis, mysterious blobs

Doug and I were asleep in our room in San Jose, in the dark of the night. I woke up and saw a greenish glow coming in the window. I looked out and saw the aurora borealis, pretty much as it appears in Leslie's pictures, except that some areas of the light were so bright that I had to squint. Some of the dancing light shapes were even coming through our window, intense, saturated, vivid green.

Dreamlife March 28 - Robin

Type:  Stress
People: Leslie
Featured: an argument and coffee at the Old Catalyst

I had a lot of errands to do in Santa Cruz and a pile of stuff I needed to organize in order to do the errands.  As well, we needed some food.  I asked Leslie if she would get the food while I did the rest of the errands.  She said she didn't need any food yet.  I said, "but I do, and it's your job". She refused.  This really pissed me off.  All my errands were for us collectively, so why wouldn't she do this one thing?  I grabbed my pile, showed her the cellphone and left in a huff saying, "if you decide to be a partner, call me."

Dreamlife March 28—Leslie

Type: Trying to get somewhere
People: Laura and Ziggy
Featured: a bus

(Just a fragment of a much longer dream, but it was interrupted when we got up to see some aurora activity, and I promptly forgot the rest.) I’m in Santa Monica with my sister Laura and Ziggy. We’re walking back to our parents’ house and are tired, so we decide to take the bus the rest of the way (one block). Laura gets on and pays and walks to the back of the bus. I get on with Ziggy, but have a hard time dealing with the leash and getting my money out of my wallet. I finally hand the driver a ten dollar bill, and am surprised when he only gives me back a five and some change. It turns out we’re on an express, which costs more. Plus, by the time it stops again we have a ways to walk back to the house.

Dreamlife March 27 - Robin

Type: game playing
People: Leslie
Featured: a complicated cross of Scrabble, Crossword and activities/grocery shopping

Leslie and I were playing Scrabble. You could only do words that were activities and then you had to do the activity.  So, if you put in the word "run", you had to run for a bit before continuing the game. These games took a long time...

It's melting! It's melting!

(by Robin)

We have been here for more than a month and I have got so used to the cold and the snow that when I saw my first melting snow yesterday, I found it quite alarming.  Ziggy did too.  We were stopped at a traffic light and she started barking at something.  The only thing to see was water dripping from a pile of ice and snow.  It somehow seems wrong! And scary!

Dreamlife March 25 - Robin

type: stressy with a bit of sci-fi
people: Sharon R
featuring: alteration of DNA through a spark and a sunflower seed

My friend Sharon said she didn't have enough money for retirement so she was upset and bought a $150,000 car the day before.  I said that was absurd and she should take it back.  She didn't want to.  I told her to pull it into my garage so we could talk this through—and it wouldn't be damage while we did that.

Dreamlife March 25—Leslie

Type: not sure
People: the Obamas
Featured: shoveling snow and an upside down map of the world

Don’t remember a lot about this one: just that the Obama family had moved in next door, and I was shoveling a path through the snow to their house. Later on, I was trying to buy an upside down map of the world (i.e., showing the South Pole on the top). I was thinking how cool it would be to see the land masses and countries from a different perspective that we’re used to seeing.

Dreamlife March 24 - Robin

Type: travel
People: Tara C, Mary and Don M.
Featured: an Ohio trip with food

Tara C. and I were on a trip and we arrived at our apartment, but I realized we were in Ohio near Mary M and I could see her.  It was very cold and we were in the process of putting away food—the French bread wouldn't fit in the freezer so we put it outside to freeze—and I just ran out the door with no explanation to Tara where I was going.  I went to Mary's house (running into Don on the way) but Mary was getting ready for a trip.  She had to leave in an hour so we couldn't do anything more than say hi.

I went back to the apartment and apologized to Tara for running out.  She forgave me.  Some gay guys with a dog were there.  I brought Ziggy out to show my dog.

Dreamlife March 23 - Robin

Type: political
People: Jerry Brown, Bettina Aptheker
Featured: Bettina challenges Jerry Brown in the Governor's race

Bettina threw her hat into the Democratic primary ring against Jerry Brown.  I was surprised given that Bettina hasn't been overtly political in many years.  Jerry asked her to be on his weekly show at 6:00 pm.  That was going to be followed at 7:00 pm by a debate between them.  I thought that was interesting and looked forward to the show and the debate.

Dreamlife March 20—Leslie

( a little late)

Type: class reunion
People: Linda N., Linda F., and Robin
Featured: a photo of the Beatles

I’m at a Stanford Law School class reunion, and Linda N. (a classmate who is now a high mucky-muck in the LA pop music scene) was giving a talk to us in one of the law school auditoriums. She holds up a photo of the Abbey Road album cover, which has a picture of her superimposed on it. I yell out “Paul is dead!” and several people in the audience chuckle.

Dreamlife March 21 - Robin

Type: Just weird
Featured: venomous horses

There were three horses in a corral.  I went to pet them and the owner said, "Watch out, they are venomous." Venomous horses?  Well, they did have spade-shaped heads.  He said, "I don't keep them to ride but just to stomp vermin in the pasture".  I let them out to do that, and indeed they did stomp some vermin.

Dreamlife March 20 - Robin

Type:  Dental appointment (stress)
People: Dr. Bock, Leslie
Featured:  Hip shots to treat dog-borne teeth problem

I drove to my dentist after dropping Leslie off across town at another doctor's appointment.  She didn't want to drive.  We were supposed to be done around the same time and she was going to wait.  But Dr. Bock was very late.  In fact, it turned out he wouldn't get to me for many hours, until 5 pm.  This stressed me out as I was going to keep Leslie waiting for so long.

When it was my turn, he and an assistant came into the room.  The assistant started pointing to her hip with a know-it-all expression on her face.  Dr. Bock said—without even looking in my mouth—that I had a serious problem that needed to be treated by a series of shots in my hip.  I assumed this was some sort of post-radiation dental problem but Dr. Bock said that I got it from my dog, from letting the dog sleep in the bed.  I thought, well, it's worth it and I wasn't going to change.

Dreamlife March 19 - Robin (going lucid)

Dream One

Type: Sci-fi/ relationship issues
People: Leslie and a band of Burning-man like hippies, Laura
Featured:  Moon colonization requiring a lot of pee

We have colonized the moon (maybe Gingrich is President??).  They have found—and in the dream I saw a vivid graph of this—that anywhere someone has peed, vegetation grows.  So they want a lot of people to immigrate and pee.  They are giving away 40 acres per person (no mule).  Leslie wants to do it and I, reluctantly, agree.  For some reason Leslie wants to let a group of hippie-artist types use the land (more pee!) I say that is ok as long as they are not near us.

Dreamlife March 19—Leslie

Dream 1:

Type: medieval adventure
People: no one I know in waking life
Featured: a castle with fighting, a pub, and some beer

I’m involved in some sort of battle with bows and arrows and swords—a bit like a scene from The Lord of the Rings. But it’s not scary; I’m just fighting, as if it were the most natural thing in the world (dream sign!). I don’t remember anyone dying or even being injured.

Lucid Dream Aids

(by Robin, with some additions by Leslie)

As mentioned in a previous post, one of the things we're spending our time doing up here in Alaska is trying to learn to lucid dream. What that means is that you realize in your dream that you're dreaming, so that you can act upon it by, say, deciding to fly like Supeman, or play killer lead guitar with Spinal Tap, or maybe just be able to realize that the nightmare you're experiencing is merely a dream.

There are a whole lot of things one can do to help the process of learning to lucid dream. Here's a how-to list for lucid dreaming. For those who don't hit the link, note that keeping a dream journal is crucial. We are doing that.

Moose Turd Pie

(by Leslie)

We’ve seen very little wildlife since we’ve been here: mostly just crows, and a few enormous ravens at the transfer station (i.e., where you bring your garbage). I imagine there are lots of other critters about—bunnies and foxes and other non-migratory beasts—but they’re all either hibernating or just well hidden from us city slickers.

We’d been hearing tell about the moose, and had seen lots of photos of them in the newspaper, so we were constantly on the lookout for one on our walks and from our windows. But we saw nary a one.

Then the other day I looked out the window and saw tracks in the snow. “Those must have been made by a moose,” I said to Robin.

Dreamlife March 18 - Robin

Dream One

Type: Everyday life (with fictional details but true to our life)
People:  Nancy and Steve L, Leslie
Featured:  a $10,000 loan to our friends

I introduced my good friend Alphonsa to another friend.  But she corrected me and said, "My name is actually Phonsa".  Really? I had been calling her by the wrong name for years??  Yes, so it seems.

Phonsa morphed into my friend Nancy L., who was depressed.  I asked why and she said that it was time to pay tuition (for the expensive private school for their child) and they were $10, 000 short.  I said I would be happy to lend it (though I needed to check with Leslie).

Dreamlife March 16 - Robin

Type:  Sci-fi movie-like
People: George Clooney, Michelle Obama, Marcia Brady
Featured:  a amusement part ride that can change time

A brilliant American engineer (played by George Clooney) is touring a new amusement park designed by a Japanese genius.  He is the Disney of this century.  George and his wife (played by Michelle Obama) get on one ride which is a tour of the future.  It has the ability to change time, make it faster or longer, relative to the rest of the world.  When you get off the ride, you have gained or lost whatever time it was set for.

Dreamlife March 15 - Robin

Dream One

Type: work semi-stress
People: Alex
Featured:  a chapter with an aquarium running through the paper

I was editing Alex's latest chapter but I found it hard because there was a whole lot of smoke in the room and there was an aquarium on the paper.  It was hard to read the word—not to mention edit—with fish in the way.  This was taking place at a College 8 dorm room for some reason.

Dreamlife March 14—Leslie

Dream 1:

Type: high stress
People: no one I know in waking life
Featured: an SF law firm and a death

I’m at a San Francisco law firm, working on a case file. But I’m scared, because I’ve killed someone—or at least I’m suspected of having done so. But in the dream—although I wasn’t sure one way or another—it felt to me like I had in fact committed a murder.

Dreamlife March 14 - Robin

Type: clothing anxiety
People: mom
Featured: a new clothing ensemble

A friend was on trial and I had to testify.  I thought I should wear a dress.  I put on this frumpy mid-calf prin dress and over it put a full-length knit beige coat.  I looked really stupid.  My mom said I looked so nice in a dress!  I rolled my eyes.

More Aurora!

(by Leslie)

As detailed in Robin’s last post, we were treated to another fine display of the northern lights last night. In anticipation of the possibility, Robin swept off the deck yesterday afternoon, so we could go out there to view the aurora without tracking snow into the house. Notice how little she was wearing, even though the thermometer read 15 degrees. One does get acclimated to the cold.

the display last night was better in the front yard,

so the sweeping ended up not being necessary

This and That

Robin post

I've just become lazy as all get-out.  Well, obsessed and lazy.  I spent most of yesterday's waking time madly refreshing the Iditarod facebook site to track the race.  By nightfall, I alternated that with refreshing all the various aurora prediction sites.  (Yes, there are quite a few.)  And checking weather sites, to make sure that if there was an aurora out there, it could be seen.  And, just to see what is happening in the world, throwing in the New York Times site and Andrew Sullivan's blog from time to time. And, of course, email and facebook.

Dreamlife March 12—Leslie

Type: travel and argument with Robin
People: Robin and Sandy L.
Featured: an airport and some Steiff stuffed animals

We get off an airplane and chat with the pilot and crew in the cockpit. They’re very jolly and friendly. It’s a Russian airline and they have Russian accents. Sandy and I walk down the airport terminal hall. She wants to go and gamble (I guess we’re in Las Vegas). There’s some promotion going on that she knows about, where if you gamble six dollars you get some kind of good deal.

Dreamlife March 11 - Robin

Type: working through unresolved feelings
People:  Pam and Peter, Anne, Leslie
featured: apologies

I went looking for Pam and Peter (yes, I needed their contact information for the high school reunion).  As I was driving with a lot of Mexican food in the car, I saw their names on a sign by a driveway.  I turned down the driveway and they were there.  I said I was confirming their address for an invitation to the reunion but that I also wanted to apologize for what I said the last time I saw them.  Pam accepted the apology and I gave her some of the food.

Dreamlife March 11—Leslie

Dream 1:

Type: being on stage and completely incompetent
People: me and a ragtag group of musicians
Featured: a really bad band

I’m on stage playing bass guitar in a band. But I’m about as good (i.e. bad) as I would be in my waking life. So even though it’s just a simple blues progression I’m supposed to be doing, I totally suck. Although it’s just a group of beginners, I’m really embarrassed, and am trying to figure a way to get out of the situation.

Dreamlife March 10—Leslie

Type: minor anxiety
People: some kid from my elementary school
Featured: a new passport

I’ve just received my new passport in the mail. A new thing is that you need to submit not just a current photo, but also one from your childhood. I see that the photos on my passport are of someone else (though it is in my name)—she’s a girl I don’t know, but I know she’s from my elementary school, as the photo is from our yearbook back then. I had sent the yearbook page to them to use my photo, and they’d obviously used the wrong one. And to make matters worse, the girl is rather ugly.

Annotations:

I did recently get my passport renewed. Our elementary school did not have a yearbook. I have no idea who the girl is; she did not look the least bit familiar (but the photo totally looked like one from a yearbook back in the mid-1960s).

Dreamlife March 10 - Robin

I was awoken by a phone call and it just knocked that dream out of my head...I know the last thing was that I was singing "You are 16, going on 17."  Before that I was trying to find classmates for the Fairfield High Reunion and was pleased to find Dara Kempka and Sonja Duerst, names that I have not thought about for 40 years...

Big fail, but I wanted to note it for the record...

Snow Happens

(by Leslie)

Being California and Hawai‘i gals, Robin and I have not been around much snow. Sure, I spent six years in Columbus, Ohio as a kid, but since we moved to California when I was eight, those cold mid-western winters are only a distant childhood memory for me. So I wasn’t sure exactly how I’d react to winter in the coldest city in America.

When we arrived in Fairbanks a little over two weeks ago it had recently snowed, and everything looked like a fairyland to my newcomer eyes.

fence near our house here in Fairbanks

(notice how the snow droops and forms a ribbon, defying gravity)

Dreamlife March 9 - Robin

Type: frustration
People: Karen McDuff and Dad
Featured: helping my sister-in-law and a whole lot of spilling of stuff.

Dreamlife March 8 - Robin

Type: fish-out-of-water
People:  Leslie and, only in annotation, my brother Russ
Featured: Robin as a pastor in a dress

Ziggy Obstacle Course

On those cold Fairbanks days, I have been working on obstacle courses with Ziggy here in our house.  We start downstairs:

And move upstairs:

Any ideas of what we should add?

Dreamlife March 7 - Robin

Prelude:   The point of the dream journal for purposes of learning to lucid dream is to both keep you focused on your dreamlife and enhance your dream memory. It has worked really well for me, to the point that I have more dreams than I really want to write here.  So, from now on, I will just do my favorite snippet from the night.

Type: Sci Fi (ish)
Featuring:  A spray that melds two people together

Junior Dog Mushers Competition

(by Leslie)

Last weekend Robin and I made it out to our first mushing competition since we’ve been here, one put on by the Fairbanks Junior Dog Musher’s Association.

a competitor praises his Alaskan Husky, post-race

It was held north of town, at the Jeff Studdert Racegrounds, where most of the mushing and skijoring events take place in Fairbanks.

Dreamlife March 6—Leslie

Type: looking at a house to buy
People: an older woman
Featured: an old, run-down B&B

I’m in San Francisco with a woman I know (a friend’s mother?) who wants to look at a property she’s interested in buying. It’s an old B&B that she’s thinking of resurrecting. They’re asking $750,00, which is really cheap for this big a lot in SF.

Dreamlife March 6 - Robin

Type: Episodic
People: My family and Ziggy (she is a person, right?)
Featured: "spring in a bag," a family play, and rats

We were preparing for the Alaskan break-up of winter where slush and mud are abundant, and a salesman offered us "spring in a bag."   It is a service, sort of like a diaper service.  They bring you all you need to mud-proof and drop a new one off every day.  We got the dog service: mud booties, mud coat and towel to clean.

Dreamlife March 5 - Robin

Type: interweaving of the everyday with more fanciful elements
People: Sandy L, Cynthia Nixon
Featured: getting a housekeeper, a rich Japanese resort, and the drive-in that gives me comfort

Sandy recommended a housekeeper to us by the name of Tia.  I went to talk to her about what we wanted her to clean, and she was already taking apart an area with a bunch of junk, tying to make it neater.  I told her that I didn't want her to do any projects unless I actually gave them to her.  She was showing way too much initiative for my taste.  But I decided to use her because she needed the job.

Ron Paul Visits Fairbanks

(text by Robin, editing and photos by Leslie)

Leslie and I went to see Ron Paul today. Thinking it might be a pretty popular event given the libertarian bent of the Alaskan “interior” (as they call this part of the state), we showed up about a half an hour early. We only just managed to get places near the front of the standing-room area.

we were lucky to be standing right at the aisle

Dreamlife March 4—Robin

Type: episodic
People:  cameo by Mary Tyler Moore circa the MTM show era
Featured: Ziggy as underwater creature and R-rated material

Ok, I knew the day would come when I would have to censor this thing.  I mean, my mom and dad have the link.  All the good dreams of last night were R-rated and this is a PG blog.  But I will give a brief overview, nonetheless.

Dreamlife March 4—Leslie

Type: Trying to get somewhere
People: Cathy and Jamie
Featured: a bar, a train, and an elevator

Cathy and Jamie and I are in a bar/restaurant. Someone shows us a newspaper with a photo of the bar we’re in. It’s a picture taken from above the bar, of a guy who had died, or maybe he killed someone? But what we notice is that Cathy and Jamie are also in the picture, sitting at the bar to his right. (I’m not with them in the photo.)

World Ice Art Championships, Part 2

(by Leslie)

The first competition at the Fairbanks ice sculpting competition is the single-block event. Teams of two people get one 3’ x 5’ x 8’ ice block, and have 60 hours to complete their piece. Robin and I stopped by to see their progress on the last afternoon before the deadline (last Thursday).

Competitors cut their blocks into pieces, and then carve and “glue” (by melting) them back together to make awe-inspiring creations.

you can see the seams in the wings in this one

(the supporting board will be taken away right before the judging)

Dreamlife March 3 - Robin

Type:  Episodic
People: Jan R., Sue C, Ziesel, Joan Sutherland, Whitney Houston
Featured: a whole lot of ex-partners given that I have been with Leslie for 27 years

I was packing frantically, trying to get ready for a trip to Seattle to see a concert.  I didn't need to bring everything because I was borrowing clothes from the people in Seattle.  It was 5 pm in Santa Cruz.  The concert was at 7 pm in Seattle.  I feared I couldn't make it in time. (Duh!  You would think I would realize I was dreaming with this math...)

Dreamlife March 2 - Robin

Type: Alaskan fiction
People:  Steve from Hawaii
Featured: a 2000 "race" by newcomers through Alaska

I was reading a brochure about a 2000 mile "race" for people new to Alaska to learn about the state.  The rules are that any form of ground transportation is fine and, really, everybody is a winner so no need to do it quickly. It is the Alaskan race for no-talent newbies from the lower 48.  In the glossy brochure for the race was a picture of a friend from Hawaii, Steve, who had done the race and recommends it to all newcomers.  I thought, "yeah, but Steve is really fit and iron-mannish...he is not a no-talent."  It looked uninviting to me.

Aurora!

(by Leslie)

Last night as I was brushing me teeth getting ready for bed, Robin came down to tell me, “The aurora webcam is showing activity—we should go out, now!”

“Okay.” I set down my toothbrush. We’d already been here a week but, because of the persistent cloud-cover, had yet to see the northern lights. Robin—who as many of you know can be somewhat obsessive about things once she gets them in her head—had been checking the aurora webcam and notification websites every night (and sometimes every two hours at night), and was champing at the bit to get out there to check this one out.

We hurriedly put on all our winter clothes—base layer, fleece sweater, overcoat, three pairs of sock, snow boots, fleece hat, mittens—and headed out in the car to the spot not too far from our house that we’d scoped out earlier for good viewing. And there it was: the aurora borealis!

these photos were all shot on a tripod at 10 seconds,

using my Canon Powershot A1200 set on its “night” setting

The display was exciting, especially since this was our first sighting of the lights. But from past experience we knew they could get better—way better.

Snow Dog

(by Leslie)

Ziggy, our one-year-old Jack Russell Terrier, was born in Hawai‘i, and up till last week had lived all of her life in Hilo and Santa Cruz.

right after we adopted here, in Hilo

Needless to say, we were a mite concerned about how she would take to the frigid clime of an Alaskan winter. So, in anticipation of our trip, Robin made her a set of fleece booties. (This is the first thing Robin has ever sewed, I do believe.)

Dreamlife Feb 29 - Robin

Dream One

Type:  Computer stress
People: Just me
Featured: A mac turning into a PC (Quelle horreur!)

My computer was acting all glitching, so I turned if off and back on.  When I turned it on, it had wiped off everything I had ever loaded or written and—worst of all—it was now a PC!!!  I was backed up and it was still on warranty so I thought it might turn out ok.  But even looking at the PC made me very unhappy.

Dreamlife Feb. 28—Leslie

Dream One:

Type: work
People: just myself
Featured: cycling clothes

Interesting that Robin and I both had work dreams last night. In mine, I was back at the Grunsky law firm in my old office. (Dream sign!) A bunch of my cycling clothes were there in my office. In particular, I noticed a new helmet (much more snazzy than the one I really have) was sitting on a shelf, and I thought, “Oh, I’d forgotten I’d bought this new one.” It pleased me to see it there. In addition, I noticed that I had several different work blouses lying around the office, and picked them up to see which ones they were. (They were shirts that I do in fact own.) I guess the shirts were there as a change of clothes for after my ride.

Dreamlife Feb 28 - Robin

Type: work dream (stress?)
People: Jean-Marie, Sue M., Ian
Featured: staff meeting

Before I get on to dream content, I am bummed because I forgot one dream about skiing and scarfs. I had gone through the details of this dream many times so I could record it and was about to get up to do that when I remembered the work dream.  In piecing together that dream, it totally knocked out the ski/scarf dreams.  Also, in the dream below, something dark or tragic happened but I can't remember that either.  What remains is deadly dull. Really a bust of a night. 

Dreamlife Feb. 27—Leslie (finally!)

You may be thinking around now, “I thought this was supposed to be a blog about both Robin and Leslie. Is Robin the only one who is going to post her dreams?” Well, here’s the problem. I’m not a good sleeper. Never have been. Whereas Robin has been known (at least by me) to nod off mid-word at night while we’re talking in bed, it can take me an hour or two to fall asleep.

So when I do finally get to sleep, I am loathe to do anything that will restart my insomnia, especially in the wee hours of the morning when my sleep is generally the deepest. The thing is, one’s longest REM sleep period—and hence the best time for dreaming—coincides with these early hours.

Dreamlife Feb 27 - Robin

Type: Potpourri
People: Lisa and Donna DeAmicis, Steve Anderson, Peter McNeil, Leslie
Featured: people from my grade school years
Warning to potential readers: Even I found these dreams dull.

Leslie had been having trouble getting to sleep after a phone woke her earlier in the night. She was finally sleeping when Lisa DeAmicis shows up at bedside with her older sister Donna at 2 am in the morning. Donna was very loud and woke Leslie (to my irritation).

Dreamlife Feb 26 - Robin

Type: Quotidian with a futuristic twist
People: Daria/Julie Rowe meld, Wayne, Danny Basaldua
Featured:  BBQ professional licensing

I was trying to make a date with my friend Wayne but he was leaving town.  He was flying to Australia (which he said took 8 hours—in your dreams, buddy!), then LA, and finally he was moving to New York as he decided to become a licensed BBQer. 

On writing a dream narrative

Here it is, on just my second day of recording my dreams, and the difficulty of recording the dreams and making any sense to readers other than Leslie is near-impossible.  I mean, yes, I can write the dream in such a way that anyone can understand the narrative, but the intricacies of the dream connections and content will be lost without a ton of annotation. The really funny things will not be obvious.  It has always been evident to me that the brain has this wonderful and entertaining capacity to synthesize life experience and spin tails out of it that do make a whole lot of sense to me, the dreamer, but to you, the reader, will mean diddly.  So, I have come to some conclusions.

World Ice Championships, Part 1—Leslie

One reason Robin and I decided to come to Fairbanks now is that each March the city is host to the World Ice Art Championships. This event, one of the premier ice carving competitions in the world, is a month-long extravaganza featuring more than 70 teams. Competitors come to Fairbanks from around the world to create magnificent sculptures out of massive blocks of ice.

The competition doesn’t open until this coming Tuesday, but Elizabeth (one of the couple with whom we are doing our house trade) took Robin and me out to the grounds on Thursday to check out the scene. What we found were hundreds of blocks of glacial-blue ice, set out in rows and ready to be distributed to the teams of artists. (Note that the photo at the top of this blog is a shot I took of these blocks.)

yours truly, showing the size of the ice blocks
[photo: Elizabeth Shapland]

Dreamlife Feb 25 - Robin

Type: Potpourri
People: Ziesel, Craig
Featured: murals defaced, a musical number, "The Clashing of Swords"
Note:  I edited this to include annotations below the dream if you care to know more.  This is a practice I will continue.  See here for an explanation.


In dreamlife, the longest and most vivid dreams are at the end of the sleep cycle. They tend to be about 45-60 minutes in length. Below are the episodes I recorded when I awoke at 4:45. I know there were more, but for my first night, I thought I did well.

Somebody—she was an overweight lesbian with a bad haircut—was giving me a haircut in a gym. As she was doing this, the gym wall was being painted by a team. There was a mural on it. Some was quite ugly and some was ok. They were painting out the ugly (Good choice, brain!).

Dreamlife Feb 24 - Robin

Type: stress

People: Leslie and me

Featured: Facebook

I dreamed that Leslie and I did a “trial” separation. She moved out. My dream self knew damn well that was a step to divorce, which I did not want.  I posted on Facebook a plea to Leslie to come back home. Leslie came into the room and said in her you-are-so-stupid voice:  “Robin, that was a dream you had.  I never left. Why did you post that?  People are flooding me with emails about it.” I said:  “I’m sorry!  You know how dreams seem like reality.  I just got confused”.

What? Another blog? And why the hell are you in Fairbanks?

Robin posting

This is a joint blog of Robin McDuff and Leslie Karst. As most of our friends know, we are in Fairbanks, Alaska until mid-June. Since the same friends are well aware of the fact that we both dislike cold, this has led everyone to think we are either crazy or uninformed. It is most assuredly the former, as we know that Fairbanks is frigging freezing. It is the coldest city in the United Sates of America, by far. (There are colder small towns in Alaska, of course, but it wins for any place with a significant population.) So, how cold? Here's a handy-dandy chart:

Month	Record low	Record high	Average daily low	Average daily high
February	-58	47	-14	7
March	-49	53	-1	24
April	-24	74	20	41
May	-1	89	38	59
June	31	96	49	70

Check out that warming trend! OK, there is a chance for a freeze every day we are here, but by June it is really rare (what with the midnight sun and all, it better be). We are looking forward, in our four months here, to at least three really nice, warm weeks!

Now, it is true that I don't even like winters in Santa Cruz, which has a fairly temperate climate. I prefer the consistent warmth of Hilo, where the lowest temperature ever recorded was 53 degrees. (And the highest was 94.) Hilo has an average year-round temperature in the 70s. I want to live in Hilo and visit Santa Cruz. (Leslie wants 50/50.)

So, yes we are crazy. But we know what we are getting into. We have been to Fairbanks before—for a few days in early March many years ago—and vowed to come back for a longer stay. In terms of nature, we will get an opportunity to see more of the aurora borealis. Believe me, it is worth -50F. We get to revisit the ice sculpture competition, which is just awesome. We get to hang out with the people, who we found to be among the most friendly folks in America. (I have visited 48 states so I say this with lots of experience.)

What will be new to us is really experiencing winter and the bizarrely fast change of seasons, and the culture that comes with that. And, of course, the midnight sun. Right now, we get about 9 hours of sun a day, so only a little less than Santa Cruz. By the time we leave, we will get 21 hours and 48 minutes of sun. Impressive.

Beyond that, Leslie and I have been talking for years about doing a dream journal and paying more attention to our dreamlife. And learning to lucid dream (controlling our actions in our dreams.) Since our sleep will be disrupted here because of the aurora search—we will be waking to check the aurora activity level frequently—we thought this was a great place to initiate our dream project. We will blog on this a lot. Yes, we will be putting our dreams into the blog. Most of this will be very tedious to you, our readers, as other people's dreams are boring! But we will have a format where you will see if YOU are featured! Then it might be more interesting. We haven't started our dream journals—that will be tonight—but I will follow this blog with another quickie of what I remember from my dream last night to show the general format (which might change as we go, of course.)

The things we will blog about are going to be squeezed into one of four categories:

• Dreams: If you are interested in our attempt to lucid dream and what goes on in our dreamlife.
• Nature: If you just want to see pretty photos of Alaska including the aurora.
• Dogs: If you want to follow the adventures of mushers, skijorers, and Ziggy and her friends.
• Culture: If you want to know what culture emerges out of this unique northern setting.

The labels on the left side of the blog will take you to the particular subject if you want to, for instance, just see pretty pictures and have no interest in what is going on in our dreamlife brains.

Well, that's it for an intro. On to our crazy adventure.