It Snowed Today

Yes, you read that right. It snowed today. It started out with a light rain, graduated to sleet, and finished off with big fluffy snowflakes. Beautiful, big snowflakes. Probably won't stick (Alaskan for "stay the whole winter"), but still it was definitely snow out there.

I'm not ready. Not ready for winter- for snow till next April, for the cold and the dark... It doesn't normally start snowing here until October, so this is a little early, but we had such an odd, wet, cool summer that I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Usually the snow starts sticking about mid-October, right before my Birthday- October 21st.

Fall up here is gorgeous. Fairbanks is down in a valley, so the hills come alive with all the colors of fall- reds, greens, yellows, oranges. It's incredible. But the whole time you know what's coming....

My friend April had this great analogy- You know the scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark where they open up the ark? Where they're standing around the open ark and these beautiful angels come flying out, and suddenly the angels become these death-mask ghost/skeleton things and rip everybody's face off? That's like Fall up here. It's beautiful, gorgeous, amazing. Then comes winter and it rips your face off. (Thank you, April)

Winter brings temperatures below -30 F, snow and ice till next April/May (it normally snows on Easter up here), dark for about 18 hours a day (I'm not exagerating), worrying about heat bills, worrying about your car freezing up and dying while you buy groceries or go out to eat, worrying about your kids getting frost-bite... Yup, winter comes and it rips your face off.

So, about the beautiful snow we had today- Lovely, but way too early!!! Wuh-lah. (Sirevaag for "this is really sad, I'm crying now")