So mostly life has been uneventful. Mom and Dad came for a visit and they were able to see what Bethel was like (maybe if you ask sweetly enough, they'll comment and fill us all in ;-) ). We had an eventful weekend while they they were here and found some unwelcome critters that took time to deal with. But we were able do a mini tour of the hospital- though there's not tons to see. And we were able to go to a dinner hosted by the college in support from my assistant's completion of a rural health services program. We checked out a lot of local stapes. Stores, museums, library and really just chilled at my apartment a bunch dealing with things. I ended up getting dad fairly addicted to True Blood, which in and of itself was amusing. Mom and I had read the books and mom had seen the first couple episodes but if you've ever seen the very first episode of True Blood it's actually almost painful to watch. the acting is pretty campy and we're already dealing with vampires in the wake of sparkly G-rated bloodsuckers. But once you get past the first episode or so, it gets much better.
After parents left, i headed to New Mexico for a conference and found that I'm NOT cut our for warm-weather climates anymore. It was about 80 degrees and dry heat with sun. I was overcome with the sweat and need to find shade. Now I will give dry-heat this... you can find shade and it's MUCH better. I'm used to humid head of Southeast and unless you have AC, you're gonna be pretty miserable.
Upon arriving back to Alaska, I found more of the snow melted. And the end of last week was the end of the Ice Classic (the giant pool to bet on what day breakup (river/ice breakup) happens and the huge triangle moves past a certain point. The peak of breakup was last Thurs/Fri. I wasn't able to park my car all the way next to my house like I normally do but out near the street and watched water level. It ended up only being about 4-6 inches deep at its worst. i had to bring out the boggs, but it wasn't bad at all. I have a few images from my porch but I'll post those as soon as I can.
It is definitely spring though. river is melted, fishing has begun. dust clouds are blowing across the street instead of snow drifts and softball season is ramping up again (just got an email this morning). Nice to be above 0 degrees though.
Feel free to bug me if I'm not updating. I get caught up in things sometimes and forget things. :(
