Weather whether we're ready or not

When we all left for the weekend, the weatherpeople were warning of another scary storm coming. "Scary" for Fairbanks doesn't mean cold, or snow. It means warmth, rain, and/or wind. All three of these things are very unusual and consequently very scary for us (because ice).

For once, the weather predictions were spot-on. It snowed lightly but steadily all day Saturday, for a total accumulation of under 3 inches, and then the snow stopped and the wind came that night. The wind blew all night, and we lost power. However, after the experience of having lost power for five days after the last windstorm, I had plenty of candles and a Coleman lantern on hand!

DL was due to fly to a work trip that night, and we were given the utterly frustrating experience of finding it impossible to reach a local person at the Fairbanks airport. All of the office numbers listed, led to literal offices, whose occupants had gone home at 5. All of the generic numbers to the airlines went to automated services, who informed us that the flight was "scheduled to depart" at the time it was scheduled for. I had planned to drive DL to the airport, but he told me to stay home instead; he'd drive in and leave his car at the airport. As it turned out, his flight *was* delayed, although only by a few hours, by which time the wind had died down. In the meantime, power was restored to our 'hood, and I was jolted from a light, fitful sleep by the Toyo and refrigerator whirring to life.

I'm impressed that the weatherpeople correctly predicted the timing and quantity of snow, and the exact timing and strength of the wind. The power company had linemen ready to deploy as soon as anyone lost power, and our power was restored within a few hours. DL's rescheduled flight took off almost as soon as the wind event was over, and he arrived safely in SeaTac. It's almost as if modern conveniences actually work! :)

As for me, I still had a restless night. I've disliked wind since I was a small girl, imagining the roof of our townhouse blowing off and our little family being sucked into the sky. Not being able to snuggle against DL didn't help, but toward morning, the surprisingly intuitive Linden came into the bed and snuggled against me, and I fell asleep immediately. When I finally got up this morning, I found myself blinking into a calm, clear blue sky and snow winking back at bright beams of sunshine. The girls and I enjoyed a peaceful ski on fresh snow, which had blown across the trails and covered weeks' accumulations of tracks. When I went to shovel the driveway, I found that the bottom layer of snow had packed into place, covering the ice from last weekend. Ice, sleepless angst, and windstorms are all now nothing but memories covered by forgiveness.