Record September snow!

After our last snow dump, DL and I shoveled out, and we got another one, equally warm, prolific, sloppy, slushy, sticky, and wet. I'd have built a snowman, but the shoveling was quite sufficient playing in the snow for me!

15,000 people are without power, and surprisingly, I am not one of them!

Classes were cancelled today, and Booger got her stitches out!

Slop!

Last night and through today, we are getting more wet, sticky snow:


I'm not a fan of running in snow boots, so I've decided upon this as a solution:


Starbuck sez, "My pawpaws are good for all weather! No baggies for me, thanks!"

Slop!

Well, so much for early skiing! The beautiful snow dump we got on Friday was followed by warm temperatures and raaaaaaaain, so we are back to muuuud, sloppy wet puddles, and gritty doggy feet. There is ankle-deep standing water in some spots in the roads, where remaining slushy snow has formed miniature dams. My running shoes aren't water proof, so I put my feet into baggies for my run.

Good times.

The girls say, "No difference to us! We don't mind having wet paws."

Here are some couchal photos:

Booger: "My stitches come out in two days now! Then I'll get to do the Booger Boogie again!"


Autumn's sweet gaze:


Starbuck, the Roo:


"Hi, pawpaw. Here are my pawpaws."


Nia came over yesterday to play in the slush:


SCHNNNOOOOOZZZ!!

Snow!!

Yesterday afternoon, the weather people issued a "winter storm warning" for today. Travel advisories were issued. They warned that school might be cancelled. I glanced up out my window and saw this:


But it did come to pass. This morning, we woke up to this:






I'm quite confused, since two days ago was the "first day of autumn". :)

The girls, as usual for the first sticking snow of the year, ran around like mad creatures and then crashed:


Look! Matching leaders!

Happy Equinox!

Autumn sez, "Happy Autumnzzzzzzz..."

Notes from Here and There

1) The reintroduced bison are bison-ing. This article contains a photo of them with one of the brand new behbehs!

2) The PFD checks will be $2072 this year, despite the plummet in oil prices. The PFD amounts are based on a 5-year rolling average of a diversified stock portfolio that is not entirely based on oil prices.

3) "Fairbanks Formal" apparently means you can go NEKKID!


I love this town!

4) Linden, the cute Booger:


5) Here are photos from our Lindenless walk last weekend. Miss Booger was couchbound and wearing a cone. It's exceedingly difficult to get Booger to rest her leg. I take her out on a leash to poop, and she stots and pronks and prances from her leash!



Autumn in the full glory of her namesake camouflage:






My pretty girl:


Without Booger, we could stop and ponder this pond of rotted muck. I wonder what is down there? We suspect a rotting mastodon from the Ice Age, or a portal to another dimension.


Linden wants to play in this muck, so when she is present we run past it while shouting at her so she is so entertained by running that she temporarily forgets about the pond:


'Twas a bit nippy this morning:

Booger sez

My vet said he got almost all of my tumors this time, and he's much happier with this surgery and he thinks they might not come back any more!


Look! I'm cute! And I can fold in half like a pocket knife!


And please pet me!


And I'm cute!

Happy Booger Tumor Update!

Today, Booger's recurring tumor was removed again, for the third time. Reminder: This one was diagnosed as cancerous, but unlikely to metastasize, but impossible to fully remove. We had decided to have it removed over and over, as long as Booger was up for surgery, which she seemed to be (the ever-cheery Booger!).

Weeeeelll, Booger had her most recent surgery today, and the vet just called and said he was able to get much more out of it this time. He had to go in from a new incision direction, since there was accumulated scar tissue from earlier surgeries. And this time he found two white nodules, that he thinks might have been the primary tumors after all. He followed more fibers to their ends and got them all. I asked, tentatively, if this saga might be over? And he said he didn't want to make any promises, but that he sure felt more confident this time. :)

Incidentally, a friend of mine at the power plant told me this morning that he had a husky live to be 19!! :)

Booger sez, "Thank you all for your love and support."

Couchal portraits

Autumn looking impish:


Linden looking adorable:


Starbuck and her many paws:

Alaska black bear freed after getting head stuck in jar

Alaska black bear freed after getting head stuck in jar


photo credit: Mari West

My favorite quote:

"Sell described the container trapped on the bears head as 'one of those oversized animal cookie containers,' the Juneau Empire reported."

Also, also, from the Juneau Empire article:
"'The more attractants they can get into, the more problems it can create,' she said. 'It’s like entanglements for marine mammals. (Or) moose walking through swing sets up north. They’ll get stuck.'"

heh :)

But did he get all the hunny?

Fall is falling! And getting wet!

On Friday, I noticed that the brilliant yellow leaves had been falling off the birch and aspen trees, and that fall was doing its namesake thing:


DL had been putting a TON of work into Chez Fuzzies, cutting brush, chopping out more stumps, and leveling the dirt. Yellow leaves decorated the newly flat front yard:


From the roof of the power plant, I could see that the hillsides were starting to lose their brilliance, although the autumn light still had that magical, spun-gold quality:


As I stopped for a train crossing, I thought it might make a nice photo. Unfortunately, the light was ahead of me:


I had a craving for apple pie, so I made an apple-lingonberry pie:


On Sunday morning, we woke up to giant clumps of warm, wet, sticky snow falling down:


It melted within a few hours, and the water blended in with the mud.

First day of school!

My Facebook feed is full of parents showing off their kids' first day of school outfits. Here's mine:



I am teaching freshmen this year, so I'm setting different boundaries. I will be stricter and have them call me "Dr. Henson". I'm also trying to dress more "professionally" for as long as I can. I'm not sure if I can keep this part up all semester though. Two days a week of dressing semi-nicely is a nontrivial burden to me.

Although I sure love my pretty boots!

Also, I lovelovelove that my seniors feel comfortable around me and call me "Arvay". But, different boundaries for different ages!

Edited to add: WOW! A double rainbow just appeared outside my office window!




And in the time it took me to walk up and down the hallway and make sure my coworkers in the same hallway appreciated it, and then return here, the sky has cleared up:

Lovely Fall

I spent about six seconds doing a cursory search for some Fall-related poetry for y'all, but I realized almost immediately it'd be irrelevant. Most Autumn poetry contains imagery of pumpkins and apples and grapes, and haybarns full of hay, and we don't have those things. There are also images of death, but I don't think of winter as death... it's just a time to do other things! Well, I suppose one food-related fall sign we have is that the rhubarb finally stops growing! I made a classic strawberry-rhubarb pie:


I had extra crust at the end, so made some lemon marmalade pastries (thanks, Rena, for the idea!):


It had finally been not-raining for several days in a row, so DL and I decided to get back to splitting and stacking our neglected pile of green wood. Last winter was so mild that we are way ahead on firewood; the pile we are working on now will be for 2016-2017 winter!

My old wedge is all mushroomed. DL said he needs to grind off the edges for me; otherwise they might break off:


Yes, materials science students, cold working a ductile metal makes it more brittle:


Obligatory pretty fall photos:












HOW CUTE IS BOOGER?!?


The Dignified Leaaders (TM) on the cowch:


Maybe not so dignified. SCHNOZZLE!!