The "Sick Bomb" drops

Wow. The halls are empty. A tumbleweed slowly staggers its way down the hall.
Just last week, AVO had its coordination meeting, where we discuss what we've been doing, and where the organization is heading. This year, it was held in Fairbanks, with people coming up from affiliate organizations in Anchorage, California, Washington, and Virginia. Perfect venue for exchanging both ideas and germs. (Sorry!)

Now, several of us have been out for roughly a week (last count was like 14 down...) . Symptoms? Cough, aches, fevers, more coughs... Thank goodness I've had Harry Potter on CD, 'cause it's been a struggle to even work the computer.

Winter snows

You might think that living in Alaska means that you have to contend with copious amounts of snow.
You're wrong...
and right...

Surprisingly, Fairbanks only gets a total of about 12 inches of precipitation per year; much of which seems to come in the form of snow which sticks around for months and months. However, we only get a more or less constant dribble of snow: an inch here, a centimeter there, 3 inches elsewhere. The effect, though, is a long, white winter.

However, we got 10 inches of snow yesterday within 12 hours. Mind you, it's possible that with our dry, perfectly crystalline snow that 10 inches can be represented by only a couple hundred snowflakes... In any case, it's the largest snowfall we've had in years, and the newspapers are making a minor fuss. I'm just glad (and so are the mushers) that there's enough snow for proper skiing and stuff.

I've scraped off my driveway, piling it all in one lump that will either be an 8-foot tall Godzilla, or, if I'm feeling uninspired, an 8-foot tall volcano.

Meanwhile, work starts this weekend on Ice Alaska's Kids Park at the Ice championship grounds. If the weather stays warm (it's unseasonably above zero), carving should be uncharacteristically non perilous.

Let the winter games begin!