Dusk Through Narrow Streets

It’s funny, I said it was ridiculously early to get snow (even immediately disappearing snow) before Halloween, but now that we’re three days into November and thereby definitely into winter, it seems equally weird that we don’t have snow. Like I said: apparently six years hasn’t been long enough to give me a good idea of a typical Anchorage winter. Anyway, the last few days it’s been getting much colder, such that the ground has been frozen with temperatures below freezing for at least a few days straight and the frost doesn’t even disappear when the sun hits it in the morning. Forecast says it’s going to rise above freezing tomorrow, though, and that we may be getting snow, which adds up to my very favorite combination: slushy wet snow and/or freezing rain. Getting cold and wet is just not fun, and freezing rain makes for seriously dangerous streets. Right now, even though I’m guessing the windchill was around 15 degrees F most of the day (especially fun when I walked home from the auto shop, about a mile) and let me tell you, living through five nasty Barrow winters doesn’t keep low double-digits from feeling FREAKING COLD, at least it’s cold enough that everything is dry because what little water is around, even in mud, is frozen. The only thing worse than cold is wet and cold. ‘Course, once it snows, you still get wet; the snow just doesn’t turn to water until you get inside, and then you’re soaked.