Whole Lot of Catching Up To Do

Today I am truly making the effort to get some framework up so this thing can get up to date. The three weeks extreme sub-zero tempratures were quite distracting and put a bit of a cramp in my updates. I do have a slew of photos to toss up here. But bare with me, photobucket was giving me a hard time when I went to upload- so pictures won't come up today.

New Years Eve

I am so terribly behind! Keep a watch for backdated posts all day today, since I do have a plethora of photos to toss up here. Joe has been an enthusiastic helper for this project since purchasing a new camera right before Christmas. I finally managed to snag his SD card and upload some good shots. I appreciate it, since my camera isn't fond of being exposed to the cold once it gets around 25 below zero or colder. His new camera seems to handle the cold a lot better than mine which is a good thing considering the weather this week.

With all of that said, I'll bring on the pictures from Dec 30th in this post.

No, that isn't snow you see. Those white dots are particulates normally found in the air, but as it gets colder small bits moisture ends up freezing to them which makes them slightly larger than usual and much heavier. You can't really see them that well with the naked eye (yay for camera flashes), but they do seem to form a fog at times or just hang around and decrease the air quality.

Celestial photo as the sun finishes setting. I can all ready tell the days are getting longer. Even as recently as last week, the light would have been pretty much gone by 4:40ish PM after work.
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I will hope for the best regarding pictures today. I know Joe wanted to see if he can snap a few of the fireworks tonight, so my fingers are crossed. The temperature is around -45 to -50 and colder. It's hard on just about everything, even vehicles with trickle chargers and all of the heating pads aren't that happy about starting. The seats in the truck were rock hard when I got in, and it took a while for the tires to round out too.

I wish everyone a wonderful New Year full of fun and happiness. Have a great celebration tonight, but remember to take care of yourself and others- don't drink and drive. Stay warm folks!

Photos from Dec 29th

All of the photos displayed in this post are thanks to Joe. He braved the cold during his morning break (around 10 AM) to snap a nice set of pictures of the sunrise and the city of Fairbanks. All photos are taken from the roof of one of the buildings up on UAF's West Ridge.

Everything I tried to take came out overly blurry, since it was cold enough to make my camera not want to behave outside. It also drained the batteries. Somehow I doubt my little Fugi was cold weather tested.

I'm going to leave these photos as rather large ones. The colors are stunning, and I can't bring myself to take anything away from them. Joe's new camera takes awesome pictures.

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Starting off here is the sun over the valley. You can see the inversion layer hanging over the tree tops and a few mountains in the background on the horizon. This one is a nice reminder that the sun is, indeed, still present for a bit during the day. After a while one tends to forget that fact...

Mountain range framed by a couple of the vents from the building.

The city in fog. It really isn't that polluted up here but everything looks even worse since even a "cool" temperature will start steaming at thirty below.

Trees in the valley.

This picture is a great example of the inversion layer. The wind isn't blowing- it's so cold anything in the air flattens out and hangs at a certain level. That's how the ice fog forms.

Great shot of the mountains!

More mountains. You can really see for miles in this cold!Without so much zoom. That sunrise would make an awesome cross stitch pattern!

A panoramic view of a Fairbanks sunrise.

I all most forgot to add one final photo. Here’s the UAF temperature as of 4:40ish on Monday evening.

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One of the things I enjoy the most about living up here are all of the colors I can see during the winter. Even in during the dark and days made almost entirely of twilight, there are so many different shades of blue, purple, pink, yellow, and orange that it is hard to explain. So many people ask me how I can handle living in the dark for so long- I have to tell them it makes me appreciate the different colors found everywhere even more.

Sunday's Picture

Unfortunately on Sunday I was hit with that nasty stomach flu. I hardly managed to do anything beyond the basic necessities all day.

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I did manage to get a semi decent picture through my back window. The sunset was much more vibrant in person, but at that point I hardly wanted to be out of bed or even drinking much needed water none the less trying to get the perfect picture.
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For the record, I do feel much better now. Joe was wrapped up in family stuff, so he didn't get any pictures either.

Sunrise, Sunset- it's all the same!

This set of pictures ended up being more of a comparison of two cameras than anything else. I didn't realize how similar the shots were until I started to create this post! These are from Saturday the 27th. The temperature had just started to drop, so the fog isn't too bad yet.

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The sunset seemed to come out really well in this one. At least, I think the sun was closer to setting. I am not sure if I remember correctly at the moment...

Just a gray horizon past the fence and trees.

Here's my take on the same afternoon sky, as well as some snow on the ground. I like the way this one looks, so I kept it as a larger photo.

It's a shame I couldn't get my zoom be a bit more clear, as I could just barely see the mountains on the pink horizon. The town had begun to hide blow some fog.

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The first two pictures were taken by Joe, the second two are mine. All of these photos were taken on the UAF campus at one of the bus stops that doubles as a scenic overlook.

The First Day After Christmas

Surprisingly there weren't really any super sales at the usual stores to speak of, but at least it was a decent day outside. It wasn't too cold until nightfall. The 26th was a good day all together.

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I'll start with an evening picture. One of the neighbors decorated a tree with some lovely blueish lights. I thought it looked pretty neat! Joe took this one. My camera decided night pictures at -20 or colder just wouldn't happen. I'll spare people the random blurs of light.

This one is entitled, "Alaskans Need Lovin' Too" obviously this is an example of how Fairbanks really isn't all that different from most cities out there. The sign for The Showboat as viewed from Kurt & Kim's drive up coffee hut.

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This weekend I'll have to snap a picture of Kurt & Kim's. They have great coffee.

Christmas Was Nice

Just a couple up from the holiday. It was a nice one full of good food and fun.

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It's not quite the moon on the breast of the new fallen snow, but it still looked nice on Christmas night.

I'm strange. I know. I must be the only person in the world who gets excited to receive socks as a gift!

Packing up some of the goodies.

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A bit of a more personal look at stuff up here. A white Christmas indeed, as you can tell. Also obviously Joe took the two photos of me, but the street scene was one I snapped.