232 Days

What does the number 232 days mean ?
Well I'll tell ya (channeling my inner Sarah Palin here)....it is the snow season record for Anchorage, Alaska. Established only a few days ago on May 18th. Almost 8 months long.
232 days from the first time it snowed (and accumulated) last fall, to the last horrible white fluffy flakes a few days back. And is it even the last snow fall of 'the season'? Who knows? Folks are talking-- this could be the year we sail right back into winter. Skip that pesky summer time altogether!

Which Freedoms is the Government Limiting??

Just saw a little blurb about how the majority of Americans feel their "individual freedoms are being limited by the Federal government"..
I am sure the Faux news folk are slapping each other with glee and jubilation, that their successful campaign of paranoia pushing is working quite well.  Even saw a few anti-gun control commentators mention that the "liberals have no idea" what the true agenda of the Obama administration is...
That's right,  the liberals are going to wire tap your houses, take away your guns and then....... what?? Canadian health care? Make you eat organic veggies and wear bohemian clothes? What's this so- called creepy global agenda? World Peace and understanding? the horror!
I have yet to see a logical explanation as to what will happen when these so-called rights (like the right to have no health care and be left "splat" on the highway like road-kill) are taken away.
The only time I ever feel people truly give up their rights in the USA is when they voluntarily live in some crazy subdivision that "approves" the color of their house !
I mean what "rights" is the public missing? The right to have unlicensed drunk drivers on the road? The right to smoke cigars in public schools? The right to eat contaminated food? The right to be ripped off? You can still have your hate filled bumper stickers, unlimited internet porn, be a Muslim  or a Baptist, have an arsenal full of guns, breed 21 children and then make it into a reality show....

Mosquitoes Wearing Parkas

I'll admit--- I really want to bitch and moan about the record breaking cold here in Alaska. But everyone else is already doing it. Overheard the line: "even the mosquitoes are wearing parkas" the other day-- which summarizes this ridiculous weather situation quite well. As somehow the stupid mosquitoes are not dying off, yet it keeps snowing outside!!??

So let me talk about something more related to summer. Namely pool pee. I just read two sort of gross articles on the high percentage of people who admit to "relieving themselves in public pools". Why ?? Don't they realize the pee or poop (!) will just recirculate right back and get into their nostrils? Is the American population becoming ayurvedic? Maybe they are really enlightened and experimenting with free fecal transplantation to improve their immune systems??
Of course the more realistic theory: people are just plain lazy and gross!! Stop it you weirdos!!
Or else all pools will have soon host signs (like I the one at a condo pool in Maui) "anyone unable to hold their urine must wear rubber pants while swimming". There you have it!

Weeping Through Winter

Winter is here. Alas it is May 8th, but I still stare at the icy walk over the frozen ground. Snow pants hang by the doorway --this is the eighth month they have been in use already... Some may say: "well that's what you get for living in Alaska"--but I swear once upon a time, even Alaska had warm and sunny days...
Where is the glorious promise of global warming? (just call it climate change from now on, ok?) I want to feel what 75 degrees feels like again. I want to wear shorts and sundresses. I want to sit in a hot car. The only time I have sweat in the past two years is from strange and unpredictable hot flashes. Is that my new warming? instead of through the sun I will be heated by a menopausal glow ?
I know I should be careful for what I wish for---long patches of sweltering heat can be exhausting...but just a few days please...