Getting Better All the Time

Well, it's sunny and 70 here in beautiful Dillingham, Alaska. Went for a short walk to grab some lunch and actually broke out in a sweat walking back to work.

As I looked about the town I noticed something I had not seen or noticed before. Just about every window in every inhabited building was open. It was a strange sight to witness.

So I get back to work and ask about it. After all, just a few days ago the girls up here were still wearing shorts and flip-flops when it was 48 degrees and rain. Surely it would take less than this to get the windows to open up.

Nope, that is what is called in Dillingham "air conditioning". If you have to open a window because of the 'heat', that's A/C. So if you are ever in Dillingham and someone asks you to turn on the A/C they really mean for you to crank open a window. I never really stopped to think about it, but I bet the cars around here don't even have A/C. No real call for it, I expect.

The only thing that isn't getting better here is the price of living. The price of gas is, until next year's delivery,  $6.81 per gallon. That is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, only having one fuel delivery a year means if gas should rocket to $10 per gallon in the lower 48, we wouldn't see that price increase until next year. The downside is if gas fell to a nickel per gallon, we wouldn't see that price until next year. Still, it is nice to be able to budget for fuel knowing exactly what the price will be for the next year.

Eggs can run $7 a dozen. No, I didn't mistype that. It would also explain why a whole mess of people up here raise their own chickens. I heard tell of one person who just slaughtered 108 of them to stock up the freezer for the coming year. I mean, I like chicken as much as the next person but... dang. That's taking it to a whole 'nother level.

The big excitement will be happening on Saturday. We have been promised a trip to Bigfoot. Don't ask. I don't know what a Bigfoot is either. I surmise it's the Dillingham equivalent of Wal-Mart, or Fred Meyer. It's a ways out of town, and not having a car meant not being able to go ourselves. Still, someone has taken pity on us, but not because we don't have transportation. No, they pity us because we HAVEN'T been to Bigfoot yet. People seem to talk about it around here in tones usually reserved for church.

I will, of course, have camera in tow to document this neigh-upon-religious experience. I don't know that it will be as large as Fred Meyer in Anchorage. Shoot, you could fit the Muscatine, Iowa Wal-Mart SuperCenter in the Fred Meyer produce section. Still, since the natives are done hazing us with the breath-taking prices on eating around these parts, we are appreciative and happy to go anywhere prices are less than Downtown Dillingham.