WINTER IS HERE FOR REAL!!

Hello All,

Today is Dec. 21st. Can you believe it, already? Officially this is the SHORTEST DAY OF THE YEAR AND THE FIRST DAY OF WINTER....hahaha....it's been feeling like winter since October. We've already had -40 for a short stint...hopefully not many more of those.

Weather people are saying that we have about 3-4 hours of daylight...Seems like less to us since we are in the shadow of the mountain range and therefore the horizon sun that barely peeks through is almost non-existant to us.

Still we do not complain since Barrow (on the Arctic Ocean) the city where Pat just came back from from tuning pianos (yes, pianos on the Arctic Ocean!!) is always gray and barren....I have some pictures of Barrow so you can see what I am talking about. Pat says it is a very unique place to live...no personal cars just taxi cabs...the streets are all numbered and one hops into a cab (mostly run my Asians....)and tells them "take me to 230" and off you go....weird huh?

Pat works mainly for the school district up there and some privates so he gets around a bit. Mostly populated by Eskimos, Athabascan and some white folk. The natives whizz around on their snomachines making a terrible racket during the night so Pat was glad to come home and get some sleep. Incidents of drowning snomachiners on the barren tundra are not uncommon...they go out too far on thin ice and sink.... reports of polar bear sightings that come too close to villages are not uncommon...I think they are notorious for carrying people's dogs off during the night...

Pat had a good time but was pretty tired after tuning about 30 pianos and sampling the Barrow fast food...happy to get home.

Last week we hit a moose, not broadside thank God, but enough of a clip to totally destroy the left front headlight....pretty scary. It was about 10 pm and visibility was good due to a full moon. The silly thing just plain ran in front of the car for some reason...probably got spooked...fortunately no one was hurt, including the animal, who loped off into the night. We can now say we are officially part of the Hall of Fame of Moose hitters. Neither of us had hit a moose in our 20+ years up here...always a first time I guess....

OK, am sure there is more to tell but must go....talk to you all later.....

tia gri...