08/11/2009

Well my Chevy Tahoe (Nina’s) now has a plug. No, I did not go GREEN and get an electric vehicle; I had my car (Nina’s) winterized so it will start in -50 degree weather. I had a battery-warming pad, engine block heater, and an oil pan heater installed. Additionally, the differential fluid and engine oil was change to synthetic and the antifreeze was dropped to -60 degrees. Every place you go around here have plug in spots for the employees to plug in while at work. The locals say you do not have to plug in until -20 but you can start earlier if you want. Next addition to the car is a good set of ice tires and then a remote start. We had frost around here yesterday morning and all of the mountain peaks have fresh snow on them. Winter is a coming.

The moose(s) came back tonight! This time another little baby one was there also. We are wondering what happened to its mother. Hopefully the other mother will start taking care of it also. We are looking forward to moving into our home ~ 3 more days!!! We snuck in there tonight (someone left the doors unlocked) and got to see the new carpeting and the layout of the home again. Nina is getting more excited about decorating!

August 08, 2009

This photo is a glacier that ends on dry land.
The ice must be 30 feet high.
I finished my first two weeks of prepping for school. The school is still closed most staff and faculty due to construction; the only people that can enter are administration, secretaries, and custodians, and when we enter, we must have a hard hat on. We had four days of new principal orientation; it took me an entire day to get my office even halfway set up. After I had most of the construction dust cleaned up and minimal furnishing I have arranged, the construction folks came in and moved it all into the middle of the office so they could paint two walls (they only repaint the walls they put windows on). I guess they are coming back to put on a second coat, after their fishing trip to Valdez, because they left all the drop cloths on the floor and the furnishings in the middle of the room. The transformation of the school during the last two weeks was going very well until we had a small electrical problem. Last Saturday we had 45 – 50 MPH sustained winds, which blew a main neutral power line into a hot power line and sent a charge through both transformers outside the school and into the main electrical panel in the school. It blew a six-inch chunk out of the panel and melted the main feeds into a mess. We were just lucky it did not burn the school down. This put a halt to all construction as the school went dark. A week later half of the school is still without power. The main power line in the school have to be totally replaced, three runs of four cables the entire length of the school. They are running them in the attic since the buried wires are fried. This has caused a major delay, but we will still open on time. Teachers cannot enter the school until August 21st and school starts August 27th. Do you think it will be close? I just think of my daughter who goes into her classroom two or three week before pre-planning to get her room ready versus my teachers who will have six days (3 professional development, 2 weekend days, 1 work day) to get their rooms ready. The new lights in the school look great and it is coming together.

Today was the Huskies first football game. It was supposed to be an away game but it is so smoky in the Fairbanks area that they came down here. The last 48 hours I spent trying to figure out where we can park a team, where we can house them, where the scoreboard controls are, and where the PA system is. This is all compounded by the school being under construction, the normal locker rooms are closed, the parking is blocked off, and the power to the press box is out. Well with a little help from my Superintendent, it was all pulled together and we played today. The Huskies did well the first half, but then the 16-man, majority freshman, team was winded and lost 42 to 0. We have three games next week to get ready for since half the Fairbank’s teams want to use our field since they cannot breathe. Two of the games will not even involve us except for parking.

Nina and I were supposed to move into our house that we are going to rent on August 1st, that has now been delayed until August 14th. Three days before we were supposed to move in the maintenance crew came in to check it out, discovered that there had been a water leak (no telling how long), and decided they had to change out the carpet. When Nina & I went by the house, the rolled up carpet was on the driveway with disgusting stains that we know wasn’t just from water damage but as we suspect the 4-legged damage. We went to the housing office and stated that if it was that bad downstairs the upstairs had to be just as bad. Because of this, they said the company that does the carpeting is from Fairbanks (2 hrs away) and that they were backed up two weeks, hence we are still in the Billeting hotel on post (at $80 @ night). The room at the hotel is not so bad; it’s the cost with us being here for 34 days. That is almost 2 months’ rent! We might have to wait to get a sofa and dining room table/chairs for a while. One good thing is that they (post) let you have a sofa/dining room set on loan for 30 days, so maybe after this we will be able to buy at least a sofa (we can eat on trays for a while). We just cannot wait to be settled into our home and be able to have a home-cooked meal. The “chow hall” is good food, but you can only have so much of it. As a post-note; Kristina (our oldest) called and said that Tiffany went to the dentist and they said she needs a crown. The coverage Kristina has on her and Tiffany does not cover any part of the cost of the crown and it will be approx. $3,100. If it’s not one thing, it’s another.