Moving to Alaska is like taking up a whole new hobby, a very expensive hobby. First, there's clothing. Cold is not just "cold" up here, it's downright hellacious. The temperature hasn't risen above 25F for about a month now and locals consider it "warm". The lake by our apartment? Yep, it's frozen. I went to bed one night to a normal looking lake and the next morning it had frozen over and will remain that way until the Spring. People are already walking across it! Don't have a warm jacket? You better get one and if you want to look like a native, it better have a hood lined with fur. I don't know if the fur is real or fake but I've been told it helps protect your face from the wind. Better get some insulated Carharts too and those stupid looking bunny boots (I have yet to give in to the bunny boots because they're just, well...ridiculous). Instead of the bunny boots, I've invested in some studded running shoes so that my runs in 15 degree weather are a little more enjoyable. Picked up some wool gloves and a hat too. I'm expecting some winter boots in the mail any day now. Still need to get a balaclava so that I don't lose my nose to frostbite.
Aside from clothing, there's equipment. No longer will I be commuting to and from work by bike (eventhough I have seen several people rocking the studded tires up here). Nope, I will be skiing to and from work and/or walking or running. So naturally I need to invest in some cross country skis (already got some Yak Traks for my walking shoes). Back in the day, I skied a lot with my folks around Mt. Hood and it never occured to me to invest in another pair of skis until now. It was easy enough back then, why would it be any different now? REI is having their winter sale and all ski/snowboard gear is on sale, so I picked up some cross country skis yesterday. My ass has never felt so sore. I had them on for no more than 30 seconds before I fell on my ass...hard. And then again, and again, and again... Has something changed in cross country sking technology over the past 20 years or do I just really suck at it? Granted, the trails were frozen and the downhills weren't helping my situation. I'm thinking about taking them back and getting some with some metal edges like my downhill skis.
Clothing? Check! Equipment? Check! The next natural step was to become an Alaska resident to reap the benefits of the PFD, a nice little check at the end of the year from the mining industry. Yes, I've crossed over to the dark side. On a scale of 1 to 10 how difficult do you think it is to get a driver's license and register a vehicle? Well, if you don't have the 20 essential documents required to get a license or registration, it will never happen. After gathering my old driver's license, passport, proof of residency (an issue in itself given that I don't pay for housing here yet), social security card, title and registration I was ready to take the driver's test and Margaret registered. Due to safety concerns, I never want to ride a motorcycle up here, so for the motorcycle questions on the test, I selected answers at random so that I could get back to work. After taking both tests I approached the counter. "Well, I see that you passed the driver's test but failed the motorcycle test. You know that if you don't pass the test that you will have to take the driving portion again should you decide to add the motorcycle endorsement to your license." It would have been nice if she had told me that before I took the test. You can only take the test once a day, and given that it was a Friday, I had to wait until the following Monday to go back in and take it again. I passed and Viola! got my license.
License? Check! Next I needed to get Margaret through emissions and get her registered. No problem! She went through emissions right before I left Oregon and has a brand new exhaust and catalytic converter. So I pulled Margaret into the testing facility (and after a "brief" 45min wait, waited for the good news.
"I can't get your car to start. Is there a trick or something?"
"What do you mean it won't start?" I walked out to Margaret and turned the key. It started right up. The idiot had the key in backwards. I waited some more.
"Ahhh...your van failed the emissions test. She has an exhaust leak and the EGR is missing."
There is a hole 1/8" in diameter that they were calling an exhaust leak. No problem, I can get that fixed. But the EGR was going to be an issue given that we cut it off when we rebuilt the engine. You can't buy them anymore and they really don't serve a purpose. I was going to ignore that part of the test for now. So a week later I brought Margaret into Midas to have the hole welded shut. Giving the guy my credit card to pay for the welding, he informs me, "Ahh, yeah...so, I think we fixed the hole but as we were welding the hole it kind of punched through and started creating more holes. We think we got all of them but to be on the safe side we're not going to charge you." Great. Taking a chance, I went to another (different) testing facility and went through the emission test again (after another "brief" 45min wait outside in the cold). This time I was nervous. The mechanic dude enters through the front door and waves me towards him with his finger.
"Your van failed the EGR test. And I can't figure out how to put it in reverse. Does it have a reverse?"
DAMNIT! "The EGRs don't exist anymore! It doesn't do anything!" I have lost all faith in emission testing facility mechanics. As I was about to leave, I went back in to ask them one last question. "So, you say it didn't pass the EGR test. What about the emissions? Is it meeting the State's emission standards?
"Well, lets take a look." He showed me the form. "Umm...it passed this one, and this one, and this one. Yep, it passed everything." I think he knew what my next question was going to be.
"Ok, so the whole point of going through emission testing is to make sure that vehicles aren't polluting beyond the standards of the state, correct?" So, what you're telling me is that my van passed emissions but you won't let it pass." I know it's cruel but I was trying to make him look like an idiot. It wasn't hard.
"Ahh, yeah, I guess that doesn't make a lot of sense. But your EGR valve..."
"Yeah, they don't make those anymore."
He didn't care but he gave me a number to an organization in Anchorage that might care, the "Referee" service. Apparently this is where vehicles go when you've exhausted all possibilities of getting them tested successfully. And it actually worked! The guys were super cool, knew a ton about the year of the van and passed her with flying colors. Spent another hour at the DMV, got her plates and then I was out of there! Now I just need to switch car insurance which is supposedly twice as much in Alaska as it is in Oregon.
In better news, I've had a chance to get out and explore Alaska's bountiful trails. I'm loving winter here so far! Sun rises around 9am and sets around 4pm. My roomie and I went for a hike today and ran right into a moose and several goats. The moose run around like stray cats here.
Margaret's a champ in the snow!
Ice skating on a marsh! Check out the fire by the group of people. Crazy.