It's official! Alaskans love their coffee!

And why not? It's hard to wake up in December and still have 4 more hours of darkness. A recent study shows that Anchorage has more coffee shops per capita than any other city in the US. It has roughly 3 shops for every 10,000 people. Seattle, WA came in 2nd. I must say, I have noticed a plethora of coffee shops here in JNU. Just driving to the grocery store I pass at least a half a dozen little places. There's even a special brand of Alaskan coffee called Heritage brand coffee.

A couple other things I've noticed that AK has considerably more of than I'm used to are anti-smoking ads and get rich quick commercials. I can't go through a single commercial break without someone telling me I can make tens of thousands of dollars every month working from home, and they're going to show me how instead of keeping that information to themselves so they can make all the money. As my aunt Elaine would say, "Right!"

Bad Boys, Bad Boys...What'cha Gonna Do

Well, today I tested for the Juneau Police Department. I was kinda keeping it a secret b/c I was worried about passing the physical fitness standards. For those who don't know, I have asthma and was treated w/ a series of medications and inhalers as a child. Endurance has always been a challenge for me, so I've been running on my lunch break the past month and a half trying to make the minimum 1.5 mile in 17:17, which I've never been able to do on the treadmill. Jessica had been trying to build my confidence for a while, telling me I'd do it no problem. But of course I never believed her. She's my big sister. That's the rules.

After breezing through the written exam, I called my mom on my cell phone for support. She sung me a song that went something along the lines of I can do anything because I think I can do anything...or something like that. And she kept telling me I was going to run it in 15 mins. "Yeah right," I thought to myself. I was just praying I'd do it in 17:17.

And on top of everything else, the run was the last thing on the list to do, which I was unaware of. I had never done the 300 meter sprint, jump test, sit ups, push ups and mile and a half run one right after the other.

I actually thought about rescheduling so I could have more time to train. But, today came the tests. Now or never. I beat my personal best in every event. And I ran the 1.5 miles in 14:57. Guess Mom was right. My legs felt like they were going to snap like wishbones. I thought my head was going to pop when I bent down to stretch. I felt great.

Next comes the psycological tests (which I'm sure I'll fail miserably, maybe even set records) and personal interviews. Even if the Juneau PD doesn't pick me, I've never been prouder of myself.

It's frickin' freezing in here Mr. Bigglesworth

The past few days have been cold, snowy and windy. God is getting back at me for taunting my family in Michigan when it was single digits there and I was enjoying temps in the 30s. Now the tables have turned. I bundle up in my coat, hat, gloves, boots and scarf to walk the block to work. I must be getting soft. It's still in the 20s.

Today at work a gi-normous man came to my station to transfer some money. I asked for his ID so I could see how tall he was. Six foot nine. Big guy. That was about the high point of my day. That and this 80 y/o woman called in with what started as a problem she had at the ATM and turned into a story about the time her grandson borrowed her ATM card and forgot it in his wallet and went to the teen center. Then another story about her daughter borrowing it and bringing it to her condo. Then another story about her son who takes care of someone with Parkinson's disease. When my manager realized who I was on the phone w/ she wrote me a note telling me to take charge of the conversation or she'd go on forever.

So that's what people did before computers

My computer was broken for a week. I had to reinstall Windows. All my saved passwords, all my links in my favorites...gone. I have to type everything out again. Oh, the horror. I feel the carpal tunnel setting in already.

Good news, tho. I get Monday off. Presidents Day. Paid holiday. Yippee!

So what have I been doing without a computer for a week besides twiddling my thumbs? Working, watching TV, exercising and organizing my hundreds of hunting and truck magazines. That's 'bout it. On Friday we had a breakfast potluck at work. When the manager sent an email asking if anyone would be interested I replied, "Does this mean I have to cook something?" Her reply was, "You can bring juice." I slaved in the kitchen for minutes making that juice.

P.S. I added the last of the photos to my glacier album below. 56k modems beware. I wasn't able to resize before posting.

Glacier

Went to the glacier for the first time today. I don't know why, but I was expecting a scene w/ a big wall of snow, slowly breaking off into the sea. Instead I found something even better. The first thing I saw when I looked over the large, frozen meltwater was the glacier squeezing between two mountain peaks.

After snapping a few photos and making my way toward the center I heard the distinct sound of rushing water and saw a waterfall not too far off to the right...or so I thought. The shear size of the glacier made me think it was just a delightful jaunt to the base. I should have looked instead at the tiny, tiny people that looked like ants off in the distance. Of course, some people look like ants when your standing right next to them.

Halfway to the waterfall my tummy started rumbling and it reminded me I only had potato chips and wheat thins for breakfast. One thing after another that I just had to photograph distracted me on my way to the foot of the glacier. This was not the trek to wear my brand new boots I'd just got in the mail that day. After a couple hours and a good 60 snapshots, I finally got a close up of the beautiful blue ice formed by layer upon layer of snow and ice squeezing the air out of the ice below over thousands of years. So worth it.

Photos

Dream a Little Dream Part III

Last night aliens attacked the earth and brought us all to their home planet. Their planet was running out of food so they needed our technology for creating foods in laboratories. The beautiful people and the geniuses they used for breeding superhumans. The rest of us they put to work in mines or harvested our organs.

I was working in a mine when there was an accident and a group of humans were able to escape. Traveling across the unfamiliar planet, we discovered unusual animals that weren't as afraid of us as we were of them. There were giant worms like those black, yellow and white striped caterpillars you see on milk weeds, only a thousand times bigger. There were swarms of mosquito-like bugs that flew into your mouth and nose 'til you suffocated.

On the run from alien guards, we ran into a building to hide, which turned out to be a science facility where the aliens tested on humans. The aliens mistook us for the shipment of geniuses they were expecting. Since we were conveniently there, we became the next guinea pigs. Our horrible fate was to eat the food the aliens had just created. I had a bowl of cereal. It was disgusting. It took me a little while to put my finger on it, but the reason it was so horrid was because instead of milk, they were using a recipe for baby formula. I told them how to improve the milk and a bunch of other foods. I had a job that had been reserved for the genius humans. That's all I remember.

Dream a Little Dream Part II

Had another dream last night. This time I was in some run down prison. I escaped and one of the guards saw me so I cut his walkie talkie cord w/ a knife so he couldn't call for help. I hopped in a cruiser and he came along to try to apprehend me. After riding w/ me a while he decided life as a bad guy was better than life as a cop. When the FBI found us I left him behind and said I had kidnapped him so he wouldn't be in trouble. I was on the run for a while and the cops couldn't find my hideout. When they finally did catch me they let me go b/c they said I was good for publicity. They even gave me a 4runner to drive. If it were real life I would have had the sense to dump the 4runner in case they had bugged it to find out where my awesome hideout was.

Dream a Little Dream...

Had a dream last night. It took place at work, only work wasn't in its normal spot, it was on a boat. Like a riverboat casino...only a credit union. We just hired another teller. It was one of my childhood arch enemies, Danielle Vuke, that I haven't seen since 3rd grade.

Then there was an emergency alert on the radio and everyone was instructed to evacuate. I didn't know what was going on, but the whole city migrated towards the ferries. It was like a movie when everyone is trying to leave and the roads are one big traffic jam. Then I woke up.