North To Alaska

Santa. New adress is North Pole.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm. Reindeer meat.

You don’t hear as much about the starving part, but you hear about quite a few attacks. This one is interesting because some of the locals don’t believe the details of the story. Check it out here.

Went to dinner in Fox, Ak. The Turtle Club serves a GREAT prime rib.

Fox is about 18 miles from the house I’m staying at. Along the highway is a small parking lot so you can pull off and check out the pipe line.

I thought it was getting dark a little earlier, but wasn’t sure… You can see by the chart below we are loosing 6 minutes and 57 seconds of daylight each day. When I first got here sunset was around 12:30 and sunrise was around 3:30, but it never got dark. Now I’m starting to see a LITTLE darkness!

Rising and setting times for the Sun
Length of day Solar noon
Date Sunrise Sunset This day Difference Time Altitude Distance
(106 km)
Aug 2, 2009 4:55 AM 10:56 PM 18h 01m 02s − 6m 57s 1:57 PM 42.7° 151.792
Aug 3, 2009 4:59 AM 10:53 PM 17h 54m 05s − 6m 57s 1:57 PM 42.5° 151.771
Aug 4, 2009 5:02 AM 10:49 PM 17h 47m 07s − 6m 57s 1:57 PM 42.2° 151.750
Aug 5, 2009 5:05 AM 10:46 PM 17h 40m 10s − 6m 57s 1:57 PM 41.9° 151.728
Aug 6, 2009 5:09 AM 10:42 PM 17h 33m 13s − 6m 57s 1:57 PM 41.6° 151.706
Aug 7, 2009 5:12 AM 10:38 PM 17h 26m 16s − 6m 56s 1:57 PM 41.4° 151.684
Aug 8, 2009 5:16 AM 10:35 PM 17h 19m 20s − 6m 56s 1:56 PM 41.1° 151.661

** source

Sorry about the lack of posts, it’s just been real slow around here. I’m learning a new term – “Alaska Time.” Most folks are REAL laid back and not in much of a hurry.

Here in Fairbanks, customer service at some places has been pretty poor. Surprisingly, the worst that I have seen so far was at Wally World. I went in through the “auto dept” entrance to get an oil change. The lady was so rude to the folks ahead of me I finally just left and went walking through the store. I saw several clerks treating folks the same way. Amazing at Wal-Mart. I left, didn’t spend a dime in the store. Jiffy Lube folks on the other hand were so sweet I nearly went diabetic. They did a great job though, and had great customer service.

I think I’ll start a new segment; we’ll call it “Only In Alaska.” They might not really be “only” in Alaska, but I’ve sure not seen it anyplace else.

We’ll start with these:

These are electrical outlets around the perimeter of the parking lot, also throughout the middle of the lot. The bottom pic is just a closer view. When it gets down to -40 or lower, you have to keep the car warm. Most cars have an engine block heater, a batter blanket and at least one other external heater (can’t remember what). They install a four place electrical box under your hood and a cord comes out the front of the car, usually just below the grill. Gotta love it.

On the job front, I had an interview with an employment agency and some testing – 3 hours total. Had a meeting with the office manager of a Ford dealership here in town. It lasted about an hour and the guy was VERY nice. Don’t know if anything will come of either of those meetings, but God does.

I’m heading to Anchorage at 0 dark 30 tomorrow morning. Well it’s not dark up here, but early. I will meet with an agency there and then meet with Terry Hull of “Voice to the Village” to talk about the ministry and get acquainted. I’m looking forward to that part the most.

If I have cell reception tomorrow, you can expect tweets and any pics will update to the right of this post. If not, well, it’s Alaska.