I finally made it to the weekend and then was a slave to the whims of the weather. Friday and Saturday the wind blew like it was getting paid to blow. At the same time, we were getting about the heaviest flurry of snow that I've seen at any point this year. The combination of the two made for terrible visibility and left behemoth drifts in its wake.
The drifts appear with no real rhyme or reason. One house might be blanketed and covered while the next one seems untouched. At about Noon today, the clouds broke and the sun appeared. The sunshine brought with it a much needed respite from the relentless wind. With a bright sunny day, the village came alive again.
The Hondas were slowed by the sheer volume of snow that touched the tops of the fenders. While the ATVS spun and fish tailed back and forth, the snowmobiles acted as if they were finally set free from years of incarceration. The dips doo'd streets of Kivalina no longer resembled a moguls course. Smoothed out from fresh powder, they now more resemble a whiteout drag strip.
Today the temps tickled the twenties. Some Eskimo kids played without gloves. Others have shed their coats completely. The peaks and valleys of the drifts are their new playground. On my evening walk I had to turn the other cheek when kids called out my name from the roof of the Post Office. As a kid, if rising snow drifts had allowed me access to the roofs in my neighborhood I would have taken full advantage too. The adult in me thought about hollering a scolding correction. Instead, I smiled and gave a wave. They somersaulted from the roof on their own and ran off to the next pile.
It's April 3rd. I am ready for Spring to sprung. There are thirteen, nearly fourteen, hours of daylight with each rotation of the earth. We add another eight minutes daily. The sun is there to greet me when I first crack the qanichaq door in the morning and still shining bright when I tuck myself in at 10:00 pm. When the sun is out, so are the kids. Which makes it all that more difficult to keep their attention when placing commas with conjunctions during the school day.
"NEXT MONTH..."
Two words that I've looked forward to for a long time...these two words can now be a part of my vocabulary and carry some serious weight with them. The school year is winding down. My Alaskan Adventure is fast approaching a hopefully anti-clamactic end.
Spring is in the air even if six fresh inches of snow are on the ground.
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