Railroading is Cool

One of the cool things about taking the railroad was that we got to check out the front of the train, where we talked with the engineer and fireman. On the left is the engineer and on the right is the fireman, our landlord Raschad. There isn't really any difference between being an engineer and a fireman, since they basically switch roles after reaching the end of the line.

Another Typical Day...

It's amazing how quickly things settle down into the same ole same ole. Just take the following situation, for instance. I'm biking randomly around Anchorage trying to find the frisbee fields for "pre-league" night, when all of a sudden I look to my left and I see a moose about 10 feet away from me. So I'm like, "Wow, there's a moose ten feet away from me! I'm glad I'm on my bike, or else I might be scared he'd notice me and run after me." Then I turn around, and boom, there he is, running after me!!! I kinda freaked out a bit, but fortunately the bike is fast and I didn't fall off. After about a block of chasing me he got bored and stopped. Actually, it could have been a she too, since I don't remember seeing any antlers. I didn't get any pictures, but here's a google-maps version of the events.

I find myself in the parking lot (start) of a 3 hole municipal golf course with fake greens at the end of each hole. I ride towards point 1, where there is a very casual type golfer looking ready to tee off. I focus all my attention on him, since I figure there is a decent chance that a screaming, slicing drive just might be heading my way in short order. I survive that to discover I have reached a main road called Debarr Rd. I head to the left and ride along the sidewalk to point 2, where I turn southwards and ride on a street bridging the golf course on my right and the suburban homes on my left. Somewhere around point 3, I pass by the moose, who continues to chase me for a block or two, before I hang a right and stop at "End".

In other run-of-the-mill news, Tiff and I cooked some salmon our neighbors brought over. I guess they went fishing today and had some (tons more like it!) leftover to give to us. I think I may have to develop a taste for fish while here in Alaska this summer!

The only thing that concerns me is that our supper may not have been kosher. We'll have to check with Jessica Levy, Tiffany's only Jewish relative, to discover the answer to that one.

Errands (Mostly) Complete

We spent today outfitting our bikes and we're pretty much done! Tiff got a quick checkup on her bike and I got my handlebars straightened out a bit and bought a nice saddle, and then we went to REI and got a whole bunch of accessories that we needed, things like bike pumps, repair kits, tool kits, etc. We're basically ready to go on a long ride at this point, although I'm still not totally sure about my shoes. I'm gonna ride to ultimate tomorrow night (3.5 miles each way!) and see how it goes.

If Jessica or Joe have any input on the matter, I'm all ears!

A Sunday & Monday at Danali State Park

I want to apologize to everyone for not posting yesterday (they don't provide internet access at state parks, jerks), but I especially want to apologize to Jessica and Joe, since they are probably the most miffed at being left out of a post on big whoop. Sorry!

Here's a picture of me and Tiff from the top of the big hike we did on Sunday. It was about a 10 mile hike that took us about 6 or 7 hours to finish. We moved pretty slowly, except for Tiffany, who ran ahead for an extra few miles and still managed to catch us going up the trail. She probably ran for 8 miles and hiked another 6 or so!

Road Bikes and Railroads

Tiffany got a road bike! It's a Raleigh Capri and it fits her like a glove, which is darn good because we visited several bikes shops and it was starting to look like no one was going to have anything her size. Fortunately, she found an ad on craigslist for a three year old bike that was fit for someone her size, and after riding it yesterday she really liked it. So, today, we spent the morning running errands and getting cash from a bank to buy the bike (no checks accepted by the seller, understandably), and then we got it!

In the afternoon, we got really really lucky when our landlords invited us to come along on a railroad trip to Whittier, a tiny city to the southeast of Anchorage. One of our landlords is an engineer/fireman for the Alaska Railroad company, so we were able to drive up with his wife to Portage, where we jumped on the train (for free!!) and rode it the rest of the way to Whittier. It was an amazing trip where I took a crapload of pictures (album), almost all of which are awesome! Here's an example:

Probably the second-most amazing thing we saw on our journey was a wooly mammoth breaching in the inlet waters as the train approached Anchorage towards the end of the trip. Indeed, it was topped only by the next thing we saw, which was the same wooly mammoth spreading its wings and doing several consecutive loop-de-loops while spraying tons of water out of its nostril-like orifice.

I'll take this opportunity to wish Jessica Levy a belated happy birthday today! My understanding is that she and her beau (Joe, that wonderful guy who is probably praying to God right this minute) are off at some log cabin in the woods for the weekend, which must explain the lack of response so far. Enjoy the weekend, but I'm expecting some fireworks come Monday evening!

The New Office

Two days ago I posted pics of the old office. Here's the new office, prior to obtaining any furniture. It actually worked pretty well and it was good for my back too, since I had to keep it straight to reach the keyboard. The phonebooks were especially helpful in getting some extra elevation. Note also the power cords reaching from the outlet above the stove to my computer and external hard drive and extending right over the teapot! Didn't even come close to melting any cables, I'm proud to say! I think I know what Jessica Levy would have to say about that (hint: it starts with an "m" and ends with a "v"). Finally, this location was just about perfect for pirating the neighbors unprotected wireless internet connection. Yeah!

Will the Misanthropes Ever Be Satisfied?

I neglected to mention in the last post that Jessica and her romantic associate, Joe, will both be visiting Tiffany and me here in Anchorage in a couple of weeks. Let me now take this opportunity to congratulate Jessica on selecting such a fine young man in the person of Joe. As I always say, probably the most important task in life for a woman is to find a law-abiding, God-fearing man to run the household.

Mazel tov Jessica!!

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

Jessica Levy, Tiffany's only Jewish relative, insisted that I post something on my blog about her. I never would have mentioned this in such a blunt manner here in the first sentence, but she insisted that I do so, threatening to lead "horsey" to a nice new home in our apartment if I didn't. As I mentioned in an email to her earlier today, however, we are currently renting a two-story efficiency that has windows on the top floor. I don't think I need to say just how far a fall it is onto the CONCRETE path just outside our apartment... Poor little "horsey" surely would not survive a fall from such great heights now, would he? On the other hand, a little dismemberment followed by some choice super-glueing could nary harm the grotesque features of the ugly cretin, now, could it?

In other news, here is a picture from a few days ago of what use to be my office at the Qupugiaq (sp???) Inn. Here the office doubled as my bedroom, pantry, library, study, breakfast nook, etc.

Jamis Ventura

I took the leap today and bought an expensive new road bike. I like the way it feels, but the shoes hurt my feet after only fifteen minutes of riding today. I adjusted them a bit and will try them tomorrow, but there's a decent chance I'll have to take them in and exchange them. Also, the front drive chain thingy seems to be making more noise than it should, so I will have them look at that too. It sucks that the place is 7 miles away, or else I'd bike there... There service also left something to be desired. I drove home with the bike, then tried to put the cleats on the shoes and realized there was a mismatch, so I had to drive back to the store to put the adaptor thing on. It ended up taking an extra hour or two total. And they weren't terribly apologetic about the whole thing either. I got it at Chain Reaction Cycling, in case you were wondering.

We Have a Car

We're renting a Chevy Cobalt from Enterprise for the summer. Tiffany had to stand up to the Enterprise people and refuse to take a mid-size sedan instead of the compact she requested many times, including online, but we finally got what we wanted. The Ford Explorer we had over the weekend (aka MONKEY MOBILE!) did help us transport some furniture to our place, including a mattress ($5 at a local thrift store!) and a dining room table. Things are quickly coming together. Tomorrow, I may have a new road bike too...

Home Sweet Home

We have a home for the summer!! Yes! Here I'm standing next to the spiral staircase while consuming champagne and on hold for the cable company to come set up high speed internet. Five minutes later, I'm still on hold...

Rendezvous Peak Hike

Here we are at the top of some hill in Alaska. We were supposed to be on this hike called to a place called Rendezvous Peak, but we got off trail pretty quick and ended up here. I'd say we didn't lose too much! More pictures posted tomorrow (at picasaweb.google.com/sbussmann).

And we are in dire need of some help identifying a bird we saw on the hike:

We think it's some kind of Ptarmigan (note the furry legs!), but what kind we're not sure, so help us out!

Maybe tomorrow we will have shiny new road bikes, we'll see.

The Mountains

This is an old picture, (old as in one day old), but it's what you get, so take it or leave it! It's a spot along the route from where we're staying now (midtown) to where Tiffany works (downtown).

Also, I think it's time to call out all those lurkers who are viewing all these great pictures and not posting a single thing!

Happy Birthday Norway!

Syttende mai!!

We were just biking through the local city park when we happened upon a gathering of people waving Norwegian flags, celebrating the Norwegian independence day. I brought the digicam, but forgot to bust it out, incredibly sadly :(

Still looking for a place to live... We're also thinking about getting nice road bikes, with the idea that we could ship them back with us on the plane after the summer is over.

Ultimate in Anchorage

I played a bit of pickup ultimate in Anchorage today. It was fun to play in cold weather in mid-May (as opposed to playing in 100 degree heat in Tucson), but there were about 20 or 30 people wanting to play and I only ended up playing four points over the course of about two hours.

We also spent some time today looking for housing. We found this nice log cabin duplex, but it's unfurnished and the guy who owns it says he wants a longer term commitment, so I doubt we'll get it. I think we'll submit an application anyway though, because we're getting desperate. We'll look at another place on Friday, and then this afternoon Tiffany got an email from someone who's connected to Trustees for Alaska, her law firm this summer, about a potential spot this summer. So things are definitely not grim at this point, but they are stressful. Hopefully it'll settle down soon.

Double Dipping

Pictured above is me, riding the fabulous bike that I am currently renting for one dollar per day. To the right is Tiff's bike which she is also renting for one dollar per day. Hers fits her better than mine does (in fact, my bike would probably be too small even for her!), but on the other hand her bike has no brakes for the rear wheel! I say safety first!

Pictured below is the result of our trip to Midnight Sun Brewery, a place about 2.5 miles south of our current location. Just for fun, why not try to guess what time this picture was taken? As a clue, we arrived and the place was closed! We thought it would be a restaurant/bar type location where we could get a pint of some micro-brew, but apparently all they do is brew beer there, not serve it!

Toto, I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore

Who wouldn't like a salmon-reindeer quesadilla?!?

Anchorage is Awesome!

Ok... so it's 4:24am here in Anchorage. I should definitely be sleeping now, but I am instead observing for... nevermind what for. I'm not sure how the hell I'm awake, especially since it's currently 5:24am Arizona/California time and 6:24am Colorado time. Yeah, the schedule lately has been a bit crazy!

To back up a bit, two weeks ago I was in Baltimore finishing what amounts to a "scheduling file" that other people will use to figure out when the Hubble Space Telescope can observe some galaxies as part of a successful proposal we submitted back in February. The much more interesting part of that trip was that I hung out with Eric Furst for the first time in almost five years, since he is living and working there. Before we even sat down for dinner I was already hounding him about global warming! Now, maybe I did press the discussion in that direction a bit too much, but really now! To think that global warming is not a direct result of human interference (in the form of CO2 emissions) requires an enormous amount of well-directed ignorance. The question these days is not "Is global warming for real?", but instead "What should we be doing about it?" Hopefully I had some kind of impact on his thought process about the issue -- it's just too important to ignore. After dinner we walked over to Barnes & Noble for some exciting book-browsing action!!!

More recently, last Friday was the final for the class I'm TAing. It ended at 10am. For the next seven hours or so, I graded the exams (with the help of the professor) and entered the grades in online by about 5pm. Then it was time to get ready for our BBQ which started at 7. The BBQ was a lot of fun. It was especially cool because our landlord came over and brought a kickass cheesecake (with bourbon!) that everyone thought was really great.

We got about 3.5 hours of sleep that night after finishing packing, then woke up at 5am to get to the airport for our 7am flight to Colorado Springs. Then we took it easy for a few hours before going to a wedding involving a friend of Tiff's from high school. The ceremony itself was quite a bit more religious than I'd like, but at least it was short :) Then the reception was nice (having an open bar certainly helped there!).

Then today was Mother's Day, so I called my Mom and talked to her for awhile. Didn't get a chance to talk to Dad, but that's on the agenda for tomorrow. I went on a hike with Tiff and her parents up to a reservoir behind her Dad's house. It was extremely windy with a storm brewing, but it never materialized into anything too dangerous.

We left Colorado from the Denver airport around 7pm and arrived in Anchorage around 11pm local time. The flight in was amazing! I don't want to spoil it too much, but... Aw heck, just check out this picture!

We found a downtown motel with internet and got a cab ride for a not-outrageous sum of $25. I got my beauty sleep in (almost three hours!) and woke up for some bodacious observing which is still going on.

While I'm in Alaska I will make a concerted effort to post often and with lots of pictures. It's a beautiful place here, and I should damn well take advantage of it.