I am writing this on Thursday night before bed, and I will post it when I get to work in the morning, when I have access to the Internet. This evening, I stayed at work for a while after work to talk to Deon online, as it's his birthday today and he's probably feeling a bit lonely in Gjoa on his special day. After that, I ventured back to my apartment in a blizzard that suddenly blew up... good thing I am still using the work truck! The weather can change quickly here and a storm can blow up out of nowhere. It was pretty sunny all day, and before I left work, you could barely see the Northern store across the harbour, which is less than a kilometre away. I can hardly imagine how people survived in the Arctic without permanent shelters and electricity.
The weather is quickly but surely getting colder, and the days are getting shorter and shorter. Last weekend it was -29C with the windchill, and this week it got down to -32. This weekend is supposed to be relatively "lovely" though, with a low of -13C. The snow is definitely here to stay, hard to believe that it will be June before we see bare ground again. Could be a lonnnnggg winter. As for the sun, it is rising at about 10:45 these days, and setting at about 7pm. The days are getting noticeably shorter, and soon enough we'll only have sun for a few hours around noon.
Outside of work, things are also going well. Yesterday (well, technically this was during work hours), Reagen and I found two husky puppies, who were hanging around the office. I would say they were maybe 2 months old. Both were really cute, and one had one blue eye and one brown eye.
We decided we should bring them inside to let them warm up and then to decide what to do with them. We ended up keeping them indoors all day (mine had a little accident on my carpet, oh well!) and they napped and played together. At the end of the day, we decided we'd take them to the Northern to get them some kibble, and then we took them to Reagen's apartment to give them baths as they smelled like fish (all of the dogs eat freshly caught fish up here... cheaper than dog food). So they got all dolled up and had their dinner, played a bit and passed out on the floor. We then gave them to Christine and Andrew. They were going to keep them until they go on holidays next month, and take them down to Edmonton to the SPCA. However, this morning the Hamlet, where Christine works got a call about "lost puppies" so we had to return them. There are literally hundreds of puppies in Tuk right now, and no one keeps them on leashes.
Aside from puppies, last weekend I went with Nate and Kyle, to see the pingos. We went by skidoo-- so I hopped on the back of one, and we travelled out to the pingos, which took about 1/2 hour each way. You have to be careful to watch out for driftwood that's still sticking out of the snow, or for cracks in the ice. You also have to avoid the airstrip, which is sort of hard to avoid because it runs basically the length of the town, so you have to drive all the way around it, out onto the ocean, and then back towards the pingos. The sun was sort of on its way down when we got out there, so the pictures turned out really nice with the sun in the background. We also saw a red fox just lounging around-- as though -29 was a nice sunny day on the tundra. So it was great to get out on the land. We are planning to go out to Husky Lakes, which is where all of the Tuk people have cabins to do fishing and hunting, and that is where the belugas go as well in the summer. We may not be able to do that until March though because the days are getting too short. It is a long journey by skidoo, and will be more fun in the spring when apparently you can go around with just a sweater on and be comfortable.
That night Christine then had us over for lasagna and apple pie which she made. Everyone is very nice here, and we try to do a lot of social things in order to stave off boredom and to have fun. We usually do a "girls night" at least once a week as well where we'll watch So you Think You Can Dance or America's Next Top Model. Usually we'll bake or make food. This weekend is Halloween, so all week I've been helping with preparing the "Haunted House" at Kitti Hall, which all of the kids will stop into during Halloween. Lucky beggars get to be driven around by skidoo by their parents, unlike us down south! So tonight I will be helping scare little children, dressed as an old hag (that's one of about 3 choices of masks they have for grabs at Kitti Hall). Then on Saturday night, Dave and Rachel (a teacher) are hosting a Halloween party for us southerners, so that will also be fun.
Hopefully sometime this weekend I'll be moving into my apartment as well. If this silly blizzard goes away, Todd should be flying out on Saturday. I can't wait to move in, it will be very nice to be right above work and to have internet access and TV, and a phone of my own. Likewise, I won't mind hopping out of bed at 8:20 in the morning to be at work for 8:30, hah!
For the week ahead, I'm in Inuvik Thursday and Friday, then Tuk for the whole next week, and then to Inuvik/Yellowknife for the next week.
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