Leaving Alaska
After three years, it’s finally time to bid farewell to the most unique, amazing and awe inspiring piece of planet that I could ever imagine. It’s hard to describe what Alaska is like, and I’ve only seen a tiny sliver of it. Words utterly fail when trying to convey the beauty or grandness of this land. Majestic is the word that comes to mind, but it’s still not quite powerful enough.
A lot has happened to me in three years. I got promoted. I quit smoking after 22 years of addiction. I got myself somewhat in shape and can now jog two miles with no difficulty, and finally started making some progress with learning to play the drums. There is a lot that I will miss about Anchorage and Alaska. And there are a few things I won’t miss…
I will miss the scenery. This is the only place I’ve ever been where every single day after work, as I begin my drive home I think, “My God. Look at that. What a beautiful view.”I will miss all of the wildlife. It’s great to be living in a city with all of life’s modern conveniences, and yet while driving, see two moose trotting side by side down a major street. One moose in the fast lane and the other in the slow lane with a long line of cars behind them waiting patiently for them to get off the road. Several fox live near my workplace and would put in an appearance fairly often. However the most memorable was the giant black bear that walked out of the woods next to the Base Exchange and crossed the road in front of me as I was at a red light.
I will NOT miss having an old man do a stupid dance and sing a retarded song about mattress deals during every single freaking commercial break on every single freaking channel!! I can’t stand Ted Saddler or his freaking Mattress Ranch!!
I will miss the cold. It’s amazing how you can become acclimated to such extreme cold. There’s something life affirming about it. A couple of weeks ago, I was coming out of the gym after a workout in just my PT uniform (T-shirt, lightweight jacket and shorts). It was 13° Fahrenheit and it had snowed about an inch while I was working out. I had forgotten to raise my windshield wipers off of the glass, so they were covered in ice. I started picking the ice off of the wipers with my bare hands. After about five minutes of doing this, it finally dawned on me that it was 13° and I was picking ice off of my wipers with my bare hands. Yeah, I was cold, but not painfully so. I just shrugged and kept clearing off my wipers.
I will NOT miss the giant 4X4 trucks and SUV’s that line the ditches by the hundreds, broken and upside-down shortly after the first snow of the year. You’ll notice that very few cars end up that way, because WE KNOW THAT YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THE WAY YOU DRIVE WHEN IT SNOWS!! 4X4 does not equal invulnerable! You have to slow down, you idiots!
So, goodbye Alaska! You are the crown jewel of America and I hope you never change. I’ll guarantee I’ll come back to visit as often as I can!
I guess now I’ll have to update my website logo and color scheme to reflect the Hampton Roads area in Virginia.
UPDATE: I’ve now changed the logo and color scheme, obviously!
Tags: Alaska, Frontier Gazette, PCS