Since Christmas, we’ve only had the full three hour block of Church once. Here’s our stake’s policy for extreme cold temps: if it’s between 30 below and 40 below, you only have two hour church, consisting of sacrament meeting and Relief Society/Priesthood; if it’s 40 below or colder, you only have sacrament meeting and you are encouraged to use wisdom in making the decision about leaving your house. Yesterday we just had sacrament meeting. About half of the people left their cars running, including us. Yes, we just left our car idling in the parking lot for an hour and a half. It seems so weird to me. Xander was pretty worried that we would run out of gas by doing that, but Aaron was more concerned about the car not starting after sitting at 40 below for an hour and a half, even if it was plugged in. When I said something about the waste of gas, Aaron said it was merely using gas, not wasting gas, all in the name of protecting our car from various parts freezing and cracking and costing us loads of money.
I must say, his concerns were valid. Just the day before, Aaron was stuck in Fairbanks where it was 45 below (and yes, these are just straight temps, wind chill not factored in) and although the car was plugged in and we winterized our car by installing heaters on everything that can be heated, the Beast would not start. Apparently it didn’t like sitting outside in longterm parking at the airport for 3 days. Gratefully, he was blessed with an angel of mercy who gave a jumpstart, and gratefully, the Beast came to life with the jumpstart which means the gas hadn’t frozen yet. Phew. And hooray for our heated garage so this is not normally an issue!
We came up to the Last Frontier for adventure, and I guess this is the adventure of surviving an Alaskan winter!
We watched a show on Netflix called Extreme Alaska about Denali National Park. The tidbit I found the most fascinating was the one animal that can survive living in a glacier. It’s called the ice worm, and it thrives at below zero temps. In fact, it actually melts if it ever gets to 40 degrees. To that little worm, 40 above is extreme heat! Pretty wild! Alaska is definitely extreme, but hey, so is my husband. It’s a match made in heaven.
3 comments:
Wow, that ice worm is pretty extreme. I've never heard of such a crazy animal.
So when you said you leave your car running during church, my initial thought was, aren't they afraid it'll get stolen? Yeah, probably not! Different worries up there in Alaska!
Hi Monette & Aaron. We lived next to Marliese & Tom in Provo (and you when you stayed in their home) during MBA school. I was happy to come across your blog. We've been living in Hyderabad, India for the last 1.5 years. I've been worried about being too cold when we move to Seattle, WA this summer. I won't complain anymore!
Holy Moly...that is insane!! You Alaskans must be a different breed. I think I would lose my mind and run crying back to the lower 48. "Adventure" is an understatement.
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