4 Days for Alaskans

There are 4 days that every Alaskan treasures in their heart as special. One of them happened this week.

The first, of course, is December 21. The winter solstice. But I have noticed that you have to truly be Alaskan in your heart to celebrate on December 21. The sun still just comes up at 10:20 in the morning and sets again around 3:27 - that's a short day, and the 10 short seconds that adds to our day on December 21 is more in your mind and heart than on the clock. So I have noticed that people who really love Alaska have faith in those 10 seconds and rejoice, but some, like me, are still suspicious that the darkness will really leave.

2nd best day - when you are just going about your business and notice that it is after 5:00 and you can still see outside. It sneaks up on you, unnoticed. We were at scrapbook day and were loading our cars when all of a sudden we realized that we had stopped scrapping at 5:15 and it was almost 6:00 when we left and we could still see - not daylight exactly, but we could see (well, 5:47 to be exact).

3rd best day - the day when you are cooking dinner or watching Tv or something and realize that it is 6:30 and it is broad daylight. BROAD DAYLIGHT. That is a happy day, but again, it sneaks up on you and you don't have a specific date when you know it will be here. So it is always such a happy surprise.

and Lastly, there is the day when the alarm goes off and you can look around the room and see things and you realize that sometime in the past 3 months, MORNING has come back.

This morning Brian was the only one up when the earthquake hit. It was 9:09 and I could see around the room, but he still had to turn on all the lights to check for damage. It was a very noisy earthquake - I was sound asleep and just woke up for the jolting - but the others heard it before it hit the house and then the whole house just rode up and down like the ground was waves of water. Then it smacked the house and the part I heard was the bottom half of the house shifting east and the top half of the house was shifting west. At the same time, downstairs, they felt it lift about 3 inches up and drop back down.

I'm not a door frame stander. I worked with a girl from Austrailia who would jump into a door frame at every shake. She was always trying to get me to hide under my desk and I was like NO ! ! ! my desk was the originial piece of furniture that came with the mental health center - it only had 3 legs and it was an Lshape so should have had 6 legs. She's was always "get under your desk" and I was always, "NO, I'll be crushed for sure".

I just always try to be sure that I don't hang pictures with glass on the stairways and don't hang heavy stuff above people's beds and try to have valuables in secure positions. I really need to buy some clay that they use in museums to hold some of my special things, but then if they haven't fallen in these 2 biggest earthquakes we have had, they probably will be okay.

No tsnunami warning, which surprised us because the quake was center right smack in the center of the inlet where it meets the pacific ocean, but i'm glad there wasn't one.

So anyway, we have passed 2 our of landmark rejoicing days so far. Two more to go. (and if you are wondering, the saddest day of the year for Alaskans: June 21. The busiest day of the year and the beginning of winter. Very sad.)

Hope Susan had a happy Birthday this week. and hope Mother gets rid of the flu. We've all been sick for about a month now, but it is very subtle: headache, fever, some stomach discomfort. Easiest flu we've had in a long time, but it lasts and lasts and lasts.